I invite you to turn with me
this morning to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. Let's begin
reading in verse 22. Then was brought unto him one
possessed with a 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? Is not
this the long expected Messiah? But when the Pharisees, now these
are the ones I believe a lot of times when it says, and the
Jews or the Pharisees, it's not just talking about the Pharisees
in general, but he's talking about the Sanhedrin, the High
Council, whose job it was to look for the coming Messiah,
whose job it was to see him and approve him and to tell the people
that this was indeed to ratify the Messiah. When the Pharisees
heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out devils, but
by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. And Jesus knew their thoughts
and said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to destruction. And every city or house divided
against itself shall not stand. And if Satan cast out Satan,
he is divided against himself, and how shall then his kingdom
stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out
devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they
shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you. You
see, this was a determining thing. This was God's ratification of
the Messiah. He was a man, Peter said in his
address at Pentecost, he said, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which
he did by him in your midst, as you yourselves also know.
So this was more than just a disagreement. This was more than just a difference
in opinion. This was the very thing that
hinged the ratification of God of His Son. If I cast out devils
by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is 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. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad." Now
this is not only now about the Messiah, but it's about those
whom the Messiah has chosen to speak for him. He that gathereth not with me
scattereth abroad. And that was pointed directly
at those Pharisees. They scattered abroad. They said
they gathered with Him, but they didn't. Now there's two views
to everything spiritual that takes place in this world. There
are those who see the Lord's Christ and the glory of His accomplishments. That's what they see. They see
that when they read this book. They see that in the church of
the living God. They see that in other believers.
They see that in the preaching of the gospel. When they hear
men preach, stand and preach, that's what they see. That's
what they see. They see the Lord's Christ and
the glory of His accomplishments. Here's the other camp. Those
who see through the eyes of religious prejudice. They see through the
eyes of traditional religion. They see through the eyes of
a preconceived notion of Christ that they've been taught since
they were children. And it's been verified to them across
the globe. All men. The views of the Jews
wasn't just a minority type view. It's any view that any man had
of God. There was nothing else there
but the Jews. Nothing else around. They took that view and they
looked through those eyes of religious prejudice. And today
it's the same thing. You look around and there's a
religious prejudice that men had because of the way they were
raised. The religion of this world is
the army of Satan. That's what this book teaches.
It's the army of Satan. There's no good. that can come
from this army. There's no good that can come
from this camp. If they're not with Him, He said,
they're against Me. They're against Me. And if they
don't gather with Me, then I didn't send them. They're scattering
abroad. The religion of this world is
the army of Satan. It is the might and power of
His kingdom. His rule is by deceit and lies
and pretense. Paul said, if our gospel be hid,
it's hid to the lost in whom the God of this world hath blinded
their minds. How did He do that? Through religious
prejudice. That's how He works. Paul said
He transforms Himself into an angel of light And the same is
true of all His ministers. They do the same thing. Men and
women come into this world fallen and depraved by nature. That's
just the truth. I didn't understand that when
I was a child, and I don't expect children here this morning to
understand this, but it's the truth. All the evidence of this
world points away from that. All the religion of this world
points away from that. But the Word of God And that's
what Paul said, that's what I'm interested in, is what God said.
Let God be true and every man a liar. And he said we go astray
as soon as we be born speaking lies. We come forth from the
womb that way. And being dead in trespasses
and sins, we all walk. This is our walk, whether it
be a religious walk or a worldly walk, doesn't make any difference.
We all walk according to the course of this world, according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience. That's how we walk. Satan stole the house of man
from Adam. He stole it. Through lies and
deceit, he took it. He took it and He established
His Kingdom in it. That's this world. He's called
the God of this world. He's called the Prince of the
Power of the Air. He's called the Ruler of Darkness. It's His Kingdom. And like Rome
and many others who took the Israelites captive, they were
powerless to do anything about it. Men left to themselves, left
to this religious prejudice, left in this world, left at the
sake of Satan, at the sake of the enemy. Men left like that,
they're doomed. That's what the scripture says.
They're doomed. I've got an enemy too great to
resist, a nature too evil to reform, and a heart too rebellious
to reconcile. Salvation, my friend, is the
intervention of God. That's salvation. That's when
God intervenes. You read Ephesians chapter 2,
and when He reads to you those scriptures that I just quoted
to you, at the end of that He said, but God. That's where salvation
begins with God. It's the intervention of God.
It's one stronger than the strong man. That's what Christ told
these Pharisees. It's when one stronger than Him
comes into his house and binds him up and takes from him what's
rightfully his. The strong man. Now there's three
ways in which Christ binds the devil. First of all, he bound
him by virtue of his life, death, and resurrection from the dead.
