Satan & the Demons: Understanding Our Spiritual Enemy

Unfortunately, in this world, war is a fact of life. In the United States, we've been involved in a great number of wars over our history. We've had the Revolutionary War, we've had the War of 1812, various Indian Wars, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf Wars, and our longest war, the War in Afghanistan.

We've had other skirmishes, conflicts, most of which we may not even be aware of, where special ops teams have gone in and done various things for our nation's interests. Those, brethren, who are engaged in a military conflict, they've got no doubt who their enemy is when they're going on an assignment. They have been trained to do their battle. They have a plan to defeat those enemies. Now, we're talking in the physical realm here, but let's change gears. There are other battles that are being fought. Spiritual battles. Last time I was here, we discussed the spiritual battles that we saw in Daniel chapter 10 and chapter 12. I labeled that sermon Star Wars.

Because in those two chapters, we witnessed spiritual battles taking place between Satan's demons and two of God's archangels, Gabriel and Michael.

We noted in that sermon that as Daniel was fasting for three weeks, he perhaps had known about some of God's people going back to the Holy Land to rebuild, that he had been fasting for their success.

During those three weeks, we saw that the dark side, the demons, were trying to thwart his attempt at prayer, trying probably to hinder his attempt at prayer. Because obviously they don't want a righteous man like Daniel doing much in the way of prayer. Of course, they were unsuccessful.

But let's take it down to you and I for today. As you and I today engage in these spiritual battles, and we do engage in spiritual battles, it's critical that you and I have as much intel, as much intelligence regarding our spiritual enemies as possible.

What are their tactics? What are Satan's tactics? What are Satan's tactics? What are the demon's tactics?

How can we be prepared for this spiritual battle that we are in and will be until the end of our days?

What plan do we have for our victory over these spiritual enemies?

Today, brethren, as I was thinking about Daniel chapter 10 and chapter 12, I was thinking about this in terms of wanting to give you a sermon. I didn't want to spend more than one Sabbath on it.

Today, we're going to take a look at, and the title of the sermon today is, Satan and the Demons, Understanding Our Spiritual Enemy.

Satan and the demons, understanding our spiritual enemy.

We're going to be taking this from God's Word. I'm going to leave out various and sundry episodes in my life that I've had. For those of you who go to our midweek Bible studies, you've heard a number of situations I've been involved in, in terms of the spirit world, in terms of fighting the spirit world. For the sake of our young ones here, we're not going to get into that. But we are going to take a look at the Scripture.

Typically, when I prepare a sermon, I'll try to have somewhere around 18 or 20 scriptures.

Last night, when I was done, when I thought I was done, I had 40.

That's enough for two sermons. So I had to do some surgical work to get this down to a manageable size. Part of that surgical work is I'll be referring to certain things for your notes. I'd like you to have a complete set of notes, but I simply can't read everything that I've got here in front of me. So I just want you to be aware of that. But we do want to start our discussion over here in Ephesians 6.

Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. And if there's one thing I hope that we get through this sermon today, is we don't fight Satan. We don't fight the demons. We don't fight those forces on our own strength, in our own strength. With our own power, we must be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Let us make sure we understand that concept. Verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God, every piece of it, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The wiles of the devil. In my Bible, my New King James, there's a center reference. Wiles can be translated as schemings. Like to read you a definition from the theological dictionary of the New Testament. And that is defining the word wiles here. So the reference is to machinations, or in military terms, attacks against which one must be armed. The nature of the attacks, the plural suggests that they are constantly repeated and of great variety. It constitutes their great danger against which the armor of God is the only defense. So we want to make sure that we're relying upon God. We want to, you know, we talk in this nation about our military preparedness. We want to be prepared spiritually for the dark forces that we're fighting. Verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Notice what it says here in verse 12. Against the rulers of the darkness of this age. You know, Star Wars doesn't have a monopoly on calling something the dark side. This has been in God's word for years and years and years. Long, long time. Against the darkness of this age. But one thing we can take as an array of sunshine, we can be very excited about this. Scripture over here in John chapter 8. John chapter 8. John chapter 8 and in verse 32. John 8, 32. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Today we're going to take a good, long look at the truth. The truth as we see it in God's word. And one of the greatest truths we're going to see is that God is all-powerful, as you well know. And he is already defeated. Let's take a look at Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. I want to begin the sermon with these underlying thoughts. These very positive, powerful thoughts.

Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14. Inasmuch that as the children have partaken of the flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy Him who has the power of death. That is the devil. God the Father, Jesus Christ, are victorious. You and I have no reason not to be victorious. We are God's kids. We have the support of God the Father in Jesus Christ. One of God's names from the Old Testament is the name El, E-L. We see that in various other of God's names, like Eloim. But the name El, E-L, is used about 250 times in the Old Testament. That name for God stands for God the Strong or God the Mighty. Our strong God, our mighty God, backs us up. We're going to see later on, and actually just a little bit, that Jesus Christ was praying for Peter. Have you ever thought about, you know, we pray for one another, but have you ever thought about Jesus Christ praying for you? Jesus Christ talking with the Father about your situation, what you're going through? To me, that's very inspiring. So here we see that we've got God the Father Jesus Christ. They are already victorious over Satan the Devil. Now, Satan is still on earth. He's still the God of this world. He's still there to torment us, as God gives them allowance for that. We'll get into that a little bit later. So we've got our battles to fight. But the bottom line is God is going to be and is already victorious. Luke 22. Luke 22. Luke 22 and verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you. Notice the phraseology. Satan has to ask. He has to get permission. The demons need to ask. The demons need to get permission. They can't do whatever they want to do. They are on a leash. Okay. Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. Their desire is to destroy us.

Verse 32. But I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen the brethren.

Satan, the demons, would very much, brethren, like to disengage us from the power of God. If they can get us so our faith is weakened, our faith is shaken, they can begin to disengage us from the tremendous power we have through God the Father and Jesus Christ. That's why Christ here is saying to Peter, he was praying for him, and that he needed to strengthen the brethren. Verse 33. Peter said, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. So here we see a human, the way a human being might look at this, a lot of human bravado.

And yet, human bravado doesn't cut it. Human bravado doesn't defeat Satan.

Verse 34. Then Christ said, I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you deny me three times, that you know me. So again, this is something we need to be aware of. Pride. It's one of the great tools that Satan uses.

So here we see where we don't want to find ourselves being disengaged from the power of God. So we've got God the Father, Jesus Christ, our elder brother. Let's take a look at 2 Kings 6.

2 Kings 6.

A little bit of background to the story here. You've got a man of God, Elisha.

He's telegraphing the moves of the enemy, the king of Syria, to his king.

And the king of Syria is really upset with that. He thinks there is some sort of a spy in the royal court.

And somebody says, no, there's no spy here. It's just this man of God, Elisha.

Whatever you say in private, he tells Israel publicly what's going to be taking place. So the king of Syria sends an entire army after one man, after Elisha.

Verse 15. 2 Kings 6.

And 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 his servant said to him, well, ask my master, what shall we do?

He was looking at this physically.

How else could he look at it? He's a physical human being.

Typical reaction.

So he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, Open his eyes that he might see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man that he saw, And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.

So, brethren, we have got this. In addition to the strength of God, which is all we need, the strength of Christ, which is all we need, we also have the holy righteous angels that can come to our aid. We saw that last time in Daniel chapter 10. Gabriel and Michael helping Daniel.

Let's look at Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews chapter 1.

Talking about angels.

Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 14.

Are they not all ministering spirits, talking about God's holy righteous angel? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?

God's angels are there for us. So, brethren, what we're looking at, and I wanted to start the sermon off with this, is the reassurance that we've got a great many spiritual tools, resources. We are well provisioned, well equipped, well armored as Christian soldiers.

