And yet God allows us to sometimes to fall. And
I think he does it so to keep us humble and we
certainly want to honor him in all things. Whether
the scripture is being read or being preached
or being sung or being seen at the table. So
we're going to look this morning. In Matthew
chapter 12, this is a very sobering passage.
It's remarkably sobering in what Jesus said.
We'll begin in verse 30. Jesus says, or Matthew
writing here, He who is not with me is against
me, and he who does not gather with me scatters
abroad. Therefore I say to you that every sin,
And blasphemy will be forgiven men. But the blasphemy
against the Spirit will not be forgiven men.
Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man,
it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against
the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him,
either in this age or in the age to come. Either
make the tree good and its fruit good, or else
make the tree bad and its fruit bad. For a tree
is known by its fruit. Now he's speaking to the
Pharisees. Brood of vipers. How can you, being
evil, speak good things? And the implication
is you can't. For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the
good treasure of his heart brings forth good
things. And an evil man out of the evil treasure
brings forth evil things. But I say to you that
for every idle word men may speak, they will
give account of it in the day of judgment. For
by your words you will be justified, and by your
words you will be condemned. And this is from
the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Let's
pray. Our Father, help us this morning. Lord
God, help us to understand. Lord God, we have
gathered as your people. called out by your grace,
separated unto Christ in baptism. Lord God, we
desire to hear from heaven. Lord God, we want
the word of God to rule over us. One of the problems
with the old covenant people was, Lord God, that
they would continuously go astray in their hearts.
They would hear the word of God and it would
not obey it. Father, help us, Lord, to see their
example and not to follow that. Lord, speak to
us, Lord. Father, we pray for the help of the
Holy Spirit of God. Lord, open our hearts to
truth this morning. You must do that. And as
you're opening our hearts to truth, Lord God,
open our minds to the beauty and the glory and
the majesty that is found uniquely in Christ.
For it's in his name we pray. Amen. Our text
today says there is a stern warning that's given.
about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This sin
is known as the unpardonable sin or the unforgivable
sin. Now this particular passage has troubled
many believers and struck fear in many hearts.
And we've got to not soften the message. The
warning is sobering. But Jesus did not give this
warning to cause anxiety. Rather, it is given
to awaken people to truth. And here's the truth.
That what we say reveals our hearts, and our
hearts reveal who we truly are, and all that
one day is going to be brought into judgment
before God. So now in context, this warning was
given to the religious leaders, to the Pharisees,
who had said that Jesus was working his signs
and miracles by the power of Satan. Now we know
the Pharisees are an influential religious group.
You have the scribes, you have the Pharisees
together. They're making up the Sanhedrin, which
is a ruling body at that time. And the Pharisees
loved to look righteous. They had a veneer of
righteousness, but it was only just that. It
was a veneer. There was no real substance, and
the Lord Jesus knew that. And what they said
about Jesus revealed their hearts. For the Lord
Jesus said, out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. That means this morning that
your words and mine are a window into our soul.
The condition of your heart is revealed through
the content of your speech. So that means your
words are never just mere words. They are evidence
of who you truly are. Now this morning we're
in Matthew 12. Jesus is teaching us this truth
that the words are the fruit of our soul. And
he said these words will ultimately one day,
they're either going to stand there to justify
us or they'll be brought as a witness against
us to condemn us on that final day of judgment.
Now what's the context? Because there's a lot
going on here. Matthew is writing this gospel
as an apologetic. He's writing to convince the
readers, primarily Jewish at this time, that
Jesus of Nazareth, the one born in Bethlehem,
is the king of Israel. He wants to convince them,
the Jewish reader, that Jesus is the Christ and
that they might believe and find eternal life
in him. So if you look at it, it's really a masterful
text. In chapters 1 and 2, he gives you the genealogical
record and proof that Jesus is the Christ. He
shows you that Jesus is both son of David, who
would rule forever on his father David's throne,
But he's also, Jesus is also the son of Abraham,
that promise given in Genesis 15, that in Abraham,
in his seed, all the world is going to be blessed.
