of our parable this morning.
I want to teach you the parable concerning the one stronger than
Satan coming upon him. It begins in verse 22, 21. But in the earlier verses preceding
that, the people had suggested that Christ was in league with
Satan. They suggested that when Christ
cast out devils, he did it by the power of Satan. rather than
by the power of God. Their hearts were filled with
such hatred for Christ, such anger against him, that they
suggested that what he did, he did it by the power of the devil. And our Lord Jesus Christ, on
another occasion, said that this is the greatest blasphemy in
the world, to suggest that God was in league with the devil.
And he said all manner of sin would be forgiven, men, except
this sin. All manner of sin would be forgiven
men except the sin of blaspheming God by saying that he was casting
out devils by the power of the devil. Christ is not in league
with Satan. Christ our Lord is not compromising
in the slightest way with Satan. Our Lord does nothing by the
power of the devil. He does not use error and he
does not use evil to glorify himself in the redemption of
sinners or the casting out of evil spirit. He said, if I, by
the power of the devil, do cast out the devil, then Satan's kingdom
is divided against itself and it cannot stand. When our Lord
strikes a blow at Satan, it's a definite, decisive, deadly
blow. He does not meet with Satan and
compromise with him. Back during World War II, we
met with Soviet Russia. As much as we hate their infidelity,
as much as we hate their atheism, as much as we hate everything
that they stand for, yet we compromise by meeting at a common table
with them and even giving in in many places to them in order
to fight a common enemy. You'll not find our Lord doing
that with Satan. He never compromises with them.
Everything that God does, towards Satan is with deadly antagonism
and enmity. And to suggest that the Lord
Jesus Christ would use error and evil and compromise with
it in order to gain his purpose is to blaspheme him. And he said
that will certainly not be forgiven anybody in this world nor in
the world to come. And then the Lord gave this parable
about salvation being a very decisive blow at Satan's kingdom. He doesn't compromise with them. Our Lord does not allow part
of a man's life to be dedicated to Satan and part to God. He
says that a man cannot love and serve two masters. Satan cannot
occupy the throne of a man's heart at the same time that God
occupies the throne of his heart. Our Lord Jesus Christ is giving
this parable now as he answers the Pharisees concerning his
being in league with Satan. They watched him cast out the
dumb spirit. And they said, you did that with
the power of the devil. And he says, I'm not in league with
the devil. I'm not compromising with the devil. When I attack
his kingdom, I drive him out. I drive him out. I don't share
the kingdom with him. I don't share anything with him.
And that certainly is blasphemy against God to suggest that he
does. And yet you'll find that is one of the underlying motives
of our whole religious system today, is suggesting that God,
even at the expense of sharing his kingdom with the devil, will
take a man's heart. Now you watch this as Christ
gives this parable. First of all, he shows man, in
verse 21, he shows man in his sinful state. Listen to it. When
a strong man, now who is the strong man? The strong man here
is Satan. Now if you think he's not strong,
I'll give you a few samples this morning of his strength. Our
father Adam lived in innocence and righteousness in the garden
wherein God placed him after creation. I would not say that
Adam was infallible because we saw that he fell, but I do say
this, he was innocent. And he was a strong man, Adam
was, but one stronger than he tempted him, and he fell from
his original state. God made man, Adam, upright. but one stronger than he came
upon him, and through temptation and through subtlety, Adam fell
and sinned against God. Samson was a powerful man. You
might say he was a strong man, the strongest man who lived in
his day. He stood and slew thousands of
Philistines, hip and shoulder, with the jawbone of an ass, slew
them at his feet, and yet he was conquered by Satan. As his
head lay in the laps of a lover, his locks were shorn, and he
lost the power of God, one stronger than he came upon him. Satan
overpowered Samson, who was a strong man himself. There was the man
Solomon. He did not have strength of arm,
but he had strength of mind. He was the wisest man in all
of the world. And yet Satan through craftiness
and the wiles of the devil overcame Solomon to where he built temples
and altars to heathen idols and gods to please his wife. There
was another man called David. a man after God's own heart,
in whose hands God trusted the leadership of his national people,
called him the greatest king, and said of his kingdom, there
would be no end. And someday the Son of God himself,
made in the likeness of man, would sit upon the throne of
David, his father. And yet Satan overcame him. And our Lord uses correct words
here when he says Satan is a strong man. He's a strong man. And for any puny, finite man
to think that he, through the power of the flesh, or the power
of his own wisdom, or the strength of his own arm, or the power
and strength of his own will, can withstand the temptations
and onslaught of a strong man such as Satan, is for him to
play the fool and to brag where he cannot fulfill his brag. Watch as our Lord goes on. He
says, a strong man armed armed keepeth his goods. This is Satan
he's talking about now inhabiting the human heart. This is the
sinful state of man before conversion. A strong man, Satan, is armed. What's he armed with? He's armed
with lies. He's armed with pleasure. He's
armed with fulfilled passions. He's armed with the flesh. But
most of all, his weapon is the lie. Satan, Christ said to the
Pharisees, is the father of the liar. He said, you are of your
father the devil. He's a liar, and you're a liar.
