Sermons

Well, go ahead and open your Bible to Luke chapter 11. And as Mark just mentioned, it is a unique text, a difficult text, but I do think looking within the context, the immediate context of this passage, we'll be able to see what God has for us this morning. 

On April 10, 1912, the largest whistle in the world on the largest ship that had been built, up to that point, sounded. Titanic stood at 882 and a half feet long, and it began to sail from England to New York. The length is equal to about 17 semi-trucks or four city blocks. It weighed over 52,000 tons and it's three anchors each weighing over 10 tons. It could sustain 3,500 passengers on board, and it costs $7.5 million to build back in 1912; today's equivalent about $246 million. 

The ship boasted a crew of 400 plus another 500-plus people, 518 hotel staff caring for all the passengers. On that one voyage there were 2,229 passengers on board. It was powered by 159 furnaces that burned 650 tons of coal per day as it moved through the Atlantic at 25 miles per hour. That's super-fast, 25 miles per hour. It was luxurious. It was beautiful. It had four elevators. It had a full gym. It had a heated pool. It had a tennis court. And it had its first miniature golf course that was ever invented up to that point. The opulent dining room operated for 24 hours non-stop; it was a beautiful staircase. Two full musical ensembles played constantly to entertain the guests. Even in the third-class cabins, the guests had indoor toilet facilities; most of the people in the world didn't even have that luxury in their own houses. 

The ship was called the crowning glory of the 19th century. It was protected by the latest innovations and safety devices. The compartments were supposed to be protected by doors that would close automatically in case water came in. It was so protected that most people said it was unsinkable. Even the managing employees of White Star Lines, where the ship was made, said, and I quote, "Not even God Himself could sink this ship." The captain, E. J. Smith, said, "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause this ship to flounder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel." To prove that, they only had enough safety boats for half of the passengers when they set sail. 

But on the night of April 14, 1912, the ship began to sink. After six warnings through various telegrams of upcoming icebergs, Titanic ignored all of them. Even after it hit its first iceberg, the party continued, the dancing continued, the dining rooms continued to operate; the people on board thought they were safe. The first lifeboats left only a third full because the people rested in the security of the Titanic being unsinkable. But within two-and-a-half hours, the unsinkable, crowning glory of the 19th century went under 12,000 feet of icy water at 2:20 a.m. on April 15th, two-and-a-half hours. Out of 2,229 passengers, 1,516 died that night. This is considered to be one of the greatest tragedies in human history. What's shocking is the self-delusion of the people on board. The people thought they were protected from any doom and any disaster, nothing could sink this ship. 

The story of the Titanic illustrates for us what happens to so many people around the world, and even in their own country, when we think about the spiritual security people have in their moralism. They think that they're protected from spiritual judgment and spiritual destruction because they are good. A recent survey in the United States demonstrates that only 2 percent of the people think they're going to hell. When asked of evangelicals, 86 percent of evangelicals said that there is a heaven and a good life will get you there. That's how evangelicals in our country, 86 percent of those self-identify as evangelicals, see that as long as you live a good life, you will end up in heaven. 

How do we explain that? How do you explain that through the Bible? Do you think that if someone lives a good life, if they're simply moral, if they just obey the Bible fully, they will make it to heaven? How would you explain that to somebody else? Well, our passage for this morning addresses the issue of moralism versus true transformation head on. It was Al Mohler who wrote, "Moralism produces sinners who are potentially better behaved. The gospel of Christ transforms sinners into the adopted sons and daughters of God that they will be." 

Think about Ephesians chapter 2. One of the most go-to passages in the New Testament regarding original sin and the fact that we are dead in our sins, Paul wrote, "You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, or the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." There's that imagery of adoption or sonship in one category or another. "Among them we too formerly walked in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God." It doesn't say, "But then you decided to get better." It says, "But God made us alive together with Christ." God took the first step. God initiated regeneration. Regeneration can simply be defined as new life being breathed into a dead soul. 

In John chapter 3, when Jesus speaks to Nicodemus, in that conversation Jesus says, "The Spirit blows wherever it wishes; you don't know where it's coming or where it's going. So is spiritual life." In other words God infuses spiritual life into you and you become a living spiritual being. 

