Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would, open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 12.
We're going to continue our study in Matthew chapter 12 this morning.
As you're turning, let me make this announcement once again
that the Lord willing, this morning we will begin our in-person worship
services. We'll have two services, one
in the morning, one in the evening, and I'll preach the same message
in both services. The congregation is divided alphabetically
so you can check the Facebook page to see which service you're
to come to and all the different guidelines that we have to meet
in order to meet together safely. Now, our Sunday school class
will still continue to be put online as it is right now. We
won't have a Sunday school class and then the service. That will
eliminate some contact and some exposure for people. It will
eliminate the line for the restroom between the two services and
hopefully keep everybody a little safer. So I hope you'll continue
to listen to the Sunday School class in this manner that God
has given us to study his word and to preach his gospel. All
right. Before we begin our lesson this
morning, let's bow in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent, is your name. Father, we're thankful that you're
God above, that you're ruling and reigning over all of creation,
that there's not one thing happening in this creation that is outside
of your control, but that it is happening exactly according
to your will and eternal purpose, and that you are in your sovereign
goodness and greatness, working this out for good. Father, we're
thankful. We pray that you'd give us a
heart that would truly rest, knowing that you're in control,
that you do all things well. Father, I pray this morning I
beg of you this morning that you would enable us to worship
you. Father, bless your word as it's preached. Bless it to
your glory. Bless it to the hearts of your
people that we might be given an eye of faith to see Christ,
to believe him, to rest in him, to find in him our all and in
all. Father, I thank you for this
congregation that you've raised up here and pray that you Bless
each one, that you bless each person, that you bless each home,
that you watch over, that you lead, that you guide, that you
keep your people safe. For those, Father, who are brokenhearted
and suffering the loss of a loved one, those who are in sickness
and great difficulty, Father, we pray for them. We pray for
them knowing that thou art able to meet every need. You can comfort,
you can heal, you can lead and guide, you can provide. a way
out of the difficulty. Father, we pray that you would
be with your people, meet our need according to your goodness
and your wisdom and your mercy. And Father, we continue to pray
for our world at this time that you would provide some relief
from this awful sickness. We pray that you would be with
our leaders, give them wisdom to know how to direct people
to be able to do things safely. We pray that you'd be with our
medical people who treat those who are sick and hurting, be
with the medical researchers. Father, show them an answer,
give them an answer that might help the world, help people at
this time, to enable people to go back to work and move about
safely, to enable your people to meet together in worship. Father, all these things we ask
in that name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Alright, Matthew chapter 12,
I've titled the lesson this morning, Casting Satan Out. We'll read
the text and then come back and make some comments. It begins
in Matthew chapter 12, 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 all the people 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 the devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts
and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation. And every city or house divided
against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan,
he's divided against himself. How shall then his kingdom stand?
And if I, by Beelzebub, cast out devils, By whom do your children
cast them out? Therefore, they should be your
judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the
kingdom of God has come unto you. 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? Now
here the Lord healed a man who was possessed of a devil. This
poor man, he could not see, he could not speak. He couldn't
see to be able to help himself, and he couldn't speak to ask
for help. There was no way for him to speak
and tell people what was hurting him, what was wrong with him.
You just imagine the utter misery that this man lived in, just
not being able to see, not being able to speak, tormented by this
devil. And the Lord, with a word, healed
him. The Lord cast this devil out
of this man and instantaneously he was completely healthy and
functioning. And the people who saw this was
a great miracle. They saw it and they said, this
must be the Messiah. This has to be the son of David.
Who else could do this? Surely this is the one that we've
been looking for and waiting for. Well, you know, the Pharisees
hated that. But now what were they to do
with it? They couldn't refute the Lord's power. He absolutely
had the power to cast this devil out. They couldn't refute that.
They couldn't say he didn't have the power. They couldn't refute
his message. They couldn't refute his doctrine.