When we talk about the power of Satan, It's a complicated thing in a
way to understand. Experience is the best teacher
for the grace of God, the only one that I know about. But the
power of Satan's kingdom is from two sources. First, it comes
from the holy character of God. Well, you say, that's a strange
statement. How can Satan's power come from the perfect character,
the holy character of God? Because God will not change.
God will not compromise His name. So the soul that sinneth shall
surely die. You see what I'm saying? Once
a man has transgressed the law, he's under the curse of God.
And we all transgressed the law in Adam, first of all. And we've
all went astray from the womb, speaking lies. And if you want
to know the truth about it, God said He opened the windows of
heaven and looked down upon men to see if there was any good,
or any that sought after God. He said there was none. And He
knew that was going to be a shocking statement, and the Holy Spirit
followed those words with this, No, not one. Not one. He's infinitely righteous and
holy. No compromise in his attributes
and character. No leniency. No overlooking a
fault. He said, I will by no means. But what about no means? Clear
the guilt. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. And so long as man is a transgressor
of the law, he can have no part or lot with the blessings and
favor of God. Our sins, he said, have separated
us from God. Man's cursed. Cursed, he said,
is everyone who continueth not in all things written in the
book of the law to do that. And then the second source of
Satan's power is man's ignorance. Man's just ignorant. That's all
there is to it. He's ignorant. being ignorant
of God's righteousness. Now we're talking about the most
learned religious people on the face of the earth. These men
went to school and studied the scriptures. Our Lord told them.
He said, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have
eternal life. These were the men who transcribed the scriptures.
They knew wherever period went, wherever question mark went.
They knew those words, when they should be capitalized and when
they shouldn't. They knew all about it, not one jot or tittle.
That's what those things are. throughout the Word of God. Not
one thing is going to pass until the Son of God fulfilled the
whole thing. But to these men who were educated, if any Jew
had a question concerning doctrine, or concerning God, or concerning
the Scripture, they went to the Pharisees. That's who gave them
the answers. And here's what he said about it, being ignorant.
Who's he talking about? He's talking about the Jews.
Talking about these Pharisees, being ignorant of God's righteousness
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. Man under the curse of God and
left to himself is ignorant of God's character and ways, none
that understandeth. That's why you want to talk to
somebody. You want to tell them about the
grace of God. And they keep talking about universal salvation and
universal atonement and man's free will. They're ignorant.
They're ignorant of the character of God. God does not wish He
wants you. God doesn't go this way and that
way. God just gets straight like a plumb line is how He talks
about it. His character, He will not compromise. His perfection, all holiness
is perfect holiness. Righteousness is perfect righteousness.
We don't have that. And God requires that. In Ephesians 4, verse 18, Paul
talks about these men, and he said, having the understanding
darkened. being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that's in them because of the
blindness of their heart. Then in Ephesians 2, verse 4,
he said, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. That's our hope. That is, He
put us in Christ as our representative and substitute. Made provision
for us in Him. What's He talking about when
I tell you that He made provision in Christ? I'm talking about
the provisions that His holy character demanded. Provisions
of righteousness. I can't produce one. He tells us through the prophets,
he said, can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can the
leopard change his spots? How then that you are accustomed
to do evil, can you do good? No way. No way. So provision must be made. How
does he make that provision? In his son. In his son. He made provision for us in Him. He made Him the head of all things
concerning the church. And there's only one way for
Satan's power to be overthrown, and that is for Christ, our substitute,
to become a man and live under that holy law of God and obey
that holy law of God in every jot and tittle continually from
His birth to His death in all things. That's where you find
the righteousness. Once you know, once the truth
of God has been shown to you about the perfection of God's
holy character, you won't find that righteousness in yourself.
And you won't find it out here in the ministers and preachers
and churches. I tell you where you find it,
you find it in Christ. He obeyed that law. But He did
it on our behalf. And He provides us. God made
provision through Him for us of righteousness. Paul tells
us that the salvation of God was not according to our works,
but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now that's II Timothy
1.9 is the Scripture. But listen to verse 10. But is
now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality
to light, through the Gospels. Christ said to the Pharisees,
now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast down. 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 he might destroy him that had power of death, that is,
the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage." Who did that? Christ. Christ did that. He freed the
captives. Captive to what? Captive to sin.
Captive under the law. He freed us. How did He do it?
Through His obedience, through that righteousness of God, and
through His atoning death. Satan was bound by Christ and
his house foiled by his substitutionary sacrifice and his righteous obedience
and acceptance into glory. The head and hope of the church
is not wandering under the curse of darkness throughout this world.