And that Satan's chief weapon is the lie. I want you to hear
this. I think it's the best that I've ever read. Listen to it.
Satan is armed with lies, and he can make the worst appear
better. He can make the bitter appear
sweet and the sweet to appear bitter. He can make men believe
that it's to their advantage to do that which damns their
soul. He can make men carry hot coals
in their bosoms and think that they shall not be burned. He
can make men dance on the edge of hell as if they were standing
with their hands on the doorknobs of glory. Is that not so? Satan can make the worst sort
of thing appear better. He can make the bitter appear
to men to be sweet. And he can make that which is
sweet and holy and lovely and beautiful and fine to appear
bitter. He can so pervert man's judgment
until man will do that which he secretly in his heart knows
is wrong and will result in the condemnation of his soul. And
yet Satan can make man think that that will be to his present
advantage. Oh, he's armed, and he's armed
with lies. He's armed with pleasure. He's
armed with the joy of the moment. Watch him as he goes on. Our
Lord said that Satan armed keeps his goods. He's armed and he
keeps his goods. And on further it calls it, look
at it, his palace and his goods. Now who lives in a palace? A
king. A king, that's who lives in a
palace. When you talk about a palace, you're talking about a king.
and that is the resident of the king. Mr. Spurgeon says Satan
is dunghill deity, dunghill deity, and yet he reigns over the hearts
of most men. His goods and his palace through
his lies and his weapons are kept in peace. One old Puritan
says, his goods are as follows. Man's memory. Satan can take
man's memory and make a storehouse for bad words and bad songs and
bad deeds. Man's memory is the goods of
Satan. Man's judgment. Satan takes man's
judgments and perverts it by self, and the scales of man's
judgments are ruined. He takes man's love and sets
it on fire with the coals of hell. He takes man's imagination
and dazzles it with false delusions. His mouth, his eyes, his hands,
his feet are all the goods of Satan. and he keeps them in peace. Armed with lies, they are his
slaves. And the word of God calls the
instruments of man's being, the faculties of his soul, he calls
them the instruments of unrighteousness. Satan, the strong man, armed
with lies, keeps his goods and his palace, and they are at peace. You can warn sinners about the
fires of hell, but they're not troubled, they're at peace. You
can stand before them and preach sermon after sermon after sermon,
but they aren't moved. They aren't troubled. They do
not tremble at the word of God. They're at peace. Who keeps them
at peace? This strong man here. You see
it there? Look carefully at verse 21. When
a strong man seek, armed with lies and lust and levity, keeps
his goods. He keeps them in his palace and
they're at peace. And all of the efforts of the
preacher and the word of God cannot move those goods nor trouble
them. Man's memory stays filled with
all of the terrible things that Satan fills it with. His judgment
remains perverted. He cannot judge that which is
good or that which is evil. His hands, his feet, his mouth,
no matter how, he strives in his own flesh to turn the swift
current to some other direction. He can't turn it. It goes the
same way. Down, down, down. The goods are
at peace. And he keeps them there. He keeps
them there. Now, here is the uselessness. The uselessness of sharing this
temple with Satan. Here's what they suggested Christ
was doing. They suggested that Christ was
in league with this strong man, Satan, and that he was in company
with him. And what he did, he did through
the power of Satan and through the willingness of Satan. He
shared. In other words, Christ would be willing to inhabit this
palace for a time himself and share it with Satan. And Christ,
secondly, when showing the state of an unconverted man as being
possessed and ruled over by Satan, he shows, secondly, the uselessness
of reformation apart from the real conversion that we have
through Christ the Lord. Now listen to the next verse.
