Well, Luke chapter 11 verses
21 through 26. This is such a comforting and wonderful
passage of Scripture here. Verses 21 through 26 of Luke
11. 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. 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 to my
house once 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. Now we have to understand this
parable In light of the fact that our
Lord has just cast a devil out of a man in verse 14 Then he
was accused in verse 15 of casting that devil out by the power of
the devil Beelzebub And then he shows them how foolish that
notion is in verses 17 and 18 And now here he's telling them
what really happened When you understand it like that, it's
clear as a bell Christ accomplished something that was utterly misunderstood
by religion. They accused him of something
evil when he did something wonderful. He did something wonderful and
he's going to explain exactly what he did in these verses we
just read. Here's what really happened after
refuting them and showing them what fools and how evil it is. The reason they refuted what
he said after he cast the devil out of a man. The only reason
you would have a problem with somebody casting a devil out
of somebody is if you just hate the one that did it so bad that
you just hate everything they did. And so it's the evil of
their hearts that caused them to say what they did. But before
he tells them what really happened and what happens every time he
comes to a sinner in power. He lays the whole matter out
on the line in verses 19 and 20. I want us to look at that
again. This is the whole thing laid out. Here it is. It's one or the other. All through
the scripture it's two, isn't it? It's grace or works. It's
the narrow road or the broad road. It's Christ or everything
and everybody else. And here it is now. If I by Beelzebub
cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? for one thing,
which shows they don't have a problem with those that they know and
actually love or even like casting out devils. The only reason they
have a problem with him casting out a devil is they hate him. Therefore shall they be your
judges. But if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, you
just witnessed something that you ain't ever witnessed in your
life, and it was one or the other. It was either Satan casting out
Satan or the very kingdom of God is standing here looking
you in the eye. One of the two. Pick a side. Choose you this day whom you
shall serve. As for me and my house. Others cast out devils and you
don't accuse them of being in league with Satan. But you accuse
me of that because you hate me. They hated everything he said
and everything he did because they hated him. And your own
sons will be your judges. They'll expose your foolishness
and there'll be a testimony against you in the day of judgment. But
also understand this, if you're wrong about what happened today, and about who I am, and regarding
what power and authority by which I just cast this devil out. If
you're wrong about that, then God's kingdom has come to you
and you've rejected the king. You see the implications of him
saying the kingdom of God has come to you? That says something
about them because if God's king is standing before you and you're
calling him Satan, you've got a problem with God. You've rejected his king. And
the thing about God's kingdom is either you're a friend or
an enemy. You're either bowing or rebelling. One of the two.
There ain't no middle ground. You either kiss the sun or he
is angry and will consume you in a moment. Psalm 2. There's
no middle ground. And these are the chosen sides.
You're either going to fall on the rock or the rock's going
to fall on you. And notice the word kingdom in
both verses 17 and 20. But he, knowing their thoughts
unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
desolation, and a house divided against itself falleth, if Satan
also be divided against himself. He's talking about any kingdom.
There's the kingdom of Satan. And then in verse 20, of course,
he's talking about the kingdom of God. And one of them was put
on display that day. Either Satan had prevailed, and
done something wicked as they accused our Lord of, which the Lord said that's ridiculous.
Satan don't cast out Satan. Or the King of Glory prevailed
and did something wonderful and you missed it. Now which is it? And here's the truth of the matter.
Whatever they thought. There are two kingdoms but there
ain't but one King. There's two realms, but there's
one king over all. He is the king of kings. He always
prevails. Satan is the prince of the power
of the air because the king has given him some power for a little
while. That's why. But only one true king. Now then,
our Lord says in effect, let me tell you what really happened.
