Powerful Talk on Demonic Possession

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We're starting in verse 28. As you guys get to Matthew chapter 8 verse 28, you'll see that we're coming to the end of the chapter.

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Obviously the chapter and verse additions are a later insertion into Scripture.

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So as Matthew's not writing saying, okay, chapter 1, chapter 2. But it's important for you to keep in mind, this is obviously organized in sections according to topic and to event and discourse.

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But it's important to remember as you guys open to Matthew 8, 28 and we get into the text together, it's important to remember that Matthew is telling a story through the inspiration of the

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Spirit of God. God is directing this. It is theanoustos. It is God breathed.

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And as Peter says, holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. This is revelation from God.

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But God does this. He gives us this revelation through human authors. They don't lose their humanity in writing

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Scripture. They don't go into a trance when they start writing Scripture and all of a sudden it's not really them writing.

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They're writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, carried along by God's Holy Spirit. It's God's revelation.

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It's His story about His glory, the glory of His Son to the world. God has used this particular text to bless the church for so long.

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I've mentioned as we've done this so many times that this was the most popular of all four

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Gospels in the second century of the Christian church, Matthew. This is the one that Christians were living on.

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Of course, possible there were Christian communities that didn't have the entire New Testament revelation. They might have had bits and pieces and parts, books.

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Maybe they had only Matthew. And they lived off of Matthew. Their lives were transformed by Matthew.

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And Matthew is telling us a story. It's a story with a singular hero. It's about Jesus.

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And the story is a symphony, of course. You have moments where the music is building and then it gets to this point of climax and it ought to excite you.

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And I think Matthew is exactly like that. The whole book of Matthew is like that from beginning to end.

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It really genuinely is, starting off with, this is who Jesus is. He has the right to the throne. This is genealogy.

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Genealogy, I'll prove it to you. Look, here's these pagans coming to worship the Jewish king who was going to save the world.

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All the nations are going to stream to God. And you see the first people coming to worship, Jesus are not Jews, but pagans.

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Matthew is, of course, telling you the story. This is what we expected. Jesus is Mashiach. He's the one we were expecting to come to the world to bring redemption, salvation to the ends of the earth.

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And of course, Matthew ends, Matthew 28, 18 through 20, all authority has been given to me.

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Therefore, go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you to obey.

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And, Lord, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. That's a story of a hero who's accomplished his work and mission.

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And now, here's that climax. He's seated now on his throne. He's ascended to the Father. He's seated now, as the

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Jewish people knew, he's putting all of his enemies under his feet. And then, of course, the final return and the day of judgment, which you're going to see in a moment, the demons are well aware of.

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Matthew 8, starting in verse 28, hear now the words of the living and true

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God. And when he came to the other side, to the country of the

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Gadarenes, two demon -possessed men met him coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.

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And behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us, O son of God?

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Have you come here to torment us before the time? Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them, and the demons begged him, saying, if you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs.

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And he said to them, go. So they came out and went into the pigs, and behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.

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The herdsmen fled, and going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon -possessed men.

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And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region.

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As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray. Father, I want to ask for your special protection upon your church today as we talk about a subject that is so important.

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I pray, God, that you would protect this church from an unhealthy interest in the demonic.

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I pray that you protect our church, Lord, from fear of the demonic. And I pray that you would protect our church from bad theology.

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Help us to understand, Jesus, your victory over darkness. Help us to understand,

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Lord, that every creature you've made is in the palm of your hand, and you do with them as you please.

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Help us to understand that though Satan may be a roaring lion walking about, seeking whom he may devour, as Peter says, he is a lion on a leash.

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Help us to know, Lord, your might, your power and strength over darkness.

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And Lord, bless me today. Get me out of the picture, out of the way. Please, God, speak to your church.

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Teach your church today. I pray that, Lord, through this message, you would build up your church, equip us, and I pray that this message would cause us to love

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Jesus so much more. Speak by your spirit today, Lord, through your word, in Jesus' name, amen.

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So the synoptic gospels, we've got Matthew, Mark, Luke. John is distinct, not seen as one of the synoptics.

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Synoptic means seeing together. So when you hear that word, that synoptic gospels, it's the gospels that you can see together.

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Matthew, Mark, and Luke, these are gospels that you can line up side by side, and you've got eyewitness testimony, and that eyewitness testimony can be laid alongside one another, and you have one story told where Matthew has a particular purpose and point.

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He's going a direction. Don't forget, Matthew is not copying off somebody else, simply plagiarizing. Matthew's telling a story through the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, but he's telling the story to point out particular things that are important to his story.

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And Mark and Luke, many times, you read those stories alongside one another, and you get the full picture.

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You get a better picture of who was actually there. You get a better picture of all the little details that happen around the story that actually,

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I think, make it much more exciting. There are times in the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, where Luke, who is essentially

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Gentile, writing to maybe a more formally Gentile audience, he might actually take things that Matthew might say in a very

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Jewish way, and he takes it and he Gentiles it, right?

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He takes it and he makes it to where you can actually understand, well, what's the point? So I'll give you one example of that in the synoptics.

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So in Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, the Olivet Discourse, the famous Olivet Discourse known to create many cults and to strike fear into the hearts of so many.

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The Olivet Discourse, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilence, plague, the

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Son of Man coming from the east to the west, the angels coming, the gospel being preached to all creation.

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You have the promise of persecution in Matthew 24. And then Matthew says something actually kind of interesting, that if you didn't have your

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Old Testament and you weren't Jewish, maybe you wouldn't understand a word he was saying. He says in Matthew 24, when you see the abomination that causes desolation spoken of through Daniel the prophet, let the reader understand.

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And you might be thinking right now, I don't. Matthew 24, so when you see the abomination of desolation, these early

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Christians are hearing Jesus say, when you see the abomination that causes desolation, he says to flee.

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Well, that's a lot of help if you have no idea what the abomination of desolation is. You're like, thanks, Jesus, I don't know.

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So I guess I'm toast, right? These early Christians are hearing this from Jesus. He tells them, when you see it, when you see what

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Daniel was talking about, then flee. Don't wait. Flee. Don't go back to get your coat.

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Flee. Immediately leave the city. Now Luke, in Luke 21, in the synoptic tradition seen together,

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Luke actually takes what Matthew says as the abomination that causes desolation, very

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Jewish, and he says, very simply, when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies.

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Thank you, Luke, for helping us Gentiles out, right? You saved my life, dude, right?

