The Godhead Maligned

It isn’t just a warm up for Christmas,
but we we are called to give Christ all the glory. Great reminder. Thank you. If you would take
your Bibles and turn again to the Gospel of Luke, the passages
there in your bulletins, if you prefer it. We come again to the Gospel of
Luke. Past week, I studied this passage,
obviously, and found no little debate as to the connection to
the previous passage. We have rejoiced this past month
to be taught by the Lord, sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus
himself, as he taught us about prayer in these opening verses
of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11. And we find, you know, just
ourselves just still mulling over so many of those principles.
And I believe such was the scene for the apostles, for the disciples,
for those who were attending to Jesus lesson on prayer. They
were still mulling over these thoughts when suddenly there
was an abrupt change. This isn’t just an abrupt change
in this little gospel that we’re studying. This isn’t just an
abrupt change of scenes months down the road by the Gospel writer,
skipping key details. I think it was an abrupt change
to illustrate the point. To illustrate the point of the
need for prayer. Indeed, they came crashing back
to earth in the realization of what was taking place about them. Jesus healing a demon-possessed
man with great success. As so often was the case with
the apostles, they were urged, pleaded, exhorted. They were
given the example to go frequently to prayer. And yet frequently,
as frequently as they were commanded to go to prayer, to pull aside,
to commune with the Lord, just as frequently they were interrupted.
Just as frequently, some ministry opportunity burst back onto the
scene. But the situation at hand is
one that they hadn’t often seen. They had seen healings. They
had even seen demons cast out, but they hadn’t heard blasphemy,
not of the sort that they’re about to hear about the Lord.
Evil speaking. about the Lord Himself, maligning
His reputation, challenging His motives and His means. Not just
gossip, not just untrue statements, but positively evil statements
about Him. They hadn’t seen that. They had
seen criticisms. They had seen things that approached
blasphemy in the past, but nothing so direct as this. We come to
a passage that is solemn When you think of the evil in people’s
hearts that led them to say the things that they did about of
all people Christ, if you would, turn to this new section that
is not entirely unrelated to the old section. We begin in
verse 14 this morning, where Luke records of Christ and he
was casting out a demon and it was mute. When the demon had
gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed. But
some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler
of the demons. Others to test him were demanding
of him a sign from heaven, but he knew their thoughts and said
to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste
and a house divided against itself falls. If Satan also is divided
against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say, I
cast out demons by Baal-zebel and by Baal-zebel cast out demons,
and if I by Baal-zebel cast out demons, by whom do your sons
cast them out? So they will be your judges.
But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom
of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed,
guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone
stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes
away from him all his armor on which he has relied and distributes
his plunder.” Indeed, it must have been a shockingly abrupt
scene for the apostles. Learning how to pray, learning
for what specific things to ask, being reminded of the magnanimous
nature, the generous heart of the God that they come to, that
they could come to Him and ask anything. He would hear their
prayer. And suddenly, their systems were
shocked by this scene, by everything that unfolded. Suddenly, prayer
And the thoughts of prayer went away immediately, as is likely
even if we were there. Let’s go back to the scene in
verse 14. And I want to set the scene before
we actually get to the heart of the passage. Luke records that Jesus was casting
out a demon. Matthew says a little more graphically.
He healed him. He healed him of his disease.
But the disease was demon caused. Not only cast out the demon,
but he healed him of all the physical maladies that came with
the possession. The demon was mute. Matthew adds
that it was also blind or the man was blind because of it. And so abruptly, Luke turns from
the deep and intimate lessons on the heavenly subject of prayer,
and immediately they come crashing back to earth, as it were. Back
to the struggles and back to the difficulties of men. Even
the most severe difficulty, the spiritual battle. A man possessed
and overwhelmingly and physically affected by a demon. It so worked in this man that
he was mute and blind. Jesus cast out this demon. He was casting out the demon.
And suddenly the mute man spoke. He received his voice back. And
Matthew adds that he saw. He was suddenly and immediately
cured like all of Jesus’ miracles. He didn’t need any recovery time.
