I am guessing, I don't have any data to support this, but I am guessing that the big topic, the big subject around the water cooler at many of your workplaces this past week was the President's speech to Congress. Was that on Tuesday night? Tuesday night, I think. His speech to Congress. because he said a great many things that a lot of people wanted to hear and he also said some things that a lot of people were very upset about and it's so interesting if you watch that speech you could almost see even just in the faces of the people as the camera would pan around those who believed in what the president had to say and affirmed what the president had to say and according to statistics that's 78 percent of the country believed in that, which is pretty amazing because our president's not known for his filters. But 78% evidently affirmed what he said. Then you could see those people who were skeptical, that kind of the jury was sort of out, they wanted more information, they weren't so sure about that. And you could see those who were antagonistic. who were very much opposed to what our president has to say. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That is very often the result of anybody who puts forth any sort of idea. You have those who believe, those who are skeptical, and those who are downright antagonistic. If we go back in time some 2,000 years ago with the event that we are going to look at in Luke chapter 11, the casting out of a demon, we had those same responses to our Lord Jesus Christ. And it's my hope that as we look at the differing attitudes towards Christ in Luke chapter 11 through verses 14 through 26, then you, you will commit to believing in Jesus. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we do turn to you and we thank you, God, for the historical account that we look at today. This happened. This event was witnessed to by many, many people. It makes logical sense what was going on here. It's the way people act. So we thank you. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for inspiring Dr. Luke to write down these texts. And Lord, as we look at Holy Scripture, as we evaluate the claims of Jesus Christ, I pray, God, that we would be like those who believe and that we would not be those who are skeptical or those who are antagonistic. But not only that, I pray, God, that as we look at this text today, that you would help us to be able, as Christians, if we are saved, to make a ready defense, to take a stand for Jesus. and to be able to in boldness proclaim the truth of the gospel. Help us now in this we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Please do turn to Luke chapter 11. We have been going through. started in November of 2023 so we're about a year and a half into this and we're now in Luke chapter 11 and we're looking at verses 14 through 26. Jesus is on a six-month journey to Jerusalem where of course he will end up being crucified and resurrected according to the the plan of God the Father and he is taking this time to teach a lot and to disciple his disciples and his apostles because he knows he's leaving and he wants to leave them behind and a readiness to be able to carry on the mission of the church. So we come to Luke chapter 11 verses 14 through 26. God says, Luke writes, Now he was casting out a demon that was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the people marveled. But some of them said he cast out demon by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. While others to test him kept seeking from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebub. If I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides the spoil. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest and finding none. It says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. you will notice on your home group health inserts, we have actually six different parts of this particular message this morning. You see a demon cast out in verses 14a and b, and then the believers in 14c, the antagonist in verse 15, the skeptics in verse 16, and then Jesus's response to the antagonist in verses 17 through 22, and the response to the skeptics in verses 23 through 26 here. So, first of all, you have the setting of the situation. Jesus casts out a demon. Now, this is not, of course, the first occurrence of Jesus casting out a demon that we've seen in Luke. As a matter of fact, there's ten different healings that Luke mentions, and four of those are actually the casting out of a demon. You go all the way back to Luke chapter 4 where we started off with Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness before he was to start his ministry. Then we saw him, of course, him casting out the legion of demons there in the area of beyond the sea of Galilee. And of course, more recently, we saw Jesus cast out the demon from that poor child after he came from the Mount of Transfiguration. So this has been something of a theme here. So compared to those really dramatic moments, this really doesn't really stir a bunch of drama. He's just simply casting out this demon that made this man mute. And it's just one verse here describing what happened here. And I think part of that is the reason why that's even mentioned at all is because it opened up an opportunity to talk about the various attitudes towards Jesus Christ because it's going to come to a head there in Jerusalem a few months after the passage is mentioned here. So, you think about this poor man, he was, the demon made him mute. He couldn't talk because of this demon. It wasn't that he was physically handicapped or that he was born that way. He was possessed by a demon. Imagine, you know, put yourself in his sandals. Imagine what that would be like in that culture at the time. how difficult it would be not to be able to speak, to communicate. You know, a lot of people didn't write back then, they didn't read then. He would not be able to participate in some of the basic fun or even employment, perhaps, of the culture. I made a reservation at Airbnb to go visit for our grandson's third birthday. and Airbnb