Well, you don't have to stand back up because we've already read it, but open your Bibles, if you will, to Luke chapter 11. And while our reading from Luke's Gospel, chapter 11, verses 14 to 28, is going to serve primarily as our sermon text this morning, I hope that as we were reading from Exodus, from Ephesians, and from Luke's Gospel that you were observing already a number of connections between these three readings. And in some ways, all three of the readings from the lectionary are going to serve as our sermon text today. I want to think with you a little bit about what it is that Jesus came to do. Now, most of us, I think, would say immediately, Jesus came to save us from our sins. And of course He did. He came to deliver us from judgment, from guilt, from condemnation. That is certainly true. But when we think about what Jesus was doing in His ministry prior to going to the cross, I think many people misunderstand the real implications, the real significance of the Lord's work at that time and in the various ways that He performed ministry among the people of Israel. Many people think of Jesus primarily as a moral teacher, as a minister of compassion to those who are in need, and even among Christians who acknowledge the Lord's divinity and who acknowledge His saving mission. Many still think of His ministry prior to the cross primarily in terms of pity to the afflicted and moral instructions given through His sermons and parables. And I want to say that it's not as if this conception of Jesus' work is entirely wrong. The Lord certainly does have compassion on the needy. We see that many times and in many places. His teaching is full of ethical instruction and wisdom for life, and we need to hear that ethical instruction and seek to be obedient to it. The prophet Isaiah emphasizes the merciful works that Messiah would perform, and Jesus fulfilled that prophecy, and he fulfilled all of those expectations from the Old Testament. But while there is no doubt that Jesus had compassion on those who were hurting, and he helped many people who were in need, that is not the primary way in which the Gospels and the rest of the Scriptures present the work and mission of Christ. And I hope you will see that today. And for some of you, you may be seeing it for the first time. For others, hopefully it will simply reinforce what you've known before. Our Gospel's reading today is one of many that reveals Jesus' work for what it was. It was the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. It was spiritual warfare against another kingdom. Against the kingdom of the evil one. The incarnation was like a parachute operation behind enemy lines in advance of D-Day. And when Jesus began his public ministry, troops began landing on the beaches, and an all-out assault on the devil's stronghold began. Jesus came to wage war against the darkness. He came to cast out the demons that had plagued and polluted the land for so long. He came to set creation free from demonic overlords which had held sway within creation and under which creation had languished. Jesus' miracles were not medical missions designed to relieve human suffering, although they accomplished that in many ways. They were actually acts of war that announced that the true King had finally come. When Jesus left the world and ascended back to His Father's right hand, there were still many lepers in Israel, and lame, and deaf, and blind, and even demon-possessed people. The Lord did not eradicate human suffering, and if we think that that was His mission, we can only conclude that He failed in it. His works of mercy barely made a dent as extensive as they were. As many people as He healed, there were still a lot of sick and suffering people when He left the world. But that was never the purpose of His miracles. These acts were signs. That's the way that the Bible describes them. They were signs and wonders. Signs pointing to a larger spiritual reality. And by spiritual here, I don't want you to think spiritual as opposed to physical. I don't want you to think in terms of dualism, in terms of the two different separated categories. There are real-world, earthy implications behind every miracle that Christ performed. But these are works of the Spirit, performed by the power of the Spirit, bringing the age of the Spirit into the present darkness. And so we need to be careful that when we're studying the Gospels and we're seeing Jesus heal and bless so many suffering people, we need to be careful that we're not distracted by the miracles themselves. If you go to the zoo and you read every sign in the zoo, which my mom always wanted to do. I don't know if you were that kind of mom or dad. Like, you had to stop at every sign and read the sign. Like, we're not here to see the signs. We're here to see the tigers, right? But you read every sign, but you never lift your eyes to look at the animals that the signs are talking about. You've missed the entire point of the zoo. And yet, that is sometimes the way that people read the Gospels. They look at the miracles. They look at the parables. They glean ethical instruction. They say, isn't Jesus so compassionate and merciful? And they walk away with true information. They've learned some things, just like you would have reading those signs. But you've actually missed what the sign was pointing to. You've missed the point. We should not be so fixated on the acts of power that Christ performed, and the suffering that they relieved, that