Mathew Ch 12

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In our study on the series of Matthew, we come to chapter 12. It's a long chapter. Let's see how far we get to today.
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I'm Pastor Josiah with Wynton Baptist Church. Here's Sunday night Bible study. Let's dig into God's Word.
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I'll read this first section. At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat.
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But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, look, your disciples are doing what's not lawful to do on the Sabbath. He said to them, have you not read what
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David did when he was hungry and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God and ate the bread of the presence, which was not lawful for him to eat or for those who were with him, but only for the priests.
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Have you not read in the law how on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profaned the Sabbath and are guiltless? But I'll tell you something greater than the temples here.
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If you had known what this means, I desire mercy, not sacrifice. You would not have condemned the guiltless, for the
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Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. The Pharisees, as we've discussed before, not only believe in the entire
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Old Testament, but they believe the oral tradition that later became the Talmud and the Mishnu, that old tradition was also on par with Scripture.
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So think of it as the study notes, the commentaries on the Torah. They treat it as equal to Scripture.
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If you have a study Bible, I have several. They're great. But if you treat the commentator's notes at the bottom as as authoritative as Scripture, you do no one, probably including that commentator, any good service and you are on dangerous ground.
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Now the Sadducees had the opposite problem, in a sense. They only treated the books of Moses, the first five books of the
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Bible, as fully inspired by God. So when they say it's not lawful for you to do this, there's no actual law on the
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Torah that says they couldn't pluck the grains and eat them. In fact, on the edge of the field, it was lawful for them to do this.
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It's called gleaning, and Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 23 expressly permit travelers to do this.
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In another passage, they get mad because they're not washing their hands before they eat.
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But only the priests were commanded to do this in the law. So again, just like Jesus says in Matthew 15, they are teaching as doctrine the commands of men.
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That is a damning sentence. So Jesus ends it by saying, he quotes,
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I believe this is Hosea. Let me see if I can check here. I believe verse 7 is a quote from Hosea.
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Hosea 6. It takes a passage that they would probably have memorized and said, you don't know, you don't know what this means.
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For the Son of Man is Kourios, is excuse me, Son of Man is Kourios of the
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Sabbath. He is the Son of Man, Kourios, who Anthropou, maybe
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Pau, is Lord of the Sabbath. So in the end, even though we're not breaking the law,
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I created the Sabbath. I know what I created it for. I am God. I am Lord of the
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Sabbath. And Matthew then puts in this account of Jesus healing a man with a withered hand on the
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Sabbath. He goes and enters the synagogue and they asked him if it was lawful for him to heal on the
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Sabbath so that they might accuse him. And there's my favorite Greek word, henna. They asked him this with the intention so that they might accuse him.
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And he said, which one of you, if you have a sheep and it falls in a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out? Is that working according to your definition?
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Of how much more value is a man than a sheep? Yes, over and over again Jesus says humans have more value than animals.
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Sorry PETA. Doesn't mean they have no value, just humans have more value. It's always lawful to do good on the
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Sabbath, guys. He heals him. The Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him because he's breaking their oral tradition.
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They're treating tradition as more important than God's Word. I fear there are many churches that do the same thing today.
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Matthew then quotes Isaiah to show that Jesus is the servant that God has chosen.
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A bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not quench. Until he brings justice to victory.
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So, he is gentle and lowly of heart. He is, his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
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Until he brings justice to victory. One day God's mercy will end in a sense and his justice will come to full fruition.
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That day is coming. The scales will balance and in his name the
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Gentiles will hope. And verse 21, see if I can see if I can do this.
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Haha, verse 21. Yeah, Isaiah 42. That's what it was. That's a quote from Isaiah 42.
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So, God's plan of salvation for the Gentiles was always there. Always there.
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Notice, notice that as with many Old Testament passages, part of the quotation is fulfilled in Jesus's first coming and part of it is fulfilled in his second coming.
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Common theme with New Testament writers quoting the Old Testament. All right, now we come upon the blasphemy of the
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Holy Spirit. Now, only a few months ago guys, I made a video on the blasphemy of the
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Holy Spirit, what it is. So, I'm not gonna spend as much detail on this. I want to just skip it altogether because I've already been through all this somewhat recently.
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You can find that on Witton Media Ministry. What is blasphemy of the
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Holy Spirit? On our YouTube page and it will show up, but I will quickly just give a couple comments about it.
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What you have in this passage, Matthew 12, 22 -37, that is paralleled by,
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I believe it's Mark chapter 3. Yeah, Mark chapter 3. Is we have the
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Pharisees purposefully calling the works of God and Jesus the works of Satan.
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They know, they know that what he is doing is from God, but they are rejecting it because it messes with their power and influence.
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So, it's not that they intellectually truly believe Jesus is of Satan. It's that they're calling, they're calling
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Jesus's works of the kingdom of God and by the Spirit of God, they're calling it Satanic on purpose. So, what you have here is them knowing the truth and rejecting
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God's plan, calling it Satan's on purpose to draw people away from the truth.
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They were saying it out loud, but he was knowing in their heart what they really meant and this is why he condemned them.
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I'll read what I wrote. The sin of blasphemy in the Holy Spirit, as with all sin, begins with the heart. Sin is first committed in the heart before it's ever committed with the words or the hands.
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So, they are intentionally confusing the people, telling them that his work is from Satan, so as to not draw away from their own personal gain.
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That is blasphemy in the Spirit. Purposely calling God's work Satan's work. It's an ultimate rejection of God's revelation to you.
