The Speech of Trees

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:18

You're listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filseck takes us through his series on the book of Matthew called

00:26

Not Your Average Savior. Let's listen in. Welcome to this church gathering.

00:39

I'm glad that you're here and I hope that it's your intention to worship God together this morning, and that's why you're here.

00:46

This morning we're picking up in a series that I left off quite a while ago. We finished

00:51

Revelation last week, and we're going to jump into the Book of Matthew. And it might be strange to many of you because we're going to kind of start in a strange place in the

00:59

Book of Matthew, but part of that is because I've already preached through up to the point that we're taking off from in the

01:06

Book of Matthew in the past, and many of my sermons are available on the website under the

01:12

Teaching tab. So if you go to our website on the top there, the Teaching tab, you click down, there's Sermon Archive there, and you can check that out, or you can just subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and then you'll just get those sermons each week straight to your device.

01:29

But you're going to have to go back quite a ways to hear Matthew chapter 1 through 11. I think I left off in the last time that I was preaching in Matthew was in 2013.

01:39

So there's some new pages here since then, but rather than just go all the way back to the beginning of Matthew, I ended up right where I left off.

01:49

And we're going to spend some time over the holidays looking specifically at the life of Jesus. Now, I've done this occasionally in the past with the intention over the holidays to go back to the

01:59

Book of Matthew, and it's kind of like going through a series when I'm not doing a specific holiday series over this time.

02:08

And part of that is that Christmas season reminds us that Jesus came as a little baby.

02:15

But I'm often concerned that we leave Him as a baby during the month of December. We take out a whole month of kind of thinking about Jesus Christ as He is, and we spend an entire time focused on one very, very narrow slice of who

02:28

Jesus Christ is. And I think we can kind of get a little off -kilter on that. When we encounter Jesus in the

02:34

Nativity, of course, we find a soft, adorable little guy with rosy cheeks, wrapped in blankets, often peacefully singing in the songs that we sing, and everything is just all, you know, sympathetic and pleasant.

02:48

But in our practice this morning, we will see a stark reminder that that child, that infant, who did indeed come in humility, has been an important lesson for us over this holiday in contemplating the commitment and humility with which our

02:59

God has come to us. That He grew up to be a leader, a judge, the

03:06

Messiah, and the sacrifice, He was the Savior of the world.

03:12

In our short text this morning, picking up in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus levels a harsh criticism towards those who oppose

03:20

Him. A group of religious leaders called the Pharisees had in our previous passage, and again,

03:25

I'm catching you up on it, about three years since we were there, but a group of religious leaders called the Pharisees had accused

03:31

Him of performing miracles in the power of Satan. And Jesus warned them, back in verse 32 of chapter 12, that they were not merely guilty of maligning

03:40

Him, but they were guilty of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, a phrase that many of us have heard, and even feared to some degree.

03:46

I don't know if I've done that. But what they were doing is they were attributing the power of the Holy Spirit to Satan. And Jesus stated bluntly that you cannot be both forgiven and reject the power of the

03:57

Holy Spirit simultaneously. You cannot be in a position of rejecting the Holy Spirit and be in a right relationship with God.

04:06

Those are mutually exclusive positions. Either you have accepted the Spirit of God and have forgiveness, or you're in a state of rejecting the

04:14

Holy Spirit and you are not forgiven with Jesus. In that context, it's very important to understand what we're about to read in our text this morning.

04:23

Because Jesus is now going to give us a lesson about our words, about the types of things that we say with our mouth.

04:29

And throughout these five verses, things will escalate very quickly. And by the end, Jesus will communicate that our hearts can be seen through the words that we say.

04:40

And my prayer is that all of us are moved to consider both our words and our hearts this morning.

04:45

Our words and our hearts, and even the relationship between our words and our hearts.

04:51

Our goal should not be simply to speak better. But in the end, what we need most is indeed a new heart.

