WWUTT 2180 Q&A Casting Out Demons, Teaching the Bible to Kids, Women in Governing Authorities

Can we cast out demons the way that Jesus and the disciples did? How can we teach the Bible to our children without censoring too much? And can women be governing authorities? The answers to these questions and others when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ. Thank you for subscribing and if this is ministered to you please let others know about our program.

Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky who is not in studio with me this week. I did say last week that she was going to be gone for a couple of weeks. Her grandmother passed away a little over a week ago and so she and our oldest daughter Annie went back up to Kansas for the funeral.

They have since gone from Kansas down to Texas along with Becky's mom and Annie has gone off to camp. Becky and her mother are hanging out with our friend Sonia and they're also going to do a little bit of work on our house in Texas which has not yet sold.

Some of you have been praying for the sale of that house. Hasn't gone anywhere yet. Does need some work like vines are starting to grow up around the side and there was some filthiness on the inside too just because the house really hasn't been kept up well since we've been absent.

When we were in Texas back in April we didn't even go visit the house because at the time it was under contract. We didn't think that we needed to and then the contract fell through and the buyer wasn't approved for their loan.

So Becky has gone back to touch up some things, work on it a little bit, be praying for her and that the house will sell soon so we don't have to be saddled with that anymore. We have dropped the price of the house down as far as we can without losing money on it.

At this point we're pretty close to breaking even. If we drop it down any further we're going to lose money from what we paid for it when we first bought it three years ago. Now part of it, I'm tempted, part of me is tempted to just be like okay drop it down to whatever we need to do to get rid of it.

Somebody buy it from me please so I don't have to deal with this anymore but God willing would love to not have to lose money on the house. So be praying for Becky and Sonia and Cheryl as they're doing some work on the house for their safe travels back here sometime next week.

Be in prayer for me as I'm doing the single dad thing. I've got four kids, they're all still alive, praise God. The toddler by himself is a full time job so yeah be praying for me too as I miss my wife and the kids miss their mom.

We're having fun but we can't wait for them to get back. This is the Friday edition of the broadcast when we take questions from the listeners and you can submit those questions to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

I'll get to some questions here in a moment but let's jump back into our study of Psalm 18. We've been starting the Friday Q &A's with a Psalm and I'm going to pick up where we left off last week in our study of Psalm 18.

This is verses 37 to 42 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. I pursued my enemies and overtook them, and I did not turn back until they were consumed. I crushed them so that they were not able to rise.

They fell under my feet. For you have girded me with strength for battle. You have subdued under me those who rose up against me. You have also made my enemies turn their backs to me, and I destroyed those who hated me.

They cried for help, but there was none to save, even to Yahweh. But he did not answer them. Then I beat them fine as the dust before the wind. I emptied them out as the mire of the streets. Now how do we apply this passage?

Because surely none of us are as David. We're not ruling over a kingdom. We're not leading armies against our enemies. So how do we read a passage like this and apply it as Christians today? Well remember this was something that I read earlier this week from Ephesians chapter 6.

The Apostle Paul says, Be strong in the Lord, in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. And you take that and apply it to this fight that's being described here in Psalm 18.

It is the spiritual battle that we wage every day against Satan and his schemes. I pursued my enemies and I overtook them, and I did not turn back until they were consumed. We read in verse 37. Now this is after we have read about God destroying his enemies.

And so David is doing as God has done for him. So as the Lord has brought judgment against his enemies, so David is strengthened for the battle himself. And so likewise, we are given this strength. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, as said in Philippians 4 .13.

That is not about winning an NBA championship or a marathon or whatever else. It is about having the strength to do what God requires. It is about enduring in good times and in bad times, as Paul says so in context there.

We have the power of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. I've read that also with my congregation as we've been studying in 2 Timothy right now. It's in chapter 1, verse 7, where it says, God has not given us a spirit of timidity, a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-discipline, self-control in some translations.

Therefore, do not be ashamed of either the witness about our Lord nor of me as prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. We are able to withstand the devil's schemes.

We are able to endure through suffering. We are able to be steadfast in our faith because of the power of God that has been given to us through his Holy Spirit. In God's power and his might, we can defeat Satan and the things that he tries to bring against us.

We can crucify the desires of our flesh and not give in to the worldly temptations that come from without. We are able to love our neighbor in a way that is honoring of the Lord. We love our spouse. We discipline our children in the training and the instruction of the Lord.