He didn’t have to go to the hospital. He didn’t have to go through
eyesight therapy. He didn’t have to go to speech
therapy. He spoke. Jesus cast out the demon and
he spoke. And even in this, this isn’t
unheard of. Exorcisms or at least the attempts
of exorcisms were common among the Jews. There were many who
tried to ply this trade, but apparently This was astounding
because even the Jewish exorcists, when a man was mute and blind,
he was held to be beyond hope. He was believed to be beyond
God’s touch. And so this, this healing, this
casting out of this particular demon, this was an amazing scene. And the crowds reacted accordingly. Luke records that the crowds
were amazed. They were stunned. They were
dumbstruck. And in their utter state of amazement,
they utter the unthinkable, as Matthew records. Here they are
in a largely Jewish crowd and we’ll see who their companions
are in a moment. But they begin to propose that
this might be the Messiah. Matthew says it this way. Not
only were they amazed as Luke indicated, but Matthew says,
records of them, this cannot be the son of David. Can he? The question, the question they
worded in such a way as to indicate a measure of confusion, they’re
not quite sure who he is, but they wonder if this might be
the case. And yet, even as they wonder, they doubt. They’re open
to the possibility, but it’s a remote possibility. This can’t
be the son of David. Can he? Jesus was not what they
expected. He was quite unlike the Messiah
that they expected. They expected an earthly conqueror. They expected someone strong
and mighty politically, socially. Could this be the son of David? Perhaps it was a prophet and
they had suggested many other things before. But now they begin
to zero on the distinct possibility. Could this this individual be
the Messiah? Like the Pharisees, they didn’t
look for a Messiah in such a man as they found in this man from
Nazareth. But unlike the Pharisees, they
were at least open enough to ask the question. They were at
least open enough to consider the possibility. And they clearly
use this expression, the son of David, as being equal to the
Messiah. Could this be the Messiah? This
son of David? So impressed by the miracle that
they wonder whether they are in the presence of God’s son. And yet, not all of them were
impressed. Not all of them were overwhelmed
by this sudden miracle that interrupted their prayer lesson. Not all
of them. Look at verse 15. Some of them
said, he casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. In fact, Matthew makes it even
more clear. It says he only did it by Beelzebul. Some of them said, who was this
crowd that surrounded them? Who was the doubting crowd that
would lodge such an allegation? You can only find that from the
other Gospels. Matthew’s Gospel identifies them
clearly as the Pharisees. Those who dogged Jesus every
step, those who look for every false move, those who look for
every tradition transgressed by Christ and called Him on every
one of them. They looked and called and waited
for Him to fall. They even invented things untrue
about Him, slandering Him and trying to trip Him up in the
eyes of the people. They wanted Him destroyed. Mark,
in his Gospel, adds that it was the scribes Their cohorts, not
only the Pharisees as a group, as we’ve seen in the past, but
the scribes were right along with them, the experts in the
law, looking to trip him up and trap him in the slightest slip
of a syllable. That’s who the crowd was. That’s
who lodged this wicked allegation against Christ. We see that it
came from the Pharisees and the scribes. who had come down, as
it were, as spies, or Mark seems to point out, spies expressly
sent down by the ruling hierarchy to catch Jesus, to track His
every footsteps and to catch Him in some misstep. And so they
lodged this ridiculous, blasphemous accusation against Christ. He
casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. You know what? They couldn’t
deny the miracle. In times past, they took shots
at Christ and in his efforts. They took shots at his motives.
But they couldn’t deny the miracle on this occasion. They just refused
to allow that it could possibly be of God. The work in front
of their eyes was evident. They couldn’t argue against it.
It was indisputable. And so instead, they attempt
to discredit his character. To take away from the miracle
by blackening his reputation, by suggesting that he was in
some kind of an agreement, some partnership with the devil himself.
You see, the problem was they saw that if his miracles were
recognized as such, If the people believed that this man really
was sent from God, then all of his teachings would have to be
received as true. All of his claims would have
to be admitted. All of his teachings would have to be yielded to.
