Luke 11:14-20

The Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, and reading verses 14 through 20 for our text and study this morning. And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass when the devil, it was gone out, the dumb spake. And the people wondered. But some of them said, he cast a thyself. without devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils, and others tempting him, sought of him assigned from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said under them, every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stay? Because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. But if I cast, excuse me, and if I, by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. But if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is coming to you. May God bless to us his sacred and holy word this one. Let’s have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for the opportunity to ponder the truth of your word. How feeble we are, Father, to take into our hands your word in attempt to explain it. But we pray for your blessing upon it. But we pray for your that you may edify your people, encourage us in the faith, and we pray, Father, the Christ may be glorified in your name honored. And we ask these things in Jesus, precious name. Amen. Many years ago, C.H. Spurgeon, the famous Baptist preacher from London, took a tour of Europe during a time of a prolonged illness. and so at Hanover, they saw the unfinished palace of a deposed king. And they said they were shown his estate, his private carriages, his stables, his cream-colored horses, and so forth. They said it was a saddening sight because they had all the emblems of royalty there, but there was no king. the Hanover kingdom lies in permanent ruin, its monarch forever, in exile. How much like human nature, which has so much about it that is prepared for the service of the king of kings, and yet, even though we have such faculties for heavenly service, an occupation because of our fallen state, we find that is not what it’s being used for. Sadly, the king has departed the house, so to speak, and it’s left desolate. You were made to have dominion, and yet man is far from it. All your faculties have been perverted in one way or another to afford an use, and aren’t able to perform, their functions properly as intended originally. This poor state of man in our text is indicated by its dis-man’s subjection to Satan’s power, and it takes the almighty power of Christ to free him from this state and condition that he is in. We see here the powerful influence of Satan’s power. over you in an unconverted state in verse 14. And he was casting out a devil and it was dumb. And it came to pass when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake, and the people wondered. You find here a man that is greatly troubled by Satan. The case of this demon-possessed man was very sad, for the devil that possessed him had rendered him dumb. He’s incapable of speaking. And as you recall, if you wasn’t carefully as Russell read Matthew’s account, he was also blind. So he could not see and he could not hear. He didn’t have these faculties. He couldn’t provide for himself. He was a pitiful case. Was he not? Scripture reveals that there are unclean things. spirits who not only are unclean in the sense that they’re evil spirits, but they often cause uncleanness in men and women. There are death spirits, cause you lose your hearing, dumb spirits that cause you to lose your speaking ability, and there are violent deans that enter into you that may cause you to be cast into the water or into the fire or something of this nature. Satan seems to delight in inflicting injury and harming human beings. So you find a man, he’s greatly troubled by Satan. Now, you find that Satan still is actively troubling human beings today. You must not suppose that because demon possession is not as common today, that Satan has less… influence now than he had then. You have in the sad state of this man a striking representation of the wretched condition of all those who are fallen in Adam. Now, you come into this world dumb also. Not that you can’t physically speak, but you are incapable of spiritual conversation. You can’t speak spiritually. The tongue is the glory of man when this faculty is used for speech that is honoring under the Lord God. But by nature, you’re dumb. You’re unable to use your tongue in a manner that is pleasing and honoring to God. In fact, you often use it to curse God and man. And as an unregenerate person, you are dumb when it comes to prayer. You do not know how rightly to address the Lord God. Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it. Job 3513. You remember the story about the public and the Pharisee, who went up to the temple to pray. And you hear the Pharisee pray. And you can hear his prayer as it is recorded for us. But it is dumb when it comes to elevated spiritual expression. It’s not real prayer. Read it carefully. It’s a bragging session about what he does. Your mouth, you see, may say pious words, but you can’t commune with God in an unregenerate state. You’re also dumb when it comes to spiritual conversation. How can you edify others? If you were with a group of believers, you are going to be struck dumb and are awkwardly silent because their language and their thoughts are above you. You cannot contribute to that. What part hath he that believeth within and infidel? It’s like speaking a foreign language for an unbelief. For an unbeliever to hear two. believers talk in elevated spiritual language about spiritual matters, they just