Demons

As you're aware, the last couple of weeks I've been going through the book of Daniel. Two weeks ago, we went through the background to the book of Daniel. Last week, we went through Daniel Chapter 1. I may mention in going through this that I was going to try to go through the book of Daniel most weeks consecutively. But I also mentioned that there will be times where I will take a bit of a recess and cover of other subjects. Certainly, as we get close to the Holy Days, the spring Holy Days, I do want to prepare you for the Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. But there's something else that God has really been moving me to want to speak to you about, and that's the subject for today. We will not be talking about Daniel today. War is a fact of life. We, as Americans, have been involved in a number of different conflicts over the course of our history. We've been involved in a Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, other conflicts, smaller conflicts, almost too numerous to make mention. Those people who have been engaged in military conflict have no doubts who their enemies are. They're well trained for battle. They've got a battle plan to defeat their enemies.

We need the same thing, spiritually speaking, because spiritually speaking, as the Apostle Paul writes, we are in battle as well. We need to make sure we are not doubting who our spiritual enemies are. We need to be trained to have battle with our spiritual enemies, to have a plan against those enemies. Let's take a look at what Paul did write in the book here of Ephesians, chapter 6. Ephesians, chapter 6. We have quoted this. Bob here has given a couple of sermons on this. I've quoted it every week for the last several weeks. Here in Ephesians, chapter 6, starting in verse 10, notice what it says, Notice what it says, Now, we're going to talk to some degree today about Satan the Devil, but primarily today we're going to talk about his henchmen. We're going to talk about the demons, the demonic world.

One of the things we want to remember about Satan, the inventor of evil, that he is the mentor of the demons. He's the one who teaches them everything they know about evil. And so when we study a little bit today, as we are going to, about Satan, we realize what we see in him, we see in his following, the demons. Whatever tricks he and devices he employs, the demonic world employs the very same thing. And for them, for over 6,000 years of human history, it's been a winning ballgame. They've done an awful lot of damage to mankind. Now, it's not a winning ballgame when it comes to God's people. And we want to make that perfectly clear. When it comes to the demonic world, you are not a sitting duck when it comes to the demonic world. Unless you want to be. Now, if you want to be, that's up to you, but I don't think anybody in this room wants to be. Let's continue on, though. Ephesians 6, verse 12, For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. Notice the way Paul characterizes this. The darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So, yes, we are in a spiritual battle against evil. A great deal of evil. And as you and I have been watching world news, as we've been watching people being murdered by the score, as we've been watching people being burned to death in cages, beheaded, crucified, there is no end to the evil we are witnessing. And, you know, brethren, there's always been evil in the world. But when you and I take a look at the extent and the depravity of the evil, one of the things that was true, that we see in the Scriptures, and especially in the Gospels, is the working of the demons. They've not gone away in head. They're not on vacation someplace. They're still real. They still have the same designs on humankind, and that is to destroy us. And perhaps before destroying us, to torment us. We'll get into more of that as the sermon goes along. Let's turn to John 8, John 8, verse 32.

John 8, verse 32. Brethren, I want, you know, I spent some time on this particular message. This didn't come together just overnight. This was something I'd been thinking about and putting together for some time. More than anything, I want this to be a balanced presentation of material. When we're done, I don't want anybody thinking there's a demon behind every bush, that every deviant act that is happening in the world is perpetrated by some demon, that every problem you or I might have is because there's a demon in our life. That would be totally unbalanced and not true.

So look at John 8, verse 32. John 8, verse 32. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So we want to look at the truth of the subject about demonism. Where do we find this truth? John 17, 17. Your word is truth. So you want to take a look at what God says in His word about this subject and come to a balanced understanding. Now, I had a great deal of material to present to you, and it was just obvious as I was putting my notes together that I needed to give you this material, but I couldn't do it in one sermon.

And so this last Wednesday, I sent out a midweek Bible study via email, and I went through basically where Satan is coming from. So most of you have email. You've got that sitting in your email box at home. I do want to spend maybe 10, 15 minutes just kind of going through very quickly, not turning to Scripture about what I covered in that midweek study.

Those of you who don't get the midweek study, if you want a copy of that, you'll see me after services, and I'll make sure that I send you a copy. If you don't have email at all, just ask one of your brothers or sisters here to print you a copy, and they'll be happy to do so. Let's take a look at history.

History of evil, that sounds like a really big thing to do, but we're going to shorten that down. We want to take a look at Satan as the ringleader of the dark side. Paul talked about this war against the rulers of the darkness of this age. If you're taking notes, what you might want to write across the top of your paper is, demons understanding the spirit world's dark side. Everything I'm about to tell you is in that midweek study, so you don't need to take notes if you've got your email, and you've already got that at home.

Let me just walk through this. In Isaiah 14, verses 12-14, we see Lucifer's rebellion. His name was changed from Lucifer to Satan. He was no longer a light-bringer. He was a matter of being of darkness. Brethren, think deeply. When you go home and you want to restudy these notes, think deeply about this rebellion. Because what do we see when Satan is rebelling?

We see pride. We see a being who was beautiful. We see a being who was talented, gifted. Everything was going for this being at God's feet, at God's throne. And yet he felt that he was better than God, that he could do things better than God can do them. They're tremendously prideful. And brethren, we understand that he taught that pride to the demons. So that's one of the tricks that they want to use against you. They want us to be prideful.

That very idea that Satan felt he could rebel against God showed warped thinking. If you or I find warped thinking that's happening within us, you can realize who's telegraphing that to us. Who's the prince of the power of the air? Who's the being who wants us to think the way they think? So these are all, you know, as we think deeply about these scriptures we've read so many times, when we tear them apart, think about them.

