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A Stronger Than he

Luke 11:21
Mike Baker October, 17 2021 Audio
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Mike Baker October, 17 2021
Luke Study

The sermon titled "A Stronger Than He," delivered by Mike Baker, focuses on the theological significance of Christ's victory over evil as illustrated in Luke 11:21-26. The preacher emphasizes the necessity of divine intervention, presenting Jesus as the "stronger than he" who conquers the strong man, interpreted as Satan. Key points include the understanding of spiritual warfare, the permanent nature of Christ’s saving work, and the absence of neutrality in one's allegiance to Christ, as stated in Luke 11:23, "He that is not with me is against me." Baker correlates these themes with various scriptures, including 1 John 3:8 and Isaiah 53:12, asserting that true security and salvation come only through the atoning work of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, distinguishing it from the temporary relief experienced by those without genuine transformation. This message reinforces core Reformed doctrines such as the sovereignty of God's grace, the necessity of the Spirit’s work in salvation, and the idea that a true conversion leads to an enduring change.

Key Quotes

“When a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.”

“There’s no neutral ground with Christ on one side and the adversary on the other waiting for you to choose.”

“The ability to recover is entirely dependent on the intervention of the stronger than he, not by anything that we can do.”

“He that enters into my rest has ceased from his own works.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing study in the Gospel of Luke. And we're in chapter
11, continuing on in chapter 11. We're about midway through
the chapter today. The verses that we'll be concerned
with here today is verses 21 through 26. And we'll read those
and then we'll back up a little bit to keep the context together. In
Luke chapter 11, Luke 11 verse 21 through 26, But when a stronger
than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh,
excuse me, I need to back up to verse 21. When a strong man
armeth, keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when
a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he
taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and divideth
his spoils. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the
unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry
places, seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, I will return
unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth
it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh to him
seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter
in and dwell there. And the last state of that man
is worse than the first." It's important for us to, as
we consider this passage here from verse 21 through 26, to
remember the context in relation to the whole. This chapter, like all scriptures,
is not just a series of unrelated events tied together with some
occasional wise sayings and moral teachings. Each part forms a
piece of the cohesive whole. And that's what we find here
as we look at the different blocks that we've studied here in Luke
chapter 11, teach us to pray. The disciples said, teach us
to pray. And it's just an admission that
what Paul wrote in Luke or in Romans 8, we know not how to
pray as we ought. We don't even have that capacity
to pray in the right way because we just don't know all of the
divine purposes and will, and there's so many things that are
beyond our purview that we have to look to the Spirit to intercede
for us, for intercession to make our prayers line up with the
purpose and will of God. He says, pray, thy will be done. on earth as it is in heaven,
not, Lord, here's my will, I want you to work that out for me. Because it may not be the will
of God. Remember, we kind of used Paul
for an example, as he was on his way to Damascus, and no doubt
that the brethren there in Damascus says, oh man, that Paul's on
his way. And they probably would have been praying, I hope lightning
strikes him and turns him into charcoal on the way here so he
doesn't come and haul us off to prison and have us executed. And certainly, they would have
probably felt justified in praying that, but it wasn't in the purpose
of God. And the Lord said, He's a chosen
vessel to me, so our will needs to conform to the will of God,
and we have to leave that to the Spirit to make that work
out. And so then we come to the casting
out of devils. He says, if I cast out devils
by the finger of God, remember he cast out a devil out of a
man and they said, he casts out devils by Beelzebub, the prince
of the devils, and we spent two lessons on that finger of God,
and we learned from Matthew that that finger of God is the Spirit
of God, is how Matthew records. If I cast out devils by the Spirit
of God, and we looked at how that spirit of God was essential
in all these different aspects of our redemption. And now, directly
after in verse 20 says, but if I with the finger of God cast
out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you. And
the kingdom of God is no less than the very person of Christ
come among them. And he says, when a strong man
armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall
come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armor,
wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils." And so we'll look
