05-19-2024 – “Is God’s Spirit in You?”
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May 19, 2024
“Is God’s Spirit in You?”
Luke 11:24-26
Read Luke 11:24-26… We live in a time when a social gospel is being preached and promoted from many pulpits, a pseudo gospel that seems to bypass mankind’s need to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Instead, this false gospel attempts to make the focus about doing the right thing according to the popular psychologists, moralists, environmentalists, educationalists, and other social-cultural gurus and architects of the day.
1Timothy 4:1-8, “But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.
In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.”
Colossians 2:8-10, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”
There is more and more pressure in our world today to be on the so-called right side of what is considered popular, trendsetting, progressive; and yet, the polarizing positions of opposing beliefs remain constant, more deep seated, and farther apart, e.g., pro-life vs abortion, closing our border vs leaving it wide open, green energy vs coal and natural gas, vaccine vs no vaccine, electric cars vs gas vehicles, two genders: male and female vs LGBTQQIP2SAA+.
We should expect the godless world around us to act this way, because they are following “deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,” and have been taken “captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world,” but when this starts showing up in the church, like a cancer that begins to spread through the whole body, it must be diagnosed, treated, and/or removed.
The church is to proclaim that reconciliation between sinful humanity and the holy God of creation, has come through Jesus Christ, (2Corinthians 5:17-20), “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
Jesus said (Matthew 28:19-20), “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you.”
We aren’t here to make moral converts or look for those who stand up for the right social pr political cause. We are commanded to expose people to Christ in us, and to what God’s Word says about Him, so they can believe in Him for salvation and receive the Holy Spirit of God.
Ephesians 1:13, “In [Christ], you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
Romans 8:9, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
1Corinthians 6:19-20, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
Only when we have been cleansed of our sins and indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God, will we be able to live in a manner that is pleasing to God.
1John 1:8-10, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.”
The sin that damns a soul to hell, is to reject God’s Son. Jesus said (John 16:8), “When [the Holy Spirit] comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me.”
See again Luke 11:24-25… Jesus is talking about an unclean, demon spirit, at some point it left its host, although we don’t know why or how this happened. It may be that Jesus commanded the demon to come out, or it may be that the man did away with certain forms of sin, so that the demon no longer controlled him.
This demon went through waterless [arid or desert) places seeking rest, but didn’t find it. Demons like to indwell humans, but if that isn’t available, an animal will do (Matthew 8:29-32), “'What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?’ Now there was a herd of many swine feeding at a distance from them. The demons began to entreat Him, saying, ‘If You are going to cast us out, send us into the herd of swine.’ And He said to them, ‘Go!' And they came out and went into the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.”
Satan and his demons seek to destroy the work of God; and the best place to do that is inside of a human being, who has been made in the image of God, but has not yet believed in Jesus Christ for salvation, i.e., an unbeliever.
This demon decides (verse 24) “to return to [the] house from which [he] came,” but the demon finds (verse 25) that the man he had originally indwelled has now been “swept and put in order”.
In Matthew’s narrative of this same event (Matthew 12:44), it says the demon returns and finds the man “unoccupied, swept, and put in order”. This seems to indicate that there is no demon in the man, he is empty of any spirit; God’s Spirit is not in him, the man is empty, he is an unbeliever.
When Jesus casts out demons or heals people of their diseases, if the exorcism or healing doesn’t accompany saving faith in Jesus, the individual remains dead in sin, unoccupied and void of God’s Spirit.
But there were those who were healed of their illness and at the same time forgiven their sins; they were granted both physical and spiritual healing because they had faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.
See Luke 5:17-25, A paralytic healed and forgiven.
See Luke 8:43-48, A woman with 12 years of bleeding healed and forgiven.
Forgiveness comes when you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior; at the moment of genuine belief, God’s Spirit takes up residence in us and marks us as God’s possession.
The question is, do you have God’s Spirit in you?
2Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?”
The context of Luke’s narrative seems to imply that the life of the man from whom the demon departed has been (Luke 11:25), “swept and put in order.” Perhaps the man has given up certain sins and is working hard at doing good deeds, making new resolutions, re-organizing his priorities, but none of that is enough to make him “good,” for no one is good or acceptable to God in anything they might acquire or accomplish in their human nature.
Psalm 14:1-3, “They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good. The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
In Mark 10:18 Jesus said, “No one is good except God alone.” Jesus at His birth was called Immanuel [God with us; God in the flesh]. Jesus said (John 10:30) “I and the Father are one,” (John 14:7), “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him,” (Colossians 1:15) says, “[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God,” (Colossians 2:9) explains, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”
In Hebrews 1:1-3 we are told that, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He [God’s Son, Jesus Christ] is the radiance [revelation] of [God’s] glory and the exact representation [exact image] of [God’s] nature.”
Look, no one is good according to their own merit, we are all sinners in need of forgiveness; we have no hope apart from Christ’s sacrificial death that paid our sin debt to God, and His sovereign resurrection from the dead that demonstrated and made effectual eternal life.
God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is both Lord and Savior; He came to save us from the penalty of SIN and grant us eternal life (cf. (cf. Romans 3:10-12, 23-24; 6:23; 8:1; 10:9-10, 13; 1Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans; Acts 4:12; John 14:6).
See again Luke 11:26… The demon returns to its host who thought his moralism, perhaps his religious practice, or his social philanthropy made him good and therefore safe; but this demon brings seven other demons more vile than itself to indwell this man, and his condition is now much worse than it was previously.
Apart from the saving work of Christ’s death and resurrection, you remain a captive of the Devil, God’s arch enemy, for whom God made hell (Matthew 25:41), “the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.”
The devil wants to bring as many people as he can to hell with him, for eternity. Man’s moralism through social activism, religious activity, or philanthropic works, can blind a person to their real need, because they may see themselves as ‘good,’ they may even be recognized by others as such; but that is Satan’s ploy, to blind unbelievers, all those who are unoccupied by God’s Spirit, to keep them captive (2Corinthians 4:4), “The god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
No one is acceptable to God apart from the forgiveness for their sins, that only Jesus Christ, God’s Son: crucified, resurrected and coming again, can provide.
1John 5:11-13, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Pastor Mike Hale
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