They couldn’t question the reality of the healing, nor could they merely point to
human efforts as if some magic took place And therefore, that’s
why they resorted to this ridiculous, absurd idea of suggesting that
Jesus was in partnership with the devil himself. It’s not the
only time this accusation was leveled at Christ. Twice previous, Jesus had been accused of being
possessed by Beelzebul. We’ll get to those in a moment.
But it’s interesting that According to this accusation, it isn’t just that Jesus was
in some kind of a partnership with the devil himself. We’ll look at that name, Beelzebul,
in a moment. Because what they really suggest
here is that Jesus is possessed by the devil. Mark says it that
clearly. The Jesus was possessed by the
devil himself. And that’s the only reason that
he was doing this work. According to this particular
accusation, he was the one possessed, he was the one being used by
the devil. He wasn’t using the devil’s powers. He wasn’t just
tapping into this new force and using it for his own ends. The
devil was using him. The devil had taken control of
his body and now was doing all kinds of things against Christ’s
will. Let’s look at this word Beelzebul. It’s an interesting word with
a whole lot of interesting thoughts attached. In second Kings, one,
three, we’re told about a God, a God with a small G, a phony
God, a false God, the God of Ekron. He was entitled Bales
of Bub. He was known to be the God known
as the Lord of the flies, and they would pray to him in hopes
that he would cause the plagues of flies that so often came to
the Mideast and the seacoast areas. They would pray to him
to cause the flies to dissipate. But there’s a turn of the phrase
here. It isn’t bales of bub. It’s bales of bull. And so often
what was interpreted here was that what they were saying was,
Lord of the dumb, bales of bull, not bales of bub. It was regarded
as an insulting nickname of this God and attributed almost exclusively
then to Satan. The Lord of the dung, it was
their little cute way of poking fun at the devil himself. And
so not only is this blasphemous against God, it’s dangerous business. Somebody told me when I was first
a Christian, they said, I’ve always found it dangerous business
to talk to the devil, and I’ve always taken that, you know,
that’s good. That’s good advice. We don’t
need to talk to the devil. We talk to the Almighty One.
We talk to the one who the devil answers to. He doesn’t answer
to me. We don’t poke fun at the devil.
We don’t provoke the devil. I don’t want to fight with the
devil. Baal’s a bub. Baal’s a bull. Whatever you call him, they identified
him clearly standing for or representing the devil, Satan himself. The charge shows what desperate
measures these men had to stoop to. How exasperated they must
have been. These enemies of Christ. Was
it likely that the powers of evil would be in partnership
with God himself? Was it likely that the devil
would go against himself? It was ridiculous. It was a ridiculous
charge. In fact, the way Mark records
this, it indicates even more clearly their blasphemous disdain
for Christ. Because, as I said, the way Mark
records it, he says he is possessed by Beelzebul. In other words,
Jesus wasn’t tapping in, as I said, to the devil’s power. He was
being used fully by him. These are terrible words, and
it shows how intensely these critics hated the Lord Jesus. They despised him because of
the crowds. that were always gathering around him. Because
he claimed divine prerogatives, he claimed to be the Son of God,
he didn’t honor their traditions. He didn’t honor their traditions
about the Sabbath, about the fasts, about the washings. He
associated, imagined the Gaul with publicans and sinners. He
exerted what they considered an undue influence upon their
people. In their heart of hearts, Christ’s
enemies must have realized that Jesus was infinitely better than
they were. They saw his life. They saw his
humility. And it was in direct contrast
to their pride. They saw his sincerity compared
with their hypocrisy, his sympathy and their cruelty. They saw him
and they hated him for it. And so they say he’s in cohorts
He’s in partnership with the prince of evil. And he only casts
out demons by the ruler of the demons. Others, it says more
mildly, simply wanted to put him to the test. Prove yourself,
Jesus. Do something. Do something fancy. Do something like what we saw
in the wilderness, what our forefathers saw. Show us flashing lights
from heaven. Show us a pillar of fire. What
they wanted was a wonder. What they wanted to do was tempt
Christ to use his powers towards his own end. Prove yourself,
Jesus. It’s always a mark of a completely
unbelieving heart to pretend to want more evidence. If you
just do one more proof, one more proof, and that’s why I’ve said
before, Presuppositional apologetics. We don’t need to prove the Bible.