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So when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, flee. And you can look in the history of the Christian church in the first century, the

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Christians in Jerusalem were the only ones to escape the war between the Romans and the

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Jews because under direction of their Messiah, he told them that when the city was surrounded by the

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Romans, that they were to flee. And isn't it amazing? When you look in history, the Roman armies came. They surrounded

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Jerusalem at that time, and then all of a sudden, Rome started falling apart. The Roman armies turned around, left the city, and started taking off.

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And it's a matter of historical record that the Christians that were there all together fled to a town called

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Pella. And as soon as the Christians left the city, what happened? The Romans turned right back around.

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They came and re -sacked the city, and there went the three -and -a -half -year war between the Romans and the

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Jews, which ended in complete desolation, the temple being destroyed, blood literally pouring through the streets.

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All those things took place. But you see that in the synoptics. You see them seeing together. You've got eyewitness testimony of what happened in the historical narrative of Jesus' life, but some of these authors give us different details.

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Some of them leave details out that weren't important for their story. That's important as you look at this particular scene, because what you need to know is that Matthew chapter 8, this section of the demoniacs, can be lined up side by side, seen together with Mark 5 and Luke chapter 8.

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We're actually going to look at some of those today. So if you line them up together, you get the entire picture. Now this is what's important.

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I'm going to go ahead and just start addressing these things now as we open the text together. When you look at these different synoptic gospels, oftentimes you have

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Matthew giving you details that Mark doesn't give you. And sometimes people who apparently have a hard time reading the

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Bible like they would any other work, people have leapt on that as, well, there's an example of that story isn't word for word exactly the same.

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I say, praise God it isn't. Because if you go into a court of law with testimony or documents that are to practice, to word for word, without incidental details different to H1, you have people that are clearly identifying that they have been working together.

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You can see issues of plagiarism coming up. In the gospels, you see the stories coming together, but one author might emphasize one person over two people.

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One author might actually give you more details that were relevant to his story than the other. I'll give you an example.

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I'll give you a story from last night. Last night, I went to a birthday party at the bowling alley.

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I don't usually hang out in bowling alleys. I did when I was 16 a lot, some of you guys know what I'm talking about, right? I went to a great bowling alley,

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I went to a birthday party. And I actually got to hang out a bit with Esther, and Esther and I got into a fantastic conversation about Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine.

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His first public miracle, He's there at the celebration, it's a wedding, and now you have the Messiah's first public miracle being turning water into wine.

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Very, very good, highly alcoholic wine.

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That's the truth. It wasn't no Welch's grape juice, right? It was delicious, aged wine.

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That's what it was. You can't get away from it. That's what the people at the wedding thought. This is amazing, right?

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Usually they save this stuff for the end of the wedding, and now you got the good stuff up front. Way to go. It's amazing, right? Well, here you got

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Jesus' first public miracle, and like, what does that mean? So Esther and I are talking about what exactly does that mean?

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And I pointed at Isaiah 25 and God's promise that when this all came about, that He was going to create a feast for His people and give them the most delicious aged wine.

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And I talked about there's so much to wine in Scripture that has symbolism, and we're going into it.

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We had a great, fantastic discussion about that first public miracle of Jesus. Great conversation.

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Now, you know what? There's someone else that can tell a story to you after service, and that's

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Summer. Summer was there as well. I didn't tell you that part, did I? Summer could tell you the story from a different perspective about how her and Esther were actually talking together about that text together, and I leapt into the conversation and actually started talking together with them.

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Now, are we telling two different stories? I'm talking about the story from my perspective, emphasizing what

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I want to emphasize for my own purposes. Now, there's a different way to tell that story that gives you more details about the people that were there and what was actually talked about in the conversation.

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It's not conflicting stories. It's each person emphasizing something that actually is important for them.

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The synoptics are that way. As you have these eyewitness testimonies coming together, you get a fuller, bigger picture of what actually took place.

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So again, Matthew chapter 8, Mark chapter 5, and Luke chapter 8, you can see together.

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Don't forget that Matthew is telling a powerful story. Grab hold of this, because the whole story is a good story about a hero accomplishing what

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God had promised and is getting to a climax in Matthew 28. However, there are these little bits and pieces where there is a mini story that has its own slow start and build up into a massive, beautiful moment where you're supposed to say, oh.

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The tears fill your eyes. You get excited. Matthew chapter 8 works like that. Let me give you an example as a run through.

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Matthew chapter 8 starts off with what? Jesus now is finished with the Sermon on the Mount. He enters into his public ministry now, actually touching people and healing people.

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He's doing what? He's teaching in their synagogues. He's proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and he's healing them of all their sicknesses and diseases.

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That's the ministry of Jesus that we see before us here in Matthew 8. And Jesus does what? He comes in, and I told you guys, be cautious, be very, very careful in thinking that when

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Jesus performs miracles that he's a wonder worker only. The world is filled with people that do things like that.

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If you turn on, if you pull up YouTube, you can get lost in all the charlatans and religious con artists that are manipulating people with these feats, these magical wonders.

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I saw one just the other day. It's this famous African preacher who was doing a magic trick where it looked like he was floating, and it was all over the news in Africa, and here's this preacher that actually hovered.

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He was actually flying in a sense, and all it was was just sleight of hand magician stuff.

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You ought not see Jesus as merely a wonder worker in the same way you see these charlatans. When Jesus was performing these miracles, they were signposts to something greater.

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When Jesus raises a little girl that's dead from the dead and gives her her life back, it's pointing to the reality that Jesus is the giver of life.

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He has power over death. He actually has the ability to raise the dead. So in the resurrection on the last day when

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God is done with everything, that sign of Jesus performing that particular miracle is assurance to you and to me that He actually has the ability to raise us from the dead.

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There will be a final resurrection. He raised a little girl from the dead. He raised a little boy from the dead. He raised people from the dead,

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Lazarus from the dead, and He raised Himself from the dead. He said, destroy this temple, and in three days

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I will raise it up again. Not merely a wonder worker, Jesus is doing something that's pointing to the greater reality of who

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He is. Matthew chapter 8 starts off, and Jesus is doing what? He starts His ministry of healing. He heals a leper.

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They saw lepers as unclean people. They wanted Him away from them. Don't touch me. Stay away from my kids.

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Stay on that side of the street. They were seen as unclean. They thought in that day that if you had leprosy, it was because of some sin in your life.

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You were cursed by God. Here, Jesus doesn't just heal them with the Word. He does something much more beautiful, much more meaningful.

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He doesn't just say to the leper, be clean. He touches these people. The ministry of Jesus' touch where He reaches out and He actually embraces the unclean.

