But I want to look first here
at verses 34 and 35 and following. Jesus tells these, in verse 33,
Jesus tells the Pharisees, after describing what blasphemy of
the Holy Spirit is, which is, in essence, it's accusing Christ,
it's thinking and believing that the Lord Jesus Christ has a devil,
that what he does is by the work of Satan. that the Spirit of
God in him is actually the Spirit of the devil. Now this is not
overtly said by, I've never met anyone who actually said that.
These Pharisees here actually did say that. They thought that
was true. At least they said that they thought it was true.
I don't know in their hearts what they believed, but the point
here is that they spoke against the Spirit of God by speaking
against Christ. And so Jesus says in verse 33,
"...either make the tree good, and his fruit good, or else make
the tree corrupt, or his fruit corrupt. For the tree is known
by his fruit." The word make here means to consider it to
be so. In considering Christ, the Pharisees had said of Him
that He's corrupt. But His fruit was good, and so
they were inconsistent. So He's saying, by your judgments
you make the tree either good and its fruit good, or you make
the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt. You can't have it both
ways. Now in your case, speaking of the Pharisees, what they said
and did was corrupt. So obviously their root was corrupt. But in his case, what he said
and did was good, and therefore the tree was good. His fruit
was good, therefore his tree was good. Look at verse 34. O
generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things?
For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Now
I want you to understand, or to see, take careful note in
this verse what Jesus is speaking here. He says, you're vipers. You're poisonous snakes in a
metaphorical sense. You're like the serpent. You're
like the devil. Because you follow Him. His nature is your nature. And
so, therefore, you do evil. That's the only thing you can
do. But notice what that evil he mentions here. How can you,
being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh. So, in this verse, what then
is the correlation between the previous verse? The tree is the
man. The fruit is what he says, his
words, his doctrine, the thing that he professes to be his truth,
that he believes. And then in the next verse it
says, a good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth
forth good tidings, and an evil man out of the evil treasure
bringeth forth evil things. And then in the next verse, Notice
in verse 35, a good man. Who is a good man? There's only one good man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. But His people are good by His
righteousness. Now, this is the truth, the wonderful
truth of the Gospel. And we have to start and stay
on these stakes that God drives so deeply in the Revelation,
in the New Testament, in the Apostles' writings. They may
not be apparent from this verse, but don't just take these verses
in isolation from Scripture. The New Testament in Paul's writings
in Romans and Galatians and Hebrews and throughout point back to
and reveal that in the Old Testament through Abraham and David and
Enoch and you list them in Hebrews chapter 11. These men lived by
what? By faith. And they were counted
righteous because of the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
in their heart they believed Him. And God imputed His righteousness
to them as their righteousness. And so when God says here, a
good man, He's speaking of a man whose righteousness is the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the only good man there
is on this earth. Because Christ is the only one
good. It says in Psalm 71 16, I will
make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only. That's what
the psalmist says. That came from his heart. And
then, in Isaiah 45, he says this. In the last two verses of Isaiah
45, he says, Not just one, but all of God's
people say that. Everyone who has been born of
God says, surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.
And then it says, even to Him shall men come. We come to Christ
because it's in the Lord. We have righteousness and strength
to receive from Him what He has earned for us in fulfilling the
conditions God had made for the promises to His people, that
Christ would do all for them. Then the last part of the verse
says, "...and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed."
In other words, all that are angry, all that won't submit
to his righteousness, all who refuse the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ as the scribes and Pharisees, they will be ashamed.
They will be discovered as the enemies of God, as wicked and
evil, having an evil tree. Their root is evil. So back in
Matthew he says, a good man. That's a man who is righteous
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Out of the good treasure of the
heart. What is the good treasure in
the heart of every believer? It's the gospel, isn't it? In
2nd Corinthians 4 and verse 6, you know what it says there.
He says, God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God. The light, that knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. What is that treasure? It's the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ. It's in us that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. Isn't that what the
gospel teaches us? That all of our goodness, all
of our strength, what we just read in Isaiah 45, 24, our goodness
and our righteousness and our strength is in the Lord. And
so a good man is a man righteous in Christ. The good treasure
in his heart is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. He brings
forth good things. How do you bring forth good things?