We don’t need to prove God. We start with the beginning point
and call them to repentance. They know that they’re sinners.
They know there’s a God. They don’t need more proof. They
need more repentance. So they begin to demand this
sign from heaven. The Pharisees had persuaded the
people that his miracles His methods would be impossible without
a sign from heaven. And so they wanted something
fancy. Prove yourself, Lord. The Lord refused the demand. He wasn’t going to give in to
these impious demands of him for a sign. He wanted to win
conviction, not just enforce some kind of passive acceptance
of him. So it seems to have been the
one weapon of the attack that the Pharisees had that made its
mark. The Pharisees most effective
weapon against Christ, the one that most deeply wounded Christ’s
spirit, that finally provoked Christ to move on. Enough is
enough. No sign shall be given. They wanted some kind of a sign,
and He wasn’t going to give them a sign. He had just given them
a mighty miracle of God, and they refused it for what it was. We’ve seen the Lord Jesus Christ
maligned, but really what you see here is not just the Lord
Jesus maligned. You see the Godhead maligned. You see God Himself blasphemed. God the Father. the originator
of the works, the power behind all the works. You see the Holy
Spirit maligned. You see the Lord Jesus maligned. And what Jesus wants to do in
these remaining verses, as Luke lays out for us, is expose the
blasphemy as being foolish at its core. Jesus presents to us
a fourfold destruction to blasphemy, one that should wipe off the
map, this blasphemous argument of the Pharisees and really any
blasphemy from here on out. You see, blasphemy didn’t end
with the Pharisees. Today, when you Go to a class
and you hear it said that we evolved out of some kind of an
amoeba that crawled on the land that eventually grew legs over
thousands and millions of years and then began to walk upright,
grew hair on its back and then in time shed that hair and walked
on two legs and began to make himself loincloth. That’s blasphemy. And it’s no different than what
the Pharisees said. When you see people wear a crystal,
a stone around their neck that says that this is the power of
the universe, and if you would only tap into this crystal, this
power, this cosmic energy force, that’s blasphemy. When you hear
people in this day and age say that man is basically good, we’re
basically good at the core, that’s blasphemy. And Jesus here, His
argument here dismantles blasphemy, not just the blasphemy from the
Pharisees, it dismantles blasphemy for all time. Any kind of blasphemy,
Jesus dismantles it in whole. A fourfold destruction to blasphemy.
First of all, to attribute the work of God to anyone or anything
less than God, is drastically unreasonable. Look at verse 17. Jesus knew their thoughts. And
we’ve seen so many times, this is so much a mark of His deity
that Luke almost mentions it as an afterthought. Jesus knew
their thoughts. Jesus knew what was in their
hearts. He knew their motives. He knows every one of our motives. He knows everything that we do
and think. Jesus knew their thoughts and
He said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid
waste. And a house divided against itself
falls. What Jesus does is go back to
the most simple kind of argumentation. And He says what you’re suggesting
is just completely ludicrous. Jesus appeals to the common sense. I like the way one pastor said
at one time, if it’s called common sense, why isn’t it more common?
In a sense, why would Jesus have tried common sense on this crowd?
But what an act of mercy. What an act of mercy that Christ
says, now reason with me for a moment, would you, man? Reason
with me. Isn’t it completely ludicrous
to think that Satan would go against Satan? That Satan would
cast out his devils that previously had taken over this poor man?
It’s absurd. The argument here, Jesus found
irresistible. It was so simple. No organization,
no building, no group of people can stand, whether it’s a kingdom
or a city or a household. If they are divided, when they’re
turned on one another and fighting amongst themselves, it’s suicidal. That’s essentially what it says
for an organization. We’ve seen it in churches. When
churches fight against one another, it’s suicidal. A church split
is inevitable. When households, when a husband
and wife are not in union, when they’re not one in their thinking
and in their purposes and their goals, it’s almost eventual. Sometimes God has mercy. Sometimes
God will spare them. You know what’s interesting? You know how I came to learn
of this passage? I wasn’t even a Christian. Not
yet. Went to a secular university.
