Well, good morning. If you would
care to turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 12. The lesson this morning
will be taken from Matthew chapter 12. Before we begin, let's look
to our Lord in prayer. Our Father. We bow in your presence
this morning. We bow humbly. We bow daring
only come into your thrice holy presence in the person of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We bow, pleading his obedience
as the only righteousness that we have. We bow, pleading the
blood of Christ as the only hope that we have of the forgiveness
and the cleansing of our sin. We bow, begging that you would
not see us or hear us in ourselves, but that you would see us and
hear us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we're thankful to
know from your word that we'll be accepted in the beloved for
Christ's sake. And we're thankful. And Father,
I pray this morning that everything that is said and done here in
this service this morning be done to the praise and the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us see the glory of Christ,
our Savior. And Father, I beg of you that
you give us faith to see him and to believe him and to rest
in him. If as of right at this moment,
we do not know Christ, we have not yet believed him. Father,
make us know him this morning. Give us the faith to believe
him this morning. Father, we thank you for your
many, many blessings to your people, how richly that you have
blessed us. And we especially thank you for
the spiritual blessings that are found in our Lord Jesus Christ,
that you've given us absolutely everything that we need and everything
that you require in Him. And Father, we're thankful. We
pray that you would forgive us for the times we have a bad attitude,
that we act like ourselves. Father, forgive us, we pray.
All these things we ask, and that great name, that name, which
is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. All right. I've titled the lesson
this morning, religion without Christ. Now the Lord and our
text begins in verse 43, but in verse 43, the Lord is still
answering this accusation that was brought against him in verse
24. But Matthew 12 verse 24, but
when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does not
cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. And you
remember the Lord answered their accusation by showing their accusation
goes against all logic. Even human logic shows that their
accusation is completely ridiculous. The Lord taught us that a house
divided against itself shall not stand. If Satan is casting
out Satan, then Satan is going to quickly destroy his own kingdom.
He's not doing that. Then in last week's lesson, the
Lord called these religious leaders and evil and an adulterous generation. Now they were very religious.
Their whole world centered around their religion. They were very
religious. These men were religious leaders, but the Lord said they're
evil. Their religion is evil because
it is religion without Christ. Now, the Lord refers back to
this accusation. He's casting out devils by the
power of Satan, and he gives us a picture of what he's been
talking about. He gives us a picture so that we see what religion
without Christ looks like. And here's the first thing. When
you have religion without Christ, there's no change of masters.
You're still your own master. Verse 43. When the unclean spirit
is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest,
and findeth none. Now a person without Christ,
they're possessed of an unclean spirit. That's right, they have
to either be possessed by Christ or by the devil, by the prince
of the power there, one or the other. A person without Christ
is possessed of an unclean spirit. Now that doesn't necessarily
mean being demon possessed. Could be so, but it certainly
means this. It means being controlled by
our own sin nature. That's an evil nature, isn't
it? It's an unclean nature. Our nature is an unclean, sinful
nature, and that's the nature that controls us unless the Lord
saves us and he rules in the heart. Now here, the unclean
spirit just leaves this person of his own accord. The unclean
spirits not cast out. He's not cast out by a stronger
power made to leave. No, he just leaves of his own
accord. He leaves because he wants a chain of scenery. He
leaves because he wants a vacation. He leaves because he wants to
see what else is out there or whatever, but he's not being
cast out. He just leaves of his own accord.
And if you and I are to be saved, the Lord has to come in power
and take possession of our heart. He has to set up his throne and
rule and reign in our heart. And that's not happened here.
In verse 44, the unclean spirit still calls this person my house. The unclean spirit still in control
of that person. He's just left for a time of
his own accord. And that's religion without Christ. A religious person
can go through a lot of religious activity. They can go through
a lot of religious ceremony, but none of that is serving the
Lord. None of that is worshiping God because there's been no change
of masters. There's no new heart. And until
the Lord saves us, until he takes possession of us, you and I are
walking according to the prince of the power of the air. We are
the children of wrath and the children of disobedience, even
as others. That's true. No matter how outwardly
religious we are. And we see that in our second
point, when you have religion without Christ, all you have
is an outward reformation. Look at verse 44. Then he sayeth,
I will return into my house. It's my house. I still own it.
I'm still in control of it from whence I came out. And when he's
come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Now with an unclean
spirit, he's left this person for a while, left voluntarily.
And then he comes back whenever he wants to. And he finds that
while he's been gone, this person has made a few changes in himself.
He's cleaned up his act. He swept himself clean of what
the world calls sin. Now you notice he swept the house.
He hasn't cleansed it. All he's done is swept the house.
He'd gotten rid of a few bad habits, but he hasn't got rid
of sin. He's not been cleansed from sin.