John 6, it says, "The Spirit gives life, the flesh profits nothing." So when we think about the very first event, or the very first act that has to happen in a life that will then become truly transformed, it is regeneration. Theologians call this the primacy of regeneration. That is you are given life, and that gives you the ability to believe; and so you hear the gospel and you are saved, and you repent from your sins. In that moment, initial moment of regeneration and repentance, God justifies you, not because of your repentance, not because you will then live a good life after that, but because you have been given the righteousness of Christ. 

By faith, we believe in Jesus and we receive the righteousness of Christ, and God justifies us, declaring us to be just. And when He sees us on that judgment day, He won't see our life, as good as it might have been, or as evil as it might have been, He will see Christ wrapping us with His righteousness. And so we get to heaven, not because we tried, or because we did better in the last 20 years of our lives than in the first 20, but because we are covered by the righteousness of Christ. If we are, that will be manifested in our lives. There will be a change, there will be a transformation. It will not be us trying to be more moral, to do something that we believe is right. Rather, we believe that we have been given new life by faith. It's a gift, it's grace from God; and the rest of our life demonstrates as we walk by faith. 

You see, moralism damns, regeneration saves. And in our passage, Jesus makes this very poignantly. Listen to 11:24 of Luke, and we'll read all the way down to verse 28. 

"When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. 

"Now it happened that while Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, 'Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.' But He said, 'On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.'" What we'll see in this passage is three signs of genuine regeneration over external religiosity, genuine regeneration and the transformation that takes place in our lives over external religiosity. 

You see, God initiates regeneration in us. That then results in a transformed life as we continue in the process of sanctification, until that is consummated. in glorification. And as we look at this text, we pick up the story all the way back in verse 14. I know you've heard this in the last couple weeks. I don't know if it was preached in one sermon or multiple, but the story in our context begins back in verse 14. Jesus cast out a demon who was causing the man to be mute. The man begins to speak, and the very last words of verse 14 say, "and the crowd was amazed." 

If you think back to the very first miracle in the gospel of Luke in chapter 4, in Capernaum Jesus cast out a demon. That's the first miracle He performs. And again, the response is the same: people are amazed. Later in that same chapter in verse 41, Jesus is casting out many demons, and the people are amazed. In chapter 8, verse 2, it says, "Mary Magdalene had seven demons, and they were cast out of her." 

Later in chapter 8 in verses 26 and 39, we meet a man in the area of Gerasenes, and he is demon possessed; and people are trying to control him, and so they shackle him. And he lives in the tombs and he cuts himself. And then Jesus cast out that demon called Legion, and then the man is seated peacefully at the feet of Jesus learning from Him, and the crowd is amazed again. In chapter 9, verses 38-43, we see a young man, a young boy who is demon possessed, and he's gone through physical turmoil as this demon abuses him; and when he is healed, the crowd again is amazed at the greatness of God. 

We have one more episode in this chapter. And again, the crowd is amazed, predictably so, but not everyone in the crowd. Because in verse 15, some of the Jewish leaders respond and say, "Well, He cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons." And then you see other people in the crowd begin to test Jesus, taunt Jesus. They demand a sign from Jesus that He is the real Messiah. And Jesus responds, in verse 29, and says, "I'll give you a sign, the sign of the Ninevites, the sign of Jonah," when he was preaching to them; and then there was judgment that followed. In other words, there will be a sign. It'll be a sign of judgment in the future because this generation rejected the Messiah. And this is the last demon possession that we encounter in the gospel of Luke, and Jesus no longer cast out demons because of the way the people responded to this story. 

So, Jesus in replying to His critics teaches a valuable lesson as He looks at the Jewish leaders who are self-impressed with their moralism, who teaching the people to be just like them. If you'd like to know the extent of their teaching and the extent of Jesus' criticism on them, read Matthew 23 sometime. It's the woes, woes, and woes that Jesus piles on against the Jewish leaders, "Woe to you Pharisees! Woe to you scribes!" because they are leading people astray. And Jesus makes one statement, "You are making the people who listen to you twice the sons of hell as yourselves are." That's the leadership at that time in Israel. And Jesus will use this scene to teach them a lesson on external religiosity versus genuine regeneration. 