Went to a class called Great American Speakers. Came across
this passage, not in a sermon, a speech by Abraham Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was up for, he
was running for Senate. He didn’t win the race, but this
is where he burst onto the scene as a force to be reckoned with
for the future. He was running against a man named Davis and
Davis, or was it Kerry? No, it was Davis. Davis was taking
this wishy-washy position on the whole slave issue. And he
was saying, if you want to have slaves in the South, that’s fine.
If you don’t want to have slaves in the North, that’s fine, too.
And he was playing this middle ground. And when Lincoln said
a house divided against itself shall not stand, he was pointing
not only at Davis and saying, you’re a wishy-washy man and
eventually you’re going to have to choose one or the other. But
Lincoln was not only saying that to Davis, he was using Davis
as a pawn. And he was saying that just as
Davis sooner or later is going to have to choose that a house
divided cannot stand. So with America. You wonder whether
Lincoln couldn’t get some mileage out of this speech in this day
and age when our country and this isn’t a passage about political
ends. But you wonder how much mileage
Lincoln would get out of it in this day and age when our country
is split on almost every issue. Some have suggested that it probably
will result in civil war one day. A house divided against
itself, what Jesus is saying, isn’t a political speech. He’s
stating it as an axiom. Look out on the landscape. Look
at the homes that you see. When a husband and wife are divided,
it’s a split. When a church is divided, it’s
a split. And when a country is divided,
it’s a split. It cannot stand. It’s axiomatic. But he uses it as an illustration,
not as the main point. What he says is, how can you
possibly? How can you possibly be so unreasonable,
men? You know Satan. You know that
he is not going to get in any kind of an agreement with good
if it means losing any ground. Satan doesn’t lose ground. He
doesn’t give ground. The kingdom is united, however. It will advance its causes for
countries together, for husbands and wife are together, things
happen when a church is unified, things happen. That’s where Jesus
is saying that these factions. If they’re factious, if they’re
torn in two and they’re constantly fighting against one another,
they waste their energy in disputing and fighting and bickering with
those who ought to be their allies in a real war. Jesus says Satan’s
not like that. You know it. You know it, men. You know the Bible. You know
God and you know the devil. You know that Satan is not going
to get in a partnership and go against himself. Foolish. There’s a second observation
here. To attribute the work of God
to anyone or anything else than God is drastically unreasonable. Secondly, it’s deceitfully inconsistent. Look at what these men did. Look
at the end of verse 18. where Jesus says, for I say to
you, for you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. That’s
what they were alleging. That that’s the only way a demon
can go out, a demon this severe, a demon that had a man unable
to speak and unable to see, has to be by the devil. Jesus reasons, if by Beelzebul
I cast out demons, By whom do your sons cast them out? Jesus
turns the tables on these wicked men. He takes them into a deeper
level of logic. And he points them to their own
people. When he says sons, he’s not speaking in literal terms.
He’s pointing them to their own disciples. They had many who
practiced exorcisms in that day. Many went out. Remember, in Acts
19.3, there were those phonies that went out. They wanted to
use Jesus’ name as some kind of a mantra to cast out demons,
some kind of a power, a potion, a formula. But if their accusation against
him was true, This question to them is what about these simpler
healings, these simple healings of casting out demons that take
place allegedly every day by your own sons, by your own disciples? Jesus doesn’t doubt. Remember,
he had even sent his own apostles, dispatched them out for the sole
and express purpose of preaching the gospel, healing the sick
and casting out demons. And it was happening. Remember,
they came back astounded at all that the Lord was doing. The
people who had derived some kind of spiritual standing from the
Pharisees. As Jesus is saying, are you maligning
them as well? Are you challenging the work
that you send them out to do and casting out demons? You see,
the Pharisees’ logic could only be this. It could only be this.
