Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Empty House: The Peril of Moral Reform Without Christ (Matthew 12:43–45)

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The Empty House: The Peril of Moral Reform Without Christ (Matthew 12:43–45) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome back to Reformed Thinking.
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I have to admit I had a hard time sleeping last night after
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reading through the material for this deep dive.
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That is not the usual reaction we get.
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Usually people are excited or curious.
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Why the insomnia? Because it just, it completely
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messed with my categories. We spend so much time in the
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church and, you know, just in society generally talking about
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how to fix our lives. Right.
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How to be better people? How to clean up our act.
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And then I read these essays, The Empty House and the Vacuum
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of the Soul, and they basically argue that cleaning up your life
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might be the single most dangerous thing you can do.
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It sounds backward, doesn't it? Feels completely
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counterintuitive. Completely.
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We're trained from childhood to think that the mess is the
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problem. You know, the addiction, the
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anger issues, the chaotic schedule.
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We could just tidy all that up. We're good.
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We've done our part. But today we're looking at a
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parable from Jesus that says no, you can stop sinning.
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You can get organized. You can become a model citizen
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and end up in a spiritual state that is actually worse than when
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you were a total disaster. It is the paradox of the clean
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life. And frankly, it is one of the
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most unsettling teachings in the entire New Testament.
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We're looking at Matthew 12.4345 today.
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Yeah. And you're right to be rattled.
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This isn't a how to guide for self improvement.
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It's a. It's a warning.
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Warning against. Or just a warning against the
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vacuum. That's the core of what we need
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to get at today. The danger isn't that you clean
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the house. The danger is that you left it
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empty. OK.
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And what Jesus is getting at here, and this is the really
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scary part, is that there is the type of unbelief that looks
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indistinguishable from holiness to the naked eye.
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That is the part that gets me. It looks like Holiness.
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It does. It isn't loud.
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It isn't rebellious. It pays its taxes.
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It mows the lawn. Right, it speaks politely it.
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Speaks politely, but Jesus calls it lethal.
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So we're going to break this down using the lens of Reformed
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theology, and we'll touch on the Westminster Confession to help
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us, you know, categorize things like common grace versus special
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grace. Because if we don't get those
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categories right, we will absolutely misinterpret the
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whole story. OK, so the mission is to figure
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out why a swept and ordered life can be a trap, and more
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importantly, how we avoid falling into it.
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But before we get to the scary haunted house part of the story,
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we need to set the stage. Where does this story even land
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in the Bible? Because context is everything.
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It is. We're in Matthew chapter 12, and
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if you're reading through the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12 is
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what I would call a hinge point. A hinge point?
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How so? Well, up until now, Jesus has
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been revealing who he is. Miracles, teaching, healing.
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The revelation is just mounting, but at the same time the
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resistance is mounting. It's rising to meet him.
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It is by the time we get to Chapter 12, the religious
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leaders, the Pharisees, they're done with being polite.
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They're actively looking for a way to destroy him.
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So this isn't just a campfire story about demons, this is a
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weapon. It is a surgical strike, and the
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confrontation that triggers it is, well, it's intense.
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Jesus performs an exorcism. He heals a man who is demon
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oppressed, blind and mute. So a pretty undeniable miracle.
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I mean, the guy standing there seeing and talking, the crowds
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are just stunned. They start whispering.
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Could this be the son of David, which is, you know, Messianic
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language? And the Pharisees panic.
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They have to shut that narrative down immediately.
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But they have a huge problem. They can't deny the miracle.
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The guy's right. There the guy is, standing right
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there. Everyone saw it, so since they
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can't deny the fact of the power, they have to attack the
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source of the power. And this is where they make that
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accusation that just it makes you gasp when you read it.
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They say it is only by Beelzebel, the Prince of demons,
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that this man casts out demons. Let's just pause on that for a
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second. Think about the implications.
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They are looking at mercy. They are looking at a man who is
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trapped in total darkness and is now free.
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They are seeing light. Yes.
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And they look at the light of the world and say, that is the
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devil. It is breathtakingly evil.