In verse 22, or rather verse 24. When the unclean spirit is
gone out of a man. In other words, when he voluntarily
goes out. Now notice there's no conflict
here. There's no struggle. There's no repentance. The unclean
spirit who inhabits this castle. Now the reason I skipped on down,
skipped verse 22 is because Christ gave there what real conversion
is. I want to come to it last. But I want to show you what a
partial reformation is. Here's a man who is reformed,
whose heart, he thinks, is controlled both by Christ and by Satan.
Now watch it. When the unclean spirit is gone
out of a man, he goes out willingly. There's no conflict, no conviction,
no struggle. There's no work of the Holy Spirit
in driving out the rebellion, in driving out Satan. But the
man got religion. The man made a profession of
faith. He walked down some church aisle and took some preacher
by the hand and said, he's making the change. He's going to straighten
up. He's going to clean up. He's going to get all the evil
out of his heart. He's going to serve God. But
notice there's no conflict here and there's no struggle, but
the devil goes out of his own free will. And it never ceased
to be his house. Now watch it a little further
down. In that same verse 24, he said, I will return to my
house. It never ceased to be his house.
It was his house back there when he armed kept it. It was his
house back yonder when he ruled over his goods. He possessed
it. He inhabited it. He lived in it. Never ceased
to be his house. But he went out voluntarily.
And then later on, he says, I'm going back to my house. And he
did come back to his house. And he did live in his house.
And he did reign over his house. And it never ceased to be his.
And I say unto you, when Christ converts a man and redeems him,
that man's house, his temple, his body ceases to be the dwelling
place of Satan and becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. And
Christ possesses him and conquers him. He belongs to God. But this
man here has nothing but a partial reformation. His house never
ceased to belong to Satan. It never did belong to God. And
later on, Satan said, I'm going back home, and he did, and he
came back. How many hundreds of people have I known in my
lifetime, in my brief ministry, of whom this can be said right
here. under the great emotionalism of some revival meeting, or some
high-pressure evangelist, or under the emotionalism of some
death in the family, or some financial setback, people came
upon them at that certain time when their hearts were so easily
moved, and said, now you make a decision for God, and they
did. And they joined the church, and how many young children I've
seen join the church, For a time, they're filled with great zeal
and great determination and try to do what we say, hold out. But then later on, it seems that
Satan comes back to his house. It never ceased to be his. He
comes back and he dwells there and lives there and overpowers
them. And once again, they're in the
same gall of bitterness they were before they made the profession.
Reformation never is lasting. Reformation never is persevering. Reformation never does continue.
After a while, the bitter taste comes back. Now look at this
man's heart here. And when the unclean spirit went
out, he walked through dry places seeking rest and findeth none.
He said, I'm going back to my house once I came out. And when
he cometh, he found it, Christ said, he found it swept. It wasn't washed, it was swept. I like what Mr. Spurgeon said
about that. He said, you women know what
sweeping can do in a house. You have to clean a house, you
have to take soap and water and wash it and scrub it. If you
sweep it, you just move the dust from one place to another place.
