The True Blessing Luke 11:14-28

Faith Bible Church

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Faith Bible Church, welcome to those that are watching from afar, certainly later in the day, but it is a blessing to be here and it's always good to be with your fellow believers and to gather together and to go through life together and share stories and encourage and to love on each other.

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So this is a good time and a good day. Even in the midst of a lot of things happening, particularly in the

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Middle East with the wars that are going on there, the strife and the unrest, but that's been going on for centuries, you know, it's not, it's nothing new since the fall, but it's still tragic and it's caused to grieve and to mourn over, but God is in control,

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God is over all, and we can rest in that. We have a few announcements. We had our leadership meeting this week and to have five men together and talking dates and calendars,

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I made a comment somewhere in there, I wish we had our wives with us because, you know, guys and dates and, you know, things like that,

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I think we haven't mastered that real well, but anyway, they're in your bulletin if you just listen along, if you have any questions, wait till after church because there's a lot here, but.

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So the weekly Bible study that usually meets on Friday at 5 .30 is changing to twice a month on the second and fourth

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Wednesday of each month starting Wednesday the 25th at 5 .30, and pastor will have an online option as well, so, and that'll be beginning the study of Book of Ruth, so if you want to start reading the

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Book of Ruth to get ahead, that would be great. Ladies Bible study is next

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Saturday, the 21st at 10, and they're going to be going through First Kings chapter 20.

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For the month of November, there will not be any biblical counseling classes due to holidays, so, but starting in December on the 9th, it'll be instead of 11 o 'clock, it'll be beginning at 9 o 'clock.

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But the next men's Bible breakfast is the

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November 4th at 9 o 'clock, so all men are welcome to that, just bring yourselves, food is provided, and the quality of the food is always good for the most part, unless I'm involved, but I'm told that it's decent, but Brendan really cranks out those pancakes and a lot of grease, a lot of, it's really excellent.

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But, anyway, so that's kind of it for our announcements this morning, and again, you can refer to your, to your bulletins on that.

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Eleazar, Harold, and I are, we've been going through the Book of Jonah, and Jonah went into a society, as you know the story of Nineveh, and to a people that were against God, that were, that were reprobate, that were just totally not walking with the

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Lord, but God took this man, he was not a powerful man, he was not necessarily a wise man, he was a prophet, but he went into this city that you would not think, it could,

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Nineveh could be Sacramento, it's that type of city, it's the, the sin abounded, and God used him,

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Jonah, just like he did Paul, to change an entire city. The king repented, the people repented, through one man that didn't, what didn't come in blazing saddles and, and, and, you know, with a, with a banner in the air, he just came in preaching the word, and I think it's encouraging for us to, important for us to have that same attitude, you know, if God could do a work through one man that wasn't spectacular, but he changed a whole society, and everybody repented,

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God can do that work again, it may not be a whole city, but it might be in your small community, it might be in your home, your, your extended family, it could be in your work, it could be in this neighborhood around us, so God can use you,

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God, make yourself available to him, and he will do a work, he does, he always does, in his time, and so I think we can take rest in that, that he will do a work in all of us, okay?

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So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord God, we thank you that we can come to you together today,

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Father, that you might go with us, Father, lead us this morning as we desire to grow in our personal lives, as our faith, we pray,

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Lord, would grow, to begin to impact, Father, those around us for Jesus.

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God, if, if you would build a greater foundation in us, Lord, may we take that lead, and follow you, and trust you, and obey you, and then praise you in all things,

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Father. God, this morning, we pray that you would help us to lift our voices to you, Lord, that this is not a, we have an audience of one, and that is you,

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Father, that is not led by, we're not here to please man, we're not here to please one another,

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Father, we are here to please you, and to worship you, because you are worthy of our praise. So God, go before us now,

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Lord, we pray that you would bless pastor, and in what you have placed upon his heart, Lord, that as he opens up your word, that it would touch us, that it would change us, that it would,

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God, motivate us to, to love, and good deeds, and to do things in your kingdom that would please you,

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Father. So God, we thank you this morning, we pray for those brothers and sisters that are, that are sick, or ill, or away,

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Father, that can't be here, God, be a presence in their lives, Father, comfort them, give them peace,

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Lord, and God, we pray for peace in the Middle East, Lord, with so much strife and unrest,

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Lord, that it's, it's, it's hard to comprehend all the sorrow that is going on there now,

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Father, but Lord, we know you are overall, that you, nothing is a surprise to you,

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Father, and we just pray that you would help all of those people, Lord, that you would be with those that are, believers that are present, that there might be a revival, even locally, or in their small communities,

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Father, that Jesus would be proclaimed, because you are, are God, you are who we serve.

