The Danger of an Empty Heart (Luke 11:23-26)

Introduction

Well, I do hope you got that nap. I didn’t get one, but this lesson is going to require you to put your thinking cap on and to buckle down for a little bit in the study of one particular text, and that’s Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, verses 14 through 26, as we talk tonight about the danger of an empty heart. This will have relevance to your life. Where we are going with this. And the context of these statements is the casting out of a demon. The parallel versions of this account are in Mark 3 and Matthew 12. But I have really spent too much time this afternoon contemplating the possibility that Mark 3 is not the same occasion as Matthew 12 and Luke 11. Somebody settle that for me after it’s over, okay?

The miracle isn’t found in the Mark text, though similar instruction is, but Jesus has been known to repeat instruction in different places and at different times during his ministry. So I’m not really sure or completely certain that Mark 3, the shorter version, is parallel to Matthew 12 and Luke 11. Matthew points out that he is not only dumb, but this individual is blind. Not dumb intellectually, but unable to speak. But he is blind as well, and so he is able to both speak and see as a result of the casting out of the demon. And the multitudes marveled, it says in Luke 11 and verse 14. But some of them said, He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons, the Elzebel, and we could spend some time talking about the origin of that, though it’s a little uncertain.

But the ruler of the demons helps us. It’s from powers from the negative realm. And others to test him were demanding of him a sign from heaven. But he knew their thoughts and said to them, any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and a house divided against itself false. And so he’s denied the charge that he is casting out demons by the ruler of the demons, because that just doesn’t make any sense. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? I mean, why work against your own power? For you say that I cast out demons by the Elzible, and if I cast, and if I by the Elzible cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?

Good question. Consequently, they shall be your judges. In other words, they testify that what you’re arguing is incorrect. Because you would not level the same charge at them. But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, Matthew’s account says, or by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his own homestead, we’ve got some strong men in our audience who know how to be fully armed. When they guard their own homestead, his possessions are undisturbed, but there could always be someone stronger than you would attack him and overpower him. He takes away from him all of his armor on which he had relied and distributes his wonder. And the point of that is that Satan’s stronghold is about to be plundered.

As Jesus says, he who is not with me is against me. And he who does not gather with me scatters. And then this perplexing couple of verses. When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest. Don’t know a lot about that. But apparently that’s what happens when a demon, that’s probably why the demons wanted to go into the pigs in Mark chapter 5. I don’t know. And not finding any rest, that is, it says, I will return to my house from which I came. I’m going to go back to where I was before. And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order, where there was chaos and calamity before things come to rest in peace when the demon is cast out.

So when he comes back, he finds it all cleaned up. Then it goes and takes at least a partial cleaning. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself. Okay, now we have demon with a turbocharge. And they go in and live there, and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. Okay, this is tonight’s lesson is only a springboard for your future study about these three verses. Because these are challenging statements that Jesus offers here. We’re going to make some application that I think is relevant and valid and helpful, but you might want to do some more study on this after I get done. After all, I didn’t get in that today. So the power that Jesus is displaying is undeniable.

Notice they didn’t say a miracle really hasn’t happened here. No, he’s wielding power. There’s no question about that. Here’s a man who is blind and dumb who now sees and speaks, and you can’t really argue with what’s right before your eyes. And so they would instead question its source and attribute it to the evil realm. Rather from God, where it really comes. And this is where Jesus in the Matthew account warns about committing the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. To attribute the work of Jesus to the devil.

Well, look at some of the logic here by way of introduction that we’ll work through quickly. The question Jesus is asking is, why would I be working in opposition to myself? If the power that I’m wielding is from the devil, then I would be working against myself, and that’s illogical. And then there’s the question of your own sons. The casting out of demons was not reserved for Jesus and his closest disciples. We read in the gospel narratives about other people who had this ability. And Paul speaks of that also, I think, in Acts 19. So he talks about others who had disabilities that, well, is their power from the demonic realm as well? You know, they don’t have a problem with them, but they have a problem with Jesus.

And so people that you approve of, where does their power come from? To do the same thing that I’m doing. And of course, the major point about why this is even happening is to demonstrate the nearness of the kingdom. The kingdom that is coming that will crush the citadel of Satan. And this is what he says, and this is the real problem that points us to Matthew 12 or to verse 26, and that is you’re either with me or against me. You’re either for me or against me. No neutral ground exists here. But there’s a message here about this kingdom. That it will involve more than just crushing the citadel of evil. Once the grip and power of evil is removed, the moral vacuum must be filled by God and goodness.