They could not take the word of God and show any error in
his message. So they did what religious people
still do today. When they can't refute the message,
when they can't show how this message is wrong, they picked
at the man. And in the Lord's case, they
said, well, he's in league with the devil. This, the devil is
giving him power to cast out these demons. They said, what
you're seeing is not God's power. It's the power of the devil working
in cahoots with this man. So you, this, this man's working
with the devil. He's a wicked man. You'd better stay away from
him. That's what they were saying. And they're just trying to say
something so shocking that people would, would not pay attention
and just stay away from this man out of fear. And your religious
people still do the same thing to God's servants today. They
can't refute his message. They can't take the word of God
and show there's error in his message. So what they do is they
try to be shocking, just like these Pharisees were. They try
to throw up a smoke screen and say, this man is a heretic. And
they hope that by using that word, you know, they'll scare
you into just not listening to God's servant. Now they can't
prove his message is wrong from God's word unless They take God's
word and really twist it. And that could, could get to
be pretty obvious. So they try to get your attention off of
the word of God. They try to get your attention
off of the message of God's servant and picket the man by calling
him a heretic, saying he's just lying. He's in cahoots with the
devil. But our Lord shot this down so easily. I mean, human
logic can see that what these Pharisees are saying is wrong.
If the Lord Jesus was in league with Satan, He'd be casting out
demons by the power of Satan. If he was doing that, he would
destroy Satan's whole agenda. He would tear down Satan's kingdom.
And what the Lord says here about a house divided against itself
cannot stand. It's an obvious, obvious statement. You can apply this logic to countries
just like President Lincoln did. A country that's in a civil war
against itself is going to destroy itself from the inside out. You
apply this logic to families. A family who does not, who has
family members who don't love one another, do not support one
another, do not have one another's back, but hates one another,
that family cannot stand. It's going to be ripped apart
from the inside out. You apply this logic to businesses, you
know, where businesses have employees, they're all trying to do their
own thing. They're all trying to make themselves look good
by making their coworkers look bad. Well, that company is fighting
against itself. It's not going to be successful.
It's going to destroy itself from the inside out. Now, this
is just good old fashioned horse sense that made the Pharisees
look bad. But I sure hope that that's not
all that we get from this passage of scripture. The only way to
get a blessing from this passage of scripture is by seeing this
as a picture of why Christ came, and that's the purpose of this
passage, to give us a picture to show us why Christ came. Now I make good on that if you
look over in the book of 1 John. 1 John chapter 3, verse 8, John says, he that commit
a sin, is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the
beginning. For this purpose was the Son
of God, or the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy
the works of the devil. Now, the work of the devil is
unbelief. The work of the devil is to question
God, and by questioning God, cause unbelief. That's the way
the devil started with Eve, wasn't it? Well, Christ came to destroy
that, and he did destroy it. Let me give you four lessons
here that will let us see salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ who
destroyed the works of the devil. This has to be done. Salvation
has to be done by the Lord Jesus Christ because he's the only
one who can cast out the devil and destroy the power, the works
of the devil. Number one, here in our text
in Matthew chapter 12, there's a good picture of Adam's race.
There's a picture of those who Christ came to save. Verse 22,
there was one that 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. Now this man was possessed
by the devil. He was completely under the control
of the devil. The devil controlled everything
this man did or did not do. Well, that's a picture of you
and me by nature. Let me show you that in Ephesians
chapter two. This is a picture of us by nature,
of all men. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2. Wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh right
now is working in the children of disobedience. Among whom also
we all had our conversation in time past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others." That's
all of us by nature. By nature, we walk according
to the prince of the power of the air, under the control of
Satan. This man in our text could not
see. By nature, we're the same way. We're spiritually blind.
We can't see God. We cannot see our need of the
Savior. We don't see our need of the
Savior because we don't see our own sin. We don't see our own
corruption. We can't see the beauty of Christ. We can't see or understand any
spiritual truth because we're spiritually blind. We can't see.
And this man could not speak. This devil stopped him from speaking.