at that portion right now, but you know it's always interesting
that we find that word, but, we find usually it says, but
God. We find what a mess we're in
in our natural state and how hopeless we are and how we have
no ability to do anything for ourselves. But then it always
says, but God, who is rich in mercy, but God, but God. And
here we have when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his
goods are at peace. And this kind of relates back
to this devil that had possessed this man and had control of him. He says, when a strong man armed
keepeth his palace, his goods are at peace. But when a stronger
than he shall come upon him, he taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted and divided the spoils. You know, this stronger
man here in this parable that we have in this block, in the
middle of this block, is none other than the Lord. It's none
other than Jesus himself. He said this strong adversary
here thinks he's got things in control, but when a stronger
than he comes, he takes care of the issue. And then when we
get just to the next section of that, as we're kind of outlining
this block of scripture that we're going to be dealing with
today, He that is not with me is against
me. And he that gathereth not with
me scattereth. And so we have a, there's no
neutral ground here. We fall into the one camp or
the other. There's no neutral ground with
Christ on one side and the adversary on the other waiting for you
to choose. We're already in the wrong camp
to start with, and we need to be rescued out of that camp and
brought into Christ. So there's no neutral where people
are saying, well, I haven't made up my mind yet about salvation
or this or that. It's already been decided where
they are. They are children of wrath even as others until the
mercy of God intervenes for them. And then we look at this last
piece here of this scripture, when the unclean spirit has gone
out of a man. This is a kind of a direct contrast
to Jesus casting out the devil And then we have a kind of a,
the devil kind of leaves of his own. And it kind of shows us
in our natural state here. And what happens when one is
kind of temporarily relieved from the clutches of the devil
and the natural self thinks then that things are okay versus the
effectual rescue by the stronger man whose effects are eternal. So we have a kind of a contrast
here of the saving spirit of the Lord casting out the devil,
the fact that there's no neutral
ground, and here's the other side of the coin. You're on your
own, and it's not a good place to be. Excuse me. 1 John 3, verse 8, if you want
to take a quick look there in your Bibles. 1 John 3, verse
8 says, He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil
sinneth from the beginning. And for this purpose the Son
of God was manifested, that he might destroy works of the devil
and we kind of covered that block of scripture a little bit in
our previous lesson on the finger of God and how that remember
that that definition of that pneuma the root word of it was
a destroying wind and yet it was the same pneuma that is applied
in the rebirth, that Spirit of God, that Pneuma of God that
is the vital breath of life. And so to one it's the same breath
of the same Spirit of God, the same Word of God. It's a savor
of life unto life to some, and to others it's a savor of death
unto death. And again, there's no neutral
ground in that as well. And so, the situation is that
we've been covering in the last two lessons that a person in
whom Christ cast out a devil which was dumb, And we find that
the characteristics of that devil seem to be interposed on the
person in whom that is taking place. It says it was a dumb
spirit. And the Scripture says this man
was dumb as well, couldn't speak. And when Christ cast out that
devil, the dumb spake, it says. And we find that in Mark and
in Matthew as well, the same issue that we have. The Lord was effectually successful
in this. It's clearly written in the scripture
because it says, and it came to pass when the devil was gone
out, the dumb spake. And we see records of that in
all of his cases where he heals people. And they just say, boy,
where I was blind, now I see. That's all I know. So, we find that it would be a good
idea for us to remember what's written in this account in Mark
chapter 9 verse 25 when we compare this with what's written here
in Luke. In Mark 9, verse 25, it says, When Jesus saw the people
come running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him,
and enter no more into him. Enter no more into him. So when
Jesus effects this cure this healing as sometimes it's called
a healing or a casting out. He says, you can't come back
in. This person is mine. And the work of God is permanent
and eternal. And it's important for us to
remember that because when we get to verse 24, it says, when
the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, kind of by his own
volition, as it were, then here's what we can expect to happen,
but he's going to come back, and the end is going to be worse
than the beginning. But when the Lord casts out a
demon and says, enter not into him anymore, then the spiritual
part of that man is secure. there's no accusation, there's
no condemnation to them that are in Christ. So we know that
the work of God is permanent and eternal. You know, religion
kind of leaves it up to the man, and it just causes so much strife
in people, because it's all up to them. They have no trust,
