Turn back to Matthew chapter
12. Our Lord, here in verse 22, is going to heal a man possessed
of a devil. The first thing we see in this
verse is his ability to save, not only from the power of sin
that dwells in us, but also from the power of Satan, the god of
this world, little g, little g, the prince of darkness. He's able, with just a word,
to cast this devil out. And this is a very good picture
of all men and women by nature come into this world spiritually
blind, spiritually deaf, spiritually dumb, all spiritual senses dead,
dead. And Satan does all that he can
to keep them there, to keep them blind. Look over in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4. He goes about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour and does all that he is allowed to
do to keep men and darkness to keep men in their spiritual death. Over in 2 Corinthians chapter
4, Paul says in verse 3, if our gospel, this good news that we
have to tell, as Mike sang about saved by grace, if our gospel
concerning the Son of God If it be hid, if you cannot understand
it, you cannot grasp it, it is hid to them that are lost. It is not hid to them that are
saved. God has revealed it to them. You understand how God
saves sinners. You understand who Jesus Christ
is. You understand how God can be
a just God and justify you. But there are a multitude of
people. And every one of us was there at one time. They cannot
understand this. They cannot grasp it. It's hid
to them that are lost. The problem is not with the message.
It's not with the gospel we preach. It's with the condition of the
hearer. Lost. Lost. Now listen in verse four. In whom the God, the little G,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not." He goes about blinding their minds, twisting
the truth like he did with Eve, getting us over-concerned with
the cares of this life. We'll see that, I believe it's
in the next chapter of the Parable of the Sower. Blinds the mind
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel
of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. He keeps them in this spiritual
darkness. You see, God has to command that light. I can stand here and preach the
gospel, and you can hear the gospel, but unless God commands
the light of the gospel to shine into your heart, Satan will twist
it. He'll twist it, and he'll keep
you blinded. He'll keep you in spiritual darkness. If he's allowed
to, he'll do it. He will do it. Men and women
are blind to the truth. You can tell it to them all day.
You can tell the truth to them all their lives. Unless God just
reveals it, unless He commands that light to shine, they'll
never see it. They'll never have an interest in the Lord Jesus
Christ. They'll never have an interest
in truly being saved from sin and self and Satan. They'll never
really have an interest in it. Doing this will just be a burden. It'll just be something you do
on Sunday. It'll be something you do on Wednesday. But you'll
never do it with eagerness. You'll never do it with love.
You'll never do it because you want to be here. You'll do it
because you've got to quiet your conscience. But if God ever shines
that light, if He ever commands that light to shine out of darkness,
you'll want to be here. You'll want to worship Him. You'll
want to be where the gospel of Christ is preached. You'll want
it. You'll want it. Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst after righteousness. It is a real hunger. It is a
real thirst after Jesus Christ. As the heart panteth after the
waterbrook, so my heart panteth after the old God. That's a real
desire. That's an inward desire. That's
a real thirst. And that's real. And that's in
the heart of everyone whom God saves. But all the rest are blinded. Blinded in religion and ceremonies
and all these rituals. They just go through them and
they do them and they think they've done their service and God is
well pleased, but not so. Not so. But Christ is able to
save. He's able to cast out Satan with
just a word. Not a big ceremony. Just a word.
Come out of him. Only God can cast out Satan.
Only God. And He's going to prove this
in these next few verses. He's going to teach us this.
He's able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him,
seeing He ever lives to make intercession for them. Now, the
Lord healed this man. And how did he do it? He did
it by casting out the devil. And when he did that, that man
that was stone blind and stone deaf, he was able to see and
he was able to hear perfectly. I bet he had 20-20 vision. I
bet he had 20-20 vision. And this man, through the providence
of God and for the glory of Jesus Christ, was allowed to be possessed
by a devil. This man's blindness was not
from birth. This man's blindness was not
from an act of sin or something like that. This man's blindness
came from a direct possession of this devil. And the Lord cast him out. And
He healed this man. And I want to make this point.
