In this sermon titled 'Who is My Mother and Brother?' by Scott Brown, the speaker discusses a scene of conflict described in the passage, highlighting the rising conflict and the hatred against the gospel and Jesus Christ. He addresses three critical questions: the nature of an evil and adulterous generation, the characteristics of the work of the devil, and the qualification for being a member of the true family of God. Brown emphasizes the importance of understanding these questions in the context of God's plan in redemptive history. He also warns about the dangers of moral reformation without genuine spiritual life and the significance of obedience to God's will. The sermon concludes with Jesus asserting that those who do the will of His Father in heaven are His true family.

Dropping into this text, it's difficult to grasp the scene in such a controlled environment and in such a peaceful place with central air conditioning and all these kinds of things. This scene that we've just read about is the polar opposite of the scene here in this room today, because it's a scene of conflict. It's a scene of rising conflict. Every step of the way in chapter 12 has been an illustration of the hatred against the gospel and the message of Jesus Christ. In verse 14 of this chapter, after Jesus was instructing about how to use the Sabbath and how to interpret it, and then healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, the Pharisees determined to put him to death, to destroy him.

So it's a scene of enormous conflict. If you can imagine, there are multitudes all around him. There's so many people around him that his family can't even get to him. I mean, they are outside and there's this huge crowd. He's healing the sick.

He's raising the dead. And he has people in the crowd who want to kill him. So the scene here is a really dramatic one that's difficult to grasp when you just read the text. But I want us to somehow transport ourselves into this scene of conflict that's here. And, you know, also as we're gathered here on the first day of the year, and how I love the first days of the year, God in His providence has us that we will be considering these really vital questions that are in this text.

If you have an outline in front of you, you'll see what these questions are. First of all, what is an evil and adulterous generation? Secondly, what does the work of the devil look like? And then thirdly, what makes you a member of the true family of God. These questions are so critical for understanding of God and the execution of God's plan in history, the markers that He has placed in the history of redemption, because in this passage we're taken all the way back to the days of Jonah and then transported all the way forward when the men of Nineveh rise up in the day of judgment to condemn the Jews in this scene in the midst of this almost riotous, cacophonous scene of battle that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the midst of.

So it's a scene that is sort of the vortex of many, many other scenes of markers of redemption that God has placed in history. Even the marker of Jonah being swallowed in the belly of a whale and then belched up on the beach and it having meaning for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So it's a passage that encompasses so many things, but these questions, they're also very important for us as we go into the new year. For some reason, God has it in His providence that we would consider these questions on the first day of the year. And I pray that somehow that we would ask these questions very seriously about ourselves, about our community and the way that we live.

While what this passage speaks of is the work of God, that His sovereign will, in actually blinding the eyes of Israel and setting them aside and casting judgment upon them and then bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. While it has such a critical place in redemptive history, these questions also are questions that we should be asking ourselves. So somehow today, if we can sort of live in both worlds, this world, this gigantic crowd around Jesus Christ and the scene that's there, what we learn from it, and then what do we learn from these questions for our own lives. And so, as we're coming here to the end of a major section in Matthew, as you know, we've been in 11 and 12, which is a narrative section where the conflict is rising against the Son of God. And there are many issues that are on the table that cause this conflict, beginning with, in chapter 12, at least, with the conflict over the Sabbath, how the Pharisees had created so many man-made laws about the celebration of the Sabbath.

And Jesus Christ takes them back to a sufficient word that he has given regarding the celebration of the Sabbath. And we learn so many wonderful things about the Sabbath, that the Sabbath is made for man. But the problem is, when men create their own laws, it creates conflict. And this is why the Pharisees want to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ, as we learn in chapter, in verse 14. And so this plot is, is, is in the, We're in the midst of it here, and Jesus is speaking of unbelief and hypocrisy.

He's showing what these things look like in a person's life. He speaks of a particular sin, the unpardonable sin, The sin of looking at the things that God is doing and despising it and calling it evil. To see something that is truly good and to call it evil And to do this is the unpardonable sin. We talked about that last week. We talked about the work of gathering and scattering in verse 30.

This also defines the conflict that is on the table here. He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters abroad. Jesus is speaking of those who are gathering and those who are scattering. And human beings only find themselves in one of these two categories of gathering or scattering.