Well, he brings them forth in what he says. What does he say? He confesses with his mouth that
Jesus Christ is his only and full, perfect salvation. He's the Lord. He has actually
accomplished salvation for us. This is what he says. And I want
to take you to a few scriptures on this to see this, that what
we say is fruit. What we believe in our heart
and comes out of our mouth is the fruit. That's what it's spoken
of here, isn't it? Look what he says in 1 John. Chapter 4. How do you know if a man is speaking
the truth? How do you know? By looking at
his life? Can you tell by a man's outward
behavior if he's a Christian or not? You cannot. Why? Because what he does on
the outside, for the most part, may be very good. It may appear
to you, at least, as being good. But when he speaks, then you'll
know whether he's telling the truth. Because what he says from
his mouth reflects what he believes in his heart, and that's going
to control all that he does. 1 John chapter 4 says, Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they
are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the
world. A false prophet is someone who
says what they're saying is of God, but it's not. It's false.
They're gone out into the world. "...Hereby know ye the Spirit
of God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist,
whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already
it is in the world." How does he say to discern whether they
are of God? By what they say. They say, if
Jesus Christ came in the flesh, which means He who is the Son
of God came in the flesh, was made in the likeness of men,
just like it says throughout. He's summarizing it all in just
this little phrase here, but he's referring to all that Christ
did in the flesh. He came in the flesh, fulfilled
the will of God, and rose again from the dead and is seated in
glory. He says if you confess that, then that's the Spirit
of God. Otherwise, it's the Spirit of
Antichrist. And Antichrist means to be opposed
to Christ. Not only opposed to Him, but
claiming you have a substitute Christ. A substitute Christ. That's what the word at the root
actually means. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 13.
Just take you to a few verses here. Deuteronomy chapter 13. This is in the Old Testament. Moses was given this wisdom by
God, how to discern whether a man came with God's word or not.
Because here in the Old Testament, Moses was given, he was really
the only one God had given his word to and revealed it to the
children of Israel. He says, In verse 1 of chapter
13, Moses says, So here's a man who works signs and wonders.
You look at what he does. He's the bona fide thing. He's
a prophet. I am the dreamer of dreams, a worker of miracles.
Look, look, see all these things I can do. And you look at that
and say, by golly, He must be of God. He does these wonderful
things. But then He says, no. Listen to what He says. You shall
not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer
of dreams, but the Lord your God proveth you to know whether
you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul. If He comes to you and He tries
to convince you to follow another God, and what is that in the
New Testament? How is it known that we follow
another God? When we look to another Savior,
when we look to someone else to save us from our sins, that's
looking to another God. If you hear someone coming, claiming
to be of God, claiming to be a teacher of Scripture, and yet
he preaches anything But Jesus Christ and Him crucified, I don't
care what He can do. I don't care if He raises the
dead. Do not believe Him. That's what God says in His Word.
And God says to Moses that He sent these things to you to prove
you. Look at Galatians chapter 1, where Paul makes this strong
statement. He says in verse 8, He says,
"...though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel."
An angel from heaven? If an angel from heaven, or we,
the apostles... He perhaps had Judas in his mind. I don't care who it is, if any
come to you preaching another gospel. This is exactly what
Moses was saying in Deuteronomy, but here it's revealed in terms
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. then that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed." Accursed of God. As we have said
before, so say I now again, if any man preached any other gospel
unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed. And so,
this was the big thing. This was the big test. What do
they say? What is their fruit? That's an
analogy for what are they saying. If it's the gospel, if they're
trying to divert you to trust or to worship another god than
the Lord Jesus Christ, write it down. It's a false prophet.
God has said he's a false prophet. There is no other salvation,
there's a salvation in no other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so he says, But I say in verse 36, so the good man is the man
righteous in Christ. The good treasure is the gospel.
What he brings forth is he says, Christ is my only and full and
perfect salvation. He's everything to God for me. He's all that I have. I'm a great
sinner. I have no righteousness in myself.
