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

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00:00:27.420 Please stand with me for the reading of God's word.

00:00:30.480 This morning we continue our series of the gospel according to Matthew. Our text is Matthew chapter 12 verses 43 through 45.

00:00:38.140 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,

00:00:43.080 at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.

00:00:48.120 One final time our text for today is the gospel according to Matthew chapter 12 verses 43 through 45.

00:00:54.020 The Bible says this,

00:00:56.060 When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none.

00:01:04.780 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.

00:01:14.740 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there.

00:01:21.440 and the last state of that person is worse than the first, so also will it be with this evil

00:01:28.940 generation. This is the word of the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's go ahead and dive

00:01:35.500 in. There's two primary points that I would like for us to see, and then one final application.

00:01:42.440 The two primary points are as follows. First, behavioral modification versus inward transformation.

00:01:49.700 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.

00:02:06.700 Not just new habits, not just living a new life with new behaviors, but he must be a new creature with a new nature.

00:02:16.660 The second point that we'll find in the text is that Satan is relentless.

00:02:22.700 He does not retreat without plans to return.

00:02:26.720 He does not retreat without plans to return.

00:02:30.440 It is not enough to cast out Satan, to reform your life.

00:02:36.700 to send the devils that you personally struggle with on the run for a time they will return and

00:02:45.640 if not those particular devils then new devils will return and the final state of your life

00:02:51.820 will be worse than the former so it's not enough simply to resist the devil that he may flee from

00:02:58.720 you for a time, but also to fortify your life, your soul, your heart, your family in such a way

00:03:06.520 that the devil cannot return. And then finally, the application that I'd like to see us understand

00:03:14.200 and correlate from our text today is that there are similarities between Israel at the time of

00:03:19.800 Christ, where he is speaking these things in our text today, and our nation, these United States

00:03:26.100 of america today i do believe that there are correlations and similarities and i'll seek to

00:03:32.700 draw those out so beginning with the first point behavioral modification versus inward transformation

00:03:38.340 i've written the following in your notes christ tells us that the unclean spirit is said to depart

00:03:44.340 this at first glance seems a mercy right this demonic spirit it's on the run that's a good

00:03:51.860 thing. But we must observe what follows. Though the house, that is the person, the house be swept

00:03:59.680 clean and set in order, it remains, in this case, empty. Here our Lord teaches that a man may be

00:04:06.940 outwardly reformed, his life morally improved, his habits corrected, and his conscience may be

00:04:14.700 somewhat stirred yet still he can be void of saving grace this is a most dangerous condition

00:04:23.500 for such a one may presume that he is well while he is in truth only a cleaner septal sepulcher

00:04:32.540 that is a tomb he's still a tomb still dead rotted bones lying inside the tomb on the

00:04:40.380 outside has merely been bleached cleaned he's a shiny tomb there is no indwelling christ in this

00:04:48.460 case no regenerating spirit no communion with the living god the heart is swept but not filled

00:04:55.820 the house is tidy but still vacant vacant of the master this is an analogy an illustration that

00:05:05.860 Christ himself uses elsewhere in the gospel narratives when speaking of the Pharisees,

00:05:11.660 when speaking of the lawyers, the scribes, the Jewish religious rulers at that time. He actually

00:05:19.080 calls them sepulchers. He calls them tombs, tombs, graves. And yet he says that you are whitewashed

00:05:28.740 tombs. If you remember that portion of scripture, what he's essentially saying is that on the

00:05:34.620 outside you're squeaky clean on the outside you're bleached on the outside you look tidy well kept

00:05:42.620 put in order but you're still a tomb on the inside what truly counts it's not clean but rather there

00:05:52.180 is a rotting corpse dead men's bones this is the description that Jesus uses for his adversaries

00:05:59.640 those who opposed his earthly ministry and now in our text today Jesus is saying that their state

00:06:06.540 it is possible it can be anyone's state this is not unique in other words just to the Pharisees

00:06:14.300 so it's not as though there is just an isolated exclusive class of really really really really

00:06:21.160 bad people and this could happen to them but no one else that's not what Jesus is teaching

00:06:28.460 jesus is making it clear that it is the case it is the state of his adversaries those religious

00:06:36.320 rulers opposing him in his earthly ministry but it could be the state of anyone and i think in a

00:06:43.100 broader sense and we'll get to this at the end of the sermon as i give an application in a broader

00:06:48.060 sense i think that jesus is saying that this is the state or it soon will be the state not merely

00:06:54.400 of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the scribes and the lawyers, but it will be the state of

00:06:59.580 Israel, the nation, collectively, corporately as a whole. Where do we get that? Well, we get that 0.53

00:07:06.420 from the very last sentence of our text where Jesus says, so also will it be with this evil 0.98

00:07:12.700 generation. And I want to be consistent in my hermeneutic. Hermeneutic is simply a word that 0.94

00:07:19.940 describes a way of reading understanding and interpreting the bible and when we think of the

