First Baptist Church Litchfield
September 7, 2025

      • Psalm 18:1–3ESV

      • Psalm 18:6ESV

  • Lord I Lift Your Name On High
  • How Majestic Is Your Name

      • Revelation 5:9–10ESV

  • Worthy Of Worship (Judson)

      • Revelation 5:11–14ESV

  • Is He Worthy
  • Agnus Dei

      • Matthew 12:33–37ESV

  • You cannot separate your words from your heart.

    Last week, we heard Jesus say that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven (Matt. 12:31–32). That warning was not abstract—it came after the Pharisees looked at the work of the Spirit through Jesus and called it demonic. In doing so, they revealed not just a slip of the tongue, but a settled hardness of heart.
    Jesus now presses further: what you say reveals who you really are. He moves from the unforgivable sin to the unavoidable truth—your words always expose your heart.
    Jesus does not allow us to separate our words from our hearts. In Matthew 12, He says plainly: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” Our words are not throwaway things. They reveal who we really are.
    We minimize our speech, but Jesus magnifies it. We treat words as small, but Jesus says they expose eternal realities. Our sinful hearts naturally produce sinful words that condemn us.
    When the Bible speaks about the heart, it is not merely referring to a muscle that pumps blood through your body. Scripture speaks of the heart as the very core of who you are—the control center of your life. It is the seat of your thoughts, emotions, desires, and decisions. The heart is not just where you feel; it is where you believe, forgive, and obey.
    Think about this: you can put on a smile for the world, you can say the right words with your lips, and you can even serve with your hands—but God is not fooled by outward appearances. He searches the heart. He sees beneath the surface to the essence of who you truly are. That’s why Proverbs tells us, “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).
    Jesus says that from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, and slander (Matthew 15:19). Sin is not just out there in the culture, in politics, or in your neighbor’s life—it is lodged deep within the heart of every person. That means the greatest problem you face is not what happens to you but what resides within you, and what is in you will make its way out of you, especially through your mouth.
    Brothers and sisters,

    Your words matter because they reveal your heart, and your heart reveals whether you truly belong to Christ.

    Imagine a courtroom where every word you’ve ever spoken is played back. Not just the polished speeches, but the careless comments, the sarcastic digs, the whispers behind closed doors. Every text message, every social media post, every moment of gossip. How would you fare? That’s the picture Jesus paints—our words stand as witnesses.
    The good news is, the very place where sin takes root is also the very place where God does His transforming work. Through the gospel, the Spirit gives you a new heart. Ezekiel prophesied that God would remove the heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26). Paul tells us in Romans that it is “with the heart one believes and is justified” (Romans 10:10). The heart once enslaved to sin can now be set free to love, trust, and obey Christ.
    So let me ask you this morning: what does God see when He looks at your heart? Not what your neighbor sees, not what your spouse or children see—but what does He see? What kind of tree are you? If He sees only sin, then repent and turn to Christ. Only the new heart Christ gives can produce words of life. When Jesus takes the root, He changes the fruit. If He sees His Son’s righteousness covering you, then rejoice that He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion (Philippians 1:6), and produce fruit that will reveal your love for Jesus to the world.
    So, Jesus presses the matter of your heart even further. The condition of your heart cannot stay hidden forever. Like roots pushing up through the soil, what is inside will eventually show on the outside. And so He says, “A tree is known by its fruit.”

    A Tree is Known by its Fruit (Matthew 12:33)