That's what a good man brings out of his heart. That good treasure
that God has put there, he's written the gospel on his very
heart by the Spirit of God, and he can say nothing but what's
in his heart, what he truly believes. But I say unto you, verse 36,
that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give
account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou
shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
Now, I want you to understand this at the outset. Our justification,
what does justification mean? It means that God the Judge has
looked at the evidence, and based on the evidence, has cleared
the man who's under examination. He's looked for obedience, and
He's found it. He's looked for sin, and He has
not found it. And He says, based on His review
of the case, He's righteous. He pronounces that. That declaration
of righteousness is God saying He's just. He's justified. To
be just means to be righteous. And to be declared just means
to be justified by God. God does not declare us to be
just based on anything that we do or say or are in ourselves,
but only on the basis of what Christ has done. Now this is
a fundamental and very essential truth. Look at Romans chapter
3. I'm just going to take you to
a couple of verses here. Because when I think about preparing
a sermon, I always have to go back and test Those things that
I plan to say to you with Scripture to make sure what I'm saying
is in fact true. Look at this, Romans chapter
3, verse 20. By the deeds of the law, that
means by what you do, trying to keep the law, there shall
be no flesh, not one person. I don't care what era of history
you lived in. I don't care whether you're poor
or rich, whether you were raised in church, or you were a complete
alien to the church, or heathen, uneducated in biblical things.
No flesh shall be justified in his sight by the deeds of the
law. For by the law is the knowledge of sin." Now this is very essential.
Why was the law given? To reveal what sin is. It defines sin. It reveals sin. It exposes sin. And it makes
us realize that we can do nothing in ourselves but sin. Verse 21,
in light of the desperate and hopeless situation that we just
read about, Now, the righteousness of God, without the law, without
our personal law-keeping, is manifested, being witnessed by
the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, by
faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe,
for there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, being justified. Freely, that means without any
cause. God didn't look for a reason
in us. He freely, out of His own motivations found in Himself,
He freely, by His grace, justified us on the basis, through, that's
what the word through means, on the grounds and the foundation
of the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now, we got to
have those verses firmly in our grasp. Christ redeeming blood
is the basis for God's justifying declaration that His people are
righteous before Him. That's the only grounds. Our
work doesn't enter it. He just, at the outset, He set
aside all possibility that what we do, in any way, can justify
us. We're not justified by those
things. And we can go throughout Scripture and look at this, but
I wanted to make that clear. When Jesus says, "...by thy words
thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned,"
He isn't establishing a new doctrine here. Oh, we're justified now
by what Jesus did, but also God considers what we do, and in
thinking about what we do, if we do something wrong, It nullifies
what Jesus did. Or, if perhaps Christ has set
us on a platform where we can start now, we have to continue
on that platform. And if we don't continue on it
by what we do or say, then we're cut off there too. That's not
what Jesus is saying here. Remember, the good man is the
man righteous in Christ. The treasure in his heart is
the gospel. What he brings out of his mouth comes from his heart
and reveals that he truly believes that Christ is all of his salvation,
in every part, in every way, from the beginning to the end,
and everything in between. This is what the gospel has taught
him. God's Spirit has taught him the
gospel in his heart. He's written his law, the gospel,
on his heart. And so Jesus says, "...that every
idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof
in the day of judgment." He's speaking to the Pharisees and
the tribes. He says, you know what you just
said to me? That I cast out devils by Beelzebub? Everything you say is going to
be stacked up and used against you in the day of judgment. Just
like He revealed to them that what they claimed about Him being
a servant of Satan was absurd. How could I cast out Satan if
I'm serving Satan? He would be at cross purposes.
And if I do that, then how can you claim that your disciples
do this? That also would be condemning
yourself. But He says, you have to know
that I only cast out devils by the Spirit of God. And if I've
done that by the Spirit of God, then God's Kingdom, this Kingdom
of Heaven has come to you. The King is here! He, the strong
man, has bound Satan in the hearts of His people, and He ejects
him from them and establishes His own Kingdom there. Now, you
have said some fallacious things, some false things, and everything
you've said you're going to be held to account for. It's going
to be used to reveal what was truly in your heart. Look back
at Matthew chapter 7. The same thing is there. We've gone through this, but
I want to refer back to it. He says in verse 21, Now when
you read that verse, do you immediately freeze up and say, I've said a lot of things. We
were just talking about the fact that good fruit is what you say. And here, Jesus says, no, it's
not enough to say. You have to also do. And you
immediately get locked into this thought that then somehow, no
matter what I believe and no matter what I say, even if it's
right, it's not going to count. But that's not what Jesus said
here. He says, there will be many in that day who come to
me and say this, Lord, Lord, But they shall not enter into
the kingdom of heaven, only those who do the will of my Father."
