Now let's open our Bibles again
to Luke 11. I just believe that God has given
to me a measure of understanding in regard to these verses. I'm
not saying a full understanding, not in the least. But I see in
these verses some answers to questions and problems that trouble
me in regard to today's religion. I'm beginning at verse 14 of
chapter 11. In verse 14 of chapter 11, now
let's look, let's look hard at this passage of Scripture. Let's
just take our time and see what the Spirit of God teaches us
here. It says in verse 14, 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.
Now, you see what happened there. Our Lord Jesus Christ encountered
a man who was probably dumb from birth, could not speak. And he was possessed of a dumb
spirit, and the Lord cast him out. and his faith. And the people regarded this
with much interest, much amazement, and they wondered about what
he had done. But now look at verse 15. But
some of them said, now these were evidently the Jewish leaders,
Pharisees, religious fellows. They said, he casteth out devils
through Beelzebub, the chief of devils. What he's done, he's
just, he's of the devil, he's of the devil himself. You know,
we get pretty careless about false prophet and of the devil
and all this sort of thing. We throw those words out and
they're real dangerous now. And these fellows said here,
he casteth out devils through the power of the devil, the chief
devil. And others tempting him sought of him a sign from heaven.
But now look at verse 17. He knowing their thoughts said
unto them, Now, this is what they'd said. They said, you cast
that devil out by the power of the devil. The devil's in you,
and you cast the devil out of that man. He said, every kingdom
divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided
against a house falling. Now, what our Lord is saying
here, that if I'm casting out devils by the power of the devil,
how shall the devil stand? How shall his kingdom stand?
The devil would be destroying his own work. The devil wouldn't
be casting out the devil. The devil certainly wouldn't
be destroying his own kingdom, his own influence, his own territory,
his own power by casting out his own missionary, his own demon,
his own ambassador. Verse 18, if Satan also be divided
against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? You say that I
cast out devils through the power of the devil Beelzebub. Now that's
not reasonable, he said, not reasonable at all for the devil
to cast out the devil. His kingdom would be divided.
It wouldn't last long that way, be brought to desolation. Now
watch verse 19. If I, by Beelzebub, cast out
devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? You say that your
sons cast out demons. And you know, somebody offered
me an explanation that may help us a little bit here. I don't
know that every person who's dumb has a dumb spirit. Everybody
who's deaf has a deaf spirit. Everybody who's mentally insane
has a spirit of insanity. I just do not know about that.
Everybody who's crippled and with fits and so forth has a
spirit to be cast out. There are a lot of people who
believe this, that from the time of Adam's fall up until the time
that Christ personally came into this world. Now this is speculation,
supposition. I don't have any way to prove
this by the Word of God. I've looked for it, I cannot
find it. But Satan has been given an unusually loose reign in this
world during that period of time. We read that. We read of demons,
we read of... Nations were just in the vilest
sort of conduct and character. There was all kind of things
happening in these pagan countries, demons, demon spirits, all of
these things. Now when our Lord Jesus came
in His death on the cross, Of course, we know he defeated Satan,
he conquered Satan, no question about that. He bruised his heel,
he conquered Satan, but many believe that he bound Satan,
that at that time Satan was bound to a certain extent. I know he
still moves, he still operates and so forth, but now you consider
this a little bit, that at that time he bound Satan. And he'll
be loose for a short season later on, but he bound Satan to a certain
extent. Now, you'll have to face this. This is all the way through the
Scripture. We read about demons. We read
about demon power. We read about casting out demons.
It even says right here that these Jewish religious leaders
cast out devils. Did anybody say Christ said that?
You sons cast out demons. They cast out devils. And it
seemed to be, Charlie, a common thing here. I don't know this.
It seems to be that there were demons. And I'm sure there are
demons today, but not to the extent. I'm sure that there was
the power of Satan exerted over nations and over people and over
tribes, but not to the extent since our Lord died on the cross.
