Mark 3:22 ¶ And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
Jesus accomplishes His ministry by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Here, the scribes are attributing that power to Satan.
Mark 3:23 And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan rise up against himself, and be divided, he cannot stand, but hath an end. 27 No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.
With the gospel and you going out to preach Jesus Christ you are dealing with a person held captive by Satan and you are binding Satan. Jesus sets the captives free.
This is what Jesus came to do by the statement in Luke where he alludes to the verses in Isaiah.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Isaiah 61:1 ¶ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
By contrasting replaced words from one testament to the other in quoted verses or verses which are alluded to but not quoted exactly you can derive meanings as this is part of how the Bible is constructed. The gospel is good tidings or news. The poor are the meek. * To heal is to bind up. Deliverance is liberty. To set at liberty is to open the prison. Jesus added something to the Old Testament prophecy. He came to give sight to the blind. All of these things He does are physical and spiritual which is a suggestion to “soul winners” to seek to meet physical needs if you expect an ear for spiritual truth.
*Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
*Isaiah 66:2 For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.
*Isaiah 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Christ sets at liberty those who realize that they are spiritually and morally bankrupt. Without that realization you will never come to Christ. You’ll always think you’re A-okay. “I’m not so bad as others” doesn’t cut it. You’re not being compared to others. You’re being compared to Christ.
The people of the earth, the world of men, are in the grip of Satan, the god of this world. Satan is not bound for a length of time, even though amillennialists, those who unlike the early church believe that there will be no literal thousand year reign of Christ and would like you to think that Christ is also ruling at this present time, would have it so. This is not only a comment on the ludicrousness of claiming Christ’s work for Satan but also a prophetic reference.
Revelation 20:2 And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, 3 And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
Those of you who are unsaved are bound right now by Satan, held captive by him. You are bound for different reasons. Some of you are stuck in the material world and can’t believe that there is anything that you can’t taste, see, touch, or hear, except of course your precious evolution and ‘Big Bang’ fantasies. Some of you are bound because you can’t accept forgiveness or you won’t forgive another. Some of you are bound by the demands of your own flesh and sin and hate your life for its abject failure and pain but are too proud to turn to the Living Saviour for deliverance. Even some people who have trusted Christ and believe in His reality are bound. They are bound by fear, paranoia, bigotry, self righteousness, self conceit, and hate.
Christ will make you free if you will believe in, trust in, and ask Him to save you.
Mark 3:28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: 29 But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation: 30 Because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.
This is because of verse 22. This is something that can only happen while Jesus Christ was on earth physically healing people. You couldn’t blaspheme the Holy Ghost if you tried. This was a condition that could only occur while Jesus was here doing His healing miracles.
On the other hand, as an argument against what I just said, if you want a practical application, think that rejecting the Holy Spirit’s work is a type of blasphemy. If you die rejecting Christ you have blasphemed the Holy Spirit whose efforts were in the direction of trying to save you. You can’t be forgiven in Hell.
Counterfeit Bibles eliminate damnation in verse 29 based on (guess what?) two corrupt 4th century manuscripts from Alexandria. If you have read what I’ve been writing for any length of time you should be quite familiar with Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus by now. Someone who is going to Hell is always trying to air condition it first.
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