The Son of David Recognized

Will you turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12 beginning with verse 22 and reading down through verse 37. Then was brought unto him one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

And all the people were amazed and said, is not this the son of David? But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow doth not cast out devils, but Baal-zebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, He is divided against himself.

How shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. Or else, how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house.

He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And 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.

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. O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. 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.

But I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. or by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. I have four things in these verses that I've just read this morning that I want us to look at. There's many more things, of course, the word of God is so full, but I'm going to point us to four things.

First of all, I want us to look at the fact the fact that the Lord's enemies could not deny he had worked a miracle in verses 22 through 24. If you picture in your mind a man was brought to the Lord whom the devil so possessed that this man could not see and he could not speak and the Lord healed him.

He healed him by casting the devil out of him, and immediately, when he did, then the man could both see and speak. In 1 John, one of the verses there, the apostle mentions, for this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. The Lord's enemies here, the Pharisees, the religious leaders of that day, they could not deny his power.

They could not deny his power and his ability to work this miracle. As we read in the gospel, we see that his miracles, they were always immediate and they were always irrefutable. The man was lame and God, the Lord Jesus Christ, restored him, his health through his legs. Immediately he could get up and run and jump and praise God. He didn't have to go to therapy. When the Lord healed someone, his enemies here, they saw this, but they could not deny the fact of his power, his ability. They could not deny that.

And we see that the people here, if you notice in verse 23 in this particular case, this man may have been well known in this locality for being blind and not being able to speak. And the Lord cast the devil out of him and immediately his eyes are opened. He can see and now he can speak.

And the scripture here in verse 23 says, and the people were amazed. We would be amazed, wouldn't we, to see a miracle wrought like that? I believe almost everyone would be amazed to see something like that. Well, it's not the fact that these people were amazed that troubled our Lord's enemies, it's what they said. Notice again in verse 23. And all the people were amazed. That didn't bother these enemies so much. But what they said did. And what was it that they said? Is not this the son of David? Is not this the promised Messiah? Is not this the one that all of the prophets throughout the Old Testament days had spoken of, had written of, had pointed to? Is not this the son of David? Why would they think that?

I want you to turn back with me to Isaiah, if you're able, Isaiah chapter 35. And in this chapter, we have a beautiful prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and gospel dispensation that you and I live in. Isaiah chapter 35, it's pictured to us in these words, the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. What is this speaking of? It's speaking of the beauty and the glory and the power when the Lord Jesus Christ would come into this world.

The gospel, remember, is good news. That's what it means, isn't it? Good news. Glad tidings of great joy. Someone said, is that true of you? Is that true of me today? Can we really say that the gospel is the greatest news we've ever heard? Gives us more joy than anything else. The gospel.

And if it doesn't, why not? Maybe it's because we do not see ourselves as we really are. The sinners that we are. The hopelessness that we were in. Had it not been for the Lord God to send his son into this world to redeem and save his people. If we've come to see our sinfulness and our need, and not only that, but the penalty of sin. If we've ever thought about an eternity in hell, suffering the wrath of God. It's good news, the gospel. And he came to save us from our sins, from the wrath of God.

But the point I want to make, especially here in Isaiah 35, when we read there in our text this morning, our Lord cast the devil out of this man and immediately he could see and he could speak and the people were amazed and they said, is not this the son of David? Why would they say that? Well, notice here, beginning with verse four. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. That's what he took upon that devil. Vengeance. Cast him out. Your God will come. Who's coming? God's coming. Lord Jesus Christ, we know, is more than just a man. He is a man, a good man, perfect man. But He's more than that, isn't He? He is God who came, who came in the flesh.

Behold, your God shall come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. And His recompense, of course, is eternal life. It is salvation. It's a gift of God, not of works. lest any man should glory or boast. Salvation is God's gift, his sovereign grace gift to his people. Notice, then the eyes of the blind shall be open. Well, that's what just happened. That's what just took place here. When this devil was cast out of this man, his eyes were open.

Is not this the son of David? And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as in heart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. This man's now able to sing. Is not this the son of David? He shall come to save you, notice that.

The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an heart and the tongue of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert. End of verse four, he will come and save you. The promise of opened eyes Unstopped ears, lame running in the ways of the Lord, and the tongue of the dumb being loose so it might speak the glorious praises of God.

This was all manifested through the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came to destroy the works of the devil. And these people, the common people I should say, Their question was, is not this the son of David? My point being that the Lord's enemies, and he had enemies here as we will see, they could not deny that he had worked a miracle. So what did they do?

That brings me to my second point. Look at his enemies, the charge. that they bring against him and his response. Verse 25, and Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, every kingdom. Go back to verse 24, but when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow, this fellow. You notice that word fellow is in italics. It has been inserted there by the commentators. It could have been this vile fellow, this worthless fellow. That's the way the Pharisees looked upon the Lord Jesus Christ. This fellow, this fellow.