And there's three signs for that. The first is "commitment to Jesus Christ." If you'd like to know if you are a genuinely converted individual, or if you're simply going through the motions of moralism – you might have grown up in a Christian home, you might have always had Christian friends, you might have always gone to a good Bible-teaching, Christian church. But the indication of your genuine transformation isn't Sunday attendance, isn't Bible study attendance. It's not even you reading your Bible or memorizing the Bible. It's the three signs that we'll see this morning. 

The first is "you have a personal commitment to Christ." We get that from the previous verse; it's still part of this greater context and that's verse 23. When Jesus says to the people, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters – Me, Me, Me." Jesus is at the center of that statement. 

We're talking about a personal relationship with Christ and a personal commitment to Christ. And in this little verse, Jesus is deploying military imagery. He picks up that military imagery from the two verses prior, when He imagines a strong man fully armed, guarding his own house, his possessions, everything is protected and secure, and in verse 22, another man who is stronger attacks him, overpowers him. He takes away from him all of his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. 

So, the imagery is of violence. It's war. It submits an attack. Somebody's broke into your house, and there is a fight that takes place, and Jesus says, "The stronger man will overpower even if the other man is strong." Jesus is concluding His thoughts on the whole accusation of Him being in league with Beelzebul. He's like, "No, I'm not in league with Beelzebul. It doesn't make sense for Satan to split his own house allegiance. But I am the stronger man in this case." And in light of that, Jesus says to them, "He who is not with Me is against Me." You either stand with Christ, or you stand against Christ; there is no neutral zone. There is no Switzerland in a spiritual world. There is no neutral country. 

Now, Jesus had already expressed that standard. Back in chapter 9, verse 23, Jesus said, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me." Verse 24 says, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake is the one who will save it." If you're not willing to go to crucifixion for Christ, then Jesus says, "You're not worthy of Me." So death, loyalty unto death is Jesus' expectation of every single believer in Him. 

At the end of that chapter in verse 62, Jesus expands the expectation and says, "No one who puts his hand on the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." So now it's the commitment to Christ to be willing to die for Him if necessary. And we know that happens; it just happened with a number of Christians in Syria. You probably heard about that in the news. But now He says, "But you also need to be engaged in the kingdom work, and that is you put your hand on the plow, you're not looking back." You're actively engaged in ministry. 

And so Jesus, back in our chapter in verse 23, says, "You're either against Me or you're for Me." And then He goes from kind of this military analogy to farming: "He who does not gather with Me scatters." Both of these statements in verse 23, gathering or scattering, are in the present tense, meaning we're not just engaged in ministry when it's convenient, when it's when we only have a 20-hour work week, when we have enough money to settle down and then we'll jump into ministry. It's a present tense statement: you're either actively, constantly gathering for Christ, or you're actively, constantly scattering. There is no neutral zone in participation and the mission of the kingdom of God. 

Now, we've heard this before I'm sure in many places. There's really three categories of ministry participation. You're either praying, you're either supporting, or you go. And depending on your giftedness, we all participate in all three or in one of the three or two of the three, and that's God's design for each believer where we fit in. And so some will become missionaries. They'll take the gospel to the unreached people groups, and they might get beheaded. And others are gifted differently, and so God has gifted them with a mind to make millions, and they support the ministry and the gospel to go global. And others are prayer warriors, and they are fervent, and they are committed, and they have faith. Romans 12, "There is a different measure of faith that's allotted to different believers." And so we apply those gifts to advance the kingdom of God. So whatever you're doing, you are gathering for the kingdom, and we do this until we see Jesus face to face. That's Jesus' expectation in verse 23: "You can't be in the middle, you can't be on the fence, you are either for Me or against Me. You're either gathering or you are scattering." 

And it's not exclusive to only those who are the most gifted or only the twelve. Back in chapter 9, John the apostle – while he was still rough around the edges – he was called, and his brother James, the sons of thunder. Remember that? And so, in chapter 9, John, kind of impressed with himself, wants to explain his loyalty to Jesus and his commitment to Jesus, says, "Jesus, there was a man who was casting out demons in Your name, and I forbade him." And Jesus responds in verse 50 of Luke 9, "Don't hinder him; for he who is not against you is for you." Again, military language; but Jesus says, "The ministry isn't limited to only a few, every single believer is to engage in the ministry and the advancement of the gospel." 