We walk with God. We've got God's word. We've got God's spirit. We've got God's people to be there to help us.

So, what should the Christian soldiers' balanced approach be to the spiritual warfare that we find ourselves in?

I'm going to read this statement twice. I did a little wordsmithing with this. It's kind of lengthy, but here is, I feel, a balanced approach to this whole situation. We must respect and understand Satan and the demons, but not fear them. We must become acutely aware of their methods, their strategies, and prepare ourselves through the power of God's spirit to defeat them.

So, we must respect and understand Satan and the demons, but not fear them. We must be acutely aware of their methods and strategies, and prepare ourselves through the power of God to wage successful warfare.

For your note's sake, I want to give you a historical timeline of Satan's wars.

We've got World War I and World War II. We've got Satanic War I and Satanic War II. This is the section here where I'm going to just simply announce the Scriptures. You can take this down for your notes, so you have a complete set of notes. But you've got Lucifer's original rebellion. That's in Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel chapter 28.

Lucifer does not defeat God. God is always victorious. God is victorious here. The attempted coup, the attempted overthrow, was not successful at all. Again, these next several Scriptures I'm not going to turn to. Revelation chapter 12, verse 3 and 4.

Revelation chapter 12, verses 3 and 4. We see where Lucifer, who became Satan, was able to convince one-third of the holy, righteous angels to follow him.

As Christians, we allow our minds to be renewed. We allow our minds to be transformed to become more like God.

As Satan was working with these angels, he was working to transform their minds in a degenerative type of a way. In a degenerative type of a way. He was successful with the third.

Second Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 4. In the King James Version, it talks about how Satan is the God of this world.

So, as you and I walk this world, we are on Satan's turf, so to speak. It says, home court advantage, home field advantage. Now, we're in the time of the year where we're moving quickly toward the Super Bowl. Home field advantage is a big advantage. In March, we'll have March Madness. People want home court advantage wherever possible. Well, Satan has home field, home court advantage.

In Daniel chapter 10, we looked at this last time I was here with you, verses 13 and 20.

We see where Satan's world is organized.

He has princes and kings over various geographical areas.

We don't want to give Satan more credit than he's due.

Satan doesn't have all the qualities or any of the qualities of God. He's got the qualities of a former archangel, or maybe current archangel, who's now become a chief demon.

But Satan can't be every place at one time. He can broadcast, just like human beings can broadcast around the Earth, but not be every place at one time. Satan can't be every place at one time, so he needs various ways to take planet Earth and divide it up into parcels, and he's got various demons in charge of those areas.

We saw that in Daniel chapter 10.

There was one in charge of Persia, there was one in charge of Greece, there were others under those, and so forth.

Job chapter 1.

Again, not turning there. Job chapter 1 and verse 12.

Job 1, 12, and Job chapter 2 and verse 6.

We see that God grants Satan restricted access, restricted access to human activity.

Again, he's not allowed to do just whatever he pleases, nor are the demons.

Back when we were talking about Isaiah chapter 14 and Ezekiel 28, we saw a satanic war number one.

In Revelation chapter 2, we see satanic war number two.

He's going to try it again.

Revelation chapter 12, verse 7 through verse 9.

A second attempt at war with God. And again, this ends in defeat.

And we always want to keep that in mind.

And then lastly, Revelation chapter 20, verses 1 through 3, Satan is bound.

Satan is bound.

Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth, said, we should not be ignorant of Satan's devices. We need to be aware of his devices, his tactics.

And as I was thinking about putting together some information for you so you can be fully, at least begin to be more fully armed on this subject, I was taking a look at a sampling of Satan's names.

And when we take a look at his names, God calls things what they are. He refers to things what people do. It's a matter of their character. It's how they operate. So I want to take just a look at some of the names for Satan. Job chapter 1. Let us go there. Job chapter 1.

Verse 6. Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. Satan came among them. In my New King James, next to the word Satan there in verse 6, you go to the center reference, it says literally, the adversary. The adversary.

