Alright, turn with me if you
will to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 11. The title of the lesson this
morning is Stronger Than Heat. Let's read these verses together.
Luke chapter 11, beginning with verse 21. When a strong man armed, keepeth
his palace, his goods are at peace. But when a stronger than
he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his
armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his foals. He that is
not with me is against me." In other words, To do nothing, you're
still an enemy of God. You go home unconcerned, you're
an enemy of God. He that's not with me is against
me. And he that gathereth not with
me scattereth abroad. Or scattereth. When the unclean
spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places
seeking rest, and find him none, he saith, I will return unto
my house whence I came out. When he cometh, he findeth it
swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to
himself and other spirits more wicked than himself. And they
enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man
is worse than the first." Now this conversation was born When
they accused him, he had just cast out a devil out of a dumb
man and enabled that man to speak. And they said, you did that by
the spirit of Beelzebub. You think about talking to the
Christ, the eternal Christ that way. Saying that he cast out
devils by the spirit of the devil. Now there was a man, oh, more than a thousand years ago,
I suppose, or close to it, who was king of Judah. His name was
Uzziah. And he was a remarkable man.
He restored what had been destroyed and built a great army to protect
Israel. He built towers and walls and
dug wells in the ground. He appointed vinedressers and
cattlemen. In his army he had 2,600 captains,
and the army itself was more than 300,000 men. And to each of these men, Uzzi
issued a shield, and a spear, and a helmet, and habergeans. That's a piece of armor that
kind of hooked over your neck and protected your throat and
your chest and all that. He issued them all a shield and
a spear, a helmet, habergeans, and bows and slings. He gave
them weapons. And he made in Jerusalem, it
says, engines invented by cunning men to be on towers and upon
bulwarks to shoot arrows and great stones. So he's talking
about catapults and whatever they had for crossbows in that
day. And all in his kingdom were safe
in his refuge. They saw these armies. They saw
the walls. They saw the bulwarks. They saw
the towers. They saw all these things. And
in their strength, in their numbers, they felt safe. All Israel was
at peace. But this man, this King Uzziah,
I tell you how wonderful he was. Isaiah the prophet wrote everything
Uzziah did down in a book. He so impressed this prophet
that he wrote everything he did down in a book. But his heart
wasn't right with God. He ignored God's means and God's
ways and took it upon himself to do what God had ordained to
be done for him. And his refuge was breached by
the Lord. It wasn't breached. He thought
his enemies were the world. He thought his enemies were the
Gentile kings. And perhaps in one sense of the
word, they were. But his heart wasn't right with
God. And I tell you, when God breaches your refuge, he don't
gently knock on the door. He'll take the door down bolt
bar and jam. He breached his refuge and smote
him with leprosy. revealed him for what he was,
and that man died outside the camp of Israel. And this is the
story being taught us here in these verses. And Luke, a strong
man armed keepeth his palace, and all that are within is at
peace. From the very beginning, Satan,
the prince of darkness, has been at war with the Son of God. From
the very beginning, The moment it was announced, you can read
about it in Isaiah 14. The very day that it was announced
to the angels, a whole race of beings created to minister to
those who shall be heirs of salvation. They were going to minister to
men. This whole race of creatures. And Satan, the most glorious
of them, he said, uh-uh. Man ain't going to rise up. and
sit on the throne, I'm going to rise up. At the announcement of God's
redemptive purpose in Christ, Satan said in his heart, I will
ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God, the ministers of God. I will sit also upon
the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north, and
I'll ascend above the height of the clouds, and I'll be like
the most high. And God said, thou shalt be brought
down to hell, to the sides of the pit. It is the purpose of
him and every demon which is under his power to topple the
throne of God. That's what he's out to do. And
to use his power and influence to destroy the souls of men.
And the kingdom he has built for himself is religion. False
religion. That's what's being talked about
here. This is the subject. This is
a subject. The kingdom of God. How is it
established? His kingdom he built for himself.
His religion, it's false religion, self-righteous works religion.
And every soldier in his kingdom has the same cry of Satan. I will. I will. I will. I will. I'll do this. Everything that God had ordained
to do for us, Satan said he was going to do himself. He didn't
need a substitute. He didn't need an imputed righteousness.
He didn't need a representative. I'll do this, he said. I'll do
this. Wasn't that whatever a so-called
professor of religion says in his heart? That's what he's been
told to say and that's what he says. I'll do this. I'll do that. I will ascend into heaven. Isn't that what these professors
of religion are told to do? Make your decision? You think
you can make a decision and go to heaven? Huh? You think God's given you
a multiple choice test and you just Decide what you want to
check, and you're going to check it and go to heaven? That's what's
being taught. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? I don't know anybody that wants to go to hell. Well,
you want to go to heaven, just say this. Just do this. Just
come forward. Just sign this card. There used to be a hymn in a
book we used when I was just a little fellow going to church.
And the name of that hymn was Surely I Will. I had to look
it up. I couldn't remember all the words. But here's just a couple of verses.
If working and praying has any reward, then surely some morning
I'll meet my dear Lord. He's going to be rewarded for
everything that he did. He's going to meet his Lord.