we misunderstand the real purpose of those wonders. Now this text in Luke describes Jesus casting out a demon that had afflicted a man and caused him to be mute. And Jesus cast out the demon so that now the man was able to speak and you can immediately see the connection. Hopefully this is an easy one to read typologically. Jesus delivers us from the devil who binds our mouths and makes us unable to speak. He rescues us from darkness and demonic control, looses our tongues, so that we can gather together on the Lord's Day and proclaim His praise. The multitude saw what Jesus did and were amazed by it, as usual, but some in the crowd, we see, took this opportunity to criticize. They acknowledged what had happened. They knew that a demon had really been cast out, but they attributed that work to Satan, who is here designated by the name Beelzebub, the lord of the flies. Does that suggest anything in relation to your lectionary readings today? They would rather give credit and glory to the devil than to admit that Jesus is working with the power of God. Now there were others, besides those who made this demonic attribution, there were others who demanded to see a sign from Jesus. Where's your authority to do this? We see that you've cast out the demon, but who authorized you to do that? You need to show us your papers. You need to show us your credentials. You're saying you want to see a sign? What do you think this was? He just ripped a demon out of a man and the guy is singing and praising God here. What else do you need to see? No doubt, these were government officials who wanted to ensure that Jesus had all of the proper permits and that His licensing for exorcism was up to date. One of the truly remarkable aspects of the opposition to Jesus and the Apostles in the New Testament, as we've pointed out before, is that the critics never denied the reality of the miracles they professed to perform. Now, I have, over the course of the years, seen many alleged miracles, and I will just tell you, maybe it only reflects my own experience, and maybe it's a small sample size, I have never seen a miracle that I actually thought was authentic. In fact, some of the supposed healings that I've seen were so laughably bad and so poorly performed that even in one case, the woman who was supposedly healed admitted in front of the whole congregation nothing had happened. But the preacher found a way to turn that to his advantage as well. The easiest way to rebut an alleged miracle is to claim that there was no miracle. That person wasn't really sick, they weren't really lame, he wasn't really mute, this is not what it seems to be. But only once, only once in the entire New Testament Do the religious leaders try to deny the reality of what had occurred? And that was in John chapter 9, when Jesus healed the man who was born blind. And you will recall that the Sanhedrin calls in the man's parents, examines them, and says, oh well, I guess he was blind. I guess he really did do it. He really did heal this man. Now we've got to find a way to kill him. As the religious leaders would admit and lament later in Acts chapter 4, what shall we do to these men? For indeed that a notable miracle has been done through them is evident to all who dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it." We can't deny it. We know that it's real. But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them that from now on they speak to no man in this name. We know it's real, and so we've got to find another way of containing this problem. We can't deny it, but we are not willing to affirm the implications, what this would really mean. And so they use threats of violence, and then later actual violence, to try to stop the spread of the reports and the work of the Kingdom of God. This is war. This is not a medical mission strip to Mexico. Jesus is not going to South America to clean people's teeth. He's not going to Africa to perform surgeries. All of that is wonderful, well, and good. It's not what Jesus is doing here. Jesus is going to war. And that's the purpose of these signs. Here in Luke chapter 11, the critics in the crowd don't deny the reality of the exorcism. They know this man was really demon-possessed, and now he's not. Jesus has delivered him, but they've already made up their minds that Jesus is a bad guy. And so don't be sidetracked by the fact that he did a good thing. We're sure he didn't mean it. We're sure it must just be designed to deceive and mislead us. We have to discredit Him. And if they could not dispute the reality of His work, they could at least try to tarnish the power and authority by which He did it. And this is why we say many times, sin makes you stupid. And there is no better demonstration than this exchange recorded in three of the Gospels. The Lord casts a demon out of a man, delivers him from satanic oppression, and Jesus' enemies are so hostile and so hell-bent on opposing him that they would rather attribute the work to Satan than to admit that Jesus is working with the power of God. How dishonest do you have to be? Sin makes you stupid. This may be the most illogical claim that any opponent of Christ has ever made, and yet they make it with a straight face. You would think that they would crack up and say, boy, that's really dumb, isn't it? You probably don't believe that. No, they're serious. Their position is that Jesus's exorcisms are a false flag operation by the devil. that the devil was granting Jesus