That's Christ. In chapters 3 and 4, Matthew calls
three witnesses to give an account as well. The
first witness was that old covenant prophet,
John the Baptist. John the Baptist looks upon
Jesus and he says, Behold, the Lamb of God, which
takes away the sin of the world. The second witness
that was called was God the Father. God the Father's
voice was heard as Jesus was being baptized.
The Father is looking over a son and saying,
Behold, the Son in whom I delight. The Father
is giving witness. The third witness was also
the Spirit of God. It also took place at Jesus'
baptism. Remember, the Spirit of God, like a
dove, it doesn't say a dove, but like a dove,
descended upon Christ. Now that's an important
sign because John the Baptist was told, here's
how you're going to recognize the Messiah. The
Messiah will be the one upon whom the Spirit
of God will descend, which will be the sign that
this man is sent by God. The implication is clear.
Jesus is the Christ. Then in Matthew 5, 6, and
7, Matthew records that wonderful sermon known
as the Sermon on the Mount, and in it we see
that Jesus had a unique authority. Not one time
do you find Jesus quoting other notable figures
or other famous or influential rabbis. That would
have been the custom. You wanted to give credence
and authority to your own voice, so you would
have quoted someone who agreed with you. Jesus
didn't. Instead, he simply said, I say to you.
His voice was authoritative, and in fact, he
said that his voice was authoritative and was
able to give the true meaning of the law that
was given to Moses by God. The implication is
Jesus is the voice of God. In chapters 8 and
9, Matthew lists a series of about nine miracles
giving proof Jesus is the Messiah. Then there's
some opposition in chapters 10 and 11, but now
we're back in chapter 12. And once again, we
see the witness of God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
who is empowering the Lord Jesus Christ to do
some miraculous signs and wonders before the
people. This chapter starts off with Jesus healing
a man with a withered hand. Later on, which we
looked at last week, there's a blind, mute man
who also was demon -possessed who was instantaneously
and miraculously healed by Christ. Matthew's
message is unmistakable. Jesus is the Christ,
the one sent by God. Bottom line is, he is the
king of Israel that God had sent. to rescue his
people. But not everyone who witnessed these
events agreed with that assessment. The Pharisees,
you remember them? The religious ones. They blasphemously
claimed that Jesus was able to do his signs and
wonders because he was empowered by Satan. They
blasphemed that holy name. They could not deny
that a miraculous event had taken place. There
were large crowds there. All of them had seen
what had taken place. Instead of falling on their
knees, they instead attributed the source of
that miracle to Satan. And we looked at that
back in verse 24 two weeks ago. When the Pharisees
heard it, they said, This fellow, Jesus, this
man, he does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub,
the ruler of the demons, which is shorthand for
Satan. So the Pharisees saw firsthand. eyewitnesses
of all that had taken place. And then they came
to the conclusion that Jesus was somehow in league
with Satan. In spite of all the abundant and
incontrovertible evidence, the Pharisees, and
here's the word, chose not to believe the truth.
There's no excuse for their unbelief. These men
are not ignorant men. In fact, They were experts
in the law of Moses. They fastidiously followed
the law of Moses. They knew what the scriptures
had said about the Messiah. They knew the prophecies
as well as the mighty works that the Messiah
would do when he came. And here's Jesus standing
in front of them doing miracle after miracle
right in front of their eyes and they look at
that and they reject it. They attributed the
clear work of God's Spirit to Satan himself.
And the Lord Jesus had something to say about
it. Excuse me, I've got something on my throat.
Verses 31 and 32. I didn't put that on the screen,
but it's in the text. That's when Jesus said,
every blasphemy, every sin will be forgiven.
