 We've been reading together here in Matthew chapter 12 at verse 33. We'll read to verse 37, and we're looking at the words of your mouth, the words of your mouth. 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, 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 as we've been going through the Gospel of Matthew, I've been trying to highlight this so that we can keep this in the forefront of our mind. We know that the ministry of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as Matthew has been chronicling it for us, that his ministry has been blossoming and it's been expanding, and there are many people who are now following after the Lord Jesus Christ, and Matthew's been emphasizing the impact of Jesus on the general population of his day. To illustrate his impact, you might find this interesting. Matthew chooses to use the word under the inspiration of the spirit, but he chooses to use the word multitude in description of those who are following after Christ or at least coming to him. He uses the word multitude some 20 times and multitudes he uses 27 times. 47 times in the Gospel of Matthew he uses the word multitude or multitudes to describe the amount of people that are coming to hear him speak. These are people who are being taken by his words as well as his works, and these are people as we see as we've been going through Matthew that have been tremendously impacted. And so Matthew's been reporting what they have been saying, the people have been saying concerning Jesus Christ. Remember with me in Matthew chapter 9 verse 8 on the occasion that Jesus healed a paralyzed man and Jesus had forgiven this man of his sins. Remember how it says there the multitudes when they sought, they marveled and glorified God who had given such power to men. When they sought they marveled and glorified God. In chapter 9 verse 33 on another occasion he had cast out a demon from a mute man and again the multitude responded. It says when the demon was cast out the mute spoke and the multitudes marveled saying it was never seen like this in Israel. And so they're marveling, they're glorifying God, they're speaking concerning Israel never being impacted like this and now Israel is being impacted. Even in this chapter Jesus healed a man who was demon possessed, blind and mute and once again the people responded with amazement and they began to wonder out loud if Jesus was Messiah. We saw that in verse 23 when it simply says all the multitudes were amazed and said could this be the Son of David? And so the Pharisees when they heard them say could this be the Son of David, could this be Messiah? As I mentioned to you the phrase Son of David is a messianic term. They were saying can this be Messiah? Well the Pharisees immediately fueled any doubt that they had and made an accusation against the Lord Jesus Christ. Now they were unable to deny that Jesus was performing amazing works. So because they could not deny that he performed works they called into question how he did them. And so they had said he cast out demons by Beelzebub the ruler of the demons. Jesus responded by telling them that opposition to God requires a united effort. Satan doesn't cast out demons because it would internally destroy his own program. And so we were looking at that last time and it began to dawn on me that some of you perhaps have seen some of these programs on television and all where you see people who are claiming to communicate with the dead or having encounters with ghosts and all. And you may have questions concerning that so I thought I'd take just a moment for an aside to share a little bit about that. Because you see this on TV, you see people who are not Christians and yet they claim to do battle with demons or they say that they speak to ghosts or the departed spirits of the dead and all. And there are TV shows that are based on that kind of activity. Ghosted ventures, ghost hunters, the dead files, my ghost story, celebrity ghost stories, the scariest places on earth, my haunted house, the Long Island medium, all of them feature this kind of thing. And there are people who watch these programs, they're very popular. So somebody says, but wait a minute, these people are communicating with the dead or these are people who are doing battle with demons. Are you saying that only Christians have the authority and power to cast out demons, are you saying that? No, I'm not, but the Bible is. You see, Satan is revealed in scripture as one who disguises himself as an angel of light. In 2 Corinthians 11, 14, and 15, it says Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their work. Satan disguises himself, it is no small wonder if his ministers do the same. There was a book written many years ago, perhaps some of you read it. It was called The Beautiful Side of Evil. And I read it was concerning a woman's transformation from the occult to come into faith in Christ. She pointed out that evil has a beautiful appearance. If Satan was unmasked, if he showed you his real pure evil, nobody would follow him. So what he does is he disguises himself, and that's what the Bible says, he transforms himself into an angel of light. And his ministers are also deceiving and disguised. You see, in that manner, he gives the impression that the non-believer is casting out demons. That's not what is really happening, but it does cause people to think that it is, and therefore you don't need Jesus Christ. There's an interesting story found in the book of Acts in chapter 19 verses 13 through 17. There it says, some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, we exercise you by Jesus, by Jesus whom Paul preaches. Also, there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest who did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, but who are you? Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped upon them, overpowered them, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. Jesus, I know, excuse me, when you look at the New Testament and you remember that the New Testament was originally written in Koine Greek or common Greek, often the words that we translate in a single English word, know, have different meanings. In this particular portion of scripture, the word know, when it says, Jesus, I know, was a certain Greek word. And Paul, I know, is a different Greek word. And so when he says, Jesus, I know, he's saying, I have personal knowledge of Jesus. We have a personal, I have a personal awareness of him. The demon obviously would, in that Jesus Christ is God. So Jesus, I know, when he says, and Paul, I know, he's saying, I am acquainted with Paul, because Paul being used by God, his reputation was going throughout the demonic kingdom. Jesus, I know, Paul, I'm thoroughly acquainted with, but who are you? And when he said, who are you, he was basically saying, just because you are trying to exercise us in the name of Jesus, you don't have familiarity with him, you don't even know him. And the result is you have no power over us. And that's what's taking place. I wonder what would happen if you had a real life story, because these guys are not running into any real demons. Let me tell you something. If they ran into demons, they'd be running out of the house. They wouldn't be hanging around there saying, oh, acting all bad, this and that. They wouldn't be doing that at all. If the demon manifested himself, and sometimes I wish he would. You see him running out naked, that would be interesting TV, because that's what would happen. But we have this idea that, oh, it's just nothing. It's just a parlor game, you know, and all of that. It is not in any way, shape, or form that way. So when somebody who doesn't know the Lord attempts to cast out a demon, either the demon does not manifest itself, or the demon could pretend to be leaving in order to give credence or credibility to that person, because that, in effect, undermines the ministry of the Lord, because it gives the impression that something is actually happening. And when Jesus himself said, Satan doesn't cast out Satan, it would create a tension in his own kingdom. It would not be united and unified, and thus it would come to ineffectiveness. And so that's what's actually taking place. Now, as this was going on, we saw that in response to what they were saying. Jesus warned them about the unforgivable sin. We looked at that. It's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And he had said, every sin in blasphemy is forgivable, with the exception of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And that is the sin that says, Jesus's death for us was not necessary and not important. We looked at the gospel of Mark, and I utilized what Mark said to give clarity. Because in Mark 3.29 and 30, it said, whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying he has an evil spirit. They were attributing to Jesus' demonic power, thus rejecting the work of the Spirit. We saw that last time. You see, Jesus made it abundantly clear that his works were from God. He said in John 5.36, I have a greater witness than John's for the works which the Father has given me to finish. The very works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father has sent me. So because the Pharisees credited his works to Satan, they would be judged because they are being guilty of rejecting Messiah. In John 1.10 and 11, it says he was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own people did not receive him. In Isaiah 53, verse 3, he was despised, rejected by men, a man of sorrows, familiar with suffering, like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. So they're rejecting him. Jesus now continues his teaching, concerning the importance of guarding your speech, because they had been saying that he was casting out demons in the name of Beelzebub, and what they are saying is revealing their hearts. And so he has already said, and I'll say verse 32 and move into verse 33, he has already said, anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come. And as I've mentioned to you, when you stand before the Lord, it's not just saying Jesus is Lord. That's not just some formula. It is a confession of faith. If you confess Jesus before man, he also will confess you before his father in heaven. But if you deny him before man, he too will deny you before his father in heaven. And so it's not just a simple formula, it's really what is exposing your own heart. And so he goes on to say in verse 33, either make the tree good and it's fruit good, or else make the tree bad and it's fruit bad. Notice for a tree is known by its fruit. So he addresses man's nature and he gives two illustrations concerning man's nature. Notice he says, good trees produce