04:58

So let's open our Bibles. If you're not already there, Matthew chapter 12. We're going to be looking at verses 33 through 37, a short chunk of Scripture here.

05:06

Matthew 12, 33 through 37. If you don't have a Bible, lay your hands, if you can lay your hands, just raise your hand. And we're going to be reading the

05:12

Bible when everybody has a copy of God's Word. Basically, if you want to grab one of the

05:18

Bibles here, that would be great. And we're going to follow along,

05:24

Matthew chapter 12, verses 33 through 37.

05:31

Again, this is what God desires for us to take in. He wants to communicate to us this morning.

05:37

And so, we're going to read this together. 12, 33, 37.

05:45

Either make the tree good, and it's fruit good. Or make the tree bad, and it's fruit bad.

05:51

For the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you speak good when you are evil?

05:57

For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person, out of his good treasure, brings forth good.

06:03

And the evil person, out of his evil treasure, brings forth evil. People will give an account for every careless word they speak.

06:16

For by your words you will be justified. And by your words you will be free.

06:23

That's the meaning of that.

06:33

But there's probably some things that we're curious about that we need some explanation for. And it's going to be more powerful than we even recognize at the outset of this.

06:46

And we've been told that for years. We've been told that words have meaning. Words of worth matter. That things that we say are important.

06:52

Father, in this whole political climate that we're in right now, there's been a lot of words said. There's been a lot of words said in the last couple of years.

07:00

And it's a lot of things that are swirling around. A lot of hurtful things that are being communicated.

07:07

A lot of people who are even overanalyzing words. And it's quite overwhelming.

07:15

As we contemplate and consider what our words can do. We also recognize that meaning can be justified by our words.

07:22

And that is simply to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is a powerful person.

07:27

That is a prayer of justice.

07:33

A prayer of salvation. You were willing to accept our language.

07:46

You were willing to accept our words this morning. And so, Father, I pray that we would accurately come in line with the words that are being sung this morning.

07:56

That we would let them roll over our minds before they come out of our mouths. You packed our hearts with knowledge.

08:02

How very exalted, and glorious, and majestic, and all -powerful, and gracious, and merciful.

08:11

So that we can worship you as you truly are. In spirit. I do encourage you to get as comfortable as possible.

08:22

If you need more coffee, or juice, or donuts, feel free to get up and take advantage of that.

08:28

There's still some left. And then, for those of you that maybe aren't very familiar with the place. Out the door to the right, men's room is upstairs.

08:36

Women's is downstairs. We have to use the restrooms on this end of the building. If you need to take advantage of both of them.

08:41

At any time during the Mass, if you're starting to get uncomfortable, then feel free to get up in the back and stretch out.

08:47

Or whatever you need to do. Again, keep your focus on God's word. And I would encourage you to keep your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 12, verses 33 through 37.

08:55

And maybe watch your place in the shuffle there. To get back to that passage. But you can see, just in this very short passage, that the things that I'm saying are coming from this text.

09:05

Now, just to kind of think in terms of something that you have heard a hundred times, if not a lot more.

09:11

Words matter. I'm going to tell you, you've heard that before. Kind of have some understanding that our words have some power.

09:19

They matter. They shape the direction of our lives. I think we all know that to some degree.

09:24

We've been told that by our parents or our grandparents. We've heard that from teachers.

09:30

Many of us have read about the danger of poorly spoken words. Maybe even in the Proverbs. Maybe we're even familiar with passages like this where Jesus addresses our words.

09:39

Or we might be familiar with James chapter 3, where the author of the book of James, James, actually had the discussion of trying to tame the tongue.

09:47

And how the tongue can set things on fire. And how it can actually be fueled by the very fires of hell itself.

09:54

And how often our tongues can cause all kinds of damage and difficulty to others around us.

10:00

But in our text this morning, Jesus is going to attack our words from a bit of a different angle. He's going to make the following three observations about our words.

10:08

And he's going to do so in a very measured and intentional way. First, he's going to tell us, your words come from your heart.

