A Brood of Vipers vs The Family of God (11/12/2023)

All right, picking up where we left off, let's turn to Matthew chapter 12. We ended two weeks ago in verse 32, talking about the unpardonable sin. So if you remember, that's the context. The religious leaders of Israel had accused Jesus of working his miracles, casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub.

So the scribes, the Pharisees, they said, Jesus basically is of the devil. That was their accusation. And in this passage, verses 33 through 37, Jesus basically just turns their accusations back around on them, as he calls them a brood of vipers.

A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit and the Words of the Heart

So this next section is titled, a tree is known by its fruit. So how do you know about a person based on what they do? But also the things that they say. Matthew 12, starting in verse 33, Jesus says, 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. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? 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.

So a tree is known by its fruit. People are known, another way you could put this, people are known by what they produce, what they do, what they say. The statement we typically remember from this section, something that all Christians have heard and things that, something that we say often comes from verse 34, where Jesus says, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

So you can tell a lot about a person by the things they say, right? The way they talk, the things that come out of their mouth. And one thing to listen for, what did they say about God? What types of things did they say about Jesus?

Of course, in our culture, it seems that Jesus is on the lips of many people, his name, but of course, they use his name as what? A curse word. And of course, that's exactly what's happening right here with the Pharisees, or what we looked at two weeks ago, where they were basically uttering a curse on Jesus Christ and people, unfortunately, continue to do that today.

And whether they're aware of it or not, they are speaking similar blasphemies against the God of heaven. But the purpose of Christ in his ministry was not to condemn, the purpose of Christ was to come and deliver.

Jesus wants to save people, show them a better way. So again, you can tell a lot about someone by the way they talk, the things that come out of their mouth, why? Because all of that is a reflection of what's in the heart.

Proverbs 18, verse 21 says, "'Death and life are in the power of the tongue.'". So you could ask, are we speaking words of life or are we speaking words of death? Ephesians 4, verse 29 says, "'Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers.'".

So Jesus, his words, they imparted grace. Who spoke more grace than Jesus Christ? His words were grace. Of course, that doesn't mean that he didn't speak other words as well. Some harsh words even, we just read that when Jesus says, you are a brood of vipers.

Now the question is, is that true? Because the Pharisees say something about Jesus and he says basically the same thing about them. Well, both are wrong. That's sort of the way some people would look at it.

But no, who's right? Who is speaking the truth? I mean, really when it comes down to it, that's what we need to be concerned about. What is true? And besides, Jesus only talked like that when it was absolutely necessary.

Here's the thing, Jesus never lied. Did the Pharisees lie? Yeah, you remember later on at his trial, they're just making stuff up. False accusations and they knew it. Jesus never lied. Jesus never spoke abusive words.

People do that sometimes. You're angry or frustrated and things come out of your mouth and you feel bad about it. Jesus never spoke abusive words where he said things that were hurtful just for the sake of hurting somebody.

He never did that. Now, as far as this idea out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, it's true. Every human being with the exception of Jesus because he was born of a virgin, but every human being has what we call the sin nature.

So sometimes that sin nature, even among believers, comes out. Sometimes things come out of our mouth and we're ashamed of it. How many of you, this seems to be an issue for a lot of people, getting cut off in traffic.

You can be a great person in the eyes of the world and in the eyes of other people, have just gracious speak. You're very kind to people, but as soon as you get cut off, it's just like a switch is flipped.

Who can relate to that?

Yeah.

Maybe if you are a carpenter, you swing a hammer and all of a sudden you hit your fingers. For me, it's stubbing my toe. I haven't done it in a long time. Used to have this bed with a metal frame and I'd stub my toe on it.

And you know, couldn't be held responsible for what came out of my mouth. Actually, the thing is, we are held responsible by God for what comes out of our mouth. And this is actually a pretty frightening statement that Jesus makes, that every idle word, he says that men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.

Kind of a scary thing, but I'll speak to that more in just a moment. But we all have that sinful nature within us that we inherited from Adam. But the appeal that Jesus is making, he's saying, make the tree good.

Make the tree good. So when we were born, we were born with this corrupt or sinful nature. And Jesus is saying, make the tree good. How do you do that? You need to plant a whole new tree. When a person decides they're going to follow Jesus, it's like you're planting a spiritual tree.