good fruit and a bad tree produces bad fruit. Jesus is saying that they need to judge the fruit that he is producing. Is what he is doing good or is what he is doing evil? Which one is it? It can't be both. Is it good or is it evil? You need to make a decision. He also is inferring that they are demonstrating their own nature in the way they're responding to him and what they're saying about him. You see, he's healing the sick, he's casting out demons, he's cleansing lepers, he's proclaiming the kingdom. So the question is, is what he is doing proceeding from an evil heart or a pure heart? He in essence is saying, make up your mind about me. Am I evil? Doing evil work or am I good? Doing good work. Concerning this, you must decide. Now he'd already made the, he's already drawn them to make a decision in verse 28 when he said, if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. You decide what is taking place. You see my works and my works are good, but you are attributing my works to Satan. And in doing this, you are revealing your own evil nature and you are revealing that you are self-deceived. I've had people say to me, but you don't know my heart. You don't know my heart. And the answer to that one is absolutely I don't. God does. But what does God say about our hearts? Well, in Jeremiah 17, nine and 10, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. I know the heart and the heart produces works. And so God says, I see your heart and I also see what you do. Your bad works reveal that you are in fact bad trees, is what Jesus is saying, and you are ripe for judgment. A tree is known by its fruit. I have an orange tree in my backyard and it's never produced a plum. I like plums, but it produces oranges. And I go walking out there right now, I've been pulling off these huge old oranges, you know? A tree is known by its fruit, what it produces. And human nature produces fruit. And a person who hasn't been born again, a person who's never been, what the scripture would say, regenerate it, born again, born from above, a person with an unregenerated human nature produces fruit. And the fruit that is produced by an unregenerate nature is simply called the works of the flesh. In Galatians five, Paul speaking of this in verses 19 through 21 said this. He said, when you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results, sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now Jesus used this illustration before. It reveals that they were ready for judgment. In Matthew seven, 17 through 19, we saw this where he said a healthy tree produces good fruit and an unhealthy tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. So Jesus is speaking concerning their nature and that's why he says in verse 33, either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad, a tree is known by its fruit. So he's saying that my life is gonna produce certain evidences of what I really believe. Then he goes on and flatters them. He says, brood of vipers. Now isn't that a kind thing for him to say? Brood of vipers. You know, many times people say, well, Jesus is meek and mild. Jesus is meek and mild. Of course, he describes himself as so but he's also confrontive because truth and righteousness always will be. And as he's speaking to them, he says that to them, brood of vipers. Now when he says brood of vipers, the word viper is a word that describes a variety of poisonous snakes. Vipers were known for being deadly and they were also known for being deceptive. Vipers would rest in the sand or among rocks and shrubs and they could attack you without warning. There's a time when the apostle Paul was gathering some sticks in order to put it into a pile to light a fire. And as he put his hand into the pile of sticks, there was a viper that was there, a poisonous snake, and he reached in and the viper latched upon him. They looked like it was just a dried up stick when in reality it was waiting there to attack anything that came near. And that's why Jesus is saying, you are a brood of vipers. You're a brood because there are many of them. And you travel around in groups and you poison those that you come across. They're deadly because their teachings are spiritual poison. They're deceptive because they give the appearance of religious holiness and righteousness. And listen, I know it's not popular to point things out like this today. I know that the generation that we're ministering to has a sense that you ought not to mention names of people because aren't we all trying just to get along, but I'm not really what you'd call politically correct. And there are times when I think it's important to simply mention a warning because the deceptiveness of some of the doctrine that's going out today is causing a lot of people a lot of pain. And so I will say to people, say when they speak to me and say to me, well, have you ever heard this teacher? I'm real open to say, yes, I have. What do you think about them? I'm real open to say, well, this is what I've studied and this is what I know and this is what I would warn you about. And so if somebody says that, do you know Joel Osteen? I'll say, I think he's got a great personality. Would you go to his church? No. Why? Because he holds a Bible and he says, this is my Bible and never opens it up. And when he does, he misquotes it. And so no, of course not. Well, how about Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Deplantis? What do you think about them? I think that God is their judge. What do I think about the doctrine? I think the doctrine's improper. It is raw. As a matter of fact, I don't think that. I know that. It's wrong. And so they're teaching bad doctrine. Well, what about Creflo Dollar? Creflo Dollar is well-named because he likes dollars. That's what you can see. By the fruit, you will know them. By the fruit, you will know them. Be careful. Be careful with these people that you collect as your teachers that influence your life. Be careful when you're driving down the street and you're hunting through the radio trying to find something or at home, putting it on different programs and all. Be very careful because some of the even more popular TV programs, the Hillsong, there are just bad teachings. I mean in New York, there's a Hillsong in New York and you can go to the baptism and they have a bar there. So you go to the bar and then go to the baptism. There's something wrong with that. And so be careful with these kinds of things. Before we start following after people, you have to test to see whether or not these things are so. And don't be lazy. Don't be thinking that everything that's coming out of somebody's mouth is true. Check me. I don't have a problem with it. Check me out. See whether or not these things are so. If they're not, then confront me. I'll listen to you. Well, what I'm saying is true. I have no problem with that. And you need to be aware of that because they are deadly and they are deceptive. These people are religious hypocrites who are deceiving the people. The religious appearance is deceptive. Their improper teaching is deadly. In Matthew 23, 15, Jesus says it like this. He says, what do you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you travel over land and sea to win a single convert and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. In Matthew 23, verse 33, he said, serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? And so he says in verse 34, how can you, being evil, speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Your unregenerate human nature cannot help but speak things that are evil. In Romans 3, verses 13 and 14, Paul said it like this. He said, the throats are open graves, their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. What is Jesus saying? He's saying, our words are evidence of the state of our heart. The fact is what is inside ultimately will come out. The mouth simply reveals the inner character of a person. Your words reveal the condition of your heart. Let's turn our Bibles to James chapter three. I'm timing you, let's see how fast you get there, go. James chapter three, I wanna show you something. In James chapter three, James is right by Hebrews, just right past it. Somebody says, where is James? James is with the Lord, but his book is next to Hebrews. In James chapter three, verse one, beginning there, listen to what the word of the Lord says. My brethren, let not many of you become teachers knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment for we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man able also to bridle the whole body. Indeed, we put bits in horses mouths that they may obey us and we turn their whole body. Look at ships, although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. Even so, the tongue is a little member in both great things. See how great a forest, a little fire kindles. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body and sets on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird of reptile and creature of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing, my brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring can yield both salt water and fresh. It just doesn't happen. And so turning on back to Matthew, that is our nature and it's out of the abundance of the heart that our mouth is going to speak. And the Bible teaches very clearly that the heart is the seed of thought and will as well as a revealer of character. The heart is not simply something we use to describe our emotions. If you're looking in the Old Testament to see what is related to your emotions, often you would see the liver or the kidney or something of that, you know, the bowels. And that speaks of emotion. The heart is the seed of thinking. The heart is where we have our thought and our will revealed. And in Matthew, Jesus says in chapter 15, verses 18 and 19, the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart. And these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander. And so it's out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. You see, we eventually put our thoughts into words and ultimately they reveal the reality of our nature. If you're dealing with lust, lust will produce crude words. If you're dealing with ill will, if you're harboring it in your heart, that produces angry words. Insecurity results in mean words. Warm feelings result in loving words. Kindness is expressed through kind words and faith is going to be expressed through preaching the gospel. It's what's in the heart that comes out. And that's, isn't that true? It's absolutely true. If you bump into a vat of vinegar, vinegar's going to come out because that's what's in it. Anything that causes that vat to be