10:16

Your words are an accurate, correct reflection of what's going on in you.

10:24

The way that you respond, the way that you talk, the things that you say. And most importantly, as we're going to see in the text more narrowly, the things that you would say about God reflects your heart.

10:35

The things that you would say about his son Jesus Christ, the things that you would say about his spirit, reflects your heart.

10:42

So that's the first thing. Words come from the heart. The second is that words can lead to judgment.

10:49

And lastly, words can lead to justification. Salvation is another word for that.

10:55

So that's where we're going this morning. Words come from the heart. Words can lead to judgment. Words can lead to justification.

11:02

And remember that as we come to our first observation about words, the Pharisees have just used their mouths in this text, previous in the chapter, have used their mouths to tell the crowd that Jesus is using the power of Satan to cast out demons and heal people.

11:17

They have opened their mouths and used words to perjure the Son of God, to libel him, to say he is operating under evil influences with the power of Satan he doesn't even know.

11:31

So that's why Jesus is looking up to us. And to them, what are we saying about words?

11:37

So in verses 33 -35, Jesus is thinking in case that words come from the heart.

11:43

And so he's going to use those three verses to address that for us. And so Jesus uses a proverbial form, a language for us in verse 33.

11:52

It might sound kind of strange when we talk about making trees and stuff like that. We don't really make trees very often. But he's using it as an analogy.

12:00

He basically says trees are known by their fruit. If it's a good tree, it will produce good fruit.

12:08

And if it's a bad tree, it produces bad fruit. Now you might notice that Jesus tells them to make the tree good or to make the tree bad.

12:19

And this is not about tree production. None of us can make a good tree. None of us can make a bad tree.

12:25

None of us can make a tree for that matter at all. In truth, I think that Jesus potentially uses an example of something that you and I cannot make to get his point across.

12:37

We do not make our own hearts good or bad. Despite what we may think, we do not make our hearts good or bad.

12:45

We actually have very little control over the nature of our hearts. Do you recognize that?

12:51

You have very little control over the nature of your own heart. How many of you have ever just kind of moved to say,

12:59

I kind of hate the things I hate and I kind of like the things that I like? And there's a reality to that, isn't there? How many of you have ever had something that you knew was wrong and your heart still longed for it and you still wanted it and you knew that was even going to be detrimental to you?

13:11

I don't really need to see your hands because I know that's true. That's the nature of sin, right?

13:17

So we have to acknowledge that there are things in our hearts that even a believer, we wish were not there. We wish we didn't have these desires.

13:23

We wish we didn't have this battle that was going on inside of us. And yet it is there. It's very hard to change the internal workings of your own heart of anything.

13:38

You're setting your listeners up. You're setting up the barriers. You're constantly stating bad things and bad things.

13:46

Good. You have to start off with that basic understanding.

13:52

Now, for illustration, a tree can get a reputation. A tree can have a reputation. We don't think of it in those terms very often.

14:00

And unless you're probably running an orchard or you're an apple farmer or something, you're probably not getting that.

14:07

But I have an illustration from my own life. We moved into the Brownstone neighborhood around 2009 when we were first starting this church.

14:13

We planted a redwood tree too close to our house, okay? And that thing grew for a few years.

14:18

A few years in, we recognized our mistake. It was too close to our house. And so we transplanted it further out into the yard.

14:28

Fortunately, it wasn't so big that we had to kill it and remove it. But we ended up planting it out in the yard where we thought it might flourish and grow real well.

14:37

And it grew gangly and never really produced any of those purple buds that are really tricky in the spring. But it produced like seven of them.

14:45

And it just always looked kind of sickly. It never flourished. It was in my plans to remove that tree when we fell in love with our new home.

14:55

And we've been trapping it for about a year. We sold that old property. I don't know if we can still do that. We can't. The new owners will.

15:03

But now that wasn't a fruit tree. But it's an example of a tree with a reputation. Maybe you have a tree with a reputation on your property.