don’t get it. They can’t grasp it. Remember how Nicodemus, the Jewish religious leader who came to Jesus by night, was completely lost when Jesus talked about being born again. When he talked about being born of the spirit. What do you mean? You mean somebody has to be, go back into their mother’s womb and come back out again? how can these things be? He is no clue about spiritual matters. Remember how Jesus said to him, Are thou a master of Israel and know is not these things? Heavenly things like this, you ought to know. Aren’t you a man who studies the scripture? These very things are spoken of by babes in Christ. But Nicodemus cannot speak of them. Despite all his religious learning, he has no clue. So you find Satan still actively troubling human beings today in this regard. Now, you find Christ is able to break Satan’s power over you. Now, our blessed Savior graciously intervenes here and heals this dumb man, this deaf man as well. He powerfully cast out the devil. And as soon as this son, is done the dumb spake. What a great deliverance this was. What joy and gratitude must have filled the heart of this man. You’ll recall that we’ve spoken about this before, that whenever Christ physically heals someone, it seems like he spiritually heals them as well. He doesn’t give him the lesser healing without give him the greater healing. And so this man was delivered from Satan, not just regard to his physical condition, but his spiritual condition. But he was now a saved man. Friends, divine grace produces a profound change in the sinner. He’s no longer spiritually done. He has given the ability to pray. As soon as he, the Spirit of God enters into him, he’s moved to cry out Abel Father. Is he not? You were granted elevated spiritual things. thought. You were enlightened by God. You can speak about spiritual things. You can join the conversation of God’s people. And while you may not be able to go into a deeper spiritual conversation, you might have to listen and learn, you still are able to pick up what they’re talking about and benefit from. What a happy change. when this is done. And the people, when they saw this man now able to speak, they were wondering about this. They were amazed. And I’ll tell you this much, when a man is changed from a state of darkness into a change of light, people will wonder about it too. Because this person who used to be like this is no longer like this. He’s different than he was. Something happened to. him. Salvation brings a stunning spiritual change in people. Matthew informs us that all the people were amazed and said, is this not the son of David? This must be the Messiah. The people were right to draw such a conclusion by this great performance. The Messiah was indeed walking among them. When someone has brought to salvation and is spiritual dumbness is healed. They begin to speak heavenly things. And that catches the attention of people. People should wonder about it. It is an amazing event. How did this happen? When everybody sees you’re a new person and you’re unlike what you used to be and you’re telling them that Christ saved my soul. Makes difference. So the powerful influence of Satan here over you in an unconverted state can be broken by Christ and we see that happening here. now secondly we see the amazing prejudice in your heart against Christ in an unconverted state notice verses 15 and 16 with but some of them said he casteth out devils by Beelzebub the chief of the devils and others tempting him sought of him sought of him a sign from heaven my friend unconverted people seek to find fault with Christ and malign him in some fashion. Matthew stresses that this was done by the Pharisees, who certainly denied that Jesus was the Messiah. They couldn’t deny that Christ had performed a great miracle because it was right there before their eyes. Couldn’t deny that. That was plain and obvious. Then they said, well, he’s doing this by Beelzebubbub, the chief of the devils. Bailzebub or Beelzebub, Bailzebub is the Old Testament version of this, is mentioned in Second King’s Chapter 1. He is the god of Echron. He is a Philistine god. It means the god of the flies, the god of the dunghill. Now since the heathen were actually worshipping devils, the Bible, tells us in their worship of these false gods. This god was viewed then as a high-ranking demon that was being worshipped. The name eventually was applied by the Jews to Satan himself as the chief of the fallen angels. So what are they saying? He’s doing this by the power of the devil. That’s the only way he’s casting out demons. This was, of course, a malicious lie spoken against Christ, but it was spoken that turned people away from Christ because they were saying, who is this person? It seems like he might be the Messiah. Modern infidels perceive that if he even admit the miracle, then they might have to admit that Christ has come from God. So they don’t even want to admit the miracle, which the Pharisees could not easily do because it was right there before everybody’s eyes. So they’ll tell you that these miracles are all fake. They’re not real. Else they’re going to be forced to deal with Christ and his ability to bring about these miracles. But this state of mind is quite common. There are people who are determined to see no good in Jesus Christ, none whatsoever. He’s a deceiver of the people. You find Christ’s portrayed in this manner. They will blasph him his name. They will say all. manner of evil against the Savior. The heart of man is so desperately wicked that he will call evil good and good evil. People grow steadily worse and worse in their