But if you blaspheme against God's Spirit, there
is no forgiveness. Not either in this life or
in the life to come. So Jesus is speaking about
a sin. That's never going to be forgiven. Not
in this age or in the age to come. Now that's
a terribly frightening word. It's intentionally
frightening. It's meant to be frightening because
it was meant to grab attention. In context, it
was meant to grab the Pharisees' attention. Now
as the church has gathered this morning, most
of us have heard about the unpardonable sin.
And many Christians have wondered, Even if they
had been guilty of committing it. Let me start
with this. The very fact that you may fear having
committed the unpardonable sin is evidence that
you haven't committed the unpardonable sin. Because
those who have committed this sin, they're blinded
to the truth. They're hardened in the truth.
They never questioned if they committed this.
They're not wondering at night, have I committed
this unpardonable sin? It's not who they are.
They assume they're on the right side of history.
Now, I want to start with what the unpardonable
sin is not. It, first of all, is not a careless
word that was spoken. That doesn't excuse careless
words, but that's not what this sin is. It's
not a moment of doubt or even a season, a prolonged
doubt. When a Christian goes through deep suffering,
what... some writers have referred to as the
dark night of the soul, there may be seasons
of real wrestling, questioning, doubting everything,
including God himself. That's not the unpardonable
sin. To that brother or to that sister, I would
say, don't worry, Christian. God is holding on
to you. He has you in his grip. He's not going
to let you go. The one who started a good work
in you will be faithful to perform it until the
day of Jesus Christ. You are safe in your Father's
grip. Because let's not pretend that everything
is so easy to endure in this life. It's not the
unpardonable sin then. So what is it then? It
is a deliberate and willful rejection of the
work of God's Spirit. I don't have time, but
I think this is what the writer of Hebrews is
referring to in Hebrews 6 as well. deliberate
and willful are the key words. This is when someone
comes to truly understand, and listen to my words
carefully, truly understand that Jesus is the
Christ, but they still deny him and even blaspheme
him. In this case, it is the Pharisees. They
were attributing the irrefutable work of God's
Spirit to Satan. Now I want you to notice that
Jesus makes a distinction about blaspheming him,
the Son of Man, versus blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
He says anyone who speaks a word against the
Son of Man, it will be forgiven him. History
is full of many people who began, who started
out as enemies of Christ. There have been many
people who began hating Jesus and yet later were
gloriously converted. The Apostle Paul is the
chief example given in the Scriptures. He once
persecuted the church. He even sought to kill
Christians and consented to their death. And
yet later, he becomes the chief spokesman for
the Christian faith. Paul would willingly go
to his death by the hands of an executioner's
sword, declaring that Jesus is Lord. Paul thought
he was doing God's work. He thought this was
pleasing to God to persecute the church, acted
in ignorance. And there's the difference. The
Pharisees are not ignorant. They were there.
They see Jesus. They see the work of God's Spirit.
They can see that it is a work that can only
be done by God. It's only capable of being done
by God. And they chose to blaspheme what took
place. This is why Jesus said that if anyone
speaks against the Holy Spirit, he cannot ever
be forgiven in this life or in the one to come.
Now, he said, you can blaspheme me. It's not
that Jesus is somehow less important than the
Holy Spirit. It's not what he's saying at all.
Don Carson, in his commentary, says it this way.
Within the context of the larger argument, the
first sin is the rejection of the truth of the
gospel. That's where Paul was. He did not believe
the gospel. He wasn't convinced of it. Whereas
the second sin, what we're talking about today,
it's rejection of that same truth, the gospel,
but in full awareness that that is exactly what
you're doing. Thoughtfully, willfully, and self
-consciously rejecting the work of the Spirit.
Now you're saying, but why is that particular
sin unforgivable? Follow what the scripture says.