We desire holiness. We walk in uprightness. We accomplish these things through the power of the spirit that is within us. This is the daily spiritual battle that we do constantly. We often think of spiritual warfare as demons and angels fighting against one another.

Nope. Spiritual warfare is desiring to be holy today, putting to death the desires of the flesh and walking in the newness of life that we have received in Christ. And so here we're reading about as we apply this spiritually, what we see here in Psalm 18, it is the spiritual battle that we should be fighting every day against the devil and his schemes.

Verse 38, I crushed them so that they were not able to rise. They fell under my feet for you have girded me with strength for battle. Kind of sounds like the armor of God in Ephesians 6, doesn't it? You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

And there in Romans, the apostle Paul says, for the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. So it's not as if you can defeat Satan today, but you can resist him, as said in James, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

And then this constant battle that we wage every day will eventually result in Satan's defeat, whom God will place under our feet as promised. Verse 40, you have also made my enemies turn their backs to me and I have destroyed those who hated me.

So again, just like said in James, resist the devil and he will flee from you. He turns his back to you. He gets away from you because you have drawn near to God. Verse 41, they cried for help, but there was none to save.

Like my enemies are crying to help. No one will save them even to Yahweh, but he did not answer them. Remember that when the demon legion came before Jesus, as we've been reading about in the gospel of Mark, he comes to Jesus and falls down before him and says, what would you have to do with me?

Oh, son of the most high God. So even he comes and pleads before Yahweh, but there is no one to save. And verse 42, then I beat them fine as the dust before the wind. I emptied them out as the mire of the streets, symbolic of they will be, they will be tossed as a vapor.

All of this is passing. It won't last forever. It will be scattered like the wind. And I will trample them under my feet, just as God promises that he will put Satan under our feet. So there's the application of that.

And may we live in the holiness of God today by the power of his spirit, putting to death the deeds, the desires of the flesh and walking in the righteousness of Christ that we have been clothed in for all those who believe in him, who know our sins are forgiven and we have everlasting life with God.

Therefore, walk in the light as he is in the light, as it says in first John. All right. There's our study of Psalm 18 today. Let's get to some of these questions. Once again, you can submit questions to when we understand the text at gmail .com.

We also have voicemail. So we have a new voicemail option. If you go to www .utt .com, the main website, you'll see voicemail there on the menu bar at the top of the page. It's up there on the right. So click on that and you can record a voicemail either through your phone or through your laptop and we'll play it on the show.

You get to hear your voice on the program and respond to your question. I'm going to start with a voicemail here. Now, let me mention a couple of things as I get to this. So Rachel, we got a voicemail from you.

I'm going to wait on it, though, because the question that you ask, I think it would be good for Becky to give her input to that. So let me wait on your voicemail. Also, at the time that I'm recording this, I don't have any internet access.

I don't know why, but for whatever reason, right when I sat down to record, my internet went out. I had things up in front of me. So what's in front of me, I'm able to utilize for this episode, but there are other emails I know that I did not pull off before I lost my internet connection.

So I'm going off the emails that I already have. And thankfully, I had several. If you remember last week, I said I had a bunch that I wasn't going to get to. So I was just going to have to move to the next week.

So that's those emails. That's what I have in front of me here. Some others I've responded to. Just, you know, send a reply and I'll have to wait until another time when my internet is working again so that I can pull those questions off and respond to them on a Q &A.

But I did get the voicemail recorded before I lost the signal. So this is from Daryl in Florida. Here we go.

Hello, Pastor Gabe and Becky. This is Daryl from Florida. I have a question regarding demons and demonology. I was listening to your Wednesday episode about Jesus casting out Legion. I noticed you mentioned in that episode that a Christian cannot be possessed by a demon, but they can be oppressed, which I fully agree with that.

My question is, like you, I am a cessationist. If there is an actual demon oppression happening, is demon casting still a thing that can be done, or was that done away with with the other spiritual gifts?

And if so, how can a demon oppression be done away with? Thank you for your podcast. Listen to it every single day. Keep up the good work. God bless.

Listening every day. Thank you so much, Daryl. I really appreciate that. All right. So your question, can we exercise demons? Can we cast out demons the way that Jesus and the disciples did it in the Gospels or the way that the apostles did it in the Book of Acts?

