“No Spiritual Neutrality”
The Third Sunday in Lent| Rev. Rolf Preus| March 8, 2026| Luke 11:14-28
Good and evil are not just ideas. God is real. The devil is real. God is not the personification of good. He is good. The devil is not the personification of evil. He is evil. All good in this world comes from God. All evil in this world comes from the devil.
One of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century was a man by the name of Rudolph Bultmann. He was a nominal Lutheran, but he didn’t believe that the Bible was word for word the Word of God. He was a modern man. He thought like a modern man, and he wanted to appeal to modern people. He knew that people in the twentieth century could not believe in such things as angels, demons, or a personal devil. In 1948 he wrote a book titled, Kerygma and Myth. In it, he taught that the existence of such creatures as angels and demons was a myth. They didn’t exist. There was no devil. He was just the personification of evil. No angels. No demons. These were mythical creatures. Today there is consensus among modern scholars that the Bible contains historic errors and myths.
But modern scholarship is wrong. There are no myths in the Bible. St. Peter wrote, “For we did not follow cunningly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” (2 Peter 1:16) The devil and his demons are real. The Gospels are historical accounts of what happened.
The man was mute. He couldn’t talk. According to Matthew’s Gospel he was also blind. He couldn’t see. A demon was responsible. Jesus was compassionate. He felt the pain of those who were suffering. He cast out the demon. He gave the man his sight and the ability to speak. His miracle was a sign of his compassion. It was also a sign that he was the Son of God. The crowds were amazed. Sceptics asked for more signs. The religious leaders who were jealous of Jesus charged him with casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. Beelzebub, which means, lord of the flies, was another name for Satan or the devil.
Jesus refuted their ridiculous charge by pointing out that the devil is not going to go against his own demons. He’s no fool. A house divided against itself cannot stand. The devil is not going to attack himself. Since those who criticized Jesus had sons who claimed to cast out demons, Jesus asked them by what authority did they do so. They couldn’t answer. The point is that the devil does not give people power to attack his own kingdom. Jesus cast out demons with the finger of God. That signified, for those looking for a sign, that he had brought the kingdom of God to this earth.
There has been war on earth ever since. This world is a battle ground. I’m not talking about what’s going on in Ukraine or Iran. Wars between nations will continue till the end of the world as Jesus said. A far more serious battle rages that is unseen by human eyes. It is the spiritual battle over the souls of people who were created in God’s image, fell into sin, were redeemed by Christ, and to whom Christ has revealed himself as their Savior. The devil is out to destroy the faith of Christians. Jesus has declared war against the devil.
Jesus describes this battle as between a strong man and a stronger man. Jesus is the stronger man. He overcomes the strong man, takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils. The truth defeats lies. Love defeats hatred. This happened on the cross. This happens in the lives of God’s people.
Jesus won the victory. At the cross Satan’s arrows were broken. When Jesus suffered for our sins and rose from the dead, Satan’s power to accuse us Christians was taken from him. The gospel tells us that Christ’s resurrection is our absolution. It gives us a new life to live. It guarantees our resurrection. The gospel tells us this. The gospel gives us the victory that Christ won over the devil. So, what do you think the devil’s chief aim will be? Remembering that he hates God and he hates God’s children and he knows that the gospel gives us victory over him, what is he out to do? That’s right. He wants to refute the gospel. Falsify it. Promote some fake gospel to take its place. Do everything within his power to separate the Christian from the gospel. For if he succeeds, the Christian is lost. Remember: Jesus called the devil a liar and the father of lies. Isaiah wrote:
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
That’s the devil’s work. He lies about God. He manufactures counterfeit Jesuses for a counterfeit Christianity and tries to pass it off as genuine. There are many counterfeit versions of the Christian faith. They jibe with the religion of the world, our sinful flesh, and the devil. These false religions parading as Christianity are the devil’s assault on Christ’s church. While Jesus defeated the devil on the cross and his ultimate destruction has been settled, he is still like a roaring lion, prowling around, seeking Christians to devour.
This raises the question: Is he defeated or not? Yes. But the victory over the devil is the victory of the gospel. Where the gospel is proclaimed, believed, and confessed, the devil is bound in chains and cannot harm us Christians. Where the gospel is silenced, the devil is free to attack. And he does.
Switzerland is famous for having avoided war for nearly two centuries, following a strict policy of neutrality. In political matters that may be possible, but in spiritual matters it is not. The very nature of the war requires that we take a side. Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” To illustrate this truth, he told a little story about a demon going out of a man and returning. He finds the man’s life neat and tidy but without true faith. He’s empty. He’s spiritually neutral. He doesn’t want to follow Satan, but he doesn’t want to take his Christianity too seriously. Since he’s spiritually empty, the demon brings with him seven demons more wicked than he is and the man is worse off than before. Spiritual neutrality is to stand against Jesus.
