Alright before we look at the Word of God, I thought I would say hello and make a few acknowledgements. I think we all know that we have been in this for a while now since March. And now we are in the CMCO, and I hope that it would end soon. I think this is supposed to be the last week of the CMCO, so I think the announcement will come soon whether it will continue. So let us continue, let us pray alright- let us pray that they will relax the rules and that we would be able to gather in person soon. So I would like to say hello to all of you who are here this morning. I thought of how to address you, maybe the privileged ones or the blessed ones alright, but surely not the elect ones alright (there are the elects out there). 

But welcome those who are here in person. But I would also want to say hello and welcome those who are not here in person. Of course, the church members who are not here, hope you are all out there joining us. We also like to say hello and welcome to our regular worshippers. We do constantly remember you alright and again we welcome you this morning to join us. We also want to acknowledge others who are joining us from other churches.

Now there are people in fact every week faithfully texting me that they have tuned in and heard us. Doreen from JB alright, and Peggy and sisters, and Kah Lee and family, and others from JB. They are still closed, and so they have been joining us I think since early days. Those from Rompin- now Vincent and Karen, faithfully joining us not just live streaming our worship but also our Bible studies. I hope those in Kedah, Baling are still with us alright. If you are, we welcome you. And I know that there are some (not sure how many), some of you from Singapore also tune in to join us alright weekly, and also some of you actually join us for the Bible study as well on Wednesday.

And those from the USA and Australia and maybe others. I know that there are some individuals who kind of text me (some don’t even tell me who they are). And if you’re here this morning with us, now it’s an unusual time, unusual way of fellowshipping, fellowshipping without seeing. But we do want to thank the Lord for such facilities alright like the internet and live stream facilities that we are able to join in fellowship and in worship this morning. So I hope we don’t have to do this for too long alright then we can actually talk to you and see you face to face.

Alright so with that welcome and acknowledgement, now let us now turn to the Word of God as I like to regularly remind our worshippers alright. Here I believe is the high point of our worship when we are listening and hearing God speaking to us. So this is none other than the very Word of the great and almighty God. Now so please open your Bible again to our text this morning that is Luke chapter 11, and we are looking at verses 14 through 26- verses 14 to 26 as we look at yet another miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have already read the text, but let me just go through the story again alright. Some of you might not be very familiar with this account. 

And so here in verse 14, we are told that “Jesus was casting out a demon, and it was mute.”. That is to say that the demon caused the man to be mute. And then we are told that “so it was, when the demon had gone out, that the mute spoke; and the multitudes marvelled.”. It was a wonderful, a marvellous act. And the people gathered, they could see that. They have never heard this man speak for a long time and suddenly he is able to speak. Something is happening to this man. And so we are told that they were amazed. They marvelled. But the reaction alright we are told in verse 15. So some of them, “but some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.””. 

So instead of praising God and saying that it is a marvellous work of God, let us worship the true and living God, and here they knew that it was Jesus who did that. But instead of acknowledging that He has done a mighty deed, they attributed that work to the demon alright or to Satan himself. Now “others (verse 16), testing Him, sought from Him a sign from heaven.”. They still did not believe in Him, though they noted that that was indeed a marvellous act. And so verse 17: “He, knowing their thoughts, said to them: “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and a house divided against a house falls.”.

And so Jesus in the sense was reasoning with them without even having to know. So He knew what was in their mind, in their heart, and their kind of reasoning. So Jesus said really, that this is something by Satan himself? So verse 18, He said: “If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Because you say I cast out demons (by Satan or) by Beelzebub (that’s another name for Satan). And if I cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.”.

So He says your logic makes no sense. Then He says in verse 20: “But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man, fully armed, and guards his own palace, has goods in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, He takes from him all his armour in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.

Now “He (He said in verse 23) who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. “And when an unclean spirit”, Jesus says, “goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.””.

