Luke 11:24-26

Luke chapter 11, verses 24 through 26. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house, whence I came out. and when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and takeeth to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. May God bless to us his secret. and holy word this morning. At sea, a dredge brings up innumerable creeping things from the ocean floor. Among these creatures, there are many that are in their natural shell, but there are those creatures who confiscate the shells of large sea snails, and use them to house themselves for a period of time. This creature will live in the shell while it suits him and leave it when it becomes inconvenient. The shell is not part of him. In the spiritual realm, we should avoid an external religion that is not part of you. Beware. off a Sunday shell and then living all week without one. An external religion does you no good because there is no interchange that has taken place. And so you will eventually shed such a religion because it is not part of you. Now, Jesus has talked to you. about the power of Satan over you in an unconverted state. We talked about this in our last study in verse 21. Satan is a strong man who reigns in the palace of man’s heart, but the omnipotent Christ is stronger than Satan, overpowers him and breaks his dominions. over your soul. As verses 22 and 23 indicate. Christ demonstrates here that you can’t remain neutral. In this battle between him, this conflict between him and Satan, you’re either on Christ’s side, or else he has to put you in Satan’s camp. I want to speak this morning on the uselessness. of religious reformation from these verses that I read. Now let me begin by saying this. You may engage in some type of religious reformation. Versus 24 and 25, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places seeking rest, and finding none, he’s seen, I will return unto my house once I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Now I want you to notice here that Satan has not relinquished his power over you. Notice carefully the unclean spirit leaves on his own will. He freely chooses to do so. This appears to be a common occurrence that demons could come and go as they saw fit in an individual’s life. The father of the demonic boy gives testimony which seems to confirm this point as we studied in Luke chapter 9 verses 37 through 39. We read this. And he said, and it tariff him and he foams again and bruising him hardly departeth from him. Hardly departeth from him. But he does depart every so often, you see. This is the situation. There’s much difference between a demon being cast up by Jesus Christ or one of his apostles and this demon leaving on his own accord. We should realize that. Now the house, remember the house is really the person. The house still remains the demon’s own property. For in verse 24, as he states here, I will return to my house once I came out. It’s still mine. Those persons from which Christ cast out a demon can never be entered again. And the demonic boy. the same demonic boy in Mark 925 thou deaf and dumb spirit I charge thee come out of him and enter no more into him Jesus said you never read in scripture of a demon returning when Jesus Christ cast them out because when Christ cast out a demon he saves out he saves the individual and therefore he cannot, the demon cannot come back. Now Satan may leave for a time, someone that he has possessed, to draw this poor deluded soul into a trap, so that in the end he ends up worse than he was at the beginning, which is the case here in our text. He lets the man. indulge a little in religion for a time. Then turn aside from it. This will make the person permanently skeptical of the value of religion. That it’s of no use pursuing religion because it doesn’t help him. In this matter, Satan will hold him fast then and keep him in unbelief. And ultimately, he will be dragged. down to hell. So Satan may leave a person on his own accord, but he retains the key to the house, and he’ll return whatever he wishes. He doesn’t always occupy a person, but he hasn’t given up ownership. The person is still under his control and dominion. Now this evil spirit that leaves him is uneasy when he has been up ownership. The person is still under his control and dominion. Now this evil spirit. He is not ruling in a human being. He walketh through dry places, desert areas, seeking rest, and finding none. Remember what the Lord said unto Satan in the book of Job, where have you been? And Satan told him from going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it. Your adversary, the devil is a roaring line, walks about. out seeking whom he may devine. Now this demon seeks rest. It shows us that they are restless. They are not able to find any rest on their own. They’re restless with an unwearied craving to do some harm and inflict injury to human beings. And finding none, because he can never be at rest at peace, because they’re not right with them. God, these spirits, who is the one who gives peace. So Satan is miserable when he’s not employed in the work of corrupting others. So to gratify his own evil heart, Satan decides here to return to the house, so he may work further in this child of disobedience. And therefore, the demon easily returns, takes up residence. once