And it's chilling. It is of great consequence and
eternal consequence. When a strong man armed, verse
21, keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. And we know from
this whole story and from the context of it, the strong man
is the devil. Or a demon, which is the same
thing, because he's doing the bidding of the devil. And isn't
it, it's interesting here in eye opening. We read this whole
thing where Satan is the strong man. He's in, he takes up a boat
in the house. He lives in the house. He operates
from the house. And then the stronger, the one
who's stronger comes along and removes him. And then he takes
up a boat. But what's eye opening is, is
this is talking about us. We're the house. This is us,
it's people, it's sinners, but we're not even mentioned as doing
anything. Did you notice that about this? We're inanimate in
this whole thing. There's all kinds of stuff going
on in us, and we're just sitting there. That's the way it is. That's exactly the way it is.
We're just an empty house. Verse 25, we're an empty, empty,
swept and garnished. And listen to the account of
it in Matthew 12, 44. Then he saith, I will return into my
house from whence I came out. And when he has come, he findeth
it empty, swept and garnished. In our text, it just says swept
and garnished and the empty is implied. And this is astonishing
to me and would likely be greatly offensive to just about everybody. I'll tell you this, to everybody
who doesn't believe God, Who doesn't believe the word of God?
There is an occupation. There is an overthrow. There's
a lot going on and we have nothing to do with it. We're just a vessel,
a shell. Now think with me. We're not
inanimate objects in reality, okay? We are human beings. We're
souls with an eternal destiny. One way or the other. Eternal
souls. Those who are Christ's are precious
to him. But tell me in this story what
do you have to do with who occupies your heart? Absolutely nothing. You forfeited
that in the garden when you fell. You don't have any say in it
anymore. You had your say in the garden in Adam. And we all
of course repeat that as individuals. We're just like him. We're like
our father Adam. And Adam all died. And so we
We act like spiritually dead people because that's what we
are. But we don't have, look, we forfeited that. We're past
that. It's not up to us to choose.
It just happens to us. He's in us, period. He rules
us. We're taken captive by him at
his will, by nature, period. And you're not going to do anything
about it. You can't do anything about it. And the Lord can come
and he can drive him out and everything can be Wonderful from
that then on you can't do anything about that either He's going
to do it if he wants to and if he doesn't he's not going to
do it Here we are Well, you know that's offensive
now, but that's just the truth Satan is the strong man. You're
not going to stop him from coming in and going out You just not
He's going to take over. And in fact, the story assumes
ownership. He says, my house, doesn't he?
My house, you belong to me now. That's ever since the garden.
Ever since the fall. We're not going to do anything
about it. Since the fall, because of our sin, we are his house.
And notice the word his in the text. I'm not just saying that
because I think that's right. This is the word of God. From
an eternal perspective, God's sheep are never Satan's. From
God's point of view, we never belong to Satan, but by nature,
the scripture says, we're the children of wrath, even as others.
And at one time, listen to this in Ephesians 2.2, we are his
for a time in the sense that he lives and works in us, and
he controls us. Ephesians 2 to where in time
past you walked according to the course of this world according
to the prince of the power of the air The spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience when with regard to believers.
He says you used to be that way But with regard to those who
still reject the Savior you're still that way he now works in
you he now you walk according to him and And notice the word palace in
the text. Who lives in a palace? A king. We may call our house a palace,
but only kings live in real palaces. We can say it's my palace all
we want to, but it's a king that lives in a palace. Satan ruled
us. He ruled us. And his goods, the spoils of
that victory, he says they're in peace. Did you notice that?
He's not worried about it. He's not worried about you overcoming
him or driving him out. He's comfortable in you. His goods are at peace. The devil is secure and at ease
in a sinner without Christ. Second Timothy 2.26 says that
we by nature are taken captive by the devil at his will. At
his will. Our will is impotent in the matter. Oh, but look at verse 22. Let's
get there quick. But when a stronger than he shall
come. Boy, it ain't you. The stronger
than he has got to come to you. He's somebody outside of you. He's got to come where you are
and do something about it. Then he shall come upon him and
overcome him. He doesn't come to travel with
him. He comes to drive him out. He doesn't come to argue with
him. He doesn't come. And notice he doesn't come to woo him or
influence him. He sends him home. He sends him
out. He taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted. and divideth his spoils. A complete coup and overthrow
takes place. The Lord Jesus, you see the wonder
of the context of this? He said, this is what just happened.