And then what we learn here is in this fourth confrontation with the Pharisees in chapter 12, where Jesus calls this an evil and adulterous generation. And so we find in verses 38 through 42 what is an evil and an adulterous generation. And it's an important question to understand that time and also to understand our own times. Jesus has called them a brood of vipers, which means they're the offspring of vipers. And at the end of this chapter we'll learn what it means to be the offspring of God, to be part of the family of God.

Now the Pharisees had aligned themselves with the Herodians. We learned this in Mark chapter 3. They've sought support for the great expounders of the law and the scribes. They're in league with whoever they can get in league with to destroy the Son of God. And With that, the scribes and the Pharisees come to Jesus in verse 38 with deceptive language.

They say, teacher, we want to see a sign from you. They're pretending to be honorable. They're using the word teacher here. They've already seen many of his signs. He's been healing, casting out demons.

He's been raising the dead. He's calmed the sea. He heals with a touch. He heals by added distance. They've seen enough of his signs.

His signs are so well known that Jesus can hardly go anywhere. He can hardly eat because of the attention that his signs have drawn. And yet the Pharisees want another sign. They are the consummate fakers in religion. And it was not a sincere request.

It was actually a request that arose out of a heart of disbelief. But the miracles alone were not enough for these men and they had witnessed them but the problem is that they were blind and while seeing the miracles, they only increase their hatred of God. And so this hardening of the heart seems to continue in the same way that when Moses was performing the miracles in Egypt, Do you remember what happened to Pharaoh's heart? Was it softened? Not a bit.

It was hardened more and more. And this often happens with people. You would think if they would see something wonderful, if you could be wonderful, If you could be more wonderful than you are today. If you could be more persuasive. If you could be more kind.

More hospitable. More giving. More sacrificial. Somehow they would see not true. They even see these Pharisees, they have seen all the signs, just like Pharaoh did.

But the signs are never really enough. And of course the Lord Jesus knows this and He answers them in verse 39. He says, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish. So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." So here, the Lord Jesus is condemning this generation, a whole generation.

And we've encountered this term, this generation, already before. And it's an important term. In Matthew, if you understand the message of Matthew, in chapter 11 verse 16, the Lord Jesus says, to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the market places and calling on their companions. In other words, This is a generation that's never satisfied if you come if if John the Baptist comes with the with a message of Death and judgment and repentance or if the Lord Jesus Christ Comes feasting with a message of mercy.

It doesn't matter to the children in the marketplace. They don't really care. They really, it doesn't matter what you bring them. This whole generation was like that. No matter what you brought this generation, they would not believe.

And so he uses this term, this generation, and we see it in verse 41 and verse 42, and then we see it in verse 45, and then we'll also see it in Matthew 23 and 24. Again, this term, this generation. He says that it's an evil generation. He means it's worthless, it's unserviceable. He's casting a pretty large stone against this generation that he was speaking to.

And it's also an adulterous generation, meaning it's an unfaithful generation, meaning it's a fulfillment of the unfaithfulness and the spiritual adultery that the prophets spoke of as well. And Israel was often compared to adultery, physical adultery. And so this idea that we've also encountered in Matthew, as the Lord Jesus is quoting the Old Testament, we see these themes continue to come, that this generation is an adulterous generation. And it also seeks for a sign. It has a desire to experience something.

You know, there's this striving in man to see something unusual. But God has given enough signs already. In this case, he says he's given the sign of Jonah already, as if that was enough. It was certainly enough for the men of Nineveh. The men of Nineveh didn't see any signs.

They just saw Jonah. And so this example of this adulterous generation, you know, God has given signs in many times in history. He gave a sign to Abraham. He gave a sign to Gideon and Moses and to Elijah. But that's different than this generation that's seeking after some kind of a new sign.

And so He's questioning this generation and naming them for what they really are. That they are not really sincere at all. He's saying that their question is really a question that comes out of spiritual adultery rather than a legitimate question. And this is usually how it is with unbelievers. They ask questions, but really they're hiding their own duplicity, their own desire to keep their own life, and their loathing of having an authority, their displeasure in bowing their knee and repenting of their sins and admitting who they really are.

The heart of the matter really goes far, far beyond questions that an apologist is even able to answer. Because you can't even give enough signs to make someone believe. It's a work of God that causes someone to believe. In fact, in Matthew 15, we'll find the Pharisees are going to up the ante again. They're going to ask for a sign from heaven.

Give us a sign, a celestial sign. What were they looking for? Turn the sky some color or write someone's name in the sky, give some celestial sign. So the hunger for a sign, it just continues to increase. If you notice the rapid increase of opposition to the Lord Jesus in Matthew, It's reaching higher and higher elevations here in this passage.