power to cast out certain demons in order to gain credibility for a false prophet so that he could mislead many. And as ludicrous as that is, before you dismiss it, remember that Satan does perform signs and wonders in order to deceive. We see that many times, actually, in the Bible. Pharaoh's magicians did. Their replication of the first plagues were not illusions, as I was taught in Sunday school growing up. You know, they had this pressure point on the back of the snake's head that would make him stiffen out and look like a staff, and then you hit the pressure point. I'm like, who knew that snakes had pressure points? You hit the pressure point on the snake again and he turns back into a snake. And there's some kind of chemicals that you put into the water, and it makes it turn red, and it looks like blood, but it's not really blood. And we're not sure exactly how they did the frog thing, but if a magician can pull a rabbit out of a hat, surely they can pull a frog out of a river. So that's not what's happening. The Pharaoh's magicians are performing black magic. Black magic. That's demonic. Occultism is a thing. Your kids need to know that. That magic is not just make-believe. It's not Disney movies. It's not just books. It's real and it's wrong. It's communing with darkness. You need to be on guard against that. The Bible attributes this kind of power to the devil several times. Deuteronomy chapter 13. Moses says there will be false prophets who arise who tell you to go worship another god and then give credibility to their case by performing miracles. And what does Moses say? Don't believe him. Well, yeah, but he performed a miracle. Doesn't that mean that he's authentic? Not if he's telling you to worship another god. Not if he's contradicting the true religion of Yahweh. Are there miracles in false religions? The Bible says that there are. 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 9, Paul says, "...the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved." If you don't love the truth, you will be misled by the devil. And one of the ways that the devil misleads is by signs and wonders. You say, well, they're lying wonders, so obviously they're not real wonders. No, that's not the point. They're wonders that are real, but that lie to you about the truth. They're false. Not fake. False. There's a difference. Revelation chapter 13, the beast that comes up out of the earth performs great signs. He makes fire come down from heaven on earth in the sight of man. He deceives those who dwell on the earth by the signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast. You need to know that that's a thing. And so from that standpoint, what these critics of Jesus are saying is not entirely implausible. Can the devil give miraculous power to men? Yes, as a matter of fact, he can. But is Jesus telling the people to worship another God? Not hardly. He's telling them to repent of the idolatry, the hypocrisy that they have already fallen into. He's calling them back to the law of God. He's coming to fulfill the law and the prophets. The context of Christ's ministry does not remotely support the claim that his work was a demonic false flag. I mean, think about the number of exorcisms that Jesus is performing. I mean, if you go through the Gospels and you just underline or highlight each of the exorcisms, you're going to be shocked You're going to be shocked how often you're going to be marking your Bibles in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Jesus was ripping demons out of people right and left. He was plundering the devil's house. That's what the Bible says. Capturing those who had been taken hostage by the evil one. And if Satan was behind Jesus' work, then he was destroying his own kingdom and soon would have nothing left. If this is a false flag operation, it's gotten out of hand. Because Satan's kingdom is liable to collapse. The demand for another sign, to authenticate the sign that they had just seen, is likewise absurd. These acts of power were signs. They were signs of Christ's authority from God. He's not a false prophet, telling men, go out, serve another god, turn away from the law, don't worry about what God has said, don't worry about... No, He is the prophet, like all the prophets, calling the people to repentance. in the same way that Elijah did, in the same way that Samuel did, in the same way that Isaiah and Jeremiah, all of the prophets have this same ministry. But his ministry and his message are indicting those who are compromised and corrupt, especially among the religious leadership. And so they seek to discredit him because they don't like the heat. How dishonest does a person have to be to see the power of God, to recognize it as the power of God, and to be more willing to give credit to Satan than to admit that your enemy is working with the power of God? That is blasphemy of the highest order, as Jesus puts it in Matthew chapter 12. It's the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. It is proof of a reprobate mind. It won't be forgiven in this life or in the next. And that's a warning to all of us. Because religious people can become so convinced of their own righteousness that they begin to embrace a philosophy of by any means. The means are justified because the end is good. We know that Jesus is bad. So even though he keeps healing people, and he keeps delivering people, and he keeps saying a lot of good things that are true things, we've got to get rid