This is what you just witnessed. You have your interpretation
of it and it's evil and stupid. Here's what really happened.
The Son of God came and overthrew Satan. Satan that had control of this
man and there wasn't any other way it was going to be any other
way And if I came and did something about it, and that's what you
saw that's what you saw a Complete coup and overthrow
takes place and you still had nothing to do with it That's
just all through this isn't it you still didn't have anything
to do with it Nobody asked permission neither Satan nor the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nobody asked permission to come
into you. They just did. Bless God, I pray that he that
is stronger has come to you and me. Satan easily subdues you
and the Lord easily subdues him. I say this a lot. I want to say
a lot of things a lot more too. There's no epic struggle between
good and evil. It's just as easy as it can be.
You see a struggle here? Satan easily subdues us and the
Lord Jesus Christ easily subdues him. Is this a clear picture?
What a beautiful... Aren't you glad that we have
some insight into this? I know what happened when God
saved me. Oh, and what he saved me from. The Lord Saying look what this
is what happened your deluded interpretation of it is that
Satan cast out Satan and you've completely missed it And here's
the real problem you completely missed the most important thing
that you can possibly miss Remember how Christ described
it in verse 20 with the finger of God If I with the finger of
God cast out Satan. He didn't even have to use his
whole hand. There's no epic struggle here. This is not some great
battle between Satan and Christ. When Christ got good and ready,
he moved in and moved Satan out. He moved a finger and it was
done. That's my Savior. And thank God
if he did this for you. We see all the things in the
scripture that happens to us that Satan tears us. He throws
us down. He makes us dumb. He makes us
blind. He makes us where we can't hear. Thank God if he's done this for
you. Satan oppresses us. He accuses us. He guilts us. He tears us. He's a cruel master. He forces you to make bricks
with no straw. He will convince you that what
you have to do is produce good works which you cannot possibly
produce. A cruel taskmaster. He gives
you no rest, no peace. He'll say peace, peace, but there's
not going to be any. He's at peace in you, but you're
not ever going to have any unless and until he that is stronger
comes along, the Prince of Peace. Satan says work, work, work.
You got to make sure your good outweighs your bad. You got to
give up all the, you know, the evil television and don't read
any evil books anymore. Don't have any entertainment
in your life because it's all evil. Don't drink anything. Don't
smoke anything. If you don't live the Christian
life, you'll go to hell. You know what the Lord says?
Come to me and rest. Just rest. You have no good. It's all bad,
but it's okay. Come to me. Christ is going to have to deal
with your sin, or it's not going to be dealt with. You're going
to die in it. You can try to deal with it all
you want to, or you can come to him and rest. The Lord Jesus comes, he says,
I've taken your sin, come let us reason together. Though your
sins be as scarlet, you are an evil wretch. You are a devil
yourself and you have a devil in you. But I'm gonna wash you
clean. I'm gonna drive him out. And
I'm gonna set the beggar among princes. Satan says, but look at you,
you can't possibly be one of God's sheep, look at you. And
we do sometimes look, don't we? And we agree. How in the world? You're ungrateful, you're selfish,
you're an idiot. But the Lord comes and says,
you are all these things. But add one more to the list.