they have no faith in the work of the Spirit, in the work of
the Son, in the work of the Father. And so if they experience these
things, it's because It's all because of what they've done
or what they've said or what they've produced on their own. So it's kind of up to man whether
he stay with Christ or return to the former seed. I don't know
how many times I've heard, well, I don't know whether I'm saved
or not today because of this or that. But the next day things
go well and they say, I'm good. So it all depends on how external
forces work on them. It's not an internal security. It's not an internal blessing
from the Spirit that gives them faith and trust that they've
been bought by the blood of Christ and not by anything of their
own merit and that their names are written in heaven from eternity. So let's take a look really at
what occurs in the work of Christ as reported in this parable of
this strong man and how he is overcome by a stronger than he,
it says. stronger than he, that'll be
our title for today's lesson. And so we find this strong man,
it's metaphorically kind of speaking about this devil that was in
the previous block that we looked at. And so we find the situation
with the unregenerate in their natural state without God is
represented here, and it kind of takes us back to that dumb spirit. The same thing was
effected in the man was dumb too. And so we kind of apply
those things to what's going on in our own
unregenerate state without God. In verse 21, the strong man is
armed and keepeth his palace and his goods are in peace or
secure. And as recorded there in verse
21, when a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in
peace. But when a stronger than he, That's just taken from Isaiah
53, 12. That's just where that comes
from. It's a paraphrase of that. The words are pretty close there. So we find this situation of
this person that's secure, and the way that it's written here,
a strong man armed keepeth his palaces, goods are in peace.
I've done everything that I need to do. I've kept all the law.
I've done this. I've done that. I'm secure."
And we find that that's the view of the devil as he is involved
here. And, you know, in 2 Timothy 2,
verse 26, I was telling Norma, I said, well, we read that scripture,
but then we have to back up to verse 25 to get the full context
of it. We can't just, we just have a
hard time taking one verse in the Bible and saying well this
is what it says and this is what it means without reading what
goes before it and what comes after it. In verse 26 of 2 Timothy
chapter 2, it says, Well, if you just read that verse by itself,
you'd say, Oh, I have the ability to do that. I have the power
to do that. By my free will, I can recover
myself out of the snare of the devil. But you know what it says
in verse 25? in meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves." They're in opposition to the truth, in
opposition to themselves. If God, peradventure, will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. So some things
have to happen before this verse 25 can become effectual. God
has to be involved in a mighty way. God has to give them repentance,
which is a turning from where they were to a turning to Him. And it's by sovereign mercy and
grace that that happens. If peradventure, God will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And the acknowledging
of the truth is something that doesn't come naturally to the
natural man. The natural man can't have those
things. They're spiritually discerned.
He can't understand, can't see them, can't know them. And so
if God perventure will give them repentance to the knowledge of
the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of
the devil who are taken captive by his will. So we're kind of
weak and in it and we have no ability to render ourselves out
of that grasp by ourselves. So the ability to recover is
entirely dependent on the intervention of the stronger than he, not
by anything that we can do. And so what happens when the
stronger than he undertakes for the individual? What happens
when the stronger than he undertakes for the individual? One who had
been given to him in the covenant of grace. One for whom the Son
would lay down his life for ransom, the scripture tells us, and for
whom the Spirit of God would cause him to be born again from
above, believing that Christ died for the ungodly. What happens? Well, it says, when a stronger
than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he takes all his
armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. Maybe we
could run over to Isaiah 53 and read that in verse 12 there. And again here, maybe we should
back up a couple verses to get the flavor and the context of
what it's talking about there. This very graphic and precise
description of what the Lord was undertaking. In verse 10
it says, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him in the place of
the people that he gave the Son in the covenant of grace. It
pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hands. He shall see the travail of his soul and
shall be satisfied. He's satisfied with the sacrifice
of the Son. He satisfied His justice, satisfied
His righteousness, satisfied all the requirements of the law
that we could not do. And shall be satisfied by His
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. That's
an important verse there. By His knowledge. He knows the
sheep. He knows all the ones by name.
