And we're in our continuing Bible
study of Luke chapter 11. And we're going to be covering
from verse 14 down through verse 26. Not all today though. It's kind
of this block of scripture that is linked together. So we'll
read through here the first thing. and we'll have our comments.
And remember that our last lesson at the beginning of chapter 11,
he had said, the disciples had said, Lord, teach us to pray.
And our lesson revolved around that aspect. And then in verse
14, he said, And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb.
And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb
spake. And the people wondered, But some of them said, He casteth
out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. And
others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But
he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided
against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided
against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against
himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that I
cast out devils through Beelzebub, and if I by Beelzebub cast out
devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall
they be your judges." But if I, with the finger of God, cast
out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. 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 trusteth and
divideth his spoils. And he that is not with me is
against me, and he that scattereth not with me, or he that gathers
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. 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 day to that man
is worse than the first." we'll be looking at that. It's
kind of a lengthy block, and it kind of covers several different
aspects here. Kind of to keep everything in
context here, we want to kind of bring our attention to this
first part, which is this casting out of a devil from a person
and the subsequent issues which develop from that act. And there's
just so many things that are that are brought out spiritually
through this whole block of scripture that we're just going to kind
of look at part of it today, and then we'll examine more of
it in the coming weeks. I thought it was interesting
that it doesn't really say much about the act. It says, and he
was casting out a devil. Like it was commonplace, kind
of, which it kind of was. Subsequent verses kind of describe
the ease of the manner with which it was accomplished and the resulting
freedom from the difficulty enjoyed by the person who was relieved.
It just says so much that this person in this scripture says
he was dumb. And it just spiritually talks
to our nature. We can't say anything. We can't
say one word to aid our cause in this situation. In our spiritual
death, we're dumb. We can't talk. And in Matthew's
account there, if you want to turn over to Matthew 12, There's several scriptures that
kind of deal with this same thing. But in Matthew chapter 12, in verse 22, Then was brought
unto him one possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, and he
healed him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and
saw. And the people all were amazed
and said, Is not this the son of David? And when the Pharisees
heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out devils, but
by Beelzebub, the prince of devils." And then it says, but Jesus knew
their thoughts, and then he goes on about the same kingdom against
a kingdom that we just read in Luke. So, it kind of tells us the that
the aspect of the devil that they were plagued with caused
physical, similar physical aspects to the person. So they said that
the devil was dumb, but the person was dumb and blind and, and In
Matthew chapter 9, there's another account where it says, there
was a dumb man possessed with the devil. And in Mark chapter
9, there was a man that brought his son that was possessed with
a devil that was, he was possessed with a dumb spirit in Mark chapter
9, verse 17. So it was something that seems
to be kind of common. You know, back in Luke chapter
8, we had the account of the Lord
going across the Sea of Galilee for the purpose of one man there
in Gadara that was possessed with a legion of devils. And
all those aspects of him, he was called the maniac of Gadara
because he kind of ran around in maniacal fashion and no one
could contain him. When the Lord got through with
him, he was sitting at the feet of Jesus in his right mind and
praising the Lord. So we have that. And then also
in chapter 8, It tells us that there were certain women who
had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Among them was
Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils. And also
in Mark chapter 16, we have an account. In Luke chapter 9, we
have the record. Remember when the Lord sent out
the disciples, and they were to go out and preach the kingdom
of God and heal people. And when they got, they were
kind of coming back to town, and in the meanwhile, Jesus was
up on the Mount of Transfiguration, and that was going on. When they came down from the
mountain, all the people had surrounded these disciples. And
this man that had the son that had the devil, then says, I tried
to get your disciples to cast them out, and they could not.
So the Lord took care of that one as well. And that could be
read in Luke 9, verse 38. in our previous lesson and in
this one, we see that we usually find there's several common reactions
to these great miracles, which could have only been accomplished
by the Lord. And we find that throughout time.
