VACANT VICTIMS
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 4, 2020 under AM Bible Study |
AM Bible Study Group: November 4, 2020 from Luke 11:24-26
Theme: It is spiritually dangerous to try to reform our outer life without making sure that Jesus is living within.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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In our study of Luke 11, we have found some of our Lord’s teaching about the demonic world. He had been accused of casting a demon out of a man by the power of the devil—the prince of demons. And in answering this accusation, He took the opportunity to teach His listeners some remarkable things about the spiritual realm.
And among the things that He taught, we find this in Luke 11:24-26:
“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first” (Luke 11:24-26).
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Now; there’s a principle in the realm of physics. It’s one that we are all familiar with. It’s the principle that nature abhors a vacuum. Wherever a vacuum exists, something naturally seeks to fill it. That’s true of air. It’s true of water. And it’s a principle that also applies in the spiritual realm.
As human beings—made by God—we are designed to be “indwelt” by someone other than ourselves. No matter what else people may believe about it, the fact is that we cannot exist in an inwardly independent manner. We are created by God with a space in our being that must—by design—be inevitably filled by something or someone other than ourselves. God has made us in such a way that this vacuum is to be filled with Himself. We were made to be indwelt by God the Father, in the Person of the Holy Spirit, through a relationship by faith with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. We are created to be the dwelling place of the triune God.
The apostle Paul put it this way to the Ephesian believers. He prayed to God for them that
… He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:16-19).
This is an astonishing revelation concerning our nature as human beings; isn’t it? We—mere creatures that we are—are meant to be the dwelling place of our Creator! What an awesome thing it is that God takes up residence in the inner being of those who believe on His Son Jesus! If you are a believer in Jesus Christ—if you are redeemed by faith in His blood—if you are born-again—then this is already true of you!
But what about those who do not have that relationship? What about those who do not believe on Christ, and who are still in their sins? Since God does not similarly take up residence in them, do they then operate as spiritually neutral beings? Are they simply “empty” and “unoccupied”—filled only with themselves? And the answer—astonishingly—is no! Paul wrote to those same believers in Ephesians 2:1-3; and said,
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (Ephesians 2:1-3).
In other words, either Christ indwells in us through the Person of the Holy Spirit, or we are indwelt by and under the internal influence of the devil. It may not be that an unredeemed person suffers in the same kinds of ways as the mute man in this story. They may not appear to be crazed demoniacs. But unless Christ dwells in them, they are nevertheless under the internal influences of the devil. The Bible recognizes only two kinds of people in this world—“the children of God and the children of the devil” (1 John 3:10). The apostle John said, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5:19). Paul wrote to the Corinthians that, if the gospel is veiled or hidden from anyone, “it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).
How important it is, then, to make absolutely sure you are indwelt by Jesus Christ!
And this brings us to this morning’s passage. Our Lord had cast an unclean spirit out of a man who was mute; and as a result, the mute man could speak—proving that Jesus had authority over unclean spirits. The unbelieving people who saw this miracle, though, said that Jesus had cast the demon out of the man “by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons” (v. 24). And this became the occasion for our Lord to speak on the subject of the demonic realm—and on how spiritually dangerous it is to try to reform our outer life without making sure that Jesus is living within.
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Now; our Lord gives us an example in the form of a parable. It may be that it is meant to describe an actual event; or it may be that it was meant to illustrate a general principle of truth. In our Lord’s example, a demon—referred to as “an unclean spirit”—is said to have gone out of a man. How it came to be that this wicked spirit was in this man in the first place—or even how he went out of him—is not told to us. But whatever the circumstances were, the demon was presented by our Lord as having thought of the man as his own “house”—his own dwelling place. It doesn’t seem—even after leaving the man—that the demon gave up the idea that he owned the man.
Now; consider the man for a moment. Perhaps God had shown great mercy to this man, and allowed him release from the bondage and oppression of this demon. Perhaps God allowed the man a period of time in which to temporarily turn away from sin, and to ‘reform’ his life. The man may have even begun to be interested in God, and to be inclined toward Him, and to desire a religious life out of reverence for Him. It may even be that the man heard some things about Jesus Christ and began to be drawn to Him. Perhaps it could be said that this man was among those described in the Book of Hebrews—those who
were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come (Hebrews 6:4-5).
