Resisting the Devil

But there is an ultimate eternal judgment that will come to Satan and those who followed him. But the devil and his angels... Let's go back to Matthew 12. Matthew 12, verses 24 through 26. Because during his ministry, Jesus was accused of performing miracles by the power of Satan. Verse 24, now when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub. Beelzebub, one of the Philistine gods. The ruler of the demons. So this one representing Satan is a ruler over. In other places, he's called the prince of demons. But Jesus knew their thoughts and he said to them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.

And every city or house divided against itself will not stand. If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And it does give us a little insight into... I mean, you look at the demon world, we'll look at some of their basic characteristics. You get that many who are by nature liars and thieves. And they like to take possession of an individual's ability to speak or to see.

Jesus cast some out and called them. You deaf and blind, or you dumb or mute. King James uses the word dumb and I'm glad the new King James says mute. You mute demon and casting them out. But we have a lot of thieves and liars who together, surely, there is this division against each other.

Always they would be jockeying for power because that's how it began. We have a few clues that will allow us to guesstimate how many there may be. There is a place back in Daniel where Daniel in vision saw the ancient of days and this one like the Son of Man and it said ten thousand times ten thousand ministered unto him. And then there was another thousand times a thousand. So ten thousand, if you add up the zeros with the one in front, that's one hundred million.

Is the one hundred million referring to the faithful two-thirds? If so, then there may have been one hundred to fifty million demons. Excuse me. Let me back up on that. One hundred fifty million angels created. Fifty million, perhaps, is as close of a guesstimate as we can come to the number of the demon world. There may be more than that. But I think by Daniel's, what he wrote, we can say there is at least that much. In the Old King James, if you have that version, the word demon doesn't even appear. The New King James and others use the term demon. The Old King James will say, well, so-and-so had a devil.

He'll talk about unclean spirits and lying spirits and so on, evil spirits. But there is one prince over all of them. So from what we've seen, they were created angelic sons of God, but they followed Lucifer in rebellion. They became what is called demons. They were cast to the earth.

The majority of the demons are free at will to work on the earth. From Revelation, it talks about how the bottomless pit or the abyss will be opened up, and some of these maybe more powerful demons will be unleashed at the very time of the end with some of the events of the trumpet plagues.

Perhaps some of those worst of the worst are restrained right now, but they are limited here to the earth, unless, like in Job 1 and 2, God allows some type of access to Satan. Let's look at Luke 8, and beginning in verse 31. Luke 8 verse 31, this is breaking in on the account of the one who broke, the one who had, as it turned out to be, a huge number of demons, and would break even chains with which he was bound.

Verse 30, Jesus had asked the name. His name was Legion, and the Roman Legion had thousands in it. And they begged him, so notice the they, the plural, they begged him, that he would not command them to go into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged him that he would permit them to enter them. And he permitted them.

Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. Well, the story goes on how this man who had been freed from the bondage of these demons was seen. He was there, and he was clothed, and he was in his right mind, and the people were shocked and stunned. But the problem was not the man. The problem was the demons that had possessed him and taken over his life. You could just make a note of Revelation 9, verses 2 and 11.

Revelation 9, verses 2 and 11, and that's in the trumpet plagues where it talks about some of these more powerful forces, demonic forces being unleashed at the time of the end, to bring events to a crescendo. Well, let's ask another question. Number 2 is, what is the nature of demons? What is the nature of demons? Or how do they seek to work? Let's go back to Matthew 8, and let us read verse 16. Matthew 8, verse 16, When evening had come, they brought to him many who were demon-possessed, and he cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were sick.

But there were those who were demon-possessed. This tells us that demons seek an open door where they can go in and actually take control of a person's mind. How often does this happen? We have no idea. But we've been offered protection, and others never take protection for granted.

Jesus taught us there with Matthew 6, the disciples had wanted to know how to pray, and part of it was to keep us from the evil one. And that's something we should take very real, and to respect the power that is there. Matthew 24, let's read just verse 39. Again, just taking a little clue out of a story that's of a different context, but Luke 24 verse 39, Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Jesus, after the resurrection, has appeared back to disciples. Then he said, Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.

So he manifested himself as though he were a flesh and blood being, but we know he was a spirit being again at this time. But it does tell us that the demon world have no, do not have a material body. They're not made of the elements of this earth as we know it. They consist of spirit. But they do seek to inhabit and to control. They are invisible. There has never been a photograph taken of one. There have been those who thought they had a photograph, but then when it was developed, realized there's nothing there, because it's not flesh and blood.

