Would you turn back to Luke chapter
11? I want to give the title of this
message. It's entitled true and false
conversion. And in this passage of scripture
that I just read, we have true conversion where the Lord has
really done something for someone. And then we have false conversion. Now let's read this passage of
scripture together. And then I'd like to make some
comments on it. Once again, let's read it again. Verse 21. When a strong man armed keep
with his palace, his goods are in peace. Now this is talking
about Satan, keeping his palace over man and his goods are at
peace. But when a stronger than he,
shall come upon him." And that can only describe the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the only one who is stronger
than he. He'll overcome him and he taketh
from him all his armor wherein he trusteth and divides his spoils. That's true conversion. He that's
not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me
scattereth. Now here is a false conversion.
When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through
dry places seeking rest. And finding none, he saith, I'll
return unto my house once I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth
it swept, cleaned up, on the outside at any rate, and garnished,
even decorated. Then goeth he and taketh to him
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. Now, what had been going on in
verse 14 of Luke chapter 11, and he was casting out a devil,
and it was dumb, and it came to pass when the devil was gone
out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered. The Lord was
casting out a devil. Now, there's something that he
did a whole lot during his earthly ministry. He cast out devils. We read that over and over and
over again. There is an unseen world that
you and I know very little of. But Satan is called the god of
this world. The prince of this world. The prince of the power. of the spirit of power of the
air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience.
And all unbelievers are called children of the devil. Now, this strong man armed is
the devil. Hold your finger there in Luke
11. You know, I don't even like talking
about Satan. He's real, though. He's real. And I'm so glad that
the Lord Jesus Christ has complete control of him, that he's God's
devil on God's chain and can't do any more than God allows. I always want to remember that
when I talk about this being called Satan, but the Lord was
always casting out demons. But look here in Ephesians chapter
six, what Paul says, beginning in verse 11, Verse 12 rather, or no, verse
11. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the wiles, the deceitful
practices of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in high places. He has so much more influence
than you and I are aware of, doesn't he? We read that passage
of scripture and we see that he is very, very active. And this palace that he keeps
and guards over is man, men who do not believe. And he's strong. He's strong. What that means
is me and you aren't any match for him. He's strong. He's called by Peter, your adversary. This speaking to every believer,
your adversary, the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour. And notice it says when a strong
man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. He has
an arsenal. He's a strong man armed with
an arsenal. You know, he defeated our parents
when they had innocent natures. You think you would have fared
any better than them? Do you think that even for a second?
He defeated our first parents in the garden when they had innocent
natures. And he's got so much with me
and you he could work with. I mean, there's just so much.
He's a strong man armed and he's crafty and he's deceitful and
he can turn us every which way but loose and make us think our
night looks just like day and not know the difference between
what's happening. That's how deceitful he is. And like I said, I'm thankful
I can say that he's God's devil. The palace is man, the devil
keeps his palace. No one's able to get out from
under his power or influence and his goods are at peace. You
know, the devil gives a peace. The world gives a peace. It's
not the peace that Christ gives, but it's a superficial peace.
It's not the peace of God that passes all understanding. It's
not the peace that Christ gives. He said, my peace I give unto
you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. He doesn't give
that kind of peace. You see, it's a false peace.
And the reason it's a false peace is because it has no true ground.
There's no true ground of peace that you can actually rest in.
It's a bloodless peace. Now, any peace you have that
is not wholly founded in Christ and his precious blood and what
it accomplished is a false peace. If you derive some kind of peace
from what you do, from how you are, from how you conduct yourself,
from your works, how you've changed, how you're different. Because
of what you do, it is a false peace. It is a bloodless peace. Same peace Cain had when he brought
the fruit of the ground, his own works, in order to obtain
God's favor. And it's a piece of ignorance. Just this week, I watched a truck
with a bunch of cattle in them. And I looked a cow dead in the
eye when it passed me and it had the most serene look on its
face. It was a piece. It had no idea as to what was
getting ready to take place. It was the piece of ignorance. And it's a superstitious piece. I remember one time being at
a funeral where someone's loved one had died, and that's a very
sensitive time, I realize that, but this person said regarding
their loved one, they said, well, I know they're in heaven because
I hear the birds chirping. And the birds wouldn't be chirping
at this time of year if they were not in heaven, and that's
called superstition. A superstitious peace. Oh, they're
in heaven because the birds were chirping. Someone said to Thoreau,
the author on his dying bed, have you made your peace with
God? To which he replied, I didn't know we were at odds. It's the peace of companionship,
finding peace in a crowd. You'll find plenty of people
who will share with you in this false peace. You'll have plenty
of folks you can get in right together with. Evil communications
corrupt good manners. Now, the devil gives a peace.
