The NXR Podcast - September 29, 2025


THE SERMON - Always Vigilant | When Satan Retreats, He Plans To Return

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THE LIVESTREAM - Another Hero Has Fallen | What Is God Doing? THE LIVESTREAM - Israel Buys Tik Tok | Social Media Crackdown

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Length

51 minutes

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139.35

Word count

7,129

Sentence count

275

Harmful content

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17

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Hate speech

44

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Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

This morning we continue our series of the Gospel According to Matthew. Our text for today is found in Matthew 12:43-45. In this text, we see that Satan is on the run from God, and that it is not enough just to cast out demons, but also to be changed from the inside out in order to become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:00:27 Amen.
00:00:27 Please stand with me for the reading of God's word.
00:00:30 This morning we continue our series of the gospel according to Matthew. Our text is Matthew chapter 12 verses 43 through 45.
00:00:38 I'll read our text in its entirety. When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say this is the word of the Lord,
00:00:43 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.
00:00:48 One final time our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 12 verses 43 through 45.
00:00:54 The Bible says this,
00:00:56 When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.
00:01:04 Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came, and when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order.
00:01:14 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.
00:01:21 and the last state of that person is worse than the first, so also will it be with this evil
00:01:28 generation. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and dive
00:01:35 in. There's two primary points that I would like for us to see, and then one final application.
00:01:42 The two primary points are as follows. First, behavioral modification versus inward transformation.
00:01:49 It is not enough to merely outwardly reform a man. He must be born again. He must be changed from the inside out. He must actually become, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, a new creature in Christ Jesus.
00:02:06 Not just new habits, not just living a new life with new behaviors, but he must be a new creature with a new nature.
00:02:16 The second point that we'll find in the text is that Satan is relentless.
00:02:22 He does not retreat without plans to return.
00:02:26 He does not retreat without plans to return.
00:02:30 It is not enough to cast out Satan, to reform your life.
00:02:36 to send the devils that you personally struggle with on the run for a time they will return and
00:02:45 if not those particular devils then new devils will return and the final state of your life
00:02:51 will be worse than the former so it's not enough simply to resist the devil that he may flee from
00:02:58 you for a time, but also to fortify your life, your soul, your heart, your family in such a way
00:03:06 that the devil cannot return. And then finally, the application that I'd like to see us understand
00:03:14 and correlate from our text today is that there are similarities between Israel at the time of
00:03:19 Christ, where he is speaking these things in our text today, and our nation, these United States
00:03:26 of america today i do believe that there are correlations and similarities and i'll seek to
00:03:32 draw those out so beginning with the first point behavioral modification versus inward transformation
00:03:38 i've written the following in your notes christ tells us that the unclean spirit is said to depart
00:03:44 this at first glance seems a mercy right this demonic spirit it's on the run that's a good
00:03:51 thing. But we must observe what follows. Though the house, that is the person, the house be swept
00:03:59 clean and set in order, it remains, in this case, empty. Here our Lord teaches that a man may be
00:04:06 outwardly reformed, his life morally improved, his habits corrected, and his conscience may be
00:04:14 somewhat stirred yet still he can be void of saving grace this is a most dangerous condition
00:04:23 for such a one may presume that he is well while he is in truth only a cleaner septal sepulcher
00:04:32 that is a tomb he's still a tomb still dead rotted bones lying inside the tomb on the
00:04:40 outside has merely been bleached cleaned he's a shiny tomb there is no indwelling christ in this
00:04:48 case no regenerating spirit no communion with the living god the heart is swept but not filled
00:04:55 the house is tidy but still vacant vacant of the master this is an analogy an illustration that
00:05:05 Christ himself uses elsewhere in the gospel narratives when speaking of the Pharisees,
00:05:11 when speaking of the lawyers, the scribes, the Jewish religious rulers at that time. He actually
00:05:19 calls them sepulchers. He calls them tombs, tombs, graves. And yet he says that you are whitewashed
00:05:28 tombs. If you remember that portion of scripture, what he's essentially saying is that on the
00:05:34 outside you're squeaky clean on the outside you're bleached on the outside you look tidy well kept