Now what many people find confusing here in this account is that together with this miracle account is actually a number of parables, a little saying so to say, or little stories told by Jesus to make His point. And so let us now come to find out what is the teaching here. So I submit to you this morning that this passage is about conversion. It is about conversion. Now, remember a few things here that miracles as I have mentioned before, they are illustrations and pictures of conversion or salvation. And different miracles in a sense teach us different aspects of these salvation stories or teaches us about salvation.

Some miracles will focus on the aspects of forgiveness, that salvation is about being forgiven of your sin. Other miracles would focus on us being healed, for we have been inflicted with a deadly disease called sin, and that we would be condemned. But then there is healing. Now there are some miracles will teach or focus on the aspect of being made alive, that here is a dead girl and Jesus came and made her alive. And so these are all pictures teaching us different aspects of salvation, what salvation really means. It means to be forgiven. It means to be healed. It means to be made alive.

And so also here alright as we look at this morning’s miracle, so it is again teaching about salvation or teach us about conversion, again focusing on the particular aspect of what conversion is. And so delivering a man from demon possession alright speaks of spiritual deliverance. Now we see the Bible does that you know all the time as it were. Even in Old Testament stories, we see that those stories too were pictures and illustrations of salvation. In the Exodus stories, for example, when Moses went and delivered God’s people from Egypt. That was a picture of salvation- deliverance from bondage. A bondage of sin.

And so we see the same thing here alright as we look at this miracle. So here delivering a man from the demon speaks of spiritual deliverance. In other words, it is about conversion. Now here is a man pictured as a house and he is being occupied by the devil or being controlled by the devil. Now that is a picture of a sinner. We are like the house being controlled by the devil. And we see that in verse 21. It says: “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.”.

So there’s a picture of the sinner alright, and the devil is there guarding this house. I mean the devil here is described as a strong man. Indeed he is a strong man. He has us in his grip under his control and everything is in peace as it were alright, safely under his control. That is a picture of every sinner on earth. The conversion, therefore, is to be delivered from the devil’s control. So we see in verse 22: “But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him”. So ‘He’ refers to God, refers to Christ, the stronger than the devil. He comes and He overcomes him. And then “He takes from him all his armour in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.”. So that is deliverance.

And so here’s a strong man and here is a stronger person who come and disarm him. And so like I say, this passage teaches some important lessons about conversion. I want to ask you at the very outset here: Have you been converted? Do you understand what it means? So let us find out alright. Let us find out. So what does this passage teach us about conversion? So I’ve entitled this morning as “Understanding Conversion”. You need to know what conversion is. Here is a passage that teach us. Number one, conversion we learned here is a great change. Conversion is a great change.

Indeed conversion is the greatest possible change in the experience of a person. Now that is what this passage is teaching us- conversion is the greatest possible change in the experience of a person. Now we know that in life we go through many changes, the many changes in our lives. For example, when a person changes his job. Now that can be a big change, especially it’s a totally different line or requiring you to be moved to a different location for your work, then you say it’s a big change in my life. Or maybe the reverse alright, from working and then now you’re retired. Maybe that also is a big change. 

Or when you change house or you move to a bigger house or a new house, that is also a big move alright a big change. Or you change school. Now that is also a big change alright from this school to that school. Or you change your marital status from being a single, and now you are married. That is a tremendous change alright a big change in your life, a lot of adjustment. I’m sure Abel knows that alright, and he is you know trying to settle down alright to this new status. And for some of us maybe even changing handphone is a big change. Well, you don’t know what to do with a smartphone alright, not smart enough. 

Changes alright in our lives, and there are many. But the point I want to press is this: the conversion to Jesus Christ is the greatest possible change that can ever happen to any one of us. No other change in our life can be as great as this change, and that is what we see here. But many people cannot see. They cannot see how this is such a big change. In fact, for many people, they think that conversion of becoming a Christian is something that they can easily do. They think that it’s like changing religion alright from one religion to another religion. They say that they’re just going to start going to church, and that is called conversion. Or maybe simply giving up some habits. Maybe you know some drinking habits, gambling habits, or maybe just even eating habits alright.

