Let's be turning to Luke chapter 11. Luke 11, picking up in verse 14. Now, in this passage our Lord heals a man with a devil, who had a devil. He cast a devil out of him that was a dumb devil and a blind devil Matthew tells us this man was made dumb and blind by this devil. Now, at this time, you'll recall that it's well established that Christ has the power and the authority to heal our sicknesses and heal our diseases and to provide for our needs. He bore the infirmities of his people, just as the scripture said that the Messiah would. And he had delivered many of unclean spirits. And that tells us that the timing of this being mentioned here now, because this is well established that he did this. But the timing, that they're telling us that he cast this devil out now, it means that our Lord is revealing something more to us about casting out this devil. And so we want to look, when we come to this, we want to look at the context that this miracle that he performs here is done? What's the context that this is done so that we can understand what the casting out of this devil is signifying? Because he uses that term too, he casts out a devil. Normally, it says that he delivered them of an unclean spirit, but this says he cast it out. He cast that devil out. Now, just prior to this, the Lord had taught his disciples how to pray, and he showed us our great need of the Savior, our great need of his redeeming grace, and he used a parable about a man in great need who's shamelessly knocking on the door of his friend, begging three loaves of bread. And the reason why he's in need of this bread is because a friend on his journey has come at the midnight hour, and he didn't have what he needed. And it showed us, it brings out your great need and my great need of the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ to wash us of our sins, to fill us with His Spirit, to give us life and light and salvation in Him. So we have that blessed view of what our Lord's grace of His redemption was to accomplish for His people. and how he would provide for us so that we have what's needed to satisfy the justice of God. In Christ you have right now all you need to be accepted and received of holy God because of Christ, because of him. Then he heals this man, casting out this dumb and blind devil, And a confrontation follows. There's a confrontation. Things come up that reveal to us why this is recorded here, why this miracle wasn't put earlier, and why it's recorded here. Now, this wonderful miracle was performed upon this one man. But it speaks to the resulting grace that should come into this world, that should come upon us because of Christ's redemption. Think, when Christ accomplished this work on the cross and he rose again, things changed in this world. Things were very different after Christ accomplished his work. There was a major shift there. The grace of God and His power began to spread throughout the world through the preaching of the Gospel. And the Lord began delivering people, not out of the Jews only, but out of the Gentiles as well. So there was a major change that happened as a result of Christ's redeeming grace. And so we see in this work here, this casting out of the devil, we begin to see the purpose and the design that our Lord has in the preaching of his gospel, in the salvation he's accomplished. It's picturing the overthrow of the kingdom of Satan. This casting out of this devil, of this man, pictures the overthrow of Satan's kingdom that ruled in our hearts by nature, that was over us, that kept us in bondage and in darkness, that kept the world worshiping vain idols and all manner of wicked works and just false dead religion. Just pervaded. There was no knowledge of God in the world. But now it's all changed and come about. Remember this verse in 1 John 3, 8. He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. Well, we've got a problem, because we're sinners by nature. And it's saying that we're of the devil by nature. Our sinful nature is showing that by nature we're of the devil. Well, for this cause. for this cause, for this purpose, the Son of God was manifested that he, I can't, but he might destroy the works of the devil. He came and destroyed that bondage, to snap that chain and bondage which is upon his people to deliver us from that death by himself. That's what's being revealed here, this overthrow of Satan's kingdom by the Lord Jesus Christ. So beginning 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." I mean, that there is just a glorious picture. There's a gospel picture right in that. That when Christ overthrew Satan, the dumb spirit that was upon us, That empty desert without the word of God was transformed, was changed, so that the dumb, we began to speak the gospel. We heard, believed, we received and believed that gospel and began to proclaim that gospel. That dumb spirit left us, and now we declare the glory of God unto you. And what a mighty work that does by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Luke here, he's emphasizing, he puts his emphasis on this casting out of the devil. He was casting out a devil and it was dumb. And then we see the glory which follows, the glory which follows. And it came to pass when the devil was gone out. The dumb spake, and the people wondered. They saw. They saw a light that shone in the darkness there. Matthew, where he records it, it's in chapter 12. We won't go there. But he tells us that the man was possessed with the devil, blind and dumb, both blind and dumb. And then he describes the glory which followed. It says that He healed him insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw, and all the people were amazed and said, Is not this the Son of David? What a miracle of grace not only for that man but for the people to see and behold the Lord Jesus Christ and what He does by His power. And so this account, it speaks, at the time that this was done, it speaks to the coming overthrow of Satan's kingdom. It speaks to the coming destruction of his kingdom when Christ accomplished our redemption and rose from the dead there. And so through his glorious redemption work, the grace and power of God goes forth and will be manifested. It's manifest in the hearts of his people, whom he redeemed with his