Matthew 12:31-44

³¹You are saying that it is not the Holy Spirit who is enabling me to expel demons. So I will say this to you: If those who offend and slander other people in any way are then sorry and ask God to forgive them, God will forgive them. But people who discredit what the Holy Spirit does will not be forgiven { God will not forgive people who discredit what the Holy Spirit does}.

³²God is willing to forgive people who criticize me, the One who came from heaven. But I warn you that those who say evil things about what the Holy Spirit does will not be forgiven { God will not forgive people who speak evil words about what the Holy Spirit does}. They will not be forgiven { He will not forgive them} now, and they will never be forgiven { he will never forgive them}.”

³³“Think about this: You can know whether a person is good and what that person says is good, in the same way that you can know whether a tree MET and the fruit it produces MET are good. You can also know whether a person and what that person says is evil in the same way that you can know whether a tree MET and its fruit MET are blighted. You can know whether a tree is good by seeing its fruit, and similarly people can know the evil character of you Pharisees by listening to your accusations against me.

³⁴What you teach harms people spiritually like poisonous snakes harm them physically MET! You are not able to speak good things because you are evil RHQ. Evil people SYN like you speak what comes from all that is in their ◄inner beings/hearts►.

³⁵Good people speak good things. That is like taking good things out of buildings where they are stored. But evil people speak evil things. That is like taking evil things out of buildings where they are stored.

³⁶I tell you that on the day when God judges MTY, he will make people recall every useless word they have spoken, and he will judge them accordingly.

³⁷Based on the words that you have spoken, God will either declare that you are righteous based on the words that you have spoken, or else he will condemn you.”

³⁸Then some of the Pharisees and men who taught the Jewish laws responded to what Jesus was teaching by saying to him, “Teacher, we want to see you perform a miracle that would prove to us that God sent you.”

³⁹Then Jesus said to them, “ You people have already seen me perform miracles, but you are evil, and you do not faithfully worship God MET! You want me to perform a miracle that would prove to you that God sent me, but God will enable you to see only one miracle. It will be like what happened to Jonah the prophet MET.

⁴⁰Jonah was in the stomach of a huge fish for three days and nights before God caused him to live again. Similarly, for three days and nights I, the one who came from heaven, will be in a place where dead people are, and then God will cause me to live again.

⁴¹When God judges all people, the people who lived in Nineveh will stand in front of him with you people who have seen me perform miracles. The people of Nineveh turned from their sinful ways as a result of hearing what Jonah preached. Jonah was important, but I, who am more important than Jonah, have come and preached to you, but you have not turned from your sinful ways. So when God judges all people, he will condemn you.

⁴²The queen from Sheba, South of Israel, who lived long ago, came from a distant region in order to listen to King Solomon teach many wise things. But now I, a man who is much greater and wiser than Solomon, am here, but you have not listened to what I have told you. So at the time when God judges all people, the queen from Sheba will stand in front of him, along with you people, and will condemn you.”

⁴³“ Sometimes when an evil spirit leaves a person, it wanders around in desolate areas, seeking someone in whom it can rest. If it does not find anyone,

⁴⁴it says to itself, ‘I will return to the person MET in whom I used to live.’ So it goes back and finds that the Spirit of God is not in control of that person's life. The person's life is like a house that has been swept clean and everything put in order MET, but it is empty.