The short answer to your question is no, we can't do it the way that Jesus and the apostles did it. But can we cast out demons, whether it's a possession or an oppression? The answer is yes. It may not look like the way Jesus and the apostles did it, but we still can do it.

Just like miraculous healing. We won't be able to heal the way that, you know, Peter and John did with the crippled man outside the beautiful gate. You can't just lay your hands on a crippled man and boom, he's up and dancing around.

That's not the way that miraculous healing is done today. But will God still heal? Yes, he will. In the Book of James, chapter 5, we read in verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray.

Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. So that doesn't look all that spectacular, right?

It doesn't look like what the charismatics enjoy doing. Having healing services and demon casting out services and all this other kind of thing. What do they call that? A spirit ministry? I can't remember.

What do they call the casting out demon ministry? There's a certain term for that. I don't remember it now. Anyway, somebody's going to email me and tell me. So it may not be miraculous. It may not be somebody laying hands on somebody and boom, they're healed.

But there is still this promise that if we do it in this way, we may receive healing. Go to the elders of the church. Ask them to pray for you. Anoint you with oil. I have done this before. And you may see God work a healing in that person's life.

It may not be instantaneous. It may take some time. But just like we have healing promised to us through that method. So it is the same case when it comes to casting out a demon. Again, whether that's an oppression.

So you're being oppressed by a demon. You feel something spiritual in your life that's really weighing you down, haunting you. Or like the Apostle Paul talked about in 2 Corinthians 12. Like a messenger of Satan, a thorn in my side to torment me.

It might be something like that. So you're being oppressed by something spiritual. As Christians, we won't be possessed, but we will be oppressed. Now, unbelievers, I believe, still can be possessed by demons.

And how do we cast them out? It won't look like an exorcism like it does in the movies. And it's not going to look like the way that Jesus and the disciples did it. But through prayer, through drawing near to God, resisting the devil, then the person who is being possessed or oppressed by that demon can receive deliverance.

That's what it is. Deliverance ministry. I knew it was going to come to me. So, yeah, the charismatics, they practice when they do the casting out evil spirits and stuff like that in those big charismatic services.

Maybe you've seen the videos on social media. They call that deliverance ministry. I knew that term was going to come back to me eventually. Anyway, let me share this story with you. I've shared it on the podcast before.

I've shared this with my church back in Kansas, which is where this happened. So let me, in case you haven't heard this, this might be new to you. There was one day when a young man came into the church.

This was during a weekday. And he came in and he first talked to the secretary, my secretary, Vicki. And he said that I need an exorcist. And so he came and talked to me about it. And he said, hey, I'm looking for somebody to cast out a demon.

I don't know if it is a demon, but if it is, I need somebody to cast it out. And I said, well, I've never done an exorcism before. But why don't you tell me why you think you need an exorcist? And he said that he had this friend, a girl.

He had these two friends, a guy and a girl who were living together. And the girl was experiencing some real demonic oppression, some sort of spiritual oppression. And nothing was able to relieve it. They took her to the doctor who prescribed her something.

That didn't help. They took her to a psychologist who prescribed her something. And the drugs he gave her even seemed to make her worse, whatever psychotropic drugs it was that she was on. She had this constant fear, this paranoia, like there was always some other presence in the room, or there was always somebody watching her or even trying to speak to her, though she couldn't audibly hear whatever this thing was that was attempting to communicate with her.

And no matter what this guy and her boyfriend did to show her that there was nothing there, she just could not shake the feeling of there being this evil presence that was continuing to haunt her. And so this young man said, I went around to all these different churches.

I first went to the Catholic church because isn't it, you know, stereotypically it's the Roman Catholics that hold up crucifixes and sprinkle with holy water and cast out demons. And he said, I went to the Catholic church.

He went to the Catholic church in like a couple of different communities, in fact. And he said, both of them told me that they don't even do this anymore. They don't do exorcisms anymore. He said, I went to several other churches.

They did not even believe my story. They thought I was being silly. And so he said to me, do you believe my story? And I said to him, well, I don't have any reason to not believe you. And if you want me to go with you to pray for your friends, we can anoint the house.

We can pray that whatever it is that's possessing this girl will be cast away from her. And it might even be effective. But can I show you something first? And he said, sure. We were standing outside the sanctuary of the church at this time.

I walked into the sanctuary to grab a Bible. And I opened to Luke chapter 11. And I read this, Jesus speaking in Luke 11, 24. When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest and finding none.