We can see how Satan and his demonic world, they operate. Pridefully, warped thinking, war, destruction, you know, the universe that we see now, so full like our moon, all pockmarked because of the warfare that took place between God and his holy angels and Satan and his demons. We see the idea that Lucifer at one point began to deviate from the things that were true and right and good.

And he began to start working with the holy angels to subvert them. Again, this is another thing that demons love to do. They are masters of subversion. They're loyal only to themselves. We see all of that when you think about it in Isaiah 14, verses 12 through 14. Then we move on to Revelation 12, verses 3 and 4. And again, I'm not going to turn any of these. Revelation 12, verses 3 and 4.

Where we see that one-third of the angels followed Satan. One-third. Now, what do we learn from that? One-third of the angels following Satan. We learn several things, at least a couple of things from that. In the book of Romans, we are told to allow God's mind to be a part of our mind. We need to be transformed. Right? Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Satan took this the other direction.

Satan took and helped transform holy, righteous angels into beings of darkness and fear. They were transformed to be God's opposite. And there was only a third of them. Two-thirds of the angels remained loyal to God. Those angels are more powerful than the demons. There are more of them. Please keep that in mind on a positive note. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, we see where Satan is the God of this world.

And that's not just some platitude. We have to understand that. He is the God of this world. Is Satan organized? You bet he is organized. You know, all around the world we've got the mafia. Are they organized? The Russian mob, are they organized? The Chinese? You bet all these organizations of evil are organized. Satan is organized. He knows he may be spiritually insane, but he's not dumb. He knows what he's doing. And when we get into the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 10, verses 13 and 20, what does Gabriel say to Daniel?

Gabriel, the archangel, one of his great jobs was to bring messages. He came to Daniel and told him that God was going to give him insights. He went to Mary and told her she was going to be the mother of the Christ and so forth. But there were times where Gabriel was being withstood by angelic power. And how did he refer to angelic power in Daniel chapter 10? He called them the Prince of Persia and the Prince of Greece. Now, we're not talking about human beings there. We're talking about demons who were in charge of Persia at that time, demons who were in charge of Greece at that time.

And let me tell you something, brethren. You better know there's a demon in charge of the United States of America. There may be one in charge of the state of Michigan. There's enough of them to do that. So Satan has this world carved up into principalities. What does it say there in Ephesians chapter 6 that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities.

There's all sorts of organization here. Satan is very organized. We see in Job chapters 1 and 2 where Satan is walking in the world. And God says, Satan, what are you doing? He says, well, I'm walking in the world, you're letting me run. And God says to him, paraphrasing, well, have you taken a look at Job? Isn't he a great guy? He's wonderful. He's righteous. And of course, God knows how much righteousness the person has. Job wasn't pulling the wool over Satan, over anybody's eyes, over God's eyes.

Job wasn't, I mean. God knew that Job was a righteous man. So what does Satan say? Well, yeah, you know, give that guy some trial in life, he'll curse you. So what do we see? We see something else about Satan and his demons. God told Satan, okay, look, don't touch him, don't kill him. But you can try him in other ways.

In that first chapter of Job, you see his family being murdered, you see him being financially ruined, and so forth. That was by the demons. That was by Satan and his demons. Now, the point I'm making here is God granted Satan and the demons restricted access. They don't have full access. They've got restricted access to you, to me. For God's own purpose, and for our betterment.

There were lessons that Job needed to learn. Sometimes God uses human beings. Sometimes God can even use a demon, as he did in the case of Job. But what we want to understand here is it's restricted access. Revelation 12, and other verses there in Revelation 12, we see where Satan is going to attempt a second time to conquer God in heaven. Again, he will be thrown down to earth again.

And that may well be in our lifetime. You think you've seen bad things now? You think when you read the stories about the Holocaust over in Europe, that that's as bad and depraved as human beings can be? No. If we're living at the time of the return of Jesus Christ, we will see times worse than that.

We see in the book of Revelation how demons come out of various ministers' mouths, how demons prepare the way of war. The world will be rife with demonism. We need to understand this world, this spiritual world, but not be afraid. Further, I gave you this last week in the midweek study. We took a look at some of Satan's tactics. That was what we just covered with some of the history. But some of Satan's tactics, you know where you learn that?

As I was putting my thoughts together, we can learn some of Satan's tactics by looking at his names. When you look at the names of God, you understand who he is, various facets of his personality. But the same thing is true of Satan. When you look at Satan's names, you understand facets of his personality. If you understand that, you understand the way he works and what he's taught to his demons. As an example, some of his names.

Let's go through just a few of them here. The name Satan means adversary. Satan is the adversary of mankind. But more importantly, Satan is the adversary of God's true church. He's the target on God's true church. Certainly individuals within God's true church. He's called the devil. What does that mean? It means the slanderer. You know, brethren, we've seen too much of that in God's true church in all of the various branches of God's true church.

God's true church is an organism. It's not an organization. We've got a lot of organizations that have God's people in them. But one of the saddest things that I've seen in my lifetime and I've been a part of the church now since the mid-60s. One of the saddest things I've seen is Satan working. We're not going to talk here about possession. We're talking about satanic and demonic oppression.

You've got possession and oppression. And some of the ways that the demon world has oppressed the church of God is by giving to God's people, and so they slander one another, backstab one another, say bad things about one another. We recently had a group that left us, the United Church of God, and what were they telling their people? Well, you know, the United Church of God is no longer going to keep the Sabbath.

The United Church of God is no longer going to keep the Holy Days. The United Church of God, you go to a restaurant, they're going to be eating whatever they want to eat. Now, how do I know this? I know this because people I used to pastor wrote me and said, well, here's what our minister's telling us now. And then they left the United Church of God. Now, that was a number of years ago. Have we stopped keeping the Sabbath? Have we stopped keeping the Holy Days?