And over the course of your life following Christ, that tree grows up and it matures. The old tree, the corrupt tree, there's nothing you can do about that. We need to move beyond that. We need to crucify the flesh.

We need to live in the spirit. The Pharisees though, they didn't think they were corrupt. They didn't think they had this sin nature. The Pharisees, they believe because of their outward display of religion and their Jewishness based on this, this made them godly.

That's what they believed. But Jesus is saying, no, ultimately the message is going to be, you have to believe in me. You need to repent and live a new life in Christ or what we call being born again.

So the Pharisees, they look good on the outside, but really they were corrupt. And their words here proved it. The Pharisees were a bad tree producing bad fruit. They had a form of godliness, but their form of godliness was what?

It was in their clothing, right? The hats they would wear, their long robes, all the things that they would do and wear that people would see them. That's a holy man. That's a religious person. Today, when people dress up, there's this movement called, I guess it's called cosplay, right?

You've seen this, heard about it. Basically, that's what the Pharisees were doing in a sense, because it was all for show. It was all an act. None of it was real. Their religion was basically a front.

That's why Jesus calls them what? Begins with an H, hypocrites. The Greek word, hypocrites, literally means an actor or a pretender. Now, every person at times, as I just alluded to a moment ago, we all maybe play the hypocrite.

Like we have this high standard as believers. We wanna do the right thing. Sometimes we don't always live up to that, or we don't live up to it. But for the religious leaders of Israel, this was just a way of life.

Hypocrisy, putting on a front, it was just their whole life. They had been doing it for so long, they probably didn't even recognize it anymore. So Jesus says in verse 33, make the tree good. How do you do that?

By admitting, first of all, that you have this corrupt sin nature, that I need the grace of God, that I actually need to be forgiven. But the problem was that over the centuries, the rabbis through their customs, their traditions, they would have known that by reading the scripture, but they had traditions and things piled over the scripture.

Jesus came to kinda wipe that all clean so that they could get back to the original writings of the Torah and the prophets. So the scripture was clear, and the scripture is clear today. God is perfect, God is pure, God is just, and mankind, we are not pure and just.

Because of that, mankind's fellowship with God has been broken. The only way to fix that is for atonement to be made, to restore man's relationship with his creator. So the writings that the Pharisees had, the Old Testament writings, all of this pointed ahead to Christ who would make that atonement.

But now that Jesus was standing right in front of them,.

What did they do?

Well, they hated him. They despised him. They were now plotting his death, and they said, this man, Jesus, is of the devil. Notice what Jesus calls them in verse 34, however. He calls them what? What does your translation say?

Brood of vipers.

Okay, brood of vipers or a generation of vipers. So I use the New King James Version, and it says brood. What's a brood? It's not a term we use much anymore. It's usually used for animals. But if an animal has a brood, what is it?

It's their offspring, right? A brood is basically a family. So the King James says generation. Either way, what's being said? You are the offspring of?

The snake.

Vipers, but you think of the serpent. Who's the serpent in the Bible?

Satan.

Satan is the serpent. Revelation chapter 12, he is called the dragon or that serpent of old. So by calling the Pharisees a brood of vipers, Jesus is saying, oh, you're gonna call me, say I'm of the devil?

No, actually you, you are of the devil. So who is the father of Jesus? God the Father. Who's the father of the Pharisees?

Lucifer.

Lucifer, essentially, okay. So that's what Jesus is saying. Now about this verse, every idle word, verse 36, every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment. How many of you have read through the Bible and you read that and you're like, oh man.

Yeah, I've had that thought before. It's a scary verse for a lot of people, but this is just a really great time to talk about why it's important to take the Bible in context. Who's Jesus talking to? Jesus is speaking to who?

The Pharisees, who just made the worst accusation against him possible. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees, you are gonna have to stand before God one day and give an account. You think that would be a big accusation, they would have to think through that?

No, I think it just kind of rolled off the tongue. I think they just flippantly said that Jesus was doing these works by Beelzebub. So Jesus is saying that on the day of judgment, which Revelation chapter 20 talks about, the great white throne judgment, you and those who are also of their father, the devil, you will have to stand before God and you will have to give an account for everything you've ever said, everything you've ever done.