You're mine. That's the end of it. That's
the end of it. You're mine. Notice that once
Christ comes and by the power of his blood, by the power of
his life and his death, by the power of his representative life,
his righteousness, he is the Lord our righteousness, and by
his sin offering which is infinitely Valuable enough to pay for every
sin and washes clean from every sin when he Christ when Christ
comes and Conquers all evil he wins the victory and he gives
us the victory Satan is done after that you don't come back
anymore before that now He'll leave for a little while and
he'll come back But once Christ comes he's done If Satan has anything to do with
you, believer, if you have Christ, if the Spirit of Christ dwelleth
in you, if he's taken up residence in your heart, if you have anything
to do with Satan at all, it will be Christ using him for your
good. That's it. The Lord Jesus Christ takes away
all of his armor wherein he trusted. That's satan trusting in his
craftiness. Well, he thinks he's proud He's
proud of his wisdom and his craftiness And his subtlety the power that
he does possess given him by the lord. He's proud of it And
he actually thinks he can do something with it Think about this now the lord
allowed satan to plunge our whole race into sin and rebellion The
Lord has allowed him to wreak havoc on this world. Look at
this world. You think Satan has anything to do with that? You
better believe it. Think about all he's done in
this world, and even in our lives we've witnessed so much. He has
a chokehold on many that I know and love. And so the devil has great pride
and confidence in himself. He's gotten away with a lot,
but what he doesn't understand Not fully. He's on the Lord's
leash now, he does what the Lord allows him to do and no more.
We saw that in the story of Job clearly, but listen to this.
When it comes to the Lord's sheep, the Lord takes away Satan's power
that he had given him before. Over us he'd given him a certain
amount of power. He takes that away now when he
comes and saves us He takes it away. There's no there's no power
He gave him some power for a little while and he has no dominion.
Oh, the Lord has set up his throne in our heart now And you know That's what we're
confessing when we say, you know, the scripture says that Listen
to it in Romans 10 now, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus. You know why we're able to do
that? Because he is the Lord Jesus. And not only is he the
Lord Jesus, but he's the Lord Jesus now. And so I can confess
with my mouth that he's on the throne. He's on the throne in
heaven, and he's on the throne in my heart. That's what it is to confess
that he's Lord. And believe in my heart that
God hath raised him from the dead. That's salvation. So how does the Lord overcome
the devil as it pertains to me? How does he accomplish that? By being who he is. By doing
what he does. By saying what he says. By being
who he is. He just does. Listen to 1 Corinthians
15. by himself. That's how he does
it. That's probably the best way to say it. He does it by
himself. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,
and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be
brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed
up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything he did, everything
he says. Satan trusts himself and he teaches us to trust ourselves.
So the armor here that's taken away, it's the devil's armor,
but it's ours too. You know, often when the scriptures
talk about people who are possessed with devils, it's hard to say
whether it's the devil talking or the person talking. You know
why that is? Because there ain't no difference. It's you doing
it, but it's the devil in you. It's the same thing. So we take
refuge in our pride as well, don't we? Oh, but thank God he
took that away. You see what he said? He took
away his armor. I'm glad he does that. I had taken refuge, I had
on the armor of pride and self-righteousness and my will, you know. He took
that away and left me with no hope but Him. When you have no
hope but Him, you have all the hope there is. Bless His name, He takes away
everything that we trust in. He causes us to trust in Him
alone. And He divides the spoils. What does that mean? It's the
picture of somebody that's victorious over the enemy and everything
belongs to them now. It's all theirs. Listen to the
spiritual version of that in Isaiah 53 10. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. How did the Lord win the victory?
How did he accomplish this for us and in us? It pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. He
took our place under the wrath of God for our sins. That's how
he did it. 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
hand. He did it alone. And he shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. And by his knowledge shall my
righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong. You see the picture. He's victorious.
He wins. Everything's his. He earned it. And because it's his, it's mine. We're joint heirs with Jesus
Christ. He hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared
the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. He divides
the spoils. He's victorious. That's what
that means. Christ didn't come to do his best. He came to win,
and he won. Verse 23. He that is not with
me is against me. And he that gathereth not with
me scattereth. Now you think, well, boy, he's
changed the subject. Now we're off on something else. Maybe
you should have saved that for next week, Chris, because that's a
different thought completely. No. As we already said here, there's
no neutral ground here. You're accusing me of doing what
I do by the authority of Satan. You picked a side. You're against me. He's warning
them here, isn't he? He that's not with me is against
me. Do you really want to be against
the one who with the finger of God can cast out a devil? I don't know about you, but I want
to be with him. There's no neutral ground. You're
with or against. They accused him of being in
league with Satan simply because they hated him. Because they
didn't accuse anybody else that was casting out devils of that. He sets them straight and says,
in effect, choose a side. With or against. They already
had. Now the Lord gives another scenario.