We understand military language in that case. Our president talks a big talk, right? The rhetoric is elevated. And in trying to protect the interests of the American people abroad, he says, "We've got allies, and we'll defend our allies, and we'll defend our interests." But those who are, against us, what's he going to do to them? Wipe them out. And he's demonstrated action recently. I'm for Donald Trump having action. 

But we understand that in our own society that military language demands action, and there's an alignment that's a part of that. You've got allies and then you've got your enemies. Jesus says, "You're either for Me or you're against Me," even in the most intimate relationships. In Matthew 10:34, Jesus says, "Don't think that I came to bring peace to the earth. I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's enemies will be the members of his own house. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me." 

Last Sunday afternoon our family went to have lunch with another family at our church, and a part of the conversation focused on a new pastor and his wife who just joined our staff at Grace Church. And his wife who's now in her late 60s told us the story of her conversion. She was raised in a Catholic home, a very staunch and zealous Catholic home. And at 18 she ends up at UCLA as a freshman in college, and somebody shares the gospel with her and she is truly converted. She starts going to a good church, Bible-believing church in East LA in kind of the ghetto of Los Angeles, but it's a good church. And then at one point she finally gets enough courage to tell her parents about her conversion. 

Family sits down for dinner, and her father, she says, who is always kind and compassionate, never swore, never a profane word came out of his mouth. Around the dinner table she begins to tell the story of her conversion, and her dad begins to pound the table with such anger that the food is flying all over the table and over the floor, and he says to her, "If you ever share the gospel with your siblings, I will beat them." 

Her mom stands up from the dining table and walks over to the kitchen sink and is kind of looking out the window and now wanted to have eye contact with her daughter. Her daughter comes up, this newly converted 18-year-old girl, and stands next to her mom, and her mom asks her one question. She says, "Just tell me, who is Virgin Mary to you? Is she your mother, spiritual mother?" And this daughter says, "No, Mom. Jesus is my Savior. Virgin Mary gave birth to Him." At that point, her mom said, "Get out of my house." She was kicked out as an 18-year-old on her own. She said last Sunday to us, "From that moment on, my dad never expressed any affection towards me for the rest of his life." 

Those extreme separations take place, even in a churched country, in a Christian nation. Now, most of us will not experience that. Maybe some of you have; but that's not the general vibe of some of our country, or some of our states and some of our cities in church contexts. But that happens every single day somewhere on the planet, doesn't it? Jesus said, "When I come, there will be separation. You're either for Me, even in your own house, or you're against Me, even in your own house." That's the standard, that's the expectation, that's the point of verse 23. 

How can we get there? Because that's a significant commitment. That is something that cannot be done in our own power. You can't force yourself to do that for Jesus. Well, it's in 1 Corinthians 12:3 that we read from Paul, "No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit." And that takes us to our second sign of genuine transformation or genuine regeneration over external religiosity: "the presence of the Holy Spirit." We are committed to Christ, and we're able to say Jesus is Lord and submit to Him and follow Him because we have the presence of the Holy Spirit. 

In verses 24-26, we get to that challenging part of this paragraph. Jesus is using a metaphor to talk about false religiosity and true religiosity, and He says this, "Look, there's an unclean spirit that is being cast out. He's moving around waterless places, seeking rest; he can't find any." And so in verse 24, he says, "I will return to my house from which I came." It comes back and it sees this place is swept, it's put in order, it's clean. It's what we do when we have guests over, the house is clean. And in verse 26, "He brings seven other evil spirits more evil than him, and they go in and they live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first." 

