Now one of the things that might be confusing or you might think difficult to understand in this passage is when the Lord said to them, If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out?

That doesn't mean that necessarily their biological children of the Pharisees were casting out demons. The word children there is often translated pupils or students, those who the Lord had saved from among the religious error of the day and given the power to do this is who he's referring to.

And again, our Lord is exposing, we can learn a lot about our nature and about the truth, what conflicts with our nature, what corrects and rebukes our nature, the truth that the Lord told them from how he dealt with the Pharisees. It's not just negative, it's a lesson for us in every case.

And he shows them how absurd, first of all, that their accusation is on the very surface of it. He said, if Satan cast out Satan, then the kingdom of Satan is divided and can never succeed. He said, it's just foolish on the very surface of it.

But then notice verse 28. If I cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come unto you. Again, he's cautioning them. If you're wrong, there's a lot at stake here. There's a lot at stake. And they knew, they knew. They were resorting to personal attacks on him, calling him Satan, and they knew better than that.

All they cared about was their power, their control that they had over the religious people that followed them, and what they benefited from that. They didn't care about anything else, but he's cautioning them again. The Lord gives space to repent, doesn't He? And we're without excuse. We can't repent without the gift of His grace, but whose fault is that? Whose fault is that?

We cannot because we will not. No man can come to me. And He said, you will not come to me. So both are true. Don't say, well, I want to come to Christ, but He won't let me. No, you will not either. You cannot and you will not. So you complaining about being unable to is hypocritical because you don't want to anyway. No desire for it. No desire whatsoever.

So the simple answer here is that Satan would not do that. And so on the very surface, this is foolish and they didn't care. They didn't care. Are not the lies of organized religion in our day stupid? Your loved one is in a place called purgatory that nobody's ever heard of anyway but from you. There's a purgatory because you say there's a purgatory. Oh, but it's okay, because all you have to do is pay some money to get them out of there to us, pay us money.

They don't care. They know that's stupid and they don't care because all they care about is their power, their wealth, what they consider to be prosperity, and they'll make God a simpleton and make him impotent in order to gain what they want. So he's saying here, in effect, he's saying, be careful. Think about what you're saying. Because if I just happen to be casting out devils by the power of God, by the Holy Spirit of God, then you're standing face to face with God, the king of the kingdom, is standing before you.

Again, be careful. We as believers are warned also, aren't we? We need to understand who we're dealing with. I was thinking about whether to have Wednesday night service this coming Wednesday. And I thought, well, you know, Wednesday nights are a bonus. I think they're a wonderful bonus. It doesn't say anywhere in the scripture to meet, you know, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. It's not scriptural. It's not unscriptural. But Wednesday nights, if we cancel a Wednesday night, I'm not so I'm reluctant to cancel worship on Sunday more so than Wednesday. Does that make sense?

But we're starting a new year. And I know that doesn't, in a sense, that doesn't mean anything. But it does mean something in the sense that we think in every other way, this is the beginning of a new year. This is time for a new start, a fresh start. Let's make resolutions. Let's do this and that.

And let's think about this for a second. God that made you is gonna determine, has already determined, and is going to carry out everything that happens to you in 2026. Everything. How can we not come before him and worship him? How can we not do that? If we're gonna celebrate a new year, there ain't but one way to do that. Is there for a believer?

Lord, we hold up our hands to you. We're in your hands and we wouldn't be anywhere else, Lord. We wouldn't be anywhere else. We cast our souls upon you. In this coming year, Lord, help us to honor you. Help us to prioritize you. And that, you know, prioritize may seem like a weird word, but that's just simply what he said when he said, seek ye first. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. and his righteousness and all these things, whatever happens in 2026 will be added unto you.

So there's going to be service on Wednesday night. You might've picked up on that, but you see, that's just me. I just don't see how we can not do that. and we wouldn't have it any other way. It's not like we're scared, oh, God's gonna do bad things to us in 2026. No, no. We want him on the throne. We bless his name. That's part of what we'll do that night is we'll bless his holy name that he's on the throne, the one that's loved us with an everlasting love.

Thank God. that we will fare in this new year as it pleases him. And then in verse 29, the Lord tells him what's really happening here. What they said was ridiculous, right? That he's casting out devils by the power of the devil. Well, he showed them that's ridiculous on the very face of it. And then he tells him what really took place when he cast that demon out of that man.

In verse 29, or else how can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods? And that refers back to the one before, the Spirit of God. How can what actually happened happen unless God did it? In other words, how are you going to enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except he first bind the strong man? There's only one that can do that. That's God. The kingdom of God has come unto you. and then he will spoil his house.

Satan is strong. We learn that here, don't we? He can sift a sinner as wheat. He's done it more often than not, I suspect, as the Lord says, but relatively few. He's strong, there's not any question. Look at the devastation he wrought in the garden. The Lord gave him the strength that he has, but he's strong. The Lord uses the strength that he gave him, but he's strong. That's why we're taught to beware, because the devil walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He was seeking to devour Job. But God said, you can come this far and no further. You can sift him. But you're not allowed to kill him. I reserve that right.