    Jesus says,
    “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit” (Matthew 12:33).
    Jesus is drawing on the proverbial wisdom of His day, using an agricultural metaphor that anyone in Galilee could understand. He is not suggesting that you and I can make our own hearts good—as if we could take a diseased tree and, by sheer willpower, make it healthy. Rather, Jesus is showing that the fruit of your life—your words, your works, your desires—always reveals the true condition of your heart.
    Think of your life as a tree. Just as a healthy apple tree produces crisp, vibrant apples, so a heart alive in God will bear good fruit. But if the tree is diseased at the root, the apples will be shriveled and rotten. The quality of the fruit always tells the truth about the tree.
    That is the point Jesus presses on His hearers. His own works—healing the sick, casting out demons, proclaiming the kingdom—testify that He is good, that He is of the kingdom of God. To deny His fruit is to close your eyes to the reality God is among us.
    The fruit of your life tells the world your nature. If you are still in the old Adam, spiritually dead in your trespasses and sins, then the fruit of your life will reflect that nature. Paul says in Galatians 5 that the works of the flesh are obvious: “sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, enmity, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, divisions, envy, drunkenness” (Gal. 5:19–21). Rotten fruit flows from a rotten root.
    And the truth is—none of us can fix this root problem on our own. You don’t tape apples onto a dead tree and call it healthy. You don’t change your nature by polishing your behavior. If your heart is still in Adam, you cannot bear the fruit of Christ. The bad fruit exposes the bad root.
    Jesus Christ came as the New Adam. By His death and resurrection, He uproots the rotten tree of your old life and plants in you the seed of new creation. His Spirit regenerates you, makes you alive, and helps you repent of your sin and believe in Christ. He changes you at the root so that new fruit begins to grow.
    Paul calls this the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal. 5:22–23). Notice—it is not the fruit of self-effort or moral striving, but the fruit of the Spirit. Christ produces in you what you could never produce on your own.
    Imagine walking through an orchard. One tree is dead and diseased—its apples are worm-eaten and sour. Another tree is healthy—its apples are crisp and sweet. You don’t have to be a farmer to know which tree is alive. So it is with your life. Your fruit tells the truth about your root.
    In Christ, God does not leave you as a dead tree taped with plastic fruit. He makes you new. He gives you His Spirit. He plants His Word like seed in your soul, and over time, the fruit of Christ-likeness begins to grow.
    Beloved, examine the fruit of your life. What do your words and actions reveal about your heart? If you see rotten fruit, do not despair—run to Jesus. Confess your sin, cling to the cross, and let Him change you at the root. For only Christ can make the tree good, and when He does, the fruit will follow.
    As we press a little further into our text, just like the fruit reveals the health of the tree, our speech reveals the health of our hearts. Think of a doctor reading an X-ray. You can’t see the tumor with the naked eye, but the image reveals what’s hidden. In the same way, our words act like spiritual X-rays, showing what is invisible inside us.

    The words of your mouth reveal the kind of tree you are (Matthew 12:34–35)

    I tell the children all the time, “Words have consequences.” Jesus expresses a similar idea in verses 34-35, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Words are never neutral; they overflow from what fills us inside.
    The imagery in verse 34 conveys the idea of fluid in a container that is filled to the brim, to the point it spills over the rim. Imagine carrying a cup of coffee to the table. Someone bumps into you, and coffee spills out. Why? Because coffee was in the cup. When life “bumps” you—through stress, conflict, or disappointment—what spills out? How you respond, specifically with your words, reveals what fills your heart.
    When the Pharisees were bumped by Jesus’ ministry, that is they felt threatened by his words and his works, they responded by calling him demonic (12:24). That accusation didn’t come from nowhere. It revealed their hardened hearts against God; the good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.”
    When Jesus speaks of treasure, He is speaking of what you love most. Your treasure is the affection of your heart—the thing you prize, pursue, and protect above all else. If your heart treasures what is good, then goodness will flow from your life. But if your heart treasures what is evil, then evil will inevitably spill out.
    That is why Jesus looks at the Pharisees and calls them a “brood of vipers.” What a striking image. A viper is deadly, not only because of its fangs, but because of the venom it carries within. The poison is not external—it comes from within. So it is with the Pharisees. Their venom was not merely in their words; it was rooted in what they cherished in their hearts. And how do we know? Because when confronted with Jesus—the Son of God—they blasphemed Him. Their mouths revealed the contents of their hearts. As Jesus says, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.”
    As I reflected on this passage this week, I found myself asking, “How do I respond when Jesus interrupts my life—when He bumps into my plans, my comfort, my expectations?” Do I welcome His hand at work, or do I bristle against it? Too often, my flesh is tempted to stiffen in resistance, as if I know better than God. That thought scares me. I do not want to grow old in the church only to grow hard toward the very One I claim to love and worship. I fear becoming the kind of man who knows all the right words, sings all the right hymns, yet resents God when His work doesn’t match my ideas or my timeline.
    If I am not careful, bitterness can creep in and calcify my heart, leaving me stubborn and stuck while the world around me shifts and changes. I know, brothers and sisters, that is not the way of Christ. The Spirit calls me—and calls you—to a posture of humility. To cooperate with His sanctifying work. To cultivate submission, obedience, faith, love, and joy, not for my kingdom, but for the kingdom of God. The Spirit’s aim is always the same: that every corner of my life would make much of Jesus. And that is the only way to keep my heart tender and my fruit faithful.
    I want to be the Christian who treasure Jesus because Jesus says the good person brings good out of the treasure stored in the heart. Jesus is the only good in me. He is the Bread of Life that feeds me. He ius the Living Water that flows through me.
    Our heart is like a well. A well can only give what is inside of it. If the source is clean and fresh, then the water drawn will refresh and give life. But if the source is polluted, every cup poured out will be poisonous. Your words and actions are like water drawn from the well of your heart. They reveal what is truly inside. If Christ is your treasure, living water will flow. If sin is your treasure, toxic water will spill over.
    So we see the issue is not just your vocabulary—it’s your treasure. What fills your heart will spill out of your mouth.
    Parents, when sharp and cutting words spill out toward your children, that is not merely the overflow of a long day—it is the overflow of your heart. Husbands, when vulgarity, name-calling, or harshness sets the tone of your speech to your wife, it reveals what you truly value. Wives, when unrighteous anger and constant frustration fill your words toward your family, it is not simply a “bad mood”—it exposes that the well of your heart is running bitter, not sweet.
    Children, when sarcasm, backtalk, and defiance pour out of your mouths toward the very authorities God has placed in your life, it reveals your heart treasures the world’s independence more than Christ’s lordship. And brothers and sisters in Christ, when gossip or sowing division dominate your conversations about the church, it betrays that your heart is not joyfully advancing the kingdom of God, but is lending its voice to advance the schemes of Satan.
    Jesus says plainly, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” If the fruit is rotten, it is because the root is sick. But here is the good news: Christ can cleanse the well, heal the root, and change the overflow. He gives a new heart so that our mouths might be filled with blessing instead of cursing, encouragement instead of contempt, praise instead of poison.
    In John 15, Jesus says if a tree bears fruit, God will prune it to make more fruit, but if a tree does not bear fruit, he will cut it down and throw it in the fire. Jesus conveys a similar idea in verses 36-37, when he says your words will either justify you or condemn you.