It's like, There's a little bit later when we look at this part
about the finger of God, if I cast out devils by the finger of God,
that the first record we have of that is in found in Exodus
chapter 8 where Moses is trying to get the people free and the
Lord put the plague of turn the dust into lice and And the magicians
of the Egyptians weren't able to duplicate that. And they said,
surely this was the finger of God. So we see these common reactions
to these miracles that even the Egyptians admitted, well, this
could only come from God. Even though we don't really believe
in Him, we recognize it. came from some supernatural source. So usually we find on the part
of the person healed, there's great praise and thankfulness
and humbleness. They recognized it of themselves. They were not able to accomplish
the cure to what ailed them and their salvation. They just knew
that they'd been saved. They just knew that they'd been
relieved. And they knew who had accomplished
it. Remember in John chapter 9, we
had that man that was blind from birth. And the reaction of the people
was, oh, who said this man or his parents that he would suffer
this malignity? And the Lord says, neither he
nor his parents sinned, but that the power of God might be manifested
in him. It was for a purpose. It was
from a purpose from before the foundation of the world. And
what was the reaction of that guy? They grilled him. They were not happy about him
being able to see. And he said, how did this happen?
He said, well, I don't know, but I know one thing. Whereas
I was blind, now I see. Of course, those words immortalized
in that famous hymn, so we're all familiar with that. And he
said, whereas I was blind, now I see, John 9.25. And generally,
there's amazement on the part of the general people, you know,
the multitudes. So often we see thousands and
thousands and thousands of people witnessing some great miracle.
But as we found in John, when he fed the thousands, and then
when he told them some truths, No man can come unto the Father
but by Me. And all that the Father giveth
Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will no wise
cast out." Many of them said, well, these are hard truths.
And many of them walked no more with Him. In spite of the fact
that He just watched them feed 5,000 people with a couple of
loaves and fishes. So we've learned all through
Scriptures that those miracles mean nothing in the way of having
regenerative power for the average person. They're just demonstrations
of the power of God, and they are metaphors for His spiritual
work in people. And they missed all that generally. So that was one of the reactions
that we see that people have to these kind of occurrences
where, well, He cast out a devil out of that guy, and they were
all filled with wonder, or they were all amazed. Man is able to say, well, there
must be some illogical explanation for that. We're not going to
attribute that to God, actually, because that would just be crazy. So there must be some secret
thing. That guy was probably a faker
or all the things that we run into. They were all amazed at
the mighty power of God. You know, in Luke Chapter 8,
when he went over there and healed that maniac from Gadara, what
does the Scripture say about those folks? It says, the whole
multitude of the country of the Gadarenes besought Jesus to leave
because they were sore afraid. They said, this is not natural
and we don't like it much. This is beyond our scope. And
instead of giving God the glory and giving him the praise and
saying, thank God he healed that crazy guy that's been running
around causing trouble. doing all kinds of weird stuff.