own blood. It's brought forth. So this work pictures the witness of the king. He's the true, the right and proper king. He has dominion over all things. He's seated on the throne right now, opening the seals of the book. that no man could open. We couldn't do it, but now he did it, and he's worthy. And so he opens the seals of the book, meaning he's implementing right now the will and purpose of God to be gracious to a people, to call you out of darkness, to provide all that you need, to give you salvation freely by the grace of God in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's doing that. He's accomplishing that. And now we'll see the glory of Christ's grace and power brought in the hearts of his people as he deals with this confrontation that now follows. So we're going to understand more of what he's doing, because a confrontation ensues. Men of the world. without the Spirit of God, don't like it. They don't like what they're seeing, and they oppose it. So our Lord Jesus Christ, he's the rightful king, and he's coming here to secure his kingdom, to properly bring it under the authority and power of God in saving his people, and for God to forgive his people justly. by grace, to do it all proper, all perfect, all legally, all righteously, all justly. He does everything that needs to be done so that God is just and justifier of them which believeth in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's done, brethren. You don't have to worry about anything, any snafus or anything catching you. It's done by him. The serpent deceived Eve, and then Adam rebelled against God. He rebelled against God, subjecting himself and all his posterity, all his seed in him, under subjection to the devil. So that now, and sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that all of us come forth spiritually dead, speaking lies in ignorance to God, with enmity in our heart against God, so that we reject Him, we don't believe Him, we mistrust Him, we want to do our own thing, we want to cast Him off from us by nature. That's what we are by nature. And we're told that we come forth from that fall in the garden, we come forth being born of Adam's seed, dead in trespasses and sins, corrupt. Ignorant in darkness and and by nature Ephesians 2 2 says that we walk according to the course of this world According to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in this children of disobedience That's what we see going on is the works of that evil spirit in In in the people who happily do the works of the flesh is doing their own thing but God Ephesians 2 for but God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us He delivered us from the power of that darkness By the Lord Jesus Christ by his grace and power in Christ Jesus And He did it by sending His faithful Son to redeem us through His sacrifice, the shedding of His blood, that God may be gracious to us to forgive us of our sins, to cleanse and purify our hearts in faith and love and grace. not by our works, but by his glorious work. And as a result of that, Christ, when he rose from the dead, came to his disciples and said, all power and authority is given unto me. Go, therefore, and preach the word. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen now he sends his church out right he gives his church the gospel and we go forth Proclaiming this gospel under the banner of his love under the banner of his grace and power trusting him Proclaiming what he's done were made witnesses of these things of what Christ did in dying and in rising again for his people and man hears it and he resists it and He resisted. He hates that because he's under thick bands of darkness. And it says here in Luke 11 verse 15 and 16, but some of them said, right? So we saw some wondered, but then some of them said, And Matthew tells us it was the Pharisees when they heard it. So they may not have even been there to see it. But they said, he casteth out devils through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. So there's some there that are blaspheming God, attributing the work of God to Beelzebub to save. They're blaspheming God. And then others, Whatever they saw or heard was done, that witness wasn't enough for them. They said, show us a sign from heaven. We want to see you do a work from heaven. And Christ had just done a work. a sign from heaven. He just did that. And it still wasn't good enough for them. And not only was that man delivered, but the people were touched. Light shone in the darkness of their hearts so that they wondered. And they weren't indifferent. They weren't asleep or hard or indifferent to what they just saw and heard. They were amazed and asked, is this not the son of David? Is this not our salvation? Is this not the promise seed that should come? They saw that. That's a sign of heaven. You that believe, that's a miracle of the grace of God. You that believe in spirit and in truth and continue in Christ, that's a miracle. That's a sign of heaven of the spirit of God being poured down and giving you life. Because faith is not of this flesh. This flesh does works. The spirit brings forth fruit. And faith is the fruit of the spirit. And so our Lord Jesus Christ, we see here, he's the light of the world. And when he works, that light goes forth and touches his people and gives life to his people and brings that light into our dark hearts, over our dark minds and brings light in there so that we see. And hear. And many do see and hear. Many hear it to some degree, but where there's no faith, that word just gets taken away by the birds, by the devil, and just lost, or falls on bad ground. But by the grace of God, it's made effectual and is put in that prepared ground, that good ground, to hear, to grow up, and to bear fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100-fold, according to the will of God. Now I want to give you three examples on this. Three examples that demonstrate we must be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ or else we cannot be saved. Apart from Christ, you cannot be saved. And we see that here. So first, We see this willful resistance to Christ. It testifies to how great our fall is in Adam. It testifies to the bondage, to the chains, to the shackles we're in by nature and cannot