There's nothing for the process to act upon. They seek to demonize. They seek to control. Let's look at John 10. John 10. Here we have a little story that tells us that a demon is often known by their words. I would add their attitude as well. They cannot hide the attitude. Also the look on the face, the look on the eyes. There's that old saying that the eyes are the window to the soul, and there's a lot often that is given away by the look on the eyes. John 10, verse 19. Therefore there was a division again among the Jews because of these sayings, and many of them said he has a demon and is mad.

Why do you not listen to him? Others said these are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? So this is on the tail end of a story, where in chapter 9 a man who was born blind was given his sight, and it caused quite an uproar.

And as the story continued with no break, Jesus spoke about the sheepfold and how he's the door of the sheep, and it goes right into the fact that there were those of the Jews who accused him of doing that by the power of Satan. And these are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Let's go back to 1 Samuel 16. We have an interesting study back here in the time of King Saul. King Saul was chosen to become the first king of Israel, and we realize it didn't take long that he began acting in such a way that ended in his disqualification and removal as king.

His family line was not going to be the line of kings. It was passed to someone else after God's mind who would do God's will. But in 1 Samuel 16, verse 14, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul. Now, back as far as chapter 10, chapter 9 is where we're introduced to Saul, and in chapter 10, Saul was told that, My Spirit will come upon you, and you will be changed into a different person. But it didn't take long. We have one mistake after another after another.

And finally, kind of the crescendo was when they were waiting for Samuel to come. And Saul, as a Benjamite, who had no business giving the order to have sacrifices, which was in the realm of the Levites, Saul initiated that, and that's when God told him, You've disqualified yourself, and I'm going to remove you.

And then it tells us the Spirit of God was departing from him. Now, what was in Saul's heart at the end of his life, we don't know, but it doesn't sound good. And a distressing Spirit from the Lord troubled him. Now, it says, From the Lord. There are a lot of times God backs up and just allows. There are times when God will allow a demon to get in there, to stir up, to test, to try, to influence, because he's in the process of purifying his people.

And that understands that we're going to be tried and tested. It's interesting, in verse 15, it says, And Saul's servants said to him, Surely a distressing Spirit from God is troubling you. So even these servants of Saul could look, and they recognized something's wrong here. And they concluded there's an evil Spirit working. Let our Master now command your servants, who are before you to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp, and it shall be that he will play with it in his hand when the distressing Spirit from God is upon you, and you will be well.

Well, Saul gave orders to that effect. Verse 18, They found and brought the son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite. And verse 19, Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse, and said, Send me your son David, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey. You know that story.

And verse 21, David came to Saul and stood before him, and he loved him greatly. I mean, what a marvelous statement. This man, who was going to turn against David, it all started out with David adoring his king, and he became the armor bearer. And verse 23, So it was whenever the Spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. And Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing Spirit would depart from him. In the book of Psalms, we have so many of them in our hymnal. We just sang some. They're based upon the Psalms. Beautiful words. Half of those Psalms are written by David. At least half. And, you know, that tells us that whenever there is an environment present that allows a demon to work, if we'll just change the environment, it's been written that, and it is true that music is a language of emotion. And in Saul's case, being troubled by this evil spirit, when David came and probably began playing and singing, God-fearing, godly words, it changed the environment, the whole mood and attitude, and the evil spirit left. It could not work. And that ought to tell us a lot. We'll focus on that a little later when we talk about resisting Satan. Change the setting. Change the environment. Be very careful what you come in, what you allow to come into your mind. Let's go to Mark 5. Mark 5, here's a unique story. There are so many stories. Isn't it interesting how many times during the Gospels, Christ came face to face with situations where you had demonic possession? I think God included those stories to remind us. We have a struggle. We have a battle. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. Sometimes we look at political figures. Sometimes we look at judges. Sometimes we look at employers, and we think the worst. When in reality, behind the scenes are wicked spirits in heavenly or high places. Mark 5, verse 1, Then they came to the other side of the sea, Sea of Galilee, to the country of the Gadarenes. And when he had come out of the boat immediately there met him, out of the tombs. That should tell us something right there. What kind of a sound mind would be out there dwelling in the graveyard? A man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs, And no one could bind him, not even with chains, Because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, And the chains had been pulled apart by him, And the shackles broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, And out in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped him. Well, I would put the word worshipped in quotes. He was not worshipping him in the sense that you and I do. It was sarcastic. It was negative. He came and worshipped him. And he cried out with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, you son of the Most High God? Well, obviously a demon fully knows who Jesus Christ is. I implore you by God that you do not torment me. Now, there's more than one story with a statement like that. At one point, the demons cried out, Are you here to torment us ahead of our time? They recognized there is a time of final punishment.