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He embraces the sick and the diseased. He hangs out with the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the scum of society.

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He actually embraces those people, and now Matthew's telling you that. Here comes Jesus now into this ministry where He's actually healing and teaching and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and Jesus touches an unclean person, and they're healed, and Jesus says a word to another, and they're healed, and Jesus says a word, and He heals somebody that's actually not even in front of Him, and then

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Jesus shows His authority over sickness and disease, and as the story moves on, you see the healing, of course, in Peter's house.

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You see this beautiful moment of Jesus touching this woman, and then you have the passage we all dealt with together.

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Dustin touched on it. He touched on it in a moment of great pain for our church, and you know if you were there, you know that that moment of Jesus actually stilling the storm, of Him saying, peace, be still, and that water just calms down.

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You know that that sign was not merely wonder working. It wasn't just Jesus showing

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His might and His power and just His ability to control the world. It actually showed who

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He was. It says in the Bible that only Yahweh controls the seas, and here's

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Yahweh as a man actually saying to His world, be calm, be still, and it stills.

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You see His disciples freaking out like we often do because of the storm and the waves, and don't you even care?

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We're perishing, Jesus, and then Jesus says, little faiths, and He actually does what?

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He calms the storm, and they say, what kind of guy is this that even the wind and the seas obey

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Him, and Jesus shows His authority there over the physical elements, and you know there's so much more to that story than just Jesus controlling waves, much, much more.

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It's not just that. It's much more. The story's building. He has power over sickness and disease.

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He has authority over that. He has authority over the physical world. He can actually speak to the waves, and they'll rise up.

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He can speak to them, and they will calm down, and now you have the climax. Now the story's picked up.

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It's building. It's building authority over sickness and disease, authority over the physical world, and now it's authority over the demonic.

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It's authority over something that all of us in quiet moments in the dark can fear.

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You know what I'm talking about. You ever been in a room where it's dark, walking down a dark hallway by yourself?

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You ever been in a situation where maybe you're in the woods, and it's dark at night, and you get fear?

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You walk in the woods today in North Carolina, South Carolina, and there are clowns?

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You know what I'm saying? Like that fear that we all can succumb to sometimes where you're like, is something in my house?

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Is something behind me? Well, they had those fears too, but for them it was actually real because, listen, the spiritual forces of wickedness knew that that was the time of the

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Messiah, and how did they know? They know their Bibles. The Bible tells us when

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Jesus was coming. Daniel chapter 9, Daniel chapter 2, the timing of the Messiah. The kingdom of Rome was there.

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They knew the 70 weeks prophecy. It had landed at that time. They knew the birth of Jesus. They knew, and there was a frenzy of demonic activity.

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They experienced it, and so for them, this moment that Matthew shows us of Jesus having authority over the demonic, dark, evil forces is a climax.

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It's not a small, incidental detail, oh yeah, and there was these demoniacs. It's Jesus demonstrating his full authority over sickness and disease, over the physical world, and over spiritual forces of wickedness, demons.

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Something they could have no control over, something they couldn't even necessarily see and touch, it's a spiritual realm.

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The world is not just matter and motion. There is a spiritual realm at force. There are things called, there is a thing called love.

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Is it real? Yes. Can you touch it? Can you see its love?

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How about laws of math? Can you see a law of math?

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You can see its representation, but is that law of math on the page? No. Those are laws that exist in the world, in the real world, but you cannot see them, touch them, taste them, weigh them.

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They have a reality to them, an actual existence, but it's immaterial. Laws of logic, same way.

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Real laws, real existence is not something we've just made up in our minds. It's a reflection of the way the world is, the way the world actually is, because God governs it.

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And there are spiritual creatures, angels. You and I have a spiritual aspect to our being.

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We are not just physical animals, creatures. We have an immaterial aspect to our being.

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And these early Jews knew about the reality of the devil.

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They knew about the reality of dark spiritual forces. They knew about the enemy. They saw a frenzy of activity in that time because of the time

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Jesus was entering into the world. The devil knew that his time was short. He knew what

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God was going to accomplish. He knows God keeps his promises, so there's a frenzy of activity in the first century because Messiah has entered the world.

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And they knew it was around them. And now Jesus actually has control of that.

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He has, once again, authority over sickness and disease, uncleanness. Jesus has authority over the storms, the physical world.

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Jesus has authority over demons, evil. Now let's pause for one moment.

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I said at the very, very beginning, this is vitally important to get. It is very, very important for us as Christians not to have an unhealthy interest in the demonic.

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That is so important. If you actually enter into the world of the occult, if you pick up things like the

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Satanic Bible by Anton Svendor -LeVay, you need to know that you're entering a world of real darkness.

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There is a reality to it, and it is not something you should be playful with. It is not a world you should walk into flippantly.

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Many, many years ago, this became an area of study of my own, and I can tell you right now that engaging in this study itself opens up all kinds of opportunity to reach into that world, to bring the gospel.

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But it also, I believe, opens, in a certain sense, pathways that were closed before that allow for a lot of combat to take place.

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So I want to encourage you, be very, very cautious about entering into this world.

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You should not do it in a cavalier way. You have authority over the demons as believers.

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You have power over them, but it is not a world you should enter into with your guards down.

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You should also be careful as Christians when you enter into this discussion not to have an unhealthy interest, an obsession with this world.

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You should not have as Christians fear of this world, and you should be cautious about your angeology, your study of angels.

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Who are they? What are they? What are they capable of? Let's talk about it for a moment.

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Let's talk about a look at demons. As we go through the text, I want to make sure that we answer questions. Number one, demons are fallen spiritual creatures.

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Demons are fallen spiritual creatures. They are fallen what? Fallen angels.

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And so the text you want to have at your ready, so let's do it together. Go to Jude verse 5 through 7.

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Jude verse 5 through 7, only one chapter in Jude. Jude verse 5 through 7, here we go.

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Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus who saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe.

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So much for meek and mild Jesus. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling,

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He has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day.

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Mark that. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

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Now since you're in Jude, I want you to move over now to Revelation chapter 12. This is, of course, again, in light of the fact that demons are fallen spiritual creatures, angels destined for eternal fire and judgment.

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Revelation chapter 12 verse 9, and the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.

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The Bible teaches us that Satan, Lucifer, the devil, is a fallen angel.

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The devil wanted to be like God. He wanted to rise above his estate where he was at.

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He wanted to be like God. The devil ultimately, Jesus says, is a murderer. He is a liar.