It never does get clean just by sweeping. And here, when the
unclean spirit came back, he didn't find this house washed
in the blood of Christ. He didn't find it cleansed down
in the corners and the cracks and the different crevices and
places. He didn't find that washed and
cleaned and scrubbed by the blood of Christ. But he just found
the dust and the mold moved from one place to the other. It was
swept. And Matthew, in describing this, said he came back and found
it empty. He called out and said, anybody
home? And nobody answered. Can't you
imagine a person who's truly been regenerated and born of
God being empty? Certainly you cannot. For the
scripture says that Christ dwells in them. He said, if a man loves
me and keeps my word, I will come to him, my father will come
to him, and we'll take up our abode in him. If this had been
a truly regenerated, redeemed man, when Satan came back, he
would have found Christ in dwelling that house. He would have found
the Holy Spirit living within that house, for the scripture
says, what? No you're not, your body is the
temple of the Holy Spirit. But when he came back, he found
it empty, and he found it swelled. And what's this next word? And
he found it garnished. That word's decorated. One of
the old Puritans says the man had so decorated his house, he
had no faith, but he had some fine pictures He didn't have
any faith in Christ, but he had some fine pictures of Christ
on the wall. He didn't have any love for the
cross of Christ, but he had him a two dollar crucifix hanging
around his neck. He didn't have any real love
for the Son of God himself, but he had a lot of mementos hanging
about everywhere that had Christ's name on them. He had no gifts
of the Spirit, but he had several books on the shelf how others
were filled with the Spirit. There's a fireplace in his house,
but there wasn't any fire. Oh, he was garnished and decorated
with a lot of long prayers and works and promises and offerings
and dedications and so forth. And can't you imagine a house
like that empty? Nobody in it. It's swept. Oh, the dirt was moved. It wasn't
on the floor. It was around in other places.
It's swept and empty. Empty. You know one of the most
disappointing things in the world is to drive for several miles
to visit someone and then you knock on the front door and nobody
answers and you open the door and you holler, anybody home?
And that awful silence hits you in the face. and you realize
your visit's all in vain. That's what the devil found here
when he came back. He left of his own voluntary
free will. He left that house. It was his.
It belonged to him. He lived that. As every man's
body and heart is the dwelling place of the devil. And he can
leave and come and go as he pleases. It belongs to him. He has the
key to the front door. He comes and goes as it pleases
him. You say there have been cycles in my life, some in which
I've hit the bottom. And then another time in my life
when I've lived a year and didn't drink, didn't curse, didn't swear,
didn't run around in bad company, but then I wound up with them
once again. Well, Satan can come and go as
it pleases him. You belong to him. Front door
wide open, he enters and goes out when he pleases. And you
stay down there in the valley and mire of sin, and then some
high-tone, two-tone, high-class, fast-talking, easy-going preacher
comes to town, and they have a big revival meeting down at
the church, and they all jump on you and say, why don't you
make your decision? You do. He happens to catch you in one
of those periods when you're just not quite tempted like you
were before, and you go down, shake his hand, and say, I'm
making the change. And you do pretty well for a
year or so, but Satan comes back home. And when he comes back
home, he's found out you've made a religious profession, but there's
nobody home, the house is empty. And you don't have any faith,
but you've got a great big picture of Christ on the wall. You don't
have any love for the Lord Jesus and his cross, but you've got
a cross up here on your lapel. Brother, a cross on your lapel
is not worth a dime unless there's some knowledge of the cross in
your heart. And he finds a fireplace in there, but it's got no fire
in it. No warmth. It's cold in that house. It's
cold in that house, and it's empty. God doesn't live there. A house in which our God lives
is warm as a fire in the fireplace. There's gifts of the Spirit.
There's a presence of the living King, and Satan would have never
got in the front yard. That's what these Pharisees were
insinuating, that Christ would take such a house. that he was
in company with the devil, and all in the world his converts
were, were people who were swept and empty and garnished, but
they're not, as Christ will show you in just a moment. They're not. Satan found the
house empty, swept and garnished. Well, let's see what he did.
And he went out, verse 26, and he take it to him seven other
spirits more wicked than himself. And he comes back and brings
them with him. And watch what Christ said. And
the last state of the man is worse than the first. He now
has a devil called profession. He now has a devil called false
foundation. He now has the devil of religious
pride. He now has the devil of security
without the Savior. He now has the devil of rededication. He now has the devil of an unforgiving
spirit but thinks he does have a forgiving spirit. He now has
the devil of a false humility. And he now has the devil of religious
leadership. You'll find them many times occupying
offices of the church. Let me give you a little sample.