00:05:42 put in order but you're still a tomb on the inside what truly counts it's not clean but rather there
00:05:52 is a rotting corpse dead men's bones this is the description that Jesus uses for his adversaries
00:05:59 those who opposed his earthly ministry and now in our text today Jesus is saying that their state
00:06:06 it is possible it can be anyone's state this is not unique in other words just to the Pharisees
00:06:14 so it's not as though there is just an isolated exclusive class of really really really really
00:06:21 bad people and this could happen to them but no one else that's not what Jesus is teaching
00:06:28 jesus is making it clear that it is the case it is the state of his adversaries those religious
00:06:36 rulers opposing him in his earthly ministry but it could be the state of anyone and i think in a
00:06:43 broader sense and we'll get to this at the end of the sermon as i give an application in a broader
00:06:48 sense i think that jesus is saying that this is the state or it soon will be the state not merely
00:06:54 of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the lawyers, but it will be the state of
00:06:59 Israel, the nation, collectively, corporately as a whole. Where do we get that? Well, we get that 0.53
00:07:06 from the very last sentence of our text where Jesus says, so also will it be with this evil 0.98
00:07:12 generation. And I want to be consistent in my hermeneutic. Hermeneutic is simply a word that 0.94
00:07:19 describes a way of reading understanding and interpreting the bible and when we think of the
00:07:27 all of it discourse in matthew chapter 24 later in this gospel narrative jesus says these things
00:07:35 will come to pass before this generation passes and there for many of us you would agree with
00:07:43 the interpretation that that i've taken to which is that jesus is being literal he's not merely
00:07:50 speaking of a generation as a metaphor he's not just saying hey this type of generation will not
00:07:59 pass away before these things are fulfilled that these things in that case in matthew chapter 24
00:08:04 is the destruction of jerusalem the tearing down of the temple that not one stone would be left
00:08:12 on another jesus says all these things prophesize these things predicts these things and says that
00:08:18 they will in fact come to pass before the generation that he's speaking to in matthew
00:08:24 chapter 24 before they pass away and it's not a type of generation it's not a type of person
00:08:30 some have interpreted matthew 24 to mean that that jesus is saying well they'll always be rebellious
00:08:36 people. And these final things at the end of the age, when they're fulfilled, they'll still be
00:08:42 that metaphorical generation that Jesus was speaking to in Matthew 24. In the metaphorical
00:08:48 sense, there'll always be a generation of rebellious people, even at the end of the age
00:08:53 when these things are fulfilled. But I don't believe that's the proper way of interpreting
00:08:58 Matthew 24. I believe that Jesus is, in fact, being literal. He is saying that the temple will
00:09:04 be destroyed before that literal physical generation passes away and that's precisely
00:09:10 what happened now to interpret Matthew 24 in any other way robs Jesus of one of the greatest
00:09:16 prophecies that he ever gave and it was in fact fulfilled Jesus says this will happen
00:09:23 it will happen in this timeline and it did and I don't want to rob Jesus of one of the clearest
00:09:31 the most significant prophecies he ever gave and the timeline that he gave attached to it
00:09:37 and historically we know it was fulfilled titus did in fact come and sack jerusalem and destroy
00:09:44 the temple and it wasn't even metaphorical the language of not one stone of the temple
00:09:49 remaining lying on top of another there was the temple the stones were inlaid with gold instead
00:09:57 of merely mortar there was gold that was containing it and keeping each of these stones attached to
00:10:03 one another and the romans actually came and they took apart every single one of the temple's stones
00:10:09 in order to collect the gold this is a incredible fulfillment of prophecy and it's one thing to say
00:10:16 something will happen but it's another to say precisely the details of how it will happen not
00:10:22 just the temple destroyed but not one stone left on another for it to happen not just what you're
00:10:28 predicting but how right so so the manner that this is what will happen destruction this is how
00:10:36 it will happen not a single stone left on another and this is when it will happen before this
00:10:42 generation passes away jesus predicted all these things prophesied all these things and that's
00:10:49 precisely what came to pass now being consistent back to the point being consistent in our
00:10:55 hermeneutic looking at Matthew 24 and Jesus saying that now looking at Matthew chapter 12
00:11:00 the latter portion of verse 45 I believe we should take the same interpretation the same approach
00:11:06 so also will it be with this evil generation I don't believe that that's a metaphor I don't 0.92
00:11:14 believe Jesus is referencing just a a mere type of people you always have this kind of people
00:11:21 no I think he's saying this generation in the physical literal sense the people that Jesus
00:11:27 is speaking to in Matthew chapter 12 he's saying it will be with this generation so Jesus describes
00:11:35 some would say that that our text today is a parable I don't think so I think there's a sense