And when a strong man arms keeps his palace, and you say, well,
how do you think that's man? How many times did the Lord cast
demons out of men? And what I think is so interesting
is when the demons and the men spoke, you couldn't tell who
was speaking. You couldn't tell if it was the man or the demon.
You see, demons feel very comfortable in a fallen man's nature. That
we're so sinful, the way we're born into this world, we're so
sinful that a demon can feel comfortable in us. And the only
way this false peace can be taken away is if what happens in verse
22 takes place. But when a stronger than he shall
come upon him. Now, who is the only one who
can be described as stronger than Satan? The Lord Jesus Christ. Satan is very powerful, but Christ
is omnipotent. all the difference in the world.
I don't care how powerful you are, there's nothing that can
compare with infinite power. The infinite power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the stronger than he, and
he overcomes the devil. You see, he defeated him on the
cross. John said, for this purpose,
The Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Now I think of the works of the
devil. I think of him deceiving our first parents in the Garden
of Eden. They had innocent natures and
he... He got them to fall. The way he lied to them, the
way he added to what God said, his temptations, as God said,
you shall surely die, God didn't say that. I mean, you eat this
fruit, you'll be okay. You'll be like God, you'll have
a free will then, and you'll be able to make a choice between
good and evil, and that's what's gonna make you like God. The
deception he used. And what happened to them? They
became dead in sins. All of a sudden, the scripture
says they knew they were naked. In other words, they now had
evil natures. They were naked before that,
then it wasn't even an issue to them. But now it's a big issue.
They go and hide themselves from the presence of God. They don't
come back and say, I'm sorry, would you forgive me? No, they
get away from Him and they don't want to come back. He comes after
them. And then when he confronts them, they actually blame the
Lord for their fall. The woman that you gave me, she
gave me of the fruit and I did eat. They no longer had any love
for God. They no longer had any desire
to be in communion and fellowship with Him. As a matter of fact,
they ran away. They thought He wasn't. They became spiritually
stupid. Behold the works of the devil. Now the son of God came
to destroy the works of the devil. And on Calvary's tree, he undid
all that the devil had done. You know, the devil thought he'd
defeated Christ. I love thinking about this. When the Satan saw
Christ nailed to a cross, and you can bet Satan was watching
Christ every moment of his life. You know, when the Lord was baptized,
And that voice from heaven came and said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. You can bet Satan was watching.
And remember when he kept saying, if you're the son of God, prove
it. Command that these stones be made red. If you're the son
of God, prove it. Show it to us. Jump off the temple
and show that the angels will catch you. If you're the son
of God, bow down and worship because I'll give you all this
because it's mine to give. He heard. God say, this is my
son. And he wanted to put a question
mark on it. And he, I love thinking about this. When he, when he
saw the Lord hanging on a cross, getting ready to die, he thought
I've defeated him. And he didn't know that this was the crushing
of his head. This was the answer to the ancient
prophecy. The seed of woman shall crush
the serpent's hand. You see, The Lord said he came
for judgment because of the prince of this world is judged. And
on Calvary's tree, all he did was undone. All of God's elect
were rescued, saved. When the Lord said it is finished,
the salvation of every single person that he died for was completed,
secured. This is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He defeated the works of Satan.