Here's why Christians, true born again believers, here's why we can breathe a sigh of relief. All of this has been forgiven. Every idle word that we've ever spoke, careless word, another way of putting it, that is all forgiven, it's all under the blood, so to speak.

Now, does that give us free reign to keep on doing it? No, God will not be pleased if we continue to disobey him, but believers do not have to give an account of every careless word, thankfully. You're either forgiven or you're not, and we believe in full forgiveness in Christ.

The Demand for a Sign and the Sign of Jonah

Okay, moving on to this next section, the religious leaders of Israel, they were seeing miracles all around them. Jesus is performing works, wonders, signs, miracles, and now they say, we want you, look at verse 38, then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered saying, teacher, we want to see what?

We want to see a sign from you, and it's like, what have we been reading about the past few chapters? He's been giving them sign after sign after sign, and you're really getting the impression that no matter what he does, it's not gonna matter.

That is true, but they come to him and say, we want a sign from you. So they've already received signs, now they want something bigger. If you were to compare this with Mark's account, basically they're asking for something huge.

They're asking for a sign from heaven. So Jesus, you healing the leper, casting out demons, restoring sight to the blind, that's not enough. If you do something like a sign in the heavens, then we'll believe you.

Now, do you believe that? You believe them? No, but that's what they said. Because if you do something in the heavens, that can't be denied. Now, interestingly enough, when Jesus comes back the second time, because we believe that Jesus is coming back, right before his second advent, there will be signs in the heavens.

We'll get to this when we cover Matthew chapter 24, but it talks about how before the day of the Lord, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will be turned to blood, or it'll appear like a blood red.

So it may be that those verses from the prophet Joel, that the Pharisees are thinking, okay, you say you're the Messiah, but Joel says that before the coming of the day of the Lord, this will happen, we haven't seen it yet.

That may be why they're asking. Either way, Jesus says, I'm not gonna give you a sign, but actually I will give you one sign. Well, let's read at verse 39. But he answered and said to them, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign.

What does that mean? It means you people are unfaithful, I could show you sign after sign after sign, you're not gonna believe. But he says, that's the type of people who seek after a sign. No sign will be given to it, the generation of Jews alive at that time, no sign will be given except what?

Right, there will be one sign given to that generation of Jewish people to Israel, it will be the sign of the prophet Jonah. How do you know the prophet Jonah? When you think of Jonah, what do you think of?

Oh yeah, that's the guy that was swallowed by the whale. Right, well, how's that a sign? Well, we'll get into that. Jesus explains it, actually in verse 40. He says, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Now, did Jonah, when he was swallowed by the whale, did he live again? Most people, if they're swallowed by a whale,.

I mean, they're dead, right?

Actually, some people believe Jonah did die and was raised again. It's a different story for another day, though. But we see Jesus is comparing this to what? His resurrection. But his resurrection hasn't happened yet, so they're kind of oblivious.

So Jesus says in verse 40, for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, verse 41. Then the men of Nineveh will rise up, because that's who Jonah preached to.

The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. So the Ninevites, they repented when they heard him, but here you have the Messiah preaching to you and you won't listen.

Verse 42, the queen of the south, who is the queen of Sheba, will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

Another hint at Christ's deity. He claims to be greater than Solomon, the great king, and he's greater than the prophets. So there's three things that Jesus is doing here, very significant. The sign that he will give to Israel is the sign of his own resurrection.

See, if somebody can predict their own death and resurrection, I mean, you're gonna listen to this person, right? So that's the first thing Jesus does. The second thing, Jesus actually affirms Jonah, which matters, and then number three, Jesus affirms that all people, not just Jesus, Jesus was raised, he says all people will be raised from the dead.

This is what the Jews called the last day. Based on what? You say, where does that come from? Well, those who heard the preaching of Jonah in Nineveh, how many hundreds of years prior was that?

Well, I don't know.

What, 700, 800 years earlier maybe? They will what? Rise up, the queen of Sheba. All of these people who have been dead for hundreds of years, they will what? They will be raised. Jesus is affirming the general resurrection of the dead.

So he affirms his own resurrection, general resurrection of the dead, and he affirms the writings of Jonah. So let's just talk about Jonah for a moment. When the average person reads the book of Jonah in the Old Testament, what do you think they think?