opposition to Christ, and they will say anything to discredit him. They refuse to even call Christ by one of his glorious names. It’s interesting, in Matthew’s account, the Pharisees didn’t call him Jesus. They didn’t call him Christ. They said, this fellow. This fellow does this by Bielzeba. They won’t even give him his proper name. If they called him Jesus, well, he’s the Savior. If they called him Christ, then he’s God’s anointed. If they call him, Lord, well, he’s divine. They can’t use those language. I can’t use that language. So they simply say this felt. a degrading way of referring to Christ. Now, people today like the Pharisees, would like to race Christ altogether from the minds of people. I don’t know if you heard on the news report reports this week. There were people in certain school districts that still have to wear masks. And one girl must come from a Christian home. Went in with a mask and said, Jesus loves me. Oh, they couldn’t have that. You can have a mask with any other statement on it. You could probably have, you know, Che or one of those communist names on it or something like that. But you couldn’t have Jesus loves me a simple statement like that. No, we’ve got to get, you’ve got to take that mask off. Thus today, you’re often forbidden to even speak of Christ in the public arena. Receives all ridicule and scorn when it happens. So you find fault with Christ and you malign him. Notice something else. You’re never satisfied with the evidence of Christ being divine and to save. Verse 16 says here, others tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. We refused all the miracles he had not no, we want a sign from heaven. I suppose they’re thinking back in the Old Testament when Moses was before Pharaoh, and he stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire along the ground or something toward the plague of hell. Is that what they want? Joshua called upon God to cause the sun and moon to stand still. Elijah prayed and fire came down from heaven upon his sacrifice on Mount Carmel and burn it up, even after he dumped dumped all the water, barrels of water, on it, remember? As if a sign from heaven was going to convince them. Now if you know anything about Scripture, you know that Satan is able to duplicate things in some ways to trick people and fool them. Look at the story of Job. Look how Satan worked miracles in a way to attack Job’s family and possessions. Fire from heaven and burned up and consumed Job’s sheep and the servants that were watching. Fire from heaven came down. Satan sent this great mighty wind out of the desert to crush the wall of the house in which Job’s family, his sons and daughters were all having a party or having fellowship and killed them all. The beast out of the earth in the book of Revelation was given power by God to make fire fall down from heaven. What made these people think that somehow or other they could distinguish between what Satan could do and what Christ was doing if it was by the power of God? But let’s just put it this way. Nothing was good enough to convince them. Even if he gave them a sign from heaven, they still wouldn’t have believed. They would have found some other excuse for not believing on Christ. Let me ask to this. In the Old Testament, remember there’s 10 plagues that fell on Egypt, on Pharaoh. Did that change a Pharaoh’s heart? did he all of a sudden become a believer in Jehovah and repent? Because of that? He hardened his heart. Those signs from heaven didn’t move him at all. Remember this story of the rich man in Lazarus? If you just send Lazarus back from the dead to speak to my five brothers, they will believe. Father Abraham says to him even if one rose from the dead, they still wouldn’t believe. Even if Lazarus came back from the dead, they still wouldn’t believe. A deprived heart can’t be changed by observation of various miracles and even signs from heaven. It takes the regenerating power of God to change the heart. The amazing prejudice in your heart against Christ in an unconverted state. Thirdly, you should ponder how Christ irrefutably answers those who seek to malign him in their unconverted state. Look at verses 17 through 20 here. But he, knowing their thoughts, said under them, every kingdom divided against itself, is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house fall with. If Satan also be divided against him, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils by whom do your sons cast them out, therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is coming to you. You should know how division only brings with it destruction. It’s absurd to think that Satan would be casting out his own demons from people. Why would he work at cross purposes against the interest of his own kingdom? Does that make any sense? You see how foolish this charge is? This is what Christ is. This is foolish. No kingdom or household or family can stand when it’s divided against himself. It’s a well-known truth. Why do you think? think there’s this well-known maxim that says divide and conquer when it comes the war. Why do you think the Communist Party would love to have us divided as a nation fighting against one another because that is the way we could be destroyed? There was a time we read in the Old Testament when the Mobites, the Ammonites, the Edomites all joined together and they formed this vast coalition. And this huge army came and was came to invade the land of Israel and Judah. So great was this enemy army that Jehoshaphat and all Israel were afraid, and they sought the Lord’s help. And you know what? God said? God promised