SINCE the teaching involved in Luke 11:21-26 is so very, very important, I herewith quote these verses: "21 When the strong man fully armed guardeth his own court, his goods are in peace: 22 but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him his whole armor wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. 23 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. 24 The unclean spirit when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, I will turn back unto my house whence I came out. 25 And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. 26 Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more evil than himself; and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man becometh worse than the first."

In our last study we were investigating our Lord's teaching concerning Satan and his kingdom, which is like a mighty, well-organized and thoroughly disciplined army.

The fact that Christ was casting out demons by the finger of God was proof that the kingdom of God, in its spiritual aspect, had come upon them. What was meant by that expression we have already seen.

Now we wish to note Luke 11:21 particularly: "When the strong man fully armed guarded his own court, his goods are in peace...." The reader will note the fact that man is in italics in this verse. By this method the translators inform us that the word "man" is not in the original text, and that they have supplied it, thinking that by so doing, they will make the thought more intelligible to the English reader. Sometimes they clarify the thought by such insertions, but on other occasions they obscure it frequently. Only by an examination of the context of a given passage can we tell whether or not the thought has been clarified. Never should an insertion of a word be made into the text unless the facts of the context absolutely demand such an interpolation. What are the facts of the context here? Let us see.

The enemies, of Jesus had accused Him of casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Jesus immediately began to talk about Satan and his kingdom. The devil is the mighty, strong one who, as we have already seen, was the most powerful, the most glorious, and the most beautiful being whom Omniscience and Omnipotence could create. It is he who is over this kingdom, this kingdom of spiritual darkness. Jesus admits that He had come to overthrow and to destroy it in order that He might establish the kingdom of God. Thus Satan is the strong one of verse 21. The word "man" inserted by the translators beclouds the issue and diverts our attention from Satan, the strong one, to some strong man who is thought of as being used as an illustration of something else.

Satan, thoroughly armed, has been, and continues to be, on guard over his kingdom. So long as he has guarded his kingdom, his goods have been in safety, his realm has remained intact. Thus there had been no danger threatening his reign--up to the coming of Christ at His first advent. But Jesus left heaven and came to earth, entering it by miraculous conception and virgin birth in order to overthrow this kingdom of Satan and to establish His own reign.

So long as the Lord Jesus remained at Nazareth, which He did until He was thirty years old, no attack had been made against the strong one and his kingdom. But when Jesus left in order to be baptized by John a new epoch began in the history of the kingdom of God. When Jesus was baptized the heavens were rent asunder, and the Spirit of God descended like a dove and came upon Him. Then God spoke out of the heavens saying, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17). As we have already seen, the language of God the Father on this occasion was a declaration that Jesus of Nazareth was the Servant, mentioned by Isaiah 42:1-4, who was to come into the world and to overthrow the kingdom of Satan preparatory to establishing His own reign of righteousness from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.

Immediately after the baptismal scene we are given the account of Christ's being driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to have His first clash with Satan. Thus our Lord challenged the devil's authority. Satan fought back furiously but Jesus came out of the fray unscathed, having won on every count. The vanquished foe retreated and finally left Him for a season, but every time Jesus came in contact with anyone possessed of a demon and cast out the unclean spirit, there was another clash between the King of Righteousness and Satan, the king of iniquity.

At the cross, there was a major battle between Satan and his hosts on the one hand and Jesus on the other, but our Lord always won in a most victorious manner. But the war is still on and will continue until Jesus comes back to the earth at the end of the Tribulation and incarcerates Satan in the pit of the abyss where he will be bound for a thousand years. After the Lord's thousand-year reign, the devil will be unloosed a little season. At that time he will make his master stroke, which will be brought to a sudden end by a catastrophic judgment from God (Rev. 20:6-10). Then he will be cast into the lake of fire, where he will be forever and ever. The judgment of the great white throne will occur and the last enemy of God and man will be subjected, when Death and Hades are cast likewise into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).

Our Lord, knowing that the battle with Satan at the time of the temptation had been won (Luke 4:1-12), stated on this occasion to His disciples, as we see in Luke 11:23: "He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." The struggle had begun between Satan and the powers of darkness, and the kingdom of God under the leadership of our victorious Lord Jesus Christ. He therefore said to His disciples that there was no neutral ground upon which they could stand. They had to be aggressively for Him; otherwise they would be against Him. In the fight between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, a pacifist attitude finds one on the side against Christ. The Lord calls for volunteers who have faith and courage, and who are willing to go without the camp with Him and suffer, if need be, for the cause of righteousness.

Having discussed the conflict between Himself and Satan and His kingdom and that of the devil, our Lord, in verses 24-26, gave us a revelation concerning the activities of a demon that, being expelled from a human being, will come back into the same one and will bring seven other spirits more evil than it is. For some unknown reason, unknown to me at least, the demons have a hankering to reside in the bodies of men. They love the company of other evil spirits like themselves. Jesus, therefore, stated sober facts when He said that a spirit, being cast out of a person, will bring other spirits more wicked than itself and will re-enter the body of the person from which it is cast out unless the cured man has taken measures against it. When a person has been delivered of a demon, he must invite the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to come into his heart and to dwell there. Thus the house of his being will be occupied. There will therefore be no room for Satan and his evil spirits to enter. If the Lord is not invited in, sooner or later, in all probability, still other demons will come in to take possession. In such a case the latter end of that person will be worse than the first.