They said, well, would you mind moving along, please? Go back
to where you came from. Isn't that amazing? So you know
these religious leaders that we usually find in the multitudes
of people that we're always reading about. There was a combination
of amazement coupled with jealousy and the hatred of Christ because
always the people went after Christ and followed Him and they
just saw it as a detraction from their leadership, their power,
their their hierarchy, and their status, and their established
power. And so, we have to say, well,
why? Why is all this going on? We
read earlier from John chapter 9 where this man wasn't born,
he didn't sin for his parents. He was born this way that the
power of God might be manifested. There was a purpose. in that
man's issue from before the foundation of the world that the Lord was
going to use in a very powerful way. to demonstrate His power
and His grace. But that the works of God should
be manifest in him or made known. And so we find out the same thing
here in Luke 11 with this casting out of this devil. It's according
to the purpose of God in redeeming the church. It's all related
to that. All according to the purpose
of God. we find in the heart of unregenerate
man the formulation of a set of circumstances which would
lead to the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
These people developed in their heart of an enmity that went
beyond just natural enmity. That was an enmity that, that
where they actually started purposing ways to accomplish the death
of Christ, which was all according to the purposes of God. And so these things, that demonstrated
His power, that demonstrated who He was, had that effect on
those people who were ordained to that from before the foundation
of the world. Acts 2.21, when I read this verse, I just
thought, boy, how linked is this to Luke chapter 11? In Acts 2.21 it says, "...and
it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved." This guy could not call on the name of
the Lord. He could not. But it's interesting to note
the order of things in this verse compared with that in Luke 11.14
in that person who represents all of that natural condition
that we have. unable to speak, let alone call
on the name of the Lord. And the following verse in Acts
kind of gives us the key. It's just so interesting. Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then
we find out we can't. In verse 22 says, ye men of Israel,
hear these words. You can't hear, can't see, can't
speak. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in the midst of you as you yourself know. By miracles
and signs, miracle of the new birth. By the wonder of you giving
a heart to know Him, to believe, by having your blind eye open,
by having your deaf ears unstopped, all these things that we've just
kind of been reading about through the Gospels that He accomplished.
And Jesus returned the power of the Spirit into Galilee in
Luke chapter 4. Remember from our lesson in Luke
chapter 4? And He went into a synagogue
and stood up for it to read. And in verse 17 it says, there
was brought to Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when
He had opened the book or the scroll, when He opened it, He found the
space where it was written. Imagine that. He knew right where
to go, didn't even need to read it really. The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach gospel
to the poor, sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, the recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all of them in
the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto
them, this day is a scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all
bear him witness and wondered at his gracious words which proceeded
out of his mouth. And they said, isn't this Joseph's
son? How could he know this stuff?
He's just a Joseph's son. He's just a man. These very miracles
and signs and wonders were directly the catalyst which the warped
mind of the enemy allowed them to rationalize into affecting
the death of the Lord. Every time He did something,
their anger just built and built and built. Their hatred of Him
just became more and more enhanced. And in Acts 2.23, We read the first couple of verses
of that a minute ago in Acts 2, 21, 22, about whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken him by wicked
hands, have crucified and slain. All these things come about,
and we'll find out here a little bit later in this chapter, that they were just after it. They said, hmm, it's time to
take action. This has gone too far. Acts 424,
when they heard that, They lifted up their voice to God with one
accord and said, Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and
earth and the sea and all that in them is who by the mouth of
thy servant David has said, why did the heathen rage and the
people imagine vain things? You know, in some of the cases
when he did a miracle like this, this healing, I think we'll read
here one of them in a minute, but he said, is not this the
son of David? So some had that view. This must
be the Messiah. This must be the one that was
spoken of. And others said, this is the son of Joseph. We know
who your mother and father are. And we know the circumstances
there that weren't good. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and
against his Christ. They were antagonized by all
these miracles and signs and the preaching of the Gospel,
these healings. For of a truth against Thy holy
child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together
for to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before
to be done. He was going to be crucified
and slain, lay down his life for ransom for the church to
redeem the ones that the Lord, that God the Father gave him
in the covenant of grace. And all these things are focusing
in narrower and narrower and narrower until we get to that
final event that we read about there in Jerusalem. Previously,