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He is the father of lies. He is a deceiver. He hates your soul. He is the accuser of the brethren, and the devil and his angels fell.

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Now you ought to know this from the very beginning. The devil and his angels, the devil and demons, are not causing a problem for God.

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This is one of the most important myths to dispel about demons and the devil. The devil is not

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God's adversary in the sense that we have like it's Jesus versus the devil. Somehow they're in a fight with one another.

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The devil is on a leash. He is on a chain. God only allows him to do what

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God's will is to do. The devil and his demons have absolutely no power whatsoever over Christians.

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The devil is not a mighty, powerful force in your life in terms of actually possessing you or somehow exerting power over you that God cannot stop.

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You should know that. But demons are fallen spiritual creatures. They are fallen angels.

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Next, point number two. Demons and the devil are liars, John 8, 44, deceivers, 2

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Corinthians 11 verses 3 and 4. They lead people astray, 1

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John 4, 1. They know the truth. Now this is important to get and you got to make sure you grab hold of this because you're going to see, this is really powerful, that here in Matthew, who are the people making that big profession about who

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Jesus is? Is it his disciples? Are they like saying, oh you're the son of God, you're the Messiah? Who are the first ones to actually call out to Jesus in this kind of a way talking about who

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Jesus is? It's the demons. They know well who Jesus is.

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They were with him. They know who Jesus is. So when he appears among them, they're startled by it and they call him son of God.

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They know precisely who he is. Now that should have been evidence to the early Jews who rejected

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Jesus Christ that these demons which are running rampant at the time, demonic possession was actually again a frenzy at that point because of the time they were in, they should have seen that these devils immediately knew who they were confronting.

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It was Jesus. And they were all so terrified of him. Look what they say in Matthew 8, look what they say.

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It says, they were so fierce, no one could pass that way, verse 29, and behold they cried out, what have you to do with us, oh son of God?

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Have you come here to torment us before the time? They knew who he was. They knew what power he had and they knew their destination.

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They knew where they were headed. That's important. Their theology is great. James chapter 2, what's

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James say about belief? He says, you believe God is one, you do well. He says, even the demons believe and they are terrified.

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They tremble. They believe in God. That's a good point to make right there about demons, right?

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They acquiesce to the facts about God. They know he's one. They know who the Father is, the Son is, the

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Holy Spirit is. They know God's holiness. They know his mercy. They know his salvation. They know it all.

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And they would affirm every bit of it, they did. They said, you're Jesus, you have the power, and we know where we're going.

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We know who you are. We affirm who you are. We confess who you are. But they don't believe him.

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They don't trust him. They don't come to God for mercy and grace. Their theology is great.

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You can have pure theology and you can go to the lake of fire with the devil and his angels because if you don't turn to Christ in faith from sin to God, you don't know him.

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They knew him. They had an acquiescence to the facts. They knew who Jesus was, but they didn't know him intimately.

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So they know the truth. They are terrified of Jesus, Matthew 8, 29.

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They are destined for hell. You want to see this. Matthew 25, verse 41, 25, verse 41.

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Jesus is talking now about this great judgment and in verse 41, something terrifying.

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It says, then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

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Important point to make on this. Hell is in the eternal state.

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It's a place that is real. It is eternal. It is conscious.

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And the Bible says here from the lips of Jesus, he says that hell was created for the devil and his angels.

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You say, well, what are humans doing there? We know that God is sovereign. He decrees all things from the end to the beginning.

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He is sovereign over salvation. But there is a sense we need to recognize, the devil ordained hell, sorry,

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God ordained hell for the devil and his angels. That's why it was created. Human beings go there by perverse choice.

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They don't want God. So they get God as judge, and they get hell as their perverse choice.

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Hell is the fulfillment of their desires. When people go to hell, they are not going to hell kicking and screaming in terms of saying, but God, I really wanted you.

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Hell is a place that is created by God for the devil and his angels. People go there by their perverse choice, and they are getting for eternity what they always wanted in life, not

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God. They are getting for eternity what they always wanted to be away from God, not to hear

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God. I don't want His voice. I don't want His hand of mercy. I don't want Him before me.

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And ultimately, of course, God is the sovereign over salvation and His grace and salvation.

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But there is a true commitment to our own perverse choice to go to a place that was created for the devil and his angels.

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That's Matthew. Next, you need to know, besides the fact that they are terrified of Jesus, that they are destined for hell, that we have authority and power over them.

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And you need to see this together. Go to Luke chapter 10. When discussing demons, you'll find that Christians run into great conflict and controversy on this point.

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There are entire, quote -unquote, ministries that are dedicated to casting out demons out of Christians.

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That is one of the most ridiculous things that can be imagined. There's a famous man named

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Bob Larson, who has been on television, used to be on the radio, who has an entire ministry –

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I don't know what he's doing now, I actually hear he lives in town, okay – entire ministry dedicated to casting devils out of Christians.

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And the show is grand, let me tell you. I actually called into a radio show once over 10 years ago where Bob Larson was on a local radio station.

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I called in from a pay phone. Tells you how long ago it was. Waited for a while, got on the radio with him, and actually confronted – he was going for a while, just talking about his ministry and casting out devils, telling stories, and nobody was challenging him, and it was getting under my skin.

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And so I pulled the car over and dropped a quarter in and called up, got on the radio with him, and I started giving him

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Bible verses about Christians, and our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit, and God indwelling us, and what accord is there with Satan and the devil, and one kingdom divided against itself, and how does

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God share His building with the devil, quoting Scripture, and he had no response. They ended up disconnecting the phone line, and then

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I turned the radio back on, and it was glorious. For the next half an hour to 45 minutes, one Christian after the other was calling in and quoting the same

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Bible verses. It was glorious. You should know that we have authority over demons.

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You ought not to fear the devil. Should you be serious about his presence?

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Yes. Should you equip yourself and put on the full armor of God? Yes. Should you play with fire?

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No. But do you have cause as Christians to fear an enemy that has already been defeated by God, that has an eternal destination of torment and fire?

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No. And one text you need to have in your toolbox as Christians is Luke chapter 10 verses 17 through 20.

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I want you to see it with me. Jesus here, verse 17, the 72 returned with joy saying,

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Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them,

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I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.

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Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

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Jesus is saying, look, you shouldn't be so obsessed with the fact that you as a believer, as a child of God, have authority over these spiritual forces of darkness.

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You should actually be impressed with, you should glory in the fact that your names are written in heaven. That should be the source of your obsession, your joy, not the fact that you have power over the enemy.

