The Peril of Going Against Jesus: Matthew 12:22-32

Good morning. It's great to be worshipping with you this morning. Even though we are doing this virtually, it's good to know that we can always worship through our Lord Jesus Christ. And I hope that you are blessed this morning through the worship and through the Word.

Let's open up with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we are thankful this morning to meet. We are thankful to know you and to have fellowship with you. I just pray that your Word would be a lamp unto our feet this morning.

And that you will bless this time of fellowship and this worship and the Word to us this morning. And bless your people, I pray. And ask this in Jesus' name. I want to have some praise and prayer. Praise and prayer is always good.

They go together like soup and sandwich. Praise. First of all, I want to thank everybody from our church for your faithfulness in giving at this time. It's very important that we continue to be faithful in this area.

To keep the work of the Lord going. And I want to thank all of you who have been doing that. And you may send your tithes to the church. We're thankful for our health and the Lord's protection. We're thankful that all things work together for good.

For those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We're thankful for the time we have to spend now with our families and to get closer to the Lord. We're thankful for our church and all the blessings we have in Christ Jesus.

Now in terms of prayer, you should have gotten a prayer list. And so you can use that if you want to pray for people at this time and to pray for our church. Pray that the Lord would draw us closer to Christ.

And that we would seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Pray that we would be faithful to get the word of God out and to make disciples of Christ. Pray that our state and our country would open up and people would be healthy.

That the Lord would bring an end to the coronavirus. Pray for comfort and protection on those who are fighting on the front lines of this virus. And comfort for those who are sick and those who have lost a family member.

The Glory of God in Creation and Common Grace

At this time, we want to have some worship. Okay, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you for your blessings this morning. That you use us by your grace. That we have the word of God and that Christ is our Lord.

I just pray that you will bless this time of teaching and that your word would have an impact and a place in our lives. Give us grace to understand your word and to apply it to our lives. It's a sad thing when people reject the truth of God.

The truth of God is all around us. God's presence is all around us as we live each day. And we look out at the beautiful sunshine in the mountains and everything we're surrounded with. We are reminded that the heavens declare the glory of God.

And God is merciful to all of his creation. He's merciful to the just and the unjust. To believer and unbeliever alike and gives everyone the necessary things to live on. And we have his grace as believers and non-believers.

Have what is called common grace. God is so good to us. There's evidence of him all around us. And he gave his best, his own son, his own heart, that we might know him and have salvation. He gave Jesus Christ to come into the world and to die for our sins.

And if we reject that, if we reject Christ and his salvation, then we have no hope. And it's so sad if people do reject Christ. I went to the hospital of a man who had one of the most fervent wives, fervent evangelists that I knew.

And he knew the gospel. This man had heard the gospel many, many times. He let his wife go to church. He was a nice person. But when it came to going to church, he would rather be out fishing or going around with his friends and having a good time.

And how sad it is that he got cancer and I went to visit him in the hospital. And in fear and trembling, I shared the gospel with him and he said to me, stop. I don't want to hear that stuff. And I was so sad.

And I walked away feeling really sad because here's a person who heard the gospel, who had many chances, but yet rejected Christ. And how sad that is. This morning what we're going to see is that it's sad and miserable to go against Christ.

And when we do, when we live against Christ, there is destruction. But to know Christ and live for Christ, that is indeed a blessing. And that's what we're going to see this morning. We're looking at Matthew chapter 12, 22 through 32.

Matthew 12, 22 through 32. Then one was brought to him who was demon possessed, blind and mute. And he healed him so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said, could this be the son of David?

Now, when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. But Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.

And every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?

Therefore, they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man?

And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with me is against me. And he who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Therefore, I say to you, 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. Wow. Powerful words.

Strong words. We're talking this morning about the peril of going against Jesus Christ, living without Jesus Christ. How sad it is. And the first thing we want to look at is the accusation, verses 22 through 24.

The healing.

We see something incredible in these verses. Jesus Christ healed a poor demon-possessed man. And the Pharisees, instead of being glad about it, were enraged and accused him and were blaspheming toward him.

What a sad thing. And it showed their hearts. It showed the very hardness of their hearts and it showed that they didn't have Christ and they were going against Christ. And that they were at a very bad spiritual place.

And so we see the situation. One was brought to Jesus Christ who was pathetic. He was miserable. He was in a sad and sorry state. He was demon-possessed. How horrible that would have been. This man was tortured by the evil one and lived in the realm of darkness.

And how sad. And he was very hopeless. Matter of fact, it was so bad that on top of that, he was blind and mute. And this man was brought to Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ healed him. How wonderful. Again, what we see here is that our Lord Jesus is the friend of sinners.