The tremendous facts which we have just studied, and to which reference has already been made, are set forth in Luke 11:14-26. After stating these, literal facts, however, our Lord made an application of the principle involved to the generation of the Jews then living. Thus He said in Matthew 12:45, "Even so shall it be also unto this evil generation." Jesus came and ministered to the nation. He gave light to it such as it had never enjoyed before. He won a signal victory over Satan in each encounter and made him retreat from his entrenched position. Thus, in a figurative sense, Satan and the demon world were driven out by the time Jesus died on the cross. He triumphed over Satan and the demons in a most signal manner. Israel should have accepted Him. Had they done that and allowed the Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit to come into the lives of each one, there would have been no room for demon possession and evil in the nation. Israel's history would have been entirely different from what it has been. Instead of accepting Him and letting Him come into the life of the nation, the people of Israel left the house (I am speaking in terms of the language used by Jesus) swept clean and garnished. Then Satan with more of his demonic forces came in and possessed the nation. And thus the latter condition of the nation is worse than the first--a tragedy of the first magnitude.

As we have seen above, the actively aggressive portion of the group witnessing the miracle, the casting out of the demon, challenges Jesus to perform a sign from the heavens (vs. 16). In verses 29-32, Jesus answers this group by asserting that the generation to which He is speaking is an evil one, all the time wanting more evidence, all the time desiring to see additional proof. Jesus gives ample and conclusive proof to all who want truth and who are open-minded to receive any evidence.

Jesus affirms that no sign is to be given to the generation except that of Jonah the prophet. Matthew, in recording the early incident, as we have already seen, tells us what Jesus means on this occasion. As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth (Matt. 12:39,40). In the language used by Jesus on other occasions, He would rise on the third day, or after three days. On the morning of the first day of the week, after the crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus arose from the dead, leaving the tomb empty. He triumphed over the powers of the unseen world. He came forth from the grave, bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel (II Tim. 1:8-11). As Jonah became a sign to the people of his generation, so the Lord Jesus, when He arose from the dead, became a sign to that generation. Since it had enjoyed so very much light, and yet notwithstanding that fact, had not availed itself of this light, it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment (at the judgment of the great white throne after the Millennium) for the queen of the South than for the people of the generation of Jesus. The same is true with reference to the Ninevites. When God judges a person or a nation, He takes into consideration the light and the privileges that that one has enjoyed. Sinning against light and opportunity is a perilous, dangerous thing.

Now let us look back to verses 27 and 28, which separate Christ's answer to the first objectors and the second group of opponents. Recognizing the divine wisdom with which Christ spoke, a certain woman in the multitude shouted: "Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou didst suck." Jesus immediately corrected her erroneous idea by showing that spiritual ties are stronger than fleshly ones by His saying: "Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it."

In verses 33 to 36, our Lord discussed the matter of the light that this generation was enjoying. The purpose of physical light is to give illumination for those who are in the room where the light is placed. In an analogous manner the spiritual light that God gives us is for our very innermost soul, that we may see, understand, and know what to do; but there is danger that that which we think is light may be darkness--may be error. It behooves us, therefore, to be on our guard to see that we do not accept darkness and receive it as light.

In verses 37 to 41 we have a record of a Pharisee who asked Jesus to take breakfast with him. The Lord accepted the invitation. When He reclined at the meal--without performing some of the ceremonials of the strict Pharisees, which were necessary before eating--His host was amazed at Jesus and His seeming disregard for their traditions and ceremonies. Our Lord showed that the ceremonials do not purify the heart. The soul must be cleansed by the power of God in order to be clean.

The attitude of the Pharisee toward externals and his entire neglect of the spiritual side of life made our Lord pronounce three woes upon the Pharisees (vss. 42-44). They were strict to observe the letter of the traditions of the fathers--they were punctilious in the tithing of various things (verse 42). Moreover, they loved to be under the limelight, as seen in verse 43, which things our Lord condemned. The third woe was hurled at them for they, said Jesus, are like tombs which are not seen, and on which people walk, not knowing that fact and thus becoming defiled ceremonially. Hence people, in coming in contact with these Pharisees, would be spiritually defiled. Of course, not all of the Pharisees were of that type, but all too many of them were. The Pharisees insisted upon the traditions of the fathers and the doctrines and commandments of men, inculcating them to every one whom they could contact. They thus defiled the unsuspecting, leading them astray.

One of the lawyers in the audience took exception to what Jesus had said in pronouncing the woes upon the Pharisees, thinking that He was reproaching them and was striking at them over the heads of the Pharisees. Jesus then turned and spoke to the lawyers, calling their attention to how unreasonable they were in laying burdens upon others which they themselves would not attempt to carry or lift. The second woe which He pronounced upon them (vs. 47) pertained to their building the tombs of the prophets, whereas their fathers had killed them. By doing this, they were tacitly approving of what their fathers had done. In perfect alignment with this, Jesus quotes from "the wisdom of God" (vs. 49). To what does He refer by "the wisdom of God"? Some scholars think that He was referring to an apocryphal book then current among the people but now lost. But the "wisdom of God" foretold that the Lord would send prophets, apostles, and righteous ones to the nation, but that the people would slay them. That generation would be hostile to these messengers of God and would be guilty of every type of blood shed from the foundation of the world, "from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary."

Moreover, the lawyers were guilty of taking "the key of knowledge" away from the people. They themselves would not enter into an enjoyment of the blessings promised by the preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus, nor would they allow those who were kindly disposed to take a definite stand with Jesus to do so. Thus they stood in the way of the people's receiving the Lord.

When Jesus thus reprimanded the scribes and the Pharisees and likewise the lawyers as He did, then they rose up in angry rebellion against Him and pressed upon Him, hoping to cause Him to say something with which they could accuse Him. But Jesus was too wise and would not fall into their trap.