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There's actually a text in the book of Acts of people who actually were pretty impressed with the fact that Christians had authority over the demons, and they tried to do it themselves and it didn't work out so well for them.

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Jesus is pointing people to their true source of joy, not the power that comes from your fingertips or your mouth, it's the fact that you're known by God, loved by God.

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That's the truth. Now, let's talk about demonic possession because it's right before us in Matthew chapter 8.

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Important subject. You've learned now about demons, what they are. You've learned about some of their aspects, traits, characteristics.

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This is, of course, not exhaustive. The third point is demonic possession consists of specific traits.

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Now, by the way, I'm going to say this before I start this. Be careful with this. So many people in history have erred because they don't think about context.

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They don't allow the whole story to come into play. They don't think about the fact that Jesus has accomplished

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His mission and disarmed these spiritual forces of darkness. So at times in history, there have been good -meaning, well -meaning

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Christians that have seen people who have physical disabilities and they've actually attributed that physical disability to a devil.

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So for example, because Jesus actually in the text casts a demon out of a mute person and then a person can speak again, it does not mean that people who can't use their voices all are demonically possessed.

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That's not what it means. But there are some specific traits to look for.

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Demonic possession consists of specific traits. One, lack of control over the possessed person's body.

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That's Luke chapter 11 verse 14. That example is with a mute person. More examples could be provided, but that's an example of demonic possession.

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They have power over the possessed person's body. Next trait, uncontrollable rage and anger.

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Uncontrollable rage and anger. For this one, I want you to keep a finger in Matthew chapter 8 with me and go ahead and put another finger in Mark chapter 5 and let's look at the fuller explanation that Mark gives of this same account.

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Here it is again from Matthew chapter 8. Listen to it again. Matthew chapter 8, it says this, verse 28, and when he came to the other side of the country of the

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Gadarenes, two demon -possessed men met him coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one could pass that way.

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So fierce. Now read Mark chapter 5, starting in verse 1, they came to the other side of the sea to the country of the

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Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs, mark that, out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit.

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He lived among the tombs and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain.

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For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart and he broke the shackles in pieces.

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No one had the strength to subdue him. So you see, there are these examples in Scripture of demonically possessed people.

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They have uncontrollable rage and anger. They also have unusual strength,

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Mark 5, 3. They seem to be out of their minds. Read Luke 8, 27.

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Now keep your fingers now, one in Matthew, one in Mark, and now I want you to go to Luke chapter 8, verse 27,

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Luke 8, 27. In Luke's account, it says, when

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Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time, he had worn no clothes and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.

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Here's a man not living in his home who is not wearing clothes, who is not able to be bound.

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He is a nutcase, crazy person, right? It's amazing.

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After church last week, last week, really, really hungry to come down from the mountain from our leadership retreat.

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I was having a hard time up here last week. I didn't show it. You should be impressed. My head was hurting really, really bad.

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God was good. But afterwards, I needed to get something to eat, so I took the kids right away, went across the street to Boston Market.

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We go inside, we order food, and my daughter, Imogen, so wonderful.

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We love Imogen. She decides out of the entire restaurant, wonderful places to sit.

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Every table is wide open except for one person in the restaurant. And Imogen decides out of the entire restaurant to go and sit at a table right next to the guy who is literally there talking to himself.

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I went over to the fountain to get the drinks, and I noticed this guy is over there in a rage talking to himself, having a wonderful conversation, and he's really upset with whoever he's talking to.

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And I see Imogen sitting there, and so I said very gently to Imogen, I said, Imogen, hey, you want to come help me with a drink real fast?

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And she's like, nah, right? I'm trying to get this girl out of her seat so we can sit somewhere that might be a little safer.

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You know what I'm talking about. You ever been on a subway system? Lot of demons, right?

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You ever been in a place where you have someone that's obviously out of their mind? Picture the story. Here is one person being identified in Mark and Luke, the one that they want to emphasize of the demon -possessed men in the story.

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Here's the person being emphasized, he, uncontrollable rage, naked, living in the cemetery.

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No home. Can't bind him. Everyone's terrified of this guy.

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Crazy. We've had a few people like that actually grace the halls of Apologia Church over the years.

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Some of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about. And you know what you think. You're kind of worried for your own safety.

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That's how they felt. This is a person who obviously was out of their mind. Demonic possession has these kinds of traits.

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Again, lack of control over the person's body, uncontrollable rage and anger. They have unusual strength.

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They seem to be out of their minds. They have an unusual fixation on death. In these stories, the synoptic stories together, what do you see?

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You see, the demoniacs are living in the tombs.

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So there's obviously something there, I think, that's a hint to the uncleanness of this man, these demons, but also there's something to that.

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Out of your mind, unbelievable rage and strength, naked, living in the tombs, amongst the tombs of dead people.

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But there's more. The possessed person is fixated upon injuring themselves.

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Matthew 17, 14 through 20, one account is this demonically possessed person is, when this starts coming on, this person is being thrown into the fire and the water.

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Self -injury is a trait of demonic possession. But one point I want you to see, because I think it's relevant,

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Mark 5, 5. Mark 5, 5. In Mark 5, 5, it says, night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.

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There seems to be a trait that you can see consistently across the board with demonic possession is there is a fixation upon self -injury.

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Now, I pointed you to, at the beginning, to you can't look at any one of these things and say, oh, that person's demonically possessed.

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But if you take these stories together and you actually start identifying some common themes, you see these as characteristics, traits of people who are actually possessed by demons.

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Okay, a couple of points to make here. Oh, one more thing, sorry. They have the ability to speak. In Luke 8, 30, final point on these characteristics,

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Luke 8, verse 30. This is interesting.

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As the story gets filled out, it says,

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Jesus then asked him, what is your name? And he said, legion, for many demons had entered him, and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

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They knew who he was, they knew his power, and when Jesus spoke, they had to answer. But they spoke out of the man and identified themselves.

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So demons have that ability to speak through the person they possess.

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Important point here, they cannot possess Christians. Let me say that again so you can grab hold of it because it will dispel so many myths about demonic possession.

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Demons cannot, cannot possess Christians. There is no example in the entire

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Bible of a person who is regenerate, who is a believer, who is justified, who has faith in Jesus, who is possessed by a demon.

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It does not happen, it cannot happen, and here's some texts. Again, not exhaustive, but some important texts.

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Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. 2 Corinthians chapter 6.

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This one is one of my, one of my favorite verses actually. 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 14 through 16.

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Here we go. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. In case you're wondering, yep, that's what it says.