I'm not saying when the average Christian reads it, because I hope when you read it, you have faith. Christians are people of faith. When we read the Bible, hopefully we believe the Bible, amen? But the average person, when they see Jonah, read about him being swallowed by a whale, what do they think?

Oh yeah, this is one of the, we've all heard a fairy tale. This is one of the fairy tales that are in the Bible, that this man was swallowed by a great fish. So most people today, even some, what we might call liberal Christian scholars, they read the book of Jonah and they say it's an allegory.

It's a poem. It's not real. It didn't actually happen. Well, why don't they think it happened? Well, because it's impossible, right? People can't be swallowed by a whale for three days.

And then live.

That's impossible. Well, let me ask you, is it impossible? On a human level, it's impossible. But with God, what does that sign say on the back of the sanctuary? With God, what?

All things are possible.

All things are possible. You say that Jonah can't survive that because it's impossible. Well, what about a man who's dead for three days? Can he rise from the dead? What about all people being raised to eternal life?

Well, that's impossible by human standards. So this is a matter of believing God, trusting in God. Why do I believe the book of Jonah is true? One simple reason. You know why?

Why?

Because Jesus believed the book of Jonah was true. This is the thing. The Old Testament today is really under scrutiny and all these stories that people find hard to believe. You know why I believe it?

You know, you realize it would normally be just as hard for me to believe as anyone else. Why do I believe it? Because I'm a follower of Christ. I believe in Christ and Jesus Christ believed the Old Testament.

Jesus believed Jonah was not only a real man, Jesus believed he survived being swallowed by a whale. Here's the thing. You reject Jonah, logically you have to reject who? You have to reject what? Because Jesus is basing his whole death and resurrection on the third day, he's basing it on this passage from Jonah.

So logically, if you deny the story of Jonah, you have to deny that Jesus rose from the dead. So I believe Jonah because Jesus believed it. There's many reasons to believe in the resurrection. I believe in miracles.

What you know, one reason I believe in miracles is I can go out at night and look at the sky and I see the moon and I see the stars and I know that's not just an accident. You can see human life, life all over this world and how the moral law of God is written on our hearts.

You can go to some tribal situation, they know the difference between right and wrong. The starry skies above, that's one proof the miracles happened, the creation. The other proof, the law of God within.

God has put eternity in our hearts. Every person deep down, they know God exists. It's just a matter of coming to that place where you believe that Christ is God's son. Believing in the resurrection of Jesus, just moving on to that.

The Bible says there were over 500 eyewitnesses. And here's the thing, the Jews didn't even deny that Jesus rose from the dead, did they? They didn't deny, just like the Pharisees weren't denying that he was working miracles.

They just said they were doing it, he was doing it by the power of Satan. The Jews didn't deny that Jesus' body was gone out of the tomb, they just said, well, his disciples stole it and took it away.

I would recommend that you read, if you have any doubt about the resurrection of Christ, read the book, A Case for Christ. Okay, I think we might have it in the library. Go ahead and just, you know, go in there, take it, take it home, read it, bring it back when you're done.

A Case for Christ. There are plenty of good reasons why we should believe. But just as Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days, that points ahead to Jesus being in the tomb for three days, rising on the third day.

Can you think about it? Jonah's story was written, again, hundreds of years in advance. That's a prophecy, hundreds of years in advance, that Jesus would live, die, and rise again. Okay, now this last thing, the final resurrection.

Do you realize that every human being will be raised? You say, no, no, no, only Christians are raised, right? Because Christians have eternal life. Let's turn to Revelation 20 for a moment. I just wanna show you, because, yeah, a believer, someone who goes to church, you believe in eternal life, so all who have faith receive the gift of eternal life.

But it's actually not just believers who are raised from the dead. So when Jesus talks about the raising up in the day of judgment, I think he's probably referring to this passage here in Revelation chapter 20.

Let's just start in verse 11. So the apostle John is receiving this in visionary form. Who is he receiving it from? Right, it's the revelation of who?

Jesus.

Right, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. That's the full name of the book. So in other words, John is giving this information, or excuse me, Jesus is giving this information to John. Revelation 20, starting in verse 11.

John writes, then I saw a great white throne in on him, in him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.

And another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them.

And they were judged, each one according to what?

His works.

His works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. So believers have eternal life.