He's a mighty savior and he's this strong man armed that comes
and comes upon this man who had been held by the devil. He comes in saving power and
look at the way it points out. 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. He comes in saving
power and He takes away all the armor that we trusted in. Our false peace. Well, I must
be saved because I remember the experience I had. I remember
how I was touched by the sermon and how I was moved. I remember
how I've changed. I remember how I started believing
the right things. I went from being a Freewheeler
to a Calvinist. You start thinking of things
that happened in the past. I must be saved because I did this.
Listen, any hope you have that you have to look back for. I'm
saved because of something that took place in my experience back
then is a false peace. Who are you looking to right
now? Now I'm, by the grace of God, I'm here to tell you, I'm
looking to Christ only the same way I looked to Him the very
first time. That's the only ground of assurance. But He takes away all those false
things that we trust in, and you know, When he comes and strips
away all that you have, all your hope on a past experience or
your hope for what you're going to do. See, there's two false
refuges men love to stay in. The past or the future. What
I experience or what I intend to do. He strips all that away
and he leaves you with nothing. But only when you have everything
stripped away and you have nothing. Can you receive him as all? And he's all your righteousness. He's all your peace. He's all
your hope. Now it says, In verse 22, but
when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him,
he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and he divides
the spoils. This answers to Isaiah 53, 12. He shall divide the spoils with
the strong. And this is what happens in true
conversion. Now it works like this. Salvation
is of the Lord. If you've been truly converted,
it's because he saved you. That's all of our theology. Salvation
is of the Lord. God the Father determined your
salvation before time began. I love election because I love
the God of election. I surely do. And Christ came and put away
your sin. He actually put it away. He made
it to where it is not. That's exactly what he meant
when he said, it is finished. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever. Then that are sanctified. And
then he comes by a spirit in invincible and irresistible grace
and takes your false peace away. He strips away your false refuges
of lies and saves you. That's true conversion. True
conversion is when God does it all. If you lay any hand in it,
it'll end up being false and spurious. But if it's God's work
and God's work alone, if he did it all, this is true conversion. I love that hymn. Hail sovereign
love that first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless free eternal grace
that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who ruled the
sky, I fought with hand uplifted high, despised the mention of
His grace. Secure, without a hiding place,
enwrapped in thick Egyptian night and fond of darkness more than
light, madly I ran the sinful race. Secure, without a hiding
place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran. Almighty love, arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. Indignant justice stood in view
to sign I's fiery mount I flew. But justice cried with frowning
face, this mountain is no hiding place. Ere long a heavenly voice
I heard and mercy's angel form appeared and led me on with gentle
pace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On him eternal vengeance fell
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race, and thus became their hiding place. Should storms of sevenfold
thunder roll and shake the earth from pole to pole, no flaming
bolt can daunt my face, for Jesus is my hiding place. A few more
rolling suns at most will land me safe on Cayman's coast. dare
I shall sing of sovereign grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. Now, that is true conversion,
when the strong man arm comes and overcomes and defeats that
one who kept the palace and he takes from him all his armor
wearing he trusted and he divides the spoils. Verse 23 of our text,
Luke 11, He that's not with me is against me. And he that gathereth
not with me scattereth. You see, there's no neutral ground. There's no non-affiliation, nothing
of the sort. He that's not with me, he's against
me. He's opposed to me. And he that
gathereth not with me, scattereth. You see, we're either with him
or against him. There's no intermediate place.
It's either grace or works. Christ is all or Christ is nothing. No, no either intermediate ground. I'm either a child of God or
a child of the devil. Now he speaks of that false conversion,
verse 24. You see, wherever you have the
true, now understand this, wherever you have the true, the counterfeit's
always gonna be right behind it every single time. And remember, a dangerous counterfeit
is the one that looks most like the real. Now here we have in
verse 24, when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, notice
it's not cast out. It's not kicking, you know, the
way the Lord was always casting out unclean spirits. This unclean
spirit evidently goes of his own accord. He's not cast out. He leaves. When the unclean spirit
has gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest
and finding none. He saith, I'll return into my
house whence I came out. Now, as I've already said, there's
an unseen world we know very little about, but he is active,
this unclean spirit. And he is not cast out, he simply
goes out. Now, I don't pretend to understand
what all is meant by that, But I do know this, an unclean spirit
is very comfortable in a natural man. He's very comfortable. And as a matter of fact, I think
of this passage of scripture in Mark 1, 23 and 24. And there
was there in the synagogue, a man with an unclean spirit. And he
cried out saying, let us alone, Jesus of Nazareth. What have
we to do with thee? Let us alone. Who's speaking?