On potlucks, we didn't pass the shrimp. Is that the way it goes with us? No, but that's what people were saying. Now, that wasn't satanic or a demonic possession, but that was oppression, where people became the unwitting tools of the spirit world. Another name for Satan is Belial. That means without profit. One of the great things, brethren, that demons want to do in your life, and sometimes maybe you've wondered, why are some of these strange things happening to me that wastes your time?

Because that's one thing that Satan and the demons want to do. They want to waste your time. Because if you are having your time wasted, you're not spending time in prayer. You're not spending time in study. You're not spending time with the brethren. You're not spending time doing the things you need to be doing. You're wasting time! And your life is what? It's just so much time! We move on. Something else I covered in the midweek study was Satan's spiritual weaponry.

I'll just give the list here. With all these things I gave scriptures, you have that in your notes back at home. The thing Satan uses is weapons, false philosophies, false religions, false ministers, false doctrine, false disciples, immorality. Now, I began to conclude my midweek study with something I do want to turn to. Because, brethren, again, I don't want you to think you are some sitting duck, spiritually speaking. You are not. You are in a position of tremendous strength. God loves you.

You are God's kids. Jesus Christ came and died for you. So, please don't think because there is all this evil in the world. There are all these battles, spiritually speaking. We are right in the middle of it. I don't want you to think that you are at risk. You are only at risk if you choose to be at risk. We'll talk more about that as the sermon unfolds. Let's take a look at 2 Kings 6. There came a time in the history of Israel that... Well, I should say maybe Syria, where it seemed that everything that Syria wanted to do was being telegraphed over to the king of Israel.

Finally, the king of Syria said, you know, enough of this. Who is the person who is spying in my court? We've got a fifth columnist here. They said, no, king, you don't. But the prophet Elisha, whatever you say, Elisha is getting information from his God and telegraphing our moves.

So, the king of Syria sends out an entire army after one guy. Notice 2 Kings 6. And when the servant of the man of God... Now, you had Elisha here and his assistant being spoken of. When the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And the servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do? We are in bad shape here.

So we answer, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Brethren, please be encouraged by that fact. There are more who are with you, standing with you than with the other guys or with the other spirits. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see, and the Lord opened his eyes to the young man. And he saw, and behold, a mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

You think that doesn't happen for your sake? You better believe that it does. Probably if I were to line every one of you up, and we started talking and going right down the line, each of you probably have your story to tell about the car accident that could have taken your life, that didn't take your life, about the various things that happened in your life that could have really put you in a bad way, but you weren't in a bad way.

And of course, there probably are so many dozens of things we have never seen, where we're just kind of walking in like, da-da-da-da. And, you know, God is there, Christ is there, the angels are there to take care of us. Hebrews 1, verse 14. Hebrews 1, 14. Talking about the holy righteous angels, Hebrews 1, 14 here.

Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth a minister for those who will inherit salvation? We have the angels who are there for our sake to take care of us. So we can be confident of this angelic help. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, one of the most important scriptures of the day. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 7. 2 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 7. For God has not given us a spirit of fear. We don't need to fear Satan. We don't need to fear the demons. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power. We're not powerless, but He's given us a spirit of power and of love. And notice, lastly, a sound mind. A sound mind. Brethren, the average person walking down the street today doesn't need to worry about being affected by a demon unless they go after it.

And if that's true for your carnal man on the street, who doesn't want demon activity in his life, he doesn't have to worry about that. How much more true is it for you who've got the spirit of God in your life? Now, yes, we've got people out there, the man on the street, if he wants to seek a medium, if he wants to seek a seance, if he wants to play with a Ouija board, some of those things, yes, if you seek it out, then it will find you.

If you want to open a portal to your mind, then you can be found, but none of you in this room want to do that, right? So you've got a sound mind, and you are fully protected by the great God in terms of possession.

Doesn't mean you might not have a trial, as Job did, but God will protect your life. Brethren, the next two sentences are, I feel, the most important sentences I'm going to utter today. So what you might want to do is make sure you write these down. I'll try to go through this relatively slowly. I tried to wordsmith this so that it is the essence of what I want to convey today. And it was in the Bible study, so if you've got it in the Bible study, you've got it.

But just in case, here are the two sentences. We must respect our satanic enemies, but not fear them. We must respect our satanic enemies, but not fear them. That's sentence one. Sentence two. We must become acutely aware of demonic methods, but not be preoccupied by them. Brethren, I don't come to you talking to that we are going to get victory. We already have victory. We are the sons and daughters of God the Father.

We are the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. We already have the victory. In that sense, does that mean we can just let our guards down? Of course not. We're like a little kid who's traveling down the street, and there's all sorts of things that could happen to a little kid.

But standing behind him is a big, strong dad. And no one's going to touch that little kid because dad is right behind. He'd be nuts to do something that little kid dad's there. And then you look past dad, you see all this army of angels. Any one of which could level an army? That's what you've got at your disposal. We don't need to fear. Something else you want to keep in mind about the last of the old stuff. I've probably gone more than 15 minutes. But we want to remember that Satan and the demons are created beings.

And as such, they are not all-knowing. They are not all-powerful. They are not all-present, omnipresent. Now, it may seem that way because Satan can broadcast, and his broadcast goes around the world all the time. But in terms of where he can be, one place at one time. Same thing is true with the demons. But they do have a network. They do communicate with one another.

There's probably demons over in China that can tell you everything you want to know, or don't want to know, about Randy Delisandro. Because they are in constant communication, one with another. But it's not because they can be at all places at all times. Only God can do that. Let's take a look at James 4. I've got some more encouraging before I get into the actual how demons interact with us. Let's go to James 4. Verse 7. James 4. This is, Therefore submit to God, resist the devil, and he will do what? He will pounce on you, beat you to death.

