Matthew 12:43-45

THE DEVIL DETHRONED

‘When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man … the last state of that man is worse than the first.’

Matthew 12:43

When the unclean spirit is gone out, Christ tells what takes place if the heart be left empty. When the unclean spirit is gone out, is not this the thing we wish? The man is possessed by an evil spirit; he is avaricious; he is ill-tempered; he is sensual; he is discontented. Suppose that we can banish the evil spirit. What, then? Man’s heart is unoccupied. What a dull, monotonous existence we have doomed him to! We see the force of the parable.

I. Religion positive, not negative.—Religion must not come with prohibitions only; she must put before men what will appeal to some of the real and active powers of their being. Religion, then, in its highest form does not limit herself to prohibition, to the task of rebuking the pleasant vice which is so interesting to its victim. Religion in its highest form seeks to create new interests; it does not deal in prohibitions merely; it knows that the heart of man must be interested in something, and it presents to the heart all that is worthy of love and all that appeals to the higher affections of men.

II. Live with Christ.—We are not to be daunted by difficulties. It is easier, no doubt, to build an embankment than it is to divert a stream; but it is not impossible to divert a stream—it is not impossible to cultivate the love of the better instead of the love of the baser. Live with noble thoughts; read only what elevates the taste; keep before you the best ideals. By degrees the taste for what is low will pass from you. The man who lives with Christ, thinks the thoughts of Christ, drinks of the Spirit of Christ, will hardly tolerate the presence of a selfish spirit.

Bishop W. Boyd Carpenter.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

NEGATIVE RELIGION

I. A negative religion is an imperfect one.

(a) It is good so far as it goes. When a man has been the victim of an ‘unclean spirit,’ it cannot but be a distinct advantage and spiritual advance for him to be rid, if it be even for a while, of his foul visitor.

(b) But such an experience is useful chiefly as preparing for something higher. Its whole value and significance is prospective. ‘Ceasing to do evil’ is a step, but just a step, towards ‘learning to do well.’

II. A negative religion is a dangerous one.

(a) Because it may be made the substitute for a positive one. The Jews had come to look upon the requirements of the law as fulfilling all righteousness. They gloried in it, and made their boast of it. Anything higher or more spiritual was indignantly repudiated. For them, therefore, there was no beauty in Jesus that they should desire Him.

(b) Because it leaves the soul unoccupied. It is ‘empty, swept, and garnished,’ but the door is left open, or at least, the avenues of return are not strongly enough barred. Human nature cannot long remain a blank; as a matter of fact, it is never a mere blank.

(c) Because it lacks the supporting principle of spiritual life. Such pure desires and impulses are due not to the ‘natural man’ within us, but to the Spirit of God.

III. A negative religion is a disastrous one.

(a) Because it does not save. Where the law exercised a saving power it was through the Spirit of God and the hope of Messiah.

(b) Because when it fails to save it the more effectually destroys. The description of the process in the passage is very striking. Sins are not abstractions. They imply demoniacal possession. The demon is represented as ‘walking through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none.’ Such a conception suggests the fatal affinity which sin has for the nature in which it once has lodged, and how certain it is to return if there be any ‘unguarded place.’ And when it does return, it returns with sevenfold power. It develops fresh vitality, and multiplies its spiritual force: ‘the last state of that man is worse than the first.’

Illustration

‘The worse state, of which Christ speaks, is the state in which a man sins, as we say, with his eyes open; then he is one who is ready to enlist in his service a spirit of wilful blindness. He resolves to fill his heart with evil, knowing it to be evil; he knows that it brings a sort of pleasure, in so far as it stimulates some passion into activity, but he knows that it is evil, and yet he does it. It is the step by which a man commits himself to a course which he well knows to lie fatal; in doing so, he deliberately weakens the forces of good and strengthens the forces of evil: he resigns himself into the guidance of the evil. How much lower his condition is than that of the young, thoughtless, and pleasure-loving man, who finds himself immersed in wrong when he only meant to enjoy himself a little!’