It says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself. And they enter and dwell there.

And the last state of that person is worse than the first. And so stopping there for a moment, I looked at the young man and I said, I want to ask you a question. Do you believe that your friends, this guy and this gal, do you believe that they are living in sin?

And the young man said, do you think that I think that they're like in sexual immorality because they are not married, they live together and they're sleeping together? Is that what you're asking me? And I said, right.

Would you agree that they're in sin? And he said, yes, I would have to say so. And I said, all right, so here's the thing. I can go visit them. We can pray over the house. I can lay hands on this gal and this guy, and maybe whatever it is that is oppressing them will be cast out.

But according to what we're reading here in Luke chapter 11, even if I'm successful in doing that and she gets better, her condition starts to improve. You start to see her spirits uplift a little bit.

She's a lot more cheery. She doesn't feel like she's got something haunting her all the time. And you might think to yourself, well, that worked. It was an evil spirit. We prayed over her and now everything is fine.

But according to what Jesus is saying here, that spirit that we cast out will come back. And it will bring seven other spirits more evil than itself. And then they, in the next attack, are going to bring a greater oppression on her than what she's experiencing now.

And her condition will be worse than if I had never done anything at all. And he was astonished by this. And he was like, oh, my goodness. I said, hang on, let me show you this next part here. And then we look next at Luke 11, 27.

As Jesus said these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts at which you nursed. But Jesus replied, blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.

So I said to this young man, you and your friends actually have the ability to solve this problem yourselves. And I'm going to tell you as their friend, because it appears that you're a spiritual person.

It appears that you even understand something about sin. And you have an understanding of there being these spiritual forces that can even wage war against us. So what you can do for your friends is you can tell them to repent.

That they would turn from their sin, that they would move out and not live together, not fornicate with each other anymore, that they would stop this sinful pattern that they're in because their consciences are guilty.

And this gal in the weak position that she is in is being tormented by this spirit that will continue to torment her. As long as she continues in this sin, it will even get worse and worse until it eventually destroys her.

And then she stands in judgment before God. And that day will be even worse than whatever it is that she's going through now. So you need to tell your friends to repent, to turn from their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

And I would encourage you, brother, find a church to go to. You need to go back to church. They need to go to church. And you guys need to be around Christian brothers and sisters that will hold you accountable.

If your friends are not believers, then they need to be baptized. And you need to know God's word, as Jesus said here, and you need to keep it. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

And the young man was amazed when I shared that with him. And he wanted the Bible that I was holding. He said, can I take this to my friends and I can show them what you showed me? And I said, absolutely, you can take this with you.

Now, I don't even know if he lived in the same community that I was in. He said that he went around to all these different churches. He might have been from a different town. I never saw him again, but he did come back like a week or two later.

I wasn't there at the church at the time, but he came to my church secretary. And he said, I just wanted to pass a message on to Pastor Gabe. Thank him for everything that he did for us, what he shared with me, and that the situation going on with my friends has improved incredibly.

Every once in a while, I'll think about them and I'll pray for them. And I hope that the gospel was truly shared with them and that they've turned from their sin to the Lord Jesus Christ and that they are saved.

But I share that story to kind of go along with the question that Daryl has asked. Because, yes, we can be oppressed by a demon. And it might even be that that demon is oppressing us or spiritual force or whatever it is, is oppressing us because we're in some kind of a sin.

And the Lord has told us that if we hear God's word and keep it, then we will be able to resist the devil's schemes. We will, and in resisting the devil, again, as said in James, he'll flee from us and we draw near to God.

Now, our situation could also be like the Apostle Paul that I mentioned in 2 Corinthians 12, where Paul pleaded three times with the Lord that this tormentor would be taken away from him. But what was God's response?

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. It could be that even this period of oppression that you're going through, you might be going through that because God means to draw you closer to himself, to just recognize that by his grace you are saved and that you are willing to go through anything.

As Paul says there, I'm willing to put up with hardships and calamities and persecutions and insults and more, because where I am weak, there he is strong. And that could be what God is trying to teach you through this season.

But we have this guarantee if we are in Christ, even though we might feel this kind of oppression and this kind of torment in our life, it is given for us to suffer. That's what scripture says. As I had preached to my church just this past Sunday, all those who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted out of 2 Timothy chapter three.