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I mean, it is the very definition of the unpardonable
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sin, the blasphemy against the Spirit.
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It isn't just, you know, saying a curse word against God.
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It is a settled, determined rejection where you look at the
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clear work of the Holy Spirit and you call it the work of
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Satan. You're calling Good.
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You're calling good evil and evil good.
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And Jesus. He doesn't take that lying down.
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He dismantles their logic. First he says if Satan is
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casting out Satan, his Kingdom is divided and it will fall.
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It makes no sense for the devil to liberate people.
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But then he pivots to the warning.
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He tells them that because they have rejected the spirit,
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they're in a very, very precarious spot.
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They ask him for a sign, as if the healing wasn't enough.
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Which is just insulting. It is, and he refuses to give
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them a parlor trick. Instead, he gives them the sign
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of Jonah. Which is direct reference to his
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future death and resurrection. Three days in the belly of the
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earth. It is, but then he twists the
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knife. He brings up the men of Nineveh.
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Now remember, Nineveh was the capital of Assyria.
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These were pagans. Brutal, violent enemies of
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Israel. Absolutely.
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They didn't have the Torah, they didn't have the Temple, they had
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nothing. But they repented.
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They repented at the preaching of Jonah, who was, let's be
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honest, a reluctant, grumpy prophet.
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And Jesus says the men of Nineveh will stand up at the
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judgment with this generation and condemn it, because here
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stands something infinitely greater than Jonah, God in the
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flesh. And these religious leaders,
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with all their Bibles and all their theology, they refused to
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bow. So when he tells this parable
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about the unclean spirit, he isn't talking to random people
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on the street. No, he's talking to this evil
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generation. He's talking to national Israel.
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That is the primary interpretation.
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You have to view it historically first before you apply it to
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yourself. Israel had a long history of
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being messy. Think about the Old Testament
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before the Babylonian exile. What was Israel's big recurring
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problem? Idolatry, the visible gross
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kind. Statues of Baal, Asherah, poles
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on the hills, all of it. Right.
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It was obvious they were cheating on Yahweh with blocks
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of wood and stone. So God sends them into exile in
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Babylon, 70 years of judgement, and when they come back, what's
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different? The idols are gone.
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Gone. The exile worked.
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It swept the house clean of that particular sin.
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I see where you're going with this.
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By the time Jesus shows up on the scene, you don't see Jews
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bowing down to golden calves anymore. 0 They were fiercely
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monotheistic. They were obsessed with the law.
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They were culturally tight. The House of Israel was, on the
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outside, incredibly clean. But, and this is the butt of the
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entire episode, it was empty. That's it.
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They had gotten rid of the idols, but they hadn't filled
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that void with the true love for God.
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They love their tradition, they love their nation, but they
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didn't know the Father. They didn't recognize the Son.
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So the parable is a diagnosis of Israel.
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They are the clean house. Exactly.
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But like all scripture it has a dual application.
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It diagnosis the nation of Israel then, and it diagnosis
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the human soul now. OK, let's get into the mechanics
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of the parable then. Matthew 12.43 when the unclean
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spirit has gone out of a person. Stop right there.
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That first phrase, unclean spirit.
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The Greek is Numa, a Catherine. In the Levitical system, being
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unclean meant you couldn't approach God.
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You were separated from the Tabernacle.
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So it's not just about being like morally dirty, it's about
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separation it. Is so.
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This spirit is an agent of separation.
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It is the anti spirit. The Holy Spirit brings us into
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God's presence. The unclean spirit drives us
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away into the dark. The text says it has gone out,
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It doesn't say it was killed, it doesn't say it was destroyed.
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It just left. The phrasing is very specific.
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It implies A departure, not necessarily a violent eviction
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by a superior power. It allows for the idea that the
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evil influence has just ceased for a time.
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Maybe it's a strategic withdrawal, or maybe, Or maybe
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it's the restraining power of what we call common grace, where
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God in his mercy prevents evil from being as bad as it could be
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just to keep society functioning.
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But the key is, the demon is still out there.