It's just the power of Satan seems to some extent to have
been thwarted. to have been pressed down, to
some extent, Ron, to have been bound. I don't know, but it seems
that way to me. And these people, you can study
that a little bit yourself, and don't go out and say, I preach
that the devil's bound, but I'm simply saying that in the Scripture,
there's talk of Satan being bound and Satan being restrained. And it seems from the time that
our Lord died on the cross, Now, I've read Ignatius and Polycarp,
I've read Augustine, I've read Luther, right on down from Paul
at the days of the church at Galatia and Ephesus and so forth.
There is not the dealing with demons like there is in the rest
of the Word of God. Just not that. And these men,
Luther and Zwingli and Calvin, Owen, Ignatius, Polycarp, all
these fellows make no mention of demons. having cast out in
your dealing with it. And prior to the cross, it was
a common thing. All the way through Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, you have our Lord encountering demons
everywhere. You have even the devil himself contending with
Michael over the body of Moses. I'm sure what I'm saying here
is something for you to consider and to think about. And I told
you Sunday, that you don't want to go looking for demons because
you may find them. They're still there. They're
still there. But our Lord has them restrained.
I believe He has them bound. I believe that event on Calvary,
I know not till we get to glory will we really understand the
full extent of that death, of that crisis, of that critical
time, of that time when Satan came, Christ said, and found
nothing in me. The prince of this world is judged
and cast out. That's what He said. And so as
far as God's people are concerned, I believe the lid's put on permanently.
And I believe as far as the rest of this world is concerned, that
Satan is restrained. He's restrained. Now there are
places where people dabble with it and look for it and engage
in it and all these things, and God lets them have it, because
they're more concerned about devils than they are Christ.
They're more concerned about the Antichrist than they are
the Christ. And so they have strong delusions that they'll
believe a lie and be damned for believing it. But here, decidedly
and definitely, he says in verse 19, your sons cast out demons. Your sons deal with demons. Your
sons cast them out. By whom do they cast them out?
Well, these fellows would have to say, by the power of God.
Then Christ said, why do you judge me on a different basis?
You say your sons cast out demons? Yes. By what power did He cast
them out? By the power of God. I cast out
demons. By what power did I cast them
out? Why do you judge me on a different basis? Why do you judge me on
a different basis? Therefore, your sons will be
your judges. Satan doesn't cast himself out. Only the power of
God can cast him out. So don't judge me on a different
basis than that which you judge your sons. Now, look at verse
20. But if I with the finger of God
cast out devils, No doubt, the Kingdom of God has come upon
you. Something for you to deal with.
Now then, I believe here, the only way, in verse 21 and 22,
the only way that the power of Satan can be effectually broken
is by a stronger power of God overcoming him, taking away his
power and casting him out. In verse 21, he's talking about
Satan here. I'm coming back to this in a minute. 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 spoil." That's conquering. That's conversion. That's Satan. And if you turn to Ephesians
chapter 2, turn over there just a minute, There is a sense in
which every unsaved person is under the dominion of Satan to
a certain extent. And this is what it says in Ephesians
2, listen. In Ephesians 2, verse 1, it said,
And you who were dead in trespasses and sin, hath he quickened? In
time past you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
among whom we all had our conversation in times past." That's what Christ
is saying. Every natural man, to some extent,
is under the control and bondage and dominion of Satan. And true
conversion is for the Spirit of God in power to come upon
Satan and rid that man of his influence and rid that man of
his power and rid that man of his dominion and set him free.
That's conversion. But then he says in verse 23,
23 or 24. Now, someone said this
one time, every time Satan leaves a place is not by expulsion. Sometimes he leaves voluntarily. He can leave of his own accord.
And that's what we have here. But, when the unclean spirit
is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, Seeketh rest,
findeth none. He says, I will return to my
house from whence I came out. And when he came back, he found
it, Matthew says, empty, swept, and garnished, which is 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 I'm saying
is this. I'm saying we have a picture
here, we have a picture here in verse 21 and 22 of true conversion,
of the miracle of conversion, of God by the power of His Spirit
coming upon a territory that has been under the influence
and dominion of Satan, the power of Satan, and casting him out,
defeating him, conquering him, casting him completely out. And
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, come in to dwell, come in to inhabit.