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Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Does that mean

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Christians can't date unbelievers? Yeah. That's what it means.

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Now, does that mean that God can't redeem a situation, that He can't bring about salvation and grace in a situation that happened?

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Absolutely, God is good. He's good all the time and God redeems those. You see salvation being brought in those contexts constantly, but that doesn't mean that just because God can strike a straight blow with a crooked stick that we should go about using crooked sticks all the time.

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Amen? Okay. So, can God redeem those? Absolutely. Can He bless? Can He bring about His wholeness there and His beauty?

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Of course He can. But the text says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Here we go. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?

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Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial?

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Here's the point. What accord does Jesus have with the devil? What does

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He have in common with the devil? What does He share with the devil? If God is telling us as believers, you don't be unequally yoked with an unbeliever and come together and be as one, because what accord does

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Jesus have with the devil? If you're a child of God, and this is a child of wrath, what accord is there?

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And how can we say that Christians can be indwelt by God's Holy Spirit, be brought from death to spiritual life, to have

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God's name on us, to be saved by God, loved by God, God's children, and at the same time, we're being shared by the devil?

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Let's put it this way. The way that Dr. Walter Martin put it is that God is the owner of your building.

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And He ain't looking for any more tenants. He owns your body,

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He owns your life, He indwells you, and Satan has no place there in your life.

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Another example is 1 Corinthians 3, verses 16 through 17, Matthew 12, 25, famous passage,

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Jesus says, what about a kingdom divided against itself? What's it say? It cannot stand.

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No, it is not possible for Christians to be indwelt by the devil. So Christians, it's a popular way of putting this, you've probably heard this, one,

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Christians cannot be possessed by the devil or demons. Christians, however, can be oppressed.

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Of course, the Bible tells us plainly there is a spiritual battle going on. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

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That's not our warfare. Our warfare is against spiritual forces of wickedness.

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Our battle is against the demonic. Our battle is a spiritual battle, and it's a real battle that actually takes place.

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It's real. So for Christians, it's a real battle, but you cannot be overtaken by the devil.

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That's important. They can oppress Christians. Again, the text to go there is

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Ephesians 6, 10 through 18, put on the full armor of God. This is where your warfare is.

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It's a spiritual battle. Gird up your loins, right? Shield, breastplate, helmet of salvation.

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You know the text, but it's a real fight. They cannot possess you, though. They can only move in your life, ready, by permission.

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That's what I love so much about Dr. White's message to us as a church. It had so many components to it that should reach us right now in our lives.

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I'll give you an example. He said that our life is hidden with Christ and God, and he said what? He said that that means that nothing that enters into my life enters in apart from a loving hand of our

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Father. That means that even if there is demonic oppression in my life, God is doing something.

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He's going to show His victory over my enemies, and He's going to show me His glory in the fight.

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Do you see that? Only allowed by divine permission. Great text is

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Job chapter 1. God's bragging on Job, and the devil's like, well, that's because you give him everything he wants, right?

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That's because everything's good. He's not complaining. He's fine. And what does God do? He says, here's what

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I'm going to let you do. You can do this, but you can't do this. And of course, we know the end of the story in Job after all the destruction and misery and all the questions and all the friction and chaos and all the disharmony and questions.

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You see, the very end of Job, what? The glory of God, the power of God, the creator of all things, the sustainer of all things, the sovereign, the almighty, and then

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God restores to Job all that was taken away and more. But remember that the devil brings this in, but at no point during that process did the devil have power over God's will.

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He didn't thwart God. Demons can only enter your life in a sense of oppression by divine permission.

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They are on a leash. Okay. So I'm not obsessed with the demonic demons' possession.

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I'm not obsessed with it. I know how dark that world is. I know how difficult it is. I've read the Satanic Bible.

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It's ridiculous. I've entered into this world and ministered to people who are here, but I have had in my life points of contact with people in ministry.

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I've talked to many people who've thought that they are demonically possessed or have been possessed or are somehow being impacted by devils, the devil demons, who just weren't.

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They're just scared, and there's no reason to fear. And I've ministered to those people. I've asked certain questions.

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I've asked questions that are related to the text that I brought to you today. What have you experienced? I don't tell them what to tell me.

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I just ask them, what have you experienced? And when they tell me, I try to filter through this content from Scripture.

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Are these things present? Because you see, I don't think demonic possession is actually commonplace in our day with Jesus defeating and triumphing over these things, with the devil actually now bound, as the devil can no longer deceive the nations.

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And with the victory that Jesus has accomplished, listen, listen, the war is over. Do you understand that?

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It is over. The rest of history is a mopping up project for the glory of Jesus Christ. All that's happened now is, ready?

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The city itself has already been won. There are some side battles still taking place, skirmishes outside the city.

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We've got to mop those up. That's history. So the devil, demonic possession, I do not believe is normative for our experience.

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But can it happen? Yes, it can happen. When I filter through these questions with people, I ask them. And if I don't see these traits,

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I say, no, you need to think about the gospel. Are you saved? Do you know Jesus? That's the most important thing. Because even if you were demonically possessed, demon -possessed, you need to be saved.

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I didn't expect this. I wasn't looking for it. I wasn't asking for it.

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I wasn't seeking out an opportunity to pursue something like this. It happened to me.

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I didn't expect it in my own experience. I note that in my ministry to drug and alcohol -addicted people, you do find a lot of demonic forces at work with people who pursue an altered state of mind in substance abuse.

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You do see a lot of darkness and demonic forces at work in that area. That is true, more than normal.

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So when I was at Calvary for many years, I would have to confront issues at times where I thought that's a legitimate case of possible demonic possession.

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This one is not. I've run into two cases in my life of true,

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I am certain demonic possession. One case, I was ministering to a girl about 26 years old, really pretty girl, young girl.

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She'd walk through the hallways and every guy at the drug and alcohol rehab center was like following her around.

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So I'm sitting down with her one day and this girl is a wreck. She's a wreck. She looks a mess.

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She has a life just lost in her eyes, just honestly, darkness, overcomer.

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She looks sick. She looks weak. She looks like she's had enough.

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And so we're talking and I'm trying to get to the gospel and I'm giving her the gospel and I ask her for her story.

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And she tells me her story. She says she was raised in a Christian home, a strong Christian home with parents who always went to church, took her to church.

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She knew what a Juanus was. She did the whole thing, went to youth group, the whole thing. When she was 18 years old, her father abandoned the family and he went to go be with a woman, a mistress he had been with.

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Left the mom, left the kids, left the whole family. And she was so angry with him that she decided to get back at her dad to make him angry.