And so they wanted to know, Are you here to torment me now? For he said to him, Come out of the man unclean spirit. And then he asked his name, and he answered, saying, My name is Legion for we are many. And again, we read a parallel account just a little while ago. Superhuman strength. Because the demon has a power that we don't want to go up against, just on our own strength. There's a story in the book of Acts, seven sons of a man named Sceva. And you can reread that story. They thought they could go up against demon spirits. And one demon attacked them, and they fled naked and wounded, it says. So we don't ever want to go up against them on our own strength.

Michael the Archangel wouldn't do that in Jude, I think it's verse 9. In contesting with Satan about the remains of God's servant Moses, he didn't curse out Satan. He didn't say, Hey, I'm of equal power to you. He said, The Lord rebuke you. And any time that we face demonic influence or presence, we address it from the point of view of the power of God. They must obey God. They must submit to God, whether they want to or not. And they hate to hear the name Jesus Christ. You look at our news, it has been stunning of late. In the United States, it's like it went from weekly, and now it's moving toward daily.

There's some mentally upset, challenged, or terrorist who goes off the rocker, takes out a gun and starts shooting people. If you watch the news, you see it's about every day now, somewhere. And it's just random. And we have to ask, is Satan our demons, the cause? 2 Corinthians 11. Let's notice verses 14 and 15. He has been talking about false apostles and deceitful workers, and those who transformed themselves as they were into the apostles of Christ. Verse 14, and no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Is that not what he did with Eve? Has God not said, you can eat of all the fruit of the garden? He made it look so good. The fruit from that tree looked just as good as the fruit from any tree, but it was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And a lot of times, Satan will try to look as close as possible to being good. And yet, with just a little here, a little there, sometimes it's very difficult to discern. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. Now, this is done in doctrine. True doctrine is counterfeited, and Satan tries to get as close to what is right as he possibly can. Luke 11. Luke 11, beginning in verse 14. Here is a section that tells us that demons are territorial. They are territorial. They have certain areas of the earth where they work. Satan apparently has some type of a government or control. Luke 11, verse 14. And he was casting out a demon, and it was mute. So it possessed a person and took away the ability to speak. So it was when the demon had gone out that the mute spoke. There was nothing wrong with the vocal cords and everything else that goes into the power to speak. It had been taken possession of, and when it was cast out, the one who had been mute now could speak. And the multitudes marveled. But some of them said he casts out demons by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons. Again, we read similar statements here from a parallel account a while ago. The casting out by Beelzebub. Let's skip on down, verse 20.

But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. When a strong man fully armed guards his own palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he comes upon it and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor, in which he trusted and divides his spoils. And he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest, and finding none, he says, I will return to my house from which I came. Now, this is in the context of Christ having cast out a demon. And when cast out from what had been their home, meaning the mind of a human being, they apparently wander, they are tormented, they go through dry places and seek rest and find none. And then, if possible, they want to go right back where they came. And when it comes, he finds it swept, and in order, then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.

So, demons have separate personalities. They possess individuality. They have will, they have intellect, they have the power to choose, but they chose the wrong path. They will give the appearance of doing what is right if it will allow them footing to do what is wrong.

In the Bible, we find a number of different personalities of demons that tend to come out. When that evil spirit would come upon King Saul, he would become sad or melancholy, depressed. So, that evil spirit caused that effect within Saul. Now, by saying this, everyone who suffers depression, it does not go back to demons. There are all kinds of factors. There are chemical imbalances. There are just so many factors.

So, we're not talking about that. We have read where there are some who are mute, that that is their basic manner of manifesting. They seize the person's speaking ability. We read one where we saw the person would throw himself into the fire and go into convulsions. Some were deaf.

Some would become very violent. And so, often there is a physical infirmity that comes about with a possession. There may be a need for healing. More than once, when Jesus would cast one out, it would say the spirit would tear the person or convulse the person. And then Jesus would heal them of the damage that was done. We're familiar with John 844. You're of your father, the devil. John 844.