again. There’s nothing to hinder him. The man certainly doesn’t put up any resistance to this. So Satan has not relinquished power over you just because a demon leaves you. Now, notice something else here. You clean up your life by some religious reformation. In verse 25, we read that when he cometh, he findeth its swears. wept and garnished. Matthew 1244 says, first of all, he finds it empty. No one else has taken possession of Satan’s house. If Christ or the Holy Spirit were present, the demon couldn’t come back. He would be for good. He couldn’t reenter. Christ would say, depart from here. There’s no place for you here. I have bought this person with my blood. and I mean to possess him forever. If Christ be in you, then the door to Satan is closed for him to control and dominate you. An evil spirit cannot coexist with the Holy Spirit. Light dispels darkness, is what the scriptures tell us. But since this demon finds his house empty, he moves right back in, there’s no deterrent. Now our text is he finds it also swept. The house is swept or cleaned up to some extent. Perhaps any gross sin that is in this person’s life has now been rectified. Cleaned up a bit. That once plagued him when he was demon possessed. There’s some type of partial reformation that takes place in this person. In other words, he just abandons the worst kind of sin that he was engaging in before. If his foul mouth cursed and blasphemed previously, now he curbs his tongue. If he was sexually immoral, he stops having adulterous affairs and attempts to be a better husband. If he was frequently drunk, perhaps he curtailed. his excessive drinking and remains sober. If he abused his wife, maybe he hit her. Now he refrains and treats her to more civil manner. There are those who escape the pollutions of the world, as 2.20 tells us, through some type of religious reformation in their life. Without the demon constantly troubling him, he does some external. Reformation and cleans up his life to an extent. His house is swept, but it’s not washed. It’s still full of sinful pollution. It’s like the case of the scribes and the Pharisees that Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 23. He says, wall unto you scribes and Pharisees, you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess. You can make some external reformation in your life, but still be fully corrupt and evil on the inside. Christ said, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part in me or with me in John 138. You must be washed in Christ’s blood and have your sins cleansed. But sadly, you’ve only sweat. You’ve only sweat. you’ve only removed just the loose dirt of external sin, but your heart is still desperately wicked. The external reformation of some grosser sins is not the same as the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost that we read about in Titus 3.5. When I thought about this, I thought about Pilgrim’s progress, and at one point, Mr. Pilgrims at the interpreter’s house, and he’s led into a very large parlor that was full of dust. Do you remember that? And the interpreter called for a man to sweep the parlor. However, the sweeping only moved the dust about, didn’t actually clean up the room. And then he called for a woman to come on and sprinkle water on the floor, and then clean it up. And the dust could be then removed and cleansed. The parlor portrays the heart of man who cannot be cleansed simply by external sweeping, so to speak. The water of grace must be applied in order to thoroughly cleanse the heart. This lesson is an important one. The washing of regeneration is essential. That’s what the scriptures tell us. So we find if it’s swept. now he also when the demon returns he finds it garnished in some fashion the word garnished here is Cosmeo we get the word cosmos here it means to furnish or dorn in some fashion. Remember the city of the New Jerusalem and the book of Revelation is said to be garnished or with all manner of precious stone. in Revelation 2119. Jeweled, so to speak. The scribes and the Pharisees would garnish the sepulchers of the righteous. They would beautify them in some fashion. Here the idea seems to be the man adds some religion to his life. You start attending a modern church where you’re comfortable, perhaps. But there is no thundering about the law of God. There’s no dreadful teaching about hell fire to frighten you. You have a form of godliness, but know nothing of the transforming power of God in your life. You have a plaque maybe on your living room wall of Christ’s model prayer that we looked at earlier in Luke 11 1 to 4, even though you really know nothing about true prayer. You start wearing a gold cross necklace, even though you have no true understanding and affiliation with the cross of Christ and the salvation that’s in it. Maybe you purchase a Bible. You set it in a prominent place in your house, but you know nothing of God’s precepts and will. Maybe you give to charity. Maybe you’re publicly recognized for your good deed. But you don’t really love your neighbor as yourself. That’s a foreign concept. You actively engage in various church activities. Maybe you serve on church committees, but you never seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness. There are many people who garnish their lives with spiritual trappings but are