He raises His flag on the pole of that man's soul,
says, this is my territory, my house, my habitation, my dwelling
place, Satan is cast out. But then I think in these next
verses, 24 through 26, you have a man who has got religion. How long he keeps it, I don't
know, but he's gotten religion and reformation. There's been
no conquering, no conflict. There's been no defeat of Satan.
He's just casually gone for a stroll around the block, and he's come
back to his house. And when he comes back, he finds
some things have happened there, and so he does something else. All right, let's look at both
of them. First of all, someone says true conversion is a divine
work. True conversion is a powerful
operation of the Spirit of God in which the forces of evil are
dealt with by God, not by the man, but by God Himself. And
they're dealt with, and not only dealt with, but they're conquered.
And those forces of evil are cast out. Now, false conversion,
and all of them are alike, may be termed a temporary change. It may be termed a reformation.
It may be termed a profession of what one does not possess.
It is the absence of God, and it is satanic deception. Well,
let's look at this true conversion first in verse 21 and 22. Now,
here's the thing that's interesting about this, is our Lord brought
this picture here right after He had dealt with a demon. He dealt with Satan. In other
words, our Lord came upon a man who was possessed of a demon,
and he, by the finger of God, by the power of God, cast him
out, never to return. He cast him out. And then they
had this discussion about that, and then our Lord gave this example,
this illustration. And I think it's very significant
that he comes following the casting out by his own power, by the
finger of God, therefore the kingdom of God is evidently upon
you when God casts Satan, break Satan's power and cast him out.
All right, verse 21, when a strong man... Now, this is talking about
Satan. And I said Sunday how strong
and subtle he is. He must be restrained by God.
He must be restrained by God. We can't restrain him. Ask our
Mother Eve how subtle and powerful he is. That's another illustration
about the fact that Satan is not in control, the prince of
the power of the air, in control as he was at that time, he actually
entered into the serpent and talked to Eve. He certainly did. Now there's certainly a difference
today than that day. And you can ask Eve how strong
he is and then ask Job about his power. Ask Job about his
power. And then ask the apostle Peter
about his power. Satan is strong. He's a strong
man. I don't think we realize just
how subtle and crafty and powerful and strong He is. I just don't
believe we do. He's not omnipotent, I know that.
He's not omnipresent. But I know that He's mighty and
He's powerful and He's strong. Now watch the next word. It says
when He's armed, and Satan is armed. He's armed. He's not armed
with carnal weapons as swords and spears and bows and arrows.
He is armed with those weapons in his own arsenal that are most
appealing to our flesh. He's armed with lies, subtle
lies. He's armed with pride. He's armed
with the lust of the flesh. He's armed with deceit. He's
armed with self-righteousness. He's armed with religion that
looks so impressive. You know who Satan's greatest
ally is? Our own flesh. That's his greatest
ally. He's armed with things that appeal
to our flesh. The things that Satan uses actually
appeal to us. Actually appeal to us. He can
make bad appear good. He can make bitter appear sweet.
He can make sweet appear bitter. By any means, by any means, by
any means, he doesn't fight fair. I always used to see these westerns
where the good guy let the other guy draw first. He won't let
you draw first. I used to see them always, you
never hit a man until he hits you first. Satan will hit first.
He plays dirty. He'll use any means. He'll use
sickness or he'll use success. He'll use failure or he'll use
fortune. He'll use an enemy or he'll use
a friend. He doesn't care. He'll use an apostle, but he'll
use anything to exercise and keep his control over us. He
doesn't play fair. Subtlety, that's the way the
Scripture describes it. And so when that strong man, and that
man is strong, that Satan is strong and he's armed. He's armed. He's armed with... He's got so
many weapons in his arsenal that you haven't even dealt with yet.
