Jesus and Beelzebub
22 Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. 23 All the people were astonished and said, “Could this be the Son of David?”
24 But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons.”
25 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. 26 If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? 27 And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 28 But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
29 “Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.
30 “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
33 “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. 36 But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.”
Once again we see a story of Jesus healing someone, and the crowd being amazed, driving the outraged Pharisees to accuse Jesus of being filled with the devil. Jesus pointed out that their accusation was absurd simply from human logic as no kingdom divided against itself can stand, that their accusation was prejudiced because their own people were also driving out demons (or at least claiming to, or under the impression that they were) and the Pharisees weren't accusing them of demonic activity, and there accusation shows their rebelliousness against Jesus and therefore God.
He then illustrates this and shows that He if is able to control the demons of Satan then He must be able to tie up the Devil himself, and if He is able to do that than He must be God, but not only are they rejecting that truth, they are calling Him the Devil.
All of which adds up to Jesus giving us the unforgivable sin. Virtually all sin is forgivable upon genuine repentance. But not blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. MacArthur explains...
Forgiveness is based on repentance and faith in Christ. If they concluded that Christ was filled with the Devil, they certainly weren't going to listen to His message about repentance and put their faith in Him. The reason they could never be forgiven is because they would never believe. Why? Because when they had been given all the evidence there was, their conclusion was the very opposite of the truth; therefore, they were hopeless.
I mean, if you only knew a little bit about Jesus Christ, you could be brought along to know a little more, or a little more, until it finally dawned on you what the truth was. But if you have known all the truth, and you have concluded that He is satanic, you're hopeless. If salvation comes by faith in Christ, and the confidence that He is God, and that He has confronted your sins from which you will repent and turn to Him (and they wouldn't believe any of that), then they could never be redeemed or forgiven.
For them, it became a permanent state; that's why, at the end of verse 32, it says, "It will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." There would be no forgiveness. You see, they saw the work of the Holy Spirit and said, "It's the Devil." It wasn't just some little deal; they had seen thousands of miracles and healings and dealings with demons. They had seen dramatic individual miracles, and massive numbers of miracles. They had heard teachings and preachings; there was no other society that ever lived on the face of the earth that had the information they had about who He was. And they concluded He was the Devil, so He says, "You can never be forgiven. There is no way." Why? "Because you will never get to the forgiveness condition, which is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, because you have concluded the very opposite."
So it isn't as if God is simply arbitrarily saying, "I don't like the way you're treating My Son; I will never forgive you, even if you come to Me." No, what He is saying is, "You have had so much evidence and you have drawn your conclusions, therefore it is obvious you will never come to Me. So you will never be forgiven." God couldn't have done any more....
It was attributing to Satan the works of the Spirit. When they had all the revelation there was, in the presence of the living Christ on earth, they concluded it was satanic. They could never be forgiven.
MacArthur says that to commit that very specific sin you'd have to have been alive while Christ was on the earth and so that was specific to that era. However, the same idea can occur now, like we saw when we studied Hebrews earlier this year. When people are presented with the fullness of the truth and decide against it, there could come a point where there is simply nothing more that God could do to reveal more truth to them, and they have hardened their hearts to the point of no turning back - but only God could possibly know when that has occurred, so we should never give up on anyone.
Referring to the book of Hebrews, MacArthur adds....
Here, in the very next generation, you have a very similar sin, where people had all the revelation that God could possibly give them, and they came to the edge, and said, "No, we're not interested," and they fell away.
Now, the ones who fell away could never again be renewed to repentance because they would never believe with less revelation what they wouldn't believe when they had it all. So they fell away. But how much more severe, not just to fall away (like Matthew 12), but to fall away and then overtly blaspheme. You see, the ones in Hebrews just didn't believe; they weren't willing to pay the price. But the ones in Matthew not only weren't willing to do that, but they blasphemed, so theirs is a greater guilt. But Hell is reserved for both.