Satan is very real. He's very, very real. Just as
we heard in the Bible class this morning, even the angels won't
even argue with him. Even they're smart enough not
to argue with him. They don't even want to talk
to him. They said the Lord rebuked them. He's a very real person
and he has great power. He's called the God of this world.
The Prince of Darkness. He has great power over the hearts
of lost men and women. Great power. And one time he had great power
over my heart and your heart. He had it, even though we didn't
realize it. These Pharisees who charge our Lord with doing this
work through the prince of the devil, Beelzebub, they didn't
realize, I know they didn't realize, that they were the children of
the devil. that the devil was the one standing there in them
making that charge. He didn't realize that, no more
than I realized it or you realized it. But it was so. He's very real and he has great
power over the hearts of men and women until Christ comes
along, until the stronger man, you see the strong man of the
house, and we'll see this in a minute, is Satan. The stronger
man who comes in and takes over the house and buys the strong
man is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the stronger man. He's the
one who came into Satan's house, into this world, and he bound
him. He can only do what God allows
him to do. He's nothing more than a pit
bull on a chain. He can only do what God Almighty
allows. He has to get permission. to
even look your way. He had to have permission to
even look your way. When he wanted Job, you'd be surprised how much
he wants me and you. But he wanted Job. But he had
to go before God and get permission to touch Job. He said to God,
you've got a hedge about him. Hedge. I bet it was a hedge of angels. And you've got
a hedge about you. Every believer, God's put a hedge
about you. And I'm telling you nothing.
The Word of God tells us. What I'm telling you wouldn't
mean anything. But the Word of God teaches us that nothing can
touch us except He allow it. Except He gives permission. Permission. Nothing can do that. And this
man, now this man was brought to Christ. And one thing I noticed,
I believe I pointed this out once before, no one, no one who
was ever possessed of a devil ever came to Christ by themselves. Someone else brought him. No one ever came and said, would
you cast this devil out of me? I'd say that man didn't even
know he was possessed. Someone else brought him. And
this encourages me. This encourages me. Always, we
must always bring sinners before God. If you can't bring someone
here to hear the gospel, you can do it in prayer. You can
bring them before God Almighty in prayer. Who knows? The Lord
might save them. He might save them. Pray for those who won't
pray for themselves. We do that for our children.
And we do it for others. The Lord might save. I tell you
this, I believe everyone whom God saves, somebody pray for
them. God moved someone to pray for that person. He put it in
the heart of someone to pray for them. God moved and God saved. And when He did this, it was
so miraculous, it was so evident, it was so evident that the whole
crowd, the whole multitude there marveled. They were amazed. They just marveled. Would you
marvel? If a man who was just blind and
could not speak deaf, if all of a sudden he could see clearly
and speak plainly, that would make you marvel, wouldn't it?
I tell you it would. I tell you this, if it pleases
God to save a sinner, if it pleases Him to save a sinner, the people
who know that man will be amazed because there will be a real
change. Where there is no real change, there is no salvation. There is a real change when God
saves someone. When he healed this man, and
this man could see, and this man could hear, and the multitude
were amazed, and they were ready to follow him. The Pharisees,
this is so sad, the religious leaders, the ones who read the
Bible, the ones who were the spiritual leaders of that town
and that place, they charged this great work here to Satan. And this is where you get into
the unpardonable sin. They charge this great work of
giving sight to the blind, speech to the tongue, all this that
our Lord was able to do, which the Old Testament Scripture says
He will do when He comes. He'll give sight to the blind
and the deaf will hear. And they charge that to the work
of Satan. They said, look at this charge.
And this is, as I said, this came from the tongues of the
religious leaders. The greatest enemies of the gospel
is not a drunk man. It's not a prostitute. It's false
prophets. It's false prophets. It's those
who want to make gain out of it, as we heard this morning.
allows all the glory to go to God, and Satan's not going to
have that. And false prophets are not going to have that. And
so they charge him with this in verse 24. He cast out devils. They're saying this to these
people in the multitude. They're not saying this out loud,
out to where everybody can hear it. They're back in the crowd.