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So God, we pray that we would go forth with the good news of Jesus Christ, Father, we thank you for this morning, and we commit our time to your care, in Jesus' name, amen.

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If you would all stand with me, please, um, Eliezer has been gracious enough to, to serve, and to be used, um, and, uh, even through fear, intrepid, through fear, and a little bit of, uh, wobbly knees, he's, he's here, and I think he's gonna do a wonderful job, as unto the

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Lord. So, we're gonna sing first, The Solid Rock, that's where our faith is placed, is on the rock of Jesus Christ, then we're going to talk about, once we have that, we can trust him, we can obey his commandments, and then we're going to finish with giving praise and power to Jesus' name, the mighty power of God.

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So, The Solid Rock. Today's, uh, scripture reading is going to be on Matthew 12,

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Matthew chapter 12, verses 24 through 32. But when the

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Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man cast out demons.

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Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand, and if Satan cast out

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Satan, he is divided against himself, how then will his kingdom stand?

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And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?

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Therefore, they will be your judges, but if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you, or how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man?

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Then, indeed, he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

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Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven, people, but the blasphemy against the

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Spirit will not be forgiven, and whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the

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Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.

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This is the word of the Lord. And isn't it wonderful with all the that is going on in the world around us, we can be here today to sing praises to God and hail

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Jesus' name. Please stand with me as we sing all hail the power of Jesus' name. Please turn with me to Luke chapter 11,

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Luke chapter 11 verses 14 through 18. And he was casting out a demon, and it was mute.

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So it was when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke, and the multitudes marveled.

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But some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

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But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.

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If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say

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I cast out demons by Beelzebub. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?

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Therefore they will be your judges. But if they cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.

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But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils.

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He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

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When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finding none.

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He says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order.

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Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there.

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And the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it happened as he spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you.

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But he said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

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This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that you are in control and that in Jesus that we can find true security and peace.

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Father, we pray that you would help us to experience confidence and trust in you and that you would help us to respond in faith to your word.

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Father, we pray that we would consider ourselves blessed because we have responded to your word.

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And father, we also pray for all those who are suffering in the region of Israel, all the hostages and all those who have lost the loved ones and who are just traumatized by what happened in Israel.

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In the last couple of weeks, we pray that you would be with them. You would comfort their souls and also that you would lead them to Christ, that they would ultimately find their true joy and delight in Christ and true security in Christ.

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And we also pray the same for those in Gaza who are suffering right now, who have lost so many things from this conflict.

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We pray that they would also come to faith in Christ as well, in Jesus name. Amen. Now, today's text picks up teaching us more and more what it means to respond to Jesus.

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Now, and when unbelievers usually think about responding to Jesus, you know, receiving

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Jesus, believing in Jesus, they're often hesitant. They calculate what they will lose, hobbies they will have to give up, words they can't say, relationships that may be lost or become awkward just because you became a

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Christian. Oftentimes, blessing is not the concept in mind when people consider responding to Christ in faith.

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However, today, Jesus actually gives us the best reason to respond in faith, and that is that true blessings only come to those who wholeheartedly follow

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Christ. True blessing comes to those who wholeheartedly follow

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Christ. Now, I do want to define what blessing is not, right?

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It's not primarily your dream vacation. Now, it can be a blessing for certain times, right, that if God provides a way for you to rest and go to a location where you can finally relax, but that's not the type of blessing the

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Bible talks about, and it also is not a little foamy heart that your barista puts on your cappuccino or latte, right?

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The biblical blessing is actually closely tied to one's relation to God.

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We've been studying the book of Psalms in our 930 Sunday school, and when we finished the first book of the

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Psalter, right, Psalm 1 through 41, we've actually noticed there's a theme of blessedness that runs through the first book of Psalm, right?

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In fact, the first Psalm starts with, blessed is the man, right?