You don't want to deal with him either. And it says he keeps
his palace. He keeps his palace. I barely
believe this. I don't believe there's a human
being this side of heaven who's any match for Satan at his weakest
point. That's Satan's weakest point,
I'm talking about. Don't believe any match. I think the only thing
that restrains him and controls him and subdues him is the power
of our Lord. I don't think you're any match at all. Don't believe
you're any match. No contest. None whatsoever. When he's armed,
he keeps his palace. Now, a palace is the home of
a king. A palace is where that king reigns. A palace is where men do his
bidding because men are his servants. Now we're describing that we're
describing everybody who's unsaved right here. Everybody. That strong
man Satan is armed with all of these weapons, he keeps his palace,
it's his palace, and his goods are at peace. Peace. Somebody
said this about that comment, said, this is the most fearful
sign of all. Here is a natural man under God's
wrath, under God's judgment, on his way to hell, resting.
He's at peace. They cry, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. Death doesn't disturb them. Judgment
doesn't disturb them. Eternity doesn't disturb them.
His goods are at peace. What are his goods? Memory. What
are his goods? Affection. Our affections are
warped and twisted. Our judgment, that is our understanding,
our imagination, all of these are at peace. What kind of peace
is it? Turn to Psalm 73. First of all, it's an outward
peace. These people enjoy life, they laugh loud, they sing loud. This is an outward peace. Listen
to David as he describes them here in Psalm 73. Verse 3, he
said, you got it? Psalm 73, see, I was in this,
73 verse 3, I was in this at the foolish. I saw the prosperity
of the wicked. There are no bands in their death.
Their strength is firm, fat. They're not in trouble as other
men. They're not plagued like other men. Pride compasses them
about as a chain. Violence covers them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than their hearts
could wish. They're corrupt, they speak wickedly concerning
oppression, they speak proudly, loftily, haughty, they set their
mouths against the heaven, their tongue walketh through the earth.
Well, that's the condition. They're at peace. When this strong
man Satan, armed with his lies and deceit, keeps his palace,
he's in control. Absolute control. There's not
anything you're going to do about it or anybody else is going to
do about it. He's in control. We are His servants. We are the
dominion of Satan and sin. And all of His goods are in an
outward peace. Peace when there is no peace.
It's a peace that comes through ignorance. Ignorance. Ignorance of sin. Ignorance of
God. Ignorance of judgment. Ignorance
of the law. Ignorance of eternity. I read
a story the other day, there was a man walking along with
a missionary over in Ireland or one of those countries. They
were walking along one day and the missionary was talking to
him about Christ, about salvation. And the man turned to him and
said, I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to die. You know
what the missionary said? The missionary stopped and there
was an old mule standing over in the field. And the missionary
pointed at that old long-eared mule And he said, you see that
mule? He said, yeah, I see that mule.
You say you're not afraid to die. I'm not afraid to die. Well,
you've risen about as high as that mule. He's not afraid to
die either. Ignorance, you see. That's a
piece of ignorance. Ignorance. And it's a superstitious
piece, too. You know, when Joab, when Joab
sided with the wrong people against Solomon, and Solomon decreed
his death, old Joab, ran down to the tabernacle, to the temple,
and went in and took hold of the horns of the altar, and he
thought they'd protect him. He said, I'm going to stay right
here. Well, they just came in and slew him right there on the
horns of the altar. And that's the way these people are. They
have this natural peace. They have this ignorant peace. And they have this superstitious
peace. They have something religious about them to which they cling
and say, this will help me out. This will keep the power of God
away, the judgment of God. Well, let's read on. Now, his
goods are at peace. It's an ignorant peace. It's
an outward peace. It's a superstitious peace. But,
verse 22, when a stronger than he shall come upon him, that's
our Lord, and overcome him. He taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusteth and divideth his fall. This is God's Spirit.