In the Jewish mindset – Jewish mysticism, Jewish theology – they believed that demons floated in deserts. In chapter 8, verse 29, even the demoniac in the area of Gerasenes was driven to the desert. In Leviticus 16:10 talks about the scapegoat that's carrying the sin, figuratively speaking, of the nation of Israel is sent into the desert with the demons. In Luke 7:33, the people say that John the Baptist had a demon because he comes out of the desert. That's where the demons live and reside. So the waterless places in verse 24 is a reference for the desert because that's where people thought the demons existed. And now this demon is coming back. And he couldn't find anyone else to inhabit, to possess, and so he thinks, "Well, maybe if I come back, maybe I can somehow influence my previous individual." 

Now, imagine the freedom a person would have felt who was demon-possessed and then freed. Imagine the man who cut himself, who was chained by his neighbors, who lived in the tombs, among the tombs, in the caves. Imagine the moment that Jesus cast out the demon called Legion, and he's sitting at Jesus' feet and he's listening to Jesus. And then he begs Jesus to go with Him and follow Him and be part of the disciples, and Jesus says, "No, you need to go back to your village and go tell the great things that God has done for you." And he did so with joy, proclaiming the message. 

Imagine the father and the young boy who also had a demon, and it would throw him into the fire or into the water, and they're trying to rescue him from physical harm, and then that demon is cast out, and imagine the freedom and the safety now that this little boy would experience. And now imagine being sent back into that previous condition. That's what Jesus is imagining in this little verse. He says the demon comes back, and he doesn't come back to the same level of violence and intensity and physical harm to a body, he is now bringing seven other demons with him. And so Jesus says the stage that's later is worse than the former. 

And this demon says, "I will go back to my house." He still thinks he owns it. We're talking about possession. We're talking about ownership. In other words, no one else took residence of that heart, of that soul. It's always about ownership: "You're either for Me or against Me." The demon had ownership prior to that; and once the demon has been cast out, no one else took possession of it, and so it's available, you could say, for the demon, because that person never truly converted to Christ. 

You think about the idea of Christ dwelling in us. Ephesians 3:17, Paul says, "So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith." It's the same vocabulary. It's the vocabulary of permanent ownership. That's why this demon thinks he has a right to return to this individual and still makes a claim over it, because the New Testament is very clear, that we've been rescued from the domain of darkness. Colossians 1:13, Paul says, "He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." Ephesians 5, 8 says, "You were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of the Light." 

Why would this demon return other than that he couldn't find another person? Well, in verse 25, it says, "When he comes back, it finds this person's life swept and put in order." In the original language, there's a way to say, "something that I had done to myself" – it's in the middle voice – "versus somebody doing something to me." "I hit myself," that's in the middle voice. "Mark hit me," that's in an active voice. "I'm the passive recipient of his violence." 

This is in the middle voice, "as a person himself began to clean up his own life without bringing Jesus into it." It's moralism that we're talking about. Jesus is emphasizing, focusing on people who are doing the right things, thinking that thereby they are pleasing God. This house was swept and put in order by this individual. 

As Jesus continues in this interaction with the Jewish leaders, in verse 39 – just look down a little bit – in verse 39, Jesus says, "You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but inside of you, you are full of robbery and wickedness. In verse 42, He says, "You pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and you disregard justice and the love of God, and these are the things that you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you!" Verse 43, "You love the best seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces." Verse 44, "Woe to you! For you are all like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it." 

Jesus takes this conversation into the direction of moralism: "You are full of dead men's bones, you're just a clean tomb." And if you travel to Israel where some of these conversations were taking place, if you kind of imagine Jerusalem in the middle, east is the Mount of Olives. But before you get to the top of the Mount of Olives, there is a cemetery and it's all white tombs. It was easy for people to hear this kind of teaching and just look to the right or look to the left, depending on where they're standing, and they would see a whole hill covered with whitewashed tombs, clean. 

But you can walk through it even today, and you know that you're walking on actual buried individuals. Jesus says, "That's exactly what you are. You've cleaned out the outside, and you look good, you dress good, you speak well; but inside, you are still a spiritually dead individual." So Jesus says, "Yes, it's clean, but it has not, your life has not been given over to Jesus Christ." Pastor John MacArthur says it this way: "Therein lies the fatal weakness of moralistic, legalistic efforts at self-reformation. The problem with the moral person's heart is that while it may be superficially cleaned up and put in order, it is void, it is devoid of the true spiritual power of righteousness that comes only to the redeemed, through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit." 