He was a liar. He was a murderer from the beginning. And so, they lie. They are filled with lust. I mean, look at society around us. It wasn't that long ago. You had to work to find pornography. And now you pull up your webpage, and I am thoroughly disgusted sometimes to see off to the right one of the advertisements. And it's there. And anyone who succumbs to that, a few clicks of the mouse can be walking down the path of lust.

Some are paranoid, as we read, the one crying out to Jesus, are you here to torment me? Let's consider now question number three. How do demons work today? Well, there are many different ways. Well, I'm not going to go into that book. I would spend too much time reading in that book. But there are... well, it's called Spiritism or Physical Phenomena. Levitation. I mean, you see a so-called... who are some of the names of those that do tricks on the stage?

Magic. Magicians. Yes, thank you. And levitate somebody, take the hula hoop, and run all the way down them to show they're not being suspended from cables. That's not the working of God. There is telekinesis, which is a fancy way of saying, of moving inanimate objects, where you'll see this toothbrush or cup go floating across a room. I mean, you think about the bizarre mind behind this. It just wants to distress human beings. There are psychic phenomena. There are those who speak in a trance, or there's this writing. Of course, the latest magazine has the handwriting on the wall, article Darris McNeely wrote. There are apparitions, and there's magic.

White and black. White is the supposedly good magic. As if there could be a good witch or wizard. There is the area of fortune telling, or divination. The cardamancy, the card laying. Lay down the cards and reading the cards. There are prophetic dreams. The divining rod. There are healings that appear to be healings, anyhow. Again, would God allow a demon to heal through a healing revival of someone who's not of the truth?

I think a demon might do that if it knows that the latter end might be worse than the beginning. And then let go of that person's ability to walk and move or speak, knowing it can move in and make it worse later on.

We have demonism all throughout religion. Unger has a whole chapter on pagans and some of the religions of the world. Hinduism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Shintoism, Islam. What do we need to say there? Because we see the end results of so many within radical Islam. It's not the Spirit of God. Do strap explosives on a woman or on a child and try to find as many people as you can, get in the middle of them, and set off a charge.

Let's look in Leviticus 19. No wonder God back in the Old Testament so many places cautioned the Israelites, Stay away from this demonism that is in the world around you. Leviticus 19. And in verse 31 we read, Give no regard to mediums. Well, King Saul should have listened to that. He went to the witch at Endor, who conjured up in this so-called séance, probably a demon masquerading as Samuel and speaking to him.

But it says, don't go to mediums. Give no regard to familiar spirits. Do not seek after them. To be defiled by them, I am the eternal your God. Leviticus 20, verse 6, and the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits to prostitute himself to them. To prostitute is to sell yourself unto them. I will set my face against that person and cut him off from his people. Deuteronomy 18, beginning in verse 9. Verse 9, When you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations.

Therefore, there shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritus, or one who calls up the dead. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord.

Because of these abominations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you. Of course, we know the rest of the story that that driving those people out was never completed. It was left there within the children of Israel as they went to possess the land. You can just make a note of 1 Samuel 28, and that's the story of Saul going to the witch at Endor.

But I'm not going to elaborate there. Number four, what is demonic possession? What is demonic possession? I want to read just a little from Unger. Unger demons in the world today. This is page 101. He says the term demon possession does not appear in the Bible. Apparently, it originated with the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus in the first century AD. The New Testament, however, frequently mentions demoniacs.

They are said to have a spirit, or have a demon, or have demons, or have an unclean spirit. Usually, such unhappy victims of evil personalities are said to be demonized. There's a Greek word that addresses that. It just means to be demonically controlled. Page 102, he says demon possession is a condition in which one or more evil spirits or demons inhabit the body of a human being and take complete control of their victim at will. The condition of the afflicted person in the possessed state varies.

Sometimes it is marked by great depression or deep sadness, vacancy, and in other cases they become wildly ferocious and violent. Distinguishing mark of demon possession, the chief characteristic of possession is the automatic projection of a new personality from the victim. The new personality reveals itself in a different voice. Sometimes it uses a different language or dialect, or speaks from a completely different educational or cultural level.

Pronouns are used to emphasize the new personality. The first personal pronoun, or I, consistently designates the inhabiting demon. Bystanders are addressed in the second person. The victim is referred to in the third person. The voice speaking from this person refers to he or she or it. Anyhow, I don't really want to read a whole lot about that. Because, well, let's go to Acts 16. Then I want to get to the main part of what we need to cover, and that is, how do we resist?