15:08

I don't know. Maybe you've got a mulberry. There's a bird that eats them and takes them out to where your car is. I don't know. But trees can get a reputation.

15:15

And some trees don't produce. And it would be good for an apple park. But when a tree is not producing, you cut it down and plant a new one in its place for productivity.

15:23

So, that's a reality. But Jesus escalates his illustration. He talks about trees. He's talking about – and obviously,

15:29

I hope you understand the analogy. He has something to do with the life. Right? Like, I mean, he's not just talking about trees. He's talking about orchards.

15:36

He's talking about trees as an analogy. But he escalates the illustration in verse 34 rapidly.

15:44

He rules from agriculture to the animal kingdom. And verse 33 has just been a casual setup to accuse those who are accusing him.

15:53

They say he's working for Satan's power. But instead, he turns the tables on them and identifies them as the fruit of life.

16:00

Fruit being, like, offspring, like a batch of offspring, if you will. And I think they're probably comfortable with snakes that way, right?

16:07

Like a batch of… How many of you love snakes? Put your hands up if you're a snake. Probably not many of us.

16:14

How many of you would say you kind of have a bit of a phobia? Like, it might even be over into the realm of phobia of snakes.

16:20

Yeah, I think that's probably a lot of people. And I think we all have a pretty good understanding that Jesus isn't paying these religious leaders a compliment by calling them a

16:30

Brutus viper. Right? Like, did you know that when you read it? You knew that that wasn't a good thing. You were kind of like, yeah, you felt that a little bit.

16:37

But he isn't also merely just slinging mud, either. Jesus is calculatingly referencing serpents to say something like this.

16:45

You accuse me of using the serpent's power to do these miracles and healings and casting out demons, but you all prove yourself to be the offspring of the evil one by raising them.

16:58

Now, there's a myth floating around out there. Maybe some of you are familiar with this. The baby snake is more venomous than the adult.

17:05

Have any of you ever heard that? I just don't… That's not true. I mean, I actually looked that up this week. But, although that's false, we also can acknowledge that this is pretty well documented.

17:14

The baby snake is venomous. The baby snake is so lethal, it would have total control. So, they are indeed dangerous. He's actually identifying them as, like, little things.

17:22

And you're just a little mini -offspring of the father of the devil. He actually refers to them as serpents in the past.

17:29

So, he's saying something very similar to other things he says in other places about them. They are dangerous.

17:37

Serpents. They are dangerous in what they are saying. But, Jesus doesn't add something like this.

17:43

Of course you can't speak to him. You can't speak to him. He is…

17:49

He is probably invasion against people. Now, granted, we know what they're up to. We know what's going on in the situation in a way that you and I are not privileged to sit here and understand.

17:59

We're having a conversation at the law court or with our neighbor about the facts or whatever. We don't always see what's going on in their heart.

18:06

We rarely see what's going on in our spouse's heart or in our brother's heart or in our parent's heart or whatever. But, Jesus had that privilege and that ability.

18:13

And so, he's going for it. He's seeking to get a rejection of them. Something that is evil and dangerous.

18:20

So, you can't speak to him because I've seen it happen. Jesus identified religious leaders as something worse than merely bad treats.

18:32

These guys are dangerous and destructive individuals. They have not merely done evil. They have not merely spoken evil.

18:39

Like, oh, well, I know you've got a good heart. You just think what this guy has said. Or, you know, like, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

18:45

You know, like, oh, you're probably, oh, you're meant to say this. I'm not wrong. It almost sounded like you were accusing me of being a little insane there.

18:53

But I knew that that's what you were trying to say. So, he's actually saying that they are evil.

19:00

He identified them as evil. And that's just what he said to them. Why? Now, at the end of verse 34, he declares, the way you can tell that they are evil.

19:11

And I know how. And I know you are. And here's how I know. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

19:19

He's basically saying, Jesus is saying, I know what you think of me because you said it. I know what you think.