00:11:41 in which you can read it like that there are you know general principles certainly that can be
00:11:46 gleaned from the example that's given but i also believe that jesus is giving some literal
00:11:52 demonology i believe that he's describing what actually happens in a spiritual sense when it
00:11:59 comes to spiritual warfare with spiritual adversaries like demonic entities jesus is
00:12:05 saying that it is quite possible not just possible but normative that when a demonic spirit is cast
00:12:12 out of a man it always intends to return he can't just let his guard down he can't say
00:12:20 that was rough but we're good now no it's not enough to simply be delivered but then a man
00:12:28 must be guarded not merely delivered in a one-off experience but then vigilant and guarded from that
00:12:38 moment on because when satan retreats he plans to return when satan retreats he plans to return
00:12:46 so this is the principle that jesus is giving and i also believe that not only is it a principle in
00:12:53 a general broader sense but it's also i believe a literal demonology description of how demonic
00:13:00 entities work how they behave what strategies they employ but at the end of our text as i just
00:13:08 referenced earlier jesus then applies this principle and this demonology of how demonic
00:13:15 spirits work he applies it not just to a singular individual man who may have been demon possessed
00:13:21 for a time then delivered but if the house is not filled with the presence of christ the demon with
00:13:27 seven other friends worse than itself will eventually return jesus at the end of our text
00:13:32 takes it from just the individual application and he provides a corporate application and he doesn't
00:13:40 just say that it's possible that this this principle of demonic activity being delivered
00:13:45 cast out but then returning that this could be the case of individuals he doesn't just say now
00:13:50 that it's collective corporate that it can be the case of an entire generation but he actually
00:13:56 predicts and prophesies and says that it will again so also will it be with this evil generation
00:14:05 and it was it was look at matthew mark luke and john look at the ministry of jesus
00:14:12 first and foremost it's a ministry of proclamation it's a ministry of preaching
00:14:19 Jesus goes to all these various towns and preaches the gospel of the kingdom.
00:14:25 Jesus the preacher. He preaches. That's first. But beyond that it's first but it's not only.
00:14:34 Beyond his ministry of preaching he performs many signs and wonders. He feeds the 4,000. He feeds
00:14:41 the 5,000. He walks on water. He also performs many miraculous healings. Healing the sick.
00:14:49 the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the leper is cleansed of all its, his infirmities. 0.75
00:14:58 Jesus even raises the dead. But it's not only that Jesus preaches and then also performs 0.94
00:15:05 miracles and healings. But lastly, he cast out devils. Jesus cast out devils. And he cast out
00:15:16 devils in Israel and we should pause for just a moment think about that for a moment
00:15:23 think about how many instances there are throughout the four gospel narratives of Jesus
00:15:30 in his ministry of exorcism Israel in other words what I'm saying is Israel at the time of Jesus
00:15:38 is infested with demons it's infested with demons jesus is casting out a ton of demons
00:15:48 all the time because israel is infested with demons in fact not only is there just all these
00:15:56 dozens of cases where jesus is casting out a demon of this guy that guy in some of these cases
00:16:01 when he cast out demonic entities with a singular man the entity is not just one demon but legions
00:16:10 there's thousands of demons just in one guy so jesus appears in his earthly ministry on the scene
00:16:18 in israel and there's a ton of people who are sick a ton of people who are poor and oppressed
00:16:25 a ton of unbelief a ton of hypocrisy but also a ton of demons a ton of demons and i do believe
00:16:35 at the end of our text essentially what jesus is saying is this he says so also will it be with
00:16:40 this evil generation and again what will what be well the principle that he's just espoused which
00:16:46 is what happens in the case of an individual person when a demonic spirit is cast out but
00:16:54 the house is is swept clean and put in order but not filled what happens that demon goes to arid
00:17:01 places waterless places eventually when it finds no rest elsewhere it says to itself i will invite
00:17:08 seven other friends worse than myself will return to the original host and the latter state of that
00:17:15 man will be worse than the first and jesus says that's what it will be like for this generation
00:17:22 in Israel. And so it was. In what sense? Jesus comes on the scene. He cast out all the demons 0.79
00:17:30 in Israel. I think that's the implication. Jesus is going around town to town to town,
00:17:36 systematic, systematically, geographically, expelling every demon in Israel.
00:17:44 But what Jesus tells us at the very end of our text is that at least in a broad sense,
00:17:51 not saying in every individual case certainly there are disciples who chose to follow jesus
00:17:57 and in their case the house in fact was filled and we know that later with the ministry of the
00:18:03 apostles that there were many gentiles and there were many jews who believed the gospel and who