we called attention to the various reactions and thought of the
people who witnessed all those miracles we read. There was wonder,
there was amazement, there was anger, there was resentment,
there was jealousy. But you know, the main thing
we find, there was just disbelief, even though they saw it. And
you know that goes right all the way back to the beginning. Norm was just saying they came
out of Egypt and they said, oh, let's make a calf. Let's make
a golden calf. We'll rationalize this. We'll
say this is what got us out of Egypt. So, unbelief, even though they
just saw all those things that happened, you know, the flies,
and the lice, and the frogs, and the darkness, and the death,
and the rivers turning to blood, and the parting of the sea, and
the wiping out of Pharaoh's army, and all that, led out by a mighty
hand, it tells us in the Bible. And yet, they said, oh. That
was by this. Truly, miracles mean nothing
unless they're revealed by the Spirit of God. And I think that's,
if you might want to think about that a little bit, that comes
into a part here that we're going to look at more closely next
week on this. Verse 19, "'If I, by Beelzebub,
cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore
they shall be your judges. But if I, with the finger of
God, cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon
you.'" And in Matthew's account, he says, "'If I, by the Spirit
of God, cast out devil. So this finger
of God is kind of what they refer to as an anthropomorphism of
that just gives us a description of the almightiness of God through
something that we can understand much the same as a parable or
some other teaching that we get that people can relate to. God is a spirit. a finger of God as the Spirit
of God is a metaphor there for that. So, is this not Joseph's
son? Is this not David's son? So, there's these different reactions
to these things. People see things in different
ways based on whether or not there's regenerated or not. And if you're not regenerated,
you just don't, It's a nothing. It's an unexplained event maybe
or something that you can rationalize away as they did with the calf
and say, well, we made this by our own hands and we're going
to attribute all of our rescue to that. In the encounters with the religious,
the Pharisees, the lawyers, the groundwork is being laid for
the fulfillment of those scriptures that we read about in Acts chapter
2 and chapter 4. it's a building, a groundwork
for their animosity to the point where they're going to, they're
trying to kill him all the time. And not just at Golgotha, but
wherever he went. And in verse 15, some of them said, And in Matthew's
account, it says there were Pharisees that said that. Some of them
said, he casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of devils.
And others, tempting him, sought a sign from heaven. Well, what
more of a sign from heaven could you get? We want a sign. Well, there's your sign. but it doesn't mean anything
unless you've been given a heart to believe. I thought it was interesting
that These talking points regarding this particular type of miracle
had begun to develop among the religious Pharisees and the scribes
and the lawyers. We're just going to look at a
couple of instances here real quick. We're getting kind of
down to the end of our time here. If you want to follow along,
you can. If you don't, I'll just read them here. In Matthew 9,
34, where it talks about another man with a dumb devil, he said,
in Matthew 9, 34, the Pharisee said, he cast out devils through
the prince of devils. In Matthew chapter 12, 24, when
the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth cast out
devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. In Mark chapter
3, verse 22, the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said,
He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth
he out devils. And John 7, verse 19 and 20, Did
not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keep the law?
Why go ye about to kill me? Remember, it's always written,
that he knowing their thoughts. And that's what he did right
here in verse 19. He says, Why go ye about to kill me? And the
people answered and said, Thou hast a devil. Who goeth about
to kill thee? But he knowing their thoughts,
he knew what was in their hearts. John chapter eight, verse 47
and 48, actually through 49, John 8, 47. He that is of God,
heareth God's words. Ye therefore hear them not because
ye are not of God. So even as in the case of this
man that was deaf and dumb and couldn't hear, couldn't see, they would never hear. They would
never see. You, therefore, hear them not
because you are not of God. Then the Jews answered and said
unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan and hast
a devil. Those are like the two worst
things they could say. They hated the Samaritans because
they were not of pure blood, and they had their own place
where they worshipped, and they did not mix. So calling
them a Samaritan was a curse word for them, and on top of
that, and you have a devil. You're a devil. And verse 49,
Jesus said, answering, I have not a devil, but I honor my Father,
and you dishonor me, by saying that I have a devil, and not
even knowing anything about it. a Samaritan. As we learned in
our lesson, Jesus, this good Samaritan of the church that
did all the things that religion and the law wouldn't or couldn't
do. In John chapter 10, Verse 19,
there was a division therefore again among the Jews for these
sayings, and many of them said, he hath the devil. Remember he
was telling them about the sheep, and the door of the sheep, and
I am the good shepherd, and all these things. There was a division because
of these sayings, and many of them said, he hath a devil and
is mad. Why hear you him? They're trying
to, this talking points again, trying to get people not to listen
to the gospel, not to listen to the words of the very Lord.