There has been an outward cleaning, but there's no inward life. There's
been no new life given from above. He swept himself. He's cleaned
up his act a little bit and he's garnished himself. He's decorated
himself. He's gotten him some nice new
religious trinkets and he's put them up around the house. He's
got a cross he's put up on the wall. Maybe he wears a cross
around his neck. He's put the Ten Commandments
up on the wall. He's got a picture of this long-haired
hippie he's put up on the wall that's supposed to be this man,
Jesus. He's got some decorations. He's
garnished the house. He's redecorated. And it makes
him feel real good about himself because it makes him feel real
religious to have these trinkets up reminding him of his religion. And his neighbors think, this
man's got some religion. He's religious now. But all that's
going on is redecorating. There's not been any regenerating.
All that's gone on is redecorating. He's put some decorations up,
but God, the Holy Spirit hasn't given him any life. He's put
some new trinkets up on the walls, but he doesn't have a new heart.
All it is, is like putting flowers on the outside of a grave. You
can decorate the outside all you want, but we all know what's
in the inside. He's just redecorated. There's been no change of nature,
no new birth. And by nature, people think that's
the goal. They think cleaning up the outside,
cleaning up our act, cleaning up, making ourselves look better
before men, they think that's the goal. And when we clean up
our act and that's all we do, just clean up the outside. That's
religion without Christ. It's religion with no life. And
the Lord told us about that. Look over Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23. See, here's
what you get when you, all you do is clean up the outside and
leave the inside alone. You've got religion without Christ.
You've got religion without life. Look here at Matthew chapter
23 verse 25. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you may clean the outside of the cup and of
the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which was within the
cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean
also. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye
are likened to whited sepulchers, white engraved, which indeed
appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead man's
bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy, and
iniquity. That's what you get when you
have religion without Christ. It's an outward reformation,
but within. In the heart where God looks,
in the heart where God deals with people, you're full of hypocrisy
and iniquity. Now that is what the Jews tried
to do. By following the law, by their
legalistic religion, following the law, following the ceremonies,
all they did is clean up the outside. And false religion is
still trying to do the same thing today. They're trying to get
people to clean up the outside and make their life appear better. The Apostle Paul called that
having a zeal of God. It's having a zeal of God. It's
having a zeal of some religion, but it's not according to knowledge.
That is not how God saves sinners. That is not religion with Christ. That is not union with Christ.
There is no knowledge of God there. And you know why? because
God hadn't given a new heart. God hadn't given a new mind,
which is the mind of Christ that will know Christ and believe
Him and trust Him. So the house here is decorated.
The man swept it. He's decorated it. But the Lord
said it's still empty. It's still empty. That unclean
spirit comes back and finds it's still empty. It's empty of Christ. It's empty of life. It's empty
of righteousness. Oh, there's a lot of religious
activity going on. There's a lot of scurrying around
going on. There's been some redecorating, but there's no life there because
there's been no regeneration. And that's a good warning to
us. Don't ever mistake religious decorations for spiritual life. The house was still empty. All
right, here's the third thing. And Lord's already showed us
this, about when all you have, you've cleaned up the outside,
the inside's still full of iniquity and filth. When you have religion
without Christ, I tell you what you've got, you've got wickedness.
It's not, oh, well, it's good this person's got religion and
it's good they start acting better. When you've got religion without
Christ, you've got wickedness. That's right, verse 45, Matthew
chapter 12. Then goeth he and taketh with
himself 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. Even so, shall it be also under
this wicked generation. Now this poor man, he's cleaned
up his act. He's got some religion, he's
put some religious decorations up. But you know what? When the
unclean spirit came back, the unclean spirit liked it. Did
you notice that? This man got him some religion
and the unclean spirit liked it. All that show of religion
didn't drive the unclean spirit away at all. He liked it. Instead,
all this show of religion, these decorations, instead of driving
that unclean spirit away, that unclean spirit was so comfortable
in that show of religion, he went and invited seven other
unclean spirits to come live there too. This show of religion
drew the unclean spirit. to the man, didn't drive him
away from him. And a person who has a legalistic religion, who
has a show of religion, you know that makes the unclean spirit
comfortable to be there. The unclean spirit's glad to
see it. The person who makes a big show of public religion,
a big show of public morality, that doesn't make unclean spirits
uncomfortable. It makes them comfortable and
draws those unclean spirits to him. See, the unclean spirit
saw this. He saw the man cleaned up, swept
up. He saw these religious decorations
up and he said, I can work with this. Now this is something I
can work with. And now that unclean spirit has got a foothold in
religion. In religion. See, the man didn't
have religion before. Now he's got religion and he
takes that unclean spirit with him to those religious meetings.
