Christ's kingdom has come. What
is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven? You know,
some, I think, so-called self-appointed theologians who really think
themselves too smart for their own good, they want to take every
little issue to divide over. And sometimes they'll say that
the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are two separate
things. And they're not. You know, Christ
said you must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of
God, the kingdom of heaven. And what is this kingdom of God,
this kingdom of heaven? Well, the kingdom of heaven that
Christ is going to be speaking here concerning, it's his church. It's his people. And that kingdom
dwells within us, he said. What that means is that he's
brought us into a submission from our hearts, the new heart,
to submit to him as our king, as our savior, as our righteousness. His scepter is the scepter of
righteousness. And you remember when he began
his public ministry, he said, for the kingdom of heaven or
the kingdom of God is at hand. meaning that his arrival is what
brought in the establishment of that kingdom in time. And of course, the ultimate establishment
of it is his death on the cross, where he satisfied the justice
of God for our sins imputed to him. He died, he was buried,
he arose from the dead because that righteous scepter had been
accomplished and put into his hand by the Father. This is what
he says, the glory which you have given me, the authority
which you have given me as the king of kings, the Lord of lords,
the potentate. What potentate means is all powerful. He is all powerful in every way. Well, there were several issues
as he went through his public ministry that proved that. One of them is the miracle of
casting out demons, standing against Satan's kingdom. And
here, if you'll look at verse 22, it says, then was brought
unto him one possessed with a devil, and the possession was evidenced
by his blindness and his dumbness. He couldn't see, he couldn't
speak. And Christ healed him insomuch that the blind and dumb
both spoke and saw. And so literally what's happening
here is he cast out the demon. Now, you know, a lot of people
say, well, if anybody has any affliction, they're demon possessed.
That's not necessarily so, okay? Sometimes it was, and this is
what we're told here. But everybody who's blind or
everybody who can't speak is not possessed of a demon. But
this person was. And how do I know that? Because
the Bible says he was. He was possessed with a devil,
a demon, one of Satan's minions. Demons are real. And I've seen
preachers, I know one specifically over in Alabama, who made it
his life goal to study demonology and he about went crazy. And
I don't want to do that. All I want to do is I want to
just tell you what the scripture says. I know that God in Christ,
by the Spirit, has power over demons. He has power over Satan. And it's not, you know, when
somebody, you see these silly movies, you know, where the Catholic
Church has put so much mythology on this. You know, somebody has
a demon, they hold up a cross, or they sprinkle holy water on,
that's nonsense. That's all that is. That's mythology. And it makes a good movie, but
that's about it. But Christ healed the man. And
we invoke the name of Christ, and not as a chant. You know,
sometimes you'll see these Catholic priests chant the name of Christ,
and they'll chant, and they'll try. No, we stand firm in the
grace of God, protected. I know, you remember when Christ
told Peter, he said, Peter, Satan hath desired to sift you as wheat. But now you better get you a
cross and wear it around your neck. No, he didn't tell him
that. He said, but I pray for you. And that's the intercessory
work of Christ. And that's an eternal reality
for the people of God. Right now, Christ intercedes
for you if you're a child of God. And he intercedes for you,
he knows your name. And He appears before the Father
continually. And His blood continually. It's
not that His blood has to be sprinkled every time somebody
sins or something. No, that one offering, for by
one offering, He has perfected forever them that are sanctified. His one offering has an eternal
value that will last on through eternity. And so we're protected. But here's the point, look at
verse 23. He says, and all the people were amazed and said,
is not this the son of David? Now again, as I've brought in
your lesson, we're reminded that the reason for these miracles
was not just to relieve the suffering of people here on earth. The
reason for these miracles was to point to him Jesus of Nazareth,
saying, this is the one true Messiah. And somebody might say,
well, you know, the disciples, they perform miracles too. Could
somebody point to them and say they were the true Messiah? They
could, but you know what the disciples would tell them? Like John the Baptist, I'm not
the Messiah. I'm not the Savior. I do what
I do by the power of the one who is the Messiah. the Savior,
and that's the testimony. When we talk about letting our
light so shine, when people see that you do good works, and what
we want them to do, glorify our Father in heaven. It's just like
if somebody, an unbeliever for example, would see you or me
perform a great act of charity, What if they would come to you
and say this? They'd say, well, I know you're saved because you
gave that much money or you give that much time. What are you
gonna tell them? You're gonna tell them the truth,
aren't you? You're gonna say, now listen, my act of charity
or whatever it was, that's not, that doesn't make me or prove
me to be a Christian. The only thing it does is my
Savior. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm gonna glorify my Father
which is in heaven. Don't glorify me. See, that's
the light right there. The gospel is the light. So they
looked at him and they said, isn't this the son of David?
Well, what do you mean the son of David? Well, that's the Messiah.
