bring out the ascension as well. Luke chapter 11, verses 14 through 26. Our real focus though will be 14 through 23. Luke chapter 11, verses 14 through 26. So yeah, really very much a prophecy of the ascension. This is a sign he performs here, a prophecy that points to the fulfillment first at his death, resurrection, and ascension, but ultimately at his return when Satan and all those who are with him will be cast into the fires of hell. But all his saints will enter into the new heaven and new earth. But there you see something of the sign of that, pointing to that. Verse 14, we hear God's word. And he was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it was when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke, and the multitudes marveled. But some of them said, he casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Others testing him sought from him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say, I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils. He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters. When an unclean spirit goes out of him or out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finding none. He says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last date of that man is worse than the first." But our focus is up to 23. We're gonna include a little bit from 24 to 26, but I think the real conclusion is in verse 24, sorry, 23. He was not with me, is against me. That's his conclusion there. Well, what a confidence that we can have when we pray to this Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is it? You'll notice here, the one who commands us to pray and to trust in the Lord is the same Savior who destroys Satan's power over our lives and restores our lives. And above all, he restores our speech so that we can, with our mouths, praise and glorify him. That's what we see here in this miracle, don't we? We see a double miracle. A double miracle on a demon-possessed mute person. Mute means he cannot speak. Okay, so he's demon possessed and mute. What does Jesus do? He casts out the demon and he enables that person to talk again. The mouth is really important. Right? Because with our mouths, we can praise the Lord. He made us to praise him, to glorify him. And it shows what's in the heart. And that's what Jesus does. He restores this man in his grace. Though he does not deserve it, right? He's nothing. Yet the Lord is pleased to work his grace of salvation in this man. And notice, you know, in this miracle, You see Jesus performing it instantly. He doesn't say, well, I have to do it again because I failed, right? You see a lot of people that do that today, right? Oh, not quite. Oh, not fully. But this, Jesus does instantly at a blink of an eye and completely and so thoroughly. There is none. that can do this except for Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, instantly and completely and thoroughly. What a wonderful Savior we have, eh? So almighty, so full of power, but so full of compassion. What a beautiful togetherness of those two things, compassion and power. You know, he's not a little bit more imbalanced towards one side or the other, no equally powerful and compassionate. Our great high priest, one who always intercedes for us, always praying for us before the father. But at the same time, our great king, the one who rules over our hearts and lives by his word and spirit, so that we may continue to praise him and honor him as our king. You know, what we see here is a real miracle. It really happened. It's not a story. It actually happened. Jesus shows, he testifies himself that he is the son of God. He is the God who has come in the flesh. And you see the power and presence of God in his works and in his words. You see a demon gone out of a person, no longer causing chaos in his life and darkness and injury and hurt. And the proof of all this is the multitudes are just looking, they're just marveling. It's sudden, it's thorough. But you know what, this miracle is also a sign. It's not an end in itself. Sometimes we think a miracle's an end in itself. No, a miracle's a sign. All of Jesus' miracles were signs. It points to something greater. The sign points to something that's fuller, bigger, richer, and that is what? Even far more glorious is Christ's death on the cross, his resurrection from the dead, and his ascension into heaven, right? His going up into heaven in his body. And now today he reigns as ascended Lord and King from his throne in heaven. And he listens to the prayers of whom? His people. There is one that's no higher than him. He's the ultimate. He is Lord. That's our confession, isn't it? He is Lord, no other. He has no, he may have competitors, but there are no real competitors. He is Lord. And so the casting out of the demons, a sign that Christ has come to do what? He's come to break in into Satan's house, but it's a righteous breaking in. He's come to plunder it. He's come to destroy Satan. He's come to rescue his goods. Who are his goods? People. People who belong to the Lord, who've been chosen by God to salvation in Christ Jesus. He's come to plunder his house in order to restore us in fellowship so that Christ may build his house. There's two houses, Satan's house and God's house. There's no other house on this world. One either belongs to Satan's house or God's house. If you belong to God's house, praise God because you're on the winning side of history. Christ has conquered. And so he plunders that house. And he's continuing to do that today by rescuing people, right? In their chaos, in their misery, in their darkness. And do they deserve it? No, they don't deserve it at all. But praise God, he rescues them and says, you belong to me, I paid for you. Believe, trust. And so in this miracle, we see Christ does not do