And he went around doing good. Healing people. Saving people. Delivering them from the power of darkness. And the encouragement for us this morning as believers is that when we're in a state of darkness or even despair or whatever it is, Jesus is there.

He's there to encourage us. And we see that here. He healed this man. What an incredible thing. What an incredible thing that this man could now see and speak and was delivered from the evil one. Now the deliverance of this man from Satan showed that Jesus Christ is Lord and he has authority over Satan and the demons.

And that's very, very important. And as incredible as it was that this man was whole physically, what is really incredible is this man experienced the power of Jesus Christ. And what a glory it is when we come to know Jesus Christ and our eyes are open and we see that he's the Son of God.

That is the most glorious thing. And so this man was healed. But instead of being thankful, the Pharisees, who are the religious leaders, think of that. They were religious leaders who were rejecting Jesus Christ.

And what we see here this morning is we need to be careful about who we have as our spiritual leaders. We need to make sure that they are number one, people that are saved and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and are loving Jesus Christ and are preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God and are preaching the only message of salvation, Christ's crucifixion.

That's so very important. And these men were the blind leading the blind. I think an application for us here is to follow only those who follow Jesus Christ. I like what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11 1, follow me as I follow Christ.

And so these religious leaders were antagonistic against Christ. They wanted to destroy him. But look at the difference between them and the multitudes, the reaction of the multitudes toward Jesus Christ and the great and glorious healing of this miserably demon possessed man.

The multitudes, the everyday people were amazed. They were amazed. The multitudes generally received Jesus. They knew that he would have sympathy toward them and would seek to heal them and comfort them.

And look at in verse 23, the reaction of the Jewish multitudes was, could this be the son of David? Interesting, huh? Could this be the son of David? What do they mean when they say son of David? Well, the son of David is another term for the Messiah.

And what they were really saying is, could this be the Messiah? They saw his glorious works. They saw his miracles. They saw the fact that he healed a demon possessed man. And he became, he could see.

And he could hear. And they were astounded.

And they knew. They knew.

As the scripture said in Isaiah chapter 35, that when the Messiah would come, he would do great acts of healing, great miracles. He would raise the dead. He would cause the blind to see, the deaf to hear.

And he would deliver men and women from the power of darkness, from the enemy of our souls. And they're saying, is this the Messiah? The answer, of course, is yes. This is the Messiah. And so, we've seen the accusation here.

And we want to look at the answer, verses 25 through 30. Before I go into that, we need to talk about what verse 24 says. The reaction of the Pharisees. Their reaction was, this fellow, this man, does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub.

Wow.

What are they saying there? They're saying, this man is casting out demons by the power of Satan, not by the power of God. This is incredible blasphemy against the Lord Jesus. And this shows the very hardness of their hearts.

They have come to the end of themselves, to the end where they have rejected Jesus Christ. And that's so sad. And that's what we see.

That's their reaction.

And so, how does Jesus answer them? We want to remember, too, that as followers of Jesus Christ, that if we're really seeking to live for Jesus Christ, and we're really seeking to live holy and godly lives, we, too, will be criticized by other people.

And it's not going to be easy. But we need to continue on and to move forward. And God will strengthen us. Keep on serving God. And that's what is really important. In the midst of our trials, in the midst of all the misunderstanding that we have as believers, we need to continue to serve God because the truth of God, the truth of Scripture, and of Jesus Christ is the most important thing.

It's the most paramount thing. And that's what we should live for. So we continue on, realizing that God will strengthen us. And the answer is, the kingdom of God has come. That's how Christ is answering the Pharisees.

Verses 25 through 28. Now, our Lord knew their thoughts. And he told them a powerful truth. And that is that every kingdom that is divided will come to destruction. Every city or every home that's divided will not stand.

What a truth.

What a general truth.

What an important application even for today. This applies to the church. This applies to our country. This applies to so many situations in our lives, to our families. Division destroys. Division in churches destroys churches.

Divisions in families destroys marriages and families. And we need to pray. We need to pray for our nation, that our nation would become unified. And we need to pray that God would give us sweet unity in our church and make us people that seek to unite rather than divide.

How important. Look, I like Paul's prayer to the Romans for unity. Romans 15. Turn with me to Romans 15, 5 through 7. Romans 15, 5 through 7. I'll read. Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, receive one another just as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

What a great thing.

What a great application for us.

Let us pray.

Each one of us pray that God would enable us to be people that show unity and love toward one another. And that we will glorify God together as a church. That we will be united as a church. That we will receive one another in love as Christ has received us.