19:26

And I know what's going on in your heart. And I know there's people in there because of your verbal outright rejection of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

19:37

And I'm not sure that everybody in the room believes that. I'm not sure that every one of us wants to believe that.

19:44

And I'm not sure that everyone in this room, in practicality, is happy that that's the case.

19:50

At least there's times where I would have conveniently liked the statement of Jesus to be discredited.

19:57

Where he's saying that the things that I say are always a reflection of my heart. I would like to differ with him.

20:03

I would like to debate with him. I would like to argue with him on that kind of time. Because of my plush. Because of my sinfulness.

20:10

Jesus is outright stating that when, that what you say, you meant to say it.

20:15

How many of you have ever been in a situation where you wanted to deny that? You said something and you wanted to say, ah, that wasn't mean.

20:22

I didn't really mean it. I was just angry. It was my emotions. It was this. It was that. No, Jesus. It was your heart saying it.

20:29

It came from you. Nobody outside was making you say that. You said it.

20:35

You own your words. And they are coming out of the abundance. What's going on here?

20:43

We're getting a snapshot of each other's hearts. The words we're saying.

20:50

The words are like x -rays into our soul. They're showing what's real.

20:59

That's intimidating, God. Is there a responsibility there that comes from words?

21:05

Oh, yes, there are. And Jesus isn't just speaking up for you in slips or talking in your sleep that reveals your deepest, darkest secrets.

21:14

I think many of us have said at some point in our lives, I'm sorry I said that. I didn't mean it. But it's painful as it is to admit.

21:23

If you said those words in anger or you said them out of a sense of a place of feeling betrayed or a place of feeling threatened, your heart will still be laden with hatred.

21:37

We can give ourselves some slack. Sometimes we'll even act like there's two of us in here. You know what I'm talking about?

21:42

There's two of us in here and I just let the bad ones get control, but I'm not bad. I like to say that for women sometimes.

21:50

I didn't mean that. I thought that was kind of harsh and I didn't mean that that way. You revealed them on my heart and now we're getting down to it.

21:57

Are you really going to keep that from me? Are you going to keep that opportunity out of my life? I was acutely thinking that I didn't really mean it.

22:08

I could do it. I didn't say something in anger or to curse her.

22:15

I simply blamed the other guy. Baby, you know I love you. I didn't mean it. That's just us in our lives.

22:28

The painful thing is that those statements that come in anger reflect the deep brokenness of our own hearts. Do you ever feel foolish by something that you said?

22:37

Instead of just dismissing it as, you know,

23:01

I just said it in anger and giving yourself the benefit of the doubt, let them stand as warning lights on the cashier.

23:12

View it. Address it. Own your words. And be strong enough to say,

23:19

I said it and I regret it and it was sin and I am sorry.

23:28

I didn't mean it. Don't dismiss it and just brush it under the rug and just be like, you know, that wasn't me.

23:34

Wasn't you? Was you wrong? I thought you were moving. I heard the sound come out and the sound makes me out of your mouth.

23:41

Right? Like, I mean, yes it was you. And how is reconciliation going to happen in that situation by dismissing it as some other person?

23:48

I'm not me. You know me, baby. You know I'm not like that. Go. I said it. And own it.

23:55

And let these situations where we are caught in our sin and we feel foolish, let them drive us down to the question you've been getting at here.

24:04

People have been asking you this morning. If that comes from your mouth, what is the nature of your life or whatever it is that comes out of your mouth that's not aware, that's not edifying, that's not building up, that's not accurately conveying what you're saying?

24:45

Is he trying to clarify what he means by our heart and our mouth together in verse 34?

24:58

He speaks of the abundance of the heart. And then in verse 35 he calls that abundance the word treasure.

25:04

So it's like you've got a storehouse, if you will, in your heart, in your mind, inside you.

25:10

It's not a literal thing like a picture or something like that. I kind of like to illustrate these things literally.