It's not some undone thing that we hope someday, if man will
come around, it might be victorious. No. No, I hope seated at the
right hand of God. He's already victorious. And
we're seated with Him. With Him. That breaks the power
of Satan. Satan's power is in his lies. And then secondly, our Lord binds
the strong man and spoils his goods in the regeneration and
conversion of the sinner. God doesn't leave us in our ignorance
and leave us to ourselves. That's the reprobate. The worst
thing God could do to you, people say, well, I wish you'd leave
me alone. Oh, you don't want that. You
don't want that. That's the part and lot of the
reprobate. God turns him over to himself. And what does he do? He abuses
his own body. He denies the living God. He
loves a lie more than truth. God sends him strong delusion. You don't want that. He spoils his goods. How does
he do that? Well, he accomplishes this by
the Holy Ghost and the preaching of the Gospel. The Scripture
said he brings life and immortality to light through the Gospel. Through the Gospel. 2 Corinthians
4, verse 6. He likens this experience to
the bringing in of light upon creation. You remember our studies
back in Genesis 1. And I talked to you about that
light. He said, God said, let there be light. But then he goes
on and he tells us that God set the sun and the heavens and the
moon to rule over the night and the stars and all these different
sources of light. So what light was he talking
about back here in the beginning when he said, let there be light?
Well, he tells us right here in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 what
that light was all about. It's the light of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. And He gives that light before
He ever created the first thing. That we'll see that light when
He put that sun up there. You remember David said in the
Psalms, he talked about the sun coming up. And he likened that
rising of the sun to a great cathedral and the rising of Christ
over it. And then the moon, which is the
reflected light, that's the church. It's the reflected light. The
only light we have is the light of Christ. And so the stars are the church. And then he tells us over here,
for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part in the same. Satan was bound
by Christ and his house foiled by his substitutionary sacrifice. And he brings this to light through
the gospel. And we've got this light in earthen
vessels, this clay vessel, that the excellency of the glory might
be of Him and not of us. I was preaching one time and
really emphasizing the necessity of preaching the gospel. And
Paul said on several occasions that it absolutely embarrassed
him to talk about his position. It does me too. But I was hammering
on that. I was talking about the necessity
of preaching. How should you hear if God doesn't
send you a preacher? I didn't ask that. The Holy Spirit
asked that. And so on. And I was working on that. And
after the meeting, this guy came up to me and he was angry. He
was angry. And he said, boy, you really
think you're something. And I said, no, you didn't hear anything
I said. God chose the weak things of the world to confound the
mighty. He chose the base things. When
you found a preacher, you didn't find this special specimen somewhere
that God found and said, I think he's got enough in him I can
use. No, that's not what he does. He goes and finds the base, the
smallest, the littlest, the weakest, the most ignorant. And that's
who he makes preacher. Paul was at the bottom of their
list because of his speech and stuff. And yet he come behind
not one wit throughout all these things. And when people heard
him preach, they glorified God. They didn't glorify Paul. They
glorified God. The Lord doesn't stand at the
enemy's threshold waiting for an invitation that will never
come. Nor does he wait at the door
in vain, hoping that the captive inside, he stands out there,
you've seen them pictures of him standing outside there, but
he can't get in. He's waiting on the captive inside
to open the door. No, he comes in with a holy force. And I tell you, when you understand
that, when the one stronger than he comes in, that's when you
understand what I'm talking about. One stronger than him comes in
with a holy force, and by virtue of his accomplished redemption,
takes what is rightfully his. He takes it. We belong to him. He's the Lord of the dead and
the living. Lord. And he translates us, the
scripture said, from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom
of his dear son. And this glorious work of grace
and regeneration delivers the captives by the light of the
truth. That's where the joy comes from. That's where the victory
comes from. That's where the peace comes from. It's when you
understand. When you understand by an experiential
knowledge, an evangelical knowledge of Christ, a saving knowledge.
When you become a sinner who needs to be saved. Then you begin
to understand a little bit of what sin is all about. And you
cry out for mercy, and the Savior comes. And He takes away those
fears and doubts, and He takes away the curse, and He takes
away the law, and He takes away all those things that suppressed
you and held you captive, and He sets you free. How does He
do that? How does the Holy Ghost do that?