Unbelievers have what is called an eternal death. And it's not that they cease to exist, they're alive. They're just spiritually dead. Have you ever seen people walking the streets today? They're alive, they're moving around, but you can just tell by the look on their face.

I mean, it's a living death. About these books. You know what is gonna be written in these books? Some of the idle words that the Pharisees spoke. The careless words that men speak. The things they say about God and Jesus, and how they use his name as a curse word.

All of that is being written in what?

These books.

Men will have to give an account of all of that unless they place their faith in God through Jesus Christ. Okay, let's go back to Matthew chapter 12, and we'll bring it to a close. There's actually a lot more I'd like to get to.

Just kind of go through it quick maybe. I said the only solution is to place your faith in Christ, but for the average person today, their solution is not faith in Jesus. Their solution is really self-reform.

Self-Reform Cannot Replace Regeneration

Look at verses 30, or excuse me, 43 through 45. Matthew 12, 43, says when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest, and he finds none. Then he says, I will return to my house from which I came.

And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. And then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of the man is worse than the first.

So it also will be with this wicked generation. So the person, their house, their body is what?

It's empty.

That's a symbol for the Holy Spirit not dwelling within them. One commentator says this about this passage. The problem is that the evil spirit found the house empty. This is the description of someone who attempts moral reform without ever being indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

Reform apart from regeneration, that's planting that new tree, that's being born again. Reform apart from regeneration is never effective, and eventually the person reverts back to their prior behavior.

A person to change, you realize a person to change, they don't need Jesus. You don't need Jesus to make a change. You don't even need Jesus necessarily to improve your life a little bit. If you take this route of self-reform, you do need Jesus, though, to live forever.

The True Family of Jesus Is Defined by Doing the Father's Will

Let's just close with this final section, starting in verse 46. Going back to the Pharisees, and who was their father? One last time, Jesus, his father is God. The Pharisee, his father was who?

The devil.

I think there's all sorts of people in the world, they're not children of the devil, they haven't rejected Jesus, they don't hate Jesus, but they're just kind of stuck in the middle, they don't know, they're trying to straddle the fence, they're in between.

There's the children of God, believers in Christ, there's the children of the devil, those who hate Christ and are working against Christ. Most of humanity is right there in between. What's gonna matter on the final day?

Who your family, who your father is, that's what's gonna matter. Matthew 12, 46, while he, Jesus, was still speaking to the multitudes, behold, his mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with him.

Then one said to him, look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with you. And remember, Jesus is probably preaching the gospel to the lost and whoever is relaying the message, hey, Jesus, just stop what you're doing, your mom wants to talk to you.

Well, I'm sorry, I have more important things to do right. Jesus is very respectful of his mother, but there's something more important at hand. Notice what he says in verse 48. But he answered and he said to the one who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers?

This is not him being disrespectful to his family. He is making a larger point. Verse 49, we'll close with this. He stretched out his hand towards his disciples and he said, here are my mother and my brothers for whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

The Pharisees were children of the devil. Jesus, his disciples, they were children of God. Who's your father?

Let's pray.

And Lord, I thank you so much for loving us enough to send your son into the world. He did that atoning work needed to restore the broken fellowship between God and men. And Lord, I realized that probably the majority, hopefully each and every member of this congregation knows Christ and they have God, they have you Lord as their father.

But if there's anyone here today who has never placed their faith in you, who has never been born again, Lord, if there's someone who has been wandering in no man's land, hasn't really made a decision for or against, I just pray he would or she would take these words to heart.

Lord, we were made for you. We were made for eternity. So I just hope and pray that not a single person would walk away from this message, not knowing that they have been given eternal life through faith in Christ.

Lord, may your spirit do its perfect work. And we ask it all in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen. Let's close with hymn number 404. Hymn number 404. Megan's gonna lead us in the solid rock. Please stand. Amen, and before we leave, the apostle John writes in 1 John 5, verse 13, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the son of God.

I just praise God for his assurance, the assurance of salvation that we can have, that if you have trusted in Christ, you may know, you know for sure that you have a home in heaven. So if there's someone who does not have that assurance or does not know Christ, please come and talk to me or one of the deacons afterwards.

We wanna get that settled today that you can know. How many of you know? Say amen if you know.

Amen.