But it’s more than that, you see. We learn here that conversion is more than just these little changes. And sometimes you may even hear a mother saying something like this: Oh, my son is converted already because he stopped playing computer games alright. Now you see, these are all superficial views of conversion. These are not what we see here in this passage. Now, what then is conversion? What kind of experience that is? Now Jesus explains it this way alright in this passage. Firstly, He says that everyone who is not a Christian is under the influence or the control of the devil.

Now that is the first thing to grasp if you were to understand something about conversion that you in the first place is in this state. You have been demon-possessed. Every one of us in a sense alright has been demon-possessed, in the sense that we are under the demon’s control. We are doing the demon’s will. Now how does a demon influence us, you might say? Well, Jesus explains alright this is how he controls you and he makes you do the things that he wants you to do like he turns your minds away from God.

Now that is the devil’s work. He has all kinds of distractions in life. And that’s why we ought to be very, very vigilant. That is what the devil does. Or he lies to us that we can be happy without God or he makes us busy with the so-called more important things in life to the neglect of spiritual things. Now all these are demonic activities in our lives, drawing us away and away from God. He wants to pluck us from God. He wants to stop us. He wants to blind us, and that is what the devil does. And the person in his sin, that is what is happening to the person.

We have passages in the Scriptures that point to that that we are dead in our trespasses and sin. And Paul says: “and therefore we walked according to the course of this world”, to the ways of the price of the darkness. And we are told also thirdly here that the devil is a strong man. The devil has us firmly under his control. He binds us, and he binds us in many ways. He binds us by binding us to the things of this world. How many people are under the grips, the control or materialism that we are so gripped by the things of this world? Now those are demonic activities in our lives.

Now put it another way: Jesus is showing what is really wrong with us in the first place. We can never understand salvation or conversion if we don’t understand what is truly wrong with us in the first place. And that is what Jesus is showing here. He said we are just dead. We are under the demon’s control. Conversion then is this: conversion is to be delivered from the grip or the hold of the devil, nothing short of that. Conversion is to be delivered from the grip of the evil one.

Look at how the Apostle Paul puts it in Acts 26:18. Acts 26:18, and Paul says: “To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”. See how Paul described conversion? He said it is to be delivered from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. Now that is conversion. You have been delivered, not just from humans. You have been delivered from the devil, the strong man, the powerful enemy of ours. But then Jesus comes and He saves us and He delivers us and He plucks us out of the devil’s hand. Now that is conversion.

And so conversion is a big change. It is a mighty act. And so Jesus explains it again in Luke chapter 11 in terms of verse 20 that “if I cast out demons with the finger of God”. Jesus said this is the work of God. Conversion is the work of God. You see this expression “the finger of God” is actually borrowed from the Old Testament in Exodus, referring to the power of God. He said if I do this with the power of God, then “surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.”.

So this is how Jesus described that. It is Jesus, the strong man coming, disarming the devil and saving us from his grip. Now, what happens when one kingdom overthrows another? Now, this is exactly what’s happening- now one kingdom’s overthrowing another. Well, there will be change alright. If there is conversion, there will be change because when one kingdom takes over another, there will be the change of government alright and there will be new direction and there will be new ways of doing things and there will be a new allegiance. 

So in verse 23 alright, Luke chapter 11, Jesus said: “He who is not with Me is against Me, he who does not gather with Me scatters.”. Now here Jesus is pointing out that it is not possible to have mixed loyalty, mixed allegiance, or half-hearted affection or lukewarm response to Jesus Christ. If you are not with Me, you are against Me. There can be no fence sitter here. So the emphasis here is therefore a radical change. If there is a conversion, there must be this change and this change is big. It’s a tremendous change in your life, a new allegiance. Jesus is saying when someone is converted, something wonderful, marvellous, something amazing has happened. And that’s what we see in verse 14. 

