Evil's Diabolical Countermeasure; Luke 11:24-28

Delivered during the Sunday Morning Worship Service, 8/13/2023. In the last message we spoke of heaven's "Cosmic Initiative" to describe the military-like mission Christ launched when He took on the attributes of a human and came to earth. We established that He had a twofold purpose: to destroy evil and set the captives free, leading them back to heaven to present to His Father. Jesus made it clear through His "strong man" analogy that His objective was not to negotiate with evil, but destroy it. But satan is diabolically brilliant and quickly developed a nefarious countermeasure. Knowing that he has no power over Christ and His Gospel, he clandestinely established a false gospel fashioned after the external "moralism" of the Pharisees to undermine the integrity of the Christian church. We will study Jesus' simple parable of what happens when moral reformation is used to combat evil rather than a true transformation of the soul in Christ. Ultimately we will celebrate, as Luke in a masterful shift, reveals the only way to protect ourselves and our church from satan's diabolical countermeasure-- by filling our "house" with Christ!