25:15

The good person has a little guy inside working in the bowl from their heart. There's extra good in there, so he scoops all the excess up, brings it to the loins, sets the parachute on it, and then the next exhale happens, he lets the treasure fly up to the bowl, of course.

25:37

Obviously this isn't a literal rendition of what Jesus thinks is going on inside of us, but it's a picture, it's a type of illustration of what's going on.

25:48

The good person has good in him.

25:54

It comes out of their mouth. The abundance, the overflow of the good that is already there. The good word doesn't overflow.

26:01

It's that stored area.

26:07

He called it treasure, but I think he's actually calling it evil treasure, and I think it's less of a vault and more like a septic tank.

26:14

And the buckets of evil words are constantly spilling out of the evil person. How do you say that?

26:19

Um, and uh, yeah, just like that. I mean, what is he getting out of there?

26:25

Um, and it is, it's like that. It's a picture of the evil that is being brought up from within, because you're just bubbling over with it, boiling over, and there's so much of the bad that's already in there that it's just, what, natural,

26:39

I don't know, it is evil. Deceit.

26:47

Cursing Christ. It's all Jesus has done so far, I think, observation.

26:53

Like a good physician, he's observed these religious Pharisees, and he knows what is going on inside of them by observing the symptoms.

27:02

He's observed the words that they have brought up from inside. But a good physician would never observe a life -threatening illness in a person without warning them.

27:10

And that's what we get from the sightings, the warning that we see in verse 36, that word can lead to.

27:22

When Jesus, whenever Jesus says something like, um, I tell you. You see that at the beginning of verse 36?

27:29

I don't know what translation you have, but surely I tell you, he is saying.

27:35

We ought to pay attention to what Jesus said. I tell you. We ought to pay attention.

27:41

He's warning these religious leaders. He's reminding these people.

27:49

The Pharisees were the most devout and ritualistic people of their era.

27:55

They were looked up to as religious leaders. People would turn to them for teaching and advice.

28:01

They often read the scriptures in the synagogues. The poet, he would talk to them about God's words, and they would consider themselves to have spotless eyes.

28:12

It would be as dark as our day.

28:23

It would be shocking.

28:30

It would be stunning to have people say this. The people, if you understood the culture, if you understood the

28:35

Pharisees, if you lived in that era, you'd be like, oh, if they're so right, I'm really.

28:41

You get that? I think he's leveling it to them. They didn't know that they were sick.

28:48

And Jesus officially put out a diagnosis. And they didn't sign up for it. He gave them a diagnosis.

29:00

And so Jesus warns them that the day of judgment is coming. And that day will give, on that day, people, everyone, will give an account for every careless word they speak.

29:13

There's one word in that verse, in verse 36, that stands out to me and needs extra attention. Because I want to know what kind of words

29:19

I'm not supposed to be saying. I'm going to need to know if they're like, did you go through that phase,

29:24

Bill, to be able to raise children, where they didn't even know what words they were saying. Now, we had a couple of words come out from Martin Luther King. They didn't know what they were saying, but they caught them.

29:31

They were like, whoa, yeah, that's not what we use here, buddy. You know, he's like four years old. It's like, you don't say that word.

29:39

I think you can get into a lot. Nope, that's not a word here. So, anybody ever go through that?

29:46

You go through that other little bit of phase? Yeah, just like, what? So, you need to know what words you're not supposed to say.

29:53

Like, right, that's not cool. That's not official. What is a careless word?

29:59

So that I don't speak to you. Right. You're going to give an account for every careless word.

30:05

And I would like to give a few words. A careless word is just a word that I didn't think enough about before I said it.

30:15

I said it without thought. Is it any word spoken without care for others?

30:22

Is that another notion? The word creeps at the idea of empty. Or a word that doesn't help us a whole lot.

30:29

But it's kind of interesting. It creeps. It's kind of like the word worthless. Emptiness.

30:40

It's addressing disparities. It has in mind more the words that they have just spoken.

