In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal experience of encountering a demon-possessed individual in a trailer. The speaker rebukes the demon in the name of Jesus Christ and the possessed person falls back. The speaker prays for discernment and realizes that the person is seeking attention and love due to feeling lonely. The speaker emphasizes the importance of loving others rather than trying to look like them in order to be relevant. The example of David Wilkerson is mentioned as someone who genuinely loved and cared for people in the inner city.

Alright, let's go to the book of Genesis or the book of Matthew, whichever, and let's go through questions that you might have, discussion and things in the text. Here's a question in Genesis. Abraham was a family's king, only that his wife was his sister. Did God not punish Abraham for his actions? Or did He give us something else? Did everyone hear the question? You know, Abraham lied twice. And then Isaac does the same thing later on about his wife. Did God punish Abraham? Well, we don't see a direct intervention in Scripture of God coming to Abraham in judgment. But we do know it was displeasing to the Lord, and we do know that it did have its consequences, and the consequences were not just natural, since God's sovereign over everything. So what happened? Okay, first of all, it is a lie. He's lying. He is lying, and it also shows a tremendous lack of faith, because these instances occur after God makes declarations of, I'm going to do certain things with you, I'm going to bless you, your descendants are going to be like, you know, more than the stars of the heavens and everything, and then Abraham fears for his life. Alright, that is a direct contradiction to the promises God's given. Okay? Now, what does that show you? It shows you what we've been saying all along. Salvation is of the Lord. It's not about men. Never has been. Noah, by his own righteousness, did not save himself. It was by God's grace. Okay? But here's the consequence of it. Here's Abraham. He knows that he's done wrong, and not only that, but there is a sense in which here is the representative of God on the face of the earth. This is the guy God's dealing with. And yet Abimelech, a wicked king, is more righteous than he is. And in a sense, there's a shame heaped upon Abraham, and especially upon Isaac. Because even though they know that they have this special call, they're the chosen one, God's going to raise up a nation from them, and kings from them, and everything, and that they're God's seed, and all these different things, here they are in situations where basically they're almost having to apologize and explain their sin to a man who should be far more wicked than they are. And there's a sense in which they lose their testimony. They really do. Because in all three cases, twice with Abraham and once with Isaac, his son, you see that. The ruler basically goes, what are you doing? I mean, why did you do this to me? I could have slept with her and done something wrong. And so I'm sure that there was shame heaped upon Abraham. Now, let's just look at something. There was a sense in which Abraham... Well, it's not a sense, it really happened. Abraham is seeded. Okay? His son follows in the same practice, Isaac. Deceased. His son is the deceiver. I don't think there's a coincidence there. Let me give you an example. Solomon had a lot of wives and a lot of concubines. How did that happen? Well, let's just... This is the scenario, let's play it. Solomon's 15 years old and starting to think about girls. He sees that they don't have cooties and they really look nice and all that other stuff. And he goes up and says to the king, his father, Dad, how'd you meet Mom? How'd you meet Mom? Well, kings were going out to battle and I decided I wasn't going to go. And I saw her and she's very beautiful. And I took her as my wife. Where did you see her? Well, I was up on a roof and she was over on the other roof. Did you say hi? Was she doing wash up there? What was going on, Dad? I really want to know. Well, she was taking a bath. When you saw her, I guess you turned away. Did you go downstairs? Did you go over to her house and call her? Well, no, I kept looking. When she saw you, I'm sure she covered up and probably went in the house. Did you meet her somewhere? Well, no, I had her brought over. Well, I'm sure that she loved you. You loved her. She's a single lady. Well, she wasn't single. She had a husband. Well, I'm sure that he was. I guess he died. Well, yeah, he did. Oh, okay. Well, that explains it. She was a widow. Well, I made her a widow. So I had her husband killed. Well, I'm sure he was a very evil man. Well, no, actually, when I brought him in to try to get him to go in to her to hide the birth of your older brother who died under the judgment of God, actually, he was a righteous man who would not go into his house because he wanted to sleep with the armies of Israel. And you start seeing something about maybe how Solomon got to be Solomon. You see the effect that you have on your children? Man. So we can kind of see this. And I mean, down through... And then what do we have when Jacob has all these sons? If you were off the 12, you get to get... There's deception everywhere. So we see that. Is there another question or comment or something? Yes. In Matthew 9, when Jesus calls Matthew, verse 10 says, And as Jesus replied to people in the house, so many tax collectors and sinners came and were replying to Jesus and his