He calls them by name. For he shall bear their iniquities."
So, knowledge and their are two words that are tied together.
It's not a universal application thereof. He knows all, everybody,
and bears iniquity, their iniquity. It's he knows his sheep and bears
their iniquities. Therefore, and here we're in
verse 12, here is where our scripture text today comes from, Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide
the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare
the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Therefore
will I divide him a portion, and he shall divide the spoil."
That word just means separate. It's the same word that we find
in Matthew 25, where when the nations come before Him, He shall
divide them, He shall separate them, the sheep on the right
hand and the goats on the left. It's the same terminology here. He shall divide the spoil with
the strong. Isn't that an interesting scripture
there? So, he says he's going to undertake
for them, he's going to come upon him and overcome him. And
he taketh from him all his armor, wherein he trusted, and divideth
his spoils. So, you know, when we think about
what kind of armor would the adversary have? What kind of
armor would he have? What kind of things would he
trust in? And that the Lord, the stronger than he, takes all
that away. And so, you know, if we turn
over to Ephesians chapter 6, we have an accounting here of
the the armor of God, and we could just say that the armor
of the adversary is the opposite of the armor of God. So whatever's
written here, we can just apply the opposite, and we'll kind
of take a couple of looks at that. In Ephesians chapter 6
verse 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. And boy, that's a key phrase
there. We need to be in Christ because it said in Romans 8 verse
1, Therefore there is no condemnation. Based on everything that was
written in chapter 6 and chapter 7 of Romans, He took on all our
sins and imputed righteousness to us. When we're in the Lord,
therefore, there's no condemnation. So be strong in the Lord and
in the power of His might, not in our own abilities or strengths. We have to trust Him for everything.
put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers
of the darkness of this world, the air." That word means the
wickedness in the air. Against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand." So it doesn't do anybody
any good to have one piece of armor. You're vulnerable everywhere
else. If you don't have all the armor,
you're exposed, and so that can't be. So you take on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to withstand against the
wiles of the devil, Wherefore, take on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, to stand." So when we put on the whole armor of God, we've
done what we need to do. And we're going to look exactly
what that might be. He says, "...stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with the truth." So the number
one piece of our armor, besides being in Christ, is the truth. And he says, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So we can't say that we have
the truth and then in the same breath say, well, there's many
ways, there's many roads that lead to God. Christ is just one
of them. So those two concepts are oxymoron. They are incongruent. So the truth, the whole truth
is the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. And so the first armor that the devil would have then
is the opposite of the truth. And what might you say is the
opposite of truth? The opposite of truth is a lie. It's pretty obvious. You are
of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will
do. That's from John 8, 44. If you want to read there in
your scripture, in your Bible, John 8, 44. He was a murderer
from the beginning, spiritually killed our father in Adam. and abode not in the truth, because
there's no truth in him. He, when he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it."
That's where the very first lie came from. Yea, hath not God
said that, what he said in Genesis chapter 3? Didn't God say you
could, and then he said, you know, God doesn't want you to
eat this because if you eat it, you'll be like Him. You shall
be as God's. That turned out to be the opposite
of the truth, didn't it? That did not end well for Him.
And it's another case where if it wasn't for the but God who
is rich in mercy, that would have been the end of all. But
you know what he said? The son's going to take care
of the serpent. He's going to crush his head. So he was a liar
and the father of it. So there we have that first armor,
the truth and the lie. And when God by the Spirit brings
the truth to his people, the lie is done away with. and it
has no more impact on them other than it's repulsive to them,
they say. I can't take that. I don't like
that. So the next piece of armor we
see is the breastplate of righteousness. And of course, the breastplate
goes right over the heart, that heart, that new heart that God
gives his people in the new birth. And, you know, that righteousness,
it sounds like, why give us the breastplate of righteousness?