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Blessedness is one's right relationship with God, right?

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So, Psalm 1 starts with, blessed is the man, right, who dissociates from, disassociates from the ways of the wicked, but meditates, fills his mind with God's word day and night, right?

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The blessedness, true blessing consists of aligning oneself wholeheartedly with God, and then it picks up in Psalm 2, right?

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It develops. Blessedness has to do with one's trust in God, right? Blessed are all who take refuge in Him, right?

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Taking refuge, finding ultimate security and confidence in God, protection, and then it picks up in Psalm 33, where the blessing actually grows to a national level.

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Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Blessedness, even at a national level, has to do with one's identity and allegiance to God, and then

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Psalm 34 returns to the blessing toward those who trust in God, because they have tasted and seen that the

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Lord is good. Their personal experience with God is what they, why they trust in the

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Lord, and those people are truly blessed, and then Psalm 41 finally ends with blessing toward those who do what

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God does. Blessed are those who consider the poor. Blessedness is intimately tied with one's relation to God, one's trust in God, and one who considers

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God, and one who considers those whom God considers. So, this morning, for those of us who do truly seek blessing from the

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Lord, the main point of this text is true blessing belongs to those who faithfully respond to Jesus' divine accomplishment in obedience.

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True blessing belongs to those who faithfully respond to Jesus' divine accomplishments in obedience.

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First, witnessing Jesus' divine authority requires us to respond. Witnessing Jesus' divine authority requires us to respond.

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The story here starts out with a miracle done by Jesus. However, unlike the previous passages of exorcism, the focus is not on the exorcism itself.

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The exorcism only takes up one verse. The focus here, however, is the response to Jesus' work and authority by the witnesses.

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So, verse 15 and 16 show the two responses by those who have seen the miracle, right?

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But some of them said, He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.

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The first response is that of incredulity. It's unbelief, right?

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The second response, right, is that of doubt, right?

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They look for more response. Now, before we go unpack what these responses are,

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I do want to go over what is Beelzebub, right? Beelzebub is actually the

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Hebrew word for the lord of the flies. Beel is also the word

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Baal. The word Baal comes from Beel, right? Baal. It means master or lord.

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Zebub means flies. So, when they say, He cast out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons, they're talking about the lord of the flies, also known as the

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Canaanite deity. And what they're accusing Jesus is that Jesus is borrowing and relying on the authority of Beelzebub.

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Now, the ruler of the demons actually tells us what kind of deity this is. Basically, he's

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Satan. In the end, you can trace it back to Satan. Beelzebub, the lord of the flies, is the ruler of the demons,

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Satan. Now, it's quite a grotesque picture here, but ultimately, what they're saying is, after Jesus freed a mute man who's been possessed, oppressed by the demon, the witnesses, some of them actually justify, they explain, right,

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Jesus' miracle by saying, well, that's by the power of Satan, right?

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So, some in the crowd, they directly witness a miracle. And their explanation is, well,

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Jesus is working with Satan. Instead of letting the miracle of casting out the mute demon show

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Jesus' superiority over the demons, they perversely justify the miracle, so that they don't have to respond to Jesus in faith.

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After all, why would you want to trust someone who is borrowing power from Satan, right?

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It is a way of self -justification. If Jesus is casting out demons in a wicked, evil way, then you don't have to respond to Jesus.

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You don't have to follow him. He's on the bad side. He's one of the bad guys.

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Now, verse 16 shows skepticism. Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

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What this is saying is, one miracle was not enough for them. Could you do another one?

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Could you do a different one? Now, although this seems more innocent than the previous response, it is still wicked.

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It is the view that you get to control how God reveals himself.

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God has shown who he is through his miracles. Yet, you get to decide whether that was enough or not, right?

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Ultimately, you get to judge God's actions. You get to be the one who scores how well

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God has done. All of a sudden, God is the one performing for you like an

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Olympic gymnast, and you get to judge God how well he's revealed himself.

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Well, that miracle's not enough. Do another one. Perform another sign.

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And we live in a culture that is all too familiar with that. Agnosticism is a great example.