Both of them are. both of them are. Art thou come
to destroy us before the time? Now that is a man with an unclean
spirit. He knew he had nothing in common
with Christ. What have we to do with thee?
Well, for whatever reason, he leaves temporarily. seeking dry, waterless,
graceless places where he can find rest. And he doesn't find
any. And he says, I'll return to my old home. I'm going back. And look what happens. I will
return into my house once I came out. Verse 25. And when he comes,
he finds it swept and garnished. Matthew's account says empty,
swept and garnished. He comes back and finds this
place empty of grace, empty of Christ, empty of God the Holy
Spirit, empty of anything that really matters. Empty, but not
only empty, not only empty of God, it's been swept. swept. Now sweeping has to do with the
outside, doesn't it? It doesn't have to do with the
heart or the inside. It has to do with the outside. Dirt's moved
maybe from one pile to another. Maybe the dirt has moved and
hid somewhere where nobody can see it and it looks clean, empty,
swept, and garnished, decorated. So it looks pretty. It looks
good. A lot of good stuff you could see. No faith, but a real
pretty picture framed real well with faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. No glowing
in the cross, but a beautiful golden cross hanging up to remind
them of their religion. No love for the world, but a
Bible that everybody can see, brought out for decoration, maybe
even with a set of spectacles on it so it looks like you've
been reading it. No true humility before God, but a false humility. No communion with Christ, but
a devotion life and a prayer schedule and so on. No true communion. No spiritual understanding, but
plenty of Bible study. No prayer to God, but plenty
of prayer thus with himself. No love for Christ, but plenty
of love for the praise of men that will make him do many things. No mourning over sin, but mourning
over the consequences of sin and what it costs you. No poverty of spirit, but plenty
of that lie to see in spirit. Behold, I'm rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing. I'm OK. I'm fine. No boughs of
mercies, Plenty of self-indication, a lot of judgment of other people,
but no true mercy. Empty of God, swept and decorated. Now this is how this unclean
spirit comes back and finds this man. In other words, this man
has had a religious experience. This man has had a conversion. swept up things. He's empty.
He doesn't really have the spirit of God, but he thinks he's a
very religious man. He's cleaned up things. Maybe
he hadn't even done that good a job of sweeping, but he swept
some and he's got everything decorated, garnished. Verse 26. Then goeth he this unclean spirit
and taketh to him 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. Now, what's going on here? Turn with me to 2 Peter 2. You know, when a man becomes
religious and falls away, And this has
happened so many times. How many times have you seen
people get religious, turn over a new leaf, start their life
over, they get real religious, and then something happens and
they go back to their old ways. And the latter end of that man
is worse than the first. Now look here in 2 Peter 2. Verse
20. For if after they have escaped
the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome,
the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For
it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness. Now let me stop, pause right
there. Do you know the way of righteousness? The way of righteousness
is the way of being saved by the righteousness and merits
of Jesus Christ. He is your personal righteousness
before God. That's the hope of every believer. Now for someone to give lip service
to that and leave it, they would have been better off never having
heard. Rejecting Christ? Rejecting His
righteousness? Rejecting the only way you could
be saved? You've been far better off having
never heard the gospel than having heard it and rejected and going
back like a dog to his vomit or a pig that's washed. to its
wallowing in the mire. Let's go on reading. Verse 21.