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She would go and do all the things that he had preached against her whole life. So early on in her life, her father would tell her, don't mess with Ouija boards.

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Don't get into tarot card reading. Don't get into the occult. Don't do this. Don't do that. And so what did she do?

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She leapt into it full force. And she did it to anger her father. Everything he said don't do because it'll open up things in your life that you do not want opened, she decided to enter into.

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She started taking drugs. She started doing things to get into an altered state of consciousness. She started taking drugs to communicate with demons.

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And she got something that she wasn't looking for and didn't expect. She noticed that after a time, she started being able to communicate with demons.

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She started getting overcome. She started actually losing the ability to control her own body.

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She would wake up in the middle of the night, three in the morning, and she was seized, couldn't move. She would be surrounded by fury and anger.

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She's describing all this to me. She had demons that spoke to her.

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She's describing everything that you see in these passages in terms of this is the trait of somebody who is truly demon possessed.

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I had no anticipation in that moment of doing an exorcism. She's telling me her story.

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I'm listening. And so I'm giving her the gospel. She still looks a mess.

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I had no, at that moment, really plan to do anything related to that.

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I thought maybe that was her experience. She's here now in front of me. Give her the gospel. And so at the end of this meeting, and she tells me her whole story,

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I thought to myself, this is true demonic possession. But she didn't say it was a current experience in her life, so I kind of left it aside, gave her the gospel.

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I said, do you mind if we pray real fast? She says, sure. So I remember it distinctly, vividly in my mind.

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I leaned over and I started to pray. And I'm just praying for her. God, please open her eyes to Jesus.

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And all of a sudden, all at once, never experienced this in my life,

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I was overcome and overwhelmed with the thickest feeling of hatred

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I have ever experienced in my life. You ever been in a situation with somebody who is extremely angry with you?

01:00:08

You ever been in a fight with somebody where you can sense their anger and your heart rate goes up?

01:00:14

You can almost feel the hatred and the anger. You ever been in a situation like that? I'm right in the middle of praying for this girl and her salvation, and all of a sudden, this feeling of hatred, animosity, anger, literally comes down on me.

01:00:29

It wasn't me, I wasn't angry, I felt it. And all of a sudden, as I recognized it,

01:00:38

I started to pray for it. Father, whatever right now is in this room, whatever is happening right now,

01:00:46

Lord, protect us, God, and in the name of Jesus, God, please surround us, God, with your protection.

01:00:52

And all of a sudden, it got worse and worse, and it grew and it grew, and the hairs were standing up on the back of my neck.

01:01:03

For a moment, I was terrified. And so I prayed, Father, in the name of Jesus, right now, free this young woman from this demonic possession,

01:01:13

God, I pray that you would please protect us, God, please show up, God, bring salvation, God, free her, be a shield to me, and all of a sudden, it started to subside, to subside, and then it went away.

01:01:26

And I looked up, she looked up, she said nothing, I said nothing.

01:01:32

I stood up, and I couldn't believe what just happened. I walked out of the room, and I did what

01:01:38

I think most people would do, I called my pastor buddy.

01:01:45

I called Luke, I was like, Luke, you are not gonna believe what just happened to me. He'll tell you the story,

01:01:50

I called him immediately. I said, this is what just happened to me, you need to pray for this girl. And so for a period of about two weeks afterwards,

01:01:56

I started to minister to this girl, she comes to group, I give her the gospel, I answer her questions. And then the day that she left,

01:02:04

I met with her. I sat down with her, and she turned to Christ. Her face was different, she had life in her eyes, she was alive.

01:02:12

She was saved, she's talking about God, and how He saved her, and she loves Jesus now, and her life is transformed, she feels free, she looked alive.

01:02:22

We hadn't talked about what happened that day, didn't say a word. Until she was leaving that day,

01:02:28

I said to her, I said, can I ask you a question? She's like, yeah. I said, do you remember when you came here a couple weeks ago, and we prayed at the end, and all of a sudden her countenance changed?

01:02:40

She said, yes. She looked afraid. I said, do you remember, did you feel anything when we prayed at the end of that?

01:02:51

And then she started crying. She said, oh my gosh, I thought that I was crazy,

01:02:56

I thought I was the only one. Did you feel that too? I said, I have never experienced anything like that in my life.

01:03:03

I said, tell me this, what did you experience when I started praying for you?

01:03:09

And she said, hatred, pure hatred.

01:03:15

I was like, that was an amazing experience.

01:03:22

Not so much because of the story and the experience, it was amazing because the moment

01:03:27

I started to pray against what was going on, in the name of Jesus, freedom.

01:03:36

Not only protection for me and her, but also ultimately her own salvation, she turned to Christ. Here was a woman who got into the occult, was a dancer in adult clubs, was in adult films.

01:03:50

Now, redeemed, loving Jesus, life transforms. God has power over the enemy.

01:03:59

So let's go a little further today to talk about what these demons say, just quickly.

01:04:10

I want you to notice something. Look at Matthew 8. Go there real fast. This is pretty cool. You guys are going to love this. Matthew 8. The two demon -possessed men met him coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.

01:04:22

And behold, they cried out, what have you to do with us, O son of God? Quickly, it literally says, get this, it literally says, what is it to us and to you?

01:04:33

If you read it in the Greek, it says, what is it to us and to you? It sounds like it makes no sense.

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Jesus, what is it to us to you? You're like, what's that mean? It's an idiom. It's an idiom that means we have nothing in common.

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It's an idiom that means leave us alone, we've got nothing in common. Now depending on the context of that idiom, it can either be offensive or it can be kind of gracious.

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Do you know who else said this word for word? If you read John chapter two,

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Jesus' mom, the scene with Jesus' mom. Jesus says it to Mary when she tells him what to do, he says this idiom, what is it to us and to you?

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It's a way of saying, what do we have in common right now? Like what are we doing here?

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Like you gotta leave me alone about this. Now the demons aren't doing it in that way.

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They're saying, what do we have in common, Jesus? What are you doing here? Leave me alone. So the demons now say something.

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They say, have you come here to torment us before the time? Do you notice that?

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Their theology is actually pretty decent. What do they know? They know who Jesus is, they know his power, and they know there's gonna be a day of final judgment and they were a little surprised to see him right in front of them, right?

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They know where they're going. Here's what they know, Messiah's coming to bring salvation to the ends of the earth and they kind of expected, well, when he comes, he's gonna bring his kingdom and then sort of like obliterate everything.