And so what a great application that is. So going back to Matthew chapter 12, verses 29 through 30. We see especially here the logic that our Lord is using against the Pharisees here. In verses 26 through 29, they were accusing him of ministering and doing his miracles by the power of Satan.

And he says that can't be. That doesn't make any sense. Because Satan is not going to cast out himself because then he would divide himself. And so, and we know Jesus Christ is Lord. And Jesus Christ is ministering by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's what Jesus Christ is telling them. That's the important thing that they were to know. Verse 28, he's saying that I am ministering not by the power of Satan. But I'm ministering to you these miracles and everything else that I do by the Spirit of God.

And the fact that you see these glorious miracles is evidence that the kingdom of God has come. And what he's telling them is you've missed it. You've missed out. You've missed me. You've missed the Messiah.

My miracles show, they're an authentication that I am indeed the Messiah. And these miracles are confirming it and showing that the kingdom of God has come. And so what we want to remember is that the kingdom of God has come.

Jesus Christ has come. And through him we have victory. Through him we have victory over the devil.

The evil one.

And I want to take you to those verses because it's so important to understand that. That Christ's death gives us the power. Not only do we have forgiveness of sin, but also he defeated the devil on the cross.

Hebrews 2, look at this. Hebrews 2, 14 and 15. And so much then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

And what an incredible thing that we see here. What an incredible gift that God came in human flesh. That Jesus Christ became a man, a perfect man. God came into this world to destroy the devil. And his death on the cross and his resurrection gives us victory over the devil who keeps us in fear all of our life.

The fear of death. And now through Christ we overcome. Look at 1 John 5. Turn with me to 1 John 5, 4 and 5. 1 John 5, 4 and 5. It says, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

He who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. What a precious thing. Jesus Christ has overcome the world. So overcome Satan. He's paid the price for all of our sins.

He's risen gloriously from the dead. And those of us by grace who have put our faith in Jesus Christ, we will now overcome. And how precious that is. And so we see that the kingdom of God has come. We see that Christ has victory over the evil one.

Verses 29 and 30. And Jesus now gives an incredible illustration of not only his victory, but the fact that the kingdom of God has come. And that he's ministering by the Holy Spirit. And he's given the illustration of a robber coming into a house.

And the first thing he wants to do is take the owner of the house, or the strong man, and tie him up.

Bind him, right?

And then he can go ahead and plunder the house. That's the idea. Now, the strong man here refers to Satan. And this has the idea that Jesus Christ has victory over Satan. Jesus Christ is Lord. And we have been talking just about that.

About how he has victory over Satan. And everything and how we now as believers have victory as well through him. Romans 8 .37 says that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. And so Jesus now utters in verse number 30 an important admonition to all those Jews that were there in the crowd.

He's talking to the Pharisees. Who went to a low point where they had come to that place, some of them, where they had completely rejected Jesus Christ. And that's a sad thing. And he's telling the crowd, be careful.

Be careful that you don't get to that point. Where you reject the truth and you reject me. He's saying, there is no neutrality. There is no neutrality when it comes to Jesus Christ. It's so clear. He says, you're either for me or you're against me.

You're either with me or you're against me. The way I like to look at it is you're either a believer or an unbeliever. You're either saved or you're unsafe. As we say today, there is no tweeners. No in between.

There's no middle of the road. Oh, how I want to be for Jesus. How I want to live for Jesus. Oh, I pray that we would be people who want to live for Jesus and want to live for the truth. How can we have stability in life?

How can we be strong when the storms come and we're facing a tremendous storm now with the coronavirus? Well, the way we can be strong is that we have an eternal foundation in our lives. That we have Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

I like what Matthew chapter 7 says when Jesus says there are two houses. There are two kinds of people. There's the wise man and he builds his house upon a rock. And the rock is Jesus Christ and his Word.

And when the storms come and when the floods come, they're not going to destroy the house. The person's going to stand. But then there's the foolish man who has built his house upon the world. And the sayings of the world, the philosophies of the world, which are just going to die.

And he compares that to sand. That they are just living for themselves and for the world. And they have no true foundation. They don't have an eternal foundation. And when the winds and the waves come, that house is going to fall.

Let me ask you a question this morning. What are you living for this morning? What is your foundation? Are you building your life on Christ and the Word of God? Because that's the important foundation.

If we have that foundation, we're going to be strong. Notice Jesus says that you're either with me or you're against me. He who does not gather with me scatters. The person who rejects Jesus Christ and is living against Jesus Christ, going against Jesus Christ, is like the chaff that blows into the wind.