Imagine if I went shopping this afternoon. I love Texas. I love your barbecue. I love your freedom, your big roads. Everything is big in Texas. You have more trucks than we do. You guys can carry, open carry, right, open carry? Yes? Good stuff. And I decide to just kind of become a Texan. So I buy myself a hat, I get myself some boots, I get a big old buckle belt right here. Next time I show up, you know, I'll look different. And then I show up and preach and they're like, "Hmm, there's still a Russian in there. You're not faking us." The outside might look Texan, but the inside, still Soviet Union going on over here. 

That's what Jesus is talking about. You can clean up your life all you want, but the internal transformation has to take place. And that's what Jesus says, "The worst, the latter stage," in verse 26, "is worse than the former." What is Jesus referring to? It's the similar statement that Jesus made in John chapter 5 to the man He healed who had been crippled for 38 years, lying down by the pool. Jesus heals him; the man walks away. The Jewish leaders find him and say, "Who healed you on the Sabbath? That's wrong." And the man says, "Jesus did." He's like, "Where is He?" "I don't know." 

Jesus finds him later and tells him, "Go and sin no more, lest something worse happens to you." Remember that? The first encounter with Jesus was simply a miracle, a healing. There was no forgiveness of sins. There was no transformation. Jesus finds him and calls him to repentance and says, "If you don't repent," He says in this way, "Go and sin no more, lest something worse happens to you, lest judgment – not physical ailment anymore – spiritual judgment happen to you in the future." Jesus is referring in verse 26 to that judgment that will take place with anyone who's not a believer. 

Now, how do we explain seven plus one demons with this person or in this person? There's a Jewish writing that's contemporary to the time of Jesus that referred to this Jewish mysticism or Jewish theology – you can imagine it that way – that at creation there were eight demons who would then torture people: a demon of covetousness, hypocrisy, pride, uncharitableness, faithlessness, formalism, and fanaticism. And this work called the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs says this: "And so perisheth every young man darkening his mind from the truth and not understanding the law of God, nor obeying the admonitions of his father as befell me also in my youth." 

This Jewish work focuses on eight spirits torturing a young individual, causing him to sin in all these ways, and then ultimately leading him to destruction. That's the quote from that book. This was common knowledge. So Jesus is picking up something that people were familiar with, understanding that there's this Jewish mystical idea that eight demons can torture you. And so Jesus says, "You know that; and the end of that book is judgment and destruction. Let's take that analogy and apply it to true regeneration and true transformation. If you are not truly regenerated, if you're not truly converted, you will experience that kind of judgment." 

So, Jesus isn't promising that every single person will be possessed by eight demons who is not converted, He's just saying, "Whenever you encounter spiritual decisions, spiritual life, whenever you're faced with repentance, you have to understand that there is no neutral zone. You're either for Christ or you're against Christ. You're either truly converted, and that shows up in life, or you are a self-made religious person." 

And Jesus' promise is from verse 13. Back in verse 13, at the end of the teaching on prayer, right as He gets into the miracle of casting out a demon, Jesus promises this to those who truly believe in Him: "If you then being evil know how to give goods to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" Do you see how Jesus sets up this whole situation? It's the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit that will be with us permanently, abide with us, those who are truly His. And so that's the second sign is that you have the Holy Spirit residing in you, you're not under the influence of demonic activity. 

In Romans 8:9, Paul says, "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells" – resides, permanent ownership – "in you." Same vocabulary as we see in Luke 11. "But if anyone doesn't have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to Him." Paul makes it very clear: "You either have the Spirit of Christ and you belong to Him, or you don't have the Spirit of Christ and you don't belong to Him." That's the consistent message of the New Testament, and it's a metaphor of permanent residency. 

Paul says in Galatians 2:20, "I've been crucified with Christ; it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." In 2 Corinthians 13:5, often we go to this text before Communion where Paul challenges the Corinthians, "Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith." 

"Examine yourselves, and then see if you are a moral person." No. Do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you fail the test. So the focus isn't, "How moral am I?" No, the focus is, "Is Christ in me? Have I been unified with Christ? Have I been crucified with Christ?" And, "It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." That's the command to regularly examine our lives to make sure that Jesus Christ has full ownership. 