of him. And they join sides with the enemy when they do so. Now I hope some of you already picked up on the connection between these lectionary readings today, and maybe you noticed a key phrase that is found in both Exodus chapter 8 and Luke chapter 11. In our reading from Exodus, as we're reading through those third and fourth plagues, the lice and the flies, Pharaoh's magicians try once again to replicate the sign. Now they had successfully done that before. They turned their staffs into snakes, and then Aaron's snake ate their snakes. And they could turn water into blood. That's not really helpful when all the water in the Nile River has already turned to blood. We didn't need more blood right now. When God sends an infestation of frogs, and frogs are literally everywhere, including in the pans in your cabinet, in your kitchen, and in your beds, the Bible says. The Pharaoh's magician said, don't worry. We got this. We'll give you more frogs. Super helpful, super helpful. They could replicate those first three signs. They could not forth them. They could not countermand them. Now what would have been impressive is if Moses and Aaron turned the water into blood and they turned it from blood back into water. That would have been impressive. All right, we got a fight now. We've got a real contest. We're going to see who the real God is. But what you are seeing is that the gods of Egypt, which the Bible calls demons, are only poor imitators. They're not creators. Demons are not creators. Yahweh is. And so they cannot countermand the judgment that Yahweh is bringing upon their country. But when this third plague comes, the plague of lice, covers the land, the magicians say, don't worry, we've got this. I know what you all want. You want more lice. And they try. They try by their enchantments, because that's the way magic works. It works with spells and enchantments. It seeks to use magic, like a crowbar, to lever, as a lever for nature, and it does so with demonic power. But they try and they fail. We can't get any more lice. We don't seem to have any dust left. It's already all turned into lice. And what did they say to Pharaoh? They said, this is the finger of God. Did you notice that? And did you hear it again in Luke 11? Jesus is making a deliberate allusion when he comments in Luke 11 about the power by which he is casting out demons. If I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. It's not a very common phrase in the Bible. The repetition is on purpose. And it's by no means the only connection between these passages. Just as Jesus's miracles of healing were not medical missions for the purpose of physical relief, so the plagues on Egypt were not just inconvenient, costly, and painful consequences for Pharaoh's disobedience. The plagues were spiritual warfare. And so are Jesus's miracles. Now they might look very different. You say, the plagues are really bad. Jesus' miracles are really good. The plagues are causing people to suffer. Jesus' miracles are ending suffering. These are two radically different things. Not according to Scripture. God saves His people through judgment. The plagues were good things because they were delivering Israel from their oppressors. The miracles that Jesus performed were, yes, relieving suffering for some, but they were signs of judgment against the unbelieving. They were plagues on Israel's idolatry. These judgments from Yahweh were part of the war against the gods of Egypt. And he says this explicitly in Exodus chapter 12 as he announces the tenth plague. I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am Yahweh. That's what all the plagues are about. Every single one. And when you go back through the plagues, with that in mind, you begin seeing all kinds of things that you never noticed before. Like the fact that each of the plagues are targeting various deities that were worshipped by the Egyptians. The plagues were attacking the strongholds of unbelief and idolatry. They're not just economic problems. They're not just personal inconvenience or pain. It's spiritual war. And so too are Christ's miracles. Similarly, there's a connection between this account in Luke's Gospel and the fourth plague. Because in that plague, flies infested the land of Egypt. And to whom are Jesus' enemies attributing his work? Beelzebub, the lord of the flies. Christ is revealing His mission as a new judgment upon a nation that is polluted by demons. And just like you might look at the plagues on Egypt and the miracles of Jesus and say, these things are nothing alike. One is bad, one is good, one is causing suffering, one is relieving suffering. I don't see the connection. You might say the same thing about Egypt and Israel. might say, Egypt, they're a bunch of idolaters. Israel, they're the covenant people of God. The Egyptians are the bad guys. The Israelites are the good guys. Not according to the Bible. In fact, when you get to the book of Revelation, you're going to see John hear Israel, and Jerusalem specifically, identified as Egypt. The city where our Lord was crucified. Sodom. Egypt. This is the reality that Jesus as the new Moses is working signs of judgment against demonic forces against a new Egypt that is holding the people of God in captivity. That's why the Gospels begin with John the Baptist calling the people out into the wilderness to be washed in water, just as Israel needed to be when they came out of Egypt. Jesus is leading a new exodus. In fact, that's the way that