Take your Bibles with me and turn to Luke 11. Luke 11. Today we are going to be looking at verses 14-28.

As you are turning there I want to tell you a story. About ten years ago, back when Obama was president, there was this brief Ebola scare. I don't know if you remember it or not. But Ebola was ripping through West Africa, and there was a few cases of it popping up in California, and there was this worry that it was going to spread across the U.S..

During that time, I was out driving one day with a family member, and it came up. I'm not going to tell you which family member it was, because this story doesn't reflect well on this person (it wasn't my wife). But this person said this to me out of the blue, this person said "Obama is just importing Ebola here so he can get rich."

Now, I am not and never have been a Barack Obama fan. But can we just take a minute and think about how ridiculous that statement was.

• Why would the president of the U.S. want a deadly pandemic to come to his country?

• How would people in America getting Ebola make Obama rich?

I mean, did Obama have deep ties to the Funeral Home industry we don't know about? Does he have stock in gravestones?

I mean, make it make sense.

I think about this often, because I think there is something in human nature that makes us want to believe tahe worst about anyone we are opposed to, and sometimes we can jump to ridiculous conclusions.

In our story today, that's exactly what the Pharisees did. They were opposed to Jesus. They saw Jesus as a threat to their whole way of life. And so when Jesus healed a man who was demon possessed and could not speak, they came out with this brilliant accusation:

Jesus can just cast out demons because he is in league with Satan.

Just like "Obama is importing Ebola to get rich" this accusation makes no sense. It was a terrible slander.

But Jesus didn't respond to this slander in anger. He responded to it with heart of care and concern for them. They were on the edge of making a terrible mistake. A mistake with eternal consequences. And Jesus had to warn them about it. Their eternal destiny lay in the balance.

Let's go ahead and read our text, and we'll see what is happening here.

[!bible] Luke 11:14-28 - KJV 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. 15. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. 16. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. 17. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. 18. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. 19. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. 20. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. 21. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: 22. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 23. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. 24. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. 25. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. 26. 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. 27. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. 28. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

In Christ's day, the Pharisees had plenty of people who cast out demons. One of the things they believed was that in order to cast out a demon, you had to get the demon to share its name. They thought that by knowing the demon's name, you had power over it.

But this poor man is afflicted with a demon who is keeping him from speaking. He is unable to speak. (That's what dumb means, whenever you see it in the Bible.) So as far as the Pharisees were concerned, this man was was an impossible case. If he couldn't speak, then they couldn't cast out the demon.

So when Jesus casts this demon out, and this man can talk again - the people wondered. The people are marveling at this. This is an obvious display of the power of God.

And that is a problem for the Pharisees, because the Pharisees have by this point dug in in their opposition against Christ. How are they going to explain this?

They say "Jesus casts out demons because he is in league with Beelzebub, the prince of the demons." That was their answer.

There is some great demonic conspiracy that wants to elevate Jesus, so they are allowing Jesus power to cast out demons.

Don't miss this. These men have just seen an unmistakable display of God's power and goodness. And their first instinct is to say "He's aligned with Satan."

Beelzebub comes from the word Beelzebul, which means "Lord of the dwelling." It was one of the names of Baal - the Canaanite god. But the Hebrews purposely mangled the name into Beelzebub, which means "Lord of the flies".

Ever open a trash can on a hot day and see all of the flies and maggots - that is what they were going for. It was a slander. And they were saying that Jesus was working for this Lord of the flies. It was a terrible slander against Christ.

So get the picture. Jesus has just healed this poor man who hasn't been able to speak for who knows how long and who has been tormented by a devil. It's an obvious display of His power and His love.

The crowd is seeing this and most of them are understanding it and marvelling at it. But Jesus' critics say "Oh, He can do that because He is working for Beelzebub."

There were also some people in the crowd that saw this obvious miracle and they didn't just to "Jesus is with Satan." They thought, let me see a sign. (Umm, Hello! What did you just see?!)

So Jesus performs this miracle, and in the crowd you have people who reject him and say he is with Satan. And you have people who want to stay on the fence.