all this. He does not perform this miracle by Beelzebub. You notice that phrase, by Beelzebub, by Beelzebub, by Beelzebub, is frequently mentioned in verses 15 through 19. And in verse 20, he does so with the finger of God, takes one finger of God to destroy evil. One finger of God to bring down an evil empire, to bring down an evil prime minister. that power, right? So by the power of Beelzebub, no, but by with the finger of God. Those are really the two points that we see in this passage here. Not by Beelzebub. You know, the reason why this is brought up is because there were critics, people who hate Jesus and hate his teaching, they will always criticize because their hearts are bad. Their hearts are dark. And verse 15, some were saying, oh, I mean, they couldn't deny the reality of what Jesus did. It was before their eyes. It really happened. Oh, it's by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that Jesus casts out demons. Okay, they're not questioning the fact that he did it. They're questioning the source. Oh, from where did Jesus get this power? Now, some might say black magic, but black magic is evil always, all the time, 100%, right? It's from the world of evil, it's from the world of darkness. No Christian should ever, ever, ever engage in black magic, it's from the devil. But that's sort of their accusation that Jesus is using the power of Beelzebub to cast out demons. Who is Beelzebub? Well, Beelzebub here is called the Prince of Demons. Beelzebub means Lord of his house. Lord of his house. Okay, who is that? Who's the Lord of the house of demons? Satan. Okay, now there's a name connected to that with 2 Kings 1, Beelzebub. Little different spelling, but the god of Ekron, right? He's another god. But here it refers to Satan. He's the lord of his awful house, a house of chaos, a house of darkness, a house of cruelty, a house of misery. It's Satan himself. So what are these men saying, these people who are saying this? They're saying that Satan, Satan, not God, has given Jesus the power to cast out demons. As a matter of fact, if you go to Mark's version of this miracle, Mark chapter three, there's basically saying that Jesus had Beelzebub, that Jesus possessed by Beelzebub. What are they doing? They're attacking the works of God in Christ. Terrifying, terrible, frightful words that they're saying. What are they charging? They're charging Jesus really of being a Satan. They will not admit. The basic problem is not the reasoning. The basic problem is the heart. And that's why the bad reasoning. They will not admit. that Jesus is the Son of God. How many people today are like that? They will never admit that Jesus is the Son of God. Because to admit He's the Son of God means you need to believe in Him. It means that you need to bow to Him. They will not acknowledge, these people are saying this, they will not acknowledge the presence and that power of God in Jesus Christ. They will not bow down to Him, the one who came to seek and to save the lost. The one who came to seek and save the nothings. The one who came to seek and save who don't deserve salvation. in order to bring his people into fellowship with God. Christ was willing to endure the agonies of the cross. He was willing to fight Satan for us because there's no way that we could free ourselves from his captive bondage. There's no way we can break that bondage. It's unchanged, it's unbreakable. There's only one who can do that, that's Christ. And his agonies that he endured for us, it shows his love, his great, great, great love for us, his agonies we can never comprehend or even feel, even to a 10th degree of what he experienced. Next time someone says, no one's ever suffered like me, oh, there's someone who has suffered way more than any one of us that we can never imagine, and that's Christ. That's his commitment, his commitment. And they're saying he's the devil? Wow, he left his father's throne to be born as a baby in a manger, no crib. He left his father's throne to die on a cross, to take that curse that we brought upon ourselves. To him, they attribute the powers of the devil, the power of Satan. what people will say because of hatred in their hearts. You notice that? When there's hatred in their hearts, the reasoning becomes skewed. The reasoning takes them to all over the place. And you say, when you hear people reasoning, especially when they hate Jesus and his teaching, they go, huh? You say, what? You're not making any sense. Every false religion, every religion outside of Christianity is that way. It's... It doesn't make sense because it proceeds from a unwillingness to submit, to bow before the King Jesus. Notice Romans 10 or Romans 3, which applies to all of us apart from the grace of God. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. You know that demon that Jesus just healed or that demoniac Jesus just healed? He restored his mouth. to praise him, right? And he's able to speak again. But these people who are saying this stuff, their mouth is dirty. It needs washing. It needs to be cleaned out with soap. Actually, it needs the washing of the heart, right? The blood of Christ alone can cleanse it. Wow. You know, they're hateful. That's why they spew these reasonings. But in addition to that, they're jealous. You know, jealousy and hatred are very closely connected. When there's jealousy, there's hatred. When there's hatred, there's jealousy. It's a twin sister. The twin sister of hatred is jealousy. So these religious leaders, likely the scribes and Pharisees that we read about later, they're probably the ones who are saying this. They despise Jesus. They hate Jesus. They're jealous because who's listening to him? The multitudes, right? They marvel. They're being drawn to Jesus because they need Jesus. They need a savior. They're