And then we see that, you know, the blindness to what God has already done. In verse 38, they said they want this sign. And it's because they do not understand that a sign has already been given. So Jesus explains that no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 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.

And so, their hearts were so hardened that they didn't see the signs that were already given. They wanted something new and something better. They weren't satisfied with what God had already given. And it just makes me think of our own lives here together in this church. There are so many markers that God has given for how we might understand the world, how we might understand ourselves, and how we're supposed to live.

And they're given in Scripture. They are right there before our eyes. And often we want to try to find something new, something different than what God has given. This is the heart of unbelief. This is the heart of spiritual adultery.

It's the seed of it. And that's what they were experiencing. They didn't marvel at what God had already given in terms of the signs. And I just asked the question, how would it be that we would marvel in this coming year, like we never have before, with all the things that God has given. I pray that God would do that.

I've been praying that God would do that for myself as well. This week, my family, we were reading the prophet Zechariah, and we came to chapter 7, verse 11, And we read, but they refused to heed, they shrugged their shoulders and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. And they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit to the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts." This whole thing of the shrugging of the shoulders, this is the heart of unbelief, This is the beginning of spiritual adultery and apostasy. And this thing that had grown to magnificent proportions in the Pharisees is explained here.

Spiritual adultery is being explained here. It's not seeing the signs, reading Jonah and not understanding it, not loving it enough, caring for it enough, laboring long enough to really understand it. They saw the sign of Jonah, but they did not believe. And Jesus explains that the signs have already been given. And then, the whole reason that they're not seeing is explained by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 11.

And it explains really this whole section of what's happening. If you want to know the backdrop of this whole scene, Romans 11 verse 8 really explains it. For just as it was written, God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a recompense to them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they do not see and bow down their back always.

I say then, they have stumbled. Have they stumbled that they should fall Certainly not but through their fall to provoke them to jealousy Salvation has come to the Gentiles. So God God has stopped up the ears. He has closed the eyes He's given them a spirit of stupor so that they don't see. And then in verse 41 we read about the testimony of the men of Nineveh, which is compared to the testimony of these Pharisees, who are like in a state of stupor.

While the men of Nineveh, they saw the sign of Jonah, and they repented. And so in verse 41 we read, 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. Now think about this scene that's described in verse 41. The men of Jonah at the judgment day are going to rise up, and they're also going to rise up with the men of this generation. So Jesus is saying those men in Nineveh, they're going to rise up just like the men and the women in this generation.

And they're going to rise up and the men of Nineveh are going to point to that generation and they're going to condemn it at the day of judgment. And so that's why you see this passage spans such a tremendous range of redemptive history, all the way back to Jonah, to the time of Christ, to the time of the resurrection which comes, and then to the final judgment when the men of Nineveh and the people of that generation will stand before God at the judgment that the dead will rise out of their graves and they will stand before God and the sheep and the goats will be divided. Now here Jesus is dividing the sheep and the goats. He is casting judgment on a people who will not believe. And so this is what is going to happen at the day of judgment.

And they will say, we didn't see any signs, but you saw signs. We repented, and you did not repent. And so it brings to mind how careful we ought to be when we see the signs of the workings of God. To be very attentive to them. To love them.

To meditate on them. To respond rightly to them. How often do we waste the signs? Think of the wasted, in a sense, signs. No signs are wasted, but men can despise them and waste them.

And I've just been wondering this week, you know, how have we wasted the signs, the works of God, both in Scripture and also the works of God after, after the completion of the writing of Scripture, even in our lives. How we even looked back this last year and we've been so blind to what God has done because of the hardness of our heart, our selfishness. We're so busy, we have so many things going on that we don't have any ability to even contemplate the signs of the working of God in our lives. Well, this situation here is one of such a radical nature. He's speaking of final judgment.

He's speaking of the hardness of heart that rejects the signs. And the Pharisees were looking at the signs and they were saying, no, this is the work of the devil. So this passage is, you know, in the midst of this gigantic crowd, Jesus is saying some pretty inflammatory things to these Pharisees. There's this question of what does it mean three days and three nights? How is Jonah assigned for the resurrection?

Because Jesus, you might say, wasn't in the grave for three days and three nights. He was, he was, as Jonah was in three days and three nights, Is this accurate or not? Is Jesus speaking accurately or did he make a mistake? I'll just read a couple of commentators on this passage. It was a matter of days and nights he spent both kinds of earthly time in the heart of the earth.