And what Jesus does in this text is to address these people. Now, I don't believe Jesus was addressing them out of anger, I think Jesus was addressing them out of love. Because they were on the verge of making an eternal decision, a decision they couldn't come back from. They were on the verge of rejecting Christ.

When you reject Christ - you invite the eternal damnation of God. So out of love and out of concern for our souls, Jesus gives us four principles here in this passage:

• The principle of division

• The principle of rescue

• The principle of decision

• The principle of replacement

And all four of these principles have the same goal - to get us to accept Christ fully. To get off of opposition or to get off the fence and to fully join Christ and accept Him as our Lord and Savior.

Let's pray, we will look at these four principles this morning.

The first principle I want you to see in our text this morning is...

1. The principle of division

In verses 17-20, Jesus deals with this accusation that He is somehow in league with Beelzebub. He asks the people to remember this principle: that no organization can survive internal war.

Jesus' entire ministry has been a full frontal assault on the devil and His forces. Many, many times in the gospels Jesus casts out devils and demons. If Jesus was working with the demons - how does that make sense?

The answer is, it doesn't. You can't have internal conflict and survive. A church that is fighting against itself is a dead church. A political party overtaken with internal conflict is dead in the water. No cause can survive infighting. So why would Satan let someone defeat his forces? It doesn't make sense.

And Jesus said "If I'm casting out demons because I'm in league with Satan, then how are you guys doing it?" Are you applying that same thinking to your own works?

So do you see what Jesus is doing here? He is pushing them to think. He's pushing them to understand the logical inconsistency of their claim.

Just like it was ridiculous for my family member to claim that Obama was importing ebola to get rich - it was ridiculous for the Pharisees to claim that Jesus was defeating demons to empower Satan. It makes no sense.

And listen, if you are rejecting Jesus today, you need to know two things:

First, you need to know that your decision to reject Christ has eternal consequences. You are choosing to stand before the God of the universe, who made a way for you to be saved, who gave you the free gift of Salvation through His perfect son. And you are choosing to reject that and stand on your own merit.

That is a decision that will have eternal consequences. That is a decision that will bring the eternal wrath of God. You need to know that. You need to consider where the tracks are going before you commit to that train.

Second, you need to know that your decision to reject Christ makes no sense.

• Why do you believe that God is not good?

• Why do you believe that God is trying to hurt you?

• Why will you not accept His gift of salvation?

• Do you really look around at all the hurt and misery of the world and think - I want to join that team?

We need to be clear about who Jesus is and who Satan is. About light and darkness.

The principle of division. The second principle I want you to see is...

2. The principle of rescue

Look with me at verses 21-22:

[!bible] Luke 11:21-22 - KJV
21. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
22. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

You might look at this and think "What is Jesus getting at here? What does this even mean?"

Remember, they have accused Jesus of being in league with Beelzebub - which the people would know is a twist on Beelzebul - which means "Lord of the dwelling."

So Jesus is riffing off that here. And he is saying when a strong man "A lord of the dwelling" has his armed castle, he's pretty secure.

Imagine some drug lord or something, sitting in a big house with walls all around. He has guards roaming the perimeter. He's got all his stuff in there and he feels pretty secure.

Until, the U.S. Navy Seals come, wipe out his guards like they are nothing, put him in handcuffs, and take all of his stuff.

That's the imagery Jesus is going for. Satan is the strong man. He's the Lord of the dwelling. This world is his dwelling place, and he feels pretty secure about it.
But do you know what, Satan has been invaded by One who is infinitely stronger, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Satan has been defeated, and the Lord is dividing Satan's spoils.

That is what the Lord has done. Ephesians 4:8 puts it this way:

[!bible] Ephesians 4:8 - KJV
8. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Think about our friend in South Africa, Josh Sullivan. He was kidnapped by the gangs. He was moved around from armored house to armored house. Mistreated and intimidated by these armed thugs.

Imagine being him. Then imagine in about thirty seconds, the police commandos come in, the hawks, and the kill all of the bad guys and you are set free. That's what Jesus has done to Satan.