If I were to visit Mark and Marilyn's house and I just kind of walk in – and they're super hospitable, they're wonderful, the whole family. Okay? And then after I take a break and I just kind of get up from the table and then start rearranging furniture. What would be the right thing for Marilyn to do? Wrath. The wrath of Marilyn: "Don't touch my stuff in my house. You're just a guest. What are you doing? Leave that couch alone." I'm not the owner of the house, they are. I have no right to move things around, it's not my possession. 

Does Jesus have ownership of your house, of your life, because that's the vocabulary of dwelling. It's a person who permanently resides, not a temporary guest. It's the presence of the Holy Spirit, as promised back in verse 13, in contrast with the demonic activity and the spirits that we find in verse 24; the unclean spirit with seven others is the contrast. 

Well, that leads us to our final sign and that is "obedience to the word of God." Obedience to the word of God is the final sign of genuine regeneration versus simple external religiosity. After hearing all this, after seeing the miracle of the demon being cast out, after seeing the conflict between Jesus and some of the Jewish leaders in the previous verses, "A woman" – in verse 27 – "shouts out and declares, 'Blessed is the womb who bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.'" 

Now, before you get too harsh on this lady, remember the context. In John 7:13, it says, "There was such fear that gripped the people that were listening to Jesus because the Jewish leaders promised to kick them out of the synagogue if they aligned themselves with Jesus, and they would only" – according to John 7:13 – "whisper about Jesus." They were unwilling to publicly say His name, to do anything. We're not even talking about true converts or not true converts; people just trying to talk. They would whisper by Jesus for fear of consequences. 

So a woman in front of all these Jewish leaders shouting out, "Blessed is the mother, or the womb, that bore You, the woman who gave You birth." According to Matthew 12, the mother of Jesus and His siblings show up at this time. It might have been where she saw them come and she said, "That woman is blessed that she gave birth to such a son who performs miracles, and He can teach in this way." 

She's also this woman, nameless woman. She is recounting what happened in chapter 1 of Luke. When Elizabeth saw Mary, she said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb." So let's make sure we understand the context. She's just affirming Jesus, she's confessing Him, not necessarily as Messiah, but just excited about what He's teaching. 

Jesus responds in verse 28 not harshly, in fact, on the contrary. It's too harsh of a translation if you have that in your Bible. In the original language, there's a way to separate more harshly and more softly. This is, in the Greek, the softest way Jesus could turn away from the comment to say, "Yet, blessed is that person, or those, who hear the word of God and keep it." 

Jesus isn't trying to destroy her statement. What Jesus is saying, "It's not enough to confess. It's not enough to be amazed. It's not enough to exclaim in front of the whole world, 'There is Jesus. Jesus is the Savior.' Is He your Savior? Because in Matthew chapter 7, in verse 21, we meet a group of people who confess in Jesus, as He wraps up the Sermon on the Mount, says, 7:21 of Matthew, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, in Your name did we not prophesy, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name do many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me you who practice lawlessness.'" 

It's not enough to confess. It's not enough to say He is Lord. It's not even enough to work for Jesus, perform miracles, cast out demons as He just said in Matthew 7. "I never knew you. There was never a relationship; and the proof of that was that you are a worker of wickedness. And the opposite of that is that you obey the word of God," as Luke 11:28 says, "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and those who keep it." 

Thomas Adams says, "If you have an angel's tongue and the devil's heart, you're no better than a post on the road that rots while directing others." We Might have the gospel message right; But if we don't have a relationship with Christ, we are a rotting sign. 

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, "If you're in Christ, you're a new creature; behold, old things are gone, new things have come." And the evidence of that in that same book, the next chapter, what Paul does is he says, "If you are a new creature, then this is what your life will look like. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? What fellowship has light with darkness? What a harmony has Christ with Belial or Satan? What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? What agreement has a sanctuary of God with idols? For we are a sanctuary of the living God just as God said, 'I will dwell in them, and I will walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. Therefore, come out of their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. 'And don't touch what is unclean. And I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." 