For it had been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness than to, after they have known it, to turn from
the holy commandment delivered unto them. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. But it's happened unto
them, according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own
vomit again, and the pig that was washed to her wallowing in
the mire. Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. When I was a young believer,
this was the scripture that I wanted to avoid more than any other
scripture. As a matter of fact, I was always
tempted to just not read Hebrews 10 when I got to Hebrews 10,
because I didn't want to read this one. It always scared me to death. Hebrews
10.26. For if we sin willfully, after
that we receive the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for
judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. And I don't know how many times
in my experience that I would, if I'd sin, I think I've done
it willfully, it's over for me. It's over. I've sinned away the
day of grace. There's no hope for me because
I've sinned willfully. Now, what is the writer to the
Hebrew saying? Because the fact of the matter
is, is every time you sin, you sin willfully. You don't, you
don't, you don't sin unwillfully. You do what you want to do. Every
sin we commit, we did what we wanted to do. We can't blame.
Well, I didn't do it on purpose. I mean, it was an accident. I
just kind of stumbled into it. No, all sin. is willful sin,
but what is he talking about? Notice he says, if we sin willfully
after that we've received the knowledge of the truth. Now,
what is the knowledge of the truth that he's talking about? Well, let's stay in context.
Verse 9, it was the same chapter. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second by the which will we are sanctified,
declared by God to be holy, made holy through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every high priest
standeth daily, ministering, offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, for by one offering he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us. This is what he bears witness
to. For after he said before, this is the covenant that I'll
make with him after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws
into their hearts and in their minds while I write them. And
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where
remission of these is, there's no more offering for sin. Don't
you try to bring one. Don't dare try to bring one.
Now, this is the knowledge of the truth. How? A sinner is made
clean and holy and perfect before God. This is the knowledge of
the truth he's talking about. Now, if I leave this, there's no hope for me. I've
gone back. I believe this is talking about
the sin against the Holy Spirit. Going back to works after you
believe or have heard and profess to believe the gospel. Now, when I read of that false
conversion, the first thing that I think
about is, what if it's me? I don't want this to be me. You
don't want this to be you, do you? And you know what I know? I know that this will be me. if God by His grace does not
prevent it. I know I'll be the false person. And the only way I can be the
true person is if that strong man armed comes and rescues me,
and takes away every false foundation that is not true, that has nothing
to do with true saving faith, that has nothing to do with the
grace of God, and keeps me. Here's where I'm left when I
read of a true conversion and a false conversion, and there's
both. There's a true conversion where the Lord really does something
for somebody. And there's a false conversion
where things are swept up, garnished, but in reality it's empty and
it's not real. And that false conversion makes
that person sevenfold more the child of hell than he was in
the first place. And I don't want that to happen to me. So
here's what I do. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Don't let this be me, because
if you don't prevent it from happening, that's exactly what
I will be. Lord, save me. Whosoever. Oh, I love this verse
of scripture. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord, I'm calling on Your name.
I'm calling on who You are. Lord, save me as an act of Your
sovereign will. That's who You are. Lord, save
me by Your grace. That's who You are. Lord, save
me by Your justice, for that's who You are. Lord, save me by
Your wisdom, for that's who You are. We're calling on all of
His glorious attributes to save us, Lord. Save me. If You don't
save me, I won't be saved. I'll be just like this fellow
in this false conversion. And I don't want to be that.
I want to come to Christ the very same way I came the very
first time. We're made partakers of Christ
if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. What was the beginning of your
confidence? I can answer that. Here's where my confidence began.
When I realized that all that God required of me, He didn't
look for a thing out of me. He looked wholly to His Son. And that Christ Jesus is made
unto me wisdom and righteousness. and sanctification and redemption.
I just can't get away from that. I have you grown any? Well, I know I've grown this
much. I've grown in knowing my utter need of Him to do something
for me and my utter inability to do anything that He could
accept and my complete dependence on Christ. Now, I have grown
there. I hope I've grown in other places, but I know this. I've
grown in understanding that all I have, all I have and all I
want And all I desire is Jesus Christ. And how thankful I am
for his great, glorious word. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise,
for no reason cast out. Lord, deliver me from being a false convert and caused me
to be a true out and out disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
pray.