Thus the danger of an empty heart. It seems in the beginning part of this in verse 24 that a moral tidying up has occurred. And if you look back at Israel’s history, perhaps this is the idea. The reason for the Babylonian invasion and destruction was because, in large part, the rampant idolatry, which Judah and Israel had fallen into. And it seems when they have been purged and they come back after 70 years of Babylonian captivity, that the former idolatry does not plague them anymore, that they did escape that malady of serving the false gods of the Canaanites around them. But as we saw in our study in the Bible class this morning, as their fathers had persecuted the prophets, they are of the same ilk. But even worse.

As they are about to reject and kill the ultimate prophet, the Son of Man. The Son sent by the Father. They are going to reject him. And perhaps this is the idea of the latter state is worse than the first. If you reject the Son, there’s nothing else. That’s really what the Hebrew writer is saying in chapter 6, verses 4 through 6, when he talks about those who would crucify afresh the Son of God, or who would in chapter 10 go on sinning willfully after receiving knowledge of the truth or trampling underfoot the Son of God by which they were sanctified? It’s not that when we commit sins that they are not pardonable. Any sin can be forgiven from which we turn and repent. But the problem is that if we reject the source from which salvation comes, there isn’t another.

1. The Obstacle of External Righteousness

There isn’t another scheme of redemption somewhere that is going to save us eternally if we reject Jesus Christ. When you reject the Son, there remains nothing else. There will just be no other means for salvation. And so as I think about some of the implications of this illustration of the demon who leaves but yet returns with seven others, and it gets really crowded in there. And when I think about the Pharisees and the religious leaders of the day who reject Jesus and the pitfalls in which they found themselves, I do think there are some applications for us. What was it about them that caused such serious failing and rejection of the Messiah? Want to spend a moment talking about the obstacle of external righteousness. These people were worshipers of God.

And in some matters of worship, they were very diligent, as we’ve talked many times. But the Pharisees had a warped sense of goodness. While there were many good things about their lives, they left the most critical things undone that related to matters of the heart. They ignored their flaws. In fact, they really didn’t see themselves as having any flaws. And they accentuated their successes. I mean, who’s not tempted to do that? You know, our fragile egos are such that we’re looking for any reason to say, you know, I’m a pretty good person. I did something very good here and accentuate a success. I converted someone. But as Jesus would say about the Pharisees of Matthew 23, in this particular case, you are making him twice as much a son of hell as yourself.

As you go about on land and sea. I mean, they went about, there’s some effort and energy involved there as they go about in land and sea to make one proselyte, and yet you’re converting him to this kind of religion that is less than the total overhaul that the Lord wants to do. Well, there’s some places that don’t measure up. We’ll just ignore those. And we’ll declare ourselves good. We declare ourselves filthy. It is not those who are healthy that need a physician, but those who are sick. Matthew chapter 9. Go and learn what this means, Jesus says, I desire compassion and not sacrifice. Now, that’s elliptical. I mean, he does want sacrifices, but he wants sacrifices that emanate from within a person and are not just some kind of external compliance with rules where the heart is not really engaged.

So they strove to adhere to a very strict code of religion, but in the pursuit of this code, they were very inconsistent in their application of it, which tended toward self-trust rather than faith. And so when they looked at Jesus, and Jesus came along and he had a different message than they touted and lived. In fact, he opposed them and suggested they were out of line with God. And oh, that could not possibly be so. And so they deemed Jesus irrelevant. And out of line. Because he didn’t measure up with what they thought. You’re not okay, and the reason why you’re not okay is you disagree with me.

Sometimes among the Lord’s people, you’ll still see that kind of mentality. If something is said that I haven’t always heard that doesn’t line up with the tradition that’s been handed down to me and what I believe, then you must be wrong because you don’t agree with me. Be careful. Be careful. That was the kind of thinking that got the Pharisees in trouble. But the Pharisees’ reasoning was flawed. Could their logic, you know, if you could ask most Pharisees, are you guys logical? Oh, we’re the most logical people around. But their logic was actually illogical. And so we need to be careful that our religion isn’t reduced to the keeping of some externals. I’ve always seen that as a potential pitfall for even what we do in assemblies like this.

