March 5, 2023 - Just Informed Talk - Craig James
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| Hi, and welcome to another God's Grace is Greater segment, and thanks for joining me. | |
| If you guys are unaware, we're going through the Gospel of Luke. | |
| Today, we're in chapter 11, verse 14 through 28. | |
| And this is a very powerful section of verses that we're going to talk about. | |
| Yesterday, of course, we talked about Jesus teaching us how to pray, giving us the Lord's prayer, telling us about how we have to keep asking and searching and knocking. | |
| And that's how we will receive the kingdom of heaven truly, is if we keep going to God and continuously telling him what we need and asking him to show us the way, because that's how God will work for us the best, is if we're continually going to him. | |
| Now, in that same vein, we go into verse 14 now, up through 28, and Jesus teaches us about a house divided cannot stand. | |
| Now, this is in response to accusations levied against him by the scribes and the Pharisees who were basically upset at him and trying to trap him in his own words. | |
| They actually accused him of working on behalf of the devil or Beelzebub. | |
| And I do think that this is a fascinating set of verses here, and we're going to read about it because Jesus casts out a demon, and then he's accused of doing something on behalf of Satan, but then he instantly tears and shreds apart the logic of the argument against but then he instantly tears and shreds apart the logic of the argument against him as they | |
| And he goes even further to tell us about what it means to find fulfillment in Christ and how we are to make ourselves whole after we rid ourselves of the evil that exists from our sinful lives once we accept Jesus as our Savior. | |
| It's actually an incredibly powerful set of verses. | |
| So let's go ahead and read through them, and then we'll talk about it. | |
| This is, again, Luke 11, verse 14 through 28. | |
| Let's read. | |
| It says, Now he was driving out a demon that was mute. | |
| When the demon came out, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. | |
| But some of them said, He drives out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. | |
| and others as a test were demanding of him a sign from heaven. | |
| Knowing their thoughts, he told them, Every kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction, and a house divided against itself falls. | |
| If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? | |
| For you say I drive out demons by Beelzebul. | |
| And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, who is it your sons drive them out by? | |
| For this reason, they will be your judges. | |
| If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. | |
| When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, guards his estate, his possessions are secure. | |
| But when one stronger than he attacks and overpowers him, he takes from him all of his weapons he trusted in and divides up his plunder. | |
| Anyone who is not with me is against me, and anyone who does not gather with me scatters. | |
| When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it roams through waterless places looking for rest and not finding rest. | |
| It says, I'll go back to my house where I came from. | |
| And returning, it finds the house swept and put in order. | |
| Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. | |
| As a result, that man's last condition is worse than the first. | |
| As he was saying these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, The womb that bore you and the one who nursed you are blessed. | |
| He said, Even more, those who hear the word of God and keep it are blessed. | |
| Now, this is a fascinating set of, you know, testimony from Jesus here. | |
| He's telling us, he's giving us this exact accounting of why the argument against him is so incorrect and why it cannot be true. | |
| Because essentially what's happened is, the first part of this account is that Jesus drives out a demon of a mute man. | |
| And the mute man begins to speak and the crowds are amazed. | |
| So they're amazed by this great performance of a miracle by Jesus. | |
| Now, the first thing that happens though, is that those Who are the Pharisees and the scribes and those trying to trap Jesus in his words to try to find something to bring against him as a charge to get rid of him because he's a challenge to their power and authority. | |
| They immediately accuse him of driving out demons by the devil, by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. | |
| Now, after that, others start demanding that he show them a sign from heaven that it's not of Beelzebul, that it's of God. | |
| What does Jesus do? | |
| Well first, just as he does, and we learned this in Matthew and Mark before this, he doesn't Grant their request for a sign from heaven. | |
| Why? | |
| Because, as it says in that first line in verse 17, he knew what was in their hearts. | |
| They weren't asking from a genuine place of wanting to see a divine sign so that they could believe. | |
| They were asking because they wanted to trip Jesus up. | |
| Nothing would have been good enough. | |
| He could have had God come down from heaven and speak to him directly, and they probably would have had a way of explaining it away and trying to say that it wasn't what it seems. | |
| Because they were unbelievers and because they cared more about their power and authority on earth than they did about the power and authority of the Son of God, Jesus, who was standing right in front of them. | |
| Now, what ends up happening is Jesus gives us this incredible explanation about how a kingdom divided against itself is headed for destruction and a house divided against itself will fall. | |
| He explains that if... | |
| He says, for you say I drive out demons by Beelzebub, and if I drive demons out by Beelzebub, who is it your sons drive them out by? | |
| So he's saying, you know, these priests, these rabbis in the synagogue were driving out demons just like Jesus, right? | |
| So he's saying, if I'm doing it by Beelzebub, well then who are you doing it by? | |
| And he caught them in their own flawed logic there, but then he goes and takes it a step further. | |
| He says, if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. | |
| So he's telling them that they've been visited by the kingdom of God and they're refusing it. | |
| And then he gives a story, a parable of a strong man who is overtaken by a more powerful force. | |
| And that that is essentially what he's doing here. | |
| He's more powerful than Beelzebub and the devil. | |
| He's not working for Beelzebul and the devil. | |
| He also says, essentially when he says a house divided doesn't stand, what's he saying? | |
| He's saying that why would Beelzebul give him the power to drive out demons who are working for Beelzebul, Satan's kingdom on earth? | |