That's a messianic term. I don't have them all listed,
but I put in your lesson here that 17 verses in the New Testament
describe Jesus as the son of David, showing how Jesus of Nazareth
is the fulfillment of the prophecy of the seed of David. That goes
back to 2 Samuel 7, where God made that royal covenant with
David, that his throne would be forever. He wasn't talking
about David's literal throne on earth. He was talking about
the throne that would be established through Christ, the son of David,
who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. In other
words, that refers to his holy humanity over in the book of
Romans chapter one. When Paul begins this letter,
he says in verse 1, And that includes the prophecy
of him being the son of David. It says, verse three, concerning
his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh. Now that refers to his holy,
sinless humanity. And it came through Joseph, actually
it came through Mary. Joseph was his legal stepfather. Okay? And Joseph was from the
tribe of Judah, which was a descendant of David. And Mary too was a
part of that tribe of Judah. And so according to his holy,
sinless humanity, he's the son of David, and that proves him
to be the Messiah. Now he's God, manifest in the
flesh. So understand that. The establishment
of the kingdom that he's going to talk about has to be done
by the one who is identified in the Old Testament as the son
of David. He's called the branch or root
of Jesse, who was David's father. Notice he came from that line.
And Matthew makes a big deal of that. He shows how Christ,
the humanity of Christ, came through the line of Abraham and
David. And so understand that this is important. He is the
Lord, our righteousness. The God-man. Well, look at verse
24. But when the Pharisees heard
it, they said, this fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub,
the prince of the devils. Beelzebub, you've heard that
term before. Most commentators say that it
translates into English as the Lord of the Flies. I remember
reading a book called the Lord of the Flies when I was in high
school. And of course it wasn't about the Bible or anything like
that. But it's another name for Satan. And if it means Lord of
the Flies, it literally means Lord of the Dead. Because that's
what flies feed on, the dead. These Pharisees hated Jesus of
Nazareth so much that they actually said that the power that he has
to cast out demons is of the devil and not of God. Now think about that. Attributing
the work of Christ to Satan and not to God. A lot of people say,
well, that's the unforgivable sin. Well, I want you to know
something now before you get into that, and like I said, I'm
gonna deal with that next week in the next few verses. In our lives, even as the elect
of God, as true believers, we didn't start out that way, did
we? When we were born into this world, what state were we in? sin, spiritually dead and depraved. And every time that we denied
the true Christ, even in our religion, basically what we were
doing is attributing the work of the true Christ to the devil.
But we're pardoned, aren't we? Somebody says, well, you know,
and you'll get all kinds of answers. It gets jumbled up, it gets confusing.
I say, well, if you do it knowingly, Paul said, I did it ignorantly
in unbelief. All right, I understand that
now, and I'm gonna deal with that next week. All right? Some people
say, well, it's unbelief. Well, what were we before we
were converted? Unbelievers. Our unbelief is
forgiven. Even our unbelief as believers.
You say, what are you talking about, Preacher? I'm talking
about the flesh. You remember the disciples said, Lord, we
believe. Help thou our unbelief. when we doubt the sin that so
easily besets us. But don't let me get into all
that now. Here's what I wanna point out here. Here's children
of the devil under their darkness and deception looking at the
Lord of glory, the son of David, and saying he's casting out demons
by the devil. What a scene. Do you remember
Christ told them that they were of the devil. Remember in John
8, 44, I've got that cited in your lesson. You are of your
father, the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because
there's no truth in him. And when he speaks a lie, he
speaks of his own or what's natural to him, for he is a liar and
the father of it. Christ called them blind leaders
of the blind. That's what they were. Their
whole religion was a perversion of God's word, God's law, God's
gospel, because they sought righteousness by their works. People today, they seek salvation
by their works or by their wills, and not totally by the blood
of Jesus Christ, And here's something I put in the lesson. A spiritual
connection with Satan is known by the false gospels that unbelievers
embrace. You understand that? If you're
involved in a false gospel, a false way of salvation by the works
and the wills of men, that's a spiritual connection with Satan,
that's deception. Darkness and that's why it takes
the power of God to bring us out of that To deliver us from
the kingdom of darkness and put us into the kingdom of light
well, look at verse 25 and Jesus knew their thoughts Well, how
is that possible? Well, I'll tell you how it's
possible. He's God and He knew the hearts of men. You remember
back over in John chapter two when it said, he knew what was
in man. He knew their hearts. He told
people one time, he said, you draw near to me with your lips,
but your heart is far from me. So whatever you're thinking,
whatever I'm thinking, you understand now, God knows our hearts. If
our hearts are dead, Blackened, unbelief, he knows it. You can't
fool him. You may be able to fool the people,
but you can't fool God. He knows it all. His word reaches
to the heart and exposes it for what it is, or reveals it to
be a true heart of faith, circumcised by Christ, by the Holy Spirit. So he knew their thoughts and
he, verse 25, he said unto them, every kingdom divided against
itself is brought to desolation and every city or house divided
against itself shall not stand. Now that's a given. One of the
ways that nations, empires are conquered is when they become
divided within. I think about that, I think about
our country today. Our country today has never been
so divided. I know there's always been political
parties, always been Democrats, always been Republicans, I know
that. But the division today is like, was like nothing I've
ever seen in my lifetime. It's bad, isn't it? It's almost
like we're seeing it fall right before our very eyes. And it
may be. But God's in control, we know
that. So he says in verse 26, if Satan cast out Satan, he's
divided against himself, how shall then his kingdom stand? Well, it wouldn't stand. Satan
is smarter than that. Satan is not casting out demons. That's the power of God. Now,
let me show you this. A person asked me one time about
this, and I did some study on it. This was years ago. You remember
in Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23, those false preachers? They
said, what was it? I thank thee in your name, haven't
we in your name cast out demons? And of course, they were unbelievers.