Listen to this. If the Lord had not cast out
this demon, what would have happened to the man and to us? If he does not come in power
and overthrow and take up residence, then what happens? Verse 24.
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through
dry places seeking rest and finding none. We don't have a whole lot
of revelation about what all demons do other than torture
sinners. And look, they're not trying
to get you to smoke and drink and go to R-rated movies. They're
trying to keep you from Christ. That's what their business is.
It's anti-Christ. When the unclean spirit goes,
we don't know what all they do. Whatever they do, They're not
happy until they come back. He says, I will return into my
house. What we are taught here, don't know what the dry places
are. I don't understand that. But
what I do understand is that he may go out for a while, but
he's going to come back. Until the stronger comes, the
devil is going to have you whenever he wants you. He's going to go
in and he's going to come out and he's going to completely,
just at his will. You're not going to be able to
stop him. He says, I will return unto my house once I came out.
And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Think
about this. He may go out from you for a
while. Everybody that you see walking around on the streets
is not actively possessed with a devil at that time necessarily. They're enough of a devil on
their own. And we are too without God's grace. But they may not
be actively possessed. He may go out for a while. We'll
talk about that. He doesn't have an active presence
in every sinner all the time. He don't have any presence in
a believer. That's clear from the text. Isn't it interesting
to know these things? The scripture deals with just
about everything, doesn't it? Satan entered into Judas Iscariot.
I take that to mean he wasn't in him a minute before that,
you reckon? He entered into him and we saw
the result of that. He sifted him as wheat, didn't
he? He had, listen to this, we talked this morning about people
that just are insane. How insane is it to walk with
the Lord for years and see his power and see his mercy, see
his loving kindness towards sinners and then sell him for 30 pieces
of silver. That's what Satan will have you
doing. And you'll know it was stupid. You'll go out and hang
yourself because it was stupid. But you'll go to hell anyway.
Because Satan has sifted you as wheat in his hand. And I see this. This is why I
get so worked up about it. I see this happening. I fear.
And some that I would give my life for right now if it would
do any good. But me giving my life don't save sinners. Satan enter into him and we see
the result of that. But to enter in you have to be
out. So for a time sinners can be without an active demon possession. But what happens when they are?
Are they going to turn to the Lord? No, because they're just
as much of a devil as the devil was. They hate Christ just as
much as he did. That's why he's at home in them.
What happens? And this is important now. You might say, well, you know,
Chris, you're talking about demon possession and people do evil
things because the demons come within. It sounds like it's the
devil's fault, you know, if we don't know the Lord. No, even
when the devil leaves you for a while, you know what you're
going to do? Look at verse 25. You'll just get religious. That's what
you're going to do. You're just going to sweep. You're
going to sweep your house, you're going to clean up your act, and
you're going to decorate. Left to yourself, what are you? Empty. That's the definition
of the word vanity. Vanity. Void of any good. Void of any hope. Listen, empty. Empty of grace. Empty of God's
Spirit. Empty of righteousness. Empty
of true love, peace, kindness, or any fruit of the Spirit. Empty
of it. Swept. People love to clean house,
don't they, spiritually? They don't like to do it physically,
but we love to do it spiritually. It's fun, isn't it, doing it
spiritually? I quit smoking, I quit drinking,
I quit cussing. I don't hang out with people
that do that. I'm religious. Like the Pharisee in Luke 18,
I'm not like that publican down there. All he did was just sweep
out his house. And you know what? That's an
affront to God. To think for a second that you
can clean your house enough for him to be welcome there. He doesn't come to a swept house. When He comes, He shows us just
how dirty our house is. When do you sweep your house?