You see when that happened to the mute man alright when he was being delivered, the people marvelled because they could see that it was huge. It was big. It was a tremendous thing. It was a marvellous thing that had happened. That ought to be true of every conversion. When you see a conversion, you must marvel. I’ve known this man all my lives and now I see him converted. He’s a new man. He’s a new man in Christ. The old has passed away, the new has come. Now I witnessed this many times before, the people that I’ve known. I’ve known their character, I’ve known their behaviour, I’ve known the things that they have done. And when they became Christians, change. Major change in their life and Jesus is saying that is conversion.

Now secondly, what understanding conversion alright. The conversion secondly, we say that superficial conversion is not true conversion. Now this passage also teaches us that superficial conversion is not true conversion. What is superficial conversion? Well we see in verses 24 and 25 alright, it says here: “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it swept and put in order.”.

Now here is a picture here. The demons came out of this man, he roams about, he finds a suitable place to go to but there was none, then he comes back. But he brings seven others more wicked demons. From here we learned that there are demons that are more wicked alright. They are not all equally wicked. Now some are more wicked; some are less. But here is the picture here. And so we see that when he comes back alright and then he’s in control of this man again. Now, what is meant by this alright in these two verses?

Now Spurgeon told of a story of a drunken man alright mocking at Spurgeon one day, and this is what he said to Spurgeon: “I am one of your converts (now probably half-drunk right and saying that to Spurgeon)”. To which Spurgeon replied: “I’m sure you are one of my converts. The Lord would have made a better job of it. You may be a convert of a preacher, but you may not be a convert of the Lord Jesus Christ alright.”. And so you see, we can manipulate people. We can change people superficially, and they remain the same in their life. But if God changes us alright, it would be different. That is what Spurgeon is saying.

In other words, such conversions are superficial. They’re cosmetic. They’re like what verse 25 says that it is being “swept and put in order”. Now that is house cleaning. Now that’s what many people do alright. They try to put their house in order. You know I’ve been drinking too much, maybe I should drink less. Now I’ve been doing this and they try to do some you know new year resolution, and they think that that is conversion. Now those things are not conversion.

You see, the warning here is that it is possible to have some sort of religious experience but not the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. A form of religion (now what Paul says), but not the power. It’s possible for people to have some religious knowledge. In fact, not just some. They have a lot of religious knowledge. There are people who have been to Bible colleges, but they are not converted. It’s possible for people to speak in tongues and perform miracles, yet not converted. It’s possible for people to be very active in church- part of the choir, attended Sunday school, baptised. 

They have all the trappings of religions, but Jesus is saying conversion is more radical than that alright. Those are superficial conversions. So the devil living temporarily is a picture of superficial, cosmetic conversion. It is possible to deal with our problem in a very superficial way, you know some moral teaching. Now we have moral lessons in school. That is not conversion. I can teach you to behave well, but that’s not reaching the heart. We know that there are many rehab centres alright, but those are just doing some changes externally (physically), but it’s not spiritual conversion. So in the same way, the church must not give superficial answers to people. When people want change, we must not just tell them to be moral or give them some ethics or just preach so-called religion to them. 

You see, the Bible says here in verse 20 true conversion comes about by the finger of God. That is the only way that conversion can happen is when God works in the person’s life, it must be by the finger of God. When the person or when the person is truly converted, not only the devil is cast out but the spirit of God comes in to empower that person, to change that person, to make the person live a new life. Now that is true conversion. So superficial conversion is not true conversion.

Now that leads us to the third thing we learned about conversion here from this passage, and that is false conversion is worse than no conversion. False conversion is worse than no conversion. That is the reason why sometimes you hear some preachers, they are so hard on people who are being deceived by their so-called conversion because it is so very dangerous because it is worse than those pagan out there. See, those not genuinely converted in a sense is in a worse off state than before, and I believe that is what verse 26 says: “Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.””. Now how so, you might ask? How is it that those who are falsely converted is worse than their first state?