God's Spirit in regeneration, God's Spirit in conversion. This
is God's Spirit who overcomes Satan, who takes away, takes
away his armor, takes away the big lie and gives the truth,
the truth of the gospel. the truth of God, the truth of
Christ, the truth of salvation, the truth of redemption. He takes
away fear and gives faith. He takes away self-righteousness
and gives the righteousness of Christ. He takes away that love
of self and gives him a love for Christ. He takes away that
self-righteousness and bigotry and prejudice and hatred and
breaks that sword of rebellion across his knee and conquers
that man. That's salvation. That man's
conquered by Christ. Someone wrote of that verse of
Scripture, this song, O sovereign love, my heart subdue, I would
be led in triumph too. Drive that old dragon from his
seat with all his hellish crew. Divide his falls and let Christ
live in my heart. That's what happens. That's conversion. I believe that's what our Lord
is describing right there. When the strong man, Aaron, keeps
his palace, his goods are in peace. It's a false peace. But
it's his kind of peace. What he is, is false. Everything
about him is false. But it's his kind of peace. It's
a peace based on ignorance. It's a peace based on superstition. It's a peace based on the lie
and deceit. But when Christ comes with the
truth, He takes away the lie. When Christ comes with faith,
He takes away that fear. When Christ comes with His own
Spirit, the Spirit dwells within the believer. If any man have
not the Spirit of God, he's none of His. All right, let's try
something here now, verse 24. Let's see. Now, the Lord Jesus goes right
on here, and He describes something else. I believe He's describing
true conversion here, when by the power of God a man is made
new. But here He said, Verse 24, when the unclean spirit,
it's the spirit of uncleanness, that's Satan, or demons, goes
out of a man, it's gone out of a man. Now, there's nothing said
here of him being overcome, there's nothing said here of him being
conquered, there's no conflict here. This demon just left. He just left. He left for some
reason or other, he left. The man is reformed. The unclean
spirit is gone. He quits drinking. The unclean spirit, we have the
spirit of dumbness and these different things, but the unclean
spirit seems to indicate just a profane type of life, a loose
life, a wicked life. The man drinks and he's profane
and he's dishonest and he's conniving and he's crooked. And he's a
thief and all these things. He's a drug addict. He's just
unclean. Well, this unclean spirit goes
out and the fellow gets religion. The house is empty and so he
gets religion. He reforms. He becomes religious. Now, there's no repentance and
there's no conviction and there's no power of God and there's no
visit of the Spirit of God. Satan doesn't cast himself out. You see, he just left voluntarily.
That's what it says here. No new birth, no change of ownership.
He said, I'm going back to my house. You know what he said?
My house. No change of ownership. Same person he was, but he's
reformed. He cleaned up. The unclean spirit's
gone. He's cleaned up. I've seen this
happen many times. You have too. Now, I can't handle
this right here. I read 2 or 3, seeking rest.
He walks to dry places seeking rest and finding none. John Gill
says that he walked among believers. And he couldn't find anything
to do there. He couldn't find any moisture or any rivers to
quench his thirst for evil. And so he just said, I'll go
back to my house. I'll go back where I had things
my way. That's where I'll go back. It
never ceased to be his house. It's his house when he lived
there. It's his house when he left. It's his house when he
came back. No matter whether the house is in the gutter and
the church is his house anyway. It always was his house. He said,
I'm going back to my house. Alright, when he came back to
that house, he found it. Now go to Matthew 12. Let me
show you this. I think this is important here.
Matthew 12. He came back to his house. Matthew 12, verse 44. Same parable. He says, I'll return
to my house from whence I came out. You see it there? And when
he has come, he found it empty. swept and garnished. Now, my
friends, no house occupied by the Spirit of God is empty. This
can't be conversion. This is Reformation. It's empty.
The Pharisees, you know, had an empty house. They reformed
the outward flesh. They reformed and cleaned up
the outside of the cup, but inside they didn't have the Spirit of
God. So this man, when Satan came back, He didn't find a place
occupied by Christ, occupied by the Spirit of God, occupied
by the truth of the gospel. He found it empty. Secondly,
he found it swept. Now there's a lot of difference
in sweeping and washing something. The Bible talks about us being
washed. He cleansed us and washed us
in his blood. He that is washed, Christ said
to the disciples, needeth only to wash his feet. You're clean.