They're saying this, and some people are hearing it. Here's
what they're saying. He cast out devils by the prince
of the devils. Don't get amazed by this. Don't
get amazed by this marvelous change that's in this person.
It's not of God. It's of Satan. He's tricking
you. That's what they're saying. He cast out devils by the prince.
The prince of the devils. Beelzebub. When they could not
think of something else to charge him with, They go to the lowest
level and they couldn't come up with anything else because
of this great miracle, this evident miracle. They said, well, he's
in cahoots with the devil. He's trying to fool you and get
you away from the law and all these ceremonies. He's trying
to drag you away from this. He's in cahoots with the devil. They charged him with being in
league with Satan. But it says in verse 25, that
Jesus knew their thoughts. He knew their thoughts. He doesn't
say He heard what they said. He read their hearts. He could
see. He could read. He could smell
the evil flowing from their hearts. The Scripture says no thought
can be withheld from thee. Not even a thought can be hid
God, and he knew their thoughts. He read their minds perfectly,
and he gave a correct answer. He said, a kingdom divided against
itself is brought to desolation, is destroyed. You see, he's going
to use common sense here. The truth is so simple, isn't
it? Truth is so simple. Here they are complicating this,
this thing. But he says now, he said, now,
listen, a kingdom divided, a people divided, a city divided cannot
stand. It cannot stand, it just can't do
it. It can't do it. It cannot. And if Satan cast out Satan,
he's divided against himself. How shall then his kingdom? his
kingdom stand. Satan cannot divide against himself
and do this and stand. He cannot do that. It was clearly
evident that the work of Christ, all of these miracles that he
was performing, it was clearly evident that the preaching of
Christ was in opposition to Satan. All that he was doing was in
total opposition to Satan. And he says, therefore, I cannot
be in league with him. And this cannot be if Satan or
his kingdom would be divided. Satan would not loose this man
like this. Satan would not give sight to
the blind. He'll not give hearing to the
deaf. He'll not raise men from the dead. Satan wouldn't do that
and give God the glory. He's not going to do that. He's
going to keep you bound. He's going to keep you that way.
He's not going to set you free. If they had only used common
sense before they opened their mouth, they wouldn't have been
so embarrassed all the time, would they? Well, people just
think before they speak, they could save themselves some embarrassment.
But he does show us this. He does show us this, that Satan
has a kingdom. He has a kingdom. And in this
kingdom, in this kingdom of darkness, there is rule. There is some
order. There is some hierarchy. Satan
is the prince of it, and he has those under him, and they do
his bidding. He said if he goes around casting himself out, he's
going to destroy his own authority. He's going to destroy his own
rule. He's going to destroy his own kingdom of darkness. He's
not going to do that. He's the prince of it. He's not
going to destroy his own kingdom. The work of salvation, the work
of of saving a sinner by grace alone, in Christ alone? That's not of Satan. That's not
of Satan. Christ puts the question to them.
He says, now, if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, then who do your
children cast them out by? Now, whether they did or not,
I don't know. They did practice exorcism. But he said, now if I, whose
name do they use? Whose name do they use? Well,
they know that the only one who cast out devils was God. And
if this man was truly healed, then the work is of God. It's
not of Satan. It's not of Satan. Because he
says here in verse 28, but if I cast out devils by, now listen,
the Spirit of God, if I cast out devils by the Holy Spirit,
that's what he's talking about. He had the Spirit without measure.
If I cast out devils by the Holy Spirit of God, then know this. First of all, know this. The
kingdom of God has come to you. The kingdom of God is in your
midst. The king of God, the king of glory is in your midst. The kingdom of grace, the kingdom
of glory, the promised sea, the promised Messiah is standing
right here in front of you. And he says here, I did this
by the Holy Spirit. I cast him out by the Holy Spirit
of God. Or else, he says, how can one
enter into a strong man's house? And here's a powerful statement.