And then he goes on in verse 22, "...many will say in that
day to me, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and
in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works?" But I will profess to them, I never knew you. Depart
from me, you that work iniquity." So they said, Lord, Lord, and
they did many things, prophesying, casting out devils, many wonderful
works. And when they stood before Christ
in judgment, out of the abundance of their heart came their defense. And what was their defense? Well,
Lord, consider what we've done. Oh, we've done this in your name.
These were professing Christians, weren't they? We've done it in
Jesus' name. They weren't Buddhists. They
weren't Hindus. They weren't Muslims. They didn't do it in
the name of Allah. They didn't do it in the name
of Abraham. They weren't Jews. These were Christians who claimed
to be teachers and preachers. They prophesied. And they said,
Lord, Lord, they spoke to him. And they even asked him to look
for the evidence to prove that they were doing these things.
They made the case strong, asking the judge to go back and look
at the evidence. But the evidence they referred
their judge to was what they had done. And that was their
damning spoken word. Their damning trust was that
they relied on something in themselves that they had done. They relied
on their works. Never once did they say, we're
sinners, as the Gospel says we are. Never once did they say,
we're totally helpless and susceptible to the just wrath of God, because
of what we are and what we've done and there's no hope for
us but in Jesus Christ the Lord and God has sent His Son who
came in the flesh and bore the sins of His people bearing the
wrath of God and we trust that His substituting righteousness
is all of our righteousness before God. God have mercy upon me,
consider what Christ has done as my only salvation and confidence
and hope." They didn't say that. They referred to their works
and they added Lord, Lord in a shallow and superficial religion
that didn't carry any weight with Christ. So by their words
they were condemned. And Jesus will use our words
against us when our heart is not right. And our heart can
only be right if God has implanted the gospel there. When we stand
before Christ in judgment, there's not going to be a lawyer that
stands beside us. There's not going to be a friend,
or a buddy, or a preacher, or a mom, or a dad. We stand one-on-one
before the Lord of Glory, and what we say will reveal what
we believe. And if our faith is pointing
to Christ, the Rock, then we will be saved. Now, the fact
of the matter is, is that neither you nor I can answer God in judgment. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can
speak as our advocate for us. My mouth will be silenced because
I know my own heart. And if I'm able to utter anything,
I'll say, Lord, answer for me. As you answered at the cross,
answer for me now, because you are my only answer. And that's,
that is what God puts in our heart, doesn't He? When you really
honestly look at yourself and you say, I am a total ignorant,
spiritual, blind, dead sinner. What do I have? I can't stand
before the Lord of Glory. These men who were wise couldn't
stand before His withering, all-seeing eye and wisdom. How can I? Job said, if I should justify
myself, my own mouth would condemn me. So he knew that if his words
were the basis of his justification, he wouldn't stand. But the Lord
Jesus Christ says, by your words you'll be justified. And he's
speaking here of the fact that what we say as God has put the
gospel in our heart will reveal that it is either Christ, that
Christ is our trust, or not. Whoever confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is of God." And so we read about
this obedience. Remember Jesus said in Matthew
7, 21, "...he that does the will of my Father." What is it to
do the will of God? What does it mean? If these men
who had done all these things hadn't done it, then what is
it? Look at John chapter 6 and verse 40. Jesus says this, and
this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life,
and I will raise him up at the last day. The will of God is
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is faith so important?
Why does God put such a strong emphasis on faith? Romans 4.16. It is by faith that it might
be by grace that the promise might be sure to all the seed.
God has made our salvation of faith so that we would say in
our heart it's all of Christ. Because that's what faith does.
It excludes itself. It owns Christ as everything
and owns itself as nothing. Faith excludes itself and gives
God all the glory. And that's why faith is such
a jewel. It's a precious faith. It causes
us to seek refuge in Christ in every way. And faith is that
obedience that God requires. In Romans 1.5, I'll just read
to you a few verses here. Romans 1.5, Paul is writing in
the book of Romans the gospel, and he says this, that he's an
apostle of Jesus Christ, and he says that the Lord Jesus is
the Son of God. He was declared to be the Son
of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, in
verse 4, by the resurrection of the dead. In verse 5, by whom,
by the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received grace and apostleship
for obedience to the faith. among all nations." And then
in Romans 16 in verse 26, "...but now is made manifest, this gospel
is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets according
to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations
for the obedience of faith." Do you see that? The obedience
of faith. And then in 1st Peter, I'm just
taking to you a few verses. 1st Peter chapter 1 and verse
5. Listen, verse 22 he says this, 1 Peter 1.22, he says, "...seeing
you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you
love one another with a pure heart fervently." That obeying
the truth is the obedience of faith. Look at Romans chapter
10. Romans chapter 10, a very well-known
verse, but sometimes we read these verses And we skip the
details, he says, but he says in Romans chapter 10 verse 15,
how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written,
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Verse 16, but
they have not all obeyed the gospel. What? What does that
mean? They have not all obeyed the
gospel? Well, he says, Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed
our report? What is it to obey the gospel?