No. You resist the devil, and he will flee from you. He will flee from you. We've got to put up a resistance. We've got to submit to God. But he will flee. The demons will flee. We're not sitting ducks. Again, you can write in your notes Job 1 and verse 12. God told Satan, You have limited access to Job.

You can't do whatever you want. You've got to come through me. So, let's go into some brand new material that wasn't covered in the midweek study. How do demons typically interact with humans? One of the ways they do this, is what we would call a medium. You want to avoid these people. Sometimes they're called seers, sometimes they're called clairvoyants. These are people who are puppets in the hands of demons. They might appear normal, they might appear helpful, they might appear even as nice guys or nice ladies.

But they are in the pocket of a demon. Now, there are plenty of fakes. You've got to make sure I say that. There are plenty of fakes. But there's also the genuine real deal. People who truly have a connection to the dark side of the spirit world. As they may mention, they've got an extensive network of information from fellow demons.

These mediums do. That's why people walk into a seance or someplace like that. They say, oh, you have this and this and this. And I can tell you this and this and this about you. You say, well, this person didn't hire a private eye. How do they? I just walked in the door. How do they know that about me? Oh, because there's maybe half a million demons out there giving them information about you. That's how they know. No secret there. So we don't want to contact. And again, how do demons interact with humans?

The individual has to seek this out. Are you seeking out a medium? I'm not going to do that. I don't think you're going to do that, right? So do we need to worry in one sense about that? No, not if we're not going to go there. Now, let's take a look at somebody who went there. Somebody who should have known better. Turn to 1 Samuel 16. We're going to take a look at King Saul of Israel. He should have known better. King Saul of Israel.

And again, we're not going to read all the story here. We don't have time for extensive amounts of this. 1 Samuel 16.13. We're looking at the ordination, if you will, of King David. His coronation in some ways. We want to look at it that way. 1 Samuel 16.13. And Samuel took the horn of oil, representing God's Holy Spirit, and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. He came upon David from that day forward.

So Samuel arose and went to Rama. So here you see God's Spirit going into a faithful man of God. Notice verse 14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing Spirit from the Lord troubled him. A distressing Spirit came. Now it says from the Lord, has God in the business of manufacturing evil beings? Of course not. All that means there is God allowed this to happen. Just like with Job. A distressing Spirit. And notice what it says in verse 15. And Saul's servant said to him, Surely a distressing Spirit from God is troubling you.

So even people who were not in the church, people who didn't have the use of God's Spirit, could see something was terribly wrong here. Now, the point of all that is that Saul lost the use of God's Holy Spirit. Let's go to chapter 28. First Samuel chapter 28. And we're going to see where he makes a mistake big time here. First Samuel chapter 28 verse 5.

When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. Well, that could happen for anybody. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, neither by the dreams or by the year or by the prophets. God's Spirit had left him. He really in one sense didn't want to obey God. But notice he's not going over and over and over back to God. He gave it a shot when that didn't work. What does he do? Verse 7. Then Saul said to the servants, find me a woman who is a medium.

So he starts seeking out a portal, an opening. Find me a woman who is a medium. And I will go to her and inquire of her. And the servant said to him, in fact, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor. Now, let's stop for a moment. Earlier in his kingship, Saul tried to get rid of all of these people. I say tried because obviously even his own assistants knew where he could find a witch if he really wanted one bad enough.

And so obviously not everything was going the way Saul. And Saul was persecuting these people. So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes. And he went to men with him. And they came to the woman by night. And he said, please conduct a seance for me. Bad, bad thing. Don't want any part of this. You know, years ago in another state, I had some teenagers under my care. And they thought they were going to play with the Ouija board and have a seance and do all these things.

And it was just playtime. Until something else entered the room and scared them to death. And they never wanted to go back to them with that again because they realized there was another creature. There was an alien in that room they couldn't see that was doing things. So now we don't want to conduct a seance or be any part of that. Then a woman, verse 9, said to him, Look, you know that Saul, what he's done, how he's cut off the mediums, the spirit is from the land.

Why then do you lay a snare for my life to cause me to die? And Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives. Isn't this ironic? You know, as God lives, you know, let's bring in some demons. I mean, you talk about irony here. As Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives, no punishment, so come upon you for this thing.

The woman said, Who shall I bring up for you? And he said, Bring up Samuel for me. Now, throughout the course of his rule, Saul didn't pay a whole lot of attention to what Samuel had to say. But now that things are going pretty bad for him, well, you know, let's get that man of God back out here. He's dead. Fine. Let's raise him from the dead. But see, brethren, as you know, when you're dead, you're dead. You're not in heaven. Your spirit's not wafting around someplace.

You're dead. You're in the grave. Now, he should have not understood that. Okay? You, of course, do understand that. So whatever we're about to see is not going to be Samuel.

Verse 12. When a woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice. And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why have you deceived me? You are Saul. And the king said to her, Do not be afraid. What did you see?

But understand what you're looking at there. Saul didn't see the spirit. Saul didn't see the spirit. He had to ask her, What are you seeing? The medium was able to have contact and see the spirit world, because they were in cahoots with the spirit world. He wasn't able to see. It shows you the power of the medium. Do not be afraid. What did you see? The woman said, I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth.

Now, that part's true. There was a spirit there. So he said to her, What is his form? She said, An old man is coming up, and he's covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived it with Samuel. Well, Saul just guessed it was his worst nightmare in some ways. It's what he wanted to hear. But it wasn't Samuel. Samuel was dead in his grave. What was being witnessed here was a demon impersonating Samuel. A demon impersonating Samuel. And so, Brad, I understand what we've got there.