being drawn to life. They're being drawn to words of joy and drawn to words of peace. He was a threat to them. And what a great way to discourage people from following Jesus than to say bad words about him. Notice that? People who don't want you to follow Jesus, they say bad words about Jesus. It's a very cheap way. It's very irrational. It's very illogical. That's what they're doing here, right? Skewed reasoning. They don't even know Jesus to say something bad about him. They just don't want him. That's the real problem. You notice here then verse 16, others demanded a sign from heaven. The sign was already there from heaven. He'd healed the demoniac. But anyway, we'll have to deal with that at another time because it connects very closely with verses 30 and following. But today we're gonna focus on the fact that their charge, their criticism is, He casts out demons by Beelzebub. How did Jesus respond to the charge? He must have great sorrow in his heart. I mean, the truth is the truth, but Jesus certainly wants to win them over to the truth, win them over to him. He's the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus knows their thoughts, even before they say it. And he responds, verse 17, he says, okay, if you're right, then the forces of evil would only be trying to destroy themselves. It doesn't make sense. If you're working, if you have a company and you're working with one another, you're not trying to destroy it, because you're working for that company, right? Jesus is saying, it doesn't make sense. It makes no sense at all. Every kingdom, he says, divided against itself is brought to desolation. Why would Satan be trying to do that? When I'm trying to redeem and deliver people from Satan's kingdom, why would he hire me? He said, it makes no sense. Furthermore, he says in verse 18, the forces of evil are out to harm and destroy. The forces of evil in the world, always there. Sin is always there to try to harm and hurt people. They're out to destroy the good, the beautiful. They're not there to harm and destroy each other. They've already destroyed each other. They're already harming one another. They want to grab those in whom God is calling just, I mean, they want to harm those that don't belong to them, that don't belong to the demons. It should be so obvious that Jesus casting out demons is a plundering of Satan's house. He's the one who's rescuing. He's the one who's breaking the chains that no one can ever break out of, right? And he's the one who delivers. And finally, verse 19, Jesus shows they are not consistent. Okay, he says, if I cast out demons by Elzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? You prove what they're doing, you approve of what they're doing, and you're saying, oh, that's good. And you're saying, huh, me? When I'm doing it, it's bad? It's inconsistent. Your sons will be your judges, he says. And the whole point here is their criticism, their criticism makes no sense. It's not logical. It's not reasonable. And you'll notice that it all comes from a bad heart. To criticize Jesus, to speak badly of him and his teachings, always comes from a heart that is not in a right relationship with the Lord. And if it's a bad heart, the reasoning will always be dark. The reasoning will always be wicked. It will always be bad. It will never make sense because all the reason would be filled with inconsistencies and contradictions because it proceeds from a heart that doesn't want to submit to the one alone who can save us from ourselves. We need to be saved from ourselves. We can't. He's come to do that. That's what Jesus shows. No, not by the power of Beelzebub, but by what? With the finger of God. Now, we're not saying that God literally has fingers, but it's a matter of speaking, right? One little finger, he can destroy anything that is against his will. One little finger. Jesus shows that his power is of God. And you look at verse 20, he says, if I cast out demons with the finger of God, Surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Where else do you read about this phrase, the finger of God? Remember the plagues in Egypt? God had revealed his finger, his power, that is through powerful signs in order to deliver his people from the bondage of who? Pharaoh. Pharaoh was Satan's agent to destroy God's people. And remember with the third plague, with the gnats, a terrible plague. Okay, up to that point, the Egyptians by their, the Egypt magicians by their enchantments, they were also reproducing the same kind of plagues as God has sent, right? But when it comes to the gnats, they tried, they could not produce the same things by their magic. And what did they say? They concede to the power of God. These are magicians, these are, You know, astrologists, these are Egyptians who are not believers. They're saying, this is the finger of God. They concede. This is the finger of God. And you notice the end? What a beautiful end. God merely uses his finger. And the result? God shows his grace to his helpless people. And if you look at Exodus chapter 12, they plundered the Egyptians. They plundered the house of the Egyptians and they took all the goods and even some of the people from Egypt so they could join the house of God. All it takes, deliverance from Satan, all it takes is a finger, one finger of God. Wow. You think about the power of the gospel, you can share it with people. God uses it. It will not return empty. It will not return void. With the finger of God, Jesus casts out demons. Surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. The presence, the power of God's reign has come upon us in Jesus. What does that mark? The defeat of Satan and all his powers. And it's not distance, it's not way out there, it's here. It's in the presence of God's people as he comes to us with