00:18:09 were indwelt with the ministry of the holy spirit in other words that you know filled with the
00:18:16 ministry of the holy spirit who exudes the ministry of the risen christ so there were many christ
00:18:21 filled christ filled gentiles and jews in israel but according to christ at the very end of our
00:18:30 text today matthew 12 verse 45 there were still many who were not there were many cases in israel
00:18:37 where demonic spirits were cast out by christ but the house was never filled and we know that that
00:18:44 was prevalent that was normative enough to where Jesus felt comfortable he's Jesus he never lies
00:18:51 felt comfortable saying it will be this way with this evil generation it will be this way with this
00:18:59 evil generation I am going around first and foremost preaching I am preaching the gospel
00:19:04 of the kingdom some will believe many will not I'm also in addition to my preaching ministry
00:19:12 i'm performing many signs and wonders predominantly healings i'm preaching the gospel i'm healing the
00:19:21 sick but i'm also lastly casting out demons and jesus goes town to town casting out demons
00:19:29 eradicating israel of its demon infestation but that same jesus tells us in our text today
00:19:38 that this principle of demons being exercised but the house being empty but not filled cleaned
00:19:47 tidied but not filled that that would in a general sense be true of israel not just individual
00:19:54 people but that it has and will have a corporate fulfillment a corporate collective application
00:20:02 in the case of the nation of israel and that is what comes to pass the heart can be swept
00:20:10 but not filled the house can be tidied but yet remain vacant of the master
00:20:17 when i think of our situation as christians here in america in 2025 and i think of this principle
00:20:27 and what was going on in Israel
00:20:28 and what Jesus teaches in our text today,
00:20:31 I cannot help but think of Christless conservatism.
00:20:36 That's immediately what comes to the forefront of my mind.
00:20:40 The idea that you can be radicalized politically.
00:20:45 You can be radicalized morally.
00:20:48 And you can say, whoa, we really have a problem.
00:20:51 How did we get so far off the rails?
00:20:54 How did we allow all this to happen?
00:20:57 right turns out my libertarianism you know from 2016 wasn't enough
00:21:03 turns out that you know you actually have to seize power and wield it righteously
00:21:09 what happened we've got to make some big changes we've got to do something extreme
00:21:17 now not in a vigil anti kind of way but america we need people to lead and we need them to lead
00:21:27 righteously we've got to right the ship we've got to get back on the rails and I think for a lot of
00:21:33 people in America right now that's what's going through their minds they're thinking whoa America
00:21:40 is demon infested it is a demon that's I mean that sounds a bit intense 0.99
00:21:50 a gay furry is someone who's demon possessed 1.00
00:21:53 all right make it real simple for you that is demonic oppression it is 70 million dead babies 0.99
00:22:04 in their mother's womb in the last 50 years that's demonic activity it's not just hashtag
00:22:10 the science tm no that's spiritual that is literally spiritual worship of a demon god called
00:22:18 Molech. It's spiritual. There's a spiritual element. So whether it's sexual perversion, or whether it's
00:22:27 the murder of babies, or a host of other wicked activity, it is a spiritual problem. It is.
00:22:39 There are demonic entities. There are spiritual enemies alive and well in these United States.
00:22:48 and many people many conservatives are waking up and i praise god for that they're waking up and
00:22:54 saying whoa what have we done how did we get here we've got to make some changes
00:23:01 and that's great i think that right now in the wake of so many things that have happened
00:23:08 so so much violent activity that you see every single day on social media the video of of this
00:23:16 riot the video of this murder the video of this assassination and a lot of people are red-pilling
00:23:25 and waking up and being radicalized and realizing we've got to get rid of this demon problem
00:23:32 we've got about i don't know it seems like half of our population that we can't live with it's
00:23:40 this is not america in the 1950s anymore it's not like well you know what we'll have reasonable
00:23:45 discourse. And some people think that, you know, you should do this. And some people think that
00:23:50 you should do that. And our disagreements matter. But at the end of the day, we're all fellow
00:23:54 Americans. You know, we can reach across the aisle. No, we can't. What fellowship does light
00:24:01 have with darkness? What union is there between Christ and Beelzebul? Now, you can't share a 0.99
00:24:08 country with these people. You can't. You can't share a country with people who hate you and hate
00:24:15 your children. You can't share a country with people who record videos laughing with glee,
00:24:21 smiling when one of you is murdered. You can't. Well, we just need more reasonable discourse.
00:24:29 We had reasonable discourse. We quite literally had reasonable discourse. And as someone was
00:24:34 exercising reasonable discourse,
00:24:36 he got a bullet in his neck in front of his kids.
00:24:40 That America is gone.
00:24:43 You need to be aware of that.
00:24:44 The country you grew up in does not exist.
