1. Our text begins in Luke 11:14 with the word "And." "And He was casting out a devil…" (11:14).
2. This demon had such control of the man that he was unable to speak; the Bible says "it was dumb" (11:14).
3. But "when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered" (11:14b). However, while the people wondered and marveled at what was done, they did not recognize Jesus as their Messiah.
4. In fact, "some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils" (11:15). They could not deny that a miracle had been performed so they tried to discredit our Lord by saying He was in league with Satan.
5. So we see a conflict caused by demonic deception and by unbelief. And it is still the same today.
6. And I want to talk this today about devilish dangers and demonic deceptions. You will see many references to devils in our text this morning (11:14-26).
7. As a matter of fact, you will see demonic deceptions all throughout this chapter but we do not have time to address them all (cf. 11:27,28).

1. DANGEROUS ADVERSARY.
2. DANGER OF NEUTRALITY.
3. DANGER OF REFORMATION WITHOUT REGENERATION.

I. DANGEROUS ADVERSARY (11:14,15)

1. There are many different names for Satan in the Bible and Beelzebub is one of them (11:15). In Matt.12:24, the Pharisees referred to Beelzebub as "the prince of the devils." Here in Luke 11:15 he is called "the chief of the devils."
2. Now it is bad enough to say that our Lord was casting out devils through the power of Satan. But in Matt.10:25 they actually call Him Beelzebub.
3. The name of one of the Philistine gods was Beelzebub, which means "the lord of the flies." It was another form of Baal worship (cf. I Kings 22:51—II Kings 1:1-4).
4. The Israelites recognized that all these heathen deities and idols were nothing but devils, with Beelzebub being "the chief of the devils," in other words, he was the devil himself.
5. Most people today are ignorant of Satan and the spirit world. Whenever some people hear talk about Satan and demons they scoff at it and deny the existence of evil spirits.
6. Of course, this is just what the devil wants. He knows he cannot get everyone to worship him – at least not right now – so he is happy if they just ignore him.
7. But when people deny the existence of Satan they are calling the Lord Jesus Christ a liar (cf. Luke 4:1-13; 10:18; 13:16).
8. In John 8:44, Jesus said to the Pharisees, "Ye are of your father the devil." So to deny the existence of Satan is to deny the Bible.
9. I mentioned a few minutes ago that the devil knows he cannot get everyone to worship him at least right now, but there is coming a day when the entire world will worship him (cf. Rev.13:1-4,8).
10. In the meantime we need to get the Gospel out. No one who is truly born again by the Spirit of God could ever worship the devil or the beast (cf. I Peter 5:6-8).

II. THE DANGER OF NEUTRALITY (11:16-23).

1. There have always been those that sit on a fence. They are not openly hostile to the Gospel but at the same time they are not saved either. Satan’s "goods are in peace" (11:21).
2. What they do not realize is that the "strong man" Satan, "armed" with his devilish weapons and sneaky tricks has them right where he wants them. They are "his goods" but they do not see it that way (11:21).
3. Some of these lost souls are waiting for a sign to help them make up their minds (11:16,29). But we have the Spirit of God who convicts us of sin and draws us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the Word of God which tells us all we need to know about sin and judgment, heaven and hell, Christ’s death and resurrection, repentance and salvation, etc.
4. We do not need signs. Watch out for those that are talking about signs; it indicates a wicked heart of unbelief (11:16,29).
5. Our Lord proved to him that He could not be could not be casting out devils through the power of Satan (11:17-20).
6. Our Lord identifies Satan as "a strong man" (11:21). He has had mankind in bondage for thousands of years. But when our Lord came into the world He bound the strong man (11:22).
7. Now that the Lord has come into the world to die for our sins and to deliver us from the power of Satan, it behooves us to take our stand for Him. Beloved, we cannot be neutral (11:23).
8. We are either on the Lord’s side or we are on the devil’s side. Christ is saving souls and building His church while Satan is hindering the work of God and destroying lives. You cannot be neutral.
9. Take your stand for God. Take your stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and His church. Take your stand for the Word of God.

III. THE DANGER OF REFORMATION WITHOUT REGENERATION (11:24-26).

1. In the Bible, the body and soul of a man are often likened to a house. Here our Lord has an unclean spirit referring to a man’s body as his "house" (11:24).
2. After this demon has left, the house is empty and clean (11:24,25). At first glance this would appear to be good. But our Lord said that the devil eventually returns with "seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first" (11:26).
3. The immediate application is for our Lord’s enemies, the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders who dogged His steps. The demon of idolatry had left Israel but had returned with more subtle demons: unbelief, pride, hypocrisy, covetousness, hatred, envy, and ritualism. Now they were much worse off than they were before.
4. When a man gets rid of an evil spirit but puts nothing in its place, he is in grave danger. Remember the danger of neutrality. And there is also the danger of procrastination.
5. Notice that the unclean spirit went out on his own free will (11:24). He was not cast out; there was no conflict. He knew he could return at any time; he could still refer to the man’s body as "my house" (11:24).
6. Here is the problem: When the devil went out, the Holy Spirit should have came in (cf. Luke 11:13). But many people stop drinking, they stop smoking, they stop gambling, they stop doing drugs, etc. But they never get saved! Jesus says they are now worse off than they were before.
7. They may have had one devil in them before, but now they have eight! (11:26). Notice the place was "swept" (11:25), but not washed! Spurgeon said: "Sweeping takes away the loose dirt, washing takes away all the filth. O to be washed in Jesus’ blood!"
8. And when the devil comes back "he findeth it swept and garnished" (11:25). There’s a pretty gold cross around the neck, maybe a "I Love Jesus" tee shirt, perhaps a WWJD wrist band, but as long as Jesus isn’t there he will feel right at home.
9. I have seen this many times before. Back when I did construction work, I used to work with men that were involved with AA. It is very difficult to talk to them about their need of salvation because they are very self-righteous, as well as brainwashed by unbiblical AA propaganda.
10. They say nature abhors a vacuum, and this is also true in the spiritual realm. If a man tries to straighten out his life without Christ, he will fail miserably.
11. If a man wants to get right with God, he needs to do more than just turn over a new leaf, or clean up his act, or so on. He needs to repent of his sin and receive Jesus Christ as his Saviour.
12. There must be someone stronger in control of his life to keep the demons out. "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4).
13. Morality without regeneration is a delusion. I remember when Jerry Falwell started up the Moral Majority. A pastor friend of mine told me why he was opposed to it. He said that Mormon doctrine was more obscene than the vilest pornography on display in a candy store, so how could he unite with Mormons to protest pornography?
14. I have seen people come to church, determine to clean up their lives, but they do not want to get right with God. So they leave here and try and find some "easy-going church" where the pastor will not preach against sin. I tremble for these people, particularly for their children (cf. II Peter 2:20-22).

CONCLUSION:

1. Oftentimes when studying for a message, I go to my shelf a grab an old sermon from Spurgeon and I am never disappointed. Listen to his comments on Luke 11:21.
2. "Men cheerfully obey the prince of darkness, and yet it is hard, ah, hard indeed, to bring the followers of Jesus to yield up their members in full obedience to the sweet Prince of Peace…No king could ever walk in his palace and say, ‘All this is mine’ with such pride as Satan when he walks through the heart of man. He can boastingly cry, ‘This man will fall down and worship me, he will sacrifice his comfort, his very life to me; he will drain my cups and not refuse the poison in the dregs; he will go upon my service and not ask me whether death is to be the everlasting wages.’