disciples. Just kind of a tension, I guess, that I have in my life at times is seeing that there's a bit that Jesus was reaching out here with some of the folks who were known as sinners. And I hear people sometimes use this as a way to say, Well, that means I can compromise a holy lifestyle. That means I can go in and... And they'll use Paul, It'll be all things to all people. Maybe I need to go in and compromise maybe... Because God also says, Be holy for I am holy. And bad company corrupts good morals. You see Jesus seems to be reclining at the table with the people that might be bad company but could corrupt good morals. I deal with that tension, and where's the balance between us at the same time engaging our culture, at the same time trying to come out and be separate, come out and be holy. You understand what I'm saying? I think the key is found, actually, in Paul's letter to the church in 2 Corinthians. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. And Jesus definitely was not. He said, Take my yoke upon you. And I believe that we should enter into relationships with unbelievers unless and until we begin to see that they're having an influence on us. Okay. Because, you know, it's really... Let me give you an example. It would be far more safe for me to sit down at a table with a bunch of drunks, drug addicts, and the whole nine yards, and sit there and talk to them and have fellowship with them. I am less likely to sin than to go to Cabela's, our Bass Pro Shop, with a bunch of guys who are Christians and love to hunt. Why? I mean, I have nothing... The lifestyle of drugs and alcohol and all that stuff has no attraction for me anymore. But there are certain things that are even good things that can steal away your heart. You see what I'm saying? And then there's also this idea... People say, we need to send our children to the public schools because they need to be an influence. Well, you may send your children to public schools and that's alright. I don't have convictions either way or the other in the sense of demanding something or saying one's more Christian than the other. But don't tell me you're going to send your children to be an influence in a secular school. Don't tell me that. You do not send children to fight in Iraq. You don't send babies. It's not my baby's job to be an influence on anybody who's ungodly until my baby grows into a man. It is my job to protect my baby. And if there's any influence it's going to be doing, I'm the one that should be doing it, not my baby. Okay? Same way with young Christians. I mean, you have to be very, very careful. And you have to know the heart. You can tell in a second. I mean, guys, maybe it is supernatural, but I just think everybody ought to have that amount of discernment. I can tell in a second when a young Christian guy is hanging around with a bunch of really kind of secular, wild people and I can tell when he's doing it because he really is filled with the Holy Spirit and wants to reach them. And when he's doing it, because he just wants to keep rubbing shoulders with the world. And then the guys who do street ministry, I can tell the same thing. You know, I'll sit there and I mean, I'm your basic middle-aged, boring dad. Alright? I see these guys now, they're on the street. They work on the street. I was preaching somewhere in town about 5,000 people and this guy was... He had earrings and everything and hair all moosed and all this stuff because man, he's working the street. I'm going, there's 5,000 people in this town. What kind of street do you have? And he's the dude, man. He's the man. You know, Serpico for Jesus type thing. And I'm looking at him and he goes... And he's like, you don't understand your context. You know, you're preaching. Look, I worked inner city Dallas. I lived with male prostitutes. Alright? And I'll tell you how I dressed. I wore a pair of blue jeans, tennis shoes, a shirt, and my hair was combed. Because I want to be honest with you, those guys down there selling their bodies and the other guys selling drugs and the girls that are dying of AIDS, they could care less whether I looked like them or not. What they wanted was someone who loved them. So that whole idea of you've got to look like them to be relevant? No. You've got to love them to be relevant. You have to love them to be relevant. I'll give you a perfect example. Oh gosh, I can't believe I just forgot his name. The cross and the switchblade guy? David Wilkerson. Alright? Man of God. I don't agree with his theology. And in the last few years he's gotten off into some things that I don't appreciate. But I want to tell you something. There was some reality there. There was. He went down there just a bumpkin country boy into the inner city. He loved the people. He loved the people. He had a message for them. And he loved them. Okay? Okay? It's very important. Very important. So if you're called... I have a problem with a high school guy who's doing these types of things because I don't think he's basically strong enough. He may be, but I doubt it. But we need to go. We need to go. And we need to... I'll never forget one time I told somebody, I said, man, I wish I could just take my license and my ordination and everything else and my seminary degree and just literally rip them all up. And they said, well, why? I said, because when I was just a normal human being, I want a lot more people in Christ. I walk into a gym and work out and things like that. Man, I witnessed everybody in that gym. Because if