It's to believe what Isaiah said in chapter 53. At the head of
chapter 53, he says, Lord, who has believed our report? He shall
grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of a
dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness. And when we shall
see Him, there's no beauty that we should desire of Him. He's
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows. And He goes
all the way through. Isaiah chapter 53. That's the
report. It's the gospel of what Christ
has done and who He is. They haven't believed it. They
haven't obeyed the gospel. And so when the Lord Jesus says,
they haven't done the will of God, he that does the will of
God enters heaven, he means the one who has been given faith
by God to believe the gospel. Look at 1 Timothy 1. Given faith. We say it all the time, don't
we? But sometimes you ever go, where does it say that? Look
at this in 1 Timothy 1. Paul says, and I think I might
have read this last week, he says, I thank God, in verse 12,
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me, for that
he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was
before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, but I obtained
mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of
our Lord was exceeding abundant." You see that verse 14? Sometimes
we skip that verse because we're so focused on verse 15. We want
to hurry up and get there. Look at verse 14. But the grace
of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. He brought with Him the faith
that He gave to us to see what He had done for us. And Paul
says, it was exceeding abundant. I was on a horse. Bam! He spoke to me and gave me this
faith. And what is this faith? It's a persuasion, isn't it?
It's a persuasion that what God has done in Christ is true. What
he said about what he's done in Christ is true. It's being
persuaded like Abraham. He's fully persuaded that what
God had promised, He was able also to perform. We're fully
persuaded that what God said Christ did, He fully finished. And He actually accomplished
our salvation. That's what faith is. We don't
believe in God without some connection to Christ. We don't believe in
Jesus as just Lord. We believe that Jesus is our
Savior. That's important. What was missing
with these men in Matthew chapter 7? They thought Jesus was Lord. They had no problem with that.
The demons say that. The demons believe there's one
God, but they don't believe Jesus is their Savior, because He's
not. And neither do these men, because He's not. But for those
whom Jesus is the Savior, he sends his Spirit into their heart
with this exceeding abundant grace and gives them faith. And
he says, behold me, behold me. Look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth." And they say, yeah, He's done it
all. He's done everything. He's washed
me from my sins in His own blood. He's loved me with everlasting
love. He had to have. Because He wouldn't have done
that but for those whom He loved. What manner of love is this that
God, that He would lay down His life for us? That's love. Anyway,
back to verse 38 of Matthew 12. Then certain of the scribes and
Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee."
What are you talking about? A sign? What kind of a sign are
you thinking of? Let's see. I've opened blind
eyes, cleansed lepers, raised the dead, unstopped deaf ears,
given loose the tongues of those who couldn't speak, cast out
devils. What did you have in mind? How
about manna? I am the bread of life that came
down from heaven. If a man eat of me, he shall
have... That wasn't enough. You see,
these guys, it wasn't the sign they were interested in. It wasn't
the sign. I mean, they were interested
in the sign. But the problem was, they didn't... They had
the one the sign pointed to in front of them. And they wouldn't
believe him. They prefer the shadows and the
types to the real thing. Like in the book of Hebrews.
And so he says, he answers them. We would like to see a sign from
you. We would like to see a sign. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. I've got to take you to these. I know it may seem tedious, but
I love these statements. I don't find it tedious at all.
