…An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet. / For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. / Ninevite men will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something more than Jonah is here. / The queen of the south will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something more than Solomon is here. (Matt. 12:39-42)
At the turning of the age, we anticipate that the believers in the church life will be overcoming and powerful, ready to stand against the nations and the evil and adulterous generation that has become more and more degraded as His return draws near. We know that the book of Matthew is about the gospel of the kingdom — the age to come — but it also shows us a negative picture of God’s people rejecting the Lord at a crucial turning point in His dispensational moving on the earth. Today, the Lord is making another dispensational change, and we cannot find ourselves to likewise be an evil generation refusing the words of the Lord under the guise of religion. We must be those sensitive to His dispensational speaking, seeking not after many signs, but after the Lord Himself, speaking to us and transforming us through His reigning life unto the fulfillment of the kingdom age to come.
In Matthew 12, we find harsh words concerning those who rejected Him and His ministry; He calls the entire generation “evil and adulterous.” We know that evil and adulterous here are not referring to the Gentiles, but the Jewish religionists. But we should ask ourselves, what made the Jews the Lord was talking to evil and adulterous? The Jews are the Lord’s chosen people on the earth. From the time of the Lord’s calling Abraham out of the land of Ur, the Lord’s covenant has been with His people. Yet the people’s hearts were constantly drawn away from the Lord as their Husband, not just at the time of this exchange in Matthew; their forgetful hearts can be traced all the way to their exodus from Egypt. “Adulterous,” therefore, is not just something physical, but refers to the breaking of this marital covenant. It is an inward condition of separation, stubbornness, and even rebellion.
Likewise, the Lord’s use of the word “evil” in this passage is also very specific. This crowd in Matthew chapter 12 is not a random crowd, but a group of Pharisees who considered themselves righteous and sanctified by upholding the law as the highest sect among the Jews. How can such an “elite” group of law-followers be called “evil”? What was evil in the sight of the Lord? The generation was evil because they refused to receive the Lord and His words. Their own righteousness and seeking to perfect themselves in the flesh was deeply offensive to the Lord; through their insistence on their religious pride, they remained unsaved and stubborn, clinging to religion instead of receiving the fulfillment and reality of the Lord Himself. They accused the Lord of casting out demons by Beelzebul, and blasphemed the Lord and Savior coming to turn the age right in front of their eyes. This condition of unbelief, of remaining in the age of law, blasphemed the Holy Spirit, by Whom a new era had dawned — an era of the Spirit of God indwelling in man. The rejecting Jews were already occupied by their righteousness; they had no room for the Lord and thus rejected the way of salvation.
But if I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. / … / Therefore I say to you, Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. (12:28, 31)
But what about us? What makes believers today different from the Jews? We think that the evil ones are those who persecute the churches and are unbelievers. But the Lord says simply, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters” (Matt. 12:30). Our salvation is not about our morality, righteousness, or good performance, but rather about whether we are in oneness with God’s purpose. This should be a sobering word to all of us: when we are not in purpose with God as one, we are actually against Him.
Today, the church life is at a critical stage. There may be saints who are struggling, living a religious, routine life. Oftentimes, as believers, we deviate from our fresh beginning. It is true that at the time we met the Lord, we were washed, cleansed by the Lord’s death, and brought into a new life of reigning by His resurrection power. But, over time, we, like the children of Israel, may drift, or be distracted. It isn’t that we outwardly “sin” or do bad deeds; oftentimes, we are outwardly submissive and humble, but are preoccupied by the “works of law,” just like the Pharisees (Gal. 3:10). We see that there is an outward form of a religious living, but inwardly there is no reality, no substance, and no power in the walk or “serving” of this kind of person in the church life. When we develop a habitual living apart from the Lord Himself, we miss and even reject Him and His dispensational speaking; we become empty vessels. Our vessels, our mind and our hands are empty when they should be full of the Lord’s word and His work.