that no human action could overcome a demon. And if Jesus did have
some kind of a victory, the only way he had that victory is by
a superhuman source. And in their hatred and in their
blind hostility towards Christ, their logic led them to the source
being Satan. But they had spoken flippantly
and carelessly thoughtlessly. They had completely forgotten,
completely forgotten about their own sons that were out there
plying the same trade, casting demons out of possessed people. There’s a third destruction that
Jesus presents to blasphemy. He says to attribute the work
of God to anyone or anything less than God is not only drastically
unreasonable, it’s deceitfully inconsistent and it’s destructively
arrogant. Destructively arrogant, look
at verse 20, if I cast out demons by the finger of God. And the
kingdom of God has come upon you. This little phrase, we’ve seen
what we call anthropomorphisms previously in Luke’s gospel.
Luke is very fond of them. An anthropomorphism is a it’s
a human trait attributed to God. God walks on the clouds. God
doesn’t walk per se. Luke records several. Luke one
fifty one. He has done mighty deeds with
his arm. Doesn’t take God’s arm to do
the mighty deed. All he does is speak it into
existence and it is done. Luke one sixty six recorded of. Luke records all who heard these
things, kept them in mind, saying, what then will this child turn
out to be for the Lord that pardon me for the hand of the Lord certainly
was with him. And if you get the arm of the
Lord, you think of the strength that is in an arm. You think
of the muscle bulging and effort going forth and things happening.
You think of the hand of the Lord. You see the power in the
grasp. But when you think of the finger of the Lord, just
a little finger. And that’s exactly what Jesus
wanted to do. All I had to do was wag my finger. As much power
is in God’s little finger. That’s all it needed to do this
mighty work. And you blaspheme. It comes as
a surprise to you that the Kingdom of God is already here. The very
fact that the envoys, these demons of Satan, henchmen as
it were, are being expelled by God’s little finger shows that
His power is at work. God is at work. And it shows
that God’s royal dominion has come. His kingdom has come. And
you’re on the backside of it, he says to the Pharisees. You
stand here waiting, as it were, for the kingdom of God. You’re
waiting for God to come and to send His Messiah. And I’m telling
you, it’s already here. And you missed it. You missed
it in your blind and deluded criticism. Their arrogance was a destruction
to them. They were blindly arrogant. One
said it this way, that if if the cause pardon me, if God is
the cause of the marvelous healing of mind and body, then the kingdom
of God has come upon them. And they never even reasoned
that way. They never even wondered, could this be legit? Could this
really be God at work? They immediately in their arrogance
set apart to denounce these works as being untrue. Jesus says that the finger of
God has done this, the little finger of God, then you’re in
trouble. And people in our day and age,
people are no less destructively arrogant. There are still those that wonder
about God’s deeds, challenge Him in that, challenge God to
move and to work, wonder about God. Where is God? Why is God
silent? When will God work? They, too,
are destructively arrogant. They, too, are wagging their
finger, as it were, at God, wondering where He is when all the world
is already being touched by the work of God. The kingdom is already
going forth. There’s a fourth destruction
to this blasphemy. To attribute the work of God
to anyone or anything less is not only drastically unreasonable,
deceitfully inconsistent, destructively arrogant, but fourthly, deludedly
ignorant. Deludedly ignorant. Look at verse
21. And this argument by a parable
is so powerful. Listen to it. When a strong man,
fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed.