In John 16, 8, we read that the Spirit will convict
the world of sin and of righteousness and of
judgment. That's what he does. It is the Holy
Spirit's job to convict the sinner of his sin
and lead him to the Lord Jesus Christ. So if
someone permanently and decisively rejects the
work of the Spirit of God, you are rejecting
the only means by which forgiveness can come
to you. The Spirit of God is the only one who
can convict of sin and grant new life. No one
else can do that. So the sin is unforgivable
not because God is unwilling to forgive, rather
because this person has shut himself off from
the only avenue that God has provided to be forgiven.
It can't happen anymore. That's exactly what
happened with the Pharisees. See, you continue
to reject truth, reject truth, reject truth,
your heart becomes hardened to truth, and you
cannot repent. The Pharisees were hardened in
their rejection of Christ. Here's the thing.
If you see it, you can look at the flow of the
argument here. The Pharisees had decided previously,
they had already decided Jesus is not the Christ,
despite all the evidence to the contrary. It's
not like they're wondering and they're doubting.
No, they had already decided this man is not.
So they blinded themselves. They were willfully
blind to the truth. And that's the worst blindness
of all. Willful blindness is when you refuse.
You choose not to see what is overwhelmingly
clear. Theologians refer to this as vencible
versus invincible ignorance. You don't see it
because you don't want to see it. It makes you
uncomfortable. I'm not going to believe that.
No matter what, I'm not going to believe that.
So here's the thing. After witnessing Jesus and
his mighty signs and wonders. I mean, Jesus did
everything. He's healed lepers and blind men
and deaf men and mute men. He has multiplied
fish and bread. He has walked on water. He is
calm to see by his own voice. He has made the
winds to stop. Stop? He's even raised the dead.
What more do you want from him? The evidence
is overwhelmingly clear, but they would not see
it. They should have fallen on their faces in
repentance before the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead,
they convened an assembly and said he must die.
This guy's got to go. He's got to be killed.
Again, I want to quote Don Carson here. Jesus
charges that those who perceive that his ministry
is empowered by the Spirit, they understand that,
they perceive it. And then for whatever reason,
whether it's spite, jealousy, or arrogance, they
then ascribe it to Satan, they have put themselves
beyond the pale, for them there is no forgiveness.
There's no turning back. That's why Hebrews 6
says, the one who's been enlightened, tasted
of the heavenly gift of God, if he falls away,
it's impossible to renew him to repentance. He
has shut himself off from the only avenue of
salvation. See, time will always call for a response
from every one of us. You're going to have to
make a decision. Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver
or he's the son of David. You're going to say
he's either the Messiah or he's an imposter.
You cannot remain neutral. And the Pharisees,
the ones who should have been leading the charge
toward Christ, they looked at all the evidence
and then they decided consciously he's an imposter
worthy of death. It's not ignorance. In fact,
the Bible teaches that sins of ignorance, you're
able to be forgiven for sins of ignorance. But
blasphemy against the Spirit of God, that's not
a sin of ignorance. It's a deliberate act that
will never be pardoned. Not my words. The theologian
Burkhauer said, what the Pharisees did, and I
love how he worded this, it was a conscious disputing
of the indisputable. What's indisputably clear,
they're consciously disputing it. Which is foolish,
isn't it? So you have to understand, if a person
experiences all the evidence for Christ, they
feel the weight of it, they know the truth of
it, and they spurn it, it's impossible to repent
after that. Because there is no other avenue.
The Spirit has already done His job. He's convicted
them of sin. He's shown them the glory of Christ.
They understand it, and they consciously and
deliberately, I don't want anything to do with
it. How is it? How can one, how can the Pharisees,
who know the law well, how can they see Jesus,
see his signs, see the miracles, and conclude
he's an emissary of Satan? It's easy. Verses
33 -35 explain it. That's what Jesus is saying.
Now, this is Jesus' argument. You either make
the tree good and its fruit good, or else make
the tree bad and the fruit bad, because the tree
is known by its fruit. Now he turns to the Pharisees.