you're a preacher, everyone expects you to be saying these things. It's your job. It's when you just... Because I'll never forget, my body's broken into a million pieces now, but I used to lift weights all the time. Man, I had a greater ministry in that gym. I'd go into a gym, man, I'd be doing a T-bar and hauling up six plates. I mean, just an animal. And guys would come around and trying to act bad and cussing and young guys and stuff like that. And I'd look at them and go, hey, man, please don't talk like that around me. Why? Because I love Jesus. And I mean, it would literally freak people out because here I was, you know, hair down here, beard. Looked like an animal screaming and throwing plates all around. What I'm trying to say is sometimes guys look at us. We've got our reverend rigs on. I mean, we just look like... You ever look like a preacher? Just go shoot yourself in the head. I mean, it's just, you know... Seth, don't shoot yourself in the head just right now. I'm going to work with you, Seth. But I mean, here's the point. You know, just be normal. And you need to be out there. That's why you can have so much of a greater impact almost by not being in the ministry than you can by being in it. You know, what's amazing, most of the people that are in church today are lost. So if someone actually gets saved and loves to read the Bible, we think he ought to be ordained. Which maybe he ought to be ordained, but that's not necessarily the case. You see what I'm saying? Baylor Dzuki, for example, a man of God, just works in a gravel pit. You know? Just like, you know... I mean, Brother Knoblet could help an old lady across the street while witnessing to her and carrying his Bible and somewhat accusing him of something. You know? I mean, sometimes you just can't win. I mean, carnal people will look for reasons. But isn't that exactly what Jesus said? So we've got to be willing to accept some of that and realize we can't avoid it. And some carnal people, if we do everything to avoid every accusation they're going to make against us, we'll never be able to do anything. Jesus said, you know, I play a sad song for you, you're not happy with that. I play a happy song, you're not happy with that. John comes neither eating or drinking. You say he has a demon, I come eating and drinking. You say I'm a wine-bibber and a glutton. We have to be very, very careful because there are people who are constantly... I've noticed this. I think there are some people that listen to sermons I preach and actually look for ways to get me. Because I've had people send me emails and it's like, my, good, what do you do? Do you go through my sermons with like a cone looking for things? Even John MacArthur, I heard him say, either Darren or John told me that people say, in so-and-so's sermon, he's like, well, I've been preaching for like, what, 37 years. Please let me know what you're talking about. Because there's always people out there wanting to shoot you down. Okay, another question? Let's get something theological here. As though this wasn't... In Matthew chapter 17, it speaks about Jesus. In verse 16 it says that the demon-abducted people were brought to Him. He cast out the demons and killed the people who were sick. And then in verse 17 it says this was the fulfilled, what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, he took our illnesses and bore our diseases. And that's a quotation from Isaiah 53. And I've always... How do you explain that with Isaiah 53 speaking like a prophecy about the crucifixion with this being applied to Jesus healing people and casting out demons? Well, we see here, this text has been the cause of much controversy, especially in the charismatic realm. Because what some charismatics would say is that this right here is saying that Isaiah 53 is applying to the healing ministry and that everyone should be healed because Jesus has carried away all our sicknesses and our diseases. What we're seeing here is first of all, writers inspired of the Holy Spirit that are taking prophecies and doing certain things with them. Being inspired, they can do that. Here we see in Isaiah, the context seems to be, the most direct context, is in relation to the cross. But Matthew is seeing it. He's not denying that, but he's also giving it a wider application. A wider application is the Messiah, when He came, He carried away diseases in His healing ministry. And that's a valid way of applying that passage. But that does not negate that the greatest fulfillment of that passage is through the cross of Jesus Christ and the consummation, the end of all things, when the redeemed shall rise in resurrected bodies and be totally free from any sort of corruption. So it has a thing of His immediate ministry that through healing people, there was this sign. It was an outward sign. The physical healing of people in the ministry of Jesus was an outward sign of what was going to happen spiritually on that tree. There's also this idea, and I just want to show you the different extents or fulfillments of this. First of all, there is a real sense in which He carried the diseases of the people of Israel, and that in His healing ministry. That's a direct application. It's right there. There's no way out of it. Secondly, all healing eventually makes its way to the cross. It's the basis for every good thing God does. And in that cross, He truly carried everything. Why is there disease? Why is there all these physical ailments and problems and corruption and all death and