free ourselves. This is a natural response to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ right there. It's a natural response. and by not believing in Christ, man won't believe and by not believing in Christ, he's calling God a liar. It's a willful act to deny Christ, to not believe Christ with his power and grace that goes forth. The natural man does not believe and that's where he lays if God does not do a work of grace for him because man will not believe Christ except God deliver him of his blindness. He won't see him. He refuses to see him. He will not believe Christ except he be delivered of his blindness. He will not confess Christ with his mouth except God remove that dumb spirit that's over him, that's upon him. We will not believe, we will not see, we will not confess Christ, we will not believe in our hearts except God do a miraculous work of grace for us. It says in John 5, verse 39 and 40, the Lord, speaking to the Jews, said, search the scriptures. And at that time, they only had the Old Testament. We now have the Old and the New Testament. Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. And that shows how man just misses it. He goes to this book, thinking it's my how-to manual to get myself saved. This is what God wants me to know to get myself saved. And he misses Christ. And all he's seeing is what I got to do. Oh, I better stop that. I better start this. And then when you do that, then you start telling us, you better stop that. You better start this. It just goes on and fleshly works, all the while missing Christ, not seeing Christ that he works obedience in the heart. We look to him, trust him to do for you what you need. And he said there, verse 40, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life. That's the free will of man. He will not come to Christ that he might have life, except God give him a new heart and a new will, a willing heart to believe Christ. Then we read again. So that was John 5, 39 and 40. Now in John 6, verse 43 and 44, Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. Why were they murmuring? He was telling them, except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood. Eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood. You have no part in me. And they heard that and said, what? Who can hear that? I'm not going to eat your flesh and drink your blood." They didn't understand the spiritual words that he spoke. They saw it only in flesh. All they were were fleshly creatures and so they murmured and complained about Christ. And that's what the Holy Scripture is revealing to us. It's a spiritual work of God. The Spirit of God is within you. It's in faith in His Spirit being given to you that you hear Christ, believe Him, feed upon the bread of heaven, trust Him, look to Him, follow Him. It's a spiritual work of His grace. We're so caught up in the flesh and it's a spiritual work. And so they're murmuring. And He said, no man can come to Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw him, drag him. pull him out of that darkness and bring him unto me, and I will raise him up at the last day." And so we see there that left to himself, man is going to refuse Christ. He's not going to believe him. He's going to willfully resist. He'll pick up an idol, Jesus, and that'll be fine for him. But he'll never believe the true and living God and Savior, except God do a gracious work in his heart to pull him out of that darkness and that prison and that bondage of death. He will not believe. So Christ must come and accomplish this salvation. Otherwise, we cannot be saved. He must do this gracious work in our hearts You that are sinners, you that are in bondage, you that are captive, you that are broken hearted, you that are afraid and fearful, cry out to him, ask him. Because he says, all that ask, receive. All that seek, find. All that knock, the door shall be opened unto them. And if you do, it's because He gave it to you. But that should be, these words stir us up, to turn us from trusting self, to show us how empty the cupboards are, that we don't have what we need to satisfy the justice of God, that we might find that satisfaction in our friend, in his house, the house that Christ built, and he has all the bread you need, to stand complete in the presence of Holy God. And because of His accomplished redemption, the Church goes forth declaring this Gospel of our salvation, knowing that God makes known who Christ died for in the preaching of the word by revealing faith in you. Because you would not believe except God give you that faith. It just won't happen. Or it'll be a fleshly faith and you'll fall away. But you that are His, you believe. And when you see you don't believe, you're crying out when the Lord shows you your darkness, your coldness, your indifference, so that He makes you to see, Lord, save me. I'm sinking, Lord. Save me. I'm perishing, Lord. Because except God save you. You can't be saved. But he's provided them. And it's to show us how great our fall is. That's what it's showing us. Now, in 1 Corinthians 1, 21 and 24, through 24 on this point here, Paul wrote, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It's not a thing of intelligence. It's not a thing of having or having not in fleshly things. We all are ignorant of this wisdom of God. But it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. It was through the preaching of Jesus Christ that you heard And God gave you faith under that preached word. For the Jews require a sign, as we see here. Show us a sign from heaven. And the Greeks seek after wisdom. It's folly to them to think that a man in his weakness, dying on the cross, could accomplish so great and mighty a salvation for many, for many to hear and believe. But we preach Christ crucified. We ain't turning from this gospel. We preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness. We know, but we're not gonna change the message because it's through this foolish message that God is pleased to reveal his wisdom in you so that you know, it's not of me, It's of his grace and power that I hear and believe. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. We see here Christ's grace overcomes the kingdom of Satan in our hearts and establishes, stamps in its place, his image, the image of Christ, the kingdom of Christ, giving you the spirit of Christ which is in you. and you're in the wall, the walls of the city that we're in now are the walls of salvation. They're our bulwarks, our defenses. It's Christ and his word and what he's done for us. Now second, we see how Christ's word opposed the kingdom of darkness, right? His word opposed this kingdom of darkness and that by his word, the lies of the evil one are torn down, are broken down. He's stripping his people of lies and falsehoods and vain confidences, vain fleshly confidences that you should find your all in Christ, in him. It says verse 17 through 19, Luke 11, but he knowing their thoughts, right, he's omnipotent God, Knowing their thoughts said unto them, every kingdom divided against itself. So this is their response to them accusing him of doing this by Beelzebub. And he said, every kingdom divided against itself, or every kingdom broken right at the foundation, just divided, it's going to fall apart. It's brought to desolation. And a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beelzebub. And here he says, if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall they be your judges. So back then, there were Jews. There were people, Jews and not Jews, that had some forms which they taught or showed that they were casting out devils. I think Josephus records some examples of how the Jews did certain things to cast out devils. Now whether they were really successful or not, that's not the point here. And Christ doesn't even touch on whether they were successful or not. What he's saying there is the Pharisees They had sons and people that were casting out devils, and they didn't say anything about that, anything negative. They didn't accuse them of doing it by the devil. They just said, oh, praise God, that's great that they just cast out the devil. But now Christ is doing it, and they hate him. And so they accused him of doing it by Beelzebub. And he's saying, well, wait a minute. You don't have a problem with anybody else doing it, but now suddenly you have a problem with me casting out devils. And now you're saying that I'm doing it by Beelzebub? And so what he's saying is you have no problem with anybody else but for me, the light and life of men, to come and do this work, this miracle of grace, and you're gonna say it's of the devil? You're gonna blaspheme God? And so he's saying your own sons testify against you. Because you live with it without any problem, never complaining, never saying anything against it, but now you do say against it. So it shows that man is trusting. He builds up defenses, he builds up falsehoods, he builds up lies and trusts in these things. But when Christ saves a sinner, we are made new creatures. born again by the Spirit of God so that our eyes see the salvation of God. They hear the salvation of God. We receive him into our hearts by his grace and power, believing him. And that new man, that creation of Christ, and you can't not believe. Because what's created of Christ, that new man of grace, is not of the flesh and it does not sin. This flesh sins, this flesh is weak and unbelieving and conniving and tricky and clever and gets itself in all kinds of sins and messes. But the new man of grace in you, which is of the spirit of God, can't sin, doesn't participate in that, doesn't believe that. He trusts only Christ. He believes under the saving of our souls. He can't not not believe. And all he does is glorify God, and trust him, and cry out to him, Abba, Father, save us. Have mercy upon us. And so that's not something that the devil would do. Because when Christ did it, when Christ saved a sinner, he saved them to the uttermost. He fills them with the Spirit. It's a living Spirit. It's not of us. It's of His grace. And so when it's a work of Satan, what is Manglorian? Himself. Well, I did this. I gave my heart to Jesus. I walked the aisle. I changed my life around. I stopped doing this and I started doing that. And all he's talking about is himself. That's a work of the devil. But a work of grace is we boast in glory in Christ. Well, Christ saved me. Christ had mercy on me. Christ bore long with me. Christ brought me under the gospel. Christ brought me out of false religion. Christ brought me from trusting myself to trust him. Christ gave me faith in my heart. Christ delivered me from my sin. We boast of Christ. He's our boast. He's our all. And then third, we see the whole Godhead has taken a vital interest in defeating Satan and his kingdom, that work of the evil one, by redeeming and reconciling us who were, by nature and Adam, lost. It says, verse 20, this is our final verse, But if I, with the finger of God, cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. And Matthew tells us that the finger of God is the Holy Spirit. That's how he words it, with the Spirit of God. And so he says, if I, I meaning the Son of God, with the finger of God, with the Holy Spirit, And the spirit being of God, meaning of the Father, if I do this, then the fullness of God is come unto you, is present here. And we're told that the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in him bodily. And so he's saying the fullness of God is present. No doubt the kingdom of God has come upon you. He's brought His kingdom near to you. And you that believe, He's effectually brought that salvation in your heart and brought you out of that kingdom of Satan. And brought and established you in the kingdom of Christ by giving you His Spirit, His light, His life in your heart whereby you believe. In Christ, all that you need in salvation is given. He's done the work. It is finished. He overcame this world. He overcomes Satan in us. He delivers us from that kingdom by his glorious grace and power, which is wrought by him through his glorious redemption. And so if Christ is indeed the Son of God, and He is, and He's sent of God into this sinful fallen world to redeem the lost sheep of God, then why do we not believe? Why don't you believe? Believe on him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And all that come unto him, he saves to the uttermost. All that come unto God by Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. I pray the Lord bless that word to your heart's content.