Sermon: The Kingdom Come

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What we're going to look at today is we are getting into the middle portion of this chapter 12 in Matthew.

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What we're beginning to see, really it started in chapter 11, but as we get into chapter 12, we're starting to see this climax of what is essentially the religious leaders coming against Christ in such a way that it's really hitting a fever pitch.

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Matthew does such a great job, as Jeff has described to us, where he intertwines the book of Matthew with the

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Old Testament, showing Jesus as Messiah. But for the sake or for the reading of God's word, we're in Matthew, again, chapter 12, verses 22 through 30.

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Here are the words of the living God. Then a demon -oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him so that the man spoke and saw.

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And all the people were amazed and said, Can this be the son of David? But when the

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Pharisees heard it, they said, It's only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

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Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is laid to waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.

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And if Satan casts out 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's by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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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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Let's pray. God, I thank you for this time. I ask, God, that you remove me.

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God, that you were magnified, that you were glorified through today's passage. I pray,

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God, that you give Jeff and Candy and their family rest as they're away. God, we are just so grateful for this church and for this ability to come together on your

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Lord's day to preach the gospel, to have the gospel go forth to your people,

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God. I pray, God, that this not just speaks to our minds, but speaks to our hearts.

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And as always, we're so grateful for your grace and your mercy. We pray this for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

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So Matthew, when he begins his gospel, a few things came to mind for me this week as I was preparing for this message.

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But we see the advent of Christ in the first chapter of Matthew, and it's the birth of the promised

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Messiah. It's the long -awaited Messiah. And so what Matthew does is he starts to piece together for the reader, again, proof that Christ is the true

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Messiah. He is who he says he is. He begins even simply with his ancestry, his genealogy.

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Matthew establishes Jesus' lineage all the way back to the Abrahamic covenant.

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And he establishes this claim to the throne of David through Joseph as his legal heir.

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So you see things like this, but you see the arrival of the King, right? That it might be fulfilled according to the scripture.

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And we all know this scripture here at Apology of Church, Isaiah 9, verses 6 -7.

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For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder.

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And the name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the

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Lord of the hosts will do this. So we start getting this picture that the kingdom of God has arrived in history, right?

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Christ's lordship and salvation has entered the world. And as Christ enters his public ministry, we start to see things like this, right?

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The forerunner, John the Baptist. We know from the Old Testament that there would be one that's coming before the

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Messiah. Malachi 4, verses 5 -6, Behold, I will send you

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Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers.

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And we know from Matthew, the third chapter of Matthew, that John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, right?

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Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Malachi 3, verse 1.

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Again, speaking of John the Baptist, Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way for me.

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John the Baptist preparing the way for Christ. You also have Isaiah.

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Again, Matthew brings in Isaiah. You have this picture, right? The voice that cries in the world is,

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Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. So we go from there and we see the baptism of Christ.

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And Christ isn't, he's not baptized. This is a baptism for repentance.

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What we see in Christ's baptism is he's baptized following the law.

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It's an anointing signifying his function as priest. Isaiah gave us a view of the

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Messiah and his anointing. Isaiah chapter 61, verse 1 says this,

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The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

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He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prisons to those who are bound.

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Messiah brings salvation and justice, right? That's what we're establishing here. And in Matthew 4, we see the temptation of Christ.

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Christ goes into the wilderness and he does what Adam could not do. He overcomes Satan. And we see an interesting aspect of this temptation.

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The devil at a point in verses 8 and 9, he took him to a very high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.

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And he said to Christ, All these I will give you if you fall down and worship me. Why is he doing that?

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Why is he saying that? Well, it's a very specific reason why. Satan knows scripture. He knows the Old Testament. The Messianic prophecy, he knows.

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He's very familiar with them. He knows the kingdom is coming. That's the most important part. He knows this coming out of Isaiah, right?

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Chapter 2, verses 2 and 3, The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the heights of the mountains, right?

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And all the nations shall flow to it, right? That's the picture that we get. And many people shall come and say,

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Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the

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God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways, and that we may walk in his paths, for out of Zion shall go the law.

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Right? So we're gaining this picture. We're getting this picture. Satan knows it, right? Again, another verse, Isaiah, chapter 42, verse 4,

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Messiah will, watch, right? Establish justice on the earth, in the earth.

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The coastlands wait for his law. The devil is keenly aware of what's taking place. That's the reason for this temptation.

