Mat 12:43-45, Your Soul Is Your Home: Rest or Restless.

Class Outline:

Wednesday February 26, 2025

MAT 12:43-45.

 

Text:

 

The demon seeks rest: Jesus uses same word (anapausin) in MAT 11:29 “you will find rest for your souls.”

 

The demon calls the man “my house.”

 

When he returns, he finds it empty, swept, and adorned.

 

“put in order” - kosmeo - adorned.

 

LUK 21:5

And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts

 

It is used for the adornment of tombs, women, adorning doctrine with good behavior, and the adornment of the New Jerusalem.

 

Jesus presses the imagery of a soul being a home. In this case it is empty but clean and adorned. If it is adorned then it is not empty of things, but missing something else.

 

The state of man (empty, clean, and adorned) motivates the demon to go and find some friends. It is like a homeless man finding a vacant house or a teenager finding a party house.

 

Application to “this generation.”

 

When the Lord entered a village and cast out demons from those possessed of them, the village became a nicer place. It would be like removing all crime from an inner city.

 

“A person liberated from demonic possession remains vulnerable to further possession if they remain “vacant.”” [France]

 

This is true of individuals as it was of “this evil generation.”

 

The person liberated from demonism by Christ rejects Christ as Messiah, and for a time lives a much better life, but what will fill the void of the soul if Christ does not?

 

Does this parable have application to us today?

 

JOH 16:5-11

"But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'  6 "But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.  7 "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.  8 "And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;  9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;  10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;  11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

 

This is part of the common grace ministry of the Holy Spirit.

 

All people who reject the gospel leave a void that gets ever wider with time. When a person is forced to consider the eternal issues of sin, righteousness, and judgment, if they say no to the gospel, what void is left? The contemplation of sin, righteousness, and judgment demands an answer. No one can ignore them.

 

The void filled by false doctrines:

 

2PE 2:20

For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.

 

When souls cannot rest, they get worse and worse over time. Stress, fear, worry, discouragement, disillusionment, all grow. They try to hide it, and perhaps that is the worst thing they can do.

 

Into the empty soul sweeps in all the great passions and ideologies that have imprisoned the mind since the beginning.

 

Life if full of involvements.

Earth or Heaven? (MAT 6:19-21)

 

As in this parable, the soul is depicted as a home in Scripture, and the body of Christ as a temple in which God dwells.

 

JOH 14:23

"If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode (mone - used in JOH 14:2, “My Father’s house has many dwellings.”) with him.

 

EPH 3:16-19

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

 

The inner man, the heart, is depicted as a home where Christ may dwell. All believers are indwelt by Him, but this is a state other than indwelling, but requires it.

 

COL 1:27

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

[click] Is He at home in your heart?

 

MAT 12:43-45 - the demon sought rest and could not fine any.

 

There is a sobering warning given in Heb 3-4 about the Exodus not finding rest in the desert.

 

It is clearly stated why they could not (this is another message on rest).

 

They always go astray in their hearts (HEB 3:10; quoting PSA 95:10).

They were disobedient (HEB 3:18).

The word of God they did not unite with faith (HEB 4:2).

The word of God is living and active … (HEB 4:12).

 

If you hear and see the Word will change your inner self and fill you.

 

COL 3:16

Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you,

 

The inner man, the home, is judged by the Word of God. The Word, if you listen to it with faith, enters your home and looks around, takes stock of what is there and its condition and then tells you what it found. No one is ever going to hear that nothing is out of order or that nothing is there that shouldn’t be and all is there that should be. Are we willing to listen and change? The result, of just the willingness and desire to heed the Word, is that Christ will be at home in your heart.

 

And, when we get stressed or we fail, Christ is not going to condemn. The great high priest waits for your requests so that He can comfort you.

 

Application:

 

The condition of your soul will determine whether you live in peace or not.

 

The dwelling of Christ is the only condition that will give lasting peace or rest that is not dependent on outside circumstances.

 

The miracle that you have as a believer, which you have every day, is Christ in you. By faith, let His word judge your innermost self. By faith, listen to what He says about you and then by faith seek the change that it reveals by faith and faith in the Holy Spirit to make it so.