2. Removal of Some Sins Is Not Final Triumph

You know, check the list. We sang five songs tonight. We said the perfunctory prayers. We partook of the supper, and we did not add any foreign elements to it. We listened to that guy preach for way too long. Check. And we can reduce what happens here to merely the accomplishment of externals. The second observation that I would make about this illustration is that the removal of some sins should not be confused with a final triumph over all sin. Jesus does not tell us the reason for the demon’s initial exit. What we do know is that at least temporarily the man is freed from satanic control, but one victory does not equate necessarily to the winning of the war. And if the major application of this illustration is the history of Israel, the fact that they had purged idolatry from their conduct, at least the kind that involved little statues to which they bowed down.

I don’t know that there was any lane like this, but it’s the only thing that I could grab that represented a statue.

They might have conquered that, but that in and of itself did not render their hearts in every respect to be what God wanted. And so as the evil spirit returns with seven buddies, they find no barrier preventing a re-entry. Never was a group more committed to a demanding code of religious practice. But look how far they still were from God. Demanding religious code and yet far away from what God wants. So a few observations here. We are not necessarily okay. We are not necessarily okay because we shun worship innovation. And yes, we should shun anything that is not consistent with the instruction of the scriptures. And yet sometimes I think it is somewhat of a badge for the Lord’s people because, okay, we’re keeping the Lord’s Supper exactly as it was instructed.

We’re singing with our lips. We’re not introducing bands and orchestras and all kinds of things that happen in modern contemporary worship. We’re just singing with our lips like the New Testament talks about. So we have shunned worship innovation. Well, great. Is that the only thing the New Testament talks about? As it speaks of righteousness before God. I’ll tell you what else. And this isn’t done by a lot of people. A lot of churches is pretty much free for all. As long as you don’t make too big of a mess in it. You can get away with anything and still attend religious services. But those people, they’re talking about you. Those people, they’ll actually withdraw from people. Oh, the shame and disgrace, the lack of love. That they would actually acknowledge people publicly who are not living in step with what they believe the Bible to be teaching.

Well, Paul talks very specifically about that in a number of texts in the New Testament. And so if we’re going to be the kind of disciples that those first century disciples were, then we’re going to exercise discipline on those who are out of step or walking unfaithfully or immorally before God. I mean, that’s what we’re called. We’re trying to save these people. We can’t let them wallow in their sins. And yet some people see that as so cold and uncaring and unloving. Well, I guess all the judgments of God in the past and in the future are uncaring and unloving. But God is love. So you’re going to have to do something with that, and I can preach a whole sermon here, but again, we’ll do what a lot of churches are afraid to do.

And we’ll refrain from the social gospel. That is emphasizing entertainment, using the funds collected to support fun rather than their spiritual mission. Correctly interpreting scripture. I’ll tell you, we’re all about Bible study and getting it right. And there’s a lot of passages that we’re getting it right about, particularly the ones that relate to the plan of salvation, the necessity of baptism and oppose errors of all kinds. We could spend quarters after quarters in Bible classes talking about the number of errors taught and believed in religious circles. We preach only God’s will. And we can look at all this, and this is important, this is great. And so we think a lot of ourselves because we’re doing all these things that are consistent with God’s righteousness. But is that the whole picture?

Is that it? Okay, we’re good. Check, six, checks. We’re good. You know, Satan really doesn’t care how he gets the job done. As long as he gets it done. And you know, we might just win over deceit and the false notions that he promotes in the religious world in general, the errors that are believed by many religious groups. You know, we may, we may be those who avoid all of that. What you only hear in this place is truth, and yet we’re so elevated in our perception of ourselves, so full of ourselves, that we fall victim to pride. We’re not going to be able to stand on the day of judge. Yeah, but we won over deceit. Yeah, but you think more highly of yourself than you ought to think.

Romans chapter 12 and verse 3. You only are what you are by the grace of God. And so for you to be so conceited, that’s all the devil needs. We resist lust. And yet we take the bait of self-righteousness. Hey, because of all these other things up here, we’re really religious. We’re really pious. We got the right answers. We have the right answers. But we look down on others with contempt. You know, that’s sort of what Pharisees did. They had the right answers, at least on some things. And they saw everyone else who didn’t have the answers, who weren’t in their club as inferior to them. Well, I pray regularly. At least at three meals a day I’m praying. That’s my practice. That’s my custom. A lot of people pray regularly.

But what if out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing according to James chapter 3? What if, what if I’m not restraining my lips in other areas, at other times in my life? What about James chapter 1 in this regard, where James is talking about being doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves. And he says, if a man doesn’t bridle his tongue, what? His religion is vain. Wait a minute. That’s reducing it to one thing. Well, that’s not James’ intention to say religion is only about one thing. But he is saying that since the mouth speaks out of that which is in the heart, a failure to control the tongue would be evidence of a religion that is out of sorts.