everything else? Ultimately because of sin. He does away with sin. So there. And then it looks also forward to the consummation and the end of all things, the resurrection, when we'll be totally free from that. Now the problem is in the charismatic movement, they will use this passage in relation to the cross and therefore declare that every believer should be healed of all physical maladies. That's very common. Alright. If this was all we had is the different times in which this passage is portrayed here and by Peter, then there might be some validity to that. But their interpretation is contradicting other passages of Scripture that show genuine believers who are very spiritual, Paul and others, who suffered sicknesses. Also the fact that the Bible says it's particularly in Romans 8 that we are still awaiting the redemption of our what? Our bodies. Okay? So, Jesus healed physically. It was a sense of fulfillment of this prophecy. It shows He's the Messiah in a physical sign sort of way. Works of power demonstrating this is the Messiah. The ultimate reality of this passage is the cross of Jesus Christ. The ultimate manifestation of that great work will be the consummation of the age when believers rise in bodies that are not corruptible. Does that answer your question? Yes. No, he's finished. Just reading through here, there's so much about demonic possessions all the way through the Gospels. How come we don't really engage in that whole process and we're so scared? I don't know. Well, believe it or not, that question requires us to get into eschatology and the word eschaton meaning last, last things, the study of last things. And here, there's a few different ways of looking at this. It says that prior to the millennium, that prior to the millennium, Satan will be bound. Okay? That he will be bound. All right. Now, some people say that all the binding of Satan will occur then. Somewhere in the future, Satan will be bound. And on the millennium, it will say, Satan was bound at the cross. So when Jesus died and resurrected, something dramatically happened in the kingdom of darkness. There was a real sense in which Satan was bound. Now, instead of saying you have to be amillennial or premillennial, let's at least go ahead and say this. Jesus, when He's going to the cross, said now the prince of this world is what? It's going to be cast out. Jesus said that. Okay? Now, I don't want to get into an argument about when the millennium is or anything like that, but what I want you to see is that there is definitely a difference between prior to Jesus walking on this earth, Jesus' ministry, and then after His death and resurrection with regard to the demonic. I mean, you would have to just be blind not to see that. First thing, we don't realize that before Jesus Christ walked on this planet, Satan did it in a way you can't even imagine. I mean, it was a field day. I mean, there was demonic possession everywhere. Do you realize that Jesus and His cross affected a great change in the kingdom of darkness? See, you probably never even thought of that. Prior to the coming of Christ, look what you've got here. You've got demon-possessed people popping up all over the place. Even in the book of Acts, being a charismatic book in the sense of it really deals with the works of God through the Holy Spirit, not the works of the apostles. You don't even there see much demon possession. Yet these were Spirit-filled men and the Gospels entering in to a very wicked place. But when you see Jesus, His incarnation, you see His entire ministry as one battling against the kingdom. This is what I believe after years and years of looking at this. You know many of the stories. You sometimes get this in North European mythology. It sometimes makes its way into movies and stuff. That there was this age of magic and dragons and everything and then came the age of Christianity. Have you ever seen that in movies? It's there. Alright? I believe that's true. I believe that much of that myth is not so much myth as we would think. I believe that prior to the coming of Jesus Christ, that this world was basically a free-for-all for the devil. And there were things going on. I believe that there were high priests and things like that, demon-possessed, doing all kinds of things. I don't mean Jewish high priests. I mean Druids. I mean everything you can imagine. This was His world. I mean in a real way, more than you could ever imagine. I mean frightening. We see it when Jesus shows up. We see demon-possessed people everywhere. If you look at mythology, not so much mythology as legends of Northern Europe and all kinds of things. You have this whole thing. It's like a heyday. Satan ruled. Jesus shows up. It starts out in that 4th chapter of Matthew. He tells Satan something no man had ever told Satan. Go. And I saw Satan falling like lightning. See, we, because we're basically most of us very influenced by the premillennial view, which I'm not saying is wrong, but I think we're missing out on something. Jesus dealt with the devil. And Jesus tore him apart on that cross. We have the statements of Jesus, direct statements. The prince of this world is now cast out. We have direct statements that the strong man is bound. Jesus is basically saying, hey, the reason I'm able to do all this stuff is because I'm binding Him. And then we have statements in Colossians. He triumphed over them on the cross. And so there is a dramatic shift between prior to Jesus, the demonic activity when Jesus was on the earth, and