There's both kinds of time. Let me read John MacArthur. This sort of expression was a common way of underscoring the prophetic significance of a period of time. An expression like 40 days and 40 nights may in some cases simply refer to a period of time longer than a month. Three days and three nights was an emphatic way of saying three days.

And by Jewish reckoning, this would be an apt way of expressing a period of time that includes parts of three days. Thus, if Christ was crucified on a Friday and his resurrection occurred on the first day of the week, by Hebrew reckoning this would qualify as three days and three nights. All sorts of elaborate schemes have been devised to suggest that Christ might have died on Wednesday or Thursday just to accommodate the extreme literal meaning of these words, but the original meaning would not have required such a wooden interpretation. Another commentator said it this way, according to the Jewish reckoning, any part of the day was regarded as a whole. Jesus spent parts of three days in the grave, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which met the requirement from the viewpoint of first century Jewish culture.

Now, that may or may not be true, but that's at least what most of the commentators say about that. I think that's the most reasonable way to harmonize it. Then after this remembrance of the days of Jonah and the men of Nineveh, then Jesus speaks of the testimony of the Queen of Sheba in verse 42. The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it. So now you also have the Queen of Sheba at the judgment day who was saved during the days of Solomon.

And she's also going to rise up with that generation and condemn that generation at the Judgment. You know, it's really important to understand where you're going. All of us, you may not know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day, but here's one thing you do know. You are all going to stand at the judgment. You are going to stand at this scene.

You are going to witness this, and you will be there. And there will be either condemnation or there will be mercy given out. All people will end up in this one scene that is described here in verse 42. So it says, For she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here. Her heart was hungry.

She wanted to hear the wisdom. She wanted to hear the proverb that would break the bones. She desired to hear the wisdom of God. She was hungry for it. In contrast to these hard-hearted Pharisees, they did not want to hear it at all.

While they did hear it in one way, they memorized the Torah. They spoke of it. They quoted it. And they in a very wooden way lived by it. But they didn't hear it in the same way that the Queen of Sheba heard it.

She heard it with her heart. And she loved it. And she craved for more. And because her heart was toward God and not just her head, she will stand at the judgment with that generation and she will condemn it because she had a heart to believe and that's the difference and she too will stand up in the day of judgment you know this this woman traveled 1200 miles to come and hear the wisdom of Solomon. She was motivated out of her love for him.

And God bless her. She was hungry for it. And so here you have these two illustrations of the men of Nineveh and the Queen of Sheba. You have a nation of people on the one hand, and you have an individual, the Queen of Sheba. And all probably to illustrate God's mercy toward the Gentiles.

Here it is that in the judgment day, it's not Jews, but Gentiles that will be embraced by God because of the hardness of their hearts. And so you have a gentile nation and you have an individual. But for the Pharisees, the signs were ignored. They did not see them. And It's very much like what we read earlier about Sodom and Gomorrah, where Jesus says, if the miracles that happened here happened in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented.

And it's just to illustrate the hardness of heart. The hardness of heart. You know, how tragic it is when Christ and His words are there, or Christ and His works are there, and they're not even seen. And love from the heart. That's the whole scene that's taking place here.

Now, there are a number of things we could say about this. First of all, You know, this really gives an analogy for our preaching. And that is unless God softens the heart of someone, they cannot hear as it was with these Pharisees. They were hard because of God's plan. And then the second thing here, I think we should just stop on very briefly, is just the whole historicity of the Old Testament.

Jesus believed that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish. Jesus believed that. If you don't believe that, you need to understand who you are against. He believed that the Queen of Sheba was a real person in history. And if you don't believe that or if you run into people who don't believe that, you need to understand whose side they're on.

They are not on the side of Jesus Christ and his gospel. Whenever you find people who are questioning the historicity of events like this, you're finding that same adulterous spirit that was in the Pharisees, while seeing the signs they did not believe. And then the next question that's answered in here is what does the work of the devil look like? We've just seen what does an adulterous generation look like. It's a generation that does not treasure the things that have already been given.

That's what a spiritual adultery is like. And then what does the work of the devil look like in verses 43 through 45? And what Jesus is doing here is He's exposing the real problem with this wicked generation. Again, He's speaking about this generation where He says, when an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest and 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. 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 that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation." Now just very briefly though I just want to explain what this is about and then we'll deal with it in more detail. This is about the danger of outward reformation without genuine spiritual life and the presence of Jesus Christ by his spirit.