And now that unclean spirit's got a foothold in religion. Now
the unclean spirit says, I can use this man to cause some trouble.
I can use this man to sow discord. I can use this man to take the
attention away from Christ and put the attention upon the flesh. Now I can cause division. Now
I can use this man to entertain sinners on their way to hell.
This man who got religion gave the unclean spirit a foothold
in religion. That's a pretty serious warning,
isn't it? Now we've been warned about this before. Satan doesn't
work in the bars and brothels and flop houses and what we call
the dens of iniquity. That's not where Satan's working.
Those people there aren't thinking about Christ. There's no battle
for Satan there. There's nothing for him to do
there. There's no battle. They're not thinking about Christ.
The battle for Satan is where the name of Christ is used. Satan
battles everywhere the name of Christ is used, and here's his
battle. to get people's attention off of Christ. And he'll do anything
to do it. Just anything to get people's
attention off of Christ. One of the biggest ways that
Satan does that, gets people's attention off of Christ, is by
getting the attention put on quote-unquote good things. Things
that we think that are good. Satan gets the attention on obeying
the law. Now, you know, we ought to obey
the law, but it gets people's attention on obeying the law
instead of trusting Christ, instead of trusting Christ to keep the
law for us. Satan gets the attention on us looking good before men,
being upright people, being moral. Now, there's nothing wrong with
that. We ought to be moral people, shouldn't we? But when we get
our attention on our morality, we take our attention off of
Christ. And when we do that, when anything comes up that gets
our attention off of Christ, that gets our attention off of
the glory of Christ, that gets our attention on something that,
you know, that we think is a big deal and get our attention off
of Christ, we have helped Satan win the day. Now you think of
that. Anything we do to get our attention
off of Christ causes Satan to win the day. And Satan, now he
can use that person in the church. Maybe he makes them fight for
their rights. I ought to be treated better,
you know. Instead of submitting to Christ and his righteousness.
Instead of submitting to God's authority. Now there's division
in the church. We've gotten our attention off
of Christ and Satan's won the day. And you be warned. Be warned. Don't think Satan wouldn't use
you or wouldn't use me to do this. Satan will use anything
to get our attention off of Christ. This is where the battle is for
Satan. The last thing he wants is somebody
looking to Christ, finding out about Christ and trusting him.
Satan will use anything to get our attention off of Christ,
get our attention off of salvation in Christ, righteousness in Christ,
grace in Christ, and forgiveness in Christ. That's where the battle
is. And if we get our attention off of Christ, Satan's won the
day. And our Lord said, when this
happens, The unclean spirit goes out and he comes back and he
finds this person has gotten religion. The unclean spirit
is comfortable and he invites seven other unclean spirits.
And our Lord says the last date of that person, the last date
of this person who went and got some religion is worse than the
first. He'd have been better off if
he never got any religion whatsoever. And that is true of this whole
wicked generation who has religion without Christ. Their last date
is worse than their first. It'd been better off for them
to have never gotten any religion whatsoever. If that religion
is religion without Christ, they've been better off in the long run
without it. Now, I know that is a frightening
thing to think about, isn't it? That's frightening. But it's
true. It's true. Satan could use us
and sift us as wheat just as easily as he did Peter. It's
a frightening thing to think about, but it's something that
we need to be warned about. And I've tried to do that this
morning, to warn us about that, to warn us against religion without
Christ, that Christ must be preeminent. He must be all in everything
that we do. So we've got to be warned about
this. But I also want to remind you about the hope of deliverance
that sinners have in the Lord Jesus Christ, the hope of salvation
that we have in Christ. I want to know we need to be
warned about religion without Christ, but I want us to close
with being reminded about this. religion with Christ. Oh, religion
without Christ, with Christ. Oh, no, that's better. That leaves
us better. That gives us hope of eternal
life, eternal blessing. And this is what we need. This
is what we must have. We must have religion with Christ. The preeminent thing that I,
as the pastor here of this congregation, try to keep our attention, our
focus in every surface must be on Christ, not the goings on
of this world, not the not the things that are going on in this
world that are important to our life. That's not our focus. The
focus of this congregation, the focus of God's church is Christ. And we need it. We must have
him because by nature, we're all possessed of an unclean spirit.
Every one of us were possessed, were controlled by an unclean
spirit. And that unclean spirit is our
own sinful nature. Now let's look at a picture that
the Lord gave us. We'll kind of review a little
bit here from early in our study in Matthew chapter 12. Let's
see the picture of religion with Christ. Let's see the results
in a person that is an object of God's grace, who has religion
with Christ. Verse 22, Matthew chapter 12.