then afterwards, even in the book of Acts, we do not see. Even though it's there, it's not as prominent. Do you see that? Is everyone following me? It's not as prominent. So I do not think we should expect to see this massive demonic thing as Jesus saw. Because I think something was affected in the kingdom of darkness. There was a real sense. Now to what degree you want to take it and whether or not you want to identify this with Revelation 20, the binding of the devil, but there was a real sense in which something was dramatically affected in the kingdom of darkness through the death of Jesus Christ. His ministry and then His death. There is a real sense, I believe, that the work of the devil on this earth has been bound. That does not mean He's destroyed. It does not mean He's inactive. But I do believe there is a great sense in which He has been bound and it enables the Gospel to be preached. Now, that doesn't mean that there's not the demonic, and it doesn't mean that there's not people who are demon-possessed. But it is far different from what it was during Jesus' time. Questioner 2. How is that? We don't see it necessarily in our culture the demonic possession, but could it be just the reality of where we're at? Well, part of it is that without taking away from what I've already said about the things affected by the cross of Jesus Christ. But let me say this, and we can take this up Tuesday if you want to keep asking this question. It's very important. The devil would just be undermining himself for people to be running around demon-possessed here on earth in America and people knowing it. We are a secular people who do not believe basically in the supernatural. So the best thing you can do to your enemy is make him think you're not even there. You don't even exist. And I think that's a part of what's going on. Although, there are things... I think that gradually, Einstein's theory of relativity greatly affected our views of the universe from a materialistic... See, most of the science you hear is pop science that's about 30 years behind real science. And basically, we've moved from a materialistic universe into the idea of something far greater, something spiritual. And you start seeing people who are embracing spiritual things, albeit the most lunatic sort of demonic things. So I wouldn't be surprised if demon possession is not on the rise and that it wouldn't come back since people are starting to recognize a spiritual reality and the devil can take that and use it. In places like the jungle and things, it is more prevalent. It is more prevalent. Because in the jungle, they don't deny spiritual realities, they're terrified of them. Literally terrified. There are places in the jungle where people live in abject terror of the demonic. When someone dies, there's a demon god called Tunchi in the jungles of Peru. And I mean, I've heard testimonies of entire roofs coming off the huts. And people, you know, when they're about to die, screaming as Tunchi comes to get them. And I mean, they live in abject terror of these things. And so, here in our culture, you have to be very, very careful. The demonic is real. How it manifests itself. Now, I would have to say that probably 90% of the people I've come in contact that acted and claimed to be demon-possessed were not. Only a few in the United States have actually come in contact that were demon-possessed. And let me just give you an example. I got a call at 3 in the morning one time. Someone just in this trailer. And all these people were standing outside the trailer. And the guy was just demon-possessed and doing all this stuff and growling like an animal and throwing up and everything. And they called me. They said, Brother Paul, could you please come? So I go there at 3.30 in the morning. And I go in this trailer. I open the door and I walk in. And this guy's sitting there. And I mean, he is just... man! He grabs this big old knife and he looks up at me and goes, Man of God, why have you come? And he runs towards me. And I said, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus Christ. And he just falls back on the ground. And I'm praying the whole time. God, what is this? What's really happening? And he crawls out of the trailer and the people are just running everywhere. And he's going like this. And he gets beside this car. And I'm praying. I'm right behind him the whole way. And I'm praying. And I'm saying, God, please give me discernment. Please give me discernment. And all of a sudden, I just knew. And he was like throwing up on the tire. And I just went... He looked at me and I said, Where are your parents? He said, You just kind of all of a sudden deal with the question. He just went... I said, Where are your parents? Because they're divorced. He said, You don't have many friends, do you? I said, No. You really feel lonely, don't you? He said, Yeah. When you do things like this, at least people pay attention to you, don't they? Yeah. And he got up. Now, the point I'm trying to make is a lot of these guys that claim to be specialists in the demonic would have cast a demon out of a kid that was no more demon possessed than a man on the moon. Let me just tell you this. If someone claims to be demon possessed and it looks just like Rosemary's baby or the exorcist, they're not demon possessed. What they're doing is role playing. You'd be surprised how many people role play these types of things because they just want attention. But that doesn't negate the fact that someone can be demon possessed.