Well, by nature, you and I are the same way. We can't speak
and say anything that's pleasing to God. We can't speak and say
anything that's the truth. We can't cry for mercy, and we
won't cry for mercy. Now, we can't speak because we
won't speak. We can't cry for mercy because we won't cry for
mercy. By nature, we will not admit
we're sinners. I mean, we don't see that we're
sinners. We won't admit that we're sinners. We don't see that
because we're under the control of Satan. Now, we're still religious. You know, everything that we
say in preaching is a lie. Everything we say, it's impossible
to say something that's the truth. Everything we say in our preaching
is a lie on God and a lie on man. That's us by nature. That's every son of Adam. But
when Christ saves his people, he casts Satan out. Satan is
not in control anymore. So now we see our sinful condition. Now we see God in his holiness. His holy just requirements. Now
we see the beauty and the sufficiency of Christ. Now I see what I couldn't
see before. Now I see that the Lord Jesus
Christ is everything that I need. And when we see that, then we
speak and we cry out to God and beg God for mercy. Now, Matthew
uses a very important word here. Let's not move on till we look
at this word. There's an important word here that describes salvation. And the word is healing. healing.
The Lord healed this man. He didn't say cast out the devil.
He said he healed the man. Salvation is healing. It's a
spiritual healing. Salvation is the healing of all
of our sin sicknesses. Salvation is the healing, the
binding up of all of our wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
Salvation is a healing where God, the Holy Spirit pours in
the oil and wine of the gospel. Salvation is a healing. When
God gives life to the dead, when God casts out the power of Satan,
he heals and makes us whole. All right, number two, here's
the second lesson. Casting Satan out is something
that only God can do. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
God. That's why he could cast this
devil out. Verse 25 says, and Jesus knew
their thoughts. Now I pointed this out a couple
of weeks ago. Jesus knew their thoughts. Only
God can know your thoughts. Now nobody else could cast this
devil out, but the Lord Jesus did. So that ought to be proof
enough that he's God. That ought to be proof enough
he is the son of David, shouldn't it? But also he knew what they
were thinking. Now only God can know our secret
thoughts. The Lord Jesus Christ is God. That's important. He's not a
reformer. He's not a prophet, not even
a special prophet. He is God. And that's important
because of the Savior is going to save real sinners. He must
be God. And since the Lord Jesus Christ
is God, he's able to please the father by his obedience. Only
God could produce perfection, right? Only God's perfect. Only
God is good. Only God could produce a perfect
obedience to the law. where the Lord Jesus Christ is
God. So he did produce a perfect obedience that pleased the father
and that he can impute to his people. Since the Lord Jesus
Christ is God, his sacrifice for sin is perfect. Since he's perfect, he can bear
the sin of his people and put that sin away, pay for that sin
with his pure, perfect blood. Only the blood of Christ, because
it's pure blood, it's the blood of God, that's the only blood
that will satisfy the Father. The blood of bulls and goats
never did do it, but the blood of Christ did by just one sacrifice,
because of who He is. And since the Lord Jesus Christ
is God, He's got the power of God. He has all power, so He
has the power to save. He has the power to forgive sin,
because He has the power to put sin away. And he has the power
to remove the power of Satan over his people. See, only God
could do that. He says in verse 28, but if I
cast out devils by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God
is coming to you. The Savior tells us here, he
cast out these devils by the spirit of God. He had the spirit
without measure because he is God. And he is the one that brings
God's kingdom to the hearts of his people. He says in verse
29 here, speaking of his power, God's the only one who has the
power to cast out Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ is God.
He says, all right, 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'll spoil his house. Now, when the Savior here
talks about entering into the strong man's house and binding
him and spoiling him, don't envision a struggle. The Savior's not
struggling against anyone. This battle between Christ and
Satan is not an epic struggle, you know, that kind of, sometimes
it goes this way, sometimes it goes this way, and you don't
know how it's going to turn out. No, this battle is not an epic struggle
at all. This battle is over the very moment the Savior speaks. Now, Satan is a powerful enemy.