| It would be like him dividing his house, which would make it weak, which would make no sense anyway. | |
| So he destroys their logic and their attempt to try to trap him. | |
| And then he gives this example of how when a strong man builds his house and secures it, and then he's overtaken by a stronger man, well, then that's what Jesus is doing here. | |
| He's overtaking the devil by the power that's given to him by God, who is stronger than the devil. | |
| And then he gives this ultimatum that he's very clear on. | |
| He says, anyone who is not with me is against me. | |
| And that's a clear, clear delineation. | |
| He's saying that in this world, in this life, as it was then it is now, that if we are not fully with Jesus, then we're against him. | |
| So that's why you can't be on the fence. | |
| You can't be lukewarm. | |
| You can't have one foot in and one foot out. | |
| You have to go full all the way in. | |
| If you truly believe, you have to give Jesus everything you have. | |
| You have to turn your life over to God in everything you own. | |
| And a lot of people want to ride the fence. | |
| They want to say, well, you know, I'm not too sure about all this. | |
| And that's how we find ourselves in such a terrible place today, I believe. | |
| And that's how they found themselves in trouble back then as well. | |
| When they didn't give everything to God, what happens? | |
| They were against God. | |
| And they were scattered and they were scattering. | |
| But then Jesus gives us this next parable, which I think is fascinating. | |
| He talks about if an unclean spirit comes out of a man and roams through waterous places looking for rest and not finding it, it says, I'll go back to my house where I came from. | |
| And returning, it finds the house swept and put in order. | |
| Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and settle down there. | |
| As a result, that man's last condition is worse than the first. | |
| What does that mean? | |
| Well, it's simple. | |
| What Jesus is saying to us very clearly here is that if we do rid ourselves of evil in our lives, and we devote our lives to God, if we don't fill our spiritual home, the house in this parable is our heart. | |
| He's saying, if you... | |
| If you rid yourself of all the evil, and you get up one day and say, I'm done with it. | |
| I'm not going to live a sinful life. | |
| I'm not going to go and do the drugs I was doing, or do the lustful activities I was doing, or cheating, or lying, or just treating others poorly. | |
| I'm not going to do these things. | |
| If you get up one morning and say that, and you say, I'm going to live a good life, I'm going to be a good man or a good woman, that's not enough. | |
| That's not enough. | |
| Why is it not enough? | |
| Because as Jesus says here, even if you rid yourself of that evil, if you don't replace that emptiness that you've created in your life by taking that evil out with a greater good like God and Jesus his son, then what's going to happen? | |
| Eventually, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually, just as that spirit did, it will come back and it will come back sevenfold. | |
| And you'll find yourself in a worse place. | |
| Because you will not have filled yourself with the Holy Spirit through Christ, through God, to be able to fight off that when it comes back. | |
| That's the true spiritual power. | |
| It just goes right hand in glove with the verse before where he says that he is a stronger power that overtook and overpowered the man who thought he was secure in all of his possessions. | |
| That's God defeating the devil. | |
| If you don't replace that empty void created when you get rid of the evil with God and Jesus in your heart, then you can't expect to be able to overpower that evil when it comes back and wants to reenter you. | |
| Finally, a woman in the crowd yells out that the womb that bore you and the one who nursed you are blessed, saying to his mother, I guess, Mary. | |
| And what does Jesus respond, though? | |
| And this, I think, is another verse that we can use. | |
| And eschatologists and Bible scholars probably have a better shot at trying to give you some explanation here. | |
| But I do believe this speaks toward the fact that we shouldn't deify Mary like the Catholics do. | |
| I'm not a person who believes in the deification of Mary. | |
| There's only one Messiah, that's Jesus Christ. | |
| I don't pray and worship anything other than Christ, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. | |
| I don't do it. | |
| Because I don't believe it, and I think this is Jesus telling us here, maybe, not to do it. | |
| Saying, when the woman says, the womb that bore you and the one who nursed you are blessed, well, he doesn't deny it, of course, but... | |
| He says this, even more, even more, those who hear the word of God and keep it are blessed. | |
| It's you and me. | |
| Mary, just like you, just like I, we're all children of God. | |
| And we're all blessed to have the Messiah as a part of our lives. | |
| For the eternal salvation that we receive and for the love and the power and the hope and the joy and the grace and all of the things that come with it that he can provide and give us a path toward eternal salvation in heaven with God. | |
| Amazing. | |
| Even more, those who hear the word of God and keep it are blessed. | |
| So how do we keep it? | |
| We trust in God and Jesus and His power to overcome the devil and Beelzebub and all the evil in this world. | |
| And then, once we get that evil out of our lives, we fill our heart, our spiritual home, with Christ and allow Him to protect us and allow the Holy Spirit and God to work through us and understand that if we hear the Word of God and keep it, we are even more blessed than the mother of Jesus. | |
| Powerful, powerful words. | |
| So I hope you guys enjoy that episode. | |
| We're going to go ahead and say a prayer and we'll wrap it up. | |
| Lord and Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this powerful set of scripture and teaching us, Lord, how to fulfill ourselves and our lives with the hope that you give us, the power of Jesus to push out the evil and to keep it away. | |
| And Lord, we pray and thank you that we're not just hearers of the word, but keepers of the word as well, so that we may be blessed. | |
| Because we know, Lord, that when we keep your word, then we will be delivered. | |
| And we thank you for that opportunity, and we thank you most of all for our eternal salvation. | |
| In Jesus' name, amen. | |
| All right, guys. | |
| Well, appreciate it. | |
| Hope you guys had a great... | |
| We'll see you on the next one. | |
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| So thank you all for watching. | |
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| But with that being said, I want to say thanks for watching this episode of God's Grace is Greater. | |
| We'll see you on the next one. | |
| Until then, my name is Craig. |
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