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The threat isn't neutralized. And it goes the waterless
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places. What is that about?
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Is that just, you know, geography like the Sahara?
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It's theological geography in the ancient mind and in biblical
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imagery, the wilderness, the desert, is the place of the
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curse. It's where life doesn't
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flourish. Remember Leviticus 16, the
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scapegoat? Yeah, on the Day of Atonement,
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the priest confesses all the sins of Israel over the goat and
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then sends it. Where?
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Into the wilderness? To Azazel.
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It's sent away from the camp, away from God's presence, into
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the realm of death and chaos. So when the demon goes to
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waterless places, it's going to its natural habitat.
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It's going to the realm of the curse.
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But the text says it is seeking rest.
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That seems like a very human thing to do.
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Why is a demon seeking rest? This is fascinating, and it gets
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into a deep theological question.
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What is evil? Agustin defined evil not as a
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thing in itself, but as a privation of good.
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Like darkness is just the absence of light.
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Exactly. Evil cannot create anything.
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It can't create joy, it can't create peace.
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It certainly can't create rest. It can only corrupt corrupt what
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God has already created. So a demon can't just hang out
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in the desert and be happy it can't find its own peace.
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No, because it is eternally severed from God, who is the
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only source of rest. A fallen Angel is an eternally
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restless creature. But here's the darker part.
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Because it hates God, it finds its only satisfaction.
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It's only perverse rest. In marrying God's image Humans,
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we are the image bearers. A demon floating in a vacuum has
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nothing to destroy. It has no canvas to slash.
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So it wanders through these waterless places and it's
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frustrated. It's miserable.
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It wants a host. It needs a person to inhabit.
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It wants to twist a mind, wreck a body, ruin a soul.
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That is the only rest. It knows the twisted
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satisfaction of destruction. That makes the waterless places
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sound less like a punishment for the demon and more like a
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waiting room. It's just biting its time.
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And eventually it decides the waiting is over.
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Verse 44 Then it says, I will return to my house from which I
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came. That possessive pronoun should
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make your skin crawl. My It doesn't view the human
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being as a person with a will. It views him as a container, a
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piece of property. A rental property.
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And the terrifying implication is that even though the demon
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had been gone for a while, maybe years, it still thinks it holds
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the title. Deed.
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Apparently so, because when it goes back, the door isn't
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locked, the lock hasn't been changed, there's no new owner.
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Let's talk about what it finds. This is the inspection.
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The demon shows up, looks in the windows, and sees the state of
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the soul. The text uses 3 specific words
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to describe the condition and I want to drill down on each of
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these because I think this is where so many of us live without
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even realizing. It these 3 words are the
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diagnostic kit for the soul. The house is empty, swept and
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put in order. Let's start with empty.
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The Greek word is golazanda. It means unoccupied, idle at
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leisure. This is the fundamental central
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problem. The house isn't chaotic, it
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isn't full of mud or trash. But there is no master.
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No one's home. No one is home.
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Theologically, this is the absence of the Holy Spirit.
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There's no burning altar in the Temple of the Heart.
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There is no enthroned Christ on the seat of the will.
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It is a vacuum. OK hold on, this is where I
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start to get pushy. If the bad spirit is gone, isn't
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that good? I mean if I stop being an
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alcoholic isn't that a positive thing?
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Why is empty a problem if the thing that filled it before was
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just garbage? That is the logical question.
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And yes, in a temporal social sense it is good.
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It's good for your liver to stop drinking.
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It's good for your family. That is common grace at work,
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right? But spiritually, a vacuum is
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unnatural. You cannot maintain a spiritual
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vacuum. The human soul was built to be
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inhabited. If God doesn't live there,
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something else will. You cannot simply not be bad.
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You must be. His emptiness is just an
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invitation for squatters. OK, so it's empty.
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Yeah, it's problem #1 Then the second word swept.
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Cerumenon. This implies the removal of
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visible filth, dust, dirt, cobwebs.
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This represents moral reformation.
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This is the guy who turns over a new leaf.
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New Year's resolution. Exactly.