00:24:47 It's gone.
00:24:49 It's gone.
00:24:51 You voted it away.
00:24:54 You voted it away. 1.00
00:24:56 You gave it away to foreigners. 1.00
00:25:00 You gave it away to limitless 0.96
00:25:02 invasions of immigrants you gave it away to sexual predators you gave it away to big government 0.61
00:25:13 and institutions and the board of education you gave it away that that america does not exist
00:25:22 and the point as it pertains to our text today is that many people are coming to this realization
00:25:28 and they're realizing whoa we're in big trouble we are way off the rails we have deep problems
00:25:39 deep problems we need conversion but america also needs uh an exorcism
00:25:45 america has a demon problem that seems like statistically about half the population
00:25:53 is worshiping demons.
00:25:58 And so we've got to
00:25:59 reform, right?
00:26:02 We need governmental reform,
00:26:04 political reform,
00:26:06 social reform,
00:26:07 cultural reform.
00:26:09 And we've got to push back
00:26:11 against the demons.
00:26:12 And, you know,
00:26:13 you can think the demons,
00:26:14 sometimes they make it easy on you.
00:26:15 I mean,
00:26:16 it's like, that's really hard.
00:26:17 How do I identify
00:26:18 who worships, you know,
00:26:20 false gods
00:26:20 and who's completely lost their mind?
00:26:22 Well, they have purple hair, right?
00:26:25 They have metal bars in their nose.
00:26:28 You know, I mean, they make it easy.
00:26:29 They make it easy.
00:26:31 Might as well just be wearing a shirt that says,
00:26:33 I worship Satan.
00:26:34 Some of them actually do that too.
00:26:37 So they've made it easy on us.
00:26:38 You can identify.
00:26:41 And yes, we need change.
00:26:43 Radical change.
00:26:44 Here's the point though.
00:26:47 You can have all that.
00:26:48 and then down the line a couple decades later america can be filled with seven other demons
00:26:55 worse than we are right now it cannot be christless conservatism it can't it can't just be us from a
00:27:05 logical it is logical right christ is the logos the the logic logic is not against logic and and
00:27:12 christian faith are not at odds with one another so it is logical but it cannot be merely logical
00:27:18 right you cannot just come to some of these conclusions as a country logically without
00:27:24 bowing the knee to king jesus and inviting him in behold i stand at the door and knock
00:27:31 if any man let me in i will come and dwell with him and dine with him and sup with him
00:27:37 america needs communion with christ we need communion with christ we need to invite
00:27:45 him in and it can't just be the political logical solutions it can't
00:27:52 and if you think that that there's no way to right the ship or make some reforms
00:28:00 without it being staunchly christian i think you're naive right because i have heard so now
00:28:10 on the other side of the equation I have heard people say well you know if things get better
00:28:16 if we make improvements if we make changes it's that'll only happen because of devotion to Christ
00:28:24 that's not true
00:28:26 China is a communist atheist state now there are millions of Chinese Christians
00:28:36 meeting in underground churches so i'm not speaking so much about the chinese people 0.53
00:28:41 themselves but i'm speaking about china's government right the ccp a communist state
00:28:51 an atheist state the chinese government does not recognize the lord jesus christ they are not 0.56
00:28:57 christian and yet even they apart from any devotion or love for christ at all even they 0.85
00:29:04 recognize oh you know what uh we're about to go extinct
00:29:09 like our entire population like 80 of our population 0.85
00:29:17 is elderly how did that happen oh yeah we killed all of our babies that's right 0.88
00:29:25 the one child policy in china we hated children and we didn't 0.91
00:29:30 let our people have children. We hunted down children. Now here's my point. China doesn't love 0.99
00:29:36 Jesus. An atheist government. And yet they're making political reforms. China is is actually 0.99
00:29:45 going to very very far lengths to say no more abortion. No more killing children. We need to
00:29:52 repopulate. We need to make this change. We need to make this change. There's a lot of political
00:29:57 reform social reform cultural reform in china because the government there has repented and
00:30:05 loves jesus no no you actually don't have to be a christian to say no to suicide 0.61
00:30:13 there's lots of non-christians that every single day they make it through a full 24-hour day
00:30:21 without killing themselves. 1.00
00:30:24 Oh, they must be Christian.
00:30:25 They must love Jesus. 0.95
00:30:26 No, they're just not ridiculous. 1.00
00:30:29 You can be a non-Christian 0.83
00:30:31 and still care about self-preservation. 1.00
00:30:35 How do we know? 1.00
00:30:37 Well, because there have been non-Christian societies
00:30:40 for thousands of years 0.92
00:30:41 that still had kids,
00:30:43 did basic logical things
00:30:45 to not in their society,
00:30:48 to continue. 0.62
00:30:49 Pagans for thousands of years who hated Christ. 0.65
00:30:53 They still knew, hey, we should harvest.
00:30:57 We should hunt.
00:30:59 We should eat food and plan for winters and build shelter.
00:31:03 And oh, children are a good thing and not a bad thing.
00:31:07 No love for Christ, but a love for self.
00:31:11 Just love for self was sufficient at a national level