Brown, Driver, and Briggs, the Hebrew and English lexicon, goes a little further in terms of defining this. Brown, Driver, and Briggs says Satan should be described as the superhuman adversary.

The superhuman adversary. What is an adversary? An adversary is someone who opposes. An adversary is someone who attacks. This is what Satan does. He opposes. He attacks. He spirits, so he doesn't have to rest. He's relentless.

Why, you have to sleep, and I've got to sleep, and we need our rest. He doesn't. He continues to oppose. He continues to attack, to thwart, to undermine. So these are some of the things that Satan does. He hates mankind in general, because mankind has the possibility of being in the family of God. He doesn't. He's very upset about that. When you narrow the field down from mankind, Satan has the particular hatred for Israel, God's nation, particular hatred for them. We narrow that down even further, even more of a hatred for God's church, who know, you know, we know who he is, and what he's trying to accomplish. And of course, we narrow that down and drill down even deeper. The superhuman adversary hates you and I as individuals. So let's keep in mind that he is a superhuman adversary.

Let's turn to another name here, found over here in John 8.

John 8.

John 8 and verse 44.

Now, here's another name. This name, Devil, has a certain meaning to it. You are of your father the Devil. Let's read the rest of this section because it really helps us understand the term Devil. The desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Thayer's Greek lexicon defines Devil as one who is prone to slander, slanderous, and a false accuser.

Satan is one, as we see here. Devil is one that we see here. Devil is one that we see here who uses lie, uses half-truth, uses innuendo to kill people's good reputation, to kill our names, if we have a good reputation, to speak evil of all things that are pure and just and right that we see in God's Word. And the intent we see in verse 44 is that he wants to murder. He wants to assassinate. All those things, not just people, but all those things that are good and wholesome and right and true. So, Devil means slanderer. The next name we take a look at is found over here in 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 15 And what accord is Christ with Belial? What accord is Christ with Belial? Belial, a name for the one we call Satan or the Devil. According to Vines' expository dictionary of biblical words, here is the definition of Belial. Worthless or hopeless ruin. It also has the meanings of extreme wickedness and destruction. The latter indicating the destiny of the former. One of the ways, brother and I, I've noticed this in my ministry over the years, in dealing with the spirit world, the negative spirit world, the dark side of the spirit world, is that Satan and his demons love to waste your time. Love to waste your time. My time. Do we give them some help with that? Are there things we do in our life that really is not that profitable? That's not to say we don't have hobbies. That's not to say we don't do things that are enjoyable. Whatever those things may be, crafts or sports or whatever we do. But do we allow ourselves to spend so much time on that, that we don't find ourselves properly praying or studying or meditating or thinking about the things that are really important? Satan wants us to get involved in spiritually worthless activities, because he wants to ruin us. Matthew 4, we see another one of his names. Matthew 4, you understand this to be the section of scripture that talks about the temptation of Jesus Christ. Matthew 4, verse 3, Now when the tempter came to him, here's yet another name, when the tempter came to him, he said, if you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. The tempter. Again, Thayer's Greek lexicon defines the tempter as one who tries to test the other's faith, test their virtue, their character, by enticement to sin. Hence, according to the context equivalent to solicit to sin to tempt. We heard some things about philosophy of this world in our sermonette today. You know, brethren, I don't know about you, but I know about me, and I know that I have a hard time these days watching news. When I see what's happening to our nation, when I see the thinking of our nation and the direction the thinking of our nation is going, how people say they are enlightened, there's a political group that talks about how they are progressive, and yet, what are they enlightened about? What are they progressing toward? It's certainly not the things of God. The tempter is tempting them to have all sorts of ego, and they're leaving God behind. You've got to be careful about that. Satan and the demons hate God's way, and they would like to find some way to get those thoughts in your mind, in my mind. Maybe somebody offends us. Maybe somebody says something to us that is now proper and we're hurt. Satan will swoop right in. He will swoop right in. He'll slander. He'll tempt. He will be an adversary. He'll work with our mind if we give him that opportunity. We need to be very careful about that. Last name I want to go through, and this is just a sampling, over here in Revelation 12. You can make this a further study on your own. Revelation 12 and verse 10.