Later in the chapter, the unclean spirit roaming the waterless places left the man “unoccupied.” But when a being is left empty — unoccupied, swept and decorated — this allows room for not just one, but seven more unclean spirits to enter in and defile us, “[a]nd the last state of that man becomes worse than the first” (Matt. 12:45). If we are not filled by Christ, it is assured we will be occupied by our flesh — by sin. The generation may appear presentable, but anything occupying us that’s not Christ makes us evil, leaving our last state worse than our first.
Where there is no true spiritual living in Christ and subjection to God’s administration, there is instead the subtle rejection of the Lord Himself. Those who choose to upkeep themselves through religious pride are those who are against God’s administration, and the Lord calls these ones an evil and adulterous generation at the turn of the age. Like the Pharisees, how often are we numb and resistant, clinging to religion? Even though the reality of the Lord Himself is before us, speaking to us through the brothers and sisters, signaling something to us through the situation by His hand, we have often remained untouched, unmoved, and righteous in ourselves. Do we still recognize the Lord’s current speaking as the dispensational speaking to us every day? Are we able to be changed and to come out of this dead condition, year after year, day after day? Or is the Lord Jesus no longer speaking to us — can we not hear Him?
Each time and season, in each circumstance, the Lord’s speaking is dispensational. The Lord’s human living on the earth was a specific dispensational change. The time of transition was at that moment, in His speaking. The evil generation of “good” religious people refusing the Lord was then and it is also now. That is the nature of the Lord’s words: His speaking always moves and changes us from one stage to the other. We may be saved, but without listening and receiving the Lord’s current speaking, only holding on to our “righteous” living or look, we are in danger of missing the Lord’s dispensational turn today. Just as in the book of Matthew, today, if the kingdom of God has come upon us, then we can be in this transformation process, transferring from religion and the world into the kingdom of the Son of His love — and, we can only transfer because of God Himself (Col. 1:13). The sign given to the unbelieving Jews was the sign of Jonah the prophet: “For just as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Matt. 12:40). Matthew tells us that “something more than Jonah is here” (v. 41). This “more” is not just the “greater” that we see in 12:6, meaning greater in size; it is also more in quality — it is more excellent, more abundant, exceeding (v. 41, footnote 1)! The sign given is Christ Himself, all-inclusive, who went through this death and resurrection process to usher in the age of grace. He is the fulfillment of the law, tabernacling among us, full of grace and full of reality (Matt. 5:17; John 1:14).
When the Lord came, He came as the Son empowered by the Spirit. If today, we reject our spirit, we are rejecting the sign given to this generation — rejecting His economy and dispensational move. The Ninevite men repented at the preaching of Jonah, and the queen of the south came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; just as Matthew tells us they will stand up and rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, what about us today, for whom there is something much more than either Jonah or Solomon? Today, we should condemn the sin of this evil generation, including the passiveness and religion that remains in our fallen beings. We should look to no other signs than the “something more” that lives in our spirit today and that is ushering in the era to come through the execution of His administration on the earth.
Today, the book of Matthew reveals a dispensational picture not only to the Jews at that time, but also to us. Are we the ones who see the works of the Spirit and understand? Are we able to recognize what is worthy and valuable? Today the “something more,” who is Christ, is here. We should be among those worthy ones standing with our Lord. We should be those who recognize the Lord’s move by the Spirit in His divine administration. This is sober. We cannot be satisfied in our own religious righteousness and disregard and override the Spirit. The Spirit is the only agent — the only way to truly transfer into the kingdom. Without this fundamental discernment, the Lord would have no way to further move among us or to usher in the reality of the kingdom life in the church. The Lord is coming back to gain His bride. Then, there will be an enjoyment of the kingdom in eternity at the wedding feast (22:2-14). We need to see there is an unbelieving generation — even within us — that is growing worse and worse. All the more, we need to repent, turn, and allow the governing Spirit to work in us so that we can not only be saved today, but, coming out of our self-righteousness, pride, and religious appearances, become overcomers with a subjective righteousness of Christ who are qualified to enter and enjoy the kingdom (Phil 3:9).
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 1/30/2022, not reviewed by the speaker.)