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He stops the scandalous sins, he stops sleeping around, he stops
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gambling, he cleans up his language to the neighbors.
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He looks fantastic. He's really turned his life
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around. That's what we say.
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Precisely. And we praise it, and we should.
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On a civic level, that's a good thing.
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But Jesus is warning that you can sweep the floor without ever
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touching the foundation. You can remove the fruit of sin
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without killing the root of sin. And the third word put in order.
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This is my favorite 1 to analyze.
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The root word is cosmos. It implies an arrangement, an
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adornment. It is where we get the English
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word cosmetics. So he didn't just clean the
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house, he decorated it. He put makeup on his life.
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He did. It isn't just that the bad stuff
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is gone. He has put a new structure in
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its place. Maybe he adopted A strict
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routine. Maybe he started going to church
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not because he loves Jesus, but because he likes the community
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or the morals. Or the business contacts.
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Or the business contacts. Maybe he got into a political
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ideology that gave him a sense of purpose.
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He has arranged the furniture of his life perfectly.
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It all looks great. This sounds This sounds like the
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American Dream. It is successful, disciplined,
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moral, organized and dead. That is the horror of it.
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It's a well kept mausoleum that the outside is beautiful,
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polished, that the inside is empty of the spirit of life.
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This distinction you are drawing, it's really the
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difference between reformation and regeneration, isn't it?
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That's the theological language. That is the theological
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terminology, yes, and we have to keep them absolutely distinct.
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OK, break that down for us, because in everyday English,
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reform sounds great. The Protestant Reformation was a
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good thing after all. True, but in this theological
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context we are contrasting self reformation with divine
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regeneration reformation. It's human driven.
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It's behavior modification. I use my willpower or my feel of
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consequences or my pride to change my habits.
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I will stop doing X. That is me with my own little
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broom sweeping the floor and. Regeneration.
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Regeneration is a miracle. It is the new birth.
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It is John chapter 3 or Jesus tells Nicodemus, a very moral,
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very swept man. You must be born again.
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It isn't fixing the old nature. It is receiving a completely new
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nature. It is the Holy Spirit entering
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the house, breathing living life into the dead soul, and taking
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up residence. Reformation puts clean clothes
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on a corpse. Regeneration raises the dead.
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I want to push back on this again just to play devil's
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advocate or maybe moralists advocate.
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Is it really fair to say that the person who reforms
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themselves is in danger? I mean, look at the world around
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us. We have plenty of people who
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aren't Christians. Maybe they're atheists or
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secular humanists who are very swept and ordered.
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Oh, absolutely. They're ethical, they're kind,
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they volunteer. Are we really saying their
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goodness is actually bad? We have to be so careful here.
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We are not saying their goodness is bad in a social sense.
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We are thankful for honest, kind neighbors.
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The Westminster Confession calls these works done by unregenerate
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men. It says they can be of good use
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to themselves and others. That is common grace.
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OK, so we aren't bashing kindness or civic duty.
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Not at all. But the confession continues.
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It says that because these works do not proceed from a heart
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purified by faith and are not done for the glory of God, they
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fall short of salvation. And here's the danger.
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The swept life gives you a false sense of spiritual safety.
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If you're a mess, if you are lying in a gutter, you know you
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need help. You know you're sick.
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But if your house is swept and ordered, you think you're
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healthy. You feel fine.
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You think I'm a good person. God must be happy with me.
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You don't feel your desperate need for a savior because you
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think you've already saved yourself from the symptoms the.
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Broom becomes your savior. Right.
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It is the fundamental error of moralism.
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Moralism says your problem is your behavior, so the solution
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is better behavior. The gospel says your problem is
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your deadness, so the only solution is resurrection.
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The source is also mentioned how this applies directly to
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legalism. Legalism is just religious
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moralism. It takes the law of God and
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treats it like a broom. I'll use the 10 commandments to
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sweep my house. But the Bible is clear,
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especially in Paul's letters. The law is a mirror.
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A mirror, not a broom. Yes, it is meant to show you the
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dirt on your face so that you run to Christ for cleansing.