How's a man going to enter into a strong man's house and spoil
his goods, except he first binds the strong man? And then he'll
spoil his goods, then he'll spoil his house. Then he'll take Christ. He's speaking here of himself.
The strong man in the house is Satan. The one who comes in and
binds the strong man and spoils his goods, he sets the captives
free, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's saying, I am the Messiah.
I am the seed of the woman. I am the promised seed. I am
the one. I am the stronger man. I'm the
one who has entered into the house to set the captive free. Satan is strong, powerful. You and I, we'd just be like
babies, just like babies in front of him. But Christ, the man Christ
Jesus, was just a word, not a battle. Not a sword, not guns, not shooting,
not just a word. Just His Word. His Word. He binds him. He's bound. He's bound. He's bound, and He sets the captive
free. And our Lord lets them know,
first of all, there's no neutral ground here. There are no neutral
grounds. You know, that's the idea I had
when I was a teenager. I had the idea that God was on
one hand wanting me. Satan was on the other hand wanting
me. And somewhere along the way before
I died, I had to make a choice. No, Christ said, he that is not
with me is against me. Well, Satan surely was not with
him, so he couldn't have not done this by Beelzebub. And he
says here, there's no one standing on the sidelines. You're either
with me or you're against me. You either believe on me, you
either love me or you hate me. It just takes the right situation
to bring it out. It takes the right situation
to bring out that hatred that's there. You tell a man he hates
God, no, I don't hate God. But don't let the right situation
come along. Let him be confronted with that point of rebellion
and you'll find out where he hates God. There's no neutral ground. You're
either all for me or all against me. There's no in between. Then here he gives this serious
warning, and this is not easy to detect or to even deal with.
But he says here in verse 31, 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 speaks a word against
the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. They call him a winebibber. They call him a gluttonous man.
That can be forgiven. That can be forgiven. But whosoever
speaks against the Holy Ghost, the work of the Holy Ghost, whosoever
speaks against the work of the Holy Ghost, I read a man a letter that I'd
gotten about a year ago. Another pastor. He said, boy,
that borders on unpardonable sin. Speaking against the work
of the Holy Ghost. It shall not be forgiven him.
Neither in this world, neither in the world to come. The Holy
Spirit. Now listen, I wrote this down. try to say it as I wrote it down,
because this is not an easy subject to deal with. But the Holy Spirit
was saying by these miracles that our Lord performed that
this man is the Christ. This miracle of opening the eyes,
this miracle of giving speech, this miracle of raising the dead,
all these miracles that he performed The Holy Spirit was saying by
this, they don't work independently. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit do not work independently of each other.
As I hear, I speak. My Father worketh hitherto, and
I work. And the Lord said, the Lord Jesus,
as He stood there and He healed this man and then made these
accusations, He said, I did this by the Holy Spirit. This work
was done by the Holy Spirit. I didn't do this all by myself. So what He's saying here, these
miracles that prove that this man is the Christ. He is the
Christ. But the Pharisees said, no, that
miracle was performed by the devil. That message is of the
devil. He said, you let a man persist
in that, he'll not be forgiven in this world or in the world
to come. And there will come a time. I listened to a message
Henry preached here some time ago, our deadlines taught in
the Bible. But there will come a time that
a man will become so gospel hardened, so persistent in his resistance
against the gospel that there's no hope and no remedy. There was a clear revelation
by the Holy Spirit that this man, Jesus Christ, is the Christ. And this is the work of the Holy
Spirit. He shall take the things of mine and show them to you. He'll take all that is mine,
all that is about me, and reveal it to you. That's his work. He'll not speak of himself. He's
going to reveal Christ. He reveals Christ to the heart.