still far from the kingdom of God. He find if it garnished Now let me make this observation. Beware of being satisfied with merely religious reformation. If your house is empty of Christ or the Holy Spirit, you’re still under Satan’s dominion. You can sweep your house. You can break off maybe the blackest sins in your life, but you still are on wall. by Christ’s regeneration. You can garnish your house and add some religious activities or relics, but this is a far cry from zeal for Christ’s cause on earth. You can’t be satisfied with these things. You do not know the Lord, and you don’t know forgiveness of sins. You may engage in some type of religious reformation. Notice secondly, religious reformation ultimately will leave you in a worse condition than you originally were. Notice verse 26. He says this, Then go if he and take it to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of the man is worse than the first. Here’s the sad fact to become more wicked than you were before this religious reformation in your life. The demon is pleased to find his house still available, so he goes and he finds seven other demons, worse than himself. And now the person has eight demons inside him. The sinful man then becomes more proud, more unbelieving, more vicious, more blasphemous, than at the beginning. Whatever religious reformation he displayed, it all disappears. He becomes more profane than ever. If he has professed to be a Christian, he proves himself to be a hypocrite because Christ never cleansed his heart. It is shocking to see how great a fall this person has. He is more eager to serve Satan than ever. In Christ’s days, the Pharisees and others, put on a great pretense of being followers of God, very religious, but their hearts were far from the Lord. Indeed, a generation of vipers who did not love God, nor Christ his son. They pretend to be pious, but in their hearts they have murderous intentions, see their hatred for Christ, see how they waxed worse and worse, and how it led up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 78. What a demonically controlled people, which made them hateful and hating of one another. This same problem plagues every generation which engages merely in religious reform. Now turn with me to 2 Peter 2, verses 20 to 22. The Bible says this, for if they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled their end and overcome the latter end is worse than the beginning. Were it been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness then after they have known it, deterred from the Holy Commandment delivered under them. And it happened under them, according to the true proverb, the dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed or her wallowing in the mire. It seems like these people at one point had a certain knowledge of Christ, professed to be Christians, but they’re swept away by false teachers to become apostate. And at one point, it seems to be. they have escaped the pollutions of the world because of this religious external reform. But sin once again entangles them. And we find here that, like the, just like the day of Christ, the latter end is worse than they were at the beginning. These people came to know the way of righteousness, taught, they were taught about the free justification in Christ. And we find that they were taught about the righteousness of the Savior. They knew what was expected of them. They were aware of the Holy Commandments taught by the Lord’s servants, but they turned from them, could not abide by the narrow way, and in the end proved themselves to be dogs and swine, and return to their foolish and sinful ways like dumb animals. So, the uselessness of religious reformation is clearly seen without divine regeneration. In a true believing in Christ, you’ll always end up worse than you were at the beginning. Let me close here with this thought, you’re going to suffer greater damnation because of it. You’d be better off not knowing the way of righteousness than to deliberately sin against the light you have received. Your remor response will be because of it. of the knowledge and understanding that you have. What will be your portion? Well, it’s not going to be no common hell that awaits you, but one seven times hotter, for you knew the way of righteousness and turned from it. You’re going to be beaten with more stripes than the ignorant heathen. My friend, examine your heart carefully. Consider if your profession is real, or if it’s just merely a pretense. There are creatures in the ocean who don’t own their own shells. They just borrow another ones. My friend, there are people that don’t have a true religion. They just have a shell. Just the externals of religion. And my friends, avoid this at all costs. You may clean up your life, but what you really need is spiritual transformation by the power of God. And your soul will be doomed if you don’t have that. Let us gore with the word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your goodness and grace. We pray for your blessing upon us as your people. Help us, Father, to be honest and faithful in our dealings with you. And be merciful to us as sinners we pray. From of Christ, we ask these things. Let us stand for the benediction. Brother, in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, be with your spirit.