00:07:27.100 all of it discourse in matthew chapter 24 later in this gospel narrative jesus says these things

00:07:35.220 will come to pass before this generation passes and there for many of us you would agree with

00:07:43.960 the interpretation that that i've taken to which is that jesus is being literal he's not merely

00:07:50.980 speaking of a generation as a metaphor he's not just saying hey this type of generation will not

00:07:59.060 pass away before these things are fulfilled that these things in that case in matthew chapter 24

00:08:04.920 is the destruction of jerusalem the tearing down of the temple that not one stone would be left

00:08:12.180 on another jesus says all these things prophesize these things predicts these things and says that

00:08:18.480 they will in fact come to pass before the generation that he's speaking to in matthew

00:08:24.580 chapter 24 before they pass away and it's not a type of generation it's not a type of person

00:08:30.960 some have interpreted matthew 24 to mean that that jesus is saying well they'll always be rebellious

00:08:36.800 people. And these final things at the end of the age, when they're fulfilled, they'll still be

00:08:42.560 that metaphorical generation that Jesus was speaking to in Matthew 24. In the metaphorical

00:08:48.740 sense, there'll always be a generation of rebellious people, even at the end of the age

00:08:53.760 when these things are fulfilled. But I don't believe that's the proper way of interpreting

00:08:58.460 Matthew 24. I believe that Jesus is, in fact, being literal. He is saying that the temple will

00:09:04.420 be destroyed before that literal physical generation passes away and that's precisely

00:09:10.820 what happened now to interpret Matthew 24 in any other way robs Jesus of one of the greatest

00:09:16.020 prophecies that he ever gave and it was in fact fulfilled Jesus says this will happen

00:09:23.400 it will happen in this timeline and it did and I don't want to rob Jesus of one of the clearest

00:09:31.940 the most significant prophecies he ever gave and the timeline that he gave attached to it

00:09:37.960 and historically we know it was fulfilled titus did in fact come and sack jerusalem and destroy

00:09:44.340 the temple and it wasn't even metaphorical the language of not one stone of the temple

00:09:49.620 remaining lying on top of another there was the temple the stones were inlaid with gold instead

00:09:57.340 of merely mortar there was gold that was containing it and keeping each of these stones attached to

00:10:03.680 one another and the romans actually came and they took apart every single one of the temple's stones

00:10:09.740 in order to collect the gold this is a incredible fulfillment of prophecy and it's one thing to say

00:10:16.300 something will happen but it's another to say precisely the details of how it will happen not

00:10:22.900 just the temple destroyed but not one stone left on another for it to happen not just what you're

00:10:28.600 predicting but how right so so the manner that this is what will happen destruction this is how

00:10:36.100 it will happen not a single stone left on another and this is when it will happen before this

00:10:42.980 generation passes away jesus predicted all these things prophesied all these things and that's

00:10:49.460 precisely what came to pass now being consistent back to the point being consistent in our

00:10:55.560 hermeneutic looking at Matthew 24 and Jesus saying that now looking at Matthew chapter 12

00:11:00.660 the latter portion of verse 45 I believe we should take the same interpretation the same approach

00:11:06.520 so also will it be with this evil generation I don't believe that that's a metaphor I don't 0.92

00:11:14.340 believe Jesus is referencing just a a mere type of people you always have this kind of people

00:11:21.740 no I think he's saying this generation in the physical literal sense the people that Jesus

00:11:27.200 is speaking to in Matthew chapter 12 he's saying it will be with this generation so Jesus describes

00:11:35.220 some would say that that our text today is a parable I don't think so I think there's a sense

00:11:41.000 in which you can read it like that there are you know general principles certainly that can be

00:11:46.980 gleaned from the example that's given but i also believe that jesus is giving some literal

00:11:52.460 demonology i believe that he's describing what actually happens in a spiritual sense when it

00:11:59.180 comes to spiritual warfare with spiritual adversaries like demonic entities jesus is

00:12:05.880 saying that it is quite possible not just possible but normative that when a demonic spirit is cast

00:12:12.540 out of a man it always intends to return he can't just let his guard down he can't say

00:12:20.660 that was rough but we're good now no it's not enough to simply be delivered but then a man

00:12:28.980 must be guarded not merely delivered in a one-off experience but then vigilant and guarded from that

00:12:38.580 moment on because when satan retreats he plans to return when satan retreats he plans to return

00:12:46.660 so this is the principle that jesus is giving and i also believe that not only is it a principle in

00:12:53.340 a general broader sense but it's also i believe a literal demonology description of how demonic

00:13:00.660 entities work how they behave what strategies they employ but at the end of our text as i just

00:13:08.680 referenced earlier jesus then applies this principle and this demonology of how demonic

00:13:15.440 spirits work he applies it not just to a singular individual man who may have been demon possessed

00:13:21.520 for a time then delivered but if the house is not filled with the presence of christ the demon with

00:13:27.620 seven other friends worse than itself will eventually return jesus at the end of our text

00:13:32.720 takes it from just the individual application and he provides a corporate application and he doesn't

00:13:40.040 just say that it's possible that this this principle of demonic activity being delivered

00:13:45.520 cast out but then returning that this could be the case of individuals he doesn't just say now

00:13:50.580 that it's collective corporate that it can be the case of an entire generation but he actually

00:13:56.740 predicts and prophesies and says that it will again so also will it be with this evil generation

00:14:05.300 and it was it was look at matthew mark luke and john look at the ministry of jesus

00:14:12.740 first and foremost it's a ministry of proclamation it's a ministry of preaching

00:14:19.220 Jesus goes to all these various towns and preaches the gospel of the kingdom.