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He knows the kingdom is at hand. And as we see Christ's early ministry, the authority of Christ, Christ establishes his authority, and he starts in chapter 5, where you see the

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Sermon on the Mount, right? One of the most, the greatest sermon ever preached, right?

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Christ, he's addressing the law, and his fulfillment of it, his validation and confirmation of the law, he's not altering or replacing or nullifying the law.

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He's establishing the true intent, the validity of the law, while he addresses our outward motives, right?

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And our, excuse me, our inward motives and our outward conduct. Christ is making it clear that the law, or the law is universally and absolutely binding.

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That we have no right whatsoever to alter the law, by any means, because of social traditions or ideas about what we think is morally acceptable in the view of the law of God.

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But most importantly, what he's doing, what Christ is doing, is he's confirming himself as Messiah. So as we keep moving through Matthew in the eighth and ninth chapter, right?

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Multitudes are healed. The winds and the seas are rebuked. He's casting out demons. And he has this view of the multitudes, right?

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Of love and compassion upon the multitudes. And we move in towards chapters 10 through 12, and we see the commissioning of the 12.

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We see the sending of the disciples. And then as Jeff taught last week, kingdom and justice.

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We see that too. And we begin to see, as I said earlier, this opposition that's being cultivated by the

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Jewish leadership. Last Lord's day,

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Jeff taught through verses 15 through 21.

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And the Messiah, the chosen one who was faithfully bringing, right, the kingdom and justice.

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That's the picture that we were seeing, the picture that was being painted. Jeff quoted from Isaiah. Again, I quoted it earlier, but I'll say it again.

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It's Isaiah chapter 42, verses one through four. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.

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I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the streets.

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A bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He will faithfully bring forth justice.

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He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands wait for his law.

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Jesus was, as the father, he declared it audibly at his baptism that this is my son, this is my beloved son who

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I'm well pleased. God was confirming his chosen servant, the one that would bring the nations together,

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Jews and Gentiles. He's coming to bring justice to the world, salvation. He's the one that will restore the garden.

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That's the point. God and justice, righteousness and justice are the foundation of God's throne.

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Righteousness and justice uphold God's throne. Right, Isaiah chapter 51, verses four and five, give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation, for a law will go out from me and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.

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My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples and the coastlands hope for me and for my arm they wait.

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So no justice, no stability, God's justice we should seek.

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That was the point of what Jeff was getting at last week. So as we move into chapters 12, or into chapter 12, excuse me, the first chapters, really chapter one through chapter 10, again, they're presenting the king, they're presenting the

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Messiah. Chapters 11, 12, we again start to see this opposition or rejection of Christ, or rejection of the

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Messiah. The ministry of Christ began to expand to the point where, as we said earlier, he starts to send out the 12.

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So you see this increase in the proclamation. He tells the 12, right, go forth. He gives them power over demons, over disease.

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And he tells them, preach what? The kingdom of God is at hand, right? So as the proclamation increases, so does the opposition against it.

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So Jesus, the king, he's presenting himself to the people.

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And again, there's an increase in the proclamation. And of the evidences of healing and deliverance, there's an attitude of rejection that's moving against Christ, and it's coming more and more intensified.

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So as we come to our verses today, verse 22, we see where Christ comes upon a man who is demon oppressed.

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He's blind, he's mute, and he heals him. And so the man spoke and he saw.

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This demon is doing something to this man. He's essentially shutting off all avenues by which this man might come to faith, right?

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And it's important to note. His sight, yes, but more importantly, his hearing, right? What do we know from Romans 10, verse 17, right?

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Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through what? The word of Christ. So Christ opens this man's eyes and his ears, just as it was with us when we were brought to salvation.

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Matthew Henry says this in his commentary. He says, when Satan's power is broken in the soul, the eyes are open to see

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God's glory and the lips open to speak his praise. The one thing that we have to note and we have to see here is that Christ's mercy, it's directly opposite of Satan's cruelty.

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Satan's cruel, bitterly cruel, as we see with this particular man. I have to share a story with you.

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As many of you know, Shelley and I, we were involved in homeless ministry and addiction ministry. We've been doing that for several years.

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It was about, I'll say about a year and a half ago when we were in the park doing our homeless ministry.