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I'm not sure if the God of the Bible is the true God. It sounds humble, but in one way, it's saying

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God has not revealed himself clearly enough when he, in fact, has become a man to dwell among us and die the death that we deserved and rise from the dead with over 500 witnesses responding to the resurrected

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Christ. Now, knowing these disturbing responses,

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Jesus responds from verses 17 through 23. Note how

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Luke narrates Jesus' speech. But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them.

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Luke tells us that Jesus could understand and clearly know their thoughts, even if they didn't verbally say it.

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The irony here is palpable. In response to those who are seeking another sign, a heavenly sign,

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Jesus responds to their inner thought. Who could know the thought of man but God?

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Yet, this also was not enough. Verse 17 starts out with a general statement that logically argues against the perverse justification that Jesus is casting out demons by Satan's power.

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Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and a house divided against a house falls.

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Jesus chose the fallacy of the claim to accuse him of casting out demons under Satan's authority, right?

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Ultimately, the fallacy here is that kingdoms and houses tend to crumble by its own weight when they're divided.

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This is not the destruction caused by an external force, but rather it's an internal implosion.

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They just cannot stand, right? In fact, historically, civil wars actually do a huge, huge damage on that nation.

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In fact, Israel as a nation has a history of this specific case.

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The best days of Israel's power and authority happened not when Israel was divided as northern and southern kingdoms, but under one monarch of the

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Davidic line, right? Mainly David and Solomon.

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But of course they got weaker and weaker when they split into two.

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So out of all those people, the Israelites, the Jews needed to know that was a crazy argument.

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How can a divided kingdom stand? You know this from your own history. Now in verse 18,

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Jesus applies the general principle specifically to their argument. Now if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand?

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Because you say, I cast out demons by Beelzebub. Now because they claim that Jesus is casting out demons through Satan's power, they have to confront the fact that even

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Satan's kingdom is at risk when it's divided.

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Just like a human kingdom is facing a destruction if it's ever divided, so will

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Satan's kingdom be at risk of destruction when it's divided. Now Satan's work, right?

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Satan's job is to cause death and disease and increase of sin, right? That's his business.

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And Jesus comes around and he's reversing that trend, right? He's casting out demons.

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He's healing the sick. He's calming the storm. He's forgiving sins.

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And now Jesus has been opposing Satan all throughout his ministry. Now the question is, if Jesus has been toppling

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Satan's kingdom, how can it be that Satan is empowering Jesus? Logically, it doesn't make sense.

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In verse 19, Jesus turns the question on them. And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out?

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Therefore, they will be your judges. This may be one of the hardest verses to understand in this whole passage.

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The pivotal point hangs on how you understand your sons.

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If we understand your sons as the followers of these doubters, the question becomes, by whose authority are your followers casting out demons, right?

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The question is, well, if Jesus is casting out demons under Satan's authority, are your sons also casting out demons under Satan's authority too, right?

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Surely Jesus can't be the only one then. Now another way to understand is to interpret your sons generally as Jews, right?

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So in the context of Luke, Jesus' disciples have been casting out demons and they are

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Jews. So now the question becomes, are these disciples, as we know, more than 70 of them, are they also casting out demons under Satan's authority?

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There's a lot more explanation to do when it's not just one exorcism that's supposedly under Satan's authority, but all of them.

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How do you explain that? Therefore, right, in the end, these exorcists will judge you for these false accusations.

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Now both of these interpretations completely counter the wicked claim that Jesus is working under Satan's authority.

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It can't work. That argument falls apart on its own.

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Now, after refuting the claim that Jesus' miracles are satanic, right,

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Jesus reveals the source of his authority, the truth. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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The phrase finger of God means God's direct authority. Of course, Jews don't believe that God has a body, right?

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The finger doesn't just show up out of nowhere from the sky and squash demons. Rather, it's showing that it has to be

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God's direct authority. It only could be God. And we saw this phrase actually in Exodus 8, 19, when

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Pharaoh's magicians could not copy God's plague against Egypt for the first time, when there's a huge lice infestation in Egypt, right, because the dust of Egypt turned into lice.

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The first two signs, the magicians, Pharaoh's magicians through their wicked dark arts could replicate that, but of course not to the scale that God had, right?

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But the third one, they really can't. They can't turn dust into lice. So, what they tell

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Pharaoh is, this is the finger of God. Now, this does not mean, right,

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God's finger literally showed up in Egypt to turn every dust particle into a louse.

