A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Luke. As Jesus was casting out a devil, some from the crowd exclaimed, it is by Beelzebub, the prince of devils that he casts out devils. Others in the crowd to test Jesus were demanding of him a sign from heaven. Because Jesus knew their thoughts, he said to them, every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste. Any house torn by dissension falls.
If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom last? Since you say it is by Beelzebub that I cast out devils. If I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your people cast them out? In such a case, let them act as your judges. But if it is by the finger of god that I cast out devils, then the reign of god is upon you.
When a strong man, fully armed, guards his courtyard, his possessions go undisturbed. But when someone stronger than himself comes along and overpowers him, such a one carries off the arms on which the man was relying and divides up the spoil, the loot. The man who is not with me is against me, and the man who does not gather with me scatters. When an unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it wanders through arid wastes searching for a resting place. Failing to find one, it says, I will go back where I came from.
It then returns to find that house swept, all tidied up. Next, it goes out and returns returns with with seven seven other other evil evil spirits spirits far far worse worse than itself, and they all enter and dwell there. The result is that the last date of that man is worse than the first. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. Well, here is another little bit from the New Testament, specifically from Saint Luke that you don't hear much about. All notice this whole passage is about devils and casting them out, and what they can do, and how they, plot against those who are trying to serve the Lord. That's his whole passage this morning. Now if you read this, or even if you listen to it being read, you're going to get the impression that there's something in the actual and real order called devils.
I don't care what name you give, but you can't escape, I I don't think, if from the if you read this passage or listen to it, you can't escape that Christ here is talking about devils, and he's talking about casting them out. And he's and he's describing how they don't take no for an answer. You boot them out, you get rid of them, and you get your your your your yourself all tidied up. The house is immaculate. And let little old devil that you just booted out, he comes traipsing back.
And our and he finds it all nice and clean. And what does he do? He goes out and gets a whole crowd. Now they come back, and they're a squad. There are eight of them now.
And they take over. And notice what Christ says at the end, that the last state of that man is worse than his first. Now this is whether you like it or whether you don't like it, whether you think it's a lot of nonsense, or whether you think it's the word of God, you can't escape that message. What do you do about it? Well, of course, you know, today we are in the world of the elite.
And the church has always had the elite, the cognizanti that had it from the very beginning, even in the time of Saint Paul the Apostle, the superior soul, the spiritual people. And they've been a they've been with the church all the way down the centuries. Every century has it in more or less, degree and strength and disturbance. We have them today. And one of their great tenets is, don't be medieval, for heaven's sake.
You're living in the twentieth century. Don't think that Christ, the son of God, was so ign ignorant as to think there's such a thing as a devil or sin. These things, oh, that's alright, you know, for the, you know, the the the ignorantnesses. But if you wanna be an intelligent Christian, then you will see it our way. See, this is the liberal attitude.
And, our way is to is to eliminate it. No sin, no devil. Everything is love, love, love, love, whatever in the heck that means. Well, I'd like to know how what what do you do with a text like this? Is Christ just a victim of the ignorance, the superstition of his time?
Christ, the son of God? How do you how can you say that? Now, if Christ isn't the son of God, let's close the book and call the whole thing off. I could care less. But remember, the arguments that some of these people propose come from people who accept the divinity of Jesus Christ.
Of course, even that they interpret as they wish to see it see fit. You know, it's very questionable whether Hans Kang believes in the divinity of Christ. I said it's questionable. Now and he's reputed to be a Catholic theologian. Now what do we think about this?
Now I and of course, you see, along with this attitude of the devil and sin, you have this attitude that there's something intrinsically wrong about fear. Fear. You must obey the law through love. You must obey your parents through love. You must obey obey God through love.
Love, love, love. You get sick and tired because ask the people who use the word what they mean by it. That's all I can say, ask them. There we all know that there's a very healthy, very healthy aspect of fear. And anybody who tries to cross Strathmore Avenue around here at 04:00 knows very well that fear can be healthy.
It's better than going over to Holy Cross Hospital on a stretcher. And you see, along with this idea of fear, there's a denigrating that there that it's something very, subhuman, subrational, sub intelligent to obey God through fear. Where did where does all this stuff come from? Why are we being submerged and deluged with it? I mean deluged.
Where does all this come from? It's not in the New Testament. There's plenty about fear in the Old and the New Testament. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now if you want to be wise, then I'll believe.
The scripture tells you that you better have a healthy fearing. Now we're we're not talking about cowardice. We're talking about fear. Now, what do we make of this? Do we think in reality, in the actual existence over there, that we have an enemy that's stalking us?
Do we believe that? Do we believe that we are a target for forces of evil? Notice, even the forces of evil created were came from God. We're we don't believe in two supreme, omnipotent powers, one good and one evil. Not at all.
We believe that this devil is a creation of God himself. But in some way, the devil the supreme archangel fell from his high position. He's still a creature of God. And as Lewis says, he can't make even one single pleasure. All he can do is to use what God has created against God.
Now do we believe that that happens in our lives? There not long ago there was a song, The devil made me do it. Well, I don't think it was that was too much of an argument, a theological argument for the existence of the devil. It was a it was just a beautiful argument to eliminate all personal responsibility and guilt. Now, as Saint Thomas points out in a very detailed treaties on the devil, he points out that as that as powerful as the devil is, and as strong and as severe as he can work upon us, he can't take away your free will.
Can't take away your free will. Notice with the book of Job, he did not take away Job's free will. Because in the last analysis, devil or no devil, I say, I serve or I stand up and say, I will not serve. Meaning, God. We ought to take this realistically.
We are in a battle. We are in a we are soldiers in in in war. We are targets. This power that we call satanic is is actual and real. You can't escape it if you accept the new old and new testament.
You can't you can't escape it if you believe Jesus Christ is God and said it, and therefore absolutely infallible. This is not a doctrine of defeatism. This is just a doctrine that you know your enemy, that you know what you're doing, that you know what your battle is about. Otherwise, you're going to be taken unawares. There's nothing worse than underrating your enemy.
And so let's take this to heart. It's the doctrine of the church. It's the it proclaims it revealed. It's plain in the New Testament. Let us take it realistically and ask God to protect us.
Think of your guardian angel. Think of the saints. Think of the company you keep. You are never in this battle alone. You are always with Jesus.
And he said, without me, you can do nothing. And with him, you can do everything. In the name of the father, and the son, and holy spirit. Amen.