00:14:25.800 Jesus the preacher. He preaches. That's first. But beyond that it's first but it's not only.

00:14:34.140 Beyond his ministry of preaching he performs many signs and wonders. He feeds the 4,000. He feeds

00:14:41.420 the 5,000. He walks on water. He also performs many miraculous healings. Healing the sick.

00:14:49.220 the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear, the leper is cleansed of all its, his infirmities. 0.75

00:14:58.580 Jesus even raises the dead. But it's not only that Jesus preaches and then also performs 0.94

00:15:05.800 miracles and healings. But lastly, he cast out devils. Jesus cast out devils. And he cast out

00:15:16.100 devils in Israel and we should pause for just a moment think about that for a moment

00:15:23.680 think about how many instances there are throughout the four gospel narratives of Jesus

00:15:30.120 in his ministry of exorcism Israel in other words what I'm saying is Israel at the time of Jesus

00:15:38.100 is infested with demons it's infested with demons jesus is casting out a ton of demons

00:15:48.440 all the time because israel is infested with demons in fact not only is there just all these

00:15:56.160 dozens of cases where jesus is casting out a demon of this guy that guy in some of these cases

00:16:01.680 when he cast out demonic entities with a singular man the entity is not just one demon but legions

00:16:10.040 there's thousands of demons just in one guy so jesus appears in his earthly ministry on the scene

00:16:18.400 in israel and there's a ton of people who are sick a ton of people who are poor and oppressed

00:16:25.180 a ton of unbelief a ton of hypocrisy but also a ton of demons a ton of demons and i do believe

00:16:35.120 at the end of our text essentially what jesus is saying is this he says so also will it be with

00:16:40.880 this evil generation and again what will what be well the principle that he's just espoused which

00:16:46.760 is what happens in the case of an individual person when a demonic spirit is cast out but

00:16:54.940 the house is is swept clean and put in order but not filled what happens that demon goes to arid

00:17:01.600 places waterless places eventually when it finds no rest elsewhere it says to itself i will invite

00:17:08.460 seven other friends worse than myself will return to the original host and the latter state of that

00:17:15.020 man will be worse than the first and jesus says that's what it will be like for this generation

00:17:22.240 in Israel. And so it was. In what sense? Jesus comes on the scene. He cast out all the demons 0.79

00:17:30.360 in Israel. I think that's the implication. Jesus is going around town to town to town,

00:17:36.500 systematic, systematically, geographically, expelling every demon in Israel.

00:17:44.820 But what Jesus tells us at the very end of our text is that at least in a broad sense,

00:17:51.040 not saying in every individual case certainly there are disciples who chose to follow jesus

00:17:57.320 and in their case the house in fact was filled and we know that later with the ministry of the

00:18:03.300 apostles that there were many gentiles and there were many jews who believed the gospel and who

00:18:09.920 were indwelt with the ministry of the holy spirit in other words that you know filled with the

00:18:16.260 ministry of the holy spirit who exudes the ministry of the risen christ so there were many christ

00:18:21.440 filled christ filled gentiles and jews in israel but according to christ at the very end of our

00:18:30.300 text today matthew 12 verse 45 there were still many who were not there were many cases in israel

00:18:37.460 where demonic spirits were cast out by christ but the house was never filled and we know that that

00:18:44.560 was prevalent that was normative enough to where Jesus felt comfortable he's Jesus he never lies

00:18:51.860 felt comfortable saying it will be this way with this evil generation it will be this way with this

00:18:59.040 evil generation I am going around first and foremost preaching I am preaching the gospel

00:19:04.740 of the kingdom some will believe many will not I'm also in addition to my preaching ministry

00:19:12.380 i'm performing many signs and wonders predominantly healings i'm preaching the gospel i'm healing the

00:19:21.840 sick but i'm also lastly casting out demons and jesus goes town to town casting out demons

00:19:29.500 eradicating israel of its demon infestation but that same jesus tells us in our text today

00:19:38.680 that this principle of demons being exercised but the house being empty but not filled cleaned

00:19:47.160 tidied but not filled that that would in a general sense be true of israel not just individual

00:19:54.740 people but that it has and will have a corporate fulfillment a corporate collective application

00:20:02.900 in the case of the nation of israel and that is what comes to pass the heart can be swept

00:20:10.940 but not filled the house can be tidied but yet remain vacant of the master

00:20:17.840 when i think of our situation as christians here in america in 2025 and i think of this principle

00:20:27.620 and what was going on in Israel

00:20:28.920 and what Jesus teaches in our text today,

00:20:31.480 I cannot help but think of Christless conservatism.