Luke's Gospel interprets and understands the cross and the resurrection. On the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah appear to Jesus, and what are they speaking to Him about? His imminent exodus. Exodus happened a long time ago. No, the true exodus is about to happen, and Jesus is going to lead it by His death and resurrection. He's bringing judgment on corrupt power structures that have turned this nation's religion into self-righteous hypocrisy. He is waging war against unbelief that is leading God's covenant people to oppose faithful prophets and to reject and murder the Messiah. Their hands are covered with blood. It's the religious establishment that is the primary problem. It's not a judgment against Jewish people as Jews. It's a judgment against the covenant people that have committed apostasy because they have followed hypocrites upon whom the judgment of God is coming. As Jesus will say later in the Gospel, it's impossible for a prophet to die outside of Jerusalem. What is he saying? You might say, well, I mean, like Lord, several of the prophets, I mean, yeah, they were all killed, but some of them died outside of Jerusalem. But the point is Jerusalem is the reason that they died. It's the leadership of that city. It's the compromise and corruption of the leaders of the people who are not holy. They've become tyrants. The Bible reveals the doctrine of two kingdoms. But it is not the two kingdoms doctrine that many Reformed Christians today affirm. It is instead a contest between kingdoms of light and darkness. Between the camp of Satan and the camp of God. The gods of the nations are only demons, and they had now taken hostages in Israel. They had contaminated its worship and its religious tradition. And so Christ comes to Israel as a new and greater Moses to make war on the gods of Egypt that are now dominating and misleading his people. And Jesus was opposed by false magicians, known as scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. Israel's religious leaders are working, consciously or not, on behalf of the devil. They are seeking to perform signs to discredit the signs of judgment that the Lord is performing. Now there were already exorcists among the Jews. We have references to them elsewhere in Scripture as well as outside of the Bible. But now Christ's enemies claim that his exorcisms are just acts of the devil. And so Jesus asked them rhetorically, if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? You want to say this about the exorcisms I'm performing? Well, look in the mirror for a second. Your sons are performing exorcisms as well. What is the power behind them? Now, there's actually two levels to this response. The first, and I think most obvious one, is what sense does it make to claim that these exorcisms were really demonic acts when among the people of Israel there were other exorcists who were performing a similar work that the religious leaders were happy to approve and bless? Are your sons working on behalf of Beelzebub? And if you are indicting me for doing so, aren't you similarly indicting yourselves? But there is a second level at which this retort is operating. There was a strongly pagan syncretism at work in the Jewish ministry of exorcism. You can see this in Josephus in multiple places, both in antiquities and in wars. You can see it in Acts chapter 19. You don't have to go outside the Bible. In Acts chapter 19, you have the seven sons of Sceva, who are sons of a priest. but they are Jewish gypsies. They're itinerant exorcists. And how are they performing exorcisms? Now, Josephus actually goes into some detail about the way in which the Jews were performing exorcisms, and they were all by spells. They were all by incantations. They were literally using roots and various other rites. They were using black magic to try to pull demons out of the nose, right? Demonic boogers, maybe. In Acts chapter 19, the sons of Sceva, who are literally sons of the religious leadership, have now become itinerant exorcists, and they hear Jesus, they see Jesus casting out demons, see Paul, rather, casting out demons in the name of Jesus. They hear the name of Jesus, and so they corner a demoniac in the house, and they say, we cast you out in the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches. It's one of my favorite stories in the book of Acts. Every time I tell this, I say the exact same thing. You hate to root for the demons. But the demon turns around and says, I know Jesus and I know Paul, but I don't know you. And the one demon beats up the seven sons of Sceva so that they run out of the house naked and wounded. And what you learn is that exorcisms in the name of Jesus don't work like other Jewish exorcisms, because other Jewish exorcisms were black magic. They were paganism. They were part of syncretism and idolatry. They were pitting demons against demons. But that's not the way that the name of Jesus works. It's not a magic charm. You can't use His name like a spell. It doesn't work. The demon triumphs over these false exorcists. And so here, Jesus is highlighting their hypocrisy. Someone's casting out demons in the power of Beelzebub, but it's not me. Regardless of how you take what he's saying, the contest is very clearly between two kingdoms. And it is the kingdom of God that is clearly prevailing. There are two kingdoms, two houses, two powers at work in this world. And the coming of Jesus announces that the kingdom of darkness is falling. Satan is