We don't want any part of that. Now, how does this affect you? Like I said, you're not going to go out and look for a medium. You don't want to be a part of a séance. You're not going to use tarot cards or Ouija boards or horoscopes. Here we are studying the book of Daniel. And you had all these astrologers and all these people who can look to the stars and all those things. When God was giving Daniel all of those visions in the book of Daniel, did he use any of those arts?

He did not use any of those arts, because all those arts are totally meaningless. You can have a situation like this where you've got a lot of show and tell by the demon world. I'm sure they get a kick out of this. Let's fool the stupid humans. But where you do find this, brother, and this is what you've got to be careful of, because a lot of this in our culture today is coming out where you've got oriental religions, oriental philosophies, ancestor worship, pagan temples.

The American Indian may times will tell you that they don't want to go to certain locations because evil spirits live there. Sometimes people want to poo-poo that idea. I wouldn't so quickly poo-poo that idea that evil spirits are in certain areas. I wouldn't poo-poo that at all, because we've got knowledge of demonic beings who do frequent certain areas. Again, you've got to take each thing just because something... Take everything in its own merits. If I went on a trip to China, I'm not going to just say, Well, I want to visit all the temples in China. Forget that. I don't want that. One of the ways that demons interact with humans is through mediums.

Another way is through divination. Divination. Again, this is something the individual has to seek out. You should not be seeking this out. Somebody's going to tell you what's going to happen in your life. Read the tea leaves. Do the tarot cards. Let's do the Ouija board.

Let's have a séance. Today, we've got this almost every other movie that's coming out. The demons must absolutely love Hollywood. You've got all this demonic stuff. And, of course, now, there's always the good angel. It's always really satanic. But they want to say, No, you've got the good witch. Back in the 60s with Samantha, the guy that twitched the nose, the good witch. Forget that. There's no such thing as a good witch. Let's go to Acts 16. Acts 16. Verse 16. Now, it happened as we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us.

This is what God is inspiring. It's not focused here. This is the real deal. She actually had a spirit of divination who brought her master as much profit by fortune-telling. Now, if she couldn't, you know, if everyone who went to her and she said, Well, give me so much money and I'll tell your fortune. If none of it ever came to pass, she would pretty much her practice would dry up.

So what does this verse tell you? This verse tells you that she was successful enough, she was able to tell the future enough for enough people where she was making a pretty good buck. Now, don't ask me how that works, because I don't know. I don't know how this particular thing works.

All I know is the Bible said it took place. It does take place. Verse 17. This girl followed Paul and us, crying out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. It was true! What did we learn from this verse? We learned from this verse that the demons don't always tell a lie.

If they always told a lie, you would just say, Oh, hey, whatever comes out of that mouth is going to be a lie. No. One of the things the demon world loves to do is like fishing. Let's go fishing for some human beings. We'll put some really nice bait out there. We'll bait them. Something that they need will give them a really good dose of truth, something that really might be helpful to them. And then when they start chewing on that, we're going to hook them. Verse 18. And this she did for many days, but Paul greatly annoyed, turned. It was like that show we had years ago on TV.

Slowly I turned. It was step by step. But Paul greatly annoyed, turned, and said to the Spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that very hour. Notice that the minister of God commanded in the name of Jesus Christ. Only the ministry in the church has the right and the ability to cast out a demon. Don't you try and do it. I didn't look at the example. I think it's Acts 16, where you've got these individuals. He says, let's go out and cast out a few demons.

And they started trying to do that. And what happened? The demons left the person who was demon possessed, jumped on the people who had no authority. So you as a Christian do not have the authority to cast out a demon. You do have other authority. We'll get to that later on in the sermon. But you don't have the authority to cast out.

It's got to be a minister of God, a true minister of God. And the guy who says he's a minister of God better be a minister of God, close to God. That way he's going to have a real issue on his hands. Verse 19, But when her master saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. What did we learn from verse 19? Verse 19 confirms the fact that when she was demon possessed, she had the ability to make money because her prophecies came true.

But when the demon left her, she no longer had that ability. So again, that's something that you and I want to make sure that we never, you know, tarot cards, Ouija boards, horoscopes, divine and forget it. We don't need any of that stuff. Now, there's something else that maybe you've not thought about this along these lines. Let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. This, you and I might be more susceptible, not to demonic possession, but demonic oppression. You and I might be more susceptible to this.

So let's pay attention here, all of us, because none of us here are exempt from this. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. And you we made alive who are dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. The prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.

We understand that scripture. We've understood that scripture for a long time, talking about how Satan broadcasts in terms of attitudes. And I would think that if Satan can do it, that he's taught his disciples the demons to do it. But here's where I want for us to think about something.

Isn't it true, brethren, that you have people that you know whose attitudes can affect you? Could be a boss, could be a coworker, could be a next-door neighbor, could be somebody in your family. That when you're near that person, their vibe is kind of contagious.

Maybe they're negative. You find that when you're with them, you tend to be more negative. Maybe they're an angry person. When you're around them, you tend to be more angry. Well, if we're that way with human beings, how about Satan and the demon world? Do they not give off a vibe? Do they not give off an attitude? And why I say that we're susceptible to oppression, brethren, is when you and I allow certain things into our life, and we don't work hard enough to get them out of our life, then we might be receiving those signals much too strongly, and it can really hurt us.

Again, not toward possession, but just being plain hurt by the spirit world. Let me give you some examples here. Let's turn to Ephesians 4. Notice how this is put together here in Ephesians 4, verses 26 and 27. Be angry and do not sin, do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

Notice how those two thoughts are coupled together. Anger and giving place to the devil, giving place to a demon. If we allow anger inside of us to just percolate and percolate and percolate, then we don't do anything with it. Demons come in all different stripes, they come in all different personalities. You've got the ones who are the relatively harmless ones that like to play tricks. They're demons that like to have things floating in the air and they trick you like that, and oh, isn't that wonderful?