Revelation 12 and verse 10. Then I heard a loud voice, saying, Heaven, now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren. Here's another title. The accuser of our brethren, who accused them before God day and night, has been cast down. The accuser of the brethren. You know, when I take a look at our church culture, I'm betting as you take a look at our church culture, there are questions we ask.

We appreciate so deeply Jesus Christ's sacrifice. We appreciate the fact that God has called us, that we've been able to understand that calling, we've accepted that calling. We have repented and baptized, received God's Holy Spirit. Our names have been written in the Lamb's book. But why isn't the church growing? And it's not just United Church of God. Whatever part of the church of God community you want to talk about, why aren't we growing?

Could it be, brethren, a part of the reason is we've been accusing one another. We've been talking bad about one another. I'm not necessarily saying you as individuals, but there's been too much of that that's gone around. In the sermon at today, we heard the discussion about the splits we've had.

We had one in the late 90s. We had one just a few years ago. Well, we had the big split back in 1995, then one in the late 90s a few years later, and then the big one, another really good-sized one, when we lost two-thirds of our church pastors to another group a few years back. And it's so clear in my mind, the things that were being said about people like me, oh, if you're going to stay with United Church of God, well, you're not going to be keeping a Sabbath.

My former, one of my former pastorates, were being told, those guys aren't going to keep the Sabbath anymore. Those guys aren't going to be keeping the Holy Days anymore. They were told that from the pulpit in my former congregations. You know, Satan does a good enough job. We don't need to help accuse the brethren by saying, you know, these people aren't godly. They're going to be doing this and that and the other.

We simply don't need that. Moving forward, getting a little more to where the rubber meets the road here. How do demons in specific interact with human beings? How do demons interact with human beings? They interact through mediums, through familiar spirits. Is this something you need to be fearful of? Well, not if you don't engage in it. Stay far away from it. Let's look at Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18. Deuteronomy 18, verse 10, There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, Wicca, or a sous-sayer, or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, one who conjures spells or a medium or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you. And there are other scriptures you can turn to that say basically the same thing, but that does the job. In 1 Samuel chapter 28, we've got an example here we want to take note of. 1 Samuel chapter 28. Background here is the Philistines are looking to do battle with Israel. King Saul is very concerned about this.

But because of Saul's sinful life, God has not been answering his prayers. Let's take a look at 1 Samuel chapter 28 verse 1. Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, You will surely know that you will go out with me to battle you and your men. So David said to Achish, Surely you know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, Therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever.

Now Samuel had died. Notice that very clearly. Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Rama in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritus out of the land. Verse 4. Then the Philistines gathered together and came and camped and shewn them. So Saul gathered all Israel together and they encapped at Gilboa. Battle is about to take place. Saul wants to get some intel. He wants to find out what he should be expecting and so forth. But he can't talk to Samuel.

Samuel's gone. But notice what he does. You know, God is no longer answering his prayers. God is not listening to him. So what does he do? 1 Samuel 28.5. When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him, neither by dreams or by the Urim or by the prophets. Didn't give him any answers because of his sins.

His sins separated him from God. Then Saul said to his servants, Find me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her. And his servant said to him, In fact, there is a woman who is a medium at Endor. So Saul disguised himself and put on other clothes. He went and two men with him. They came to the woman by night, and he said, Please conduct a seance for me, something we don't want to do.

And bring up for me one I shall name to you. And the woman said to him, Look, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the spirit is from the land. Why then do you lay a snare for my life that caused me to die? Saul swore to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord lives. And how incredible ironic is this? As the Lord lives. No punishment shall come upon you for this thing. Then the woman said, Whom shall I bring up for you? And he said, Bring up Samuel for me. When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice.