Spiritual neutrality is deadly because unless you are protected by the gospel you are fair game for the devil and you don’t have a chance against him. Jesus tells us how to avoid falling into spiritual neutrality. He says, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” Guard it. Use it as a weapon against the father of lies. Even Mary, the mother of God, has no greater status than the Christian who holds onto God’s word and refuses to let go.
God said it and I will stand on it and refuse to compromise what God has taught me. I will not stick it in a drawer and forget about it. I’ll guard it as my most precious possession. I’ll fight the good fight of the faith. The church must be militant, or she will die. Christians must confess, or they will lose what was given to them and end up worse off than they were before they became Christians.
The devil wants to disarm the Christian. He works at demoralizing us so we will give up the fight and assume the posture of spiritual neutrality, neither with Jesus nor against him. The devil knows that not being with Jesus means being against him. Consider with me five temptations the devil uses to keep us from fighting for the faith.
The first is by leading us into doctrinal indifference. This is the “who cares about doctrine” brand of Christianity. Deeds, not creeds, they say. Don’t fight over doctrine but rather be united in love. But wait. Is this doctrine, this teaching, from God? If so, can we not care about it? You’re not going to unite Christians by discarding as unimportant what God teaches us. We care about the teaching of God’s word. God wouldn’t teach it to us if it were not important. We hold onto what God teaches us about right and wrong, about baptism washing away our sin, about the Lord’s Supper being the true body and blood of Jesus, about the Bible being the inspired and inerrant Word of God, and most especially about our Savior, Jesus, who rescues us from our sin by bearing the punishment for our sin on the cross and reconciling us to God, all without any help from us. To be indifferent toward doctrine is to think little of Christ.
The second temptation the devil uses to keep us from fighting for the faith is to call into question the truthfulness of the Bible. If the Bible errs, then it cannot be the standard for our faith. If we cannot trust everything the Bible says, we cannot know for sure what the gospel is. False and unbiblical gospels will replace the saving gospel of Christ.
The third temptation the devil uses to keep us from fighting for the faith is to con us into believing that we have a need greater than our need for the forgiveness of sins. Self-esteem, success in our relationships, good health, prosperity, peace among the nations of the world, and so many other concerns become more important than finding a gracious and forgiving God in Christ our Savior. Churches have lapsed from the faith by teaching a false gospel of self-esteem, health and wealth, and solutions to all earthly problems, neglecting the true gospel summarized by St. Paul with the words, “This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance: Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners.”
Perhaps the most difficult temptation to resist is that of being accepted by the world. Oh, how we hate to be marginalized. While Christians are being slaughtered in Nigeria for the crime of being Christians, we Christians in America fuss over being called names. We should listen to James, chapter four verse four:
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
There are some very unpopular Christian teachings. You know that if we want to keep the word of God as Jesus says, we will stand out like a sore thumb. Evolutionists will mock us for believing that God made the world in six days and that Adam and Eve were created by God just as Moses writes in Genesis. Progressives will curse us for being haters because we teach what the Bible says about marriage as the lifelong union of one man and one woman. But the issue that most foments anger and resentment against us Christians is when we take to heart our Lord’s words against spiritual neutrality: “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.” Christ is not an option. There is no other name than the name of Jesus by which we must be saved. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me.” He says, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be damned.” No neutrality. Jesus alone rescues us from our sins. Jesus alone is the way to heaven. You are either a child of God through faith in Jesus, or you are a servant of Satan. There is no middle ground. There is no neutrality. God or the devil.
You know, this sounds harsh, but in fact it is very comforting. Our lives are filled with so much uncertainty, especially about ourselves. Did I do the right thing? Did I make the right choice? What’s going on with my job, my money, my kids, my future? Am I really in control of my own life? So much doubt. So much uncertainty. So much evil in this world, and the devil seeks to confuse me even more than I am already confused.
And in the face of this Jesus casts out demons by the finger of God. Jesus displays his power over the devil. Jesus goes to the cross to bear in his body our sins and guilt. He dies for us and buries our sins in his tomb. That’s victory, brothers and sisters! And he’s on our side. When we confess the faith, he is right there with us. When we contend for the faith, he gives us his Spirit to strengthen us. When we feel the power of the devil tempting us to sin and throwing up past sins in our face, he reminds us that he crushed the devil under his heel and took away his power to torment us. We claim this gospel, hold onto it for dear life, and refuse to let it go. And the devil’s head is crushed under our feet, too. Amen