I only worry that it'll be too tedious for your flesh, but not
for your spirit. Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse
17. Paul says, Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel. Not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but to us which are saved it is the power of God." There you
have it. What does Paul say is important? It's the preaching
of the cross. To them that perish it's foolishness,
but to us which are saved it's the very power of God. Because
it tells us about what God did in His power. He saved us from
our sins. That was the power of God. For
it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the
wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after
wisdom. But what's important, Paul? What
we preach. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are
despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring
to nothing things that are, that no flesh should glory in His
presence." You see the aim here? Why does God save the way He
does? Why does He choose and redeem
and quicken, make alive, in such a way that men can take no credit
for it? that no flesh should glory in
his presence. For of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth. Let him glory in the Lord. Do
you glory? Make sure you glory in the Lord.
These men said, Lord, Lord, they gloried in their works. Do not
glory in your works. Let him that glory, glory in
the Lord. So he says here, an evil, in
verse 39 of Matthew 12, an evil and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign. an evil and an adulterous generation
seeks after a sign." What did he just say to these men? You're
evil. You are adulterers, spiritual
adulterers, idolaters and adulterers from the truth from God. But,
he says, and there shall no sign be given to it but the sign of
the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three
days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of
Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall
condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And
behold, a greater than Jonah is here." Now what did Paul just
say in 1 Corinthians 3? The Jews seek after a sign and
the Greeks seek after wisdom. But what did he say we do? But
we preach Christ and Him crucified. And Jesus says the same thing
here in a different way. He says, there shall no sign
be given to it, to this generation, except the sign of the prophet
Jonah. the sign of the prophet Jonah.
What is the sign of the prophet Jonah? He says, as Jonah was
three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, the belly
of this great fish, I don't know what kind of a fish it was, but
it was big enough to swallow a man without chewing him up. And he was in that whale's belly
three days and three nights. He says, even so, the sign is
this, the Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth. That's the sign. Now the Pharisees
had just got done, had just finished accusing Christ of being a servant
led by Satan, the spirit of Satan. And he says, and then they come
to him and say, we want a sign from you. Here's your sign. Jonah,
three days, three nights in the whale's belly. What is he saying
here? Why did he pick this sign? Well,
first of all, because this is the crux. This is the big issue. This is the centerpiece of all
of history and eternity. At the stake, in the center of
the tent of God's purpose and God's glory, is the Lord Jesus
Christ crucified. This is everything. What are
you talking about? I'm going to give you the greatest
sign. The only sign. There's only one sign you're
going to get. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now,
to these Jews, this was going to be a sign of condemnation. Why? What was the sign that was
Jonah? What did he do? He was spewed
up. He was vomited out by this fish
onto dry land. He came out of the fish. The
Lord Jesus Christ says, the Son of Man will be three days and
three nights in the heart of the earth. And then what happened? He was resurrected, wasn't he?
Three days and three nights. It doesn't mean forever, but
three days and three nights. He's going to be resurrected.
And when he's resurrected, then it will be fulfilled, which Jesus
prophesied in John 6.62. He says, What and if you shall
see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before in His glory?
You who are accusing me of being a servant of Satan. Here's the
sign for you. Three days and three nights I'm
going to be in the heart of the earth. And then I will enter
into my glory. And then what are you going to
say? That's going to really upset you. If this upsets you. But
there's a lot more here to it than that. Because He didn't
just say this as a condemnation on the Pharisees. He says it
as the salvation for His people. Because in all this, in all that
we're looking at in chapter 12 here, Matthew, we see these principles. We see Christ's glory in the
salvation of His people. And we see the defeat of His
enemies and their enemies. You see that here? And throughout
this we're seeing intermingled here the salvation that the Lord
Jesus Christ would accomplish for His people. And we see the
defeat of His enemies. They're both together, one and
the same. The defeat of His enemies is the salvation of His people.
So when Christ mentions Jonah, He's speaking about that. He's
speaking about His triumph over His enemies. In every attempt
they had to destroy Him, to discredit Him, His wisdom and power, He
actually appears greater in His glory. When they accused Him,
He came out and they were condemned. And when they ask for a sign,
He says, okay, here's the sign. The very sign that I'm going
to give you is the sign by which I'm going to save my people and
it will be your condemnation. So all these things are wrapped
up in what He's saying here. But there's some details here
we should look at in the case of Jonah. And I'll only keep
you a minute because we're running short on time. And I don't want
to belabor this, but think about this thing. We need to just do
a small recap of what happened with Jonah. Remember Jonah? I'm
not going to read the book. It's only three, maybe four chapters.