Now I believe that there are a number of reasons alright for that. Now you might remember in Matthew 12:45, and here Jesus is speaking of the Jews, of the Hebrew people. And this is what He said to them, Matthew 12:45. And here Jesus is making an application alright- He’s making an application. Matthew 12:45- “Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”. Then He said: “So shall it be with this wicked generation.”. Now, what is Jesus saying here? He’s talking about the Jewish nation. With this generation, He said, you are in a worse state.

How so? Because He says that as you see, Jesus is kind of making application, He’s applying directly to the Jews. And He says that this is the very thing that has happened to the Jewish people. What about them? You see in the Old Testament we know that their prime sin alright, their main sin is worshiping idols. And so God had to deal with that and God sent them into captivity to deal with the sin of idolatry. And they were kind of healed of that particular sin and then they came back alright. But then what we learned is that after being cured of that sin, they became worse.

And so when they come to the New Testament, Jesus sees that they are in the worse position because they were falsely converted. They think that they were converted. They were superficially converted. And so they became proud and self-righteous. And so in the New Testament, they were always thinking that they’ve been cured already alright. But they adhere to you know the law strictly and other religious duties and thinking that they have been converted because they kept thinking that they have been converted when they were not. That made them worse than the first state, and that is what the Lord is saying here.

So it is true therefore of all who are falsely converted, it makes you very difficult to be converted again because it is because such people are under a delusion. They’re in a worse state because they are under a delusion. You can talk to these people and they will be offended and say what do you talk to me about? I’m already a Christian.

I remember once I was going with a few friends doing house to house evangelism, and that was many, many years ago. And we came to a house, and I still remember his name- Mr. Fong alright. And we were student alright talking to Mr. Fong and try to preach the gospel to him, and he got offended. We knew his wife alright. We knew that he doesn’t go to church, but he was offended because he kind of taunted us and asked us: Do you know who I am? He says I am the president. I was the president of the Methodist youth fellowship. I was this and I was that.

He was boasting of his religious life and say now you little kids alright little boys, you want to preach the gospel to me? Now it’s very difficult to preach to people who are falsely converted because they are deluded. They are in delusion. They keep thinking that they have this false sense of security. And therefore it’s difficult to reach them. And so because they are in delusion, they have this false sense of security and they become unconcerned about their spiritual state.

And they are not people where Paul would counsel or not people that would do what Paul would do in 2 Corinthians 13:5, where Paul says: “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? —unless indeed you are disqualified.”. You see, they will not do this, what Paul would want us to do to have self-examination. Because of this false sense of security in them, they become unconcerned about their spiritual state. And worse, they become hardened. In fact, in a sense, they will probably be the hardest to convert. 

Listen to people like them in Luke 18:11-12. Luke 18:11-12: “I fast twice a week; I give tithes to all that I possess.”. Now that is what these people will say alright. In verse 11, they say they will “stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.”. Now that that is a problem with these people who are falsely converted alright. They think that they are religious. They think that they are okay.

Or in verse 20 and verse 21, same chapter: “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honour your father and your mother.’” And he said to Jesus, “All these things I have kept from my youth.””. Now, these are the constant reply from people like that you know. I’m okay, I’m good enough, I’ve been obedient to the law, I go to church, I’ve been baptized, I’ve been giving money to the church, and so on and so forth. 

They become hardened and they become the hardest to reach. False conversion is worse than no conversion. You see, our text teaches conversion and it teaches that conversion is not a superficial thing. It is the deep work of God. It not only delivers us from sin but it fills with the spirit of God. It fills us with new life. It fills with the life that will grow and grow and grow. It will make us more and more Christ-like. Now that is the conversion that the Bible teaches. Can that be said about your conversion? Let us pray.

“Our dear Father in heaven, we thank You again for this passage here to teach us about conversion. And we know that it is indeed a great work of God in the life of a person, nothing less from translating the person from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, nothing less than delivering the person from his deadness in sin, nothing less than making the person alive again spiritually. Lord, we do pray that this be true of all of us this morning who are listening to this passage. And for those who are still pondering on this, we pray that You might impress this truth upon their life. Grant them understanding, O Lord, and grant them true spiritual conversion. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.