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What it's saying is, rather, the finger of God signifies his complete power and authority.

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The miracles, nature, and capacity are so supreme and so beyond the grasp of human ingenuity that no created being could accomplish such a thing.

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It has to be God. So, what Jesus is saying, whenever he works, he does so by God's power and authority.

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So, if you can see that Jesus' work is done through God's very authority, well, then you belong to his kingdom.

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The kingdom of God has come upon you. It's near you. You belong to that.

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You're under his rule. That's your allegiance and identity. To put it another way, only those who are under Christ's reign can recognize

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Jesus' divine authority. Who you are and to whom you belong completely depend on your response to Jesus' authority.

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And in order to illustrate the relation between his kingdom and Satan's kingdom, Jesus tells a parable.

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When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But then a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoils.

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Now, this parable here, just two verses, in this parable, it is important to identify each character.

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The strong man in the first verse who's protecting his palace with all his security is

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Satan. And Satan is powerful and is secure in this world. However, verse 22 introduces a stronger character.

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And this stronger fellow is Jesus. And because Jesus' authority is divine, he is stronger.

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His superiority is shown by what happens to Satan when

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Jesus enters the world. Jesus takes Satan's armor, which he trusted. That's the very thing that actually protected

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Satan and Satan has no use of it. And not only that, Jesus takes all the spoils.

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Whatever belongs to Satan, Jesus gets them because he's stronger. He's conquered. And there's not an ounce of possession that Satan can hold on to when

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Jesus overcomes him. Jesus fully conquers Satan. Jesus is fully victorious.

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Really, what it's saying is there's not even a contest. It's not even a close battle.

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The opposite of Satan is not Jesus because Jesus is far superior to Satan.

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Jesus is beyond Satan. Now, the punchline of the parable comes with verse 23.

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He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.

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The parable clearly reveals that there is no middle ground. There is no neutral zone here.

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There's no Switzerland when it comes to your response to Jesus. Right?

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I took a preaching class in seminary, and the passage we had to prepare was from Revelation 19.

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And for many of you, that's the great battle. Right? All those who are against Jesus, they gather by the droves, nations, princes, everyone.

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Right? There's no distinction even in social class.

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It's the rulers and even the slaves. They gather against Jesus. Right? So, and Jesus just merely speaks the word, and they're all defeated.

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Now, one student, shockingly, he's a seminary student training to be a pastor, shared that it can't be possibly everyone who goes against Jesus.

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It can't possibly that everyone who goes against Jesus is judged.

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Right? You can't believe that all non -Christians are judged.

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After all, there are some pretty nice neighbors who don't believe in Jesus. Right? Would they all go against Jesus, and they all be judged?

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What about your hypothetical neighbor, Larry, who mows your lawn when you're gone on vacation, and he doesn't speak a word about it?

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Would you say Larry also would oppose Jesus? Now, thankfully, the preaching past professor also was my advisor.

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He corrected this view. You don't have to outright curse

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Jesus out to oppose Jesus. You don't have to kill Christians to oppose

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Jesus. It only takes this one prideful attitude.

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I don't need Jesus to die for my sin. I don't want to surrender all of myself to Jesus.

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I don't trust Jesus with my life and my family. That seed of pride continues to grow.

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Anyone who doesn't believe in Jesus, that pride is there, because they have rejected the only son of God who has come to rescue them.

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You might not see it, and you might all have extremely kind and generous family members who don't believe in Jesus.

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I know I do. But in the end, when they have to come face -to -face with Jesus, their words will be in opposition to who he is.

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They will oppose him to his face. In due time,

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Satan will not have to force your neighbor, Larry, to fight on his side. Larry will gladly join

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Satan's side, because Larry already does not want anything to do with Jesus in the first place.

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Do you think he will gladly receive Jesus, who comes back to overtake the whole world from Satan, the world that Larry enjoys very much?

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And when Jesus overtakes the world from Satan completely, everyone has to bow their knee and confess?

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Would Larry like that? Well, he doesn't like it now. That's not his heart now.

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He doesn't want to do that now. What makes you think that he'll want to do that later? This means when we hear about Jesus or read about Jesus in scripture, a response is actually crucial.