You know, we think of that verse in 1 Peter, which speaks of the Lord when he was reviled, reviled not again. And maybe you're not like me, but I often think of the fact that when he was on the cross and he was reviled, And he reviled not again. But his whole lifetime, from the beginning of his ministry, he was reviled, reviled by his enemies, the religious leaders of that day. But he answered not again.

Now, his response, their accusation was this fellow, he doth cast out devils, but Bab-Elzebeth, The prince of the devils. Can you imagine the son of God, the precious, pure, holy son of God being charged as a devil? That's what they were saying. He bore these reproaches. He behaved meekly, leaving us an example of how we should act when we are reproached for the gospel's sake. But you notice his response here is twofold. Verse 24, but when the Pharisees heard, they said, this fellow doth not cast out devils, but Baal-zebub, the prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts. Now he's responding to that accusation.

And said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. And every city or house divided against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then shall his kingdom stand? In other words, Satan would never cast out another devil. Why? Because they're all part of his kingdom. and he would be destroying his own kingdom.

You charge me, let's think of it like this. You charge me with casting out a devil by the power of the devil. But the devil has a kingdom and his kingdom would come to naught. It would be destroyed if he turns on himself and begins to cast out demons. His kingdom would be destroyed. He's refuting, in other words, he's refuting these men.

They're charged, you did this. Yes, they could not deny that he had wrought a miracle, but they charge him with performing the miracle by the power of Satan, of the devil. Beelzebub was a prince of the devils. And then he asked them this question also. I said his response is twofold. First of all, if Satan cast out Satan, well then his kingdom is divided. His house is not going to stand. And then he asked, if I cast out devils by the power of the devil, who do your sons cast them out by?

We're not sure about this, but we do know that there were men that were called exorcists in those days among the Jews. We read about one in Acts chapter 19. We don't know if they really did exorcise demons or not, but at least they had that reputation for casting out demons. And the Lord knew that they would never say that their sons Their friends cast out devils by the power of the devil.

So we see his response. Their charge was he's done this, yes, but he did it by the power of the devil. His response, Satan's kingdom is not divided and that would be the case if I did this by the power of Satan. And who do your sons cast out devils? What power do they have?

And then our Lord gave a very short parable. A parable, verse 29. Or else how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house? A very short parable. And in this parable, the house, the house represents the world. The strong man, of course, represents Beelzebub, Satan, and the goods, the souls of men. Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into this world to rescue the souls, the precious souls, from Satan's power of those that had been given unto him.

And first, Satan had to be bound. And he did that, we know, at the cross when he dealt him a death blow. Remember, the first promise was the seed of the woman. His heel shall be bruised, but he shall destroy the head of the serpent. That's what our Lord is doing today. That's what he's doing today. The prophecy of him was he would deliver the captives. He would set the captives free. And just as in his parable here, he bound the strong man first so that he could spoil that strong man's house. That is, he could deliver the souls of his people in this world.

And that's what he's doing now as the gospel is being preached around the world. Maybe here today even in this group right here. There's someone here came in bound by Satan. We were all born in that kingdom of darkness and we can't deliver ourselves. And maybe even here this morning, there's someone here that the Lord is going to loose. He's going to deliver you. from the power and the dominion of Satan. How's he going to do that? By the preaching of the gospel, by believing the gospel message, by trusting in Christ, he delivers his people. Notice our Lord said, you're either with me or you are against me, all men, verse 30. He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. There's no in between.

There's places in this world they have what they call a zone, demilitarization. demilitarized zone. I'm thinking over in North Korea and South Korea. And those in North Korea, they are bound to the government of North Korea. And those in South Korea to their government. But there's a strip that divides these two countries.

No man's land, so to speak. Nobody has control there. That's not the way it is. with man and the gospel. A man is either with Christ or against Christ. There's no in between. There's no zone where a person can be and say, well, I'm neither with Christ nor against Christ. Yes, you are. Every man is either for Christ or against Christ. That's what he said, isn't it? He that is not with me is against me. Are you with Him? Are you for Him? Have you committed your life to Christ, to serve Him, to honor Him, to obey Him? God give us grace to do so if we never have. We don't want to be found against Him. How's that going to work out? Not good. Not good.

Here's the third point I wanted us to see. Look at the danger of his enemies of being guilty of committing a sin which is unpardonable. A sin which is unpardonable. And I use the word danger on purpose because no doubt there's a mystery involved in this matter. But let's look at what we're told in this place.

First of all, the Lord cast out a devil by the Spirit of God, verse 28. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, he did that. That was obvious, could not be refuted. It was obvious, it was plain. He cast out devils by the Spirit of God. We looked at the prophecy of him last week in this chapter, where God said, I will put my spirit upon him. The Holy Ghost was given unto him without measure.