00:31:15 for a society as a whole to preserve and so my point is right now in america it is quite possible
00:31:24 that america goes from being suicidal that the west at large goes from being suicidal to self
00:31:31 preserving and yet in that transition nowhere along the way do they ever actually repent and
00:31:37 love jesus that's my point countries have done this historically countries have done this this
00:31:45 has happened several times that a nation realizes 1.00
00:31:48 we're we're idiots we are destroying 1.00
00:31:53 ourselves we're going to make some radical changes 1.00
00:31:56 and they do all of it but skip Christ 0.87
00:32:01 and that's entirely possible for us
00:32:05 it is possible that America over the coming years
00:32:08 undergoes an exorcism
00:32:11 and the demonic furries and blue-haired demons are pushed out they're at least no longer prominent
00:32:22 they're no longer given cabinet positions in presidential administrations they're no longer
00:32:28 given speaking tours at ivory league universities right they're cast out they're at least you know
00:32:37 pushed to the margins no longer given prominence no longer given influence and we can do all that
00:32:44 from the motivation exclusively of self-preservation and yet there be no filling the house
00:32:54 in this sense the national house these united states no filling the house with christ
00:33:00 that is christless conservatism and according to jesus and i for one believe jesus according to
00:33:11 jesus the final state will be seven times worse america has a chance right now to not just
00:33:19 embrace political reform we must do that can't be less than that social cultural reform we must do
00:33:27 that can't be less than that but in addition to all that america has a chance to recognize christ
00:33:33 as king and to do so publicly unapologetically nationally america has a chance to have
00:33:41 national days of repentance and national allegiance pledged to king jesus
00:33:49 and if we make all the changes but without that we will be just like Israel
00:33:58 notice the point that I'm making is from our text today what Jesus describes in the individual case
00:34:05 of an individual man who was demonically possessed and then and then the demons were
00:34:10 cast out but the house that one singular man was not filled with communion with the triune God
00:34:16 the demons come back the point that i'm making the point that jesus makes is that that doesn't
00:34:21 just happen at times with individuals but it could happen and according to jesus it would happen
00:34:28 with israel corporately as a whole and if it happened with israel corporately as a whole
00:34:35 that there's a corporate application of this demonic principle if it could happen with israel
00:34:42 it can happen with us it can happen with us and when i think of the west at large
00:34:46 i feel like in many ways we're already there in many ways we're already there what i mean by that
00:34:52 is that if you look at our history right there was a time where paganism was quite common for
00:35:02 Europeans. But Christ came and he swept the house and he put it in order. And for a thousand years
00:35:13 at least, if not longer, Europeans worshipped Christ. They were unapologetically Christian. 0.96
00:35:22 And we built great cathedrals in his name and did great, incredible exploits in his name.
00:35:29 And then we abandoned Christ.
00:35:33 In other words, what I'm saying is that historically, 0.91
00:35:35 in the case of Europeans,
00:35:36 you could argue that a lot of these things have already happened. 0.89
00:35:40 Christ came in and cast out all the demons,
00:35:43 cleaned the house, swept it, and put it in order.
00:35:47 But then we said, you know what?
00:35:48 The house is in order now,
00:35:50 and we no longer need Christ.
00:35:52 And so we got rid of Him.
00:35:54 But the demons are still out there in arid places,
00:35:57 and they can, in fact, return.
00:35:59 And according to Jesus, they will.
00:36:03 And with this house now swept clean and put in order,
00:36:06 no longer just pagans throwing axes and shooting bows,
00:36:14 but no, a house of a former Christendom
00:36:18 with all the innovations and the wisdom
00:36:22 that came about from a thousand years of Christendom.
00:36:25 Now you have an empty house, swept clean and put in order, that has nuclear access.
00:36:35 Demons would love that, right? They used to have battle access. Now they have nuclear weapons.
00:36:45 We embrace Christ, got all the benefits of Christ, then kicked Christ out. We kicked him out of our
00:36:52 schools we kicked him out of our homes we kicked him out of our government we kicked him out of
00:36:56 our nation but we still have all these benefits of all the developments that came about from a
00:37:05 people who worshiped jesus for a thousand years and now all those benefits can be taken over not
00:37:11 by jesus because we sent him packing but by demons and it's something to be aware of
00:37:17 and something to fear and something to stand against going on in your notes i've written this
00:37:25 let no one think that satan retreats from his prey without resolve to return he is tireless
00:37:32 in his malice and relentless in his schemes the evil spirit finding no rest returns to the soul
00:37:39 it once occupied and finding it empty brings with him a company more wicked than himself
00:37:46 Thus, the last state becomes worse than the first.