them victory, and he said, you know what? You’re not even going to have to fire a shot. I will take care of the whole thing myself. I will defeat them all for you. Now, how would God do this? Well, he caused the enemy. army to be divided and fight against itself. For the children of the Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seer, the Edomites, utterly dislay and destroy them. And when they made an end of the inhabitants of Seer, everyone helped destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watchtower in the wilderness, they looked under the multitude and behold, they were dead bodies, fallen in the earth. and none escaped. When they got to the battlefield, they were all dead. It killed one another. He had turned them one against the other. Now this principle was even more relevant in the spiritual realm. Why would Satan be aiding Christ and curtailing the power of his own kingdom? Doesn’t make any sense. Notice this also. Don’t be inconsistent in your judgments. Verse 19 here. The Pharisees applauded and admired their own. own disciples who supposedly by their ability cast out demons, why don’t you ever charge your own disciples with doing it by Beelzebubbub? Why just me? Jesus declares you’re guilty of malicious partiality in making this charge against me. I’ll let your own disciples judge whether or not such a charge against me condemns them too. You’re making a rash uncharitable charge and you have not thought through this very carefully. He’s making them look silly. Don’t be inconsistent in judgments. And then thirdly here, you need to acknowledge the truth. And the truth is found in verse 20 here. This expression, the finger of God. It seems to be an allusion back to the time of the plagues and Moses when he was doing the first couple of miracles and the wizards and the wizards, if you would, of Egypt copied them. Remember that? But when he got to the lice, the plague of the lice, they couldn’t copy it. and they said, this is the finger of God. You know, we can’t duplicate this one. Now, if Jesus’ miracles were done by divine power, by the finger of God, then they should acknowledge that he is the Messiah and believe on him. That his kingdom is present. This is the grand conclusion you should also reach today. If Christ did these things by the power of God, he is indeed the Messiah, the Savior, as the Scriptures declare him to be. Let me draw three practical conclusions briefly this morning. First, carefully examine your own spiritual state. You are by birth, fallen in Adam, spiritually, naturally dumb. Inquire then whether you have recovered the ability to speak spiritually. Whether you can truly pray God honoring prayers, are you unable to engage in conversation with God’s people and edify one another? It takes a heart change produced by the Holy Spirit to recover from spiritual dumbness. Have you had one? And thankfully, Jesus Christ still is. He can still heal spiritual dumbness. You can go to Him. him if you don’t have the ability to spiritually speak and appeal to him to change you and to help you. Secondly, you should realize the sin and the folly of needless divisions. Sadly, harmful divisions are found in Christ’s kingdom, which hinders its progress on this earth. Now, there are always those who sued no good in their fellow servants of Jesus Christ. So whatever such a Christian does or says is rendered or considered wrong. Must be something wrong with it. If this person manages to do something which must be at least acknowledges right, well, his motives must be sinister. Must have bad motives behind it. No wonder Paul prayed to be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men. They’ll always find follow with everything. We should pray for the unity of the spirit of God. among God’s people so that there are no divisions in the church. Because if you bite and devire one another, take ye that you be not consumed with one another, as it says in the book of Galatians. Religious divisions of some kind are probably always going to exist as long as there’s false doctrine. We know that. However, among true believers who agree on the fundamentals of the faith, unity should be sought. Let us seek to find common ground. Acknowledge that others serve Christ also. Have a humble mind. And do not think too highly of yourself. Distinguished between vital doctrine and secondary doctrine, which, while important, is not essential to salvation. Emphasize what you agree about. And then have any discussions you might have on. things you disagree about in love as one with as a brother in Christ my third thought is this learn clearly how true conversion takes place it is the finger of God this salvation this curing of the spiritually done comes by divine power alone the regenerating work of the spirit of God you can’t deliver yourself from this wretched condition. Only Christ can deliver you. There is a Savior. There is a Redeemer who can deliver you from Satan’s power. That should give you hope. As we’re going to see, he’s stronger than Satan in our next study. Salvation is solely of the Lord by the finger of God. So those who wish to be saved must earnestly seek it from Jesus Christ because he’s the one who can give you salvation. Well, the Hanover kingdom lies in ruin. It’s sad end to a once thriving little kingdom. But it’s gone. Man lies in ruin because of his fallen sin in Adam. He’s lost the glorious state that he once possessed, but it can be recovered. It can be recovered by the work of Christ. And the mighty power of Christ can restore. Let us always keep that in mind. Let’s close with a word of prayer.