The Binary Choice / Luke 11:14-28 NIV

Intro - Binary choices. A choice for one or the other. Not choosing one is to choose the other. Computers are run on binary choices. It’s all 1s and 0s. True and False tests are binary choice tests. Jesus was the original binary choice candidate!

#1 - My binary choice in life is to side_____________ or to side ________________.

“Whoever is not with me is against me,and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”Luke 11:23 NIV

Christianity is accepting of all persons, all cultures, all races. There is a reason Christianity in its broadest sense is called “catholic.” Anyone can join. Anyone can be a member. But here is the issue: Jesus. He is the way into Christianity. There is no other way. There is no other name by which we may be saved into the faith. (Peter’s sermon in Acts 4:12.) Jesus tells us that over and over.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 NIV

Jesus forces the choice. There is no neutral. There is no in between.

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”Luke 16:13 NIV

Today we’re going to take a hard look at some hard choices.

#2 - There can be no ______________ in spiritual life.

We have to choose sides. Binary. Not to choose is to choose the opposite. You cannot be in God’s kingdom and not know this.

Even _____________ knows this.

“Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and a house divided against itself will fall.”Luke 11:17 NIV

Sounds outrageous - to suggest Jesus to be on the dark side. Or to demand a “sign from heaven”

#3 - We are not ____________ by ourselves as we think we are.

“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.” Luke 11:21-22 NIV

Here’s the key… underline this…“in which the man trusted.” What is it that you are trusting in? Jesus is saying that if you are trusting in any other power outside of Him, you’re trusting in the wrong power. Because you are not nearly as strong without Jesus as you are strong with Jesus!

#4 - Don’t confuse my __________ with ______________.

“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’”Luke 11:24 NIV

Suddenly things are better for the person because demons are gone. But not because person did anything to make that happen. This describes a spiritually neutral person. Blind to spiritual warfare going on. Just aware that fortunes have turned for the better. Because person is neutral, not counting on Jesus’ power, not fully armed with Jesus, they remain vulnerable. Has nothing whatsoever to do with good fortune.

“Your Father in heaven … makes his sun to shine on bad and good people alike, and gives rain to those who do good and to those who do evil.”Matthew 5:45 GNT

This verse SHOULD completely scare us into awareness of spiritual warfare going on for our souls. We NEED Jesus because there is nothing inherently GOOD about us that provides protection against evil.

#5 - There is no bottom to the depth of my own ____________.

“Then [the impure spirit] goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”Luke 11:26 NIV

It’s like the impure spirit says, “Wow, this place used to be a dump. I didn’t want to live in the place myself. But now? Awesome! Let me go and invite some of my best demon friends to come and hang out!”

The truth is that there is not a bottom to our depravity. When we think we’ve sunk to all-time low, can sink lower! Our depravity knows no end.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 RSV

When we do bother to look at our own sinful depravity, we grade ourselves on the curve. We give ourselves a better report card than we deserve. The truth is there is no one righteous. All have sinned. All includes you. All includes me. No one is righteous.

“We’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us.” Romans 3:23 MSG

So it is in these two places we do the exact opposite of what we should - the results are deadly grave.

(1) When it comes to our measurement of our own depravity we cannot see just how depraved and sinful and fallen short we are, because we do not look at ourselves as God looks at us - compared to what He created us to become! (Not compared to others.)

(2) Yet when it comes to doing anything about our spiritual life, when we want to improve, we think we can do it on our own - without Jesus’ power. Fatal. Because we are powerless. And there is a dark power that wants us to fail, that wills us to falter, that builds up our pride and tells us that we don’t need anyone else’s help. (We’re ok. Better than others!)

What we desperately need is God’s eyes and God’s power.

#6 - How do I remain on the side of Jesus? ______________________.

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” Luke 11:28 NIV

God’s Word has the power to change you and to reveal God and His power to you. And it has the power to help you see yourself as you really are. Both on the sinful side of depravity AS WELL AS the hopeful side of God’s glorious love for you.

Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will go to them and make our home with them.”John 14:23 GW

To love Jesus I need Jesus’ love for me. To obey Jesus’ commands, I need Jesus’ power in me to follow His instructions. I need His Holy Spirit living inside of me. I also need to be able to hear His Word. I do that through reading the Bible, listening to the Bible taught, thinking about and meditating on His Word - literally allowing the truth of His Word to soak deep into who I am and into who I am becoming. I desperately need God’s grace in my life!

What about you? Are you on Jesus’ side? Do you know it for sure? Have you made the choice? Are you following through on the choice by also choosing how you live? Are you relying on Jesus’ power? Are you into His Word? Is God’s Spirit “at home” within you? Have you answered the single one binary choice that will matter the most for the rest of your eternity?