Jesus came and defeated Satan, and Jesus is setting the captives free. This didn't happen for Josh, but imagine if they police said "you can take a portion of this gang's stuff. You can have their cars and their house."

That's what Jesus our Rescuer has done for us. We didn't do it. He came to the Cross and did battle with Satan, and He won. Rescuing us from the forces of evil.

That's the principle of rescue. So we've seen the principle of division and the principle of rescue.

And that leads us to the third principle...

3. The principle of decision

Look at verse 23. I really think this is the heart of this whole section.

[!bible] Luke 11:23 - KJV
23. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.

Remember, there were some people in this crowd who were rejecting Christ. There were some people who were on the fence. This whole section is intended to get them to think about the folly of that. To trust Christ.

To make a decision about Christ.

And in this verse, Jesus makes a very clear point, there is no middle ground. You have to choose a side. And if you haven't chosen Christ yet, don't fool yourself into thinking you are neutral. There is no neutrality, you are either with Christ or you are against Christ. You are either working with Christ in His harvest or working against Him as His enemy.

Maybe you are here today and you just think "I'm going to go through this whole church thing, but I'm not committing. I'm going to keep my options open." In the deep recesses of your heart you have settled on a kind of soft-agnosticism about Christ. You are just going to wait and see.

Listen, what Jesus is saying here is by not taking a side, you are taking a side.

There can be no ambivalence about Christ. Christ demands we either accept Him fully or reject Him. There is no safe middle ground. There is no neutrality.

And some of you need to come to a decision. You've been on the fence. God doesn't accept that. You must trust Christ. You must join in with Him. You are either with Him or against Him. There is no middle ground.

• The principle of division. Christ cannot possible be working with Satan.

• The principle of rescue. Christ has defeated Satan and rescued us.

• The principle of decision. There is no such thing as being neutral on the subject of Christ.

Let's look at one more principle and we'll be done. The final principle is...

4. The principle of replacement

Look at verses 24-26 with me:

[!bible] Luke 11:24-26 - KJV
24. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.
25. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.
26. 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.

Jesus gives a little parable here. He talks about a man who has an unclean spirit in him. He has a demon. And somehow, he manages to evict the demon. The demon leaves him.

So now he is empty. Now he has this clear space. Well, in Jesus story, the demon wonders around for a bit and can't find a suitable place to go, and ends up coming back to this man and sees "Hey, this place is empty and tidy now, it's kind of a nice place to stay."

So the demon doesn't just move back in, he gets seven of his demon friends to come and move back in with him.

And so it ends up being worse for this guy than in the beginning.

So what is Jesus saying here? I think he is saying that it isn't enough to just get rid of the devil and get rid of the demons, we have to replace them with Christ.

Some of you might think "I have these demons, I have these bad habits, I just have to get rid of them, they are tormenting me."

• Maybe it is an addiction.

• Maybe it is lust.

• Maybe it is anger.

• Maybe it is greed.

• Maybe it is all of the above.

And you think that the great need of your life is to be free from those things. But what Jesus is teaching here is that if you were free from those things, and you just left a vacuum, worse things would fill their spot.

The great need of the world isn't just to be free from sin's degradation, the great need is Christ.

You can't just swear off your bad habits. You can't just get rid of your demons. You must replace them with Christ.

And so you see the whole thrust of this passage: It's not enough to not be with Satan, you must be with Christ. You must make a decision.

Conclusion

So let's wrap this up. Let's come to a conclusion here. This passage really is pushing us to do one thing: accept Christ. Follow Christ. Get in with Christ.

Listen, maybe you are rejecting Jesus today. That's foolishness. See your foolishness. Repent of it. And follow Jesus.

Maybe you are here today and you are on the fence. That just means you've rejected Christ in a softer way. You need to trust Christ.

Maybe you think your great need is to be free of your demons. That is truly a need - but you can't do that without Christ. You need Christ.

And so, if any of that describes you this morning - you need to follow Christ.

He's rescued you. He's defeated your captor. He wants to share the spoils. He wants to bless you. Follow Christ.

Let's stand together for prayer and a song of invitation.