00:20:36.500 That's immediately what comes to the forefront of my mind.

00:20:40.320 The idea that you can be radicalized politically.

00:20:45.340 You can be radicalized morally.

00:20:48.580 And you can say, whoa, we really have a problem.

00:20:51.760 How did we get so far off the rails?

00:20:54.200 How did we allow all this to happen?

00:20:57.620 right turns out my libertarianism you know from 2016 wasn't enough

00:21:03.280 turns out that you know you actually have to seize power and wield it righteously

00:21:09.620 what happened we've got to make some big changes we've got to do something extreme

00:21:17.320 now not in a vigil anti kind of way but america we need people to lead and we need them to lead

00:21:27.460 righteously we've got to right the ship we've got to get back on the rails and I think for a lot of

00:21:33.600 people in America right now that's what's going through their minds they're thinking whoa America

00:21:40.200 is demon infested it is a demon that's I mean that sounds a bit intense 0.99

00:21:50.320 a gay furry is someone who's demon possessed 1.00

00:21:53.760 all right make it real simple for you that is demonic oppression it is 70 million dead babies 0.99

00:22:04.260 in their mother's womb in the last 50 years that's demonic activity it's not just hashtag

00:22:10.480 the science tm no that's spiritual that is literally spiritual worship of a demon god called

00:22:18.940 Molech. It's spiritual. There's a spiritual element. So whether it's sexual perversion, or whether it's

00:22:27.040 the murder of babies, or a host of other wicked activity, it is a spiritual problem. It is.

00:22:39.160 There are demonic entities. There are spiritual enemies alive and well in these United States.

00:22:48.000 and many people many conservatives are waking up and i praise god for that they're waking up and

00:22:54.400 saying whoa what have we done how did we get here we've got to make some changes

00:23:01.000 and that's great i think that right now in the wake of so many things that have happened

00:23:08.240 so so much violent activity that you see every single day on social media the video of of this

00:23:16.980 riot the video of this murder the video of this assassination and a lot of people are red-pilling

00:23:25.880 and waking up and being radicalized and realizing we've got to get rid of this demon problem

00:23:32.040 we've got about i don't know it seems like half of our population that we can't live with it's

00:23:40.360 this is not america in the 1950s anymore it's not like well you know what we'll have reasonable

00:23:45.940 discourse. And some people think that, you know, you should do this. And some people think that

00:23:50.480 you should do that. And our disagreements matter. But at the end of the day, we're all fellow

00:23:54.920 Americans. You know, we can reach across the aisle. No, we can't. What fellowship does light

00:24:01.360 have with darkness? What union is there between Christ and Beelzebul? Now, you can't share a 0.99

00:24:08.000 country with these people. You can't. You can't share a country with people who hate you and hate

00:24:15.760 your children. You can't share a country with people who record videos laughing with glee,

00:24:21.260 smiling when one of you is murdered. You can't. Well, we just need more reasonable discourse.

00:24:29.180 We had reasonable discourse. We quite literally had reasonable discourse. And as someone was

00:24:34.500 exercising reasonable discourse,

00:24:36.520 he got a bullet in his neck in front of his kids.

00:24:40.440 That America is gone.

00:24:43.160 You need to be aware of that.

00:24:44.820 The country you grew up in does not exist.

00:24:47.840 It's gone.

00:24:49.760 It's gone.

00:24:51.380 You voted it away.

00:24:54.880 You voted it away. 1.00

00:24:56.940 You gave it away to foreigners. 1.00

00:25:00.420 You gave it away to limitless 0.96

00:25:02.640 invasions of immigrants you gave it away to sexual predators you gave it away to big government 0.61

00:25:13.320 and institutions and the board of education you gave it away that that america does not exist

00:25:22.980 and the point as it pertains to our text today is that many people are coming to this realization

00:25:28.500 and they're realizing whoa we're in big trouble we are way off the rails we have deep problems

00:25:39.280 deep problems we need conversion but america also needs uh an exorcism

00:25:45.900 america has a demon problem that seems like statistically about half the population

00:25:53.560 is worshiping demons.

00:25:58.460 And so we've got to

00:25:59.780 reform, right?

00:26:02.460 We need governmental reform,

00:26:04.500 political reform,

00:26:06.140 social reform,

00:26:07.380 cultural reform.

00:26:09.860 And we've got to push back

00:26:11.200 against the demons.

00:26:12.500 And, you know,

00:26:13.420 you can think the demons,

00:26:14.440 sometimes they make it easy on you.

00:26:15.900 I mean,

00:26:16.860 it's like, that's really hard.

00:26:17.900 How do I identify

00:26:18.760 who worships, you know,

00:26:20.260 false gods

00:26:20.980 and who's completely lost their mind?