But Acts 16, notice this, in cases of demon possession, demons must be cast out. The individual demon must be discerned. The person who is possessed must be willing to resist. There have been those who have not been willing to resist, and so they leave a door wide open for a demon or demons to come and go as it pleases. Acts 16, verse 16. Now it happened, as we went to prayer, a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination met us, and brought her master's much profit by fortune telling.

This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation. Now what's wrong with that statement? Nothing. Again, Satan will quote Scripture even to his own benefit, as we see in Matthew 4 with the temptations of Christ. But somewhere down the line there's a little twist here or there. Verse 18, and this she did for many days, but Paul greatly annoyed, and 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.

Of course, then her owners, her masters, lost a lot of profit, and the rest of the story takes place. But number five, let's ask, how do we resist demons?

How do we resist? That is the bottom line of what we really need to focus on. I won't go back to anger. Let's go to 1 Peter 5, because Peter speaks of an absolute promise that we have from our Creator. 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9. Verse 8, Be sober. We had better have our eyes open. marginal note says, Be self-controlled. It takes a lot of self-control. There are times things come on the television, and we just simply need to turn it off. Be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. So let us think of Satan and demons in this analogy. They are, as though we were in a jungle, whether it's India, where there are tigers, or Africa, where there are lions, or out in the American West, where there are mountain lions, or South America, where there are jaguars. They all have the same basic, even down to the little kitty cat running around the neighborhood. They have the same basic nature. They will stalk. They will slink. They will take lots of time. They will then attack, pounce, when the prey least expects it. You see, maybe in some of the National Geographic-type shows of those who go out in the Sundarabhan in southern India, and a group of men walking through the woods, the last one will wear this mask. It looks like it's the face, because apparently the tiger isn't as likely to pounce directly, and if it thinks that's the person looking at it, it doesn't attack. But without that, they get to the destination. They find out, well, the last guy in the line got picked off. Where is he? Prevention is what is most important, because it can happen to any of us if we leave a door open. We need to make sure the door to our mind is locked and closed. To resist, let me break this down into a few sub-points. A is study Satan's devices. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 2 and read verse 11. This is the context of a man, as we're familiar with the story of 1 and 2 Corinthians. In the first letter, there was a man living improperly with what appeared to have been his stepmother. Paul said, I've judged, put the man out, and delivered him to Satan, that he may be saved.

Now, the second letter, the man has been brought back, but the people acted like he's got some kind of contagious disease, apparently. Paul is writing to them, no, you need to forgive him, you need to receive him, you need to accept him, just like you he sinned but was forgiven. Notice in verse 11, 2 Corinthians 2 verse 11, He was discussing the potential problem of overmuch sorrow, as the phrase he used a bit earlier, that the man was so disheartened and discouraged, that it allowed him to get so down, so sad, you know, from Saul, when he would be down in his sad funk, that's when the evil spirit could work. So he's telling the church, lift the man up, edify him, receive him. Another device of Satan is fear. Fear. We all have lots of fears. Fear of the unknown. Fear of facing something we've never faced before. We have a fear in this, well, across the world, one of the greatest fears human beings have is public speaking. And some of us know what that's about. Nothing like standing up in front of a group of people with a microphone looking at you. But we have to address those fears. Satan can use fear. Another device is that of sex. There I said it, sex. We are created from the beginning, male and female, created He them. That is a part of life. And it is intended as a marvelous blessing to bind to and to one within the realm of marriage. But look at the world around us. There is so much. We, of course, this last year had the sad experience of having a Supreme Court decide on behalf against the will of the people that those of the same sex can now marry. And there wasn't one thing you or I could do about it. Except pray, how long, O Lord? How long do you pour out your judgment? We have, with the advent of the Internet, we have the pornography industry. And it really is an industry that has exploded. We have, in modern media, we have television shows where there obviously has been an all-out attempt to desensitize people to ward perversions, things the Bible calls perversion, because it dulls the senses over time. But sex, another one is bitterness. The end of Hebrews talks about lest a root of bitterness get within you. Very difficult if a person gets bitter to ever come back. But if they do get bitter, it's fertile ground for a demon to work.

It may be anger. That's why Paul wrote those at Ephesus, and he said, Don't let the sun go down in your wrath, and the next verse is lest Satan should get an advantage of you. There are people who, with an uncontrolled anger, just flip out. They lose control. Any time we lose control of self, we leave our mind open for an outside influence. There is lust. We talked about sex briefly, but it could be a lust for any number of things. There are addictions of going to excesses, licit or illicit, alcohol that is legal, but we can go to an extreme.