And the woman spoke to Saul, saying, Why have you deceived me? Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul. And the king said to her, Do not be afraid. What did you see? Now notice, Saul didn't see this. She saw it. She had the ability to see it. He didn't. She was a true medium. And there's an awful lot of fakes.

I saw a spirit ascending out of the earth. So I said to her, What is this for him? She said, An old man is coming up, and he's covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived it. It was Samuel. He perceived it was Samuel, but it was not Samuel. Samuel was dead. What does the Bible tell us about the state of the dead?

The state of the dead is that they have no knowledge. They're awaiting their future resurrection, whatever resurrection that's going to be for them. They are asleep. So what we see here is a woman, this witch at Endor, who is a medium. And she's calling up what is a demon.

I'd like to read you something. This is from an article. It appeared in the March 2007 Good News magazine, written by Mario Seglie. It's a rather lengthy quote, but I want to just read this to you. It expresses this very clearly.

Mediums are sometimes called seers or clairvoyance, or people who may be used by the fallen angels of the Bible. The Bible calls demons. They might appear normal and helpful, but those who are not fakes, and many are, can genuinely have contact with deceitful spirits who seek to attract and use human beings for their own evil purposes. For this reason, these evil angelic beings are called in the Bible deceiving spirits.

A true medium has a familiar spirit in him. A term comes from the Hebrew word obh, however that's pronounced, meaning a leather bottle. To the ancient Hebrews, the hollow sound of the voice of a familiar spirit speaking through a medium sounded as though it came out of a skin bottle. Just as a skin bottle is a type of vessel, so a person who has a familiar spirit serves as a vessel or a medium that contains the spirit.

Continuing on with the quote. Familiar spirits and reality-disguised demons can have intimate knowledge of people alive or dead. They have at their disposal an exhaustive network of information from fellow demons who are more than willing to share their knowledge with the deceived host. In this way, they will entice many more people to be deceived and hooked, ending sometimes as pawns to these spirits.

This is the grave danger participating in any of these practices. At first, these spirits appear as willing servants, but inevitably they end up as harsh taskmasters. So, brethren, let us be very clear, and I know you know this, but for your notes and for your explanation to others who may ask you in the future, we want nothing to do with Wicca.

We want nothing to do with Voodoo. We want nothing to do with channeling. We want nothing to do with séances or Ouija boards or those sorts of things. We don't want to put our mind in a position where it can be invaded. Let's take a look at Acts 16. There will be another medium here. Acts 16. Acts 16. Now, it happens we went to prayer that a certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination. And we're going to see where this is not some hokey thing.

This is the truth. She had the ability. A certain slave girl possessed with the spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Now, you don't make a lot of money by telling people's fortunes, and they never come to pass. This girl followed Paul and us and cried out, saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim the way of salvation. She's making a true statement. But what's the source? Just because the statement is true, does that mean we just neglect to ask what the source is? But this she did for many days.

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. But when her masters saw that, the hope of their profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. So here we see this is truly somebody who had the ability to foretell the future, through demonic means.

When a demon was gone, her ability to foretell things was gone as well. This reveals several things to us. The people can have a spirit of divination. They can even make money from it, and some have. Secondly, evil spirits can at times tell the truth. But thirdly, the reason they will tell the truth is because every time they lied, every time they spoke, you would find them out. So they tell just enough truth to hook you, or to hook a person. So we need to be very careful about that. Very, very careful about that. So, brethren, all of these things we're talking about, whether we're talking about Ouija boards, tarot cards, mediums, these are instruments of Satan.

These are instruments that demons use as potential passports into our mind. Passports into our mind. Now, if we don't invite these evil spirits in, they don't enter. We don't use the medium. We don't use Ouija boards, tarot cards, go to seances, all of them.