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We also do a little Bible study in the park and it's this ragtag bunch of guys that come together and it's really a neat, neat thing that we do.

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And Austin's been there, where you at Austin? He's been a part of it and seen it. And about a year and a half ago, there's this old man who was riding through the park as in the midst of us doing this

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Bible study. And he just, he slams on his brakes, he's riding his bike and he jumps off and he says, what are you guys doing?

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I said, we're doing a Bible study here in the park. And so he parks his bike and of all things, he actually has a

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Bible with him attached to the back of this bike. And so he sits down and it's been now for a year and a half, he's been coming to our

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Bible study. And the more we got to know about Isaiah, this gentleman, we learned a lot about his history and there was a great portion of his religious life that he was actually an

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Orthodox Jew. His view of the Old Testament, his understanding of the

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Old Testament, absolutely phenomenal. Austin got to see it here the last time he was out.

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He can sing the hymns or sing the Psalms, excuse me, in Hebrew. And it's such a beautiful thing to witness.

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But the point I'm getting at here is that it was just this past year, just this year actually during Passover, Isaiah, he finally came to faith in Christ and it was an amazing thing.

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I mean, he's been brought to a place now where even when he tries to mention the name

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Yeshua, he just breaks down in tears. It's just a beautiful thing. But the thing that Isaiah said to me when

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God brought him to this place is what we actually see out of the scripture.

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He says, finally, Claude. He says, my eyes, he goes, I was blinded. I couldn't see, I couldn't see it. For all these years, he had been an

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Orthodox Jew and Christ opened his eyes, opened his ears. He was able to see the truth.

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Just an amazing story. But in this particular case, for the crowds at this point, it was impossible for the people to deny the power of Jesus, right?

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He has these multitudes, these crowds that are following him. And these multitudes, they're actually dumbfounded by his power.

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When he heals this man, Christ is demonstrating this miraculous ability.

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The only thing you can describe it as is supernatural. Supernatural up to the point if you see something supernatural as what happens with these people here, there's a sense of just, they're just overwhelmed by what they're actually seeing.

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The thing about the healing that Jesus is doing here is that it's immediate, right?

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It's a total healing. It's verifiable and it's permanent. That's the key.

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And as Jesus, as he approaches this individual, he delivers him from the demon and instantly, right, he's completely whole.

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He was blind and instantly he sees. He was dumb and immediately he talks. He was deaf and immediately he hears everything.

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All of his faculties functions as if there had never been a thing wrong with him, right? There's no way to describe it other than supernatural, but the people are just, they're undecided about who he is even though they're witnessing

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Christ perform these miracles. And in verse 23 we see, and all the people were, they were amazed.

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And they naturally at this point say something. They say, can this be the son of David? Can it be?

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Because everyone's amazed. They're totally astounded. Like I said before, they're out of their wits in amazement.

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It's almost like a continual state of being out of your mind with astonishment over what they're witnessing. It's truly an amazing thing.

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And so there's, again, this natural response, right? Can this be the son of David?

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They were inclined to believe it was the Messiah, yet they doubted. They doubted.

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And Christ, we have to understand, he didn't fit their preconceived notions of what the

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Messiah would be. He didn't fit it, right? They were saying to themselves, most likely, you know, where's the flowing robes, right?

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Where's the crown? Where's the victorious parade?

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You know, where's, in our time, it would be like this, you know, where's the armed, you know, motorcade of SUVs?

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Where's the press releases? Where's the fanfare behind all of this? They're not seeing that.

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And so they're questioning, right? They're expecting fire and fury.

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They're expecting the overthrow of Rome. That's what they want. That's what they desire. But instead they have this guy from Nazareth who's running around, right?

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He's meek. He's humble. He's a compassionate person. And he runs around with prostitutes, tax collectors, poor people.

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But it's what Isaiah told us in the Old Testament that he will come not only to conquer, but watch, he'll come in meekness, gentleness, and compassion.

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Jesus was, he was not contrary to what the old picture of the, or the picture of the

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Messiah in the Old Testament. He wasn't contrary to that by any means. Son of David, it's a title for the

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Messiah based on, it comes out of 2 Samuel where God said he would raise up a son of David who would have an everlasting kingdom.

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So son of David became the term for the Messiah. When Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, remember they cried out son of David.