You brood of vipers. You venomous snakes. How
can you being evil, being evil, speak good things?
Pride of the abundance of the heart, the mouth
speaks. The Pharisees are bad trees. They're
evil. They looked righteous outwardly. Of course
they did. There's no spiritual life. There's
no life pulsating with the breath and life of
God. They're hypocrites. They wore masks in order
to save the people. They wanted you to think
that they're righteous. They loved being thought
of as pious, which is why Jesus condemns them
in Matthew 23, 11 chapters later. Woe to you,
and when Jesus says woe, you listen up. Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you
are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear
beautiful outwardly, but inside you're just full
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even
so, you outwardly appear righteous to men. That's
what you do. You look good to them. But here's
what God sees. But inside, you are full of hypocrisy
and lawlessness. Think about it. They saw a blind
man, who was also mute, who had been taken captive
by a demon. They immediately saw that by the
power of God, this man was set free. And they
said, nope. He did it by Satan's power. Because
they're rotten trees with rotten fruit. Their
hearts are corrupt. And they could not see the
truth. Who you truly are in here will determine
what you say here and what you do out here. Your
heart's controlling it all. It's the processing
center. So the Pharisees, he said, you're a brood
of vipers. You're just a bunch of poisonous snakes.
That's why you don't see the truth. That's why
you don't understand who I am. Their blasphemous
words were symptomatic of their blasphemous hearts.
Which is why Jesus asked them a question. How
can you being evil speak anything good? Oh, falsely
good, yeah. They knew the scriptures. But he
says, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaks. What had they just said? Jesus did his
works by Satan. So they were evil. They could
not speak good things. They could not recognize
the good, the true, and the beautiful that was
in Christ. They're blind, but they blinded themselves.
It was a willful blindness. And so they are speaking
according to their corrupt nature, which is a
corrupt fruit. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Listen, friends. The occasion
for you to say what you said just is the occasion
to reveal what was already there. Your words
reveal your heart. Now we tend to equate, oh,
I wasn't thinking. I didn't mean to say I wasn't
thinking. We equate what we say with what we
think, but that's not the Bible. The Bible connects
our words, our speech to our hearts, not our
intellect. The heart, that's your core. It's
the core of your being. It's who you are at your
deepest level. And so what we speak is tied to
who we fundamentally are. Which is why our words
are a good window into our soul. That's why they're
going to be brought in the day of judgment. See,
the Pharisees' evil character was revealed by
the evil words they had spoken. Their hearts
were overflowing with contempt for Christ. And
the blasphemous words they spoke revealed it.
It's just what was already there. It wasn't put
there. It was there by nature. The evil man From
his evil heart brings forth evil things. That's
verse 35. But a good man, out of the good treasure
of his heart, brings forth good things. So don't
you notice something? Both the good man and the
evil man both have a treasure. Every one of us
have a treasure. Your treasure was simply what
you value. And what determines the quality of
that treasure is the condition of your heart.
Leon Morris in his commentary says, what the
good man produces is what he values. And it comes
from the center of his being, his heart. So with
the evil man, in both cases, what one brings
forth proceeds from what one is at the core of
one's being. Let's simplify it. Your treasure
flows from your heart. Matthew 6, Jesus in the
great sermon on the mount, for where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also. You say, well,
how do I know what my treasure is? It's easy,
easy, easy to diagnose. Look at where you spend
your time and what you spend your money on. It's
your treasure. You can mouth a lot of things.
You can say Jesus is your treasure. Time and
money will reveal what it really is. Because
that's the true litmus test. Where you spend
your money and where you spend your time will
tell you what's ultimately important to you.
Because this is ultimately what you value, which
is ultimately what you worship. What did the
Pharisees treasure? They would have said, we
worship God. No, they didn't. They worshipped
the applause and praise of men. They craved public
recognition and honor. They loved being held
in high esteem and getting important VIP backstage
passes. They loved being regarded as important
in the eyes of the public. Which is why they
hated Jesus. Because he came on the scene and
began to publicly expose them as hypocrites.