The focus on perfecting holiness in the fear of God follows you are a new creature in Christ: "I will dwell in them." The promise from God is that He will be with us. "We are sons and daughters," says the Lord Almighty, "because we know that and that's true of us because regeneration has happened; therefore, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." That's the last sign that you are a child of God, that you truly belong to Christ, that your heart has been filled and it doesn't sit empty cleaning itself through moralism; rather, that you are now under the ownership of Jesus Christ. 

Galatians 5:16 says, "Walk in the Spirit, and you will never fulfill the desires of the flesh." First John 3:23 says, "This is the commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ. Let us love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him." That's the proof that Christ abides in you: you keep His commandments. 

And that's my encouragement to all of us to reflect on. If you lack assurance of salvation, check your life against those three signs. Do you commit to Christ? Do you believe in Christ and have you made a public commitment to Him? Is the Holy Spirit in your life? Romans 8:9, "You either have the Spirit or you don't." And finally, do you obey the word of God because He's working in you? 

It's wearying to earn favor with God through works. Jesus knew that, and that's when, Matthew 11:28, He says, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." If you are in a place where you're just trying and trying and you are exhausted with your moralism, the solution is repent from your sins, and come to Christ, and He promises rest. And as we continue to follow Christ, we need His sustaining grace to be faithful to Him. John says, "In Christ we have received grace upon grace," not just the first time you're repented, every single day. And we need that grace to be faithful to Him. 

And that is the prayer of a Puritan called David Clarkson: "We cry to You, God, for renewing grace. We lie at Your footstool and cry, 'Help, Lord, or else I perish. Create in me a new heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Renew me in the spirit of my mind, and renew me in my inner soul. Take away this old mind that is so blind, so vain, so carnal. Take away this old will that is so obstinate, so perverse, so rebellious. Take away this old heart that will never delight and comply with or submit to You. Let old things pass away, let all things become new. You who brought this world out of nothing with a word can with a word work in me this new creation. Don't let me perish. Say the word and it will be done. Just say the word and this soul, now a dark, woeful chaos, and a lump of corruption and confusion, will become a new creature. Lord, give me this new heart. Put this new spirit into me. 

"You have the key of David. You close, and no one opens. You open, and no one can shut. Lord, open this heart that has been too long closed against You. Break down these strongholds that keep You from me. Cast out sin and cast out the world that kept You out of possession for so long. But the strong men, bind the strong men and cast them out. Other lords have had dominion over me. They have made me miserable by keeping my Lord, my happiness from me. Cast out these intruders. Take possession of me and be mine forever. You call for my heart, Lord; it's yours. Though I have dealt treacherously with You and given my heart to other things, it is Yours. It cost You dearly. So enter; take possession of it. You knock at the door to this wretched heart. Why take so long outside? Come in and bless me with Your presence. Break it open with almighty power and let it no longer shut You out." 

That's a prayer that we should offer every day because there are intruders, and there are those who interfere in our daily walk with Christ, and He promises to give us grace to continue. Every single time we approach Communion, it's a moment to pause, reflect, and remember that Jesus Christ paid it all, and that you don't have to work your way into heaven, hoping that you'll get in. First John has written, "so that you may know for sure that you have eternal life." And the only way for you to know for sure is if you believed in Jesus Christ and His death on your behalf. He was delivered over for our transgressions, and He was raised for our justification. And that's the promise of salvation. You can have His righteousness cover you, and God will let you into heaven. 

Shortly before crucifixion, Jesus was upstairs with His disciples. And in Luke 22, Jesus took the bread and said to His disciples, in verse 16, "I will never again eat until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." 

"And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He said, 'Take this and share it among yourselves.' And He said, 'I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now until the kingdom of God comes. This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me. This is the cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood; do this in remembrance of Me.'" Let's take the bread together, and as you do so, just take a moment and thank God that His body was broken for you. 

Jesus, we do thank You that You went to the cross for us and You saved us, and we stand justified because of Your death and resurrection. Let's take the cup as well and thank Jesus for His death. 

You spilled Your blood for us, and we're forgiven, and we thank You for that. And now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Something worse will not happen to us because we stand in Christ. And we pray this in His name and for His glory. Amen.