00:37:49 Here Christ shows us the desperate folly of resting in temporary deliverance without seeking lasting union with himself.
00:37:59 It is not enough to expel sin.
00:38:01 It must be replaced with righteousness.
00:38:04 It is not enough to cast out the devil.
00:38:07 The spirit of Christ must dwell within.
00:38:10 So now a personal application and familial application for your homes, your marriages, your children.
00:38:19 It is not enough to merely expel sin.
00:38:23 It must be replaced with righteousness.
00:38:27 You can't just get rid of bad habits.
00:38:29 You must develop spiritual disciplines of righteousness.
00:38:36 Repentance is two parts.
00:38:38 It is to turn from sin and to turn to Christ.
00:38:46 A man can hate Christ and still recognize that alcoholism is killing him.
00:38:53 It's destroying his health. It's destroying his livelihood.
00:38:56 It's destroying all of his relationships, his family.
00:38:59 There have been countless cases of people without ever turning to Jesus,
00:39:06 still turning from certain vices you can turn from a vice without turning to christ
00:39:14 but true repentance is always both it's not just the first it's the first and the latter
00:39:24 true christian repentance is to turn from sin and turn to christ and turning to christ is not just
00:39:32 private personal emotional affections for christ turning to christ is not just turning to jesus
00:39:40 your boyfriend turning to christ is turning to jesus who is king in other words turning to christ
00:39:47 is not just turning to him with heart and soul and affection but with hands and feet in discipline
00:39:53 when you turn to christ you turn to him in obedience not just love but obedience christ
00:40:02 himself said to his disciples, if you love me, you'll obey me. So what does repentance look like?
00:40:08 It looks like turning from sin and turning to Christ in affection. But if that affection for
00:40:13 Christ be true, if you really love him, you will obey him. So all the time and all the habits and
00:40:20 all the behaviors and all the rituals devoted to vice, devoted to sin, devoted to those things
00:40:26 which destroy are not just translated to to private you know love affections and and sweet
00:40:35 emotions to jesus but no the things you did that were wicked with your hands and your feet you are
00:40:41 now replacing with new habits new obedience practical outward obedience to the lord jesus
00:40:48 christ that stems from a love for christ from the heart reject sin embrace christ in heart
00:40:59 but if you embrace him in heart in love then that will be manifest demonstrated
00:41:07 in actions with hands and feet in your lives
00:41:11 you want to stop doing destructive habits love jesus but also obey jesus that time has to be
00:41:22 filled the time you you spent doing things that destroy that time now has to be filled
00:41:30 with things that build up so my family we're going to stop sitting in front of the tv all the time
00:41:37 Great. What are you going to do instead?
00:41:41 It's not enough to just stop one thing.
00:41:45 You must, by grace, begin another.
00:41:49 New and better patterns and habits
00:41:52 have to take hold, begin to form.
00:41:58 To truly repent is to reject sin and embrace Christ.
00:42:02 And to embrace Christ is not just to embrace Him
00:42:04 in love from the heart,
00:42:07 but obedience from our lives.
00:42:10 That's what it means to repent.
00:42:12 Revelation chapter 3, verse 19 through 20 says this,
00:42:16 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.
00:42:20 Be zealous therefore and repent.
00:42:24 And I think many in our nation right now
00:42:26 are feeling that sense.
00:42:28 They're feeling the rebuke.
00:42:30 They're realizing, whoa, what have we done?
00:42:33 we went way too far in the name of tolerance in the name of of a pseudo love we allowed the orcs
00:42:41 to come in and run the town and so many are feeling this sense of zeal they've been rebuked
00:42:50 they've been chastened be zealous therefore and repent and many i think right now are willing to
00:42:56 do so that's revelation chapter 3 verse 19 but now look at verse 20 here's the next part and it's
00:43:03 vital behold i stand this is christ speaking i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my
00:43:12 voice and open the door i will come into him and will sup with him that is dying commune with him
00:43:20 and he with me.
00:43:24 America cannot merely say no to devils.
00:43:28 It must say yes to Jesus.
00:43:33 And it must do so not just privately.
00:43:35 It's not just, oh, if we can only get,
00:43:38 you know, 50% of the nation plus one
00:43:41 privately in their hearts
00:43:43 and in their families and in their homes.
00:43:45 No.
00:43:46 No, you embraced the devil publicly.
00:43:50 That's the last aspect of repentance
00:43:52 that we need to talk about.
00:43:54 The last point of the sermon today.
00:43:57 Wherever the sin was,
00:43:59 that's where the repentance must be.
00:44:01 In whichever context you sinned,
00:44:04 that's the very same context you must repent.
00:44:07 You don't get to sin publicly
00:44:08 in front of 330 million people
00:44:11 and then repent privately.
00:44:15 No.
00:44:17 You sin publicly, 0.99
00:44:18 you repent publicly you embrace beelzebul as a nation publicly then you must reject him and 0.87
00:44:27 embrace jesus publicly these united states yes we need solid christian families at an individual 0.85