00:26:22.780 Well, they have purple hair, right?

00:26:25.960 They have metal bars in their nose.

00:26:28.280 You know, I mean, they make it easy.

00:26:29.920 They make it easy.

00:26:31.420 Might as well just be wearing a shirt that says,

00:26:33.440 I worship Satan.

00:26:34.480 Some of them actually do that too.

00:26:37.040 So they've made it easy on us.

00:26:38.940 You can identify.

00:26:41.040 And yes, we need change.

00:26:43.340 Radical change.

00:26:44.760 Here's the point though.

00:26:47.100 You can have all that.

00:26:48.700 and then down the line a couple decades later america can be filled with seven other demons

00:26:55.440 worse than we are right now it cannot be christless conservatism it can't it can't just be us from a

00:27:05.740 logical it is logical right christ is the logos the the logic logic is not against logic and and

00:27:12.820 christian faith are not at odds with one another so it is logical but it cannot be merely logical

00:27:18.280 right you cannot just come to some of these conclusions as a country logically without

00:27:24.140 bowing the knee to king jesus and inviting him in behold i stand at the door and knock

00:27:31.480 if any man let me in i will come and dwell with him and dine with him and sup with him

00:27:37.300 america needs communion with christ we need communion with christ we need to invite

00:27:45.880 him in and it can't just be the political logical solutions it can't

00:27:52.420 and if you think that that there's no way to right the ship or make some reforms

00:28:00.720 without it being staunchly christian i think you're naive right because i have heard so now

00:28:10.060 on the other side of the equation I have heard people say well you know if things get better

00:28:16.700 if we make improvements if we make changes it's that'll only happen because of devotion to Christ

00:28:24.700 that's not true

00:28:26.400 China is a communist atheist state now there are millions of Chinese Christians

00:28:36.220 meeting in underground churches so i'm not speaking so much about the chinese people 0.53

00:28:41.840 themselves but i'm speaking about china's government right the ccp a communist state

00:28:51.000 an atheist state the chinese government does not recognize the lord jesus christ they are not 0.56

00:28:57.120 christian and yet even they apart from any devotion or love for christ at all even they 0.85

00:29:04.600 recognize oh you know what uh we're about to go extinct

00:29:09.160 like our entire population like 80 of our population 0.85

00:29:17.020 is elderly how did that happen oh yeah we killed all of our babies that's right 0.88

00:29:25.160 the one child policy in china we hated children and we didn't 0.91

00:29:30.500 let our people have children. We hunted down children. Now here's my point. China doesn't love 0.99

00:29:36.560 Jesus. An atheist government. And yet they're making political reforms. China is is actually 0.99

00:29:45.140 going to very very far lengths to say no more abortion. No more killing children. We need to

00:29:52.940 repopulate. We need to make this change. We need to make this change. There's a lot of political

00:29:57.240 reform social reform cultural reform in china because the government there has repented and

00:30:05.220 loves jesus no no you actually don't have to be a christian to say no to suicide 0.61

00:30:13.780 there's lots of non-christians that every single day they make it through a full 24-hour day

00:30:21.100 without killing themselves. 1.00

00:30:24.660 Oh, they must be Christian.

00:30:25.720 They must love Jesus. 0.95

00:30:26.600 No, they're just not ridiculous. 1.00

00:30:29.620 You can be a non-Christian 0.83

00:30:31.280 and still care about self-preservation. 1.00

00:30:35.740 How do we know? 1.00

00:30:37.500 Well, because there have been non-Christian societies

00:30:40.060 for thousands of years 0.92

00:30:41.760 that still had kids,

00:30:43.480 did basic logical things

00:30:45.480 to not in their society,

00:30:48.400 to continue. 0.62

00:30:49.820 Pagans for thousands of years who hated Christ. 0.65

00:30:53.080 They still knew, hey, we should harvest.

00:30:57.760 We should hunt.

00:30:59.040 We should eat food and plan for winters and build shelter.

00:31:03.120 And oh, children are a good thing and not a bad thing.

00:31:07.700 No love for Christ, but a love for self.

00:31:11.500 Just love for self was sufficient at a national level

00:31:15.780 for a society as a whole to preserve and so my point is right now in america it is quite possible

00:31:24.260 that america goes from being suicidal that the west at large goes from being suicidal to self

00:31:31.060 preserving and yet in that transition nowhere along the way do they ever actually repent and

00:31:37.240 love jesus that's my point countries have done this historically countries have done this this

00:31:45.120 has happened several times that a nation realizes 1.00

00:31:48.620 we're we're idiots we are destroying 1.00

00:31:53.220 ourselves we're going to make some radical changes 1.00

00:31:56.800 and they do all of it but skip Christ 0.87

00:32:01.300 and that's entirely possible for us

00:32:05.020 it is possible that America over the coming years

00:32:08.960 undergoes an exorcism

00:32:11.280 and the demonic furries and blue-haired demons are pushed out they're at least no longer prominent

00:32:22.660 they're no longer given cabinet positions in presidential administrations they're no longer

