601. Gospel of Luke - Chapter 11 (#4) - A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand - July 22, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:41] Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 22, beginning in verse 1. A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, loving favor rather than silver and gold. The rich and the poor have this in common. The Lord is the maker of them all.

[00:01:03] A prudent man for sees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished. By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.

[00:01:18] Thorns and snares are in the way of the Proverse. He who guards his soul will be far from them. The scoffer and contention will leave. Yes, strife and reproach will cease. He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips. The king will be his friend.

[00:02:11] The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, but he overthrows the words of the faithless. The lazy man says, there is a lion outside. I shall be slain in the streets.

[00:02:26] The mouth of an immoral woman is a deep pit. He who is abhord by the Lord will fall there. Fulishness is bound up in the heart of a child. The rod of correction will drive it far from him.

[00:02:43] He who oppresses the poor to increase his riches and he who gives to the rich will surely come to poverty.

[00:02:54] Incline your ear and hear the words of the wise and apply your heart to my knowledge for it is a pleasant thing if you keep them within you. Let them all be fixed upon your lips so that your trust may be in the Lord. I have instructed you today even you.

[00:03:18] Have I not written to you excellent things of councils and knowledge that I may make you know the certainty of the words of truth, that you may answer words of truth to those who send to you. Do not rob the poor because he is poor nor oppress the afflicted at the gate.

[00:03:42] For the Lord will plead their cause and plunder the soul of those who plunder them. Make no friendship with an angry man, and with a furious man do not go.

[00:03:57] Unless you learn his ways and set a snare for your soul. Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, one of those who is surety for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay why should he take away your bed from under you. Do not remove the ancient landmark which your fathers have said.

[00:04:23] Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings. He will not stand before unknown men. Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 19 and proper 22 verse 19 says this.

[00:04:44] So that your trust may be in the Lord. I have instructed you today even you.

[00:04:54] And friends we will come and revisit that verse prior to closing today, but what I'd like to do is to begin the week by continuing our study on the gospel according to Luke last week we began chapter 11.

[00:05:11] On Monday's podcast we went over verses 1 through 4. On Wednesday's podcast we went over verses 5 through 8 and on Thursday's podcast we went over verses 9 through 13.

[00:05:26] So we are going to pick up right there today beginning with verse 14 and he was casting out a demon and it was mute. So it was when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke and the multitudes marveled.

[00:05:46] But some of them said he casts out demons by the Elzabub, the ruler of the demons. Others testing him sought from him a sign from heaven.

[00:06:00] But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation and a house divided against a house falls. Now friends my very first point of the day today is a house divided against itself cannot stand.

[00:06:24] Now many of you are familiar with this one particular verse because it was part of a very famous speech by Abraham Lincoln.

[00:06:37] He later became president of the United States, but he was very famous for this passage of scripture and this was when he was running for US senator in 1858 against Stephen A. Douglas.

[00:06:55] And what I'd like to do is just take a few moments and go over the particulars of that speech.

[00:07:02] What I'd like to do is go over at article written by Becky Little that is found in the history channel, at least that's what the symbol is. So at one point in time this was probably part of an educational program on the history channel.

[00:07:22] It says at a time when many white politicians wanted to compromise on slavery, Abraham Lincoln said that wasn't possible. When Abraham Lincoln said a house divided against itself cannot stand he wasn't talking about the kind of political divisions common today.

[00:07:44] Americans made it first sharply on issues like immigration and abortion, but there is no single issue that geographically and economically divides the country in the same way that slavery did in the 1850s.

[00:08:04] Back then the US was so divided that many feared it would break out in civil war, a fear that Lincoln unwittingly stoked.

[00:08:17] Lincoln's now famous house divided line, which is drawn from the Bible. As a matter of fact, I just read it to you in Luke's gospel chapter 11, but this same passage of scripture is also referred to in Matthew chapter 12 and Mark chapter three.

[00:08:40] This line house divided was actually part of a campaign speech he delivered at the 1858 Illinois Republican State Convention. Lincoln then a relatively unknown politician had just won the nomination to run for US Senate against one of the most important politicians in the country, Stephen A. Douglas.

[00:09:10] In general, Democrats then were the party of the slave holding south and Republicans were the party of the free north that opposed slavery's expansion. Yet Republicans weren't too concerned about Lincoln's race because they thought Stephen Douglas a Democrat might be open to working with them against expanding slavery.

[00:09:38] Douglas had been seeking a middle ground between north and south, some way of compromising on the slavery issue says Eric Foner, a history professor at Columbia University who has written several books about slavery and the civil war.

[00:09:58] In his house divided speech, Lincoln countered that the dread scott decision the previous year had already opened the doors for slavery to be legal in the north as well as all territories that the US expanded into.

[00:10:18] If the US wanted to be a free country he argued it had to act now before it was too late. Lincoln saying no there is no compromise, Foner explains you've got to be on one side or the other.

[00:10:37] In effect he's saying I'm on the side of freedom and Douglas is on the side of the slavery or to quote the man himself a house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.

[00:11:03] I do not expect the union to be dissolved. I do not expect a house to fall but I do expect it will cease to be divided. I will become all one thing or all the other.