00:44:34 heart level yes not arguing for anything less than that we also need politically and nationally
00:44:41 for our leaders to come out in front of everyone on national television and say we reject
00:44:48 the demons we reject the demons no more islamic invasion no more literal demon statues in houston 0.94
00:44:59 texas 90 feet tall no more demonic gay furries no more demonic antifa no more demonic zionism 0.99
00:45:09 all the demons all of them we reject them all and we publicly politically and nationally 0.96
00:45:18 declare Jesus Christ Lord of these United States and we pledge our allegiance to him. If that
00:45:24 doesn't happen, then you can get radicalized and motivated for two weeks. Maybe if you're really,
00:45:34 really, really, really motivated two years from watching Charlie Kirk and seeing what happened,
00:45:40 from watching this event and watching that event. But all it'll ever be at the end of the day
00:45:46 is demons going out into waterless places
00:45:50 and coming back with seven more worse than themselves.
00:45:55 America is a house. 0.95
00:45:58 The house is filled with demons. 1.00
00:46:01 They must be expelled.
00:46:03 The house must be cleaned,
00:46:04 but it also must be filled.
00:46:07 It must be filled with the Spirit of God.
00:46:10 And that doesn't get to happen privately
00:46:12 where people get to keep their dignity
00:46:15 and never have to really admit how bad they messed up.
00:46:18 No, you messed up publicly.
00:46:22 So now you submit to Jesus publicly.
00:46:25 You lock the whole country in their homes. 1.00
00:46:31 You force children to have an untested foreign substance
00:46:35 injected in their arms just to be able to go to school.
00:46:41 You burnt down cities.
00:46:45 Because a thug overdosed on fentanyl.
00:46:52 You used technology and discord servers
00:46:56 to orchestrate political assassinations.
00:47:03 No, you don't get to quietly back away.
00:47:08 No.
00:47:10 No, you did it all publicly.
00:47:14 So now you have to repent of it all publicly.
00:47:19 And you must pledge allegiance to Christ publicly.
00:47:23 Until that happens, America is cooked.
00:47:27 And you just need to be aware.
00:47:29 We've got some momentum right now.
00:47:33 That's good.
00:47:34 We can celebrate.
00:47:35 I'm not saying you're not allowed to ever celebrate anything.
00:47:37 That's good.
00:47:39 But I'm just telling you ultimately what has to happen.
00:47:43 Right. Apart from what we're seeing in our text today, apart from that, apart from public repentance, public exorcism of all the demons, and then public allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ coming to fill the house of these United States.
00:47:58 Apart from that, it would be like a cancer patient having a good day.
00:48:04 Right. There's some good days. Got a little bit of appetite back.
00:48:07 a little bit of strength and you and your spouse and your children your faith you can celebrate
00:48:14 that i'm not giving anybody a heart that's great right dad's having a good day mom's having a good
00:48:20 day this is awesome we're going to go for a walk in the park praise god we thank you for this
00:48:24 blessing but know that ultimately the cancer is not done it's not done until you go back to the
00:48:33 doctor, you get all the x-rays, and you find out that it's all been removed. It has to be removed.
00:48:41 A little bit of cultural momentum, even a lot of it, of cultural or political momentum is good.
00:48:48 Not telling you to black pill and be a pessimist all the time. Celebrate it. But don't celebrate
00:48:53 in such a way that you forget the ultimate solution. That's my concern. As a pastor,
00:48:59 I want you to celebrate whatever God might be doing, but I don't want you to celebrate it in
00:49:05 a way that's naive. To realize, hey, the symptoms have lessened, and so I'm going to celebrate the
00:49:12 symptoms lessening at the expense, or to the degree that I no longer think that we actually
00:49:18 have cancer at all. I'm going to embrace self-delusion, and I'm going to, you know, celebrate
00:49:26 the lessening symptoms to the extent
00:49:28 that I'm going to start saying,
00:49:30 you know what?
00:49:30 Peace, peace,
00:49:32 when there is no peace.
00:49:35 We're cured when we're not cured.
00:49:40 America loves Jesus
00:49:41 when they don't love Jesus. 1.00
00:49:47 We've got Muslims preaching
00:49:49 and praying at the RNC.
00:49:53 Right now?
00:49:54 America doesn't love Jesus.
00:49:55 we're not even close guys not even close so celebrate the victories praise God for the
00:50:04 victories do not despair one of the most frequent commands that Jesus gives over and over throughout
00:50:10 the gospel narratives is this do not fear so I'm not advocating for fear I'm advocating
00:50:16 for sobriety be watchful be sober-minded be honest about the true depth of the problem and you can
00:50:24 do all that by the grace of god without being given to despair without being given to fear
00:50:28 you're allowed to celebrate the victories as they come but know in your heart of hearts
00:50:34 that the solution we're not even close there's a lot more work to be done remain vigilant 0.88
00:50:41 start at home start in your marriage start with your children get rid of the vices but fill that
00:50:52 space with virtue that's what we need to do that's what we need to do let's pray father thank you for
00:51:02 your word bless it to your people and bring about for yourself great great glory we ask this in
00:51:08 jesus name amen