00:32:28.900 given speaking tours at ivory league universities right they're cast out they're at least you know

00:32:37.280 pushed to the margins no longer given prominence no longer given influence and we can do all that

00:32:44.960 from the motivation exclusively of self-preservation and yet there be no filling the house

00:32:54.100 in this sense the national house these united states no filling the house with christ

00:33:00.260 that is christless conservatism and according to jesus and i for one believe jesus according to

00:33:11.200 jesus the final state will be seven times worse america has a chance right now to not just

00:33:19.960 embrace political reform we must do that can't be less than that social cultural reform we must do

00:33:27.080 that can't be less than that but in addition to all that america has a chance to recognize christ

00:33:33.120 as king and to do so publicly unapologetically nationally america has a chance to have

00:33:41.860 national days of repentance and national allegiance pledged to king jesus

00:33:49.300 and if we make all the changes but without that we will be just like Israel

00:33:58.140 notice the point that I'm making is from our text today what Jesus describes in the individual case

00:34:05.080 of an individual man who was demonically possessed and then and then the demons were

00:34:10.240 cast out but the house that one singular man was not filled with communion with the triune God

00:34:16.640 the demons come back the point that i'm making the point that jesus makes is that that doesn't

00:34:21.980 just happen at times with individuals but it could happen and according to jesus it would happen

00:34:28.600 with israel corporately as a whole and if it happened with israel corporately as a whole

00:34:35.520 that there's a corporate application of this demonic principle if it could happen with israel

00:34:42.000 it can happen with us it can happen with us and when i think of the west at large

00:34:46.800 i feel like in many ways we're already there in many ways we're already there what i mean by that

00:34:52.540 is that if you look at our history right there was a time where paganism was quite common for

00:35:02.020 Europeans. But Christ came and he swept the house and he put it in order. And for a thousand years

00:35:13.540 at least, if not longer, Europeans worshipped Christ. They were unapologetically Christian. 0.96

00:35:22.580 And we built great cathedrals in his name and did great, incredible exploits in his name.

00:35:29.140 And then we abandoned Christ.

00:35:33.160 In other words, what I'm saying is that historically, 0.91

00:35:35.620 in the case of Europeans,

00:35:36.980 you could argue that a lot of these things have already happened. 0.89

00:35:40.380 Christ came in and cast out all the demons,

00:35:43.620 cleaned the house, swept it, and put it in order.

00:35:47.060 But then we said, you know what?

00:35:48.520 The house is in order now,

00:35:50.000 and we no longer need Christ.

00:35:52.480 And so we got rid of Him.

00:35:54.780 But the demons are still out there in arid places,

00:35:57.540 and they can, in fact, return.

00:35:59.260 And according to Jesus, they will.

00:36:03.240 And with this house now swept clean and put in order,

00:36:06.900 no longer just pagans throwing axes and shooting bows,

00:36:14.960 but no, a house of a former Christendom

00:36:18.700 with all the innovations and the wisdom

00:36:22.080 that came about from a thousand years of Christendom.

00:36:25.000 Now you have an empty house, swept clean and put in order, that has nuclear access.

00:36:35.020 Demons would love that, right? They used to have battle access. Now they have nuclear weapons.

00:36:45.300 We embrace Christ, got all the benefits of Christ, then kicked Christ out. We kicked him out of our

00:36:52.360 schools we kicked him out of our homes we kicked him out of our government we kicked him out of

00:36:56.920 our nation but we still have all these benefits of all the developments that came about from a

00:37:05.180 people who worshiped jesus for a thousand years and now all those benefits can be taken over not

00:37:11.480 by jesus because we sent him packing but by demons and it's something to be aware of

00:37:17.320 and something to fear and something to stand against going on in your notes i've written this

00:37:25.680 let no one think that satan retreats from his prey without resolve to return he is tireless

00:37:32.260 in his malice and relentless in his schemes the evil spirit finding no rest returns to the soul

00:37:39.480 it once occupied and finding it empty brings with him a company more wicked than himself

00:37:46.100 Thus, the last state becomes worse than the first.

00:37:49.740 Here Christ shows us the desperate folly of resting in temporary deliverance without seeking lasting union with himself.

00:37:59.060 It is not enough to expel sin.

00:38:01.720 It must be replaced with righteousness.

00:38:04.200 It is not enough to cast out the devil.

00:38:07.740 The spirit of Christ must dwell within.

00:38:10.720 So now a personal application and familial application for your homes, your marriages, your children.

00:38:19.520 It is not enough to merely expel sin.

00:38:23.240 It must be replaced with righteousness.

00:38:27.020 You can't just get rid of bad habits.

00:38:29.920 You must develop spiritual disciplines of righteousness.

00:38:36.320 Repentance is two parts.

00:38:38.680 It is to turn from sin and to turn to Christ.

00:38:46.020 A man can hate Christ and still recognize that alcoholism is killing him.

00:38:53.560 It's destroying his health. It's destroying his livelihood.