wants to know information, so it puts up this thing, what do you like to do? And I thought, well, do I want to tell him what I like to do? Because the two big things that I like to do, I used to hunt, used to fish, used to camp, just don't do that so much. I love teaching about Jesus, and I love making people laugh. I love attempting to make people laugh. And if you think about that, this guy couldn't do either. He couldn't talk about the glories of God. He couldn't tell people about what God had done. He couldn't do any of that kind of thing. Maybe he could read, but he couldn't tell anybody about it. And he couldn't participate in a simple joke. And then he'd hear a great joke, but he couldn't tell anybody else. This would be misery, wouldn't it? And it's all because he is possessed here by a demon. I can only imagine that when Jesus cast out this demon and the demon left him and he was able to actually speak and the demon released his tongue, I can imagine him being a pious Jew of crying out in Psalm 51, 15. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. Now, we see here that basically the emphasis on this passage, of course, is not so much the healing, the power of God, but the attitudes that are employed after this with the crowd here. So, first of all, I want to see the believers here. Now, notice it says here, and the people marveled. Now, I'm going to be honest with you here. I like to think the marvelers were believers. that they believed what Jesus was doing. That might be eisegesis. I might be pressing my view on that. But I think he's trying to show out the three different attitudes that you have here. And he says here, he says they marveled. And that's what Christians do. That's one of the pleasures of being a Christian. We just sometimes when we get alone with the Lord and we're reading his word and we see what he's doing, we're just overwhelmed. We're marveled. We're amazed. Right. We are astonished at the grace that we're under. I want to let me into heaven. I want to let some of you into heaven, maybe, but he lets us into heaven because of the blood of Jesus Christ. He gives us the faith to believe he gives. He shows us grace. He shows us mercy. We have eternal salvation. What else would you want? We have salvation forever. That's a that's something that we are to marvel at. But also because he also makes a transition. But some of them said and while others. So I'd like to think that people believe and this is what you need to do. You need to believe the claims of Jesus Christ. You need to believe the holy word of God. You need to believe it for salvation. So that you can become a Christian, but you need to believe it for sanctification, too. You need to believe it. Otherwise, you're going to never grow up. in being a Christian. You're never going to know the joy. You can be saved without enjoying that salvation, without walking in the joy, without serving the church, without enjoying the pleasure of the Lord, if you keep doubting what it is that he says and the claims that he makes here. And then we see the antagonist here says, but some of them said he cast out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. You can just see some Pharisee, some scribe getting up there and saying, trying to discredit what everybody has just seen. Well, they can't. They can't discredit. They saw it. They consistently saw him performing miracles. So they either need to believe or they got to find some excuse for not believing. And in this case, they're basically questioning the legitimacy of the miracle itself. They don't ever, I mean, they don't question the legitimacy of the miracle. They saw the miracle. They questioned the source. Aha! We can't believe this guy. He must be casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. That is the wrong answer. And it is a very, very dangerous answer. Who is Beelzebub? He was a pagan deity of the Canaanites. We know that from secular literature. Also, in the Old Testament, he is referred to specifically as the god of Ekron in 2 Kings. But the Jews came to identify Beelzebub as the archdemon or of Satan himself. So basically, they're saying you cast out demons by the power of the demons or the devil. Himself there's a similar account in Matthew chapter 12 where Jesus states if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons then the kingdom of God has come upon you the very thing they didn't want to believe and it's amazing here that they would they would take this miracle and the other miracles and Then put them in a negative light put them in and even an evil night like denying the power of God In that Matthew 12 narrative, Jesus mentions the peril of committing the unforgivable sin. And this is where you've heard about the unforgivable sin, because you think, well, all sins are forgiven. But there is an unforgivable sin. There is a sin that is not forgiven. And it's associated to exactly what these folks did. In Matthew chapter 12, he says here, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy be forgiven people. Isn't that a blessing? Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven. That is amazing to me. Even blasphemy is forgiven. But the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come." Now, why is that? Why is it this blasphemy against the Spirit? Well, because basically what he's pointing out is the very thing that these people are doing. They are denying the Spirit of God and they're calling God the devil. That is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. So if they're going to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, who else is going to help them? Who else is going to enter into them to save them? That's how you're saved. You know that, don't you? The Holy Spirit comes into you. You respond in faith to what the Holy Spirit has done and you follow Jesus. So if you're going to reject the Holy Spirit, if you're going to call the Holy Spirit unholy spirit, that you're Beelzebub, there's no option. There's no plan B left. You have forsaken the only way that you can repent. The gentle, loving call