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If you try to use the law to sweep, you just move the dust
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around. You never actually get clean,
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you just become proud of your sweeping technique.
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There was also a mention in the essays about liberal theology or
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the social Gospel fitting into this framework.
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It is the same error just applied on a societal level
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instead of an individual one. If a church stops preaching, the
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atonement stops preaching that we are sinners who need the
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blood of Jesus and just preaches let's make the world a better
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place. What are they really doing?
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They're sweeping the neighborhood.
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They're trying to sweep Society of poverty and injustice.
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And again, we should fight poverty.
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We should seek justice. But if you do it without the
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gospel of regeneration, you are just creating a swept and
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ordered vacuum. You create a secular void.
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And something will fill it. And history shows us that when a
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culture becomes secular and empty of God, it doesn't stay
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empty for long. Other ideologies, often 7 times
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worse, rush in to fill that spiritual gap.
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Which brings us to the moment in the story where the music
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changes. The demon is at the window.
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He sees the vacancy sign. He sees the welcome mat of self
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righteousness. And he doesn't go on alone.
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This is an interesting detail. He goes and finds seven other
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spirits more evil than himself. Why 7?
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Is that a literal number? It could be, but in Jewish
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literature, 7 is the number of completeness.
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It represents a perfect storm of evil, a total overwhelming
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domination. And the hierarchy is mentioned
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too. More evil than himself.
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Yes, that implies that the demonic realm isn't a flat
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structure. There are degrees of wickedness
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and power. He goes and gets the big guns.
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So this isn't just a relapse, this isn't the guy falling off
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the wagon and having a drink again.
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This is a full scale invasion. It is a hostile occupation.
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They enter and dwell there. That word means they settle
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down. They make themselves at home.
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This is permanent residence. And then Jesus delivers the
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final chilling verdict. The last state of that person is
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worse than the first. This is the part that really
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needs to land on us. Why is it worse?
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I mean, if the guy was a chaotic Sinner before and now he is a
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possessed, hardened, self-righteous vessel of
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darkness, surely the chaos was bad enough.
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The worst part? It's about reachability, isn't
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it? The possibility of repentance.
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It is about inoculation. Think about how vaccines work.
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You give someone a little bit of a dead or weakened virus so that
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their body builds up defenses against the real thing, right?
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You build antibodies. Moral reform without Christ is
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like a spiritual vaccine. You get a little bit of
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religion, you get a little bit of morality, you learn the
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language, you clean up the outside, and that small dose
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gives you antibodies against the true gospel.
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Wow. When someone comes and says you
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need to repent and trust Jesus, you say I'm already good.
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Look at my house. It's swept, it's ordered.
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I don't need what you're selling you.
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Are immune to the cure. You're hardened.
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Pride is a much thicker, higher wall than vices.
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A prostitute or a tax collector in Jesus's day knew they were
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outside the Kingdom. They had no illusions.
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But a Pharisee, A moralist, they think they own the Kingdom, so
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they never bothered to knock on the door.
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That is why it's worse. The path to repentance is
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blocked by their own self satisfaction.
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The sources bring up a historical example of this that
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is honestly terrifying. The generation Jesus was
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speaking to the Jews of the 1st century.
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Wow. We can't skip this.
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We said earlier that Israel was the swept house.
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They rejected Jesus. They wanted the Kingdom without
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the King. They wanted the order, the
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morality without the Messiah. So what happened?
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8070. 40 years after Jesus spoke this very parable, the Roman
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armies besieged Jerusalem. And if you read the historian
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Josephus, his account sounds like a horror movie.
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It sounds like hell on earth. The city didn't just fall, it
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completely descended into madness.
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Josephus talks about the infighting.
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It wasn't just the Romans outside the walls, it was the
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Jewish factions inside slaughtering each other over
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scraps of food. There was cannibalism, mothers
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eating their own children. The temple was burned to the
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ground. Over 1,000,000 people died.
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It was absolute, unimaginable chaos.
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It's the seven spirits had entered the house.