Now, I don’t know about you, but regardless of how much of
a pacifist you are, you know what? If a robber comes into
Fort Collins, I’m probably not going to do a whole lot about
it. If he comes into my neighborhood, if I happen to see him, there’s
not a lot I can do. I can call the police. If he
comes into my block. There’s not a whole lot I’m going
to do. I’m not going to go out and pick
a fight with somebody who may be armed, but I can promise you
if he comes through my door, I’m fighting and you’re fighting. Am I right? You’re going to take
everything in you. You’re going to grab for whatever’s
handy and you’re going to fight. But I want to pause. Because
what Jesus says is the strong man is Satan. What he says is
that Satan is guarding his premises, is guarding his household. He’s
there as an uninvited guest. He’s a terrorist. And he’s fully
armed. And people, if you don’t think
the devil is fully armed, how foolish. He’s got weapons we
can’t even conceive of. He can play with our minds. He’s
got power. He’s got henchmen. He’s got people
at his disposal. He’s got all kinds of weapons. And he’s guarding what are now
his premises. And if you step into his territory,
he’s going to fight. You can bet it. The strong one
is the devil. J.C. Ryle said of him, the strength
of Satan has only been too well proved by his victories over
the souls of men. He who tempted Adam and Eve to
rebel against God and brought sin into the world. He who has
led captive the vast majority of mankind and robbed them of
heaven. That evil one is indeed a mighty
foe. For us to think lightly of the
devil, and Jesus says, for you to suggest that the devil is
going to let me waltz into his living room and take what’s his
is silly. It’s foolish. Not only is the devil powerful,
look, it says that he’s armed, fully armed. And you’ve seen
images of those people. You know, I saw one when we were
living in L.A., two clowns, not literal clowns. They were fully
armed, not dressed as clowns. They tried to rob this bank.
They had full body armor and all kinds of fancy weaponry.
And they had an armor plated vehicle. And they were just going
to go in and they didn’t care who got in their way, what the
what the police brought by way of force. They were going to
take the money. They both ended up dead. But that’s the image
that you get is a fully armed man. This isn’t one that’s sitting
there with a gun on his coffee table waiting for the burglar
to come in. This is a man that is fully fortified, waiting for
the battle. One Puritan said of him, He’s
well supplied with offensive weapons. He’s never at a loss
for the means to injure the souls of men. He has snares and traps
of every kind and weapons of every description. That’s the
devil. And Jesus says to the Pharisees, as it were, did you
forget who we’re dealing with? Are you suggesting that Satan’s
just going to let me waltz into his domain and snatch what’s
his? What is his? People. the souls of men, those who have
been deluded by his lies. Those are what he holds in possession
in his household, this domain in which he lives. And Jesus
says for you to say, for you to suggest that I’m just going
to waltz in by the power of Satan and take what is his. is ignorance. It’s dilutedly
ignorant. When a strong man, fully armed,
guards his house, his possessions are undisturbed. That’s because
he fights for them. But when someone stronger than
he attacks and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his
armor. And now you begin to see the
rest of the parable. And Jesus says that he is the
stronger man. And he walks into Satan and he
takes away all his weapons. He dismantles all of his armor
and he takes what is rightfully his. He takes back people. And what Jesus said was, in going
in and casting out this demon and taking this man back, he
is putting to rest forever this battle. He is beginning already
to put Satan in chains. One Puritan urged it this way,
thanks be to God that there is one stronger even than Satan,
the friend of sinners, Jesus, the Son of God. Mighty as the
devil is, he was overcome by Jesus on the cross. When he triumphs
over him openly, strong as the devil is, Christ can pluck his
captives out of his hand and break the chains which bind them.
People, we live in a blasphemous day and age. We live in a day
and age when people will use any and every argument against
the work of God. What Jesus says is none of those
arguments hold water. They point to a day and age that
is unreasonable and inconsistent and arrogant and ignorant. Willfully, deludedly ignorant. Those are the people that are
our checkers. Those are the people that are our neighbors that we
prayed for momentarily a moment ago. Those are the people to
whom we reach out to. They are affected by this. People, we know one who is stronger.
If we don’t pray to Christ, that Christ would first go in and
liberate their souls, nothing that we say will ever change
their opinions. Let’s bow before him. Oh, our kind and our gracious
God, we thank You for our Savior who is Christ. We know that there
was a time where we were held in that fortress. We were bound
with chains. We were completely deluded and
confused, out of our mind with Satan’s lies. We thank You, Father,
that You freed us, perhaps not from a demon as from this man,
but certainly from the lies of the devil and from his grasp.
Father, grant us the grace to deal with blasphemy for what
it is, a false and slanderous report about our Almighty God
and about our Lord Jesus and about the precious Holy Spirit
that He placed within us. Grant us the grace, Father, to
wage this war with grace and dignity and the power of God.
We thank you and praise you in Jesus’ name, Amen.