[00:11:19] Now friends that is the actual part of Lincoln's speech and as we know Lincoln later went on although he lost this race in the 1858 Illinois Senate race to Stephen A. Douglas. He later was elected president in the very next presidential election of 1860 and he was inaugurated in 1861.

[00:11:47] And 1861 was the very beginning of the Civil War in the month of April when the Confederates fired on Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor.

[00:12:02] And we all know the rest. The country was at war, the entire length of president Lincoln's presidency beginning in 1861 through the end of 1865 when Lincoln actually was re-elected and he actually went through the second inauguration.

[00:12:25] And then the Civil War ended at Appamatics when the South and generally surrendered to U.S. Jesus grant of the U.S. Army, but then a week later Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. Friends, let's continue with verse 18.

[00:12:49] If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? Now friends, I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible and what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for verses 17 and 18.

[00:13:07] It says the attribution of Jesus' miracles to Satan was not only blasphemous, it was illogical. If Satan had cast out the demons, he would have been destroying the result of his own work. Now let's go to verse 19.

[00:13:26] And if I cast out demons by the Elzibub, by whom do your sons cast them out, therefore they will be your judges. Let's look at the commentary for verse 19. Jesus' question and the implied reply to it can be taken in one of two ways.

[00:13:49] How did Jewish exorcists expel demons? If the answer is by God's power, then why not give Jesus the same credit? Number two, how did Jesus' disciples who were the sons of Israel drive out demons? The dissenters not only had to explain Jesus' miracles, but those of his followers?

[00:14:17] Most scholars prefer the former interpretation. Now let's go to verse 20. But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Now let's look at the commentary for that verse 20.

[00:14:41] The finger of God is an illusion to God's power, like that demonstrated in the Exodus. The kingdom of God has come upon you. What does that mean? Jesus' miracles represented the arrival of God's power and promise. In short, his rule, that rule comes in and through Jesus.

[00:15:09] The miracles of Jesus demonstrated God's victory over the forces of evil. The kingdom program depicted as drawing near will be consummated at the return of Jesus when this rule is manifested over every creature. Let's go to verse 21.

[00:15:34] When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted and divides his boils.

[00:15:58] Now friends, this reminds me of Ephesians chapter 6 and how we are to take up the full armor of God. Friends, we live in a spiritual battle each and every day of our lives.

[00:16:14] Satan is real. He's going to come to try to attack us in any way that he can. He wants to derail our plans. He wants to make our marriage null and void.

[00:16:28] He wants to bring it to an end. He wants to separate us and divide us from our very own children. He's going to do everything he can to destroy your way of life and what you have built.

[00:16:42] The other verse 23, he was not with me is against me and he who does not gather with me scatters. Now friends, my third and final point for today is he who is not with me is against me.

[00:17:03] I want you to think about that. He who is not with me is against me. Now let's look at the commentary for verse 23. Jesus' ministry forces everyone to make a choice. Neutrality is not an option either Jesus comes from God or he does not.

[00:17:27] Not to align with Jesus is to be against him. Now friends before we close today I'd like to go back to our verse of the day and today is the 20 second of July.

[00:17:43] So what I'd like to do we are looking in proper 22, I would like to go to verse 19 so that your trust may be in the Lord. I have instructed you today even you. Now friends today I talked about Abraham Lincoln.

[00:18:04] He was running for Senator of the United States many people knew him as honest Abe as he was growing up in his political career. And many people know him that he used to use axes and he used to cut wood and he was well well known.

[00:18:24] But he later became president of the United States and as a president of the United States he understood the value of the word of God. Let's look at this again so that your trust may be in the Lord. President Lincoln trusted in God. President Lincoln read the Bible.

[00:18:52] I'm suggesting that you do the same. So my call to action a day really isn't this. How often do you open the Holy Scriptures? How often do you make a point throughout the course of a week to open up that Bible?

[00:19:10] And friends it doesn't matter where you open. I often suggest you open to Psalms or Proverbs or the four Gospels. If you don't know where to begin, I suggest you begin with Proverbs and the Gospel of John.

[00:19:28] But if you are a new believer and if you're not used to breeding the Bible, if you're not all that familiar with it may I suggest that before you begin reading that you pray to God.

[00:19:42] And ask God to open your eyes and your heart so that you will be able to understand Scripture when you read it. Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord in Savior.

[00:20:03] If there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today. Father God, thank you that you sent your Son Jesus to earth.

[00:20:16] Jesus, thank you that you were willing to come to earth and die on a cross for all of the sins of mankind forever. Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God. I believe that you died on a cross and were buried.

[00:20:36] On the third day, you rose from the dead and now sit at the right hand of God the Father. But you promised that when you went away, you would send the Holy Spirit to dwell on the inside of each one of us.

[00:20:53] Holy Spirit, I pray that you come into my heart. I pray that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:21:08] Friends, if you repeat it that prayer, you are now a full fledged member of the house of God and the family of God. Congratulations, welcome to the family. Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:21:24] The Lord make us face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. Friends, tomorrow is testimony day. Please join me and a special guest as we further explore wisdom.