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It's a messianic title. It meant the King who would reign on David's throne, the great

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Messiah, that's what it meant. So they're essentially saying this can't really be

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David, this really can't be the Messiah. As we move into verse 24, the

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Pharisees heard it, and they said this to him. And here's the accusations. And like I said before, these accusations are starting to climax.

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And so this is what they say. It says, it's only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

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So when the Pharisees hear this question, they're not saying this, and catch this, it's really important. They're not saying this immediately to Christ.

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They're saying it to the crowd. They're trying to poison the crowd. That's the point to note here. So the

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Pharisees hear the question, they have to immediately stop what's going on. And so in order for them to do that, they can't let it go any further.

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So the crowds, they're ready to believe. And in order to prevent it, the Pharisees spew this envy and this malice.

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They're willing to throw all possible contempt upon Christ because their power and authority would diminish if he was truly the

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Messiah. That's part of the reason why they're doing this. The very idea that this man might be the

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Messiah, it can't be allowed by any stretch of the imagination. The Pharisees and scribes can't tolerate that.

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And we have to remember, going back into chapters five and seven, Jesus, he's already thumped them in chapter five and seven.

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He told them that their righteousness didn't equal that which was necessary for the kingdom. And furthermore, their treatment of every aspect of life was in violation of God's original intention.

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They couldn't survive this exaltation of Jesus Christ. It would be their doom.

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They'd be utterly destroyed. There were many blasphemies of Christ, but at this point, what we're seeing ultimately and finally, the leadership of Israel will not accept

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Christ at all. The scribes and Pharisees are watching his every move, looking for a way to trap him unto his death.

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And then he does this miracle, right? So we know that truth is subject to the slander of the wicked, obvious.

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We're seeing it played out here, but this miracle leads the Pharisees to this extreme spiritual opposition.

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However, what Christ is gonna show us here in the next few verses is though, though they come against him in opposition, the truth has to be firmly defended.

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So we see it in, again, these next series of verses. Now the Pharisees, again, they heard it and they said, it's only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

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The phrase, this man, think of it this way. What they're saying is they're not, they're saying just this nobody, right?

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This guy, this person. He can't be the

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Messiah, number one. And under, you know, they wouldn't even entertain the thought. And this is just the way they're describing it.

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This term that they're using is just derogatory. And what he does, he does by Satan's power, they're saying.

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They say he does it by Beelzebul. The translation, you see it, some of you in your

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Bibles may have the translation of Beelzebub or Beelzebul, either way. It's an old word that originally it was the name of the

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Philistine God, Beel or Baal, which we commonly see in scripture. And it's just simply a pagan word for the word

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Lord is what Baal is. And Zeebub or Zeebul is translated to the word flies.

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So what they're saying is that, so the Lord of the flies or the God of the flies, he does his work and represents the

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Lord of the flies. That's what they're saying. Essentially what they're saying is that Satan's in him, right?

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He's representing Satan. They attribute him to Satan, whether they say he was demon possessed or the devil is in him, they have to recognize his supernatural ability.

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In the end, it really comes down to that place. They can say all the things that they want. They can make all the derogatory statements about him they want.

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But in the end, what it really boils down to is they have to at some point acknowledge the fact that what they're seeing is supernatural.

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It's supernatural. And one commentator said it this way. He said, the authority and power of the

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Pharisees were declining. Unless therefore some way should be devised of accounting for these facts, their influence would be at an end.

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Whatever way of accounting for them was adopted, it was necessary that they should acknowledge that there was a supernatural power.

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The people were fully persuaded of this and no man could deny it. So there was no denying that what was going on in front of them was actually supernatural.

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So it really left them with really two options, right? The two options are he's either doing this of God or he's doing this of Satan because those are the only two supernatural kingdoms that exist, right?

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So they chose Satan. That's the direction that they chose to go. So if they're wrong about Satan, and the only other option then is that he's

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God. And so Jesus deals with this, right? We'll see this. He destroys their allegations publicly.

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So here we go, right? This is Jesus responding to this absurdity. Verse 25, 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.

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Psalm 139, watch this. 139 verse 2, you know when

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I sit down and when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. Right?

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God sees our hearts. He sees our plans. He knows what we're thinking. One commentator said,

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I cannot go to such a distance from you that you will not see perfectly all that I'm thinking about.

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Right? So Christ can see. He sees the heart. He knows what's going on. He can read the minds.