But the person who is regenerated and saved by the precious blood of Jesus Christ and is living for Jesus Christ in God's will and God's Word can have peace and abundance and blessing. I like to look at it this way.

I like what 2 Corinthians 13 says. Paul says we can do nothing against the truth but only for the truth. I've been thinking that I want to be a man who lives for the truth, for the truth of God. And as I've sought to live for the truth of God, I've seen how weak and unable I am to do that without God, without Christ and without His grace.

But living for the truth is the important thing. There are a lot of people who say that they want the truth, but yet they have rejected the truth of God and they've rejected Christ and the Word of God.

So let me tell you something. Do you want to know how you can find out whether a person is really seeking the truth, seeking to know the truth? That person will be a person who accepts Christ. That person will be a person who lives and seeks to live by the truth of God's Word.

And if somebody tells you that they're living for the truth and they're going against the truth, the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus Christ, and the truth of God, you know right away they're not honestly and sincerely seeking the truth.

Let us be people who don't go against Christ but are for it. It's so important.

The Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit and the Warning Against Final Rejection

The application.

Verses 31 and 32. The blasphemy of the Pharisees. Notice this is the conclusion of these verses. We know it's the conclusion because he uses the word therefore. It's concluding what he's saying. And what he's basically saying here is, well, let me just say it this way.

He brings in the difficult term, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And when he's talking about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, he's referring to the Pharisees and what they're doing. By their blasphemy, in this particular incident, of the Son of God by saying that he was doing miracles by the power of Satan and not by the power of God.

So as one Bible expositor said, when we seek to understand this difficult subject of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is dispensational. What we mean by that is we can't really understand what the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is outside of the context by which it happened.

Where Christ was here on earth and he was blaspheming and the Pharisees blasphemed him by attributing his miracles to Satan rather than to God. That is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. That's not something necessarily that we do today.

However, in my opinion, these men were bankrupt, the Pharisees. They had gotten to the point where they had completely rejected Christ. And it's evidenced by this blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And that's a sad thing.

So verse 32, we want to realize that the Holy Spirit testifies of Christ. He glorifies Christ. And when these men were speaking against Christ's miracles and saying that they were of Satan, attributing what he did to Satan rather than to God, it's a direct blasphemy of the witness of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit whose witness is that Christ is Lord and the Son of God and that his glorious miracles point to that fact.

And what we see, too, in Scripture is the sad state of a person who comes to the point, it's so sad to think about this, as it says in Hebrews 10 .29, where that person has crucified Christ afresh to himself and trampled under feet the blood of Christ, the glorious gospel, and has made that something unclean.

Whoa.

It's also spoken of in Hebrews 6, verses 4 through 6, that there are people who have an outward appearance of righteousness or being religious or even Christians. And they may even have been among our churches and they've heard the gospel over and over and over again.

And they've read the Word of God. They've even experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. And then, after full knowledge, they turn around and they reject Christ and the gospel.

That's...

So, Christ is warning people.

Be careful.

Don't get to that point of no return. Today is the day of salvation.

Receive me now.

That's the way to end this message. Receive Christ now. Today is the day of salvation. If you don't know Jesus Christ this morning as your Lord and Savior, receive him now. He has come into the world to save us.

He's God. He died on the cross to save you and me from our sin. And he bore the penalty of our sins on the cross so that we would now have forgiveness of God and eternal life. And praise God. Christ's atonement on the cross is once and for all.

It sanctifies us forever. And so, receive Christ today, now. Live for him and live for the truth. Live for the truth of God in an age that doesn't want the truth, that doesn't want God. May we shine as lights in this world and may we be people today in the sadness of our times with this virus where people need a word of hope.

May we be ambassadors of Christ. May we live our lives for the Lord. May we live our lives for the truth of God. And may we be lights now at this time. The precious truth this morning, at least to me, is we're either for him or we're against him.

We either know Jesus Christ or we don't know him. And to know him is life. And to not know him, to live without him, is misery and destruction. I want to pray and close with a benediction and then we will have our closing song.

Dear Heavenly Father, these are sober words this morning, but they're good words for us to listen to. They're medicine, medicine for our souls. We need to hear the warnings as well as the blessings in God's word.

We need to live out God's word and accept the whole counsel of God. And this morning we see so clearly that Christ is the Savior. The kingdom of God has come. And to receive him is life and to reject him is destruction.

Oh God, may you have mercy on us. May we be people who not only receive Christ, but will you enable us, Lord, to live for Christ and to live for the truth in a world that doesn't want the truth, that doesn't want God.

May you enable us to shine, to shine as lights. And I ask this in Jesus' name, amen.