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It's necessary. There is no neutral ground when encountering Jesus. You will not be commended by Jesus on the judgment day for viewing him as just a good moral teacher, along with Buddha, Dalai Lama, right?

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And Confucius. Well, Jesus is one of them. What Jesus tells us is you have to respond in faith and receive him as who he is, as the one who works with God's authority.

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We must trust him and receive him as how he reveals himself.

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And scripture tells us that he is divine. And he came to die for us, bearing our sin, suffering

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God's wrath, so that we may be forgiven and made righteous in him.

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And if you cannot receive Jesus the way that scripture presents to us, the other path is to oppose him just as some in the crowd did.

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You have to explain away the miracles that he's done. Maybe you might not directly say it's satanic, but to say that it's less than divine is an utter underestimation of who

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Jesus is and what he's done. It's insulting. It's a mockery.

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And what Jesus proclaims, however, is even more stringent. Opposition to Christ is not just limited to viewing his work as evil, rather opposition to Christ is any other side than Christ's side.

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There's no third side when responding to Christ. It's either you believe him, receive him and trust him as who he is and what he's done, or you're against him.

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You're going against the king of kings. There is no neutral view of Christ.

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Either you're for him or not. Now, what are the different results of our response to Jesus' authority?

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While those who do not respond to Jesus' authority face a worse fate than before, those who faithfully respond in obedience to Jesus are truly blessed.

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While those who do not respond to Jesus' authority face a worse fate than before, those who faithfully respond in obedience to Jesus are truly blessed.

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So after correcting the crowd regarding his divine authority, Jesus continues to tell a parable regarding the importance of responding to him.

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When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest and finding none, he says,

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I will return to my house from which I came. And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order.

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Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there.

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And the last state of the man is worse than the first. There's a man who experiences a miracle from God.

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He is delivered by God, not in a complete sense, but temporarily.

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He was feeling, experiencing a demonic oppression, but now not anymore.

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He's found some relief. Now, after that, the demon leaves the man and he wanders around to find another host.

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That's the demon's goal. The purpose of demons is to make God's people or people who are made in God's image as miserable as possible.

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Now, however, failing to find another host, he actually returns with more of his demon friends to possess the person.

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The crucial point here is that this man who was recently freed, who from the original demon, uh, he found some relief.

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He found temporary relief by God's gracious miracle.

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The crucial point is that he did not do anything in response to God's work. Nothing changed about this man.

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He experienced a gracious relief from God, but he just lived as he used to live.

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He went back to his normal lifestyle. He returned to his status quo.

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And the punchline really is Jesus explains that the returning to the former state after encountering

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God's work actually will lead to a worse state than before. The last state of that man is worse than the first.

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The consequence is far worse to not responding to God's work.

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This means someone can experience miracles from God, encounter great acts of God that could not be explained just through scientific or naturalistic explanations.

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It couldn't have happened. It was impossible, but it happened. And, and really

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God did it. Emotionally touched by God's word preached or taught, clearly understood the gospel message that only

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Jesus death on the cross could wipe away your sin. It finally made sense.

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Yet you can reject Christ and return to the old path and you're worse off.

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I'll give you a modern day example. A person who's addicted to drugs can start being a part of a

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God fearing scripture, trusting spirit dependent and Christ -centered church.

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He finds this community, the community loves him, welcomes him, and he feels received and accepted.

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And he hears about Jesus. And this fellow sounds like a very loving man.

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Wow. He died for my sin. And he may even experience some freedom from the drugs that he was completely of dependent on an idolatrous relationship with these substances.

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And it's been for decades, but for some reason, he's free.

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Now for some unknown cause, this man leaves the church and Christianity behind and returns to his old lifestyle.

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The last condition is far worse than the first. In fact, it is more tragic that he came so close to Christ's compassionate presence and saw the entrance to his kingdom, but refused to respond in faith and turned around and returned to what he was used to the most, his old lifestyle.

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He got a glimpse of what permanent transformation would have been like, yet left it all behind.

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The last state is worse than the first. Now, after sharing the miserable consequence of not properly responding to Christ's authority,

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Jesus shares the positive result of a faithful response. And it happened as he spoke these things that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, now

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Luke shows us that the next two verses that's coming, that are coming are in the same context as the previous message, right?