00:38:56.860 It's destroying all of his relationships, his family.

00:38:59.720 There have been countless cases of people without ever turning to Jesus,

00:39:06.120 still turning from certain vices you can turn from a vice without turning to christ

00:39:14.600 but true repentance is always both it's not just the first it's the first and the latter

00:39:24.600 true christian repentance is to turn from sin and turn to christ and turning to christ is not just

00:39:32.760 private personal emotional affections for christ turning to christ is not just turning to jesus

00:39:40.080 your boyfriend turning to christ is turning to jesus who is king in other words turning to christ

00:39:47.120 is not just turning to him with heart and soul and affection but with hands and feet in discipline

00:39:53.620 when you turn to christ you turn to him in obedience not just love but obedience christ

00:40:02.100 himself said to his disciples, if you love me, you'll obey me. So what does repentance look like?

00:40:08.600 It looks like turning from sin and turning to Christ in affection. But if that affection for

00:40:13.920 Christ be true, if you really love him, you will obey him. So all the time and all the habits and

00:40:20.820 all the behaviors and all the rituals devoted to vice, devoted to sin, devoted to those things

00:40:26.880 which destroy are not just translated to to private you know love affections and and sweet

00:40:35.460 emotions to jesus but no the things you did that were wicked with your hands and your feet you are

00:40:41.760 now replacing with new habits new obedience practical outward obedience to the lord jesus

00:40:48.380 christ that stems from a love for christ from the heart reject sin embrace christ in heart

00:40:59.100 but if you embrace him in heart in love then that will be manifest demonstrated

00:41:07.300 in actions with hands and feet in your lives

00:41:11.280 you want to stop doing destructive habits love jesus but also obey jesus that time has to be

00:41:22.700 filled the time you you spent doing things that destroy that time now has to be filled

00:41:30.040 with things that build up so my family we're going to stop sitting in front of the tv all the time

00:41:37.460 Great. What are you going to do instead?

00:41:41.960 It's not enough to just stop one thing.

00:41:45.380 You must, by grace, begin another.

00:41:49.520 New and better patterns and habits

00:41:52.200 have to take hold, begin to form.

00:41:58.680 To truly repent is to reject sin and embrace Christ.

00:42:02.580 And to embrace Christ is not just to embrace Him

00:42:04.940 in love from the heart,

00:42:07.340 but obedience from our lives.

00:42:10.760 That's what it means to repent.

00:42:12.640 Revelation chapter 3, verse 19 through 20 says this,

00:42:16.060 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten.

00:42:20.040 Be zealous therefore and repent.

00:42:24.120 And I think many in our nation right now

00:42:26.060 are feeling that sense.

00:42:28.660 They're feeling the rebuke.

00:42:30.880 They're realizing, whoa, what have we done?

00:42:33.540 we went way too far in the name of tolerance in the name of of a pseudo love we allowed the orcs

00:42:41.700 to come in and run the town and so many are feeling this sense of zeal they've been rebuked

00:42:50.120 they've been chastened be zealous therefore and repent and many i think right now are willing to

00:42:56.140 do so that's revelation chapter 3 verse 19 but now look at verse 20 here's the next part and it's

00:43:03.760 vital behold i stand this is christ speaking i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my

00:43:12.840 voice and open the door i will come into him and will sup with him that is dying commune with him

00:43:20.860 and he with me.

00:43:24.620 America cannot merely say no to devils.

00:43:28.620 It must say yes to Jesus.

00:43:33.060 And it must do so not just privately.

00:43:35.960 It's not just, oh, if we can only get,

00:43:38.240 you know, 50% of the nation plus one

00:43:41.420 privately in their hearts

00:43:43.300 and in their families and in their homes.

00:43:45.280 No.

00:43:46.500 No, you embraced the devil publicly.

00:43:50.300 That's the last aspect of repentance

00:43:52.760 that we need to talk about.

00:43:54.420 The last point of the sermon today.

00:43:57.460 Wherever the sin was,

00:43:59.340 that's where the repentance must be.

00:44:01.260 In whichever context you sinned,

00:44:04.260 that's the very same context you must repent.

00:44:07.220 You don't get to sin publicly

00:44:08.980 in front of 330 million people

00:44:11.640 and then repent privately.

00:44:15.280 No.

00:44:17.000 You sin publicly, 0.99

00:44:18.420 you repent publicly you embrace beelzebul as a nation publicly then you must reject him and 0.87

00:44:27.180 embrace jesus publicly these united states yes we need solid christian families at an individual 0.85

00:44:34.900 heart level yes not arguing for anything less than that we also need politically and nationally

00:44:41.840 for our leaders to come out in front of everyone on national television and say we reject

00:44:48.080 the demons we reject the demons no more islamic invasion no more literal demon statues in houston 0.94

00:44:59.680 texas 90 feet tall no more demonic gay furries no more demonic antifa no more demonic zionism 0.99

00:45:09.960 all the demons all of them we reject them all and we publicly politically and nationally 0.96

00:45:18.020 declare Jesus Christ Lord of these United States and we pledge our allegiance to him. If that

00:45:24.400 doesn't happen, then you can get radicalized and motivated for two weeks. Maybe if you're really,

00:45:34.040 really, really, really motivated two years from watching Charlie Kirk and seeing what happened,

00:45:40.100 from watching this event and watching that event. But all it'll ever be at the end of the day

00:45:46.920 is demons going out into waterless places

00:45:50.900 and coming back with seven more worse than themselves.