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Exactly. Nation had been swept clean of
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its old idols, but because it was empty of Christ, the
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judgement that rushed in was 7 times worse than the Babylonian
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exile ever was. Babylon was a time out. 8070 was
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a funeral. It was the total destruction of
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that evil generation. That is incredibly heavy and if
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we stop there, this is the most depressing deep dive we have
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ever done. Don't clean your room or demons
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will eat you. If we stop there, we have missed
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the gospel because Jesus doesn't leave us without a solution.
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But the solution isn't found in the parable of the empty house
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itself, It's in the context right before it.
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A stronger man. Yes.
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In Matthew 12.29, just before this parable, Jesus gives a
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different illustration. He says how can someone enter a
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strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds
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the strongman, Then indeed he may plunder his house.
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OK, let's cast the characters in that little story.
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Who is the strongman? In that mini parable, the
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strongman is Satan. He is holding the house, the
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human soul, captive. He's the current owner.
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And who is the one entering the house to plunder it?
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That is Jesus Christ, He is the stronger man.
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This is the hope. The solution to the empty house
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isn't to try harder to keep the door locked.
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You aren't strong enough if you sweep your own house.
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You are just a weak little human holding a broom against a legion
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of demons. You will lose every single time.
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You need a bouncer. You need an owner.
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You need someone stronger than the enemy to not just visit, but
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to move in and take over completely.
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This brings us right to the core Reformed doctrine of union with
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Christ. This is everything.
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Salvation isn't a partnership. It isn't Jesus handing you a mop
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in a bucket and saying let's clean this place up together.
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It is a hostile takeover in the best sense of the word.
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Paul says in First Corinthians 6.1920.
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You are not your own. You were bought with a price.
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God, that implies a transfer of title, a change of ownership.
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Exactly when you are born again by the Spirit, the title deed of
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your soul changes hands. You no longer belong to
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yourself, and you certainly don't belong to the devil, you
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belong to Christ. So now imagine the scenario
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again. The demon leaves it, wanders in
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the waterless places. It comes back and says I will
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return to my house. What the hell isn't empty
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anymore? It's not vacant.
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No, it knocks on the door and the stronger man opens it and
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the stronger man says this isn't your house, it's mine.
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I bought it with my own blood. Get lost.
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And the demon has to go. It has no claim.
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He has no choice. The power of the demon is broken
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not by our sweeping, but by Christ's dwelling.
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I love that phrase from Thomas Chalmers that was in the notes.
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The expulsive power of a new affection.
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It's a classic sermon, and it fits perfectly here.
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Chalmers argued that the human heart hates a vacuum.
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You cannot destroy a love for sin just by saying no to it.
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With your willpower, that, well, runs dry.
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You have to displace that love with a greater, more beautiful
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love. You can't just scrape the
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darkness out of a room, you have to turn on the light.
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Right. If a little boy has a sharp
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knife in his hand, and he loves that knife, you can't just yell
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at him to drop it. He'll hold on tighter.
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But if you offer him a shiny, beautiful new toy, something
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that far better, he will drop the knife in an instant to grab
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the better thing. That is the explosive power.
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When you see the beauty and glory of Jesus, his grace, His
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love, His sacrifice, the love of sin is pushed out.
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It's expelled by the filling of something better.
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So sanctification, the process of actually getting clean,
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doesn't happen before Jesus moves in so that the house is
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presentable. It happens because he moved in.
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That is the crucial order. Moralism says clean up so God
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will accept you. The Gospel says God has accepted
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you in Christ despite your mess. Now let's clean up together.
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He moves in amidst the chaos. He buys the house while it's
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still dirty, and then he begins the lifelong renovation project.
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That is a huge relief because I think a lot of us, even as
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Christians, can fall into the trap of feeling like we have to
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get everything ordered before we can really call ourselves
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Christians or before God will be pleased with us.
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And that is a lie from the pit. If you wait until you're clean
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to come to Christ, you will never come.
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You come as you are, messy, chaotic, possessed by sin, and
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he binds the strongman and takes over.
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OK, let's try to land this plane with some direct application.
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We have different kinds of people listening to this.