Why do you sweep your house? So it'll be clean. Why do people
do that in their hearts? To make themselves clean. You've
trampled under your nasty feet the precious blood of God's Son
when you do that. You're saying, I don't need a
substitute. I don't need a sin offering. I've got a broom. I've
got myself righteous, I've got my works, I've got my will. And when that's, when we're left
to that, when we clean our house and garnish
it, what's going to happen? He comes back and he brings seven
friends with him. and you're just going to be worse
than you were to start with. We sweep our house in order to
clean it, but is it clean? Who can be clean that is born
of a woman? How can you get clean water from a dirty fountain?
You're sweeping away all of your vices and bad habits and trying
to clean up your act can never take away one sin that you've
ever committed. It just makes it worse. The act
of sweeping itself is sin. You're denying Christ and his
precious blood every time you try to do something to please
God yourself. Christ shall profit you nothing. And religious people love to
garnish too, don't they? Adorn or decorate. Let's put
the Ten Commandments on the wall, you know, or wear a cross around
our neck, or put stained glass windows in our churches so we
look more religious. Those are outward signs of what's
going on inside. Our Lord spake of this with regard
to the Pharisees. He said they like to look religious.
They wear long robes and have broad phylacteries and they like
to look religious. And he said, don't you dare be
like them. To be seen of men. Luke 20 verse 46. They garnish
themselves with those long robes and now they wear these collars,
you know. Oh, there's not too many things that offend me. Somebody
wearing their religion, their self-righteousness on their collar
is offensive. It's repulsive. Religious jewelry and all that
is an outward expression again of what's going on, what they're
doing on the inside. They're garnishing themselves before
God with their good works and their decisions and their devotion
and their service to Him. Look at me, how religious I am. And what we do as sinners when
the devil leaves us alone for a while is that we prove that
we ourselves are just as big a devil as he is. That trample his blood under
our feet and say, I'll do my best and God will accept me on
my merit. But when our Lord comes, If you don't sweep our sin under
a rug or into a corner, He reveals it. When you sweep, you haven't gotten
rid of the dirt. It's still somewhere, isn't it?
You just moved it from one place to another. That's all you've
done. But when our Lord comes and washes
a sinner clean in His own precious blood, there is no dirt anymore.
It's gone. And he doesn't decorate a pig.
He don't garnish a leper. He changes him. He changes a pig into a prince. We're no longer empty, but we're
filled with the spirit. The living water dwells within
us as a well of water springing up within us so that we would
never thirst again. Christ, Paul said, liveth in
me. Listen to the language of this. I am crucified with Christ,
nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. What's the difference between
me and the devil? You say, oh, I believe in God.
The devils believe in God. They know more doctrine than
you do. I guarantee you that. The difference is he loved me
and gave himself for me. That's the difference. There's
just one. It's him. The demon in the text comes and
goes as he pleases. He brings others with him and
it's all downhill. Religion doesn't make somebody
kinder or more like Christ. They make them more and more
like the devil, doesn't it? Religion does. You're going to
be meaner and less forgiving and everything. The more religious
you get, the more your devilry is revealed. A religious sinner is worse than
just a sinner. And pretty much all of us are religious by nature. The more false hope you have,
the more you trust in your own works, and will, and way, and
the more hopeless you are. The devil loves a swept and garnished
house. He loves it. He says, look, look
how wonderful this is. He'll bring all of his friends
with him. Thank God I don't need any garnishing. I'm clothed in the very righteousness
of God's only Son. I'm decorated with His own beauty
and spotless purity. Spotless without blemish and
pure in the sight of God. You don't need to decorate that. And He is in complete control
of me now. I can't roll dice without Him
bringing up something. I can't think a thought, but
He has turned my heart as the rivers of water, whithersoever
He will, and I like it that way. I like it that way. Thank God
He came where I was. He loved me and gave Himself
for me. And I tell you this, if He gave
Himself for you, He's going to have you. He's going to take
up residence right here. And when he does that, boy, we'll
praise his name from now on, won't we? We come here this morning
to praise his name for doing just that. Praise his holy name. How gracious and merciful. He
saved me in every way that a man can be saved, just because he
wanted to. And he wanted to because he loved
me. Let's pray.