Now sweeping doesn't clean. Sweeping, somebody says sweeping,
when you sweep, you pick up the loose dirt and leave the filth.
You pick up the evident dirt, the dirt that's seen, and leave
the dirt that's unseen. But when our Lord washes His
people, He cleanses them from every sin. So Satan came back,
found the house empty. God wasn't there. He wasn't there
and God wasn't there. He found it swept. And he found
it garnished. What does garnished mean? It
doesn't mean decorated. To garnish something is to decorate
it. Religion was everywhere. There were crosses, pictures
on the wall, pictures of Jesus, slogans, only one life will soon
be passed. This house wasn't filled with
love. It wasn't filled with grace.
It wasn't filled with humility. It wasn't filled with faith.
It wasn't filled with patience. It wasn't filled with these things.
It's filled with relics of religion. Relics of religion. You see that? And I've often said the more
a man has within, the less he needs on the outside of visual
aids and things that are conducive to worship. And the more you
see of that stuff on the outside, there's a good possibility that
there's little on the inside. If this is not what Christ is
saying, I don't know how to apply this. He says when the unclean
spirit left, and he came back, and when he came back he found
it reformed, he found it religious, he found it empty, he found it
swept, cleaned up, best man could clean it up, best he could clean
it up, and he found it decorated with all the relics of religion.
How long he stayed gone, I don't know. He may stay gone for six
months or six years or sixty years. That depends on him. He says, I'll return to my house.
Never ceased to be his house. All right, what's the next line?
Now you've seen this happen so often. And I've seen it happen
so many times in the years that I've tried to preach. Because
people get religion, and they have a lot of outward zeal. They have no inward peace and
rest. They don't manifest the fruit
of the Spirit. I told one of the men in a study today, the
thing that ought to characterize the church is love. But that
which characterizes the church today is division. There's no
church in this town that's not swept with division. Two-thirds
of the pastors in this town would be glad to leave and go somewhere
else tomorrow. Most people would too. Division, that's right. The thing that ought to characterize
the church is humility, which you'll find as much pride in
the church as you will anywhere else and sometimes more. They're
proud of their righteousness, proud of this, that, and the
other. The thing that ought to characterize the church is a
family relationship. But thank God my family is not
in the shape most churches are in. That's right. Thank God. And this is the thing that happened
here. This fella got religion. He did what anybody can do. He
quit this, that, and the other. He got reformation. He got all
these different things. But love, gift of the Spirit,
fruit of the Spirit, peace, joy, temperance, patience, humility,
these are things only. Only come with the presence of
God. See, He's the Spirit of love. He's the Spirit of faith.
He's the Spirit of humility. He's the Spirit of peace. He
said, My peace I give unto you. My peace. He's the Prince of
peace. And where Christ dwells, there's peace. There's peace. And it's not an ignorant, superstitious,
outward peace. It's an inward calmness of soul
and a quietness of spirit. Blessed quietness of spirit.
He dwells. This is real. Conversion's real.
Conversion is the coming of Christ upon Satan's territory and driving
him out and occupying that territory. That's salvation. That's conversion. Call it anything you want to
call it, but that's conversion. And Satan does not go peacefully.