When God is my pilot, I'll climb the high hill. If anyone makes
it, Lord, surely I will. That's the song of a deceived
man, is what that is. Folks believe and are taught
that they can, by their will and works, produce a righteousness
acceptable to God. They can win God's favor. But
the Bible said all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. These things that men are dangling
before God, they're pus covered rags. They're the rags of a leper.
And they're shaking this before God, hoping to win His favor
and His pleasure. This is the kingdom of Satan.
and his soldiers, and apart from divine intervention, you're not
going to break into that palace. You're not going to convert sinners
by social reform and ceremonial obedience or law righteousness.
It's not going to happen. The Holy Ghost said, the kingdom
of God suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Natural man deceived man. Those men were under the spell
of Uzziah. They believed in his protection.
They believed in his might. They believed in his name. And
they were wowed by his intellect and at ease because of his army
and well fed by his cattlemen and bind dressers. But God exposed
him for what he was. And he was forcibly taken out
of Israel, the king of Israel, forcibly taken out of Israel.
Seventy priests went in that tabernacle to drag him out. And by the time they got there,
leprosy had already appeared in his forehead. He was a leper.
And they brought him out and took him outside the camp, and
that's where he died. That's where he died. Paul told the Corinthians, he
said, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. We don't physically come and
force anybody to do anything. I'm totally opposed to this begging
people to come down an aisle or putting them on the spot,
trying to intimidate them in some way to join a church or
do anything. I'll never preach on giving here
and try to intimidate you into giving. You give what your heart
dictates. Paul said, we don't do this.
We don't do this. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, but mighty through God. Mighty through God. How did God convince Israel that
this was an evil king? He exposed him for what he was.
That's what he did. He showed his curse on this man. He exposed his curse. They're not carnal, they're mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds, religious strongholds,
worldly strongholds. And what you do, it casts down
imaginations. The imagination is something
that, do you know that's why God destroyed this world after
a few generations? Every imagination of man was
only evil continually. Man imagines that, like, Like
Cain, he can bring a few carrots and a few stalks of celery and
some real nice looking tomatoes and God will accept that. He tries to worship God with
his works. That's his imagination. He imagines
himself to be righteous before God. There's none good but God. The only way you can even think
about being righteous before God is just to imagine it. God's weapons tear down, they
cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself
above the knowledge of God. Now watch this. And brings into
captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. When a sinner
sees the glory of God in Christ, he will that instant begin to
remove any obstacle that stands between him and Christ. He has
to have it. He has to have it. And it seems
violent to this world that you would walk away from your father,
your mother, your sister, your brother. Don't that seem violent? That seemed like an overreaction,
but that's what the believer does. His friends, he grew up
with them, he knows them. He'll depart with them over Christ. Religion, the religion he was
raised in, oh how he loved that old pastor and those old saints,
he just loved them. Christ said, God has anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken hearted. Now listen, and preach deliverance
to the captives. Fallen man don't know he's a
captive. There may be some here this morning who never believed
on Christ, and you don't know you're a captive. You're just
doing what you're doing because that's what you've always done. As our Lord ascended into glory,
having freely justified all for whom he died, and carrying them
up with him, it says he led captivity captive and gave gifts and received
gifts for men. A strong man arm keepeth his
palace. He's on the throne. He's dictating
policy. He's giving the illusion of peace
with everything that he does. Oh, tell a poor sinner that God
loves him and Christ died for him. And he'll rest his head
and bask in that peace till he wakes up in hell. Brother Barnard said one time,
two biggest lies ever been told. God loves you and Christ died
for you. I don't know if he did or not.
I don't know. Only he can reveal that. Tell a man that God will reward
him for his works and he'll happily work in the church the rest of
his days. Satan keeps his people at peace by preaching peace,
peace where there is no peace. And I don't know if God loves
you or not. He hated Esau. He loved Jacob and hated Esau
and they were twins. He said it'd been better for
Judas that he'd never been born. And all of God's love and mercy
and grace are in Christ. That's where it's at, it's in
Christ. And everything else, my friend, just whistling in
the cemetery. That's all it is. Uzziah had everybody in Israel
convinced he was a godly king. So much so that Isaiah wrote
everything he did in a book. But in Isaiah chapter six, you
can read it for yourself this afternoon when you get home.
In Isaiah six, he writes, in the year King Uzziah died, I
saw the Lord. I saw the Lord. When did he do that? When he
dethroned that king, that strong man. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. High and lifted up. His train
filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphims,
and they covered their eyes in his presence, in the presence
of God's holiness. I saw him surrounded by heavenly
glory, seraphims crying out day and night, holy, holy, holy. The whole world full of his glory. You know what Isaiah said then?
Woe is me. Oh, that's the happiest day of
your life when the sinner can see things the way they are and
look inside himself and say, woe is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. Now you see things like they
are. And then secondly, but who can
breach such a stronghold? One stronger than he. You feel like you are stronger
than Satan? Oh my soul! In Jude verse 9, we are told
that when Michael the archangel disputed with the devil over
the body of Moses, he would not, he dares not bring against him
a railing accusation. He did not even raise his voice
to Satan. He said the Lord rebuked that.