Read it for yourself. It's very enjoyable. Just read
it and soak it up. Here's what happened. Jonah was
sent by God to the city of Nineveh. Nineveh was, if not the capital
city, it was one of the main cities of the nation of the Assyrians. Bitter enemies against Israel.
They hated the Assyrians. They actually took away the 10
tribes. And repopulated it with these people that later became
known as the Samaritans. So the Assyrians were hated by
the Jews. And God tells Jonah, I want you
to go to Nineveh. And I want you to preach against
it. That I'm going to destroy that city in 40 days. And Jonah
says, I'm not going that way. Why did Jonah do that? Why did
he say, I do not want to do that? I used to wonder about that when
I was a kid. Was it because he just, no, I don't feel like going
to Nineveh today? No. It's because he said later
in chapter 4 of Jonah, he says, I knew that you were gracious.
I knew you were going to say those bums, those Ninevites. So I wasn't going to go. Jonah
was a disobedient prophet, wasn't he? And he did not want to see
God save his enemies. Just like the scribes and Pharisees,
right? So Jonah gets in a boat and he goes to Tarshish in the
opposite direction from the presence of the Lord. While he's in the
boat, he gets down in the bottom, in the low part of the boat.
He paid the fare, so I guess it was okay for him. He laid
down there and he went to sleep. And God sent this storm, such
a big storm, that the boat was just rocking and reeling on the
waters. And these mariners, these men
who were seafaring men, whose job it was to always be on a
boat, They knew that this was a heavy storm, and they were
going to lose their lives. So they're rowing and rowing
hard, and they're all praying to their own gods, their idol
gods, and they're crying for salvation. And they say, we've
got to stop and think, why is this happening to us? So they
found everybody on the boat. They found Jonah. He was sleeping.
And it's like they give him, his captain comes down and says,
Jonah! I didn't call him by name. Who are you? Where are you from?
What are you doing here? He says, oh, my name, you know,
I'm Jonah. I'm a Hebrew and I'm a prophet
of the Lord. And he goes, and they all suddenly
became terrified. You know, that's what happens
when you realize you're in the presence of God. When you're
sitting there, let's say we're sitting here, all of a sudden
God's Spirit moves upon someone and they realize what they are. They realize that Christ is their
only hope and that Conviction upon them is so overwhelming
and undeniable, they can't deny it. And you, sitting beside them,
you become afraid, don't you? That God's power would be so
strong in your neighbor, and you wonder about that sovereign
choice of God and His mercy. And you begin to ask questions. Well, that's what these men,
they're like in this tempest, and they're afraid, and they're
going to lose their lives. And they ask Jonah all these
questions. And Jonah says, you need to throw
me over. And they said, no, no, we're
not going to do that. We're not going to throw you
over. We're already, God's already going to shake us loose from
the boat and throw us into this, we're about to be destroyed by
God. We're not going to commit murder and throw you over. Jonah
said, no, you've got to throw me over. So they reluctantly,
they took him and they threw him in. And as soon as Jonah
hits the water, boom! Everything got calm again. But
God had prepared a great fish. And the fish came and swallowed
Jonah whole. That's amazing isn't it? A fish
so huge. A monster so huge in the ocean
that would swallow a man alive. And Jonah is in the fish. And
in the fish, in this great fish, Jonah prays this prayer. And
I have to read some of this to you, because it's astounding
what he says. It's very important. This will be part A. We're going
to have to finish this next time, because I don't want to shortchange
you on this. But listen to what Jonah says here. It says in chapter
1, It says in verse 14 of chapter
1, the men cried unto the Lord and said, We beseech Thee, O
Lord, we beseech Thee, let us not perish for this man's life,
and lay not upon us innocent blood, for Thou, O Lord, hast
done as it pleased Thee. So they took up Jonah, and they
cast him forth into the sea, and the sea ceased from her raging,
and the men feared the Lord exceedingly. And they offered a sacrifice
to the Lord, and they made vows. Now, the Lord had prepared a
great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of
the fish three days and three nights. Then Jonah prayed unto
the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and he said, I cried by
reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me, and
out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heard'st my voice,
for thou hast cast me into the deep. in the midst of the seas,
and the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and thy waves
passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of
thy sight, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple. The waters
compassed me about, even to the soul. The depths closed me round
about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to
the bottoms of the mountains. The earth, with her bars, was
about me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul fainted within me,
I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto Thee, into
Thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities
forsake their own mercy, but I will sacrifice unto thee with
the voice of thanksgiving. I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord." You
see, Jonah learned what we must learn. Salvation is of the Lord. The sign that God gave teaches
us many things. Jonah was just a man, wasn't
he? Christ is a son of God. Jonah
was a disobedient prophet who ran away from doing the will
of God. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
a faithful servant of the Lord, in whom his Father is well pleased,
who ran the whole race, not away, but race of our salvation with
patience. And then he sat down on the right
hand of God. Jonah was thrown from the ship
into the raging sea by these men who were heathen, and yet
they were sympathetic mariners. They didn't want to. But the
Lord Jesus Christ, by envious, ill, intending murderous men,
the scribes and Pharisees accused him of being Satan's servant.