They were members of the kingdom of Satan, and yet they cast out
demons. There's two explanations. This is not contradicting that.
The two explanations that I've heard on that that are viable
is that they just thought they cast out demons. They didn't
really do it. And that's possible. Or they
may have really cast out demons, but they still didn't do it by
the power of Satan. That's still by the power of
God, and it may come under the heading of that strong delusion. that they might believe a lie.
You see, God worked miracles. You think about when Judas went
out with the other 11 disciples, when they went out two by two,
Judas, I'll guarantee he had the power to do these miracles
and it was given him by God and it was a strong delusion for
him. If he hadn't, somebody'd say, yeah, what's wrong with
Judas? Why can't he do? They didn't have any idea. When
Christ exposed Judas to be the devil that he was, they didn't
have any idea that it was Judas. So don't get bogged down in that. casting out demons, and here's
what Christ said here. Well, let's just go on. Look
at verse 27. He said, if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by
whom do your children cast them out, therefore they shall be
your judge. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Pharisees had
taught that the only ones who could cast out demons were of
the power of God. That's what they taught. That's
in their literature. Their lesson. And they taught
their students that the only ones who could cast out demons
was of God. And so Christ is just turning
it back on them. If I cast out demons by Beelzebub,
it goes against your own teaching. Because you've taught that that's
a power that can only come from God. Now they were right. It's
a power that can only come from God. It doesn't come from Satan.
And how God works it even through unbelievers, that's his business.
Again, that may be strong delusion that they believe a lie. But
here's what he's saying. If you're accusing me of casting
out demons by the devil, then your own students whom you've
taught otherwise will be your judge. It'll come back on you. That's what he's saying, if that
can make any sense to you. He says, verse 28, he says, but
if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God
is come unto you. Who is Jesus Christ? He's the
Son of David. He's the Son of God. He's the
Lord our righteousness. He's the Messiah. He is the wisdom
of God, the power of God. He's the king of kings and Lord
of lords. And all of these things that
he said and all of these things that he did established beyond
doubt that he is the Messiah, the Savior, the one and only
Savior, the only one who can put away my sins. The only one
who can establish righteousness on my behalf. And that's where
the kingdom of God is established. And he's telling him, he said,
look, you say I'm casting out demons by the devil. If you're
wrong, which you are, the kingdom of God is come unto you. It's right here. Behold, the
kingdom of God is at hand. And he's going to the cross to
establish the very foundation of it and accomplish the righteousness
of his scepter. So understand this. This is serious
business, you see. This is nothing to be played
with. And he challenged them that way. And again, as I said
before, you know the Bible tells us that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at verse 29. Or else how
can one enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods except
he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house?
What's he talking about? He's talking about his powerful
work in destroying Satan and his kingdom. And he calls Satan
a strong man. Well, Satan is a strong man.
Again, go back to what Christ told Peter, Satan desires to
sift you as wheat, but I pray for you. You can't handle Satan. That's what he was telling Peter.
Oh my soul, Lord, don't let us fight the warfare against the
flesh, the world, and the devil in our own power. He defeated Satan. And think
about that, that strong man that he defeated. Let me give you
this. Our Lord defeated Satan when he was on the, when Satan
sought to kill him at his birth. You remember that? Herod issued
that decree and wanted to kill him. And the wise men told him
take the baby and go to Egypt and Satan was defeated then. Our Lord defeated Satan on the
Mount of Temptation. Satan was trying to get him to
deny the Father, but he defeated Satan on that mountain. And then
mainly he defeated Satan when he cast him down by his work
on the cross. But you know something else?
Every time the Lord sends the Spirit to bring one of those
lost sheep into the kingdom of God, he defeats Satan. at Satan who wants us to be deceived. He said, but God has been merciful. And he defeats Satan in the case
of that individual who he brings in. And he spoils Satan's house. And there's coming a day when
Satan will be cast down forever into the lake of fire. And he
says in verse 30, he that is not with me is against me. He
that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. There's no neutral ground
here. You can't stand on the sidelines
and say, well, I'm agnostic. He say, that's not gonna cover
you. If you're not with Christ, you're
against him. There's no fence sitting here.
And if you're not gathering, if you're not being an instrument
of his witness to gather people in, then you're scattering them. That's the only way that it is
in the kingdom of God. And Christ is the arrival and
the establishment of that kingdom. Okay.