disturbed, whatever is on the inside is going to pull out. That's one of the ways you can see where your walk with the Lord is, is how you respond to when somebody provokes you. What comes out is what's in your heart and that's what Jesus is saying. And so he says in verse 35, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. So a good man is a regenerated man or a born again man and a regenerated man out of the good treasure brings forth good things. Treasure is a word when you look at it, it's where we get the word thesaurus from. It speaks of a storehouse or a treasury. It refers to what is locked in our hearts. So what are you storing in your treasuries is the question. How can you have a treasury that is filled with good things to draw from? What is it and how is it that I'm going to be able to pour something into my heart that out of the abundance of my heart will demonstrate where I am? In order to have a treasury filled with good things, we have to be born again. And new nature gives us the ability to draw good things out of our treasury. Let me give you three things. If you're asking yourself, how can I have a heart that pours forth the good things? Listen, we're living in a time, if you don't mind I'll be a little more practical for just a moment. Perhaps some of you have already seen this. It's not new, but it was for a while. It was becoming kind of a rage. And I don't know if any of you will even relate to this. Probably some may and others may not. But let me just say it this way. In the last few years, there have been, I've had questions people have asked or mentioned that there were certain preachers that they'd heard who were well known. They had large groups of people coming to hear them. But some of the messages they were given were what we would call x-rated messages. They were just improper, coming from a pulpit. And just improper, period. Whether it's in a pulper or not, they were just improper. And there are some preachers that were known, one in particular comes to mind, we call them the cussing preacher. But there were more than one who had come up and would use vulgarity and profanity when they were preaching. And I've mentioned that before. I've taught at pastors' conferences where I've shared with the men that the pulpit is really God's holy table. You're supposed to proclaim the truth from the pulpit. You never reduce God's word to try and be cool and relevant. What you do is you uplift the word of God so that the people listening can follow after a God who really encourages them to live a holy and proper life. That's what the word of God teaches. And I've shared that over and over and over again, but there's some very popular preachers who use some real profanity. Well, Jesus would say, how did the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks? Because what's ever inside is gonna come out and that's the point he's making. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart will produce or bring forth evil things. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth is gonna speak. So how do I fill my treasure with good things? I wanna be a person who if I hit my thumb where the hammer doesn't begin to have all kinds of profanities. How does that happen? And let me tell you, people are watching you. When I was in the army, it's been a long time ago now, I was a Christian at that time of maybe two years and I was taking a class small engine repair and they were teaching us how to repair these lawnmower engines and all of that. And so there's a spring that was inside of this engine and you have your cord that you pull back in order to crank the engine, right? And so I had my thumb placed on top of the engine and I was chest firing it and I pulled it and when I pulled this, it's a pretty heavy loaded spring, it slipped out of my hand. When it slipped out of my hand, it hit my thumb and it hurt. I still remember the pain. I went, oh, I became like a baby for a moment. I put my thumb in my mouth and I'm just going, oh, oh, oh, oh, I remember that, bang. And there's my civilian who was teaching a small engine repair standing right next to me and I'm just, oh, and I walked around and it hurt like crazy. Few days later, it was lunchtime and the guys had gone out of the room and they were seated outside eating when the professor or the teacher approaches me and he asked me a question. He said it like this. I still remember he was from North Carolina, he had a strong southern accent but he said, son, may I ask you a question? And I said, of course, may I ask you if you're a Christian? I said, yes, I am. How did you know? Because I hadn't shared with him. He said the other day, when you smashed your thumb, he said, I was waiting to hear what was going to come out of your mouth. He said, and nothing came out. He said, are you a Christian? I said, yes, sir, I am. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks and once those words get out, you can't bring them back, can you? Have you ever said something you wish you wouldn't have said? Yes, all of us have, sometimes many times. How can I live in such a way that I don't? It's not to say that we'll ever be perfect, of course, but what can I do to help myself in the Lord? Let me give you three things. One, spend time in God's word and I'm not talking about once in a while, spend regular time in the word of God. In Psalm two, verses six and seven, the Lord proverbs two, six and seven, the Lord gives wisdom, from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. Psalm 119, 11, your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. One, spend regular time in the word. Two, meditate deeply on his word and determine to obey its commands. Psalm 119, 15, I meditate on your precepts, consider your ways. Psalm 119, 97, I love your law, I meditate on it all day long. You are actually treasuring up the words of God's mouth. But third, discipline yourself in the way that you speak and the things that you say. Listen, it doesn't just happen. When I gave my heart to Christ, my friend Bill said, I know you're saved, David. I said, how could you know I'm saved? He says, you don't cuss anymore. My language was well known as being very profane. As a matter of fact, when I was in high school, the track coach said this, this is a quote, this isn't something weird I'm saying just to say it. It's true. The coach, the track coach said, David is the quickest guy in high school, but he has the dirtiest mouth I've ever heard on any kid. And that's the truth. I would invent combinations of profanity just to shock people. That's the truth. I use some filthy language all the time. That's how I spoke. It was a habit of speech. I was with Bill, my friend Bill, and my mom one day, somebody drove by and I asked who is that person, but I said it in a different kind of way. And Bill goes, ah, and my mom says, oh, that's all. And then she said, did you just, and I said, it was my habit. I spoke profanely all the time because out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth was gonna speak. My heart was profaned. When I got saved, I said, I wanna have my heart filled with good things. Read the word of God, meditate on the word of God, and discipline yourself. It isn't just going to happen. It doesn't come just naturally. There's this mentality of I just wanna give honor to God. In Ephesians 4.29, do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And so discipline yourself. We may desire to say true and kind things. Sometimes we have an impulse to say unkind things. And so discipline yourself, fill yourself, meditate on the things of the Lord, and watch what will happen. He goes on to say, and we'll close. 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. By your words, you will be condemned. Your words are an accurate gauge of your commitment to Christ. Your speech will always betray your heart. Ultimately, your entire way of life will come under God's eye, including your idle words. That word idle means careless or unprofitable. Everything comes under God's watchful eye, including our useless speech. Now the unbeliever only has unprofitable words. That's because his life isn't filled with the treasures of God's grace. And his ultimate rejection of Christ will be demonstrated by his verbal rejection of the gospel. But he goes on to say, for by your words, you'll be justified. On the other hand, the believer confesses Jesus Christ and lives in such a way before men that they may see his good works and glorify God who's in heaven. The things that he does and the things that he says are the same. He doesn't say one thing and do another. And so the way that he lives is such an evidence that the things that he says has credibility. I've had people tell me before I was saved, you really ought not to do that. And I would look at them almost amazed and I'd say, you're telling me to do what you yourself, do not to do what you yourself do. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Well, nobody's perfect. That's one of the biggest confounds that we know of. Nobody's perfect. Of course nobody's perfect. It doesn't take an awful lot of thoughtfulness to realize that. But there are some people who are really sincerely attempting to do that which God calls them to do. Their lives demonstrate that. Don't be a lazy listeners. Don't be forgetful hearers, but be doers. Say God, I want to get into your word and I want your word to get into me. I want to live a life that is demonstrating that I actually do what I say I believe. Because what I am speaks so loudly that people can't hear a word that I'm saying. In the case of the Pharisees, the Pharisees are rejecting Christ by saying the works that he's performing are coming from Beelzebub. But Jesus says, you're unrighteous. He says, you're a brood of vipers. You go around in packs and you bring bad doctrine and you bring people into slavery and God is gonna deal with you. You're rejecting what God can do in a human life because you're claiming that the works that I'm doing are actually being prompted by Satan and that's ridiculous because Satan doesn't war against himself. So you're gonna have to understand Jesus is saying who I really am. And when you say that I'm from Beelzebub, you're demonstrating that you don't have a relationship with God. Because those who know God will hear God's voice. And when they hear God's voice, they respond, their lives are changed. And so he's saying, by your words, you are gonna be justified and by your words, you are gonna be condemned. By your rejection of Christ, you are condemned. By your reception of Jesus and living that out, you're justified. And so he's calling them to a decision, the same decision every believer has to make ourselves.