I'm going to tell you something. If Michael the archangel won't
tangle with him, you better not. He'll take you captive at his
will. Only God can contend with Satan. And this is important. This is the very heart of this
lesson. Sinners are set free when God intervenes. You're set free at His good pleasure. You're set free when His redemptive
will takes place. When His power and His presence
make the work effectual. Let me give you a couple passages
here. The first one is over in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 2. I'm always quoting 1 Thessalonians
1 where Paul told them he knew their election of God. 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 13. For
this cause also, thank we God without ceasing, because when
you received the word of God which you heard of us, you received
it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of
God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. What would cause an enemy of
God, deceived, the wool been pulled over his eyes, he's absolutely
convinced that he's a child of God, what on earth could cause
that man to receive my words as though God had sent them to
him? The power and presence of God. That's it. That's it. Here's another one
over in Romans chapter 6. When a man in Satan's palace
sees him exposed for who he is and sees his palace breached
by the Lord, he'll then be free to serve another. Now watch this. Romans 6 verse 16. Know ye not
that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants
ye are to whom ye obey? Whether of sin under death or
of obedience under righteousness. But God be thanked, you were
the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. That man picked
up a Bible and he said, God said. And he told you what God said.
He showed you what God said. And you said, that's a God. That's
a God. That's not that man's opinion.
He didn't read a bunch of writers and say, well, here's what I'm
gleaning from the whole thing. No. No. He had a message from
God. And that's how you heard it.
That's how you heard it. Being then made free from sin,
you become the servants of righteousness. Christ is our righteousness,
and by faith we serve Him. He's God come into the flesh.
Typical Israel was in bondage down in Egypt. They served an
evil king. And he ruled by threats of punishment
and severe discipline. And God overcome the greatest
kingdom in the world by a prophet and a priest. That's right. Brought them to their knees by
his presence and power which he wrought in conjunction with
Moses and Aaron. You think Pharaoh was scared
of Moses? No. No. But now God is a different question.
The presence and power of God attended that man. In the same way, he manifests
his powers through the preaching of the gospel. This world, by
nature, knows nothing of the glory of God. Totally ignorant. They see him at most as a wise
prophet ministering the Word of God. Or as a great example
of godliness, giving and ministering to men. Or as a poor defeated
reformer who did all he could do. And now it's all up to you. But our Lord is in the heavens.
David said he had done whatsoever he had pleased. His glorious
person is all sufficient, His work complete, and His power
irresistible. There's no resisting the power
of God. You can resist a preacher. You
can resist a doctrine. But you're not going to resist
God. His power is irresistible. And
our Lord said to these ungodly men, if I, with the finger of
God, If I with the finger of God cast
out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you. Back yonder in Egypt, that's
the first time that ever appeared, that finger of God. Back yonder
in Egypt, God told Aaron, stretch out his rod and touch the dust
in Egypt, and all the dust is going to turn into lice. And
you remember the magicians, Aaron's staff turned into a serpent. And then those magicians went
out and by whatever means they did, you know, sleight of hand,
there appeared serpents around the serpent of God. God's serpent
swallowed their serpent. Well now he's turning the dust
into lice. millions upon billions of lives
everywhere. And Pharaoh's magicians went
out there and they took their little thing and they hit the
dust and nothing happened. And then they had to answer to
Pharaoh. And they said, Pharaoh, they pointed over there to Aaron
and his staff and Moses and they said, that is the finger of God. If I, with the finger of God,
with whatever means, whatever pitiful, frail means, like myself,
that God's pleased to use, he's taking his finger, just like
that, and establishing his kingdom. And he's doing it to show you
the excellency of his power. Nebuchadnezzar's son, Belshazzar,
He took all those goblets that his father had taken from the
temple down in Israel and threw a big party. And he was pouring
the wine into those holy vessels that was taken out of the temple.
And all of a sudden, he saw a man's hand. And it was over here, and
it began to write on the wall. It began to write on the wall. God hath numbered thy kingdom
and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balances
and art found wanting. And thy kingdom is divided and
given to another. The finger of God. God establishes
his kingdom with one finger. A beautiful picture of this is
over in John chapter 8 and I'll quote. There was a woman taken
in the very act of adultery. And the scribes and Pharisees
brought her to Christ right in the middle, right in the middle
where he was teaching. They brought this woman and threw
her down at his feet. She was probably just clothed
in whatever rag she could grab at the time and take with her
to cover herself up with and she was shivering, scared, and
here she stands before Christ because she's guilty and she
knows she's guilty. And they said, Moses said that she should
be stoned. What do you say? And he said,
I say, those among you without sin, pick up the stone and throw
it. And then he bent down, and with
his finger, he began to write in the sand. And one by one,
being convicted in their own consciences, what was he writing? Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe
we will know in all eternity. But one by one, reading what
he wrote with his finger, their consciences were pricked and
they walked away. Until finally there was nobody
left but the woman in Christ. That's what happened. This is
what our Lord is talking about. When a stronger than he shall
come upon him. And just with his finger, just
with his finger, he gonna establish his kingdom. All right, thank
you.