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Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 10, I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

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So the picture that Christ is painting here is a kingdom, a house, or a city divided against itself will fall.

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You can't have civil war and survive. It's an impossibility. You can't have chaos in a house, a city, a nation, without having the whole thing fall apart.

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A kingdom divided against itself can't stand. Again, it's impossible. John Gill, in his commentary, said, if citizens fall out with their magistrates or one another and turn out and disfranchise each other, and if the heads of families and the respective branches quarrel with and divide from one another, a disillusion, excuse me, of the whole must ensue.

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And the same may be said about the kingdom and government of Satan. And in verse 26, he goes on further and he says, if Satan casts out

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Satan, he's divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? The argument is absurd.

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We know that. But so if Satan is casting out Satan, then he's divided against himself.

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His house is going to fall apart. His kingdom can't survive. In other words, is

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Satan so stupid that he's going to have all the demons casting out each other? Right? Does it make a whole lot of sense?

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It defeats the purpose. So Satan is going to act against himself, subvert his own kingdom, give assistance and credit to Christ.

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It makes no sense at all. And so he's breaking down this argument that they're making against him.

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And after all, the whole purpose and design of the gospel is directed to overthrow the kingdom of Satan.

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We know that. And to introduce and restore perfect order, right? Among all the works of God, Jesus is sent to destroy the works of the devil.

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But by their own stupidity, the Pharisees are forced into the truth that what Christ does is by the power of God.

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And he's using their own words against them. Jesus put them in the corner. And again, he's using their own words.

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And so as we get to verse 27, we see, and if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?

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Therefore, and this is important, he says, they will be your judges. So if Christ casts out demons as their claim they're making by Satan, then by whom do your sons cast them out?

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In other words, don't your sons do the same thing? It's simply a reference to the sons of the Pharisees or the disciples of the

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Pharisees. We see these guys actually in Acts chapter 19. We see a group of these disciples that are associated with the

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Pharisees and they're attempting to cast out demons. They were terribly unsuccessful at it, but they tried to attach

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Jesus to their activity and use his name because it seemed to have so much power. And so what we see in Acts chapter 19 verses 13 through 16,

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I'll read it. It says, then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the

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Lord Jesus Christ over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the

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Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them,

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Jesus I know and Paul I recognize, but who are you? And the man who was the evil spirit leapt on them or leaped on them, mastered all of the men and overpowered them so they fled out of the house naked and wounded.

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So this is who he's referring to. There's these group of these itinerant exorcists.

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They're essentially traveling around, exercising demons, but they're doing it in the name of Christ. And as we read through scripture, we see what, especially through the ministry of Christ, we see a lot of casting out of demons.

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And I think at some times, if you get on this subject of demon possession, there's people that they don't believe it's a present reality that that can occur actually even today.

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And just to back up this story that we're reading in Acts, not that it needs to be backed up, but I can just share with you a brief story.

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And I know that, like I said earlier, in the midst of homeless ministry and a ministry to addicts, over the years of doing that ministry, there have been a handful of times where I've had encounters with people where when

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I walked away from those encounters, everything inside me told me that that person was possessed.

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It was just the level of evil that it's hard to describe. There's a couple that Shelly and I have done ministry work with over the years.

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Their names are Joe and Donna. And they have a beautiful ministry to the homeless.

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And Austin, you got to see the little thing they have set up in the park where they feed the homeless.

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And they do it in such a way where they kind of skirt any of the law.

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They're not breaking any laws by actually doing what they do. And it's really kind of an amazing thing. But my whole point in this is that they do this outreach.

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And when they do this outreach, it's commonly done at night. And there's specific reasons why they do it at night because typically with homeless, they're usually bedded down and they're in places that you can readily access them.

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When we would do this outreach at night, it was typically from about 9 p .m. until in some cases even 1, 2 o 'clock in the morning just depending on the circumstances and situations.

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But it's a ministry that really does two things. One is you've got to get a picture of it.

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They have this big passenger van and they removed one of the seats out of the back of the passenger van. And so during the wintertime, they've got blankets and they have hygiene kits and they have all of these different things to support or to give to the homeless that are during the wintertime.

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In the summer, it's water and various different things. But the one thing that I figured out or understood as I was in homeless ministry over a period of time is that you notice there's certain pockets throughout the city where the homeless just tend to congregate.