He convinces you of the truth. He convinced you. You know when
you're convinced of the truth? You live that way. That's right. You live that way. All of a sudden
your life depends on it. Your future depends on it. Your
eternity depends on it. And your life is changed. You
hear the truth. Now that's the bottom line. You
hear the truth. And the truth sets you free. Gospel preached under the power
of God's Holy Spirit is mighty through God. That's what Paul
said. This thing I preach, he said,
is mighty through God. He said, we don't have carnal
weapons. We don't come in like the conquistadors did down in
Mexico with swords and so on and establish the kingdom of
God. We come in with spiritual weapons. We come in with the
gospel of God's sovereign grace and preach Christ crucified to
the sinner. And God convinces him of the
truth. And he said, these weapons, Paul said, are mighty through
God. To the pulling down of strongholds,
taking down those old religious strongholds. Nobody could get
you out of it. Nobody but God. They become mighty through God.
to the pulling down of strongholds, listen to this, casting down
imaginations, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ. And then thirdly, Christ will
spoil the strongman's house at the last day when he'll cast
him into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and
the false prophet are, and there they'll all be tormented day
and night forever and ever. The last day will usher in the
total and everlasting destruction of Satan and his kingdom. And
in the light of all this, our Lord makes this bold declaration,
Matthew 12, verse 30. He that is not with me, he that is not with me, I've
already told you what he's doing. I've already told you how He
takes down the strong man, how God's appointments are in Him. God's provision is in Him. God's
means of salvation is in Him. Now, He that's not with me, He
said, is against me. He's against me. Our Lord declares here the utter
impossibility of neutrality. There was multitudes in his day
as well as in ours who were fence-straddlers. The old prophet said, how long
halt you between two opinions? They were fence-straddlers. They
didn't want to deny him completely, but neither did they want to
commit to him altogether. That's a fence-straddler. They
didn't desire to ignore his person and work completely. But neither
did they want to be identified with him as his disciples. Now
with regard to spiritual matters, there's only two camps, with
him or against him. One of the other. No middle ground, there's no
place of neutrality. Those who are with Christ identify
themselves with Him and His disciples. There are no secret admirers
of Christ. I know there's a movement among
the Southern Baptists, and I can never remember the name of it,
but they're secret admirers of the Gospel. They're secret believers
of Christ. There's no such thing. There's
no such thing. Those who believe Those who have
experienced the grace of God in their heart, those who have
had the strong man bound and overcome with Christ, identify
themselves with Christ. They follow Him. They identify themselves with
Him and His disciples. Now, identification is by baptism
and church membership. That's how you identify yourself
with Christ. Identification is by our unashamed
confession of the gospel of Christ. We're not ashamed. That's what
Paul said. I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Are you?
Huh? Do you have to, when you're talking
to somebody, you have to do this and not really look at them,
kind of look at the wall? I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. I like to look men right in the
eye and tell them I believe in election. I believe that God
chose a people. He chose to save a people in
His Son for the glory of His name. I want to look them right
in the eye, Nathan. I believe that. If I didn't believe it,
I wouldn't tell you that. I'm convinced of it. I rejoice
in it. They identify themselves with
an unashamed confession of the gospel of Christ. And then secondly,
those who are with Christ submit themselves to His rule. And that's
wherever and whoever that rule is, wherever he puts it. Wherever
he puts it. And thirdly, those who are with
Christ identify themselves by surrendering of their life to
Him. Paul said, we're not our own. You still feel like
you're your own? I'm my own person. I've got my
own rights. But you're still in sin. You're
still under sin. You don't know Christ. You don't
know Christ. That man who knows Christ surrenders
his life to Him, whatever it takes. Luke 9, verse 23, He said,
If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself. That first. Deny himself. Take up his cross. There's a
cross to bear. daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life
shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake,
the same shall save. Most people want to follow Christ,
but maintain a second life in this world. Everything they do
and say is to save face and maintain what they've got. I just want
to hang on to what I've got. Now, I see the foolishness of
religion, and I don't want any part of that. But there's no
commitment on my part to this. You see what I'm saying? Believers
give themselves to Christ. How does a man give himself to
Christ? He becomes actively involved
in the ministry of the gospel. He don't stand back and say,
well, you have a good day like that fellow over there in James.
I hope you get better and then walk away. No. He sees the cause
and the need and he contributes to it. He becomes actively involved
in it. Also, by being faithful in their
support of the ministry of the church and by being faithful
in their attendance to worship and by the way they live their
lives in this world, It matters how you live in this world. We're
ambassadors for Christ. I tell you, we send somebody,
I'm out of time, so I'm going to have to quit here, but we
send an ambassador from this country over to Japan. I don't
expect that man to live any way he wants to live over there.
He better live as an ambassador for this nation, or he's going
to lose his position. Might even be cast into prison.
We're ambassadors for God, for Christ, as though God did beseech
you through us. We barely live that way. You see what he's saying? The
strong man. That's what salvation is all
about. It's about victory in Christ. It's about the Holy Spirit
of God taking up residence within you. Changing things, changing
you. It's about you Becoming, isn't
that what John chapter 1 says? Becoming the sons of God. I hope it's been a help to you.
Thank you.