of Christ for you to repent is crushed by your pride and by your lack of faith. You basically reject the only condition for repentance, the only ability to be saved, and that is in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But it's so interesting, too, because really, if you notice what they're doing here, You can see the flaw in their thinking here. Notice again that they don't deny that the miracle actually happened. They don't deny it. They should have been more like Nicodemus who came to Jesus at night in John chapter 3 and he said this. Now Nicodemus is a Pharisee, would have hung out with these guys probably. Rabbi, we know that as we and some other Pharisees, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. Nicodemus got it right. His buddies got it so wrong. They're potentially they have the potential of dooming themselves to eternal destruction. Nicodemus understood that only God has the power of a miracle because Satan doesn't have the ability to perform a miracle. He can perform false miracles, but he doesn't have the attributes of God. He can't do that. But these people want to take this. They want to distract people. They want to point the finger at Jesus and say he is doing this through the power of Beelzebub. All right, now we're going to look at that. That's the antagonist, the people who are against him. Now we're going to look at the skeptics. And that's verse 16. And you might be tempted to think, well, these people are not against Jesus. Maybe they're a little bit closer to heaven. Maybe they're not a little bit closer to heaven. What a wonderful testimony we had from our deacon, Ethan Stallnecker, this morning. This very issue was at stake here in his testimony, this idea of skepticism, not ready to close with Christ quite yet. Needs some more information, needs something else going on here. So there's another contrast between believers and antagonists. He says here that while the others here And their motives are exposed here because it says they said this to test them. They wanted something more. They wanted a sign from heaven. They wanted him to tear open the heavens, to turn the sun orange or to do something like this. They wanted snow to come down in summer and that kind of thing. They wanted him just to do some kind of cosmic, amazing thing here. They wanted a sign, confirmation that Jesus's ministry really was from God here. Casting out the demon just wasn't big enough for them. They wanted trumpets. They wanted to see some angels. We've talked to people that say the same thing, right? Well, if Jesus is real, I want him to show it to me. I want him to show up right now in their arrogance. The fact is, if he did show up, they probably still wouldn't believe him. So they want this big, big, big voice. Well, they forget the lesson of Elijah, that God speaks in the gentle blowing wind. God whispers. And those who are not willing to listen to whisper will not hear him. Matthew 16, Jesus says this in the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test him, whether they show him a sign from heaven. And he answered, when it's evening, you say will be fair and the weather for the sky is red in the morning. It will be a stormy day for the sky. is red and threatening. And you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you do not interpret the signs of the time. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah." He kind of brings back that, this is back in my Boy Scout days and back in my days when I used to boat and stuff, we would memorize this and you've heard it before. Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors' warning. That's kind of what he's talking about here. And he's basically looking at these Erudite Pharisees, they're well-educated Pharisees, and says, you're better predictors of the weather than you are of the things of God. Yeah, you can tell when a storm's coming, but this insistence of a sign from heaven, when you're ignoring all the other signs I've already given, just shows that you are seeking damnation instead of salvation. This idea of the sign from heaven comes to us from Exodus, when Pharaoh's magicians couldn't recreate in a false miracle the miracles that were happening. to the people of Egypt there and the great judgments of God that were coming down. They couldn't repeat them. And they said, no, this one's the finger of God. This is from the hand of God himself. Well, that was true. And the same thing that what Jesus is doing there, it's also from the hand of God himself here. But, you know, sad is that they're basically publicly trying to discredit him and trying to set a trap for him. But, you know, what really hits me is when Mark talks about this, when they ask for a sign from heaven in Mark, chapter eight, verse 12, it says he sighed deeply in his spirit. He sighed deeply in his spirit. That kind of stuff just makes us mad. In a lot of ways, it just makes Jesus sad. Disbelief makes Jesus sad. You can almost see him just here they are. Give us a sign. I mean, I've already fed 5,000. I've walked on water. I've healed a countless number of people. I've cast out demons left and right. And you just think you could just see him just Y'all, I don't know about y'all. I hope I know about you, but I don't ever want to make Jesus sigh. I want to believe everything he said. I want to believe everything he said about God. I want to believe everything he said about the spirit. I want to believe everything he said about the church. I want to make Jesus smile. The fact that he is sighing over this skepticism just sort of breaks my heart because skepticism is unbelief, masked as wisdom. Oh, let's not make a choice yet. Let us just let us find out further. You know, like like in Paul and Paul's on Mars Hill and in Athens and he preaches the gospel and some scoff at him. And they said, we'll hear more of this in the future. You know what? Paul never came back. Today is the day of salvation, and they missed the day. And they went to hell because they wanted more information. So a skeptic, though we think, well, they're not as antagonistic