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And so as you start going into those areas and you're ministering to people, you start seeing the same faces and you start creating relationships with people.

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And it comes to a point in time where people just know you by name. Now, right now, I can go into certain parts of the valley.

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Sunny Slope, one, that I can go into and I would know probably 90 % of the homeless people that are there and have a good working relationship with them.

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But one of the things that you see occasionally is you see people just transit. They're just kind of running through a particular area from point

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A to point B. Well, one thing that you always know when you're dealing with the homeless is if you ever run across somebody who's elderly, they don't typically move very far when they're homeless.

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They have a little camp or someplace that they stay and they won't wander too far from that. Well, on a particular night,

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I wasn't actually there. Shelly, and you'll have to ask her about this when you see her the next time she's at church, that she was out on the outreach van with this couple,

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Joe and Donna. And how it works is Joe drives the van. Donna's on the passenger side.

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Joe pulls up to whoever it is on the passenger side and they'll start engaging people, usually just inside of the van, just talking to them, ask if they need anything, water, food, whatever, in some cases, first aid.

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And so Shelly, who's the person in the back, she's actually giving blankets or whatever it is that's going to be sent out to the people that they're talking to.

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Well, it just so happens that they're getting ready to shut down that run that they're doing that night and it's really late at night and it was in the wintertime.

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And there was an old lady that was on the side of the road. Joe noticed her and so he pulls the van over to the side.

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Now, the one thing I want you to understand about Joe and Donna is that, Donna especially, is that over the years of doing homeless ministry with them,

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I have been in circumstances and situations with them where we have been in the middle of fights, people pulling knives on each other, all kinds of craziness that you can possibly imagine when you're dealing with the homeless ministry.

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So this is somebody who, she's got ice water running through her veins. There's not much that's going to really rattle her.

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I've seen her engage some very violent people and she's cool as a cucumber. But they pull up on this lady and as Shelly describes it, she says,

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I'm sitting in the back of the van and she says, I automatically just hear this.

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What she said, it's just, it wasn't right is how she described it.

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Well, the way this lady was talking, she wasn't in her own mind. She wasn't in her own voice. She was actually, she was actually speaking other languages.

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And this encounter escalated to a point where Donna was actually, she was fearful and she told

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Joe, we need to go. We need to get out of here. But before they got out of there, Shelly says, this lady, after this deep growling voice, essentially, speaking just these odd different languages, stops what she's saying, looks at both of them while they're in the van and she says,

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I don't work for who you work for. I don't work for God, but I know who you are. You are Joseph and you are

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Donna. And as you can imagine, they got out of there as quickly as they could. So in other words, you see these kinds of things take place.

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This is a reality. Just like the kingdom of God is a reality right now. So is the evil that's present in the world also.

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All right? So with all that being said and telling Shelly's story, what

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Jesus is saying to these people, he's saying your disciples are going and they're doing the very same thing, right?

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When they do it illegitimately, you guys attribute it to God. So when they go and they're casting out demons, they're doing it illegitimately, but they're attributing to all this work that they're doing to God.

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But what Christ says is when I do it, you ascribe it to Satan. One commentator said it this way. He said,

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Jesus casts out devils by the spirit of God, which they imputed to the assistance of Beelzebub.

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Their children cast out devils or pretend to do so. And it was by the help of Satan. And yet they ascribed the work to a divine power.

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People don't, brothers and sisters, people don't reject Jesus because of a lack of evidence that he's

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God. They reject him because they hate him. They suppress the truth in their unrighteousness and exchange the truth for a lie, right?

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We know that Romans one, why? Because men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.

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Christ reveals the truth into sinful lives. That's why sinners push him away and they say absurd and evil things about him.

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That's what we're seeing the Pharisees do here. And what Jesus does something in the midst of this conversation is he takes this a step further, right?

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He says, not only does he say what he says, but he said, let the ones who are doing this be your judges.

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And so essentially he's asking the question, ask them, do they do this by the power of God or by the power of Satan?

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Because he knows that if they say that they do it by the power of Satan, then they're condemning themselves, right?

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And on the other hand, if they say they do it by the power of God, then they'll affirm that Jesus is doing the very same thing.

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Therefore he must be doing it by the power of God also. So he says, let them judge. You know, he's leaving them with the only alternative that he performs these works by the power of the spirit of God.