Others said, these are not the words of him that hath the devil.
Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? So there again we
have this division between how people saw and how people reacted
and how the religious leaders at the time tried to develop
this talking points that he was actually in league with the devil
in performing all these miracles. They rationalized away. There seems to be a common tactic
used among the ungodly, and whatever they are accusing you of, they
themselves are usually guilty of it instead. So Jesus said,
you, in John 8, 44, we read a little bit from John 8 a minute ago,
in verse 44 of chapter 8, He said, You are of your father,
the devil. That's where you come from. In
the lust of your father, ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, an abode not in the truth, because there's no truth
in him. And when he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own, for he's a liar, and the father of it."
So all these things that they were telling the people, all
the things they were accusing him of, were lies. lies from the beginning. And
he said, we read in John 8, 49, right after that, he said, I
have not a devil. I have not a devil. Matthew 13,
verse 37, He answered and said unto them,
he that soweth the good seed is the son of man, and in the
field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the
kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The
enemy that sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the
end of the world, and the reapers are the angels." So, he makes
that distinction there in Matthew. But, you know, the complete irrationality
of their mind is revealed there in verse 17 in that it's a condition
of the mind by birth because of sin in the fall. He, knowing their thoughts, said
unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to
desolation, and the house divided against the house falleth. So
it just made no logical sense to say, well, you're of the devil,
so you're casting out devils. Well, why would he do that? That's
kind of like an oxymoron, kind of. Why would somebody that worked
for the devil throw the devil out of somebody? It just makes
no sense. But yet, that's how they saw
it, that's how they rationalized it. They accused him of just
doing this by, as a power, a display of power given to him by the
devil, just so that he could lead people away from their religious
hierarchy, and being taken out from under their power. And this premise that Christ
was in league with the devil, it's just a representative example
of natural man's total view of God. Just makes no sense, but
to the unregenerate, it can be made to fit their scheme, however
unscriptural, however in error of darkness. They can morph it
around to meet their goal. So, we're about
out of time. The next time we get together,
I wanted to move on to this verse 20. He says, But I, if I with
the finger of God cast out devils. It just brings so many things
to the mind. I cast out devils with just a
finger. It's nothing. I've taken care
of him in Genesis chapter 3. I crushed his head. And as we mentioned earlier that
in Matthew 12, verse 31, it says, if I, by the Spirit of God, cast
out devils. So those two things are synonymous. They're linked. And we want to
look at that. And there's four times in Scripture
where the finger of God is mentioned, Exodus twice and Deuteronomy. And then here again in Luke 11,
20. And then he talks about the strong
man. And that represents this devil. And he says, but if a stronger
man comes along, he spoils him, takes away that which was his. And then finally, we have this
last little bit here. When an unclean spirit has gone
out of a man, and it kind of gives you the impression that
he just leaves of his own accord for some purpose. In contrast
to the Lord casting out, because many times we read in Scripture
where the Lord casts a devil out of a person and commanded
them, don't come back, never come back. You can't, you're
not allowed to come back. He's mine. But here it says,
when he goes out and walks among dry places, doesn't find anything
in particular. Well, I'm going to go back where
I was." And that person that he was previously in, it says,
when he cometh, he finds his previous home swept and garnished.
And this person says, oh, I'm okay. I have no problem. I'm not regenerated,
but I seem to have been cleaned up my act. And yet, he goeth and taketh to him seven
other spirits more wicked than themselves, and they enter in
and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than
the first." So we'll kind of cover all that aspect next time. Boy, there's just a lot written
about the spirit of God and all of the things that all the activities
that the spirit of God does the finger of God it's very interesting
so we'll try to look at a little bit of that next time so until
next time thank for attention be free