Luke 11:17-20 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation… I. SATAN IS A PERSON. See how he is described. He is a man, active, intelligent, resolute, understanding his position, prepared to hold his own against all comers, to maintain his place at all hazards. Could there be anything more exactly in harmony with the purposes and designs of the arch-adversary than that he should circulate a report that he does not exist? I remember years ago the late Rev-Canon Conway saying that, if a gang of housebreakers came into a neighbourhood, could there be any possible report more suited to their purposes than an announcement, which was generally believed, that there were no such persons as burglars, that if robberies occurred, or lives were lost, it was due exclusively to the folly and misguided character of the inmates of the houses, but that no blame could be attributed to housebreakers, for no such persons existed? II. But we will pass on to notice from his personality, his POWER. He is not only a man, but he is a strong man. My brethren, no good soldier despises his enemy. Satan is not a hobgoblin of the nursery, as some one has said — an easy name that we can utter in jest. Satan is a terrible being. Have you not experienced his power? I doubt not that I speak to hundreds who have. If you let him alone, it is most probable he will let you alone too. If you be in the attitude of hostility to him you will soon find out his power. In the fifth chapter of Mark's Gospel you will see the power of the demoniac, and the power which held that man. His power is backed by his panoply. You have it here; he is not only strong, but he is a strong man armed. He is not content with his own strength, so to speak, for the defence of his citadel, but he arms the poor citadel with defensive armour — the helmet of presumption, and the breastplate of pride, and the net-work shield of unbelief, and the coated mail of secret sin, and the fiery darts of venom and spite, and envy, and lust, and greed, which he hurls against all intruders. A palace is a dwelling-place for kings. Whose is this palace? What is this dwelling? My brethren, have we fully realized that you and I were intended to be nothing else than residences of Deity? Have we fully grasped the great thought that this is the culmination of God's dealing with us? Does God now till His people's hearts with joy and the Holy Ghost? Satan can fill the heart of Ananias to lie to the Holy Ghost. The parallel is complete. Do you believe in haunted houses, ghost stories, and spectres with clanking chains? They may be fables, but there is terrible and solemn truth behind them. Has it ever occurred to you and me that unless thin night we are possessed of God, as we sit in this room we are haunted houses — h-uses in which the devils live. It is one of the most startling descriptions that Scripture gives of the condition of the sinner, that Satan is not merely near him; Satan is in him. What an awful word is that in Luke 22:3, where we read that Satan entered into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. What is this, a human being the house of an evil one? Every man can do what he will in his own house. An Englishman's house is his castle. What is this description that is given? Why, that Satan reigns and rules in the human heart of his slaves; that he goes in and out; that he opens and no man shuts, and shuts and no man opens. What an awful description! and the most remarkable thing about it all is the particulars with which it closes. While the strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. What peace? Peace, yes there is peace. It is the peace of death! Is that the peace that you and I desire? Only some half-hour ago, I heard a lady who had been travelling in the Riviera, the scene of the late earthquakes, say that before the rumble which brought the terrible disaster she felt that there was a stillness, a solemn stillness. It seemed as if nature held its breath; it seemed unnatural; it was unnatural; it was a presage of the coming storm. And this deadly slumber in which souls are left by the prince of darkness — slumber indeed, and peace-like it is — is a presage of the terrible awakening of the storm that shall burst some day upon a guilty world. (E. W. Moore.) Parallel Verses KJV: But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth. |
    |