Now, these Pharisees, these that I'm referring to as his enemies, because they were, They seem to be convinced that he had done this by the power of God. In this context, when we think about the unpardonable sin, what is it? These Pharisees seem to have been convinced by the miracles. You couldn't witness a miracle like they just saw and not be convinced. And it seems they were convinced in their heart, yes, this man is a prophet. This man, he's not a pretend. This man is a prophet. They seem to recognize that in their heart, be convinced of this in their heart.

But yet they were determined to reject Him. And not only to reject Him themselves, but to do everything in their power to persuade others to reject Him. They were not like Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus, remember he was a a man that persecuted the church and did everything he could to wipe the name of Jesus Christ out.

But he tells us this after he was saved, that what he did, he did ignorantly and unbelief. These men here were not ignorant. They knew in their conscience, in their heart, however we want to say it, that this was the Son of God, this man was of God. And yet they're determined not to bow, not to believe.

Before I move to my last point, I want to point out three things here. First of all, notice in verse 31, wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. All manner. What a wonderful promise. That gives me comfort, doesn't you? That gives me comfort.

All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. In other words, there's such power, such efficacy in the blood of Jesus Christ, it can cleanse from any and every sin. No doubt about it. The psalmist said, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mightest be feared. And we're not talking about a slavish fear. We're talking about a reverential fear of God.

There's forgiveness with thee. And oh, when he forgives, and he does forgive all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men. You know the scripture speaks of confessing sin. It speaks of forsaking sin. And it speaks of having sin forgiven. And it speaks of having sin forgiven in several different ways. Listen to this verse in Isaiah 44. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions. The picture there is a man, I guess he like Sometimes maybe you've done this, or others we've heard about have done this. They've charged their groceries, or they've charged something.

And you know, every time they went in the store, they'd put that down, put that down, put that down. And before long, they had a big, long list of how much they owed. How much do we owe God? How many sins have we committed against Him? And yet God said, I've blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions. They take that ink, just scratch through, just blot it out. It's all gone. As far as the East is from the West, I have removed their transgressions. And as a cloud, have you ever thought about that? Like likening forgiveness to a cloud? I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins.

Maybe you've been out some day and looking up into the sky and all the clouds are moving around and maybe you're following one. It looks like this to you and then all of a sudden it's gone. It's gone. You can't see it anymore. No, God, the scripture says, has cast all the sins of his people behind his back. You say, where, where could that be? Does he have a back? He's everywhere. That's the point, isn't it? That's the point. They're gone.

All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto man. I wanted to point a second thing out here is every sin is not unpardonable, but every sin is dangerous. Sin's not to be played with. Every sin is dangerous. Many people in hell today who did not commit the unpardonable sin, but they died unpardoned. Let that sink in.

No, they didn't blaspheme against the Holy Ghost. They never committed the unpardonable sin, but the sins which they did commit, were never pardoned. They never sought the Lord for mercy. They never asked for forgiveness. And they went out into eternity never seeking forgiveness through Jesus Christ. He told a group of people, this is in John chapter 8 one day, Thou believest not that I am, you shall die in your sins. If you do not believe I am, that I am God, you shall die in your sins.

And many people do. A third thing. And this stood out to me in preparing this message this past week. The unpardonable sin is committed with the tongue. Have you ever thought about that? That God has given man a tongue with which he can praise the Lord, he can preach the gospel, he can share the gospel. David referred to his tongue as his glory. Awake up, my glory. And we should use our tongues to bless the Lord, to praise the Lord, to tell others about Christ, yes, and his wonderful works to the children of men. The tongue is used to commit this sin, the unpardonable sin. Here's my last point, verse 33 through 37. Our Lord gives an illustration, very easy illustration to understand.

He said, either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. For the tree's known by his fruit. A tree, we all recognize this, it's not known by its bark. It's not known by its leaves. It's known by its fruit.

And a good tree brings forth good fruit. And a corrupt tree brings forth corrupt fruit. Now what these people were doing, in effect, they were saying, you brought forth good fruit. Casting this devil out of this man, opening his eyes and his tongue to speak, that's good fruit, but it's coming from A corrupt tree. You're doing that by the power of Satan. No, no. A good tree brings forth good fruit. The fruit he had brought forth was good. And it was good because he's good.

There used to be an old saying, many of you probably never heard it, What's in the well will come up in the bucket. Did you ever drop a bucket down in a well and pull that thing back up? Well, I want to tell you something. If that water was cool and clean, it'd bring up clean, cool water in the bucket. If the water was murky and polluted and stagnant, that's what it would bring up.

What's in a man's heart? God gives us a new heart, then what's in the heart should come up in the bucket. Love to Christ, praise of him, trust in his righteousness, confidence in his blood to cleanse us from all sin. That's what's going to come up out of the good heart. But if we still have that evil heart, if we've not been given a new heart, a good heart, then what's gonna come up? Blasphemy, hatred, lies, pride. The tree is known by its fruit. I pray the Lord would bless this message to all of us here today.

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The Son of David Recognized

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