And that's what he's doing, and that's what he was doing on this
occasion. And the Pharisees, those religious leaders, said,
no, that's a Satan. The one subject that came to
my mind was when I heard Jimmy Swaggart preach five Dandevil
doctrines. And when I was reading this this
weekend, I remember sitting listening to that message and he took every
point of what we call the doctrines of grace and called them five
dandamal doctrines out of hell. Now according to the scriptures,
you can never be forgiven in this life or the life to come. Christ is saying, you can say
what you will about me and I can be forgiven. You know, we can
say a lot of things, do a lot of things. All manner of sin. Aren't you glad of that? All
manner of sin can be forgiven to men. We all have our different vices,
if you want to call them that. Different ways of sinning. Different
problems. He said all that can be forgiven.
But when the Holy Spirit clearly reveals The message of grace,
the message of redemption. When he clearly reveals that,
and a man stands up and says, that's of the devil, and he persistently
denies it, he said, that's the unpardonable sin. That's it. When he's clearly revealed as
that prophet, and you say that's a lie, that's not so, you'll
never find forgiveness, he said. You'll never be forgiven in this
world or the world to come. The Holy Spirit is blasphemed
when the message of grace, the message of redemption, how God
saves sinners, when that is blasphemed, but when it is clearly set forth
and attributed to Satan, he said that's the unpardonable sin. Our Lord said, Now either make
the tree good, and its fruit good, or else make
the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt. For the tree is known
by its fruit. Judge what I have done to be
either good or evil. Now what He did, was it good
or evil? He gave a man his sight. He healed a man. Is that good
or evil? Well, it's good. Well, then your
judgment of me of being evil is evil. You're really the evil
one. He says you are really the ones
that are evil. And he proves it in this next
verse. Old generation of snakes, vipers, poisonous serpents. Old generation, he says here,
of vipers. He says here in the Old Generation
of Fire, how can you being evil? He calls them what they are.
He says, no, the evil one here is you. He tells it like it is. The evil one here is you. How
can you being evil, right to the core, right to the very heart,
how can you speak good things? How can you tell the truth? You
can't. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh." Good cannot come out of a bad
heart. Good cannot come, he says, out
of an evil heart. The way a person speaks, now
listen, this is still in connection here. What a person says and
the way they speak is who they are. It's who they are. You just listen to a person talk
long enough, long enough, and it won't take long. Well, sometimes
it might take a little longer, but sooner or later he'll reveal
himself just by his speech, because out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Solomon said, a fool is known
by the multitude of his words. Now, be careful. Be careful here. He's saying to these Pharisees,
Every idle word. Do you ever have an idle word? I'm thankful for the blood of
Christ. All manner of sin. It can be forgiven. It can be
washed away and cleansed. But every idle word that men shall speak, unconverted
men, we know that in Christ Every believer has already been judged.
Every idle word has already... He suffers the judgment of every
idle word I'll ever speak. Our judgment is past. But He's
letting them know how searching judgment is. Every idle word
that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day
of judgment. Every idle word is written in
God's book. Weigh out your words. Be carefully
saying to them, be careful what you say. Be careful what you
charge. Oh, I didn't really mean that.
Well, it's written. It's an idle word. Idle conversations
go on all day long. Very few conversations have really
a lot of thought behind them. Really, really. Weigh out words in the light
of eternity. Every spoken word that men speak,
he says, will never go away. By thy words thou shalt be justified. And by thy words thou shalt be
condemned. Let me close with this. Words
shall be the indication Words are the indication of the true
principles of the heart. The way a man speaks, what he
talks about is conversation. Words indicate, now listen, words
indicate the character of the heart. Well, they're just idle,
just, no. Our whole conversation, the daily
conversations throughout our whole life, reveals the character
of our heart. It does. And our Lord says to
these men who charged Him with doing this work by the prince
of the devil, He says, now I want to tell you, every idle word
is going to be brought into judgment. And this charge, this blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit, because it's His work. His work. He's the one, He said, I cast
devils out by the Holy Spirit of God. If you charge that to
Satan, you'll never be forgiven in this life or the life to come. That's sobering, isn't it? That's
sobering. That's sobering. I sure thank
God for the blood that washes away our sins. Okay, Mike.