Mr. Spurgeon said he knew a man who
wouldn't buy anything on Sunday, but yet he lived in fornication. Their convictions are warped.
Their judgment is perverted. While I was in Brown, Ohio, to
give you a good example, They told me that this preacher
whose pastor of a certain church was having to leave town because
of his illicit relationship with some of the ladies in his membership.
And we were walking down the street one day and he's sitting
on the front porch. I was introduced to him for the
pastor. We got talking. He has a son who pitches baseball,
who was scouted by one of the major league scouts, a Yankee
scout recently, and he mentioned that. And then he also mentioned
the fact that he played a little golf. And I was on Saturday afternoon,
and I laughed, and I said, well, I'm leaving tomorrow night. If
you and I play, we'll have to play tomorrow, Sunday afternoon. He rolls up all his six feet
three inches and said, I'd never play golf on Sunday. Well, I
wasn't planning on playing either. That's the perverted judgment
of this present religious generation. The other's all right, but you
wouldn't want to play golf on Sunday. You wouldn't want to
buy a nickel's worth of bread on Sunday, but it's all right
to live in adultery and fornication. You wouldn't want to be seen
with someone of another denomination talking to them, but it'd be
all right to live in rebellion against God with them. Oh, how
perverted is the judgment of this world. That's a twisted
religious profession. Twisted and warped and perverted. And that's what Christ found
among the Pharisees too. They had their system of laws.
This thing was all right so long as it wasn't public. But it was
all wrong if it ever came out in the public. He found the house
decorated with much religion. Well, let's go back and see what
real conversion is now. You've seen, first of all, the
true condition of every man out of Christ. A strong man armed
keeps his goods at peace. He reigns over them. He's king
over them. He keeps them. And that's the heart of the Senate.
But one day he went out. for a while, and the man reformed. He swept and cleaned up and decorated. Decorated. And I wish you'd get
that thing that I think is the most important part of that second
point that I tried to bring is no faith, but fine pictures. No love for the cross, but a
crucifix. No love for Christ, but a lot
of things with his name on it. A fireplace but no fire. Plenty
of almsgiving and zeal and religious competition and programming and
all of those things, but no living presence of the Redeemer in that
house. There's a lot of difference there.
And here Christ shows you now what real conversion is. Look
back at verse 22. He shows you that strong man
keeping his house and coming back. And by the way, he did
say this too. He said the last state of that
man is worse than the first. In other words, he says the man
with religion without Christ is worse off than the man with
no religion without Christ. That's what he said. It'd be
better for you if you'd never made that profession of religion
and that false dedication. It'd been better for you to stay
right where you are. And that's the authority by which
I go right here. Christ himself said that. And
I had rather a man not make a profession of religion, and it to be false, I'd rather not make one than
make one that's empty and decorated and doesn't know God. That's
the reason we need to wait on God. We need not to drag and
to pull. I do believe in persuading and
pleading with men and praying for them, but I believe we're
not to so coerce men and drag them into a profession. I believe
with all of my heart that we ought to wait on God in this
matter of a man being converted in his soul. Allow the Holy Spirit
to move as it pleaseth him. I wouldn't, to save your life,
step down from this pulpit and walk back there and drag you
down to this front seat. I would not, because Christ said
that last state of that man was worse than the first. Leave him
alone, may the Spirit of the Lord bring him, he's gonna be
brought. But now listen to Christ giving true conversion, verse
22, but when a stronger than he has come, that's the Holy
Spirit, When one's stronger than he, who is the only one stronger
than Satan? Christ. Satan's powerful, but
not all powerful. He's mighty, but not all mighty.
And Christ is more mighty, and stronger, and more powerful.
And when one more powerful comes upon him, that's Christ our Lord. And that is what happens in true
conversion. Christ the Lord, the power of
the Holy Spirit, the triune God comes upon that strong man and
what does he do? Read on. And he shall come upon
him and overcome him. Overpower him. Satan never opens
the door and walks out when Christ comes. There's a conflict. You
want to know why some of you go through conflict before conversion? You go through conflict after
conversion. because brother that's the power
of Satan and the power of the Holy Spirit coming in conflict
in your life. That's what it is. Anytime you