And pure and undefiled religion before God is this to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction, to take care of the less fortunate, who are without opportunity when you can assist pure and undefiled religion before God is to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted by the world. This is this concern that we should have that the world is influencing us. But we’re against pornography. And we are against allowing lust to reign, and we talk about that all the time. We teach about that. We encourage our young men to keep their eyes pure, so on and so forth, but then we can be materialistic to the core. Or vice versa. You can flip it around. You see, it’s very easy to say, well, I’m not having a problem over here.

3. Negative Religion Alone Cannot Keep a Man Clean

And boy, a lot of people struggle with that. I don’t. So look at me. I’m good. But what about the issue of greed, as we looked at in Luke, as you can see in the very next chapter in Luke chapter 12. Spiritual success does not mean that we can let our guard down in terms of how Satan wants to control and use us. And the third observation I would make in this regard is that negative religion alone cannot keep a man clean. Again, when the Spirit returns and finds his house swept and put in order, though some renovation had occurred and some changes were made, it remained unoccupied by a compelling force. Though cleaned and adorned, it was still uninhabited. Any religious system that merely tells a man what he must not do is insufficient.

I’ve got to tell you, growing up, and I’ve talked about this before, I saw religion basically as things you’re not supposed to do. And basically they were you don’t drink, you don’t dance, you don’t smoke. Those were the three. And of course, we didn’t have internets and pornographies when I was a kid. There were pornographic magazines, and there were some of those around. But we knew that was a no-no too. But sometimes I don’t think I saw a lot of the positives that Christianity was supposed to be about. I would take you to one passage in this regard, 2 Timothy 2 22, where Paul tells Timothy, flee youthful lusts. Okay, that’s from a negative standpoint, they’re youthful lusts that can destroy you spiritually. He says, flee those things, but he doesn’t stop there.

He says, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord with a pure heart. He talks about lusts of the flesh, and those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God in Galatians chapter 5 and verse 19. But then he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is. You see, he follows that up with some positives. And so what I want to say about that is we need to find balance. Find balance. We need to hate divorce and adulterous remarriage. But we also need to be promoting attitudes and conduct that produce good marriages. I think probably growing up I heard more sermons about divorces and remarriages and what God would accept and what he wouldn’t, at least those are the ones that I remember, more so than I heard about how to have and maintain a good marriage.

The kind of conduct that needs to characterize our relationship with our mate. Yes, we need to condemn deception as we talked about, but at the same time, we need to be people of integrity who speak truth in our heart. It’s not just enough to say, decry the negatives that are out there. What about being a person of integrity when no one else is around? When no one else is watching and no one else knows. Who am I? Who does God see? Oppose false doctrines. But again, what if it causes us to be self-righteous? We should also pursue a humble spirit. I will only be something in Christ because of what he did, not because of who I strive to become. I think this is one of the problems that came out of the discussion that churches were having 50 years ago about how the treasury should be used.

There were so many sermons about what we can’t do, what we shouldn’t do, what the scriptures don’t authorize. I’m not sure, and I think preachers began to realize this after maybe we’re swinging too far the other way, I don’t know. But there was a concern that we weren’t dealing enough with the right heart that we need to have. We need to find a balance between avoiding materialism and displaying heartfelt gratitude for what God has given to us. Avoid division, yes, but fervently endeavor to keep unity. No, I think that’s an area that I’ve seen lacking among the Lord’s people. A real strenuous self-sacrificial, humble effort to keep things together when controversy happens. You know, it’s not just about what we’re against. It’s about what we’re for.

4. Blinding Self-Righteousness Made Them Vulnerable to Satan

And then there’s a sober warning in conclusion about falling into a worse state. And again, the moral vacuum must be filled by God and goodness. We must be concerned about the obstacle of external righteousness. The removal of some sins should not be confused with the final triumph over sin. Negative religion alone cannot keep a man clean. But in this last point, what I want you to see is the blinding self-righteousness of the Pharisees made them vulnerable to Satan’s greatest control. They were impervious to the saving message of the gospel. They rejected Jesus despite irrefutable evidence that he had come from God. They can’t see the obvious, and they had no inkling whatsoever that Satan was in control of their hearts, and they did the unimaginable. They killed the Son of God.