The chair is floating. But then you've got some very vicious ones. Angry ones. And they are giving off this anger vibe. And if you are there and you are angry, and anger is a big part of your life, then it's going to take what anger you've got and augment it and enhance it.

Now, is that what you want? Is that what you want? Is that what I want? That's why it says in verse 26, Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't let it build up. If it keeps on building up, then you become a sitting duck.

Not for possession, but oppression. Let's take a look at something else. 1 Peter 5. Another thing that the demon world likes to do, Satan loves to do. Notice, as we dig into these scriptures more deeply, what we can see here. 1 Peter 5, verses 6-8. Verse 6, Therefore humble yourselves unto the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you.

Now, I've read that. That's one of my favorite scriptures. I've read that in so many ways. I've read a number of different translations. But we're going to discuss this verse in a way that I've never discussed it with you before. Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Notice what this is tied to. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. What is it about us that he makes us more of a mark, more easily conquered?

We go back to verse 6. People who have a lot of cares, or people who are discouraged, people are depressed. And I'm not talking about just casual depression where, you know, not so I've got to pay my house payment today. We all have that. Sometimes you'll have even more depression than that. But when we talk about starting to get to the place where we're clinically depressed, really broken of spirit, then you can have a demon or Satan broadcasting just more of the same to the place where it just pushes a person over the edge.

It pushes them over the edge. Again, not possession, but oppression. This is why we need to fight discouragement now. Brethren, discouragement comes in many forms. Sometimes it's a matter of not getting enough sleep. Sometimes it's a matter of not the proper diet. There are all sorts of physiological factors for it. Sometimes all we need is a pill. And there's nothing wrong with that. You know, I have been on medication since I've been 25 years old. All of us are nothing more than bags of chemicals. I have been taking blood pressure medication since before I was fat.

That's been a long time. Back when I was skinny, I was taking blood pressure meds. I was 25 years old when I started taking blood pressure medication. Why? Because my system needs those chemicals. Without those, I didn't take those, I'd be long dead. And the same thing can be true with somebody who's depressed. Sometimes it's just a chemical imbalance. I don't want anybody in a room here who battles depression, thinks, Satan's on my shoulder blade, because that's not necessarily the case.

It's not necessarily the case. It could be the case if we let it go to extremes, but we don't need to let it go to extremes. Again, we've got God, we've got the angels, we've got the Bible, we've got all these things. God's Spirit on our side. But we need to watch some of these things.

Take a look at Genesis 3, another area. Genesis 3. You know this very well. Genesis 3, verse 1. Now, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field. He was more cunning. Where did Satan teach the demons how to be cunning? Well, of course he did. Whatever we see about Satan, the demons do the same thing. More cunning. He said, the woman, has God indeed said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said, the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the tree of the garden, the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden.

God has said, You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die. So here you've got somebody who knows the Scripture, so to speak. They're giving the information God gave to them. They're doing a good job here. Eve's doing a good job. But again, she doesn't keep after it.

Verse 4. Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows in a day that you eat it, your eyes will be opened. You'll be like God, knowing good and evil. So the woman saw the tree was good for food, and so she begins to remind me, You know, I'm going to set aside what God clearly told me. I'm going to use my own eyes, and here's what I think is the real deal. And so what do we see here? Broadcasting doubt. Satan and the demons love to broadcast doubt.

I doubt that God loves me. I doubt that God's word has anything for me. One last example of this is over here in 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4. Verse 1, the Spirit expressly says that in a latter time, Someone will depart from the faith, giving hate to deceiving spirits, and doctrines of demons. This is why, brethren, we don't want to dabble in other churches, churches of the world. We don't want to dabble with false doctrine. People say, well, you know, Christmas is nothing really wrong. People just say they can get their family together and give gifts.

No, it's a doctrine of the demon. That's what it is. Let's be honest. Let's not be politically correct. It's a doctrine of a demon. We don't want anything to do with that. We don't want anything to do with a deceiving spirit that would deceive us into thinking it's okay.

Let's take a look at Philippians 4. Wayne gave a series of sermonettes on this not that long ago, and I gave a sermon some time ago about it myself. Philippians 4. Wayne and I approached it a little differently. I was using Philippians 4 and verse 8 as an example of how we can have more spiritually productive conversation on the Sabbath. Let's read Philippians 4 and verse 8.

Finally, brethren, what's the word things are true? What's the word things that are noble, just, are pure, are lovely? What's the word things that are of good report? If there's any virtue, if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. Think about these things deeply. Let them come in and out of your mind. These are good things. These are things that help us to get rid of the anger, get rid of the discouragement, get rid of the doubt, get rid of the deceit.

Here's God's prescription for us. When I gave the sermon on this some months ago, I took each of these areas apart and said, well, this is an area we can use as conversation in church services. Certainly, brethren, as conversation material, we have with God the Father. We're getting close to the...we'll take you over time a little bit today.

Just be aware of that. I want to talk about where the tire hits the road. I want to talk about demonic possession. I don't want to spend a lot of time with this, but I think it's important that we have some discussion of it. Primarily, at this point, we've been talking about demonic oppression.

We do want to talk about demonic possession. But again, I want to caution all of us what we saw in 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7. 2 Timothy 1 says, but God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind. That's what God has given us. James chapter 4 and verse 7. We read that. We want to reread it. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Brethren, it is my strong feeling, and I don't have a scripture I can use in one sense to back this up word-for-word what I'm about to say.

But it's my strong feeling that if you are a converted son or daughter of God, you're not going to be demon possessed. You're not going to want to go there. It's not going to happen to you because you've got God's spirit of power inside of you. And the one spirit is not going to coexist with the other spirit. Now, if we want to be like Saul and live a life where we just basically give up all spiritual activity and as it happens to Saul, where the spirit of God leaves us, well, then that's a different matter.

That's a different matter. But I really, truly, in my heart, believe. Again, I can't point to a scripture that just says that explicitly. But I feel that if you've got God's Holy Spirit in you and you are striving to obey God, that you are not going to be possessed by a demon.

But let's take a look at those who can be possessed. Let's take a look at just two examples. The first one I want to use is Mark 9. Mark 9, starting in verse 17. Then one of the crowd answered and said, Teacher, I brought you my son who was a mute spirit. If you study this subject enough, you know that God has allowed demons to afflict, to torment mankind in many different ways. Blindness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis, illness. Sometimes that is the work of a demon.

And we see that in the scriptures. It's not a matter of having to surmise or what have you. There have been plenty of times when Jesus Christ healed somebody who had these issues. And we're going to see it right here. Verse 18, and whenever it sees him, it throws him down, he foams at the mouth, he throws him down and he has to eat and becomes rigid.

You can read to say, well, it looks like the person is having a mall or something here. So I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out but they could not. Now, why not? Christ gave them the power over the unclean spirits. So why couldn't they do this? We're going to find out in just a moment. He answered and said, O faithless generation. Well, here's part of the answer. O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you?

Bring him to me. So when the Lord saw him, he fell on the ground and followed, foaming at the mouth. Notice, brethren, that even in Jesus Christ's presence, you heard Bob in his sermon that talk about how the devils believe and tremble. Even at Jesus Christ's presence, they want to terrify people. And of course, they're so spiritually insane, they probably thought they could terrify Christ. Well, that wasn't going to happen.

So he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? And he said, from childhood. And he has often thrown himself into the fire and into the water to destroy him. Now verse 22 is very key. When you and I walk, what's happening in the world, we see these people who seem to have no regard for human life. Beheading people, setting people on fire in cages, crucifying little children, all those sorts of things. That is, to my way of thinking, very good evidence of what we see right here. Because here the demon was trying to destroy this man.

Trying to destroy this man. Now, am I saying that every person, every jihadist is demon-possessed? Of course not. Am I saying everybody who wants to commit suicide is demon-possessed? Of course not. Again, we can't... but there may be those situations.

There may be a spirit influence there. We don't want to just discard it, but we don't want to just say every situation is that way.

The Father says, if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help them. And Jesus said, if you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. And maybe the Father cried out and said, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. And I'm betting everybody in this room has said that to God in some way, shape, or form or other.

When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying, Death and dumb spirit! So Christ is saying that demons can make a person deaf and unable to speak.

Death and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more.

And the Spirit cried out and bawls him greatly and came out of him and became his one dead. So many said he is dead, but Jesus took him by the hand, lifted him up, and he arose.

And when he had come into the house, the disciples asked him privately, why could we not cast him out? So he said, this kind of comes out by nothing but prayer and fasting.

And so the idea is, you know, we're talking about the need for a great deal of spiritual power here.

And, brethren, you and I, we're living in an age where we don't want to be kind of attached to the vine. We want to be closely attached to God. We want to have a deep relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ. Not so that we can cast out demons, but just so the demons will leave us alone.

So that's one example. The other example is over here in Mark 5.

And that's what I want to say, we'll just have some concluding thoughts. It won't keep you over maybe just a 10 or 15 minutes here.

Mark 5, verse 1.

Mark 5, 1. Then it came to the other side of the seat to the country, the gatherings. When he came out of the boat, immediately there was... Met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no one contained him, not even with chains.

What do we get from this section of Scripture, brethren? We understand from this section of Scripture that you and I don't ever want to think that we can out-physical, out-muscle a demon.

I don't care if it's some little old lady who weighs 80 pounds.

If she's demon-possessed, I don't care if you are built like Arnold Schwarzenegger and you've got six more just like you behind you.

It's not going to work.

The fight here is spiritual, it's not physical.

Because he had often been bound with chains, shackles and chains, and the chains had been pulled apart by him. Talk about strength.

This is why our battle is a spiritual battle, brother, not a physical one.

The shackles are broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him, totally unruly.

And always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying out, cutting himself with stones.

Again, self-mutilation, cuttings, all those sorts of things.

Now, is everyone who does this, and there's a great deal of this in our society today, is everyone who does this, are they demon-possessed? No. Are they demon-oppressed?

Perhaps. But not possessed.

Necessarily.

But this is symptomatic.

When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him, and he cried out with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with you, Jesus of Most High God? I implore you by God that you do not torment me. Now, they want to torment us, but they don't want to be tormented.

Verse 8. So he said to him, Come out of this man unclean spirit. He said to him, What is your name? He asked him, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many.

Brethren, I've known people like this.

For the sake of our little ones in the congregation, I'm not going to go into all the detail, but I've known a situation just like this.

I've talked with people who... well, I've seen situations like this. Verse 10. Also, he begged him earnestly that he would not send him out of the country. Now, a large herd of swine were feeding nearby, and so the demons begged him, saying, Send us into the swine! Let us unclean beings go into the unclean animals here.

And at once, Jesus gave them permission. Notice, again, the demons are on a short leash. They can't do whatever they want to do. Jesus has to God or Father, and Jesus has to give them permission. Then the unclean spirits went out and entered the swine. There were about two thousand, and the herd ran violently down into this deep place and to the sea and drowned.

So, here you see this whole idea of suicide again, killing the animals anyway. That's certainly what the demon world wants to do with us. They want to torment us and kill us.

So after those who fed the swine fled, and they told them in the city and in the country, and they went out to see what had happened. Verse 15 is very key here.

Then they came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon possessed and had the legion sitting in clothed in his right mind.

He wasn't in his right mind before. Now he's in his right mind.

So, again, am I saying everybody who lives in a mental institution is demon possessed? No. Are some? You better believe it. I've gone to enough institutions like that where I wanted to get in and out as quickly as I could.

There have been too many times where people have come up to me in those situations. I knew that something else was between... it was on the other side of those eyeballs looking at me and it wasn't human.

So how do you protect... the last section of my sermon here, again, that's why we're going to go over time. How do you and I protect ourselves spiritually?

Brethren, we protect ourselves spiritually by being close to God. We're living in Satan's backyard. There are perhaps multiple thousands, if not millions... maybe billions, I don't know. I don't know a number of demons. But many, many of them, and we want to be close to God.

If you find that you are face-to-face, as I have at various times in my life, face-to-face with what you feel as a demon, then you cannot cast the demon out, but there is something you can do. Let's take a look at the book of Jude. God gives you as a son or daughter of His the absolute right to do this, and you need to do this.

Jude 9. You had Michael the archangel, and, contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, and dared not bring against him the devil, and reviling accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke you! Forwards! You don't have to say that out loud. You can say that because you're talking to God. You don't need to impress the demon there. But if you feel that you are in a situation where you were looking at some sort of fallen spirit, then this is a very short period. You don't say anything about yourself. You're not doing this in your name, or my name, or Paul's name. You're doing it the Lord rebuke you. It's God who's doing this. And you have the power as a Christian to rebuke an evil spirit.

Not cast one out, but to rebuke one. So make sure that you've got a solid relationship with God through your prayers. Remember this instance. But also, brethren, make sure that you're studying His word.

Make sure your study is well. Let's look at Matthew 4.

Matthew 4.

Verse 1.

Here we have Jesus Christ Himself going up against Satan Himself.

And how did He defeat Satan? Let's take a look. Let's remind ourselves. This is not new to us here, but let's remind ourselves.

Matthew 4, verse 1. Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This was in God's plan. God wanted Christ and Satan to face off.

Christ was just kind of minding His own business, and Satan pounced on Him. Basically, Jesus Christ, in my estimation, He's going hunting for Satan. He wants to defeat Him.

Verse 2.

Now, when a tempter came to Him, He said, If you were the Son of God, command Me stones that they become bread. So, again, Satan is messing with His mind. He feels, you know, in His warp thinking, that, well, you know, Christ has got to be weakened by this 40 days and 40 nights thing.

Not eating, not drinking would have killed anybody else. So, let's tempt Him with food. Verse 4.

So, how did Christ fight Satan off? By quoting the Word of God.

And, as I may mention to you some weeks ago, what is He quoting here?

He's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 3. We went through the whole book of Deuteronomy, most of the time verse by verse, because the book of Deuteronomy is a book that talks about how we have victory with God.

And so, when Christ wanted victory over Satan, He's quoting the book of Deuteronomy.

Verse 5.

And in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against the snow. And Jesus said, it is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Again quoting Scripture. This time He's quoting Deuteronomy chapter 6, another place in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 16.

Verse 8.

And Jesus said to him, And they said to Him, We saw an example earlier today where the demon wanted to have somebody fall down and worship him. Well, here Satan's the thing, same thing. But he wants Christ to fall down and worship.

And Jesus said to him, Again quoting from Deuteronomy, this time chapter 6 verse 13.

So, we fight Satan, we protect ourselves by a strong prayer life, a strong study life.

But there are some physical things we can do, brethren, as well.

Let me give you a little bit of a list here of things that I've noticed over the years.

Watch your home environment.

I once knew an individual who painted every wall and the interior of their home black.

Every wall. I mean, they must have had a sale on black paint someplace.

Every wall was painted black, and this person was wondering why they were depressed all the time, why they were discouraged, and then later on, why it was that the demons were bothering this person.

So, you know, our environment can make us susceptible to oppression.

Resist sin. We don't, you know, we're talking about Satan not getting a toehold in our life.

Well, he gets a toehold by sin. The little white lie becomes a lot of lies.

Becomes a whole way of living is a lie. And, of course, we can be susceptible to satanic and demonic oppression.

Forgive people who've hurt you. Why do we forgive people who've hurt us?

Because if we don't, we become angry. And anger builds.

Anger is one of the great tools that Satan uses on Christians all the time.

If you're an angry Christian, you can be a sitting duck.

Anger is something you've got to work on. I've got to work on. Everybody's got to work on.

Christ said, don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't let it build up. Don't let it stockpile.

Because if it does, you can be in really bad shape.

Certainly, you want to watch out for wrong religious teachings.

This is not a politically PC sort of a thing.

We want to be correct. We want to be correct.

There are certain teachings in the world we want no part of.

We don't want to be a part of the Christmas celebrations. We don't want to be a part of a trusted friend or a beloved friend or a relative.

Let's go someplace where they call down the Spirit.

We want to be someplace they call down the Spirit. They speak in tongues.

No, we want to be a place like that.

I've known somebody who said, I've got to work up the Spirit. They worked up the wrong Spirit.

They worked up the wrong Spirit.

It wasn't a funny thing. When somebody thought they were doing something, they felt the Spirit of God was working here.

We've got to be praying down the Spirit and do all those things.

Then they got possessed.

You don't want to be possessed by an alien.

Be cautious about what you watch on TV, what you watch in the movies these days.

So much of our programming today in movies and TV is this witch or that witch or this one with supernatural powers or that one with supernatural powers.

Satan is really working overtime to prepare the hearts and minds of people for what he's going to do in the future.

We don't want to be lulled to sleep by any of that.

So, brethren, remember my emphasis today.

We must respect our satanic enemies but not fear them.

We must become acutely aware of demonic methods but not be preoccupied by them.

And remember as well, John 8, verse 32, You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

Now, there's much more I could have said about this subject, but I think you get the point.

You can do more research on your own.