You say, "What about this age?" In this age, the same principle is valid. If you have been exposed to all of the truth concerning the Gospel that God can give, in other words, you have enough to make a decision, and your final conclusion is that it is not the truth, you are unredeemable. The warning is, "Don't get to that point." That is why Jesus said, "You had better believe while it is day, for the night comes when the lights are going to go out."
The Pharisees condemn themselves by their vile words which revealed the vileness of their hearts., and so the Lord speaks about the tongue in v33-37.
Good trees produce good fruit and bad trees produce bad fruit - pretty basic, simple logic. But even though the Pharisees could see that what Jesus was doing was good (healing people, casting out demons) they claimed He was evil, which revealed the evil within their own hearts.
MacArthur says...
The Pharisees blasphemed Jesus; they came to condemn Him. But Jesus turns the table right around and says, "You can't condemn Me; I do good, therefore I must be good. Your vile blasphemy shows that you condemn yourselves because if that is what comes out of your mouth, then that is what is in your heart. We cannot expect anything different from you, being evil."
A man's character is known by his mouth. That which is in the heart of a man is going to come to the surface most obviously through his mouth. I don't have to talk to a man very long or on very many different occasions to find out whether in his heart is pure, wholesome thinking or lustful, evil, dirty thinking. I don't have to listen to him very long to find out whether his heart is kind, gentle, and thoughtful, or cruel, because it is going to come out of his mouth....
You can say a lot of things about what you're really like, but sooner or later, when your mouth speaks involuntarily, in stress, anger, impatience, isolation, or when you're not with Christians, you'll reveal what's inside your heart.
v37 is very clear that we will be judged by our words - because they reveal our heart.
Some people have a problem understanding that we will ultimately be judged on our works and on our words. We saw that in Romans 2, where it says that God will render to every man according to his deeds. Here it says He will judge men according to their words. By your works and your words will come your eternal judgment. What this says is not to obviate or negate salvation by grace through faith, but simply to show you that salvation by grace through faith will demonstrate itself in good works and good words, so that they become the objective criteria by which God can make that judgment.
The words of men are accurate gagues of their hearts; if you have a transformed heart and Jesus Christ has come into your life and transformed your heart, then you will speak words by which God will justify you. If Christ has never changed your heart, then you will speak words by which God will condemn you.
This does not mean we're not saved by grace. We are saved by grace through faith, that not of works, lest any man should boast. But the next verse says, Ephesians 2:10, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
We are saved by grace through faith unto works and words. The works and the words prove that the faith has been there. So God can look objectively at your words and know whether you've been redeemed, and so can you. If you have any question about whether you're saved, listen to yourself when you talk when no one is around, or when you're angry, irritated, upset, or thoughtless. Words will reveal what is in your heart. ...
There is no such thing as proving your salvation apart from some objective observation and demonstration. The Bible says you're saved by the manifestation of good works and good words; that is, your salvation is made visible, obvious, verified, validated. So don't come to me and say you know someone who is a Christian but they just don't show it, because there is no such thing. We don't show it enough, but we show it, because we are created unto good works....
I believe that, as Christians, we are accountable to God for what we say. If we speak evil words along with those good words that our new heart produces, we are going to be accountable to God for that and we may be chastened in the day of the bema judgment, we may lose our reward. We have to learn to tame our tongues too. There are those good things, those times we praise and thank God, those times we exalt Christ, and speak truth and wisdom, when we utter with the very voice of God, as it were, that prove we are the redeemed. But then there are those times when that bitter water comes out of the same fountain and James says, "These things ought not to be." Paul says, "Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt."
What does salt do? It prevents corruption. Our voice and speech should never contribute to anyone's corruption; it should always prevent that. Salt also has a way of adding flavor, so our speech should be charming, winsome, should cause laughter and joy in the right way at the expense of no one. Our speech should be spiritual, wholesome, fitting, kind, sensitive, loving, purposeful, edifying, gentle, truthful speech, and we should pray what the psalmist prayed in Psalm 141:3, when he said, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips."
I don't know about you, but that whole section on our words is very convicting to me.Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 12:38-50
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