the strong man that Jesus refers to, but Jesus himself is the stronger man who overcomes him, takes from him all his armor in which he trusts, and divides his spoils. The ministry of Christ was a declaration of war, and no one could be neutral. There's no policy of isolationism in the battle between good and evil. Every person must and will inevitably choose sides. And that's why Jesus says what he does in verse 23. He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters. We are either on the side of heaven or the side of hell. We are either supporting the true king or the demonic tyrant. And there may be many controversies and many divisions in this world where we're not required to take sides. Contrary to what social media indoctrinates us all to think, it is not necessary to have an opinion about every question and every issue. And even if you have an opinion, it is not necessary or helpful or wise to publicly share it with everyone. Whatever pops into my mind, the world needs this. I have a thought. And it doesn't happen very often. And so I need to get on Twitter. But on this issue, there can be no neutrality. There can be no refusal to engage in the conflict. If you are not for Christ, you are against him. If you do not support the conquering king, you are supporting the tyranny of the status quo. You are supporting the demonic usurper who seeks to fill God's creation with misery and to turn it into hell. And so every faithful prayer is a sortie launched against the powers of darkness. Participation in public worship is an act of mustering the army of heaven in order to march around the walls of the city of man until they fall. And you should sing that way on the Lord's Day. And you do. Sing with joy. Smile as you sing. Sing with loud voices. It doesn't matter how well you can sing. You are singing to shake the walls of the city of man. Every resistance to evil in your heart is resistance to demons who seek to contaminate and dominate your life in this world. And every act of submission to the will of the flesh, every concession you make to laziness and pride and selfishness and bitterness and worldliness and self-righteousness is joining hands with the enemy. So don't do that. You're either opposing the enemy forces that are seeking to destroy your soul and the world, or you are supporting Christ. There is no third way. You are supporting the devil, or you are supporting the one who has come to destroy him. The final verses in Luke 11 describe the situation that's facing Israel, and these verses are regularly misunderstood. I hope to give some clarity on this today. Jesus describes a demon going out of a man, seeking rest, going through dry places, and then finding no place to land, he comes back to the house, the man, from which he had been cast, and he finds it swept and put in order. Or as Mark and Matthew emphasize when they record this, empty, swept, and put in order. And so we bring seven more demons, and the last state of man is worse than the first. And Jesus is describing Israel. This nation had been blessed by various reformations. God had sent prophets to His people to call them to repentance and to renew their allegiance to their covenant Lord. You had kings like David and Jehoshaphat and Jehu and Hezekiah and Josiah who took action to purge Israel of impurity and idolatry and immorality. But the success of those policies and programs proved to be short-lived. And so God sends Israel into Babylonian exile for 70 years, and it does eradicate the outward visible practices of idolatry. They're not bowing down to Baal when they get back from Babylon, but what the exile does is it actually hardens and metastasizes the inner heart idolatry that leads to the kind of hypocritical religion that is rebuked by Malachi, and by John the Baptist, and by Jesus. And so judgment loomed on the horizon. Messiah had now come and he had called the people to covenant renewal, but they rejected his message of repentance and were plotting his murder. This was not the king they were looking for. We don't want this kind of Messiah. A man preaching peace and submission to Roman authority. A man indicting the hypocrisy of a religious tradition that cares more about rules than righteousness. A man willing to suffer and die for doing what is right than to do wrong in order to win. And the religious leaders had accepted the devil's offer to Christ on the mountain that we studied just a couple of weeks ago. They had bowed down to worship the enemy in hope of gaining the world. But now they've lost the world and their souls, and soon they're going to lose what's left of their nation. Because 40 years later, the Roman army would besiege Jerusalem and slaughter its inhabitants and burn the temple down. Christ came to cast out the demons, not just from individuals, but from Israel. But what happens if the house is left empty after their departure? Jesus says the last state of man is worse than the first. Because nature abhors a vacuum, and evil will always seek to find a way inside. The man who repents of a sinful habit, but does not fill his life with obedience and righteousness, will soon find himself once again overcome Your house cannot be empty. It has to be full of life. Now, by way of application before we finish, I want to take you back in your mind, at least, to our reading from Ephesians. Because in Ephesians 5, Paul is highlighting this very same point that you're seeing made in conversation between Luke and Exodus. If