He does not go voluntarily. He's driven out. That's what
Christ... He's driven out. The strongest
come upon him and driven him out. He's driven him out. With this easy little decision
here, this little easy believism, this fellow got religion, and
so Satan came back. And he said, well, this won't
do. And he went out and got seven other spirits more wicked than
himself. He said, what do you mean more
wicked? Different kind of wickedness. See, this guy here, this demon
here is an unclean spirit. This fellow is not going to start
drinking again. He's got religion. He's not going
to start swearing and cursing again. He's got religion. He's
not going to start shooting craps again. He's got religion. See
this unclean, he kind of likes this position he's climbed to
of reformation and religion. And this demon goes out and gets
his seven buddies, and they're different kinds of demons. Let
me explain some of them. They make a real renegade out
of him. You never met a real renegade until you meet a used-to-be
religious man. First of all, he gets that spirit
of gospel-hardened. Gospel-hardened. The beauty of
Christ, the redemptive work of Christ doesn't appeal to this
man. There are no tears and no self-examination
and no private prayers. He's gospel-hardened. He's hardened
to the Word. You see, he's religious. He's
had religion. He knows about all there is to
know. He's his own pastor, his own preacher, his own leader,
his own guide. He's gospel-hardened. That's
the spirit of gospel. Secondly, the spirit of pride.
He has the spirit of pride. He's a proud man. He knows about
as much as anybody. He resents advice. He resents
counsel. He resents questioning his condition. He has the spirit of pride. A
very proud man. Very proud man. He's proud of his life. He's
proud of his honesty. He's proud of this, that, and
the other. Then he has a spirit of covetousness. His interest
in the gospel has waned. His interest in the things of
God has waned. But his interest in worldly goods,
he wants the finer things now. He wants the glory of the world.
He wants the fame of the world. He's not generous. He's not a
generous man at all. He used to be a little bit generous
when he first got religion. He cut that out. He's not generous
anymore. He's a man with a covetous spirit.
He wants what belongs to him. He wants to protect what belongs
to him. He's a covetous man. Not a drunkard, but he's covetous.
And then he has the spirit of criticism, that old demon of
criticism. His condition leads him to find
fault with others. Oh, how he criticizes others.
He resents their spiritual interest. He resents their spiritual success.
He just must tear them down. He just must tear them down.
You see, if he brags on them and lifts them up, that puts
them higher than him. So he has to drive them down.
He has to be critical. That old spirit of criticism.
All ex-religionists are critical, very critical, because it justifies
themselves. And then fifthly, he has the
spirit of intellectualism. He's a theologian without heart.
He loves that good, cold, icy doctrine. He enjoys dividing
the Word, seldom rightly dividing it, but he loves to divide. He
loves to tell you what he knows about the Scripture. He loves
to talk Bible. Talk Bible. Very seldom worships. Very seldom tends the house of
God. Very seldom comes to hear the gospel. But he likes to talk
religion. Loves to talk religion. He's very intellectual. He's
a very sharp theologian. He knows the doctrine. He's got
the spirit of intellectualism. And then he has a self-justifying
spirit. You see, these are the worst
evil spirits. These are the worst. He has a
self-justifying spirit. He has a reason for what he's
doing. You don't come to church anymore.
Yeah, but I got a reason. You don't hear the Word anymore.
But I got a reason. I can justify it in my own thinking. That's that evil spirit. Let
me show you that over here in 2 Thessalonians. Let me show
you that in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. You look over here and see
if this is not what we're talking about. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2. Verse 10, now listen to this.
And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that
perish, they receive not the love of the truth. Didn't say
they didn't receive the truth, they didn't receive the love
of it. Somebody said one time, Satan knows everything you know
about the Bible, but he doesn't love it. Satan can see everything
that God has said, but he can't see the glory in it. That's a
fine point right there. They receive not the love of
the truth, not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
And for this cause, God shall send them strong delusions, and
they'll believe a lie. They'll justify their position.
You say, how in the world can a man justify a position where
he doesn't worship, he doesn't support the kingdom of God, he
doesn't give, He doesn't identify himself with the people of God.
He doesn't seem to have a love for the people of God and the
gospel of God. Oh, that's that spirit of self-justification. That's that evil spirit. That's
that strong delusion. And that man will stay in that
refuge until he goes to hell. You can't shake him. You can't
shake him. Look at chapter 11 again of the
book of Luke. This demon goes out and gets
seven other spirits more wicked than themselves and they enter
in and they dwell there. They stay there. That man is
going to stay gospel-hearted. He is going to stay proud. He
is going to stay covetous. He is going to stay critical.