And so on the surface there is faith, there is a moralism, but yet it is without God. Now there are two really critical issues that we have to understand about these verses. First of all, this is not primarily about the demonization of an individual. It is an explanation of Israel and its current state. He is describing this generation And he's saying that while this generation is religious, it actually will have a terrible demonic end.

And The second thing is that it really does instruct us about the demonization of an individual and how it works There are many details about demonization that are spoken of here when we can learn about what it looks like there, but What what Jesus is saying is that? Israel is like this person here. He's likening the people of Israel to this demonized person. That's the comparison that he's making. And he's speaking of what happens when demons are cast out.

When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. He finds it empty, swept, and put in order. And so I just want to deal with some of the words that are here. First of all, there's this whole idea of an empty place, an empty house. And he uses the word scoladzo.

It's where we get the word scholar. You know, we use that term scholar for a person who's set aside, they have nothing else to do but to pursue their scholarship. And so it's sort of a, it's a moment when there's really nothing else to do. It's sort of an open period of time, is what he's speaking of. And it is swept.

The undesirable things are removed. And then it is put in order. It's neat. It's tidy. It's trim.

It's the term, Cosmeo, where we get our word, Cosmos, for order. So he's saying that this terrible state is actually seen in an orderly kind of environment, where it's neat and trim. Something is beautified, something is adorned, something is decorated. It's kind of like you can have a beautiful house, you can have a beautiful lawn, and inside there's every kind of corruption in that place. You cannot tell the spirit of a house by the lawn because behind that lawn can exist all kinds of things that aren't betrayed by what's on the outside.

And so it looks good on the outside, but it's full of secret lusts and other kinds of corruptions. And it's a picture of Israel as a house in that sense being put in order. It's been cleaned and swept. It's a law keeping kind of culture. It has hundreds of laws.

There's order to society. Things have been spurned and things have been cleaned and dealt with. It's like a moral reformation has taken place. This is a society where a moral reformation has been really professionalized. And it has many characteristics to it.

This is why the Pharisees confronted the Lord Jesus and his disciples when they were going through the grain fields. And they were eating on the Sabbath on the way to worship. They had so many laws. It was such a legal and organized culture. It was a house that was swept.

It was beautified. And It's a place of moral reformation. It's like the person who goes to AA, and he resolves not to be an alcoholic anymore. It's like the thief who cleans up his life. He's like the pervert who stops going to pornography sites.

He's like the businessman who is about to lose his family, so he cuts back on his schedule. He gets his life cleaned up. It's like a wife who sees her children going astray, So she starts to reform her house. And it's the idea of just fixing up the house, getting things in order, having a moral reformation. But Jesus Christ is not there.

Now, a moral reformation, a spiritual reformation, can include all of these kinds of things. But they're only good if Christ is present in them, if the Holy Spirit is not quenched, if the Gospel is not rejected. And so there's this work of cleaning up the house. It's the work of a moralist. And what he's saying, Jesus is saying, is that this work of moralism ends up worse than the first.

That there's a terrible result of pure moralism. Now I know that so many of us have tried to clean up our lives. And we're trying to fix our marriages, we're trying to fix our work life, we're trying to fix our families. But you will end up worse than the first. If Jesus Christ and the work of His Spirit does not exist in your house, you will be worse off.

And this is an illustration of an aspect of demonization. Remember, he's comparing this to the work of a demon in a house And what he does. It also means that demons are no respecter of orderly houses. He's just as happy to move into your orderly house than the guy down the street who has every imaginable moral and spiritual problem. You're no less a target in your morally upright house, except that if you have the Holy Spirit, then greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.

But here Jesus Christ is exposing the complete bankruptcy of the moralism of the Pharisees. As socially helpful as it was, In terms of eternity, at least in terms of eternity, but also in terms of everyday life, it's still worse. You know, this is a time of New Year's resolutions. It's a time where we think about how we're going to clean up different parts of our lives. Should we do that?

Yeah, we should do that. We absolutely should look back and see the sins of our past year. To act as if this were the end of the year and God had taken our lives at the end of this year. What would we answer for if God took us today after the end of this last year? What would we look back on this year and say?