30:48

Remember the context. Remember what he's been saying and what they've been saying to him. And they have just accused him of words of miracles through the power of Satan.

30:57

These are faithless words. They are void. They are unscrewed. They truly are empty words in the sense that they have no value to convey what is in reality.

31:08

They do not build up. They do not carry love. They do not carry any compassion. They do not have anything to prove.

31:14

These are facts. In this sense, Jesus has ironically modeled for us that harsh words are not necessarily empty words.

31:27

Because ironically, right in the text, Jesus has just used some things that we might think are empty. We might accuse him of doing the very thing because we hear him calling them brood of vipers.

31:37

We hear him saying that they are evil. In the context, he's just done that.

31:43

Kind of the thing, if we get so hung up on trying to find a list here of words that you are and are not allowed to say, we're going to be disappointed.

31:53

And I'd like to suggest to you that if you go through Scripture looking for a list of news that don't let you check them off, you're going to be disappointed because there are areas of your life you're going to find people.

32:03

You know what? You're going to be totally capable of finding a way around these rules and laws.

32:09

That's what you think the Bible is about. You don't recognize this about God capturing your heart. It's primarily like, don't watch these movies, don't read these words.

32:18

Here's the whole list of things to do. There's nothing that doesn't seem very welcoming to us.

32:35

Those words were not. They were true. They were beneficial and conspiring to bring about conviction.

32:43

They were warnings. They were diagnoses. I think we can look at the past and walk away from thinking that we're going to give an account for every word.

32:53

Some people have misunderstood it, misinterpreted it, mistaught the text. That you guys, there's no silly talk, no fun, just don't talk.

33:02

It might be the application to this past period. You want to be really careful and move the line as far as the round of security events.

33:11

Don't take anything. But actually the text is clear. We're going to give an account for every empty word.

33:19

Careless word. Every unbeneficial word. This is not warning you against small talk and joking around with friends.

33:26

But it is a stern warning that our mouths can be open at any moment. And we're not completely forced to judge.

33:32

A word can end a movie. If somebody's got to take over your mouth out of fear of judgment,

33:40

I would instead caution you against attempting to explore what is true.

33:48

Speak with the intention to build others up. Even if at times that might mean confronting or rebuking the decency.

33:55

Certainly any talk that degrades Jesus or teaches others falsehood is empty and very dangerous.

34:02

That's what the Pharisees were doing was warning them that their words formed no part of what they were doing.

34:11

Finally, God made it right.

34:24

How can words lead to salvation? And we might just kind of get confused here for a moment.

34:30

Without the context, we might easily misunderstand what Jesus is saying. We can understand it this way. If you only stated verse 37, took it out of context, and just read it.

34:39

For by your words you will be justified. You're going to think that the answer is getting to heaven.

34:45

Your feet may be right, and the regulations of God are keeping up your plan. Get your mouth in order, and you will be saved.

34:54

Is that what it takes to get to heaven? Just stop swearing, stop cursing. Speak general kind words to others, and you will be saved.

35:01

Is that not kind of scripture? So if you remember where this entire conversation started with the

35:08

Pharisees, then we need to backtrack to the beginning and figure out what Jesus was offering to the others. What was the initial problem?

35:15

The Pharisees were verbally denying Jesus as himself. And then when he said, he credited his words with the power of faith.

35:24

He told them that they have no heart but to do these things. And then he warned them that persisting in these words will lead them to hell.

35:34

Verse 37, he told them, now to change your words. He said, to change your words.

35:41

Obviously, you have to change your heart. What kind of words could the Pharisees have changed in order to move from the category of evil to good?

35:50

From being in the category of judge, to the category of good. How could they be healed of this sickness in their souls?

35:59

Instead of verbally rejecting it, they should verbally affirm and accept it.

36:05

The Apostle Paul then has the very same words of Ephesus in the same passage in his

36:19

Bible. He wrote this in Romans 10, 9 -10. If you confess with your mouth,

36:27

Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

36:34

For with the heart one believes, that's a change in the heart, and therefore is justified.