    Your words will justify or condemn you (Matthew 12:36–37)

    Jesus closes with a warning: “On the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.” Words matter because they reveal allegiance.
    Careless words are worthless words that do not give consideration to something or they show indifference to something. Careless words are words we let slip without thought, as if they carry no weight. Yet Jesus reminds us they always do. Those quick remarks, those offhand comments, often reveal more of our heart than the words we carefully prepare. Sometimes it’s the casual jab, the half-truth, the unkept promise that most clearly exposes what we treasure inside.
    Careless words are empty words. They sound like vows that are never kept, promises that are never honored, or even pious-sounding defenses of truth that in the end do more harm than good. We may think we are helping the cause of Christ, but in reality, such words can hinder the very work of salvation we claim to uphold. Jesus says every careless word will come into judgment (Matthew 12:36). Why? Because every word springs from the heart.
    Jesus says, “37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” This is ground statement, which means the word “for” indicates the reason. You will give an account for ever careless word you speak. Why? Because by your words you are justified and by your words you are condemned. Keep in mind, Jesus is speaking about your heart.
    Justified words are not sinless words, but redeemed words—words that flow from a heart changed by grace. If you are a true disciple of Jesus, then the abundance of your words will reveal a single minded heart united loyal love for Jesus. These are words of belief.
    Condemned words are the natural overflow of a heart still enslaved to sin. Your words will reveal you are still in the Old Adam. Your heart is still a heart of stone that does not love or obey the things of God. You might be religious, you might be a faithful member of FBCL, but your words will reveal you are a true disciple of Jesus. Your very own words will condemn you in the day of Judgement. These are words of unbelief.
    In a courtroom, every word can make the difference between freedom and condemnation. Jesus says that on judgment day, your words will stand as witnesses—either for you or against you. It is appointed for man to die and then comes judgement. If you stand in God’s courtroom and try make a case for yourself, you will perish by your own words. The good news is when you belong to Christ, He speaks a better word over you—“not guilty.”

    Jesus ties our tongues to our hearts: What kind of tree are you?

    Jesus ties our tongues to our hearts. What kind of tree are you? The fallen condition of our hearts is exposed every time we open our mouths. If you are a good tree, that is, you are a true disciple of Jesus, then Christ changes the root so that the fruit changes too.
    Christ, the Living Word, took the judgment our words deserve. By His grace, He gives us new hearts that overflow with new words—words of repentance, praise, and life.
    At the cross, Jesus bore every sinful word we’ve ever spoken—every lie, every curse, every careless sentence.
    In His resurrection, He gives us new hearts that overflow with grace and truth.
    Your words matter because they reveal your heart, and your heart reveals whether you truly belong to Christ.
    This week, listen to your words. They will show you where you need the gospel to go deeper. And as you come to Jesus, the Word made flesh, He will fill your heart so that your mouth speaks life. Amen.
  • Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus
First Baptist Church Litchfield
pastorjason.fbcl@gmail.com
217-324-4232
http://www.firstbaptistlitchfield.org/
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