Mat 12:33-37, The Treasure You Seek Determines the Words You Speak.

Class Outline:

Thursday February 20, 2025

 

MAT 12:33-37

 

We read in NASB “You brood of vipers.” When the Greek word is gennemata = generation.

 

How can you speak good when you are evil? Then He further explains: the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

 

He calls them evil and so good fruit or good words cannot come from them. They cannot praise Him as Messiah, Lord, Savior.

 

The same grammar: from the fruit of the tree … from the abundance of the heart … (vs. 37) from your words you will be either justified or condemned.

 

The heart is the tree trunk, the mouth is the branch, and the fruit (words) will be justified or condemned.

 

Words are so important that they are brought forth on the day of judgment.

 

The heart:

 

Then He develops the concept further with another illustration - the heart is a treasure chest, or perhaps, a treasure in your chest. The heart, the true person, the essence of a man’s conscience, the seat of physical, spiritual, and mental life, the inner life of man, the seat of our will, moral life (vice or virtue), emotions (grief and joy), wishes, desires.

 

When we seek for the Lord; His person and life, then the heart is the dwelling of heavenly power (the Spirit in our hearts (GAL 4:6); Christ in our hearts (EPH 3:17); love poured into our heart (ROM 5:5)).

 

It is best to think of the heart as the whole of you, [click] the real you from A to Z, rather than just some place inside of you.

 

Emphasis is obviously on good and evil. Good 3x and evil 3x. No neutral ground (12:30).

 

Every person is a seeker of treasure.

 

What they seek will eventually determine the condition of their heart - of their true selves.

 

Every “careless” (argon - useless, worthless) word men shall speak, they shall give his word in the day of judgment. The context is the vipers.

 

The Pharisees who said that He cast out demons by the devil. For these words they will be held to account on judgment day. If they become believers after Pentecost, then I would assume that for them as individuals, this sin would be washed clean and not held to account.

 

Main idea: The treasure you seek will determine the words that you speak.

 

The good or bad tree is known by its fruit. 

 

LUK 6:39-45

And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?  40 "A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.  41 "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?  42 "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye.  43 "For there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree which produces good fruit.  44 "For each tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they pick grapes from a briar bush.  45 "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil; for his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. 

 

Taking the log out of your own eye is to know what a sinner you are. Therefore, it is not the sinless man who is the good tree, but the sinner who confesses their sin and depends fully on the grace of God through Jesus Christ. 

 

No man does good on his own. He can only do good when he submits to the Lord. 

 

ROM 3:10-12

"There is none righteous, not even one; 

11 There is none who understands,

There is none who seeks for God; 

12 All have turned aside, together they have become useless;

There is none who does good,

There is not even one." 

 

ROM 6:1-4

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

ROM 6:12-14

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace. 

 

Jesus states that our words are our fruit. 

 

James has one of the clearest passages on this: 

 

JAM 3:1-12

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body as well. 3 Now if we put the bits into the horses' mouths so that they will obey us, we direct their entire body as well. 4 Look at the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. 5 So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.

 

See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. 8 But no one can tame the tongue [God alone can if we submit to Him]; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; 10 from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. 11 Does a fountain send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?  12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, produce olives, or a vine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce fresh. 

 

Two options: Heaven and earth.

 

Jesus is going to tell us that what we seek is going to condition our hearts. And Jesus is going to tell us that there are only two options. 

 

To the believer who is willing to forsake self and seek the Lord through His word and living His word, the light of the glory of Christ shines into his or her heart.

 

2CO 4:3-12

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

 

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; 8 we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death works in us, but life in you.

 

The treasure of life is not things but a person.

 

COL 2:2-3

all the wealth that comes from the full assurance of understanding, resulting in a true knowledge of God's mystery, that is, Christ Himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

 

Your choice and mine is easy to discern while not always easy to actually choose. Christ told us exactly what and were it is. It is Him and in heaven.

 

God allows us to be tested by earthly treasures.

 

He allows Satan to make them appealing to our eyes, both the physical and the eyes of the heart.

 

MAT 6:19-21

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; 21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 

MAT 6:33

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

 

Application:

 

Life is made up of millions of little moments that are pretty mundane.

 

What are we doing with the little things? Are we laying them at the feet of our Lord and seeking His will in them all? Are we looking at people in terms of Christ - how can we serve them, help them, comfort them, what are the best words to say to them?

 

Our faithfulness in seeking Christ in all our little moments, over time, is going to make a hearts good, filled with good treasure, the fruit of which you will bring forth.