What sins would we have committed? I've been trying to send, especially this week, trying to review the sins of 2011, the ways that I fell short, the things that I did wrong, and the ways that I sinned against my family and against our church and against God and against my friends in this community, against my extended family many different ways. And the temptation in a time like this, the beginning of a new year, is just to get your life cleaned up. And, you know, live a more disciplined life. You've got your eating habits, your exercise, your financial goals.

You've got to get all that stuff in order. Well, all that is complete rubbish. You will end up worse than the first if you accomplish all those things. If the Lord Jesus Christ and His Spirit and your love for Him, your hunger and thirst for righteousness is there. It will be worth nothing.

Pharisees had made a profession out of cleaning everything up. Jesus said, you clean out the outside of the cup, but inside you're full of robbery and extortion. You know, you can get your exercise life right. You can get your financial life right. You can get your family worship hummin' right.

You can do everything right. And you will end up worse at the end. Because Jesus Christ was not the one who was at the center of it. You were just a moralist. So that's the danger that the Pharisees are exposing here.

John Gill talked about this swept house. He says, it was empty of God, of the true knowledge of Him, of the fear of Him, and to love Him, of Christ, who is empty of faith in Him, affection for Him, hope on Him, empty of the Spirit of God and of His graces, and of the spiritual eternal religion and the powerful godliness. So Jesus is talking about the kind of moral reformation you can have in this world. And by thinking that you're still control of yourself with no reference to God, that person is empty. And that person will be destroyed.

And there will be people who will rise up at the judgment and condemn those who just cleaned out the outside of the cup. This is why the Bible says that all your righteousness is as filthy rags. Is as filthy rags. So the last state of that man is worse than the first. That's a moral reformation without faith.

Peter spoke of it in 2 Peter 2.20. If after they have escaped all the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, and they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to its own vomit, and a sow having washed to her wallowing in the mire." So Moral Reformation without Christ is the pathway to hell. And this nation was morally swept and clean.

So we learn about this nation, what happened to the nation. And what happened to the nation is one of the aspects of demonization. Part of the evil of demonization includes moral reformation of different kinds. And then secondly, we also learn about demonization of a person through here. First of all, we learn that they are spirits, verse 43.

If you just look at verse 43 with me, and I'm just going to, just phrase by phrase, I'm going to give you a little bit more than a dozen things that you can learn about demonization from here. First of all, they are spirits. When an unclean spirit, they're not physical, they're immortal, they're not constrained by space, They are spirits. Number two, they're filthy. They're unclean spirits.

When an unclean spirit, they're corrupt, they hate what is good, and they, they're, they're, well, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. These unclean spirits blind you from God. That number three, they can indwell. Says when an unclean spirit goes out of a man. In other words, they actually dwell somewhere.

They dwell inside of a person, but not only a person, because it can come out of a man. Number four, they're powerless before Jesus. They must go. When they are commanded to go, they must go. They're not omnipotent.

Number five, they're restless. He goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. They're constantly unfulfilled. They never find what they seek. They're roaming and roaming and roaming throughout the earth.

They never rest While Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and have your lighten, and I will give you rest, but the demons cannot rest. Number six, they're not omnipresent. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, they're either here or there. They are also intelligent. They have a plan.

I will return to my house from which I came. So they are intelligent. They consider what they will do next. Number eight, they exercise their will. Says, I will return to my house from which I came.

Number nine, they take possession of things. They actually own things. I will return to my house. He regards it as his own. Number ten, they're persistent.

I will return. I will return. Cleaning up your life does not withhold you from attack as an unbeliever. Number 11, they Occupy well-ordered houses. He finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

They come into a well-ordered house and they make disorder of it. But don't think because your house is orderly that somehow you're protected. Number 12, they cooperate with other demons. Then he goes out and he takes with him seven other spirits. So they cooperate together.

Number 13, they vary in wickedness. He goes and he takes with them seven other spirits more wicked than himself. So they're not all as wicked as the other. Some are more wicked than others. God created the angels, created a fixed number of them, and they are bound, though, to everlasting torment and darkness.

So, you have here the history of Israel, and they're rejecting the signs, and you have the history of an individual as well, and how it works. And how it works. I was reading, a friend sent me something by Thomas Watson on what Watson calls counterfeit sanctity. Because counterfeit sanctity has a lot to do with a moral reformation. And I think it should teach us not to over-exalt our moral reformation and to despise the presence and the goodness of God in the midst of it.

You can overvalue it. You can over-exalt it. And really lift the Gospel. Thomas Watson. Hypocrisy is counterfeiting sanctity.