Conclusion

So I want to make these observations in conclusion tonight. Just some warnings. Quick things here. Number one. Do not be callous to the practice of sin. Don’t ever become accepting of it in any form in your life. Secondly, beware of how we perceive ourselves in relation to others. Just because someone is walking out of step with the Lord gives us no reason to get on our high horse and to look down upon them. Blessed are those who have been forgiven, whose sins are covered. Let’s do what we can humbly to rescue and save them. And beware of thinking that the beatitudes have been mastered. There are some days I do better with poor in spirit than others.

Do better with hungering and thirsting after righteousness than others. Being pure in heart. Again. Did you ever watch Yogi Berra? Yogi Bear. Not Yogi Bear. The baseball. Yogi Bear is a baseball bear. Yogi bear. Remember the old yogi bear cartoon? You know what I remember about Yogi Bear? He ate other people’s lunches. He raided people’s picnic baskets. That’s not okay. But whatever he did, he would turn to Boo-Boo and say, boo-boo.

I’m smarter than the average bear. And I think we develop, not the Yogi Berra complex, but the Yogi Bear complex. Where we think we’re better. Because we mastered some things religiously. I tell you, some of us have been at this for a long time, and I think some have been at this longer than I have. Well I might be looking at y’all. But I think all of us who are my age and older would all agree. We would sign on the dotted line. I’m still not all that I need to be.

My heart equals the Lord. Because I tell you sometimes it is not. It is not. And in whatever areas that I have had success, there are still areas where I can excel still more. And beware of resting your assurance on the many good deeds that you’ve done. Because listen, it’s only because of him. It doesn’t matter. Oh, it’s important. Yes, it’s a part of my righteousness before God. The classes that I’ve taught, the sermons that I preached, the people that I’ve taught, baptized or restored, the victories tallied over temptation, the selfless acts of service rendered, the acts of hospitality performed, the dollars contributed to his cause, the times I’ve wearied myself greatly in his cause, it’s only that which I ought to have done. Still, unprofitable.

Servants. Jesus says. In conclusion tonight, I wonder sometimes if we’re too quick and too ready and too eager to remove ourselves from the hook while pitying others there and leaving them. I think it makes us feel better about ourselves. If I could take Tony and, well, he’s this, he’s that. If I could, if I can trim him down a little bit, or the elders, if I can trim them down a little bit, or after I’m done with the elders and the preacher, let’s work on the deacons a little bit, and we’ll trim them down a little bit, and then we’ll work on their wives. And here’s what’s wrong with them. And boy, you can just go to town with that. In their less than perfection.

As we deem it. Now remember, while we may be right about some of those things, the Pharisees sort of have that attitude toward the perfect Son of God. But I think we do that sometimes because it makes us feel better about ourselves. I’ve been talking a lot lately about Robert Jackson. Robert Jackson was one of the most influential men in my childhood as a gospel preacher. I really think he had a profound impact on my life as a Christian and my decision ultimately to preach, even though D was probably a bigger part of the actual decision. As a young man, I listened to Robert Jackson. I loved his sermons. Man, I loved it. And he would always say, young boys and young girls. He would talk to the young people in the audience every single time.

And he wouldn’t approve of my preaching, probably. No, he was very, he was pro he was very encouraging to me, but I preached too long. I mean, he preached 25 minutes. But I was talking about him a lot recently because J.R. Bronger, who was the preacher in Danville where I was a couple of weeks ago, it’s he’s a Robert Jackson clone. He looks just like him, dresses just like him, talks like him. Then I was talking about him last week because I was in Nashville, and the remnants of the group that he preached for over 30 years are now in that group where I preached this past week. So, and Ken Green, who’s the preacher there, is a big lover of Robert Jackson. Robert Jackson had a profound influence on his life.

And so we talked about it some last week, but I remember things that he said, and one of the things Robert said was, and this is tragic. He said, The Lord’s army is the only army that I know of that shoots its own wounded. Now that was after years of experience. Let us not be. Oh, you suffered injury on the battlefield? Here, let me just finish you off. That’s terrible. May we not be of that ill. May we be those who want to help and to heal and to assist and to serve rather than those who want to look down and condemn and reject and repulse. Spiritual injuries from friendly fire. May it never be. May we instead turn to the Lord and live for him and learn from him.

Fill your heart with the heart of Christ and His righteousness and never settle for less in your pursuit of that goal. Is there someone in this audience tonight who needs to sign on to loyalty to Jesus Christ and serve him with all your heart? We bid you come while we stand and sing.