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As he spoke these things, it's in the context that this woman pops out and says what she is about to say.

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Right? This is in response to what Jesus has just shared about the reality of responding to Jesus in faith.

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So this woman, we don't know who this is really, that Luke just says a certain woman.

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And that's because the focus is not the speaker, but the conversation that ensues.

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So this is what the woman proclaims. Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast which nursed you.

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This unknown woman, presumably after witnessing Jesus' miracle and teaching, goes to his, right?

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So what she does is after witnessing all that and hearing the extraordinary teaching, she blesses

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Jesus' mother. So mother Mary, right? Mary. And in fact, this makes sense, right?

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After witnessing Jesus' magnificence, the woman credits his mother for her part in raising

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Jesus. Wow, she must be blessed to have a son like you, right?

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And this is rather common in our culture too, right? When a star athlete or a Hollywood celebrity is interviewed, the credit usually goes to the mom, right?

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It's the mom who raised him. It's the mom who supported him. It's the mom who encouraged him despite the hardship, despite everyone else saying, you can't do that.

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You can't go to the NBA. But it was the mom who drove him to the practices. It was the mom who never missed the games, right?

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The mother gets the credit. And in a similar sense, this unknown woman, after seeing how magnificent Jesus is, what he does and what he says, well, blessed is your mother.

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The woman's focus of blessing through Christ is familial and biological, right?

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This is how the world works actually. Now this is not to say Mary's not blessed. She is blessed.

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She's a faithful woman who responded to God's redemptive work in faith, right?

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She didn't complain. She praised the Lord. She is blessed. But often the world considers blessing this way too, right?

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Relatives of kings and queens normally do not starve to death. President's kids often get preferential treatments.

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Now she's not wrong that Mary is blessed for being Jesus' mother. In fact,

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Luke affirms that Mary is blessed in Luke 1 .45.

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But this woman's view is an utter underestimation of what true blessing is.

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Hence, Jesus reveals the greater blessing. But he said, more than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

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Note the first phrase, more than that. Jesus is not refuting this woman's claim.

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Sure, Mary got to bring the son of God, the Messiah, the second person of the

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Trinity into this world, right? His incarnation was through Mary in one sense.

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That's a blessing for sure. But what Jesus is saying, there's a bigger blessing you're missing.

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There's a greater blessing. He just takes it up a notch. Yes, woman, you're right.

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My mom, she is blessed. But more than that, do you want to hear a greater blessing than carrying

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Jesus for nine months in the womb and raising him up?

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Listen to God's word and respond in faith. Do you want to know the biggest privilege in relation to Jesus?

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It's not the umbilical cord that he was connected to. It's not genetic similarity, but a faithful response to him in obedience.

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That's the true blessing. Those who hear God's word and obey.

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That's the true blessing. And this morning, all of you have the opportunity to be blessed beyond what you thought imaginable.

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In one sense, more blessed than Mary carrying Jesus in the womb. And that was a huge blessing in itself.

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All of you have the opportunity to receive a blessing that far trumps any privilege or treatments that any children of the president's past or future experience.

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And it is to trust Jesus and to obey his word. It is to lay aside any competing forces and wholeheartedly follow

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Jesus. And that is the biggest blessing you can experience today.

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And in fact, you can confirm how tremendously

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God has blessed those who have heard his word and obeyed.

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Not by talking to me, but stay after and talk to some of the older saints sitting here who have followed

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Jesus longer than twice my age. Ask them to share how

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God has blessed them. When they faithfully followed Christ, how

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God has provided for them when it seemed impossible, how

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God has protected them when death and sin were at the door because their lives confirm

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Jesus promise of what true divine blessing is. Their experiences show that his scripture holds true today.

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Let us pray. Father, we're thankful that we only because we have responded to Christ and follow him in obedience are truly blessed.

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It is not by our own strength. It's not because what we've done or what we're capable of doing, our abilities and talents or what we own.

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But just because Christ graciously died for our sake and that he bore our sin, face the penalty that we deserve.

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And he rose from the dead just by responding to him in faith. We are considered more blessed even than the womb that carried your son.

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And we pray that we would realize and remember this blessing as we go out despite the hardship, despite the trials, despite the temptations, and despite the suffering in Jesus name.