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So we get into chapter or excuse me, we get into verse 28 and he says, and he leaves them with that place that that's the only alternative that they can go to.

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That what Christ is doing, he's doing by the spirit of God. And so he says this, he says, but if it is by the spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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So we know right at the beginning of Matthew, John the

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Baptist comes on the scene, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Christ, he's baptized, goes into the desert.

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He's tempted, comes out of the desert, begins his earthly ministry saying what? Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

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That's what he tells the 12 to preach as they're traveling from town to town. But what's he saying?

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All of this that's going on, Christ is demonstrating something and I want us to see this, but this is what he's saying.

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He's saying, I'm the king and the kingdom's here. That's what he's saying. And what he's saying in the midst of all of this and this bantering back and forth between himself and the

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Pharisees is that the kingdom of God is overpowering the kingdom of Satan. And that's the example that he's using.

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This is the kingdom of God. I'm the king and I'm demonstrating my power over the kingdom of Satan.

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The kingdom that has been destined to restore, right? Christ's kingdom, it's been destined to restore the garden and it's here and I'm the king.

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That's what he's saying. It's exactly what he's saying here. And so he goes on and he paints this description of, he says, keeping this all in mind, he says, well, 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 the man's house, right? He's essentially telling a parable.

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And there's several of you are familiar with my son -in -law Wyatt, right? He's usually the big ox that sits back here on the corner.

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He's a big dude. He lifts a lot of weights. I've lifted weights with them and he can push a lot of weight. He's a very strong man, trust me.

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So the point here that Christ is making is that if you're gonna go into Wyatt's house and if you're gonna steal his stuff, you had better be stronger than he is because you're gonna have to bind him in order to take his stuff, right?

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So if you're going to rob a house, right? And that house is owned by a strong man, you'll have to tie him up.

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But what Christ has demonstrated is that he's greater than Satan. What he's saying is I've shown you that I have the ability to steal

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Satan's stuff, to throw out his demons, to deliver men who are captive to him and to free them from their disease.

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If I can rob his house, I can tie him up. And if I can tie him up, then I'm greater than he is.

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That's the illustration that he's giving here, right? But we know what Jesus can spoil Satan's house anytime he wants to because he created him, right?

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He created him. Colossians 1, verse 15 and 16. This is

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Christ. He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation for by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

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That's why he can do it. He's God, he's the king. Christ has come to deliver men from the kingdom of darkness.

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We know that. He has dominion. Jesus has complete power. Jesus demonstrated his power over Satan in Matthew four and the temptation.

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And here he's just reaffirming that fact. That's what he's doing. He's saying, I'm the king and I provided it by my ability to control

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Satan and his government. I'm the king and the kingdom's here. That's what Christ is saying.

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And finally, in verse 30, he says this, he says, whoever's not with me is against me and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

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It's that myth of neutrality that we often talk about. John Gill, in his commentary said,

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Christ is the good shepherd that gathers his sheep to himself and into his fold.

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By the external ministry of the word, and internal efficacy of his grace,

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Satan is the wolf that catches and scatters the sheep and seeks to kill and destroy them.

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And since there is such an open war proclaimed and carried on between Christ and the devil, no one ought to be neutral.

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Whoever is not on the side of Christ is reckoned as an enemy. And whoever is not concerned by prayer, preaching, or other means to gather souls to his word and his ordinances and to his church and to himself is deemed by him a scatterer of them.

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Right? There's no neutrality. Jeff likes to say, and it's so true, everyone is in a relationship with God, every single one of us.

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You're either at peace with God or an enemy of God, one of the two. There's no in between.

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You either gather or you scatter. You only have really those two options.

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Those are it. If you want to say that Christ is of Satan, while he's delivering people from Satan, you've revealed that you're rebelling against the reality that the kingdom is actually here.

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Jesus Christ is who he claimed to be. There's no middle ground. You can't just say that he's a nice man, a moral man, a good teacher, a religious leader.

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He's God. And if you don't want to stand with the rebels, then you're only left with the fact that he is

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God and you can bring the whole thing down to this. Again, it's what he's already said.

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You're either with him or you're against him. It's that simple. You will either gather with him into the kingdom or you will scatter away from the kingdom.

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And the call to the kingdom, friends, is still the same.

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It's what Christ said, right? Repent and believe. It's in Mark chapter one, verse 15.

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The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.