They sought to destroy him against the clear revelation that he
was of God, doing God's work, sent of God, declaring God's
truth. And they hated him for the truth
he spoke, for the good words that he did. Jonah was in the
belly of the fish for three days and three nights for his own
disobedience. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. for the
sins of his people." Jonah, because he disobeyed God, cried from
the fish's belly and was heard. that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Son of God who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners. He laid down His life in obedience to God. He was made
sin by God. He bore our sins in His own body
on the tree. And He cried under those sins
as His own with the guilt and the filth and the shame and the
indignation of God's wrath against us for our sins. Made His. and he was heard. God spoke to
the fish and it vomited Jonah out. Christ laid down his life
and he took it up again. He cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken him, forsaken me? Because God had forsaken
him under all his billows and waves. His soul was sorrowful
even unto death and the Lord saved him. God triumphed over
the fish on Jonah's behalf. Christ triumphed over sin and
death and hell and the devil on the behalf of His people.
Jonah went to Nineveh, a city of Gentiles. Christ sent His
gospel to the whole world of Gentiles by His ministers and
by His Spirit. Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh
because he knew God would be gracious to them. The scribes
and Pharisees, under the influence and the control of Satan, did
not want Christ to go to the Gentiles, not even to the Jews,
that He might save much people alive. And though the people
of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, who was a mere man,
who only preached judgment, that God was going to destroy that
city in 40 days, Christ said, I didn't come to condemn the
world. God didn't send His Son of the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth
on Him is not condemned. The message He brought was not
of condemnation, but of the gospel. You see these comparisons and
contrasts? As God was merciful to the Mennonites
in sending a prophet to that sinful city, much more God is
merciful to us in sending His own Son. The Ninevites were saved,
120,000 of them, it says in the last verse, who didn't know their
right hand from their left hand. They were imbeciles, or they
were infants. 120,000. Yet God sends His Son
to save those who are spiritually impotent and ignorant. In themselves,
spiritually dead. by His gospel, by the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see this sign? There's only
one sign God has given. If we look for another sign,
what sign are we looking for? Are we looking for some kind
of a progress in the Christian life? Are we looking for a strength?
Are we looking for, in ourselves, are we looking for an obedience
in ourselves? Or a measure of righteousness
that we can take some confidence in? Are we even looking for confidence
in ourselves? Don't look to yourselves. I've
been thinking about this this last couple weeks. This keeps
running through my head. It's not about you. It's not
about what you've done. It's not about what you've done
for good or what you've done in sin. It's not about what you're
going to do. It's not about you. It's about
Christ. If we could ever get our eyes
away from ourselves on Him, you know what would happen? Suddenly,
the light of the glory of God would shine in our hearts. God's
great grace would shine to us, and we would actually love Him,
and we would love His people that He loves. And that would
happen to us when we see Him. when we see God is gracious to
sinners. This is the only sign. If we
seek for another sign, we're looking at ourselves. We're trusting
in ourselves, like the Pharisees who came to the Day of Judgment,
thinking only of what they did, not thinking that God is greater
than their sin, that Christ is greater than their sin. Let's
pray. Lord, we thank you for this only sign that you've given.
to this generation, given to us. It's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the power of God. He saved us from our sins when
we were ungodly, without strength, even the enemies of God, laying
down His life. You reconciled us to Yourself
by the death of Your own Son. What grace is this, O Lord? We
pray, give us this mercy, this grace, not only for our own salvation,
But help us to declare to this generation, this is the only
sign that you've given, and this is the only thing we need. Our
Lord Jesus Christ, help us to find in Him our all. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.