But whatever else may have been true of this man, he fell short of a genuine relationship with God through faith. The Holy Spirit had not genuinely taken up residence within him. Once the unclean spirit departed from him, the man remained “vacated”. A vacuum had been created in his inner being; and such a spiritual vacuum could not remain empty for long.
And now, consider the unclean spirit. Once out of the man, this spirit was described as restless and dissatisfied. Jesus said that the demon went through “dry places”—desolate places on the earth—seeking rest, but finding none. The Bible seems to suggest to us that it is a kind of agony for an unclean spirit to roam about on this earth without inhabiting someone. In Luke 8, we read the story of how a host of demons indwelt one man; and when Jesus came to the man to cast the demons out, they all pleaded with Him that they would be allowed to inhabit a herd of swine. Apparently, demons would much rather inhabit pigs that roll in mud than to be left wandering about without a “home”.
So then; this restless demon began to think back upon the man that he had left. He said, “I will return to my house from which I came.” And when he returned, he found that the man had become a very comfortable home to return to! The man may have experienced some outward moral reforms. He might have cleaned up his behavior in a few areas. He might have recovered from some sinful addictions and some bad habits. He might even have begun to adopt some religious practices and rituals. But the man’s inner being was still a spiritual vacuum. The demon returned to find it “swept and put in order.” What a dangerous thing it is to be merely reformed on the outside but still left without Jesus Christ dwelling within!
As a result; the unclean spirit returned to indwell the man with seven other unclean spirits “more wicked than himself”. They horrifyingly fill the vacuum that he had left in his own inner being. And Jesus says, “the last state of that man is worse than the first”! Just as in the physical realm, the spiritual realm abhors a vacuum. This man sought to live with a vacuum in his inner being—not inviting Jesus in by faith. And as a result, he left the door wide open for multiplied evils to come and make their home in him instead!
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Now; this parable is meant to teach us a lesson about what a dangerous thing it is to try to live with a spiritual vacuum in our inner being. It is foolish to think that we can just “clean up our act” on the outside, and reform our behavior here or there, and do it all while avoiding a deep, personal, dependent, obedient relationship with Jesus Christ. Such a person is a vacuum waiting to be filled by the forces of the devil.
This becomes a warning, for example, to the ‘moralist’. That’s the person that simply thinks he or she can turn from a life of sin and adopt moral behavior on the outside—and do it all without placing a genuine personal faith in Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter describes such people in this way:
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:20-22).
It also warns us as believers to beware of trying to deal with sin in the power of the flesh—without a complete dependency upon Jesus; that is, trying to deal with spiritual problems through the resources of this world. We sometimes try to better ourselves through the world’s “self-help” methods, while disregarding the unsearchable riches and resources that are ours in Christ. As Jesus has already told us:
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:4-5).
It should also serve as a warning to us as we seek to present Christ to the lost people of this world. Our goal is not to simply help the people around us to live “better lives”. That’s certainly a good thing if it is a product of Christ indwelling them. But if all we do is appeal to them to live ‘a better life’ and to behave more ‘morally’—if we don’t first show them that they must be born again, and that Christ must dwell in their hearts by faith—then we’ve done them a terrible disservice. Worse in fact—we would have helped them to become “swept and put in order”; but will have left them ‘vacant victims’ of the devil. We will have left them with an inner vacuum that will inevitably become filled with something even more dreadful than what we had helped to “reform” them from.
How important, then, that we learn the great implication of this parable: that the void in our soul must be filled with a personal, love relationship with Jesus Christ! He is the Person that this parable is meant to point us to. He is the only one who can fill that inner vacuum. He Himself said, “If any thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). As Paul has said, “for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power” (Colossians 2:9-10).
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Let me remind you of another principle in physics. It’s the principle of displacement. Displacement occurs when a physical object occupies a space in such a way as to push another object out and take its place. And spiritually, this occurs when we yield ourselves to Jesus Christ, and depend on Him in an ongoing, personal, and loving way. He then makes Himself at home in our hearts, occupies our inner being, and makes it impossible for any evil entity to come in.
When Jesus Christ thus indwells our inner being by faith, then the demons may come back to us—thinking that they can return to their old home. But they will no longer find it vacant. Instead, they will find that Jesus Christ now occupying our inner-most being
And no unclean spirit would ever dare to come in then!
EA