The hypocrite or stage player has gone a step beyond the moralist and dressed himself in the garb of religion. He pretends to a form of godliness but denies its power. Thy hypocrite is a saint in jest. He makes a magnificent show like an ape clothed in ermine or purple. The hypocrite is like a house with a beautiful facade, but every room within is dark.

He is rotten. He is a rotten post, fairly gilded. Under his mask of profession hides plague sores. The hypocrite is against painting of faces, but he paints holiness. He is seemingly good so that he may be really bad.

The hypocrite seems to have his eyes nailed to heaven, but his heart is full of impure lustings. He lives in secret sin against his conscience. He can be as his company is and act both the dove and the vulture. He hears the word but is all ear. He is for temple devotion where others may look upon him and admire him, but he neglects family and closet prayer.

Indeed, if prayer does not make him sin, sin will make him leave prayer. He carried a Bible under his arm, but not in his heart. His religion is a demure lie. So Jesus Christ is confronting this in the Pharisees. Watson also said God loves a broken heart but not a divided heart.

And that's what he's confronting with the Pharisees. You know, as we think about the New Year, let's consider our hearts. You know, who are we really? Where are we with God, really? In the midst of all these moral reformations.

Something greater is here. And then finally, this last question, what makes you a member of the true family of God? Verses 46-50. Now remember, picture this crowd. There are so many people around.

Picture just concentric circles of people. Maybe in a house it's possible. We know that Jesus' family is outside, whether that's outside the perimeter of the crowd. They had gotten there kind of late and they're kind of far away. They can't get to Christ or they're in a house and they're outside a house.

We don't know. But here Christ is actually interrupted by His family. Someone is carrying a message from the family. I just picture it as, you know, somebody please tell Jesus that His family, His mother and his brothers are here. So the message gets to him and someone in the crowd speaks directly to Jesus and says your mother and your brothers are here.

So that's the scene. While he was still talking to the multitudes, so the multitudes are there, 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. But he answered and said to the one who told him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? So Jesus speaks to this one person who gave him the message and then, in verse 49, and he stretched out his hand toward his disciples and 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." So Christ is interrupted by his family.

Take no thought that he's disowning his family, But he is making a contrast between physical family and spiritual family. He's making a dividing line there. And this is, so they intervene here in this way. You know, Joseph is not mentioned. The last time Joseph is mentioned is when Jesus is 12 years old and they're looking for him because he's lost.

He's about his father's business. But we don't know what happened to Joseph. Most would say he probably has died, but he's not mentioned here at all. We know that he had four half-brothers. In Matthew 13, 55, they're mentioned.

Is not his mother called Mary, and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not with us all? So he had brothers, four of them, and he had sisters. And Jesus, in Luke 2-7, we learn, is the firstborn of them. So Jesus had a large family, and there they were.

We learn in John chapter 7 verse 5 that they didn't believe Him during a significant part of His public ministry. We do know that they were, most of them were probably converted because in Acts chapter 1 verse 14, they're all in the upper room. They all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers." So they're in the upper room. They're in a strange period here in relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that in Acts chapter 15 that James, one of the brothers of Jesus, becomes the head of the Jerusalem church.

And he writes the book of James. So We know that at least James and Jude, because he wrote the book of Jude, were converted for sure. So at least two of the four brothers were converted. My view is that they were all converted. They were all there in the upper room.

We don't know for sure, but It seems to be that way in Acts chapter 1 verse 14. And here, you know, Jesus often uses questions. And He uses questions again. A question again, you know, show me the coin. Whose son is He?

Who is my neighbor? Who is my brother? Well, now Jesus is asking another question. And He's asking, who? Who is my mother and who are my brothers?

And again, Jesus is not repudiating his family. The family is established for purposes. Jesus Christ never failed in one single responsibility toward his father or his mother or his brothers or sisters. Not one. So you can just expect that he fulfilled the fifth commandment and he is fulfilling the fifth commandment in this scene.

He's not breaking the fifth commandment by saying who is my mother and who are my brothers. He never had a wrong thought or attitude toward his family. So we need to understand that he's expressing the work of the spirit toward his family. Now his family though didn't feel the same way about him. They thought he was unstable.

In Mark chapter 3, verse 21, his own people heard, and that's most commonly understood as his family, they were saying he's out of his mind. So they were very concerned about it. You can see why they'd be concerned about him. Because the Pharisees have a plot to destroy him. He has just called them an adulterous generation.