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They were a little surprised that the Messiah showed up and brought his kingdom and it wasn't what they expected.

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They were expecting like the kingdom to arrive, full obliteration, final judgment. The demons were actually pre -millennialists,

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I'm just saying. What they were a little shocked by was that he actually brought this kingdom, he had arrived, and they were saying, have you come here to torment us before the time, the final judgment?

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So what they say is they beg him, look, send us into the herd of pigs.

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Don't send us into the abyss, don't destroy us now, send us away into this herd of pigs. They're in a

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Gentile area, obviously, why? There ain't no Jewish person with a pig farm.

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This is a pig farm. If you read the other accounts, what do you see? There's about 2 ,000 pigs, pig farm, no

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Jewish person in those days is actually gonna own a pig farm, unclean animals, there ain't no way they're doing it.

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So Jesus does something interesting here. He actually goes into Gentile territory.

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You might be thinking, well, I thought salvation was for the Jews and he had to first come to the Jews. Yes, he did, but he also had these little marks in his life where he ministers to the

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Gentiles and he gives them a little foreshadowing of what's coming. He enters into Gentile territory and he does something with the unclean animals.

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They beg him, Jesus, please don't destroy us. Send us into the pigs. And then Jesus, with a word, says, go.

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And these demons go into the herd of pigs. They go down this hill and they perish in the water. And they are so terrified of Jesus and his power that they run off into the town and what happens?

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They run off into the town, the town comes back and sees what Jesus has done, and you know what they want?

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The demons want to be sent away, they beg, same word, demons beg

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Jesus, let us go into the pigs. These townspeople are so in love with the way things are that they beg

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Jesus to go. The demons want to go into the pigs, the people come back and they say, you go.

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They are actually hostile to Jesus. He goes to the Gentile territory, he delivers them from their demons and then what?

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They say, you get out. You get out. Something you should note and read the text later.

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If you go to Matthew chapter 12 verses 38 through 45, when

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Jesus is talking about his generation and the judgment that's about to come, he talks about when a demon is actually cast out, he leaves that place clean, it's swept in order, and if it is not ultimately filled, it comes back with seven demons stronger than itself and he says, and that's what this generation is like.

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Here's Jesus casting out demons, casting out demons, he's freeing them, he's freeing the way, he's showing who he is.

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And Jesus is warning them, this generation is like this, the demons will be cast out, but because it's swept clean and ultimately not filled with God, more demons are going to come back and ravage that house and that's what this generation is like and that's precisely what took place.

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What happened? Jesus cast out demons, then what? He dies and rises again. By the end of that generation, they were so filled with devils and false teaching and evil and malice and wickedness that God came and he destroyed them.

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That's what happened in that generation. Final word here on how amazing this story is.

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Final word. If you read Matthew 8, Mark 5, Luke, his account 8,

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Mark and Luke tell you something interesting about the story. I told you the synoptics actually tell you details, right?

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One person has emphasis here, one more emphasis here. Mark and Luke actually tell you about salvation.

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The guy who's naked, living among the tombs in the cemetery, who's cutting his body, who's full of rage and hatred, who's uncontrolled, when

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Jesus casts out this devil, he comes to Christ. The townspeople come back, the account says, they come back and they see the same guy, this naked freak that they couldn't control.

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This guy they were all terrified of. This guy they wanted to sit in the other seat in the restaurant.

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This guy, they see him doing what now? Clothed and in his right minds, saved.

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That's what Jesus does to people, by the way. He takes us from a place of darkness, brings us to life, and he puts us in our right state of minds.

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They couldn't believe that this man was no longer now in a state of uncontrollable rage. Now he looks normal.

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Jesus fixed him. That's what Jesus does, right? He saves people like you and me, who may not have been the people that were among the tombs, cutting our bodies in an uncontrollable rage, without a home.

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We may not have been there, but you know what? Each and every single one of us have had our own devils to fight with, in a sense, our own sins, our own death.

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And Jesus comes into our lives, and with a word, he says, rise, and we come to life. A word,

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Jesus speaks. He says to a person with leprosy, be clean. He says to a person over here who's close to dying, be healed, stand up.

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He says to the waves and the storm, be still. And he says to demons, go, and they go.

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Salvation. The story in Colossians 2, it's powerful. Talks about us

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Christians, you're alive now, you're forgiven. He talks about the devil and demons, and he says that God has disarmed them and made a public spectacle of them.

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People that freak out over demons, and they're scared of demons, terrified of demons. You know what the Bible says about demons and the devil?

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It says that God has disrobed them, disarmed them, put them in their spiritual underpants, and made a public spectacle of them.

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That's what it means. God's saying, I took their undies off, their clothes off, and now we're laughing at them.

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Jesus' death on the cross has crushed the head of the serpent. Jesus is the victorious one, not the devil.

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He is an enemy to be confronted that we have power over. He only gets in by divine permission, but he is not

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God's actual powerful foe. He's a defeated enemy.

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He is some tool ultimately in God's hands to bring about God's own glory.

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That's the power of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Let me share something with you that I shared with my wife many, many years ago.

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There was a time after my drug addiction where our home was kind of overwhelmed with this lingering sense of a demonic presence.

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That's true. I had so invested in this world of drug addiction, was so involved in it, was so out of my mind for so long, had let so much into my house, that when

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I came to Christ, there seemed to be this kind of lingering kind of cloud over our house.

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We couldn't really put our finger on it. We felt free. We were forgiven, but there was something. My wife had these moments of fear where she said,

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I just feel like there's like a presence in this house that can't shake. And there was a verse that I quoted to my wife,

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I'll never forget giving it to her. Greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world.

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Reminding one another of our ultimate victory in Jesus and our power over darkness is what we ought to be obsessed with.

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That's our obsession. He's our obsession. He's our salvation. He's our victory. The rest of history is

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God displaying just how awesome He is. You have nothing to fear. You have no fear in death.

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You have no fear in persecution and trial. You have no fear over the enemy. You are alive in Jesus Christ.

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You are forgiven. If you don't know Jesus today, you need to repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ. Come to Christ for life.

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He died and rose again. Come to Him for life in faith. Amen? Was this helpful?

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Praise God. Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for blessing us today. I pray that You would use this message for Your glory. Thank You, Lord, for teaching us.

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Thank You, Lord, for giving us Your Word, and thank You, most of all, for salvation in Your Son. Thank You, God, for giving us power over the enemy.

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But God, as You said to us, we don't rejoice so much,

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God, in our power over the enemy. We rejoice that our names are written in heaven. It's in Your name we pray.