He is very foolish for men to act like they're admonishing
the devil. I say to you, devil, get out. That's the height of
foolishness. Satan is much too powerful an
enemy for you and me to handle. Only God can cast him out. When
Satan takes hold of a person, he creates a well-defended position
in that person, just like the Nazis hid behind their Atlantic
wall. You know, they spent all that
time digging in and creating this defensive position. That's
what Satan does. He takes hold of a person, and
he's a strong enemy. He's well-armed, he's well-defended,
and he's dug in to a good defensive position. So the only way Satan
can be cast out is if a stronger man comes in. And that stronger
man is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look over in Luke chapter 11.
In Luke 11, we have Luke's account of this same conversation. And the Savior tells us he cast
Satan out and he spoils his house. And when he does, he takes complete
control. In Matthew chapter 11, verse
21. 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 divided his spoils. See, Satan's
a strong man armed, but Christ is the stronger one. He comes
in, takes everything. He takes complete control. You
know, don't ever buy into this horrible picture of some long-haired
man who's supposed to be Jesus standing and knocking at the
door, begging for somebody to come to the door, begging them
to come and open the door and let him come into their heart
and be their Savior. He's standing there begging.
Don't ever buy into that horrible, horrible picture. I love what
our dear brother, Don Fortner, often said about this very thing.
Don said when Christ comes into the hearts of His people, He
doesn't knock and beg you to let Him in. Don said He'll kick
the door down, bar and bolt. Or bolt and bar is what Don said.
He'll kick the door down, takes it off, bolt and bar, and enters
in and establishes His throne there. He just kicks the door
down, bolt and bar. And listen, it's not hard for
Christ to do. He doesn't exert Himself doing
it. If you're still there in Luke 11, which I'm not, I'm going
to turn back there. Luke chapter 11. The Savior shows
us here. He doesn't have to exert himself
to do it. Verse 20 of Luke chapter 11.
But if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt
the kingdom of God is come upon you. He says, if I cast out devils,
I cast Satan out with just my finger. There's no battle raging
and going on here, is it? The Savior doesn't even exert
himself to cast Satan out. That's how powerful that he is.
And when Christ casts Satan out, Christ rules and Satan will never
rule there again. And now there is evidence, clear
evidence, you can know that Satan's gone and the power of Satan has
been broken. The evidence is this. You used
to be blind. You used to not be able to see.
You couldn't see Christ. You couldn't see yourself for
what you are. You couldn't see your need of
a Savior. You could see no spiritual truth. You used to be blind.
But now you see. And you can't not see again.
Now you can speak. You used to not be able to speak.
Now you can speak. And when you speak, you can only speak of
Christ. You used to not be able to believe. You couldn't make
yourself believe. And now you believe Christ. And
you can't not believe Him. Can't not believe Him anymore.
Why is that? Because now Christ reigns in the heart. When Christ
comes in with His power to remove Satan, He takes complete and
utter control where He is Lord of all. All right, here's the
third thing. This is what God promised would
happen. God promised that when the Savior would come, He would
cast Satan out. Now Satan is a real enemy. with
real power. He's called the deceiver and
the prince of the world. He would deceive the whole world
if God would permit it. The apostle Paul told Timothy
that men are taken captive by Satan at his will. Satan is called
the roaring lion seeking to devour and to destroy God's church.
This is a real and powerful enemy, frightening us to death. Well,
thank God. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
cast Satan out. to end, once and for all, Satan's
rule over God's elect. This is what the Apostle John
told us. The Lord Jesus Christ, this is why he was manifested.
This is why he came. That he might destroy the works
of the devil. And this is promised all through
the Bible. Look with me at the book of Genesis, chapter 3. Right
from the beginning, when man was very first cast out of the
garden, God promised there's a Savior coming. He is going
to destroy the power of Satan over his people. He's going to
undo everything that Satan just got finished doing. Genesis chapter
3, verse 14. And the Lord God said unto the
serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all
cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly
shalt thou go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. And I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy
seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. Now, right from the get-go, God
promised a Savior who would come and deliver his people from sin,
and to deliver his people from the power, the threat of Satan.