36:40

And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. There's a play of heart and mouth.

36:59

Empty things that you can say. What is the least vain, least careless thing that your mouth, your human mouth, could say?

37:09

I don't know how to put it. Jesus is

37:15

Lord. The background and foundation of all.

37:22

Of all things. Jesus is Lord. Deep with the heart and utter with the mouth that can lead to justification.

37:33

That leads to salvation. To forgiveness and all the riches of our

37:38

Heavenly Father. To adoption into His family. Glorious and beautiful words.

37:46

Is your mouth part of that? Have you said that from a heart that believes it to be true? Jesus is

37:54

Lord. There's a play of the heart and the mouth that's very important.

38:01

Our words serve as an array of warning lights. Want to know what's true about your heart?

38:12

What is the abundance in there? What is the actual content in there? But for now, let's consider what you would articulate about salvation.

38:29

What would you articulate about God? What do you believe and tell others about? Are you confessing your mouth to Jesus as Lord?

38:37

Do you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead? All of our words matter.

38:43

There are plenty of passages in Scripture that tell us to be careful with our words. Dear Jesus, Salvation doesn't come by stapling good food on a bag of cream.

38:57

It's awesome. But a lot of people don't believe in what you're trying to do. Bad heart?

39:04

I'll try to act better. I'll try to do more good deeds. I'll try to clean up and scrub my own language.

39:10

You're both bad. Bad faith brings bad fruit. You do not feel all the way to Jesus.

39:17

It's as soon as your flesh gets involved in it. You are in need of saving.

39:34

You are in need of saving. You are made in need of good food. You get well prepared for the good food. Your words indicate that you are in need of good food.

39:45

Is your mouth a factory? Are you a factory worker? When the little guy inside brings up all of the abundance that's in that storehouse, is it a cesspool of empty words or is it life -giving words that fill up his heart?

39:59

Convict? Convict all of us. It's so boring. Praise God that there is hope.

40:07

Can you hear lights going off in you right now? Have you identified if your heart is bad, if you're looking at anything?

40:13

I just have no clue. I've got nothing that's coming out of my mouth that looks beneficial or helpful to others, and it's genuinely productive.

40:23

I'm just curious to know what it's like. This morning, we come to communion to remember the sacrifice of Jesus, and ask, first, our salvation.

40:40

Our salvation has to come by speaking of our actions, our self -improvement projects, and the sacrifice of Jesus.

40:49

At this cross, Jesus used the word for blessing, saying, Father, forgive them.

40:55

They don't know what they're doing. Even in agony, Jesus brought a full word to the abundance of the

41:02

Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was shown by a death of a father, and trusted his children to be blessed.

41:12

Instead, he was able to do the practice of his body was broken, and a cup of juice came over his blood.

41:21

Over this week, guarding our mouths and our ears while looking for opportunities to convey the grace of his glorious and profound exceptional power.

41:45

I think we all came into this message knowing that our words matter.

41:52

I think that's been deepened into us time and time again, and we probably got that. There's a component here of what

42:01

Jesus is telling us, Father, that I gracefully touched on in each one of us, and that is the reality that what we are saying doesn't mean.

42:15

Once we've gone astray, once we've wandered out of the ways into just applying and using words in harsh tones and bad ways with others, and complaining and whining and fumbling up, and what

42:30

I pray that for those that are your children who are caught up in that cycle, that you would forgive us the will to move you.

42:49

Tell us, is there anybody in this room who just is kind of looking at this and saying, I never thought about it this way, but man,

42:55

I really think it comes out of my mouth and reflects that I'm not yours. Father, I think we can hold this in the hallways, and we'll be able to talk about glorious things with our mouths.

43:08

We'll be able to talk about salvation. Father, we thank you.

43:24

We remember that and reflect on that, and I pray that you would help us to continue to ask for your forgiveness and remember the cross.