This is a very, very combative kind of a situation, not physically combative, but there's a lot of heat and smoke and fire in the room here. And I think that his family is concerned about him. And they're there because they see where this is going. And so they're there on the perimeter of the crowd. And it's quite likely that they want to rescue him.

They're concerned about his mental state and things like that. Even Jesus' family had concerns. I don't know if you have made decisions in your life about how you're going to live or what you're going to believe. Like, if you believe that there's only one way to salvation, it's quite likely you're going to have family members who are going to think that you've lost your mind, that you've completely lost perspective. And the ways that you've decided to obey God have become a stench.

And they think you've lost your mind. Now, we should always be very careful to distinguish between our family thinking we've lost our mind because we've been evil to them. We've not been full of the Spirit in our relationship with them. And so we've offended them and they should be offended. They should be angry with us because We've sinned against them.

That's different though than what's happening with the Lord Jesus. But often, when a family obeys God in critical areas, their extended family thinks they've lost their mind. So if it happened to Jesus, it's probably going to happen to you. And this is the normal way. And even in Lord Jesus, who is perfect, he's thought to have lost his mind.

And people, your family members may think you're brainwashed, or you're illogical, or you've gone too far, or something like that. These things happen, particularly if you're raising your children according to the things that are in the Bible. If you're educating your children the way the Bible says to educate your children, you are going to end up being thought of as having lost your mind. Obedience does that to you. It marginalizes you in the world.

If you believe in everything in the Bible, even that Jonah was swallowed by a fish, you're going to be thought of as unscientific or just so ridiculous. That's just the way it is in the world. But what Jesus is doing here is he's placing his biological family in the context of eternity and in the context of the doctrine of salvation. And salvation isn't by family. And our ties, our spiritual ties, as well as physical family ties, but they're two separate things.

We do have responsibilities to our families, even unbelieving families. That's not erased by the fact that we have a true family, the family of God. The church is your true eternal family. Your biological family is your temporal family, because it will cease to exist after the resurrection from the dead. God uses family for this temporal season on earth.

He has very specific purposes for it. And they're very important to execute. So he's not diminishing the importance of family, He's just making a distinguishing mark between a biological family and the responsibilities that are there and what it means to be in a spiritual family and what qualifies you to be in that spiritual family. Jesus has already made it clear in chapter 10 where he said, do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword for I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

And the man's enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who finds his life will lose it. And he who loses his life for my sake will find it." So Jesus is confronting those who have perhaps elevated their families above obedience to Christ.

He's treating his family correctly here. So the Lord Jesus Christ makes it very clear here when He says, when He says, whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." And that's so contrasted by the Pharisees. They just wanted to clean out the outside of the cup. But their desire to obey and Their true obedience to the Word of God was lacking. And so here Jesus is defining one aspect of becoming part of the family of God.

Doing the will of your Father. This is not salvation by works. This is not salvation by doing the will of your Father. You're justified by faith alone. But faith that is alone is not true faith.

That faith always brings forth works. It always works its way out in obedience. Its progressive obedience, as progressive sanctification runs its course. Its only perfect obedience is in that Jesus Christ obeyed every point of the law for you. But it is still obedience.

It is the obedience of Christ, and it is the desire to obey in your own heart, and it is the real obedience of your life. That's the sign of becoming a true child of God and to enter into his family. So these questions, What is an evil and adulterous generation? It's one that sees the signs but cannot see. What does the work of the devil look like?

It can look very neat and orderly and clean and it can look like a moral reformation, but its end is going to be devastating. And then what makes you a member of the family of God? So these questions are very important for understanding redemptive history. And they're also critical questions for us in the New Year. And that we would be like the men of Ninema, who heard and saw no signs, but we repented.

That we would be like the Queen of the South, who was so hungry, she traveled over land and sea to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And like those who are part of the family of God because they obey. Now, just finally, one of the most, I think, heartwarming thoughts in this text is really for those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ and who have a heart to obey. Jesus calls you his family. He loves you.

He'll never leave you or forsake you. And He will provide everything for life and godliness and He will bring to pass the things that He began in you. Because you are His sons and you are His daughters. And He's taking you into His family. Would you pray with me?

Oh Lord, we thank you for this amazing passage that has taken us over so many continents and so many hundreds of years of history, all the way to the end of the age, for we will all stand before you. And it will become clear whether we were faithful or adulterous, whether it was the work of the devil and moralism or whether it was a work of the Spirit, or whether we were true sons and daughters. I was such a great king Amen