Don't need to worry about that. God's going to protect us. We're going to be asking for God's protection. There's a reason when we're blessing little children. We ask for God's protection from these evil beings. Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2. Something I alluded to a little earlier in the sermon. Ephesians 2. In which he once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air.

Satan can broadcast worldwide. The spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and whereby nature, children are wrath just as the others. I don't care whether you were born in a church or came in on your own. Satan broadcasts to each and every one of us.

Satan wants to corrupt each and every mind in this room. There's something we need to be doing about that. 2 Corinthians 10. 2 Corinthians 10. Verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not physical, but mighty in God, mighty in God, for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down in the arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Notice the word every is used twice there in verse 5. Bringing every thought into captivity, casting down arguments in every high thing. Again, brethren, we are fast approaching Super Bowl Sunday. Before you know it, we're going to be in March Madness. I enjoy sports. Almost lost my hearing last Sunday when the Minneapolis Miracle took place. My wife enjoys watching football. She's a Vikings fan. And with about 30 seconds left in the game, I was willing to turn it someplace else because they were down, they were out, they were going to lose.

But my lovely little wife said, no, they're not. We're going to watch this to the very end. And I'm glad we watched that. Last play of the game. 61-yard pass. Fantastic catch. A muff by the defense.

Minnesota went on to win. People were hysterical. In the sports world, the teams that are successful, the teams that are championship-caliber teams, they will contest every possession of the football or basketball they have. If they're not an offense, they're going to be contesting as a defensive player. They contest everything. Brethren, as Christians, we need to contest everything that Satan puts at us. We can't allow ourselves—our mind is this tremendous battleground. So each temptation, each spiritual skirmish, each battle must be contested by the power of God. We cannot give place to the devil. We cannot give him an opening.

We cannot give him a toehold.

Because if we do, he'll blow right through that, and the great spiritual harm can take place.

Satan wants to manipulate us to degrade our thinking, to degrade our character.

We certainly don't want that to happen.

Let's take a look at some of the ways that Satan and the demons like to oppress us.

We talk about demonic possession. I'm not going to be talking about possession at this point. We'll get to that in just a little bit. Probably take your overtime a little bit. But I believe there's also something that we can call demonic oppression.

I think Job was a good example of that. Now, Job was one of the three most righteous men who ever lived.

But God allowed Satan to oppress him.

God allowed Satan to kill off his family, take his riches, attack his health.

If that's not oppression, I don't know what is.

So oppression doesn't mean a person has to be almost possessed. That's not the case at all. Possession is possession. But Satan and the demons love to oppress God's people. They look for openings to do that. Let's take a look at Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4.

Ephesians 4, verse 26. Be angry and do not sin, Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, Nor give place to the devil.

Anger is a way that Satan or the demons could use to gain a toehold. If we get so angry and we become unrealistic, Now, there's a righteous indignation. But even there, brother, we need to be careful. Because so many times with human beings, a righteous indignation could sour into something that is not godly. We need to be very careful with anger.

This is a tremendous fine point that Paul is making to the church in Ephesus. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Too many bad things can happen when the poison of anger is boiling within us.

Too many negative things.

1 Peter 5 Another instance. 1 Peter 5 We looked at some of the various devices. These would be included.

1 Peter 5 Verse 5 Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another. Notice now, and be clothed with humility. Be clothed with humility. The word picture here is we're putting on humility as if it was a coat, as if it was a shirt, or some sort of a garment that we put on. We encase ourselves with it. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom He may devour. But notice the context this devouring is talking about. The context is talking about those who are not humble.

So pride, brethren, pride is something that we need to be very careful of. What was the beginning of Lucifer's downfall?

You know, people talk in our church culture, we just had perfect government, everything would be okay. Just had a perfect environment, everything would be okay. Really? There was a time when there was a perfect government, and there still is that perfect government, perfect environment. Before there was ever any human beings, God had perfect government. It was perfect environment. And yet in a perfect government, in a perfect