00:45:55.260 America is a house. 0.95

00:45:58.840 The house is filled with demons. 1.00

00:46:01.580 They must be expelled.

00:46:03.340 The house must be cleaned,

00:46:04.900 but it also must be filled.

00:46:07.680 It must be filled with the Spirit of God.

00:46:10.600 And that doesn't get to happen privately

00:46:12.980 where people get to keep their dignity

00:46:15.380 and never have to really admit how bad they messed up.

00:46:18.880 No, you messed up publicly.

00:46:22.180 So now you submit to Jesus publicly.

00:46:25.640 You lock the whole country in their homes. 1.00

00:46:31.340 You force children to have an untested foreign substance

00:46:35.800 injected in their arms just to be able to go to school.

00:46:41.560 You burnt down cities.

00:46:45.380 Because a thug overdosed on fentanyl.

00:46:52.800 You used technology and discord servers

00:46:56.920 to orchestrate political assassinations.

00:47:03.320 No, you don't get to quietly back away.

00:47:08.440 No.

00:47:10.660 No, you did it all publicly.

00:47:14.720 So now you have to repent of it all publicly.

00:47:19.560 And you must pledge allegiance to Christ publicly.

00:47:23.640 Until that happens, America is cooked.

00:47:27.540 And you just need to be aware.

00:47:29.360 We've got some momentum right now.

00:47:33.440 That's good.

00:47:34.400 We can celebrate.

00:47:35.220 I'm not saying you're not allowed to ever celebrate anything.

00:47:37.960 That's good.

00:47:39.740 But I'm just telling you ultimately what has to happen.

00:47:43.860 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.

00:47:58.500 Apart from that, it would be like a cancer patient having a good day.

00:48:04.700 Right. There's some good days. Got a little bit of appetite back.

00:48:07.440 a little bit of strength and you and your spouse and your children your faith you can celebrate

00:48:14.340 that i'm not giving anybody a heart that's great right dad's having a good day mom's having a good

00:48:20.220 day this is awesome we're going to go for a walk in the park praise god we thank you for this

00:48:24.780 blessing but know that ultimately the cancer is not done it's not done until you go back to the

00:48:33.080 doctor, you get all the x-rays, and you find out that it's all been removed. It has to be removed.

00:48:41.380 A little bit of cultural momentum, even a lot of it, of cultural or political momentum is good.

00:48:48.240 Not telling you to black pill and be a pessimist all the time. Celebrate it. But don't celebrate

00:48:53.820 in such a way that you forget the ultimate solution. That's my concern. As a pastor,

00:48:59.360 I want you to celebrate whatever God might be doing, but I don't want you to celebrate it in

00:49:05.040 a way that's naive. To realize, hey, the symptoms have lessened, and so I'm going to celebrate the

00:49:12.100 symptoms lessening at the expense, or to the degree that I no longer think that we actually

00:49:18.480 have cancer at all. I'm going to embrace self-delusion, and I'm going to, you know, celebrate

00:49:26.680 the lessening symptoms to the extent

00:49:28.640 that I'm going to start saying,

00:49:30.300 you know what?

00:49:30.960 Peace, peace,

00:49:32.540 when there is no peace.

00:49:35.560 We're cured when we're not cured.

00:49:40.280 America loves Jesus

00:49:41.640 when they don't love Jesus. 1.00

00:49:47.360 We've got Muslims preaching

00:49:49.200 and praying at the RNC.

00:49:53.160 Right now?

00:49:54.580 America doesn't love Jesus.

00:49:55.880 we're not even close guys not even close so celebrate the victories praise God for the

00:50:04.400 victories do not despair one of the most frequent commands that Jesus gives over and over throughout

00:50:10.720 the gospel narratives is this do not fear so I'm not advocating for fear I'm advocating

00:50:16.840 for sobriety be watchful be sober-minded be honest about the true depth of the problem and you can

00:50:24.280 do all that by the grace of god without being given to despair without being given to fear

00:50:28.500 you're allowed to celebrate the victories as they come but know in your heart of hearts

00:50:34.520 that the solution we're not even close there's a lot more work to be done remain vigilant 0.88

00:50:41.660 start at home start in your marriage start with your children get rid of the vices but fill that

00:50:52.140 space with virtue that's what we need to do that's what we need to do let's pray father thank you for

00:51:02.220 your word bless it to your people and bring about for yourself great great glory we ask this in

00:51:08.000 jesus name amen

The NXR Podcast - September 29, 2025

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

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