They want him dead. He's messing with their treasure.
They can't allow that, because what they ultimately
value is this public recognition, and Jesus is
making it look bad in the eyes of the public,
so their evil hearts will lead them to murder
their Messiah. That's what happens. There they
decided, he's got to go. They saw how they might
destroy him, they said. Their evil hearts lead
to murder of the Messiah. And Jesus closed this
very important section of Scripture with another
stern warning. And it's another warning of impending
judgment. Verses 36 and 37. But I say to you
that for every idle word that men may speak,
they will, not might, they will give account
of it in the day of judgment. And he's not just
speaking of Pharisees. All men. For by your words
you're going to be justified, but by your words
you'll be condemned. The first thing you notice
is that Jesus affirmed a final day of judgment.
You don't hear a lot about it. You used to, you
would hear a lot of preaching on the day of judgment.
You don't. You hear a lot of TED Talks today.
But Jesus affirmed this. And on this day of judgment,
Jesus said, all men will give an account because
we have been created by God and for God. You're
going to give an account to God for every idle
word that we've ever spoken, and that terrifies
me. Idle is the word argos in Greek. Idle is
a good translation. Unemployed, literally, because
a is the negation, like an atheist, a theos,
a ergon, no work. So it's an unemployed word.
I know that makes no sense, but for those of
you who are word nerds, that's where it comes
from. So it's idle. It is useless, empty, careless,
we could use a lazy word. These words are not
necessarily evil words. That's the point. They're
not necessarily evil. They're words that we would
deem insignificant, or we might even say, well,
that's just not important. It's just a word.
And the Lord said, every word spoken like that,
insignificantly, unimportantly, carelessly, that's
going to be brought into evidence on Judgment
Day. That's a frightening thing. So these careless
words are more important than we think because
they reveal something about us. Your words have
immoral significance. Words that are carelessly
spoken are important because these words reveal
your heart. I hope you're seeing that. That's
the whole point. And it's sobering for me. It's
sobering to think one day these people, these
Pharisees, will be brought before the judge with
Almighty God, and they're going to give an account
for those blasphemous words that they spoke against
God's Son. And they will not be forgiven. And
they will never be forgiven. For them, it's too
late. This is what's going to happen. They will
be condemned by their very words that they spoke.
Again, Leon Morris said, what Jesus is saying
is that at the judgment, what we are is what
matters. And our words, especially to those which
we give no particular thought, They reveal what
we are. God will use your words, their words,
my words against us as evidence on the day of
judgment. So now the point you're like, oh, I
have to be more careful with my words. You're
missing the point. The point is the emphasis
is to watch over the condition of your heart.
So you can get legalistic and you can say, the
Pharisees were not cursing. They were very orthodox
in their beliefs. What they would have been leading
people in prayers. But the Bible says, guard
your heart or keep your heart with all diligence.
Why? Why guard your heart? For out of it, the
heart, flow the issues of life. The problem's
not your mouth, the problem's your heart. And
they're just, the words are the overflow. By
your words, now verse 37 says, by your words
you'll be justified, and by your words you'll
be condemned. Now let me just say, Matthew is
not saying that you can be justified before God
by speaking correctly or the right use of words.
The word justified in this case, because it can
mean different things, like in James 2, your
faith is justified. It's vindicated. Vindicated
would be a very good word. Diakosune is the Greek
word. Sometimes it's used in legal matters, sometimes
it's not. So in the final day of judgment, your
words are going to be evidence. They're either
going to show you to be righteous, you're a good
tree, or corrupt. And how are they going to know
that? Like you said, well, I'm going to say I'm
a good tree. I am good. I am righteous. Your
words will be brought in as evidence, and they're
either going to vindicate you on that day, or
they will serve to condemn you. They're either
going to serve to vindicate you and say, yes,
you're righteous, and yes, you belong to Christ.
