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March 29, 2015
*Intro* – (Read Luke 11:24-28).
Last week we saw that in the entire universe of spiritual reality there are two kingdoms – God’s kingdom of light and Satan’s kingdom of darkness.
Due to the Fall of Adam, we are all born into the kingdom of darkness – Satan’s evil empire.
David says in Psa 51:5, “In sin did my mother conceive me.”
The tendency toward evil goes back a long ways in all of us, and it takes God’s grace to remove us from the evil empire and sustain us in His kingdom.
Five principles derive from this passage.
*I.
Evil Does Not Cast Out Evil* – The Pharisees accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the power of the Devil.
But Jesus shows the absurdity of that idea.
Evil does not cast out evil, neither before nor after salvation.
*II.
Victory Requires a Savior* – a stronger man – Jesus.
*III.
Neutrality is Fatal* – Everyone must choose a side.
Today we look at two more principles.
They contrast the two main ways people try to move from darkness to light.
The first is by moral reformation; the second by spiritual transformation.
Moral reformation sounds good, but it does not work.
It’s like the ad a woman wrote for a motivational seminar.
“I turned my life around 360°!”
She was not aware that a 360° turn would leave her right back where she started!
So does moralism.
Moral reformation is outward.
Spiritual transformation starts inward moving outward.
Moral reformation is our work.
Spiritual transformation is God’s work.
Let’s look more closely.
*IV.
It’s Not About Moral Reformation*
Jesus’ critics suggest He casts out demons by Satanic power.
But Jesus shows that would mean Satan working against himself – not a likely scenario.
He then represents Satan as a strong man, but himself as a stronger man invading enemy territory and releasing people held captive to demonic possession.
But now He raises a fascinating scenario.
He proposes someone might be freed from demon possession, only to be re-invaded with the result that “the last state of that person is worse than the first” (v.
26).
That dire warning ought to capture our undivided attention.
What could lead to such a tragedy?
Jesus’ answer seems a bit bizarre.
V. 24, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’”
“Unclean spirit” is a common NT designation for demons, fallen angels, whose moral character is unclean – perverse in the extreme.
Confirmed in sin with no way out.
Jesus pictures the case where a demon has left – perhaps voluntarily, perhaps cast out.
Maybe even by Jesus.
Now, this demon “passes through waterless places seeking rest”.
There are as many guesses as commentators on the meaning of this phrase.
My best guess is that “waterless places” speaks of arid, dry, desert-like, fruitless locations.
Since demons impact our world thru bodies, I think Jesus is suggesting that the quest of this demon to find another body from which to exercise its malignancy turns up empty.
It comes up dry -- fails to find a suitable landing place.
So, it decides, “I will return to my house from which I came.”
Note that it calls the place from which he came “MY house.”
Though it left, it has not given up ownership.
That’s the key.
So, it returns.
V. 25-26, “And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.
26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.”
“Swept and put in order” speaks of moral reform.
So, the parable depicts a demon-possessed person from whom the demon is gone – on its own or cast out.
The person now goes about cleaning up his or her life.
He turns over a new leaf, puts aside the lying and cheating and bad habits and destructive addictions.
He resolves to live a better.
Sweeps out and puts in order.
But there’s a problem.
While this life has been swept clean of some of the evil habits and destructive behaviors, nothing has replaced those.
There has been no heart change.
The demon is gone, but God was not invited in.
This is just the old selfishness in another guise.
This is moral reformation, but it will fail in the end.
Why?
Because there has been no change in ownership!
This goes back to the third principle – No neutrality.
We are either for Christ, having submitted to His Lordship – or we are against him, in which case the demon can walk right back in.
The illusion of personal autonomy is just that – an illusion.
We do have a will – but it either puts us in Jesus’ camp or Satan’s camp.
The “Me” camp actually is Satan’s camp.
He owns you.
Satan does not need to possess you; all he needs is you to possess you.
Now by way of application, we don’t see much demon possession in our culture.
But our enemies are not different – the world, the flesh and the devil.
Salvation isn’t just about being better; it’s about having a new owner!
Turn to Lu 17 Jesus sends 10 lepers to the priest and they find themselves healed on the way.
But look what happens!
Lu 17:15, “Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks.
Now he was a Samaritan.
17 Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed?
Where are the nine?
18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
19 And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”
Every English version translates “has made you well”.
But that’s not what the original says.
It says “your faith has saved you” – σωζω – same as Eph 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith.”
That man was healed the moment Jesus sent him to the priest, but of the 10, he was the only one saved from his sin --the only one cleansed outside and inside.
He had a change in ownership.
It was the inward change that drove the outward expression of thanksgiving.
Some have felt Jesus was speaking to the nation as a whole in Lu 11.
Idolatry was in their DNA for hundreds of years in the OT.
God eventually cast that demon out by sending them into Babylonian captivity.
When they returned, they never again, as a nation, went back to idols.
That demon was gone.
But they had never returned to the true God.
They were sitting ducks for the moral reformation of the Pharisees.
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