Oh, when he came, Satan would bruise the heel of the Savior,
but only because the Savior would use that heel to crush Satan's
head. All Satan could do is affect
the heel of the Savior. But the Savior crushed Satan's
head. He crushed his power to do anything. This is what God
promised would happen all along. And now Christ has come. He said
he's come to bring the kingdom of God to the hearts of his people.
Where's my fourth point? This is what God promised would
happen. Well, how did the Lord Jesus Christ accomplish this
great feat of casting Satan out? Two ways. Number one is this,
by his sacrifice on the cross. This is what the God was referring
to when he's talking to Adam and Eve. You'll bruise his heel,
but he'll crush your head. At the cross, Christ's heel was
bruised, but he recovered, didn't he? He even died. But he rose
from the dead three days later. But the sacrifice of Christ put
Satan out of business forever. He put Satan, by his death, Christ
put Satan out of the deceiving business. He cannot deceive God's
people anymore. God's people only believe Christ,
and they can't be deceived into trusting anyone or anything other
than Christ. See, they can't believe anything
else. After they've seen Christ lifted up as their sacrifice,
they can't trust anything else. Satan can't deceive them anymore.
Christ put him out of the deceiving business. Christ also, by his
death, He put Satan out of the accusing business. He put Satan
out of the accusing business by paying for the sin of his
elect for them. By his sacrifice as their substitute,
Christ paid for all of the sin of all of his elect, the debts
paid in full. So God's elect cannot be charged
with sin ever again because Christ already paid their debt for them.
This is what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8 verse 33. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who? Nobody can
because it's God that justifies. Christ justified his people by
his blood. So Satan can't accuse them. There's
nothing left to charge them with. Let me show you that in John,
the book of John chapter 12. John 12 verse 31. Our Lord tells his disciples,
now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. He's going to be cast out by
my death. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw
all men unto me. This he said, signifying what
death he should die by his death on the cross, by his substitutionary
death for his people, Christ cast Satan out. He removed his
ability to accuse God's people anymore because their sin is
gone. I'll show you that again in the
book of Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death, through his substitutionary
death on the cross, through death, he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them, who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
Christ destroyed him that had the power of death. He destroyed
all the power of Satan by his sacrifice when he suffered and
died for the sin of his people. So second, first, how did Christ
accomplish his feat of casting Satan out? It's by his death,
by his substitutionary death, his sacrifice for the sin of
his people. Number two, how did Christ accomplish this feat of
casting Satan out? It's by the new birth in the
hearts of his people. In the new birth, Christ comes
in and he reigns in the heart. He reigns in the new heart, the
new nature that God gives. And that new nature is the opposite
of the old nature in every way. This nature is a heart of faith
that believes Christ. This nature is a nature of love
that loves Christ and bows to Christ. and submits to Christ. And this new heart, or this new
nature, it cannot be deceived by Satan anymore because it believes
Christ and it can't do anything else but believe Christ. This
new heart cannot sin and it cannot follow Satan anymore because
it can't sin. Let me show you that in 1 John. Look at 1 John chapter 3. Verse 9. been born of God or not? Do they
do righteousness? Do they believe Christ to be
all of their righteousness? Do they trust Christ? Do they
believe Him and they can't believe anything else? See, you cannot
be under the control of Satan if God gives you this new nature
that trusts Christ, that believes Christ. Christ accomplished this
feat of casting Satan out by his death as a sacrifice for
the sin of his people and by the new birth. for the Lord Jesus
Christ who sets his people free from the power of Satan and enables
us to believe on his precious name. He enables us to see him
and to believe on his precious name. All thank God for the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, until next time, I pray
the Lord bless you and keep