And I know when I speak as a man, of course, that's God's right only. But look at what he did. Look what he did to Judas. He sifted him as wheat, didn't he? When he said to Simon Peter, Satan hath sought you too now. He sifted Judas as wheat, and he sought to do that to you, Simon. that I've prayed for you. Not you were stronger than Judas. Not you were more spiritual than Judas. Not good for you. Ah! There's one difference between Judas and Simon Peter. Ah! have prayed for you, for you. Substitution, intercessory substitution before the throne of God based on the blood that he shed on Calvary.

Look what he did to Job. But we saw in the case of Job what our Lord is teaching here in Matthew 12. Somebody stronger came along, didn't he? Satan had a hold of Job and he was despairing, he was in despair. He said, the Lord's forsaken me, I have no hope. But somebody stronger came along. And that's what happened in our text.

Satan is powerful now, but there's no epic struggle. How many times have I said this to you? There's no epic struggle between good and evil. There's just strong and stronger. And it doesn't even say he struggled. He just tied, he just bound him. There was no fight, there was no scuffle. When the stronger comes along, the strong one is bound. He's tied up, he's restricted. He's put out of business by the son of God. Let's worship him for that this Wednesday night and today.

that He delivered us from the power of Satan. We don't have any power against Him. But Christ is stronger. He has the power to bind Satan. And Christ said here, that's just what happened, that Satan had taken up residence in this man like somebody living in a house. He made a home. You know, it says of the Lord Jesus that Satan has nothing in him. It doesn't say he has nothing in us. By nature, he sure does. He took up residence in this man and Christ said, I came, he's teaching them here, I came into Satan's house and I took what Satan had possessed. I took it from him. I spoiled him. And that's what happened to every one of us. If somebody comes into my house to take everything that I own, he's gonna have to bind me. I'm gonna have to be incapacitated, or he's gonna be incapacitated. And that's just clear here.

Our Lord always taught with simple pictures. We can understand that. We can perfectly understand that. And that's what Christ said he had just done to Satan. He completely owned him. He spoiled what Satan had owned before. And you know what the spoil is? You. Me. He took possession of us. And now he lives in us. So simple, isn't it?

What the magnitude of the difference, the magnitude of the difference from wandering around and living in a graveyard and crying out and breaking the chains. You can't bind a sinner any other way. There's only one that can bind him. And how did our Lord do it? With a word, with his word. Earthly chains won't cut it. The chains of religion and turning over a new leaf are not going to bind the strong man. We went from the graveyard, breaking every other binding and crying out and scaring everybody to death and cutting ourselves, self-destructive, bleeding ourselves out from sitting and clothed And in our right mind, what a difference. You know what the difference is? Whose house I am. Whose house I am. And the Lord bought this house before it was ever built, before he ever built it.

2 Timothy 2.24, the servant of the Lord must not strive Don't argue, don't debate people. Don't say I know more than you and prove them wrong. No, no, don't strive, but be gentle unto all. Apt to teach. Teach. Teaching and arguing are two different things. Apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves. You're not their enemy, they are their enemy. They have one enemy, Satan and themselves, but we're satanic by nature, instructing those that oppose themselves. If God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who were taken captive by him at his will."

The stronger comes along and gives repentance, gives faith, gives love for Christ, causes that sinner to fall in love. And he binds our hearts, not with chains, but with the power of his gospel. He binds us to himself. And you've never been free until you've been bound by him. You've never been free until you've been the Lord's bond slave. And you never will be.

And our Lord did hear just a taste of what's coming to Satan, just a taste of it. The very thing that Satan would consider his greatest triumph bruising the heel of the Son of God on Calvary was his very undoing. He's gonna be caught in his own snare. At Calvary, our Lord's heel was bruised, but Satan's head was crushed.

And our Lord had told these Pharisees that accused Him of being in league with Satan, He told them, you're of your father, the devil. In John 8, 44, But they took counsel against him, how they might destroy him when he healed the man with the withered hand. But as he taught here in our text, just the opposite is happening. The Lord in all that he did and said was destroying Satan and all of his disciples.

the stronger. Listen to 1 John 3, 8, and we'll close. He that commiteth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. And listen to this, that's bleak, isn't it? That's bleak. We've committed sin, and by nature, children of wrath, by nature captives of Satan. Listen to the next sentence. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

Thank God for the stronger, the strongest, the almighty Son of God. He doesn't offer salvation, he is salvation. He doesn't give people a chance for salvation. He himself is salvation. He that hath the Son hath life. May God teach us that through this.

There's only one that can bind the strong, the strong man. All of the restrictions of religion They're just surface, aren't they? Easily broken, easily reapplied and easily broken. But if you ever meet God's son, if the kingdom of God ever comes to you in mercy and in grace, you'll be forever free, forever free. God help us to believe on him. Amen.