I'll just put on my little merit badge or my little Something
on here, but really that understanding that we get from the truth of
righteousness is that Christ Though he is the Lord our righteousness
He fulfilled all the requirements that we could not and he became
our righteousness and we Because we are in him We are in him We get to have that righteousness. It's imputed to us because we
are in Christ. So, and that righteousness only
comes through the atoning work of Christ on the cross. And that's
the only thing that satisfies God, the breastplate of righteousness
that protects that new heart that's given to us by God through
the Holy Spirit. And you know, the devil can do
nothing for his own righteousness. And he can't supply any for you
either. He falls back on armament number
one. It's a lie. That's when rule
number two and three and four fail, refer back to rule number
one, which is he's a liar and the father of it. So basically
all his armament comes back to that one thing, but you know
the third part of this armor is the gospel of peace. It says,
take into you the whole armor of God, the breastplate of righteousness,
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The good
news that you're no longer at enmity with God, but you are
at peace with Him. You have a situation of peace
between you and God the Father, where before you were at enmity
with Him. You were a child of wrath, even
as others, until the but God, who is rich in mercy part, comes
in by the stronger than He. And so, that peace of God that's
given in the place of enmity. This peace only comes through
belief of the gospel and God's dear son who gave his life, a
ransom for the sheep that satisfied that justice of God by where
we were formerly child of wrath because of enmity. We now have peace because of
the atoning work of Christ. So, you know, the devil doesn't
offer any peace. Only the lie of self-deception. which we've kind of been talking
about through here. I'm okay. I said the words, or
I wrote a check, or I did this, or I did that, or I tithe of
all my little tiny seeds, and I prayed. fast three times a
week and all the, all the, I was baptized or I, I, I, I, I, I
have done all these things. And it's just the self-deception
that gives the illusion of peace that's obtainable in this world,
but never really does. It's never quite sufficient.
And you always have those people saying, well, you know, yesterday
I did some really good things. So today I feel good. But day
before, I was having a bad day. Boy, there's a good article in
your bulletin there by Philpott. He says, boy, the real me is
apparent. Anybody that hangs around with
me longer than five minutes is going to see who I really am. And if it weren't for the mercy
of God, I'd be in bad shape. So that devil offers no peace,
only the lie of self-deception. You know, in Isaiah chapter 48,
Isaiah 48, 22 says, there is no peace, saith the Lord, unto
the wicked. There's only the illusion of
peace. And, you know, he takes exception to those prophets which
say, peace, peace, when there is no peace. They're giving the
false promise of peace through physical worldly things and not
spiritual peace with God based on the merits of Christ. And
then we have the shield of faith here from Ephesians 6.16, above all,
taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked. You know, a shield. It blocks
a lot of that stuff. If you go back and read the Psalms,
it's always talking about, He's my buckler. Well, that's just
an Old Testament name for a shield. He is my strength and my buckler.
The shield of faith. And how do we get faith? By grace
are you saved through faith. And that, not of yourselves,
it's a gift of God. Not a works less any man should
both so we don't even get that part we have to be we have to
get that from this the stronger than he and so total We we said
many times that faith is total reliance on Christ for salvation
total Not, well, he did this much, and then I have to do this
last part, or I did most of it, and I just need like a pound
and a half of Jesus to complete the deal. So, there you have
that. Again, the devil can only offer
lies. He can't give faith, which can
only come from God. It's a gift of God. That's the
only place it's a gift of God, period. You could just put the
big period after that and close the book there. So then we have
the helmet of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. Another
period right after that. There's no other name given among
men whereby we might be saved. The lie of the devil is, well,
There is no God, so you don't really need salvation. It's just
a myth. It's just something that man
created out of his own imagination. There's no God. The fool has
said in his heart, there is no God. That's from Psalm 14. Then we have the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God. And Romans 10, 17 tells
us, so faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
The very Word of God is the Lord, Jesus Christ our Lord. Being
born again in 1 Peter 1, verse 23 says, we're born again not
of corruptible seed, which we come up with in religion
and by our own methodology to declare our own righteousness,
we're not born again of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And you
know what the devil says there? I got nothing. I got nothing. Nothing but the lie. So our text
says, when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome
him, he taketh from him all his armor. He takes all those lies
and replaces them with the whole armor of God. And then it says, he taketh all
his armor wherein he trusted and divided his spoils. And we
read that in Isaiah 53, verse 12. And we mentioned that that
was the application in Matthew 25, 32. Before Him shall be gathered
all nations, and He shall separate them one from another. Separate,
that's the same word as divide. Like dividing up a pie. He divides
up the people. He divides the sheep from the
goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto him on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. That eternal aspect of this,
our whole relationship with God brought in there. And then after
he says, this is what the stronger than he does. And then he says,
there's no neutral ground in this. Fight. There's no neutral
ground. He that's not with me is against
me. So what part of this can you
divide up and say, well, I can take, I believe this, but not
that. Or, I understand this part, but
this is wrong. What part of that can happen
and still be with the Lord? He says, if you're not with me,
If you deny the salvation of grace by grace, are you saved
through faith in that and out of yourselves? How much of yourself
do you have to add in there before you nullify what that scripture
says? Well, I'm saved through faith,
but I prayed for faith and then I got faith and now I'm exercising
it. It was all because of what I
did or because I said this or said that or I prayed this or
I prayed that or all those things that we always talk about. There's
no neutral ground. Everyone is in one of these two
camps. You're either in the Lord's salvation,
you're either in the Lord's grip or you're not. And the purpose
of declaring that at this point in the text, it draws a clear
line between those who by the Spirit of God have been born
again from above, taken from the clutches of the enemy by
the almighty power of God, by the stronger than he, and those
that we find in the next few verses who seemingly are relieved
by the temporary absence of this unclean spirit. And so the understanding
seems to be that when an unclean spirit goes out of a man of their
own volition, they go to a dry place seeking
rest. And the scriptures, there's no
rest to the wicked. They just wander around causing
trouble. And as the dumb man who took
on the nature of the unclean spirit, he couldn't speak. It's
a similar metaphor here that the person in whom the unclean
spirit seems to seek a rest as well. But they do it through
the medium of works because It says here, verse 24, When the unclean spirit is gone
out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and
he finds none. And he saith, Well, I'll return
unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he finds
it swept and garnished. Oh, well, I was gone. He kind
of tidied himself up a little bit. And this word, garnished,
means decorated. And so it kind of gives you the
impression that this person kind of tried to clean up his own
act. And he put on this facade of righteousness and appearance. This Greek word means that he
decorates to appear righteous. And that's what Matthew 23, 27
said. The Lord said, woe to you, scribes
and Pharisees, you hypocrites, for you're like unto whited sepulchers,
which appear beautiful on the outward, but within are full
of dead man's bones and all uncleanness. They've been painted on the outside.
They did that, they painted those sepulchres. Sometimes they weren't
very elaborate and they were just kind of a pile of rocks,
but that's where people were buried in the Jewish schlosses.
If you touch one of those, you're unclean for seven days, so you
can't take part in any of the ceremonies that are going on
in the temple. And so they would go out and
they would paint all those sepulchres white. so that people could steer
clear of them as they came in from all different directions.
And he says, you're just like one of those. You're painted
white, you look pretty good on the outside, but inside you're
just full of dead man's bones and of all uncleanness. The opposite. So man, like the
spirit, he really finds no rest in outward works or appearances.
And when he relies on those things, it says the end, it doesn't last. So the end is worse for him than
at the beginning. It's a downward spiral. Well,
I tried to clean up my act, but that didn't last, so why bother? I just get more and more involved
in other things. Maybe he heard the Word of the
Gospel with no spiritual understanding and tried to affect human results,
kind of like Adam. He sowed his own fig leaves. And that didn't work out well.
And in the end, they didn't find any rest of their own accord. No peace. You know, that's what
it says in Hebrews chapter 4. Unto us was the gospel preached
as well as unto them, but it didn't have any effect on them
not being mixed with faith. Not being mixed with total reliance
on Christ for salvation. And it didn't profit them. So, he says, my people are going
to enter into my rest. And he that enters into my rest
has ceased from his own works." Hebrews 4.10. So we're out of time there for today.
So we'll stop and we'll take on next time starting in verse
27. So until next time, my friends,
be free.

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Joshua

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