So it is meant for us to suffer, but we have the promise of everlasting life, an eternal kingdom in which suffering will end. Jesus will dry every tear from our eyes. Death will be no more. We have the promise of that.

And the struggles that we go through now may be to make us long all the more for that day when we will be with Christ forever in glory. Whatever we go through in this life, it's temporary. It is passing.

What we have promised for us in Christ is eternal and everlasting. Thank you for your question, Daryl. Let's get to another one here. This one is from Marco, and he says, Greeting Pastor Gabe and Sister Becky.

I will pass your greeting on to her. My name is Marco from Uvalde, Texas. I'm a longtime listener of the podcast and even longer viewer of your YouTube videos. I appreciate that. My wife posed a good question to me, and I'd like to pass it along to you and your viewers, or in this case, listeners.

We are young parents of three beautiful children. Matthew is four, Olivia is three, and Gabriella, great name, is one. My wife reads the Bible to our children every night as she puts them to bed. What an amazing woman.

Obviously, God's word is edifying to one's soul and builds a good foundation for our children. However, there are some parts in the Bible that can be viewed as being a bit mature. Levite's concubine comes to mind.

Yeah, in the book of Judges, I think is what you're referring to there. We do not wish to censor God, but we don't want to introduce our young children to such gruesome stories, especially our son Matthew.

He can get a bit queasy with the idea of blood and sickness. My oldest son, Zej, who's 12, he was that same way when he was Matthew's age. He didn't want to hear about any violence or anything like that before going to bed.

It would give him nightmares. So Marco says, my question is this, how do we make the Bible more family friendly for our kids? We plan on asking our pastors of First Baptist Uvalde as well, but I was also curious how you would respond.

Thank you for your ministry and may the God of all creation bless you all immensely. I sure appreciate that, brother. Yeah, you know, right away that I was going to tell you, we'll talk to your pastors about that and listen to what guidance that they might have for you as well.

And not just your pastor, but other parents that you have of children like that would be the same age as your kids or even older parents that have gone through this before and listen to their counsel.

And they might be able to give you some ideas for this also. Now, we don't censor God's word for our kids. I would say that there are stories that I'm just not touching on now because they don't understand it at their age.

And I'm now with my oldest, Annie, who's 16, with Zij, who is 12. He's about to turn 13. Yeah, we read them the whole Bible and there's nothing in the Bible that I withhold from them. But with Aria, who's nine, Mariah, who is seven, and then of course our two-year-old, there are some more mature subjects that we don't get to yet.

Like, for example, the story of Judah and Tamar in the book of Genesis or even the whore of Babylon in the book of Revelation. Those might be things that we don't necessarily read to our younger kids, but our older ones are able to understand those things.

So it's not that we really censor the Bible. There's just certain things we don't get to because it's not yet for them to understand what those things mean. However, when it comes to the crucifixion of Christ, his death and his resurrection from the dead, those things we don't censor because that's the gospel.

And we need to know that. You have to understand in the teaching of the gospel that the wages of sin is death, Romans 6 .23, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. You have to understand that to know why Jesus died for us.

And Jesus' death was a gruesome thing. It was bloody and it was gross because death is bloody and gross. And death is a reality that every single one of us have to face. You can't really shield your kids from that.

And there are children in the world who are very accustomed with death from birth. Like they've grown up around it. They've seen relatives die. They might even live in war-torn regions where people get put to death around them.

Or they might live in famished areas where they see people starving and die and so on and so forth. This is a reality of the world in which we live. And here as Americans, sometimes we just tend to be a little sheltered from that.

There are parts of America where you can go and have to face those realities. But then there's other parts where, you know, we can just kind of keep those things at arm's length. We can live in our bubble.

And we might even say things to our kids that nothing bad is going to happen to you tonight. I remember when I would tuck my son in bed and he had this fear of bad guys. He thought bad guys would come in the house and try to kill us and steal our stuff or something like that.

So he might ask me at age four or five, Dad, are bad guys going to come in and hurt us? And I wouldn't tell him no. Because what if that did happen? What if we did have an intruder that night who decided to murder half his family and take our stuff?

What if something like that happened? And then he would think his dad was a liar because I had told him, No, nothing bad like that is ever going to happen to us. So I would tell him that it might. Something like that could happen.

But then I would tell him to trust in Jesus. Just know that he has our lives in his hands. And so that even if we were to be killed, what would happen to us if we have faith in Jesus? And he would say, Well, we would go to heaven.