we give ourselves, Paul says, to fornication, uncleanness, and covetousness, we have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. There are two kingdoms. One is prevailing. You won't be in it. if you take sides with the evil one. Jesus comes to make war against the demons. He comes to cast out, to exercise the evil and darkness that holds men in its power. He comes to deliver not just individuals, not just Israel, but the whole world from the tyranny of the devil. He's the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And R.C. Sproul, in his commentary on Luke, makes a stirring exhortation at this point by way of application. He says this, quote, The Scriptures warn us repeatedly against Satan, describing him as a roaring lion seeking whom he will to devour. He masquerades as an angel of light, deceptive, seductive, enticing us to fall. The image of Satan as a roaring lion is an image of strength. We are certainly no match for a lion. We are no match for Satan. Yet the Scriptures tell us that if we resist Satan, he will flee from us. This roaring lion, growling and intimidating everybody, will turn tail and flee if we resist Him as God teaches us to. Jesus says to His people, the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. We are weak. Satan is stronger. But Jesus is strongest. And if we have the power of Christ within us by the Holy Spirit, then that power is stronger than the power that is in the world and the power that is in Satan. That is why we must have the Spirit, and we must put on the armor of God in order to resist the devil." That's exactly right. That's how you're supposed to understand the ministry of Christ, and that's how you're supposed to understand your union with Jesus, and then your life every day as a believer. You're getting up, and you're going to war. That's the mindset we have to cultivate. A mindset of humility, but also of militancy. A mindset that recognizes the demonic reality of our enemy and our inability to withstand him on our own, but also recognizes the greater power of the one who is for us and in us and with us in battle. As believers, we are at war, and we must valiantly oppose the world, the devil, and our flesh. And our battle must be waged not with carnal weapons, but with the armor of God. Because, as Paul says in Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. It is a real fight against real foes. The most dangerous are unseen, but they are not imaginary. And it is not the left that is our primary adversary in this fight. The battle is not merely out there in the political or cultural arena. The battle lies within the walls of our own houses and within our own hearts. It's a battle for our souls and for those of our wives and children. And it must be fought first and foremost by worship and the Word of God, through prayer and praise and the pursuit of purity. What will we have gained if a new presidential administration purges the government of waste and corruption, but we remain idolatrous, immoral, and irreverent as a nation? What will be gained if the Church stands up to feminist and Marxist ideologies, but falls into the pit of bigotry, resentment, and ethnic vainglory in the name of Christ? What will be gained if we provide well for our families, and of course take them to church every Sunday and on vacation every year, but we fail to win their hearts and minds to serve Jesus Christ as Lord? I thank God for every movement toward reform and renewal, both in the state and in the church, as well as in our households. But we must bear in mind the Lord's warning in verses 24-26. If your house is swept and put in order, but remains empty of the Spirit of God, it only becomes a haven for the next wave of demons. Blessed indeed is the womb of Mary, as this woman cries out, carrying the Christ child and her breasts which nursed him. But Jesus pronounces a greater blessing than that of Mary, the mother of our Lord. He says, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it. And you know, really, that's what Mary did. She was faithful in the mission that God assigned to her. But her mission fundamentally, like ours, was to hear the word of God and obey it. She had a particular role in the plan. But fundamentally, the duty was the same. That's our task when we wake up every morning. It's the most important thing every day, no matter what else is on our plate. You have been cleansed, consecrated, and ordained by your baptism as warrior priests in the service of the true King. And the Lord sends us forth daily to do battle with demons. So let us take up the arms of prayer and the word of God in humble, obedient faith and go forth to battle following Christ to victory. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Let's bow together. Gracious God, we pray that you would make our hearts humble and yet bold. Bold because of the strength of the King who has come, the stronger one who has bound the devil and is plundering his house and bringing his kingdom to an end. We pray that daily we would side with Christ, being true to our confession and to our baptism, Lord, that we would take up the arms of prayer and Scripture, and we would do battle, not just against the world and the devil, but even against the worldliness and the demonish direction of our own hearts. We pray, God, that you would help us daily to labor in prayer and in faith with humble gratitude and with joy because of your salvation. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.