The work of the Spirit's obvious. Or else all
that's lacking, and they'll condemn you. Now
the sinner is justified, that is, before God,
He is declared righteous by grace alone, through
faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of
God alone. We receive, Paul says in Romans 3,
a gift. It's the gift of righteousness. We receive
it. It's imputed to us when we come to Christ
in faith. But the tenor of the scripture says,
genuine faith... It's never alone. Saved by faith
alone or saved through faith alone, but a faith
that saves is never alone. Living faith, James
2, produces a good fruit. And your words are
part of that fruit. When we are saved, you do
not just receive a justified status before God,
although you do receive that. You also get a
new nature. That's the born again part, right?
A new nature. This new nature now delights in
honoring and obeying God. And your speech bears
witness of your nature. Your speech will be a
witness. It will either say, your speech bears
witness of your old nature in Adam, or your speech
will bear witness of your new nature in Christ.
Your words reveal whether or not you are truly
aligned with Jesus. So let's go two -minute drill.
What are the takeaways? If you're here today,
I want you to understand something. If you're
here today apart from Christ, you cannot remain
neutral about him. He doesn't give you that option.
He said in verse 30, he that is not with me is
against me. So there can be no middle ground
when it comes to Christ. You're either with Jesus
or you're against him. There is no net neutrality
here. Now, let me say this. It is fine to take
your time to investigate his claims. You can
understand the terms that he lays down for discipleship.
But once... That truth has become clear to you.
You must not hesitate. You must yield to the
work of God's spirit by repenting of your sin.
And believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Calling
upon him to save you. And then you rise up as
disciples and we follow him. And your life must
reflect the work of God's spirit that he's doing
in your heart. Secondly though. To the church
and to me. These words of Jesus ought to make
us uncomfortable. For he does say, you are going
to be judged by your words. He does not judge
us on our knowledge of theology, how much you
know about the Bible. He does not judge you,
how many church services you attended. It is
our words that will be brought to bear against
us. Why? Why so much importance on these words?
Because they're the fruit of our hearts. The
mouth speaks. What your heart is full of. And
I just want to say this. That level of scrutiny
would crush us all. None of us can claim innocence
here. You know where this is really tested for
me? When I'm driving. I have said, oh my goodness,
what an idiot. Far too many times. Because my
heart is self -centered. You get in front of
me and slow down? Well, how dare you slow me
down? And that's so, I see this and I'm like,
Lord, I would be crushed by this. But there's
hope. There's hope because the one who will judge
us has also assured us, he said, every sin and
blasphemy will be forgiven. Not blasphemy of
the Holy Spirit. What that means, and this we
cannot miss. The door of grace, this age, this
dawn of salvation, or the age of salvation is
dawned. The door of grace is wide open except
to the one who slams it shut. Our hope and our
joy is that the one who's going to judge us,
oh, this is beautiful, friends, is the same one
who invites us to his table over here and shows
us how he has redeemed us. This table, the table
of the Lord, friends, it is not for people who
have mastered the control of their tongue. It's
an unruly evil, no man can tame it. It is for
sinners who know you need mercy. And once again,
we cast ourselves upon the mercy of God. To his
people with whom he is in covenant, Jesus does
not speak words of condemnation. Rather, he speaks
words of forgiveness that is found. By and through
his sacrifice for us. It's a beautiful thing.
Friends, commune with Christ. Fellowship with
the one who has bought you today. The one who
has borne your judgment. This is the message
of Matthew 12. The day of grace is here. Today
is the day of salvation. Cast yourself upon the
mercy of God. Call upon him once you see that
he is glorious and majestic and beautiful. You
follow. You rise up and follow him. But as believers,
we have the glorious privilege of participating
in his death and his resurrection at the table
of the Lord. Deacons, if you would come and prepare
the table.