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I want to start with the moralist, the person who
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listened to the first half of this deep dive and got really
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uncomfortable. Maybe they're thinking I'm a
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good person, I go to church, I vote the right way.
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I don't have a criminal record. Are you telling me I'm in
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danger? I would say to that person with
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all the love in my heart, be honest with yourself.
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Where is your confidence? If you were standing before God
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today and he were to ask why should I let you into my heaven,
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what would you offer him? Would you offer him your
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sweeping? Look, Lord, I didn't drink and I
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was polite and I recycled. Would you point to your clean
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house, or would you cling to Christ alone?
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It's the broom versus the builder.
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If your confidence is in your own order, your house is empty,
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and an empty house is a trap waiting to spring.
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You're standing on the precipice of a worse state.
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The call for you is to stop trusting your own goodness.
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It's a flingsy shield. Repent of your righteousness,
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which is a weird thing to say, but we need to repent of our
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self righteousness just as much as our sins and flee to the
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stronger man. Now what about the other
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listener, the one who is the weary St. the believer who loves
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Jesus but is really struggling. They're fighting addiction,
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they're fighting anger. And they hear this parable and
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they think, Oh no, I sinned yesterday.
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Is my house empty? Did the demon come back?
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I am so glad you asked that we must must distinguish between
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the presence of sin and the dominion of sin.
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If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, sin might still be
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present in your house. It might be hiding in the
26:25
closets, it might be dirt you keep finding under the rug, but
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it does not hold the title deed. So the stronger man is still the
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owner, even if the house is messy.
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Absolutely. In fact, the struggle is proof
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of life. Dead people don't fight.
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An empty house is quiet. If you are grieving over your
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sin, if you are wrestling with it, if you hate it, that is the
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Holy Spirit fighting within you. That is the proof the house is
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occupied. A house at war is alive.
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That's a great way to put it. The Westminster Confession
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reminds us that this war between the flesh and the Spirit is
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continual. It lasts our whole life.
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But it also assures us that the Spirit prevails.
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You are safe not because you are perfect, but because you are
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possessed by God. So for that person, the answer
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isn't try harder to sweep. No, the answer is get filled.
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How do we? Do that practically.
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We don't want to leave people with a vague except how do we
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fill the house daily? We use the means of grace.
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God hasn't hidden the spiritual food.
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He has put it right on the table for us.
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First, the Word. You have to be in Scripture, not
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just reading for rules or for information, but to see Christ
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fill your mind with His truth. So there's no room for lies.
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OK. Second, prayer.
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Prayer is a constant conversation.
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It's acknowledging our dependence.
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It's opening the door to the living room of your heart every
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morning and saying, Lord, fill this room today.
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Third, the sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper.
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These are visible words God gives us to nourish our faith.
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And community. And finally, the fellowship of
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the Saints. You need to be under Christ
27:58
centered preaching. Avoid the therapeutic gospel.
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That just gives you 7 tips for sweeping.
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Better find preaching that relentlessly points you to the
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finished work of Jesus. It's all about crowding out the
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darkness. That is the strategy.
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You don't focus on the darkness, you focus on the light.
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The more of Christ you have in your mind and in your
28:15
affections, the less room there is for the world, the flesh, and
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the devil. It really brings us back to that
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idea of neutrality. I think that's the biggest take
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away for me from this whole deep dive.
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There is no Switzerland in the spiritual world.
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Neutrality is a myth. You are not a neutral container
28:31
waiting to be filled. You are being filled with
28:33
something every single day. If you aren't actively,
28:37
intentionally filling your soul with the glory of God, you are
28:41
by default hanging a vacancy sign in the window and the enemy
28:45
knows how to read. So the goal isn't a clean life,
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the goal is a filled life. A filled life will become clean
28:51
eventually by the power of the Spirit, but a clean life that is
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empty will become hell. That is the warning of Jesus.
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Well, on that note, we have given you a lot to chew on.
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Put down the broom and look for the stronger man.
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I am a. Thanks for joining us on this
29:05
deep dive. This has been reformed thinking.
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We will see you next time.