He is going to stay cold and intellectual. He is going to
keep that justifying spirit and he is going to keep that spirit
of false peace and indifference. Now look, read on. And the last
state of that man is worse than the first. He'd be better off
if he was down there at the pub, stone drunk. He'd be better off. That's what our Lord said. You're
better off with an unclean spirit. You're better off down in the
back alley shooting craps for the boys than to have a proud,
covetous, self-righteous, self-justified, religious, vain spirit. Much
better off. Because there's a possibility
that that old boy down there just could hear the gospel. But
see, this guy already knows it. Ask him. He knows it. It may
be that guy'll hear of Christ. This man's already heard of Christ.
It may be that man'll hear of God's messenger. This man's already
heard him, doesn't like him. He's his own messenger. He'll
never be touched. I guarantee you, Tom, you can
wipe him out. You can mark him off. You can
put a check by his name and draw a line through his name. He's
done. Our Lord said he's done. He's done. It's better than no.
But watch the next verse. I've got to give you this before
I quit. I just saw this tonight. In verse 27 of this afternoon,
I was reading it again. It says, And it came to pass,
as he spake these things, as he told about this... Oh, I love
this. Our Lord said the Spirit of God
comes on that Satan's palace and drives him out. and moves
in. But here's something he doesn't have anything to do with. That
unclean spirit goes out, clean that place up, and he goes back.
And when he said that, it came to pass as he spake these things,
a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice. She got
real happy. She said, Blessed is the womb
that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sown. Blessed
is the woman that's your mama. That's exactly what she said.
Bless Mary. Blessed is Mary that bore you
and her breast that gave you something to drink. Isn't that
typical? Isn't that human nature? Oh,
that's human nature. We turn away from Christ to the
means. We turn away from Christ to the
instant. We turn away from Christ to anything
on earth. And our Lord said, now wait a
minute, yea, but rather blessed are they that hear this word
and keep it. That's the man's blessed. That's
the person that's blessed, the person that has ears to hear. Blessed are your ears. Oh, there's
something here. As I said, I don't claim to have... These are mysterious passages
and these are powerful passages, but I'm moving in the right direction
on this. There's nothing else that that
can mean. There's nothing else that that
can mean. It's true, powerful conversion of a man by the power
of God, conquering and winning the victory over Satan and occupying. And this other is that voluntary
exit of Satan and him coming back and bringing with him that
awful state, that awful state of indifference. Our Father, we sit in humble awe before this
book with its precious promises and
with its great mysteries and with that which is revealed and
that which is secret. and that which we are so interested
in knowing, understanding, I would thank you for your word. Lord,
help us, give us our spirit to rightly divide the word of truth.
What a fearful thing to believe a lie and teach men so. What
a terrible, terrible fearful thing to preach to people that
which is not true. Lord, make this pulpit, make
this place where I stand tonight, where other men stand, Make this
a place of truth, a declaration of truth, not just to be right,
but we want for your glory to be right, for the good of the
people to be right. You know every man's heart. We
tell you nothing. All things are naked and open
to you with whom we have to do. For our sake, for our good, for
this congregation, for how subtle, how powerful is our enemy, we
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but principalities and
rulers in these high places. And we've got to have help. We've
got to have your spirit, your spirit of understanding, your
spirit of wisdom, your spirit of faith, your spirit of love,
the spirit that regenerates and quickens. And Lord, all together
here tonight, in a unity of heart, we look to Thee for the glory
of Christ. Lord, be our teacher. You said
the Holy Spirit would take the things of Christ and show them
to us, and He'd glorify Christ. And Lord, this passage tonight,
open our eyes and ears to hear it. Let us not be... Lord, deliver
us from being in captivity to this crafty deceiver of men. We want by your power to be conquered,
overcome by Christ, obsessed with Christ. Let Christ dwell
in us. Let us as ministers in thy service
travail in real distress and pain and love till Christ be
formed in thy people. We pray this in his name and
for his glory. Amen.