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 all the people were amazed
and said, is not this the son of David? Now, when you hear
that we are all controlled by an unclean spirit, our sinful
nature, does that bother you? Does that bother you? Does it
worry you? Do you see how controlled by sin that you are? If you don't
see that you're controlled by sin, tell you what, try for the
next few seconds to not sin. Couldn't do it, could you? Couldn't
do it. You know why? It's because we have a nature
that is controlled by sin. But take comfort. Just like this
poor man that they brought to the Lord, we are controlled by
an unclean spirit. But you take comfort. That is
exactly who Christ came to save. Christ came to save sinners. People who are completely under
the control of this unclean nature are sin nature. Christ came to
save real sinners, the worst of sinners, those who have no
hope of escaping their sin. That's who Christ came to save.
I know they're under the control of their evil sin nature now,
but Christ came to save them. He's going to come and set them
free. And the Lord sets his people free from the control of that
evil, wicked, unclean, sinful nature by taking control himself. And he takes control by casting
out that nature of the flesh. to where it can't control his
people anymore. Now we say that that nature is
cast out. The nature is still there. The
nature of the flesh is still there. It's just as wicked. It's
just as unclean as it ever was. It's unchanged, but now it's
not in control anymore. And here's the evidence that
it's not in control anymore. When our sin nature is in control,
we can't believe Christ. Christ comes in and he casts
that sinful nature out. He casts it down. He takes control.
Now we can't not believe Christ. That's the evidence that Christ
reigns in the heart. We believe him because if we
were still under the control of our evil, wicked nature, we
could never believe him. The evidence that Christ has
come and now he's taken control is we believe him. That's the
evidence. And when the Lord comes to set his people free, I want
you to listen to me now. It's not a titanic struggle.
No, sir. The Lord just appears and his
people are set free. The Lord just speaks and that
unclean spirit has to go. because the Lord's in control.
He rules and he reigns. The Lord Jesus Christ was manifested. This is why he appeared that
he might destroy the works of the devil. And that's exactly
what he's done. He's destroyed the works of the devil. He has
control. He has destroyed the controlling
power of our old unclean, sinful nature to make us not believe
Christ anymore. And I tell you how he did it.
First of all, he did it at Calvary at Calvary. The Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished God's promise to Adam and Eve. As soon as they
were, right as they were getting thrust out of the garden, God
made a promise. The seed of woman is going to
come and crush Satan's head. At Calvary, Christ did it. He
crushed Satan's head. The blood of Christ's sacrifice
is so powerful, it put Satan out of business. Put him out
of business. Now Satan can never accuse God's people of sin anymore
because the blood of Christ paid for their sin. The blood of Christ
blotted their sin out. The blood of Christ washed them
white as snow. The blood of Christ put the sin
of God's elect away. So now Satan doesn't have anything
that he can use to accuse them of. Nothing. Their sin's gone.
He can't accuse. Satan is the accuser of the brethren. Well, if his business is being
the accuser of the brethren, he can't accuse God's people
because of the blood of Christ. Washed them white as snow. The
blood of Christ put Satan out of business. Satan cannot control. He cannot deceive God's elect
anymore because the blood of Christ purchased their redemption.
Lock, stock, and barrel. They belong to God. They belong
to Him. He purchased them with the blood
of His Son and He's going to keep them. He's going to keep
them. No man can pluck them out of His hand. Now Satan is a frightening
enemy. No question about it. My sin
nature is a frightening enemy. My sin and what my sin deserves
is a very frightening truth to think about. But our hope, our
confidence, our joy is this, that the Lord Jesus Christ is
greater than every enemy. I don't care how great our enemies
are, Christ is greater. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
has conquered Satan. He has put away the sin of his
people. And it is the Lord Jesus Christ
who will preserve and will protect all of his people. He will not
let them go. He will not. His blood, the blood
of his sacrifice put Satan out of business. And here's the second
way Christ has put Satan out of business, made it to where
he cannot deceive his people anymore. He's given them a new
nature. In the new birth, he's given
them a new nature and that new nature cannot be deceived. Oh, Eve could be deceived, but
the new nature that God causes to be born in his people will
never be deceived. That new nature will never quit
trusting Christ and quit looking to Christ. So Satan has no power
over him. By his sacrifice at Calvary and
by the new birth, the Lord Jesus Christ has put Satan out of business
to where he cannot touch his people anymore. Now that's religion
with Christ. Oh, may God be pleased this morning
to cause us to believe him, to believe Christ. Oh, to have religion
with Christ. to believe him, to love him,
to be taken up with him. Brothers and sisters, if we're
taken up with Christ, if we are just taken up with seeing him,
believing him, loving him, resting in him, all will be well. All will be
well because we've got religion with Christ. All may God be pleased
to cause us to believe him and to rest in him. Well, I hope
the Lord will bless that to you. Until the next time, may the
Lord be pleased to bless you.