his encouraging gospel. Today, he shows his power, his presence and power through the gospel of one, the gospel of the crucified, risen and ascended Jesus. The Holy Spirit miraculously changes or regenerates the hearts of sinners into children of God. That's powerful. Just with his finger, just with a word, even one word, that's his power to the spiritually dead. And to know that we as his people can wait upon the Lord and that his kingdom will be fully realized in the future in the new heavens and the new earth, when there'll be no more dumbness, there'll be no more deafness, no more blindness. We'll see God in all his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. And so Jesus uses a parable to back up what he's saying. Finger of God. A little parable in verses 21, 22. Satan here is the strong man. In this parable, Satan here is a strong man. Satan, he's the one in his craftiness. He's stronger than you and me. We have to believe that. He's stronger, he's sneakier, he's way more deceptive than any one of us. He uses our deceptions, he uses our lies, but he's very, very clever. You know, he's the one, and that's one of his weapons. He's fully armed. He's the one who tempted our first parents, Adam and Eve, and by their willful disobedience, they robbed themselves and of all their descendants of the good gifts of God, they robbed us. He robbed us, Satan robbed us of heaven itself. The devil is very, very strong. That's what Jesus speaks of Satan here. He speaks of him as a strong man, fully armed, it says here. You see that? Verse 20, 21, fully armed. He's fully armed. He has all the snares, he's got all the tools, he's got all the tricks of the trade. And he's the one who guards his own palace. His goods are in peace. What is the palace? What is his palace? the hearts of people. The hearts of people is his palace. And he just loves to harm, loves to destroy. And what are his goods? His goods are the people. And it says here, his goods are in peace. Well, see, he's the one who's working by the devil is the one who works in the sense of disobedience, working all kinds of wickedness and hatred and jealousy. That's his work. And And the peace is like this. Their peace is this. They think that they're doing just fine. You talk to the average person in the world, they think they're just fine, that they're good. Everything is good. But it's not a peace. It's a false peace. It's not a real peace. That's the devil's way of tricking them into thinking that everything is fine, everything is good. He sees man's thinking that they are doing well, doing good. Let us thank God. There's one stronger than Satan. One stronger, way stronger. And that's Jesus, the son of God. And he's the friend of sinners. We saw that last week too. He's the one we can come to. He's the one who came so low, he came down as a servant to wash us, to clean us, and to take us into his house. He's the one. Jesus overcomes Satan on the cross. He's the one who plundered Satan's house, setting his sinful people, setting the captives, who were captives of Satan, he's the one who says, out of jail, okay? He sets us free. He breaks the chains. He breaks the chains of sins and the sinful desires that control us. and in his resurrection ascension into heaven, he's the one who carries the goods. Who are the goods? He carries the people and they become his gifts and his house in building his own house. So think of it this way, as believers in Lord Jesus Christ, you are his gift to the body. Each and every believer, each and every child, And the covenant family is a gift to the family of God. That's because Jesus captured you. He broke into the prison, the dark prison of Satan. He took you out simply by his grace, simply because God chose you from all eternity to be his own. That's the basis, not because we were good, but because he's good. And he gave us as gifts to his house, to his church. Wow. That's Christ. Psalm 68. Quoting Psalm 68 verse 8, the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4 verse 8, when he ascended on high, that means when Jesus ascended on high, he led captivity captive. What's that mean, captivity? Those who were captive in Satan, he took them. They're captive to him now, right? We're servants either of Satan or of Christ, right? So, but to be servants of Christ is glorious, is joy, is peace. Well, he set these captives free. They follow him, they become his gifts in his house. That's Ephesians four verse eight. It says it very clearly, quoting Psalm 68. We are now gifts to the church. Think a good example is that demon possessed man in Luke chapter eight, right? He was one of Satan's goods. People are his best goods. The best goods that Satan has are people, because he wants some really badly. So this demonic was one of Satan's goods. And who set him free? Jesus did, by casting out the demon. And how does he become a gift in God's kingdom? Well, Jesus says, you go and you tell everyone what great things God has done for you. He restored his mouth. There were words of praise, of thanksgiving coming out of his mouth. Jesus is stronger than Satan, never doubt that. You know, sometimes Satan can discourage us, sometimes he can make us think that we're nothing and make us believe that, that there's no use, there's no help, there's nothing that can be done. Don't believe a word. There's one stronger. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, in the trials of life, sometimes trials become very heavy. And sometimes we think, does God really love me? Face death. More often than not, I hear people that great struggle with Satan as they near death. But you know, God's people have a great comfort to know that Christ, who symbolizes a strong man here, He has conquered Satan. We rest in Him. That's our resting place. That's our assurance. That's our, don't look at yourself, look to Him. He's the one who conquered. Romans 8, 37, 38, 39. In all these things, we are more than conquerors. Through whom? Through Jesus, who loved us. We already saw His love, how deep it is. that he's willing to scrap with the devil and defeat him for our souls. He says, I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor things present nor things to come, nor height or depth, or any created thing is able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Often I hear from people, I've broken every commandment in God's book. I'm not good enough. Well, of course, nobody's good enough. But who's good enough? Christ. We didn't deliver ourselves from Satan. Christ is, he's good enough. God accepts all who trust on him. He accepts us on the basis of what? Christ's perfect obedience. Christ's perfect sacrifice on the cross. True, my love will never be strong enough. It will always be failing. But whose love is strong enough that can never separate us from his love? Christ, his love. Yes, notice in all these things, we are more than conquerors through whom? Through him who loved us. All ours, all yours by God's grace. But there's a condition here. Psalm 23, sorry, verse 23. There's a condition. that you put your trust in Christ alone. That's the condition, trust, to believe. Jesus says in verse 23, he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. You know, there's no middle house where we can be staying. There's only two houses. It's either the house of Jesus or the house of Satan. There's no, people can say, well, I'm in a different house, third house. That's simply not true. Because if we're not with Jesus, we're against Jesus. That's what he's saying here. You know, we either belong to one or the other, not in between. And you know about the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We don't make Jesus Lord. People sometimes say, yeah, I'm gonna make Jesus Lord of my life. No, we don't make Jesus Lord. He is Lord already. He's Lord. But the call is to acknowledge him as Lord, right? To receive him as Lord, to bow before him as Lord. You know, the kingdom, it's not just simply beautiful words. It's not just pious practices. The kingdom is the overthrow of evil, of sin, and standing with Jesus against all the evil and the sin in our lives and the sin of this world. That's exactly what Christian baptism says. You know, as parents, children, you receive baptism It's not, first of all, you saying, I commit myself to God. That's not first of all. The first of all is God says, I commit myself to you. And I am strong enough to bring that newness in your life. And so one who's baptized, right? One who receives baptism, God gives the grace to say, yes, Lord, I'm yours. We pray for that, don't we, for our children, that they may respond and say, yes, Lord, I agree. I'm yours. I acknowledge you as Lord. I bow before you as Lord. I belong to Jesus. I am not my own. It's a wonderful confession. God makes his commitment to us. And when he makes a commitment toward us, we can never be in the wrong by saying, I'm responding and saying yes to him. That's on the winning side. That's the glorious side. That's the joy of salvation. But you know, true, baptism is a sign of that. I'm committed because of what, his commitment to me, I'm committed to him. That's the response that God is looking for. You know, sometimes people can be very squeaky clean on the outside, squeaky clean, upright, moral, no smoking, no drinking, no swearing. That's not gonna save you. If you don't drink, if you don't smoke, you don't swear, that's not gonna save you. We need to be converted. We need the Holy Spirit. He's the one who brings inward spiritual change. We're not saved by our morality, but those who are saved, certainly they become moral. Verses 24 to 26 speaks of that. One, it says there that one is like one from whom a devil has been cast out, but in whose heart the Holy Spirit has not entered. So the Holy Spirit has not entered into such a person where a devil has been cast out. But that one evil spirit, seeing the house swept and clean and put in good order, looking really nice, looking really pure, returns with seven more demons, worse than himself. And the final condition of that person becomes worse than before. That was a state of Israel, the Pharisees and the scribes. They had everything. It's like the demon was cast out. They were swept clean. They were looking really good, looking really moral, looking really pure. But you see their mouth. Horrible things coming out of their mouth because their heart was terrible. Seven more demons. and was entering into them. Scary. Squeaky clean, they were, but they were not converted. They were not bowing to Jesus, the Lord. In closing, you know, you see a really delightful picture of the finger of God in Psalm 8, verse 3. And I think that That's a good place to end here. Psalm 83 says, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place. You ever see the stars at night? All the twinkling stars? By his fingers, he put them in place. Sign of beauty, light, order, harmony. That's what Jesus has come to do by his grace. take us out of that decrepit prison. And he's come to restore us, to build this house. And by his grace, and by the working of his Holy Spirit, you see something of that beauty, that light, that order. If I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Beauty, light, order, in a world of hatred, jealousy, chaos, and darkness. This is the saving power of God. Isaiah 61, verse three, we'll close with that here. It says that in Christ, God bestows on us a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. We will be called oaks of righteousness a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor, all by the grace of God. Amen.