as the other guys. They're not out to get Jesus. They're actually not any closer to God than the antagonist are. I like what J.C. Ryle says, the great Anglican bishop. It is always one mark of a thoroughly unbelieving heart to pretend to want more evidence of the truth of religion. So they were prideful in their own skepticism. We're so open-minded, you see. We're just open-minded about these things, and you can almost feel the arrogance of that. Then we see Jesus' response to the antagonist, and I've kind of mixed up a little bit here, but verses 17 through 22 here, and he says here, that he knows their thoughts, so he knows they've got bad motives. And he says, every kingdom divided itself is laid waste, and a divided household falls. He's just making, this is a logical, proverbial statement here. He says, you're saying I did this by Satan, that doesn't make a lick of sense. It doesn't make any sense. Why would Satan go to the trouble of making, going inside this man and then cast himself out from it? Why would he work so hard to bind this man just to free him? And of course, this text is pretty famous in our nation's history as well. In June of 1858, a thousand delegates gathered together in Illinois to make Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate, and of course slavery was a big issue. This was right prior to the war between the states. And he refers to this verses and he says, a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half state and half free. He was a prophet. It couldn't. If you look, I'm a baby boomer, I'm a southern baby boomer, so my generation is sort of the last of the old South. We remember what it was like growing up in a sense of the old South. But what happened after he made that speech, what happened after Abraham Lincoln became president was a devastating war. The House could not stand And eventually, it brought the terrible Civil War. The South, prior to the Civil War, was the wealthiest part of the nation, had the highest number of college graduates going on to the war. Then, of course, after the war, it was the poorest part of the nation. Eleven cities were destroyed or suffered massive damages, including my hometown of Columbia was burned to the ground. More than a fourth of Southern white men of military age died in the war. The decline in per capita income for white Southerners went down almost by half over the 20 years that followed during the time of Reconstruction. And, of course, the cost of the Confederacy was something like, back then, $3.3 billion, which would be over $100 billion today. The South still hasn't recovered from that. It was 150 years ago. Abraham Lincoln was right. Jesus is right. A house divided itself cannot stand. He's just using good logic here and trying to get them to open up their eyes that the enemy, Satan, was not going to cast himself out. And if it really is by God, then by the finger of God, I cast out demons. Then the kingdom of God has come upon you. So he's and then he gives this illustration, a strong man. He kind of a picture. Satan here is a strong man in his palace. He's safe. He's enjoying his liege with all of his power. He knows his soldiers can defend him. But then someone along comes along who's stronger and they conquer him and they take all his goods for spoil. And Jesus is saying, I'm that guy. I'm that guy. Y'all think Satan is the most powerful monarch in the universe that he sits with all of his ease? Let me tell you one thing. I'm coming and I'm taking away his castle from him. I'm coming to humiliate Satan. I have just proven that by casting out this demon. That's that's Jesus, folks. The media likes to present him as this sweet, loving rabbi, you know, with flowers in his hair singing Kumbaya. He's the guy that's destroying the strongholds of Satan. He's worth believing in. He's worth believing in. The spoil that he takes from the strong man is, for instance, this man's freedom from demonic oppression. Then he has a response to the skeptics in verses 23 through 26. These are the people who want to keep their options open, right? And Jesus says this, y'all. He says, listen to this. Whoever is not with me is against me. Whoever does not gather with me scatters. Do not be at ease in your neutrality. You need to either be for Jesus or against Jesus. But the middle ground of the skeptic is the coward's ground. And even in secular culture, no one respects or admires a coward. And it's time to use the term, even for females, I guess, man up. and make a decision for Christ. And I think that's part of what he is saying here. If you're not with me, you're for me. We see this principle in Revelation chapter 3. I know your works. You're either cold or hot. Would you either be cold or hot? So because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will spit you out of my mouth. Cowardly skepticism, always wanting to weigh the options, always looking for another sign before you believe in Jesus. It nauseates God. according to Revelation 3, it makes him want to just throw up. Now, do you really want to be in that category? He keeps on in Revelation 3. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens it, I will come to him and eat with him and he with me. So the liberal skeptic refuses to open the door. He'll take a peek. Who is it? You look at that door every night, he refuses to open up that door and welcome Jesus. Why is this? Why is that? Well, if you're doing that, let me tell you, you're being duped by Satan. You're being controlled by Beelzebub. He has hidden this very obvious truth, which is revealed in scripture and revealed in countless numbers of lives over the ages. He's hiding that from you. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4, in whose case, talking about unbelievers, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. And frankly, that's where most of the most of the Jews at the time, rather than welcoming their Messiah, they chose to abandon him, turn him over to the authorities. John says in John 3, 19, this is the judgment that light comes in the world and men love the darkness rather than light for their deeds were evil. And then he gives this kind of strange parable illustration about the unclean spirit that goes and then comes back. And it kind of gives us a little bit of a view of the way demons operate. So evidently demons are restless and there's this demon who's not content to be controlling this person here. And he gives this example here and he goes out and then he's restless there. So he brings back more demons. And I think what this is, he's describing the experience of a person who is without full deliverance. They become somewhat reformed, they become better people, but they've really not committed to being a genuine Christian. You see, when the Holy Spirit enters into somebody, there's no room for the devil. There's no room. He takes up all that person's spiritual room there. There's no room for demonic possession. You could be influenced, but it's not going to happen. So someone who just wants to. I just preached recently to a lot of people and a lot of people that were not even Christians and. And afterwards, there was kind of a line up to say something to me afterwards. And a lot of people were moved, and you could tell. But two or three of them said, I need to go back to church. I need to go to that church. And they do need to go back to church. But in a sense, what they were saying is, I feel convicted about my sin. I need to be a better person. What you need to do is you need to close with Jesus Christ. You need to believe what he said about himself. You need to give up trying to live one foot in the world and one foot in heaven. You need to become a Christian. That's what they really need. Well, that's what happens. This person gets rid of the demon. But remember what Aristotle said, nature abhors a vacuum. So does hell. And they find this empty space, so he's going to bring back these other ones and make it even worse. They found the house swept clean, it says here. And as one commentator says, the man swept his soul, but never asked God to cleanse it. He was partially reformed, but not totally renewed. That's why self-help books can't save you. That's why moralism can't save you. That's why being baptized can't save you. You've got to have the Holy Spirit within you. Now, he's the one who decided to do it. But he but he is also waiting for you to to respond to the faith that he's given you to receive the Holy Spirit. Paul might say. This is what you need to do. Ephesians chapter four, put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and corrupt through deceitful desires and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. This is why Christ came. This is why we have this passage. This is why we're here worshiping today. The author of Hebrews tells us that Hebrews chapter two, that through death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil, the deliverer of all those who through fear of death are subject to lifelong slavery. He came to he came this example of the man that was moot mute because of the demon. And he cast that out. That's what he came to do for everybody who becomes a believer. to fill them up with the Holy Spirit, to destroy the works of the devil. Once someone becomes a Christian, the devil cannot have him. Cannot have him. They will never be in hell. Kent Hughes says, given the massive claims of Jesus, neutrality is a self-deceiving ruse. So don't think that you're wise by keeping to weigh the evidence over and over and over again. Jesus isn't afraid of skepticism. He gave us a book, right? So you can read it and you can believe in the claims that he made. But there's a bunch of people out there that think they're smarter than God. And that they're not willing to believe. One commentator summed this up. The liberal theologian does not prefer the speculations of philosophy or psychology because they're more provable or persuasive than the truth of Scripture, but because he prefers man's wisdom over God's. And contrary to his claim, the agnostic does not refuse to believe because he cannot know about God, but because he will not know about Him. The person who turns to rationalism, evolution, skepticism, or simply himself for meaning and purpose does not do so because of a lack of evidence about God and Christ, but in spite of it. The person who turns to man-made religion does not do so because no light about the true God is available, but because he despises the light and he despises God. God provides a great salvation. We neglect it and we dismiss it and we overlook it. It's a theological question that's raised here by the author of Hebrews. How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? You need to not be antagonistic about Christ nor skeptical. You need to be like some of the people who witnessed him. And you need to learn to marvel, marvel at the grace of Jesus Christ, marvel that God became flesh, marvel that he's willing to send his spirit inside of us, marvel that we have an inheritance waiting for us in heaven. And as you marvel. Perhaps she would join, perhaps like that mute man did in singing out praise to God from Psalm chapter 40. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. Father, I pray. For everybody here, for people watching online, God, that for people that this sermon might be sent through, sent to by a loving person. That the word of God would not return void and that people would close with Christ. That they would they would be able to look at Holy Scripture and the claims of Jesus and the attributes of God and say, amen, make this true in my own life. I pray, God, that as a church, we would know the joy of the Lord to the point we just can't keep silent about this, but we continue to tell this wonderful story, this wonderful truth that God became man and dwelt among us. I pray, God, in that truth that we would behold his glory. I pray for the salvation of those who are on the fence and those even who are antagonistic towards God and pray for the rest that we would grow in our holy confidence. Our God reigns. And he is good. Bless us now, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.