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Jesus later tells them, no more signs, no more revelation will be given to you guys except the sign of Jonah.
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That in three days, he will be rising again after he is put in the heart of the earth. He goes on to say, this next section, verse 33 through 37, is a familiar section.
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If you've been reading the New Testament for any length of time, you're familiar with this phraseology.
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Good fruits make a tree good by its fruit, make it bad by its bad fruit. A tree is known by its fruit.
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We've been over this many times. Your actions, what comes out of your mouth, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, your actions, your words, show what's really on the inside.
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Here it is right here. We're out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
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Cardia, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So whatever you're storing up in your heart, treasuring up in your heart, will come out of your mouth.
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So when it comes out of your mouth, it really was in your heart first. You know, we often talk about, oh, you know, I have no filter between my brain and my mouth.
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Jesus is more interested in the filter between your heart and your mouth and what you're pouring into your heart. Your heart can only hold so much so that if you're filling your heart with evil, evil will overflow out of it.
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But if you're filling it up with godly things, with good things, with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self -control,
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I think I missed one, faithfulness, that will be what overflows out of your mouth and your body and the works you see.
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The good person out of the good treasure, thesaurus, like a thesaurus, out of the good treasure brings forth good.
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The evil person out of the evil treasure brings forth evil. One day will give an account for every careless word they speak.
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By your words you will be justified, by your words you will be condemned. In other words, what comes out of your mouth shows what's really in your heart.
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Then Jesus says, see, the scribes and Pharisees, they're like, oh, we want to see a sign from you.
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We want to see a sign. They call him teacher. Yeah, okay. They just said that his works are from Satan.
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They said, teacher, we want to see a sign for you. He says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of the prophet
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Jonah. He's not giving them any more revelation. There comes a time when you reject God's revelation so much and so long, he will give you no more revelation.
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This is what hardening is. And all you have to go back on is memories of previous revelation.
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He'll give you no more revelation. But he said, I'll give you guys one more. Well, just as Jonah was three days, three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the son of man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
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Men and Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. For they, here it is, repented.
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Mitanaeson. They repented at the preaching. Caruso. Here, Carugama.
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Carusa is the regular word. They repented. And behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
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Look, they repented at Jonah. I'm God, and you're not repenting in front of me. The queen of the south,
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Sheba, that came and saw Solomon. She came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but something far greater than Solomon's here.
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She traveled all the way just to hear Solomon's wisdom. I'm right in front of you, and I'm far wiser than Solomon, far greater of a prophet than Jonah.
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Those guys repented, reacted to the revelation I gave them. I am sitting right in front of you.
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Your condemnation, your judgment will be worse. So, in this last section, verse 43 through 15, let me just read it to you real quick.
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When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says,
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I'll return to my house from which I came. When it comes, it finds the house empty, sweat put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.
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The last state of that person is worse than the first, so it will be with this evil generation. While he was still speaking, behold, his mother and his brother stood outside, asking to speak with him.
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But he replied to the man who told him, who's my mother and who are my brothers? Stretching out his hand towards the disciples, he said, here are my mother and my brothers.
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Whoever does the will of my father in heaven is my mother and sister and brother. So the analogy of the evil spirit that leaves a house and comes back and finds it put in order, you know, morally put in order, doing the right things, but it's empty.
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He rejected that revelation. Seven more, more evil than itself, will come in.
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And so will it be with this generation. So will it be with this generation.
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So I've given you chance and chance and chance to repent.
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And the more you hardened yourself, the more revelation I give you, the worse judgment that's going to come.
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I'm going to look at what I wrote here and just read it to you. Jesus is looking at the religious leaders and their followers as a whole and saying they are worse off than the unrepentant state of the men of Nineveh, because now they have all these moral religious rules they think protects them from evil, but really it just shields them from the truth.
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Every time more revelation of Jesus is in front of their faces, it heaps on more judgment for their unbelief.
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When evil is removed and moral reform takes place, but not regeneration, so the evil spirit's removed, moral reform takes place, but not regeneration.
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No indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The end result is worse than when you first began the moral reform.
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If you try to replace Jesus with moral reform, with religion, with church, with anything, you'll end up worse off than when you first started, because then you think you have found the answer.
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Really, you just tidied up the house, but it's still empty on the inside. But now you think it's full, but it's not.
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More evil is on the way. How about this last section? His mothers and his brothers want to talk to him.
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Now, John tells us his brothers did not believe until later on after the resurrection, and his mother had some questions too.
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But he said, whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother, sister, and mother.
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If you are a brother or sister in Christ, you are part of the family of God. If we're all conforming to God's word, to what he has told us to do, then your life should look more similar to a fellow believer in Ethiopia than it does your unbelieving next -door neighbor.
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Cultural stuff aside, our walk should be the same. We should be seeking after things of God, sowing in the
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Spirit, not in the flesh. In our lives, we look the same. That's why we call ourselves brothers, sisters, or mothers, because we're all part of one family, adopted into the family of God, walking on the same path.
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Parable of the Sower, or maybe better said, Parable of the Soils, next week. Oh, yes, the next chapter is all a bunch of parables.
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All right, guys, love you guys very much. Keep up with any activities we may have on our Facebook page or on our app,
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Witten Baptist Church. As always, like, share, subscribe. If you know anyone who'd ever like to donate to our ministries, it's on the
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Witten app, Witten Baptist Church. There's a give tab there that would always be helpful as we have mission trips, and block parties, and VBS, and Halloweens, and youth trips, and all types of things coming up.
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Thank you guys very much, and I look forward to seeing you guys later next week.