Drugs that may be legal, but we can misuse. Illicit drugs, because it just takes one of those little green cigarettes, and you will get a high. You can't say that about a glass of wine for most people. So study Satan's devices as A. B is guard your mind. I said it earlier, garbage in equals garbage out. We become what we think. Proverbs speaks of that. I think it's Proverbs 23 verse 7. As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. They are connected. They hinge together. When I was young, it seems like Ouija boards were the thing. I had a cousin. When they would visit, this cousin would pull out his Ouija board. I thought it was a joke. He'd try to get us to participate, and I'd just push that thing around purposely, trying to irritate him, because he needed it. But there are tarot cards. There are demonic movies. Look at all the explosion of the zombie movies. I didn't used to hear about stuff like that, but the walking dead. Zombies. You've got so many who are fascinated by that. Proverbs 4 verse 23 speaks to this point. Guard your mind. Proverbs 4 verse 23. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. I looked it up in the Jewish Tanakh, and it reads a little differently, and I like the way it reads. The Jewish translation has it, Above all that you guard, keep your heart. There's another one that speaks of keep your mind. Be very discerning in what you allow to come into your mind. So whether it is alcohol or drugs, or whether it is all kinds of things that we've discussed, seek to discover what might allow a demon to work and keep that door closed. Guard the mind. Point C, don't abuse the body. Don't abuse the physical body. Maintain a structured life. It has been found that for good mental health, it's good that we have a schedule. Lie down at a certain time, as a basic rule, and get up at a certain time. Have a routine. Get plenty of adequate rest. Eat a balanced diet. There are foods, or so-called foods, that are crazy-inducing. And might open a door. Certainly, again, alcohol, I would throw in there. But then we live in a society that gets far too much sugar, probably way too much caffeine, and these things can have an effect. Deal with stress, because stress can put us over the edge and open a door as well.

So, point C is, don't abuse the body. Point D, ask for God's protective hedge. Ask for God's protective hedge. Let's go back to Job chapter 1. I think it's good to be reminded of this. Job chapter 1. Satan the devil was complaining to God because Job was protected. Problem for Satan, but a nice thought for us. That there would be a spiritual hedge placed about us. Our home. Our congregations. Our feast sites. Wherever we go. Job 1 verse 9. So Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for nothing? You have not made a hedge about him around his household and around all that he has on every side. You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. And you know the rest of the story, and God relaxed that hedge, and in the next stage of Job's trials took place. But let us ask for, claim, that protective hedge. Again, in the model prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, deliver us from the evil one. And that very Passover night, John 17, when Christ prayed to his Father, that lengthy prayer, he prayed, keep them from the evil one. And likewise, we should do the same. Part of our daily prayer should be for protection. And you know, Job, in this book, Job is the only one who is called just and righteous. But obviously, from Satan's complaint, that protection was around his family and his property as well. And so let us remember that as well. Point E, D was asking for the protective hedge. Point E, put on the whole armor of God. We heard that in the sermon at here, just not that long ago, a few weeks back. Ephesians 6, put on the whole armor of God. Let's go to Ephesians 6. This is the means by which the door is closed to our mind. Ephesians 6, but notice, verses, we'll at least read verses 11 and 12. Put on the whole armor of God. That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Our struggle, oftentimes we think, well, that human being over there is the one giving me problems. And Paul says, no, a lot of times there's wicked spirits in high places, and it's not flesh and blood, but it's against the rulers of the powers, the rulers of the darkness of the age. Then he goes on of the various elements of the armor of God, concluding in verse 18 with the need to stay in contact via prayer with the commander-in-chief. So put on and keep on the armor of God. Let's go to James 4. James 4, we will read verse 7. Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. And that is the bottom line promise we're given. Resist the devil, he will flee. How do we do that? Verse 8, Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. And we have that promise. And we should never forget that God is in charge, and we should have faith and live by faith in His protection. Let's close in Romans 16, because we can read to the end of the story. And as Paul reminded those at Rome, there's a time when Satan's day is over. We should have respect for their potential influence. We should believe in their existence. We should be careful that we do not dabble in anything that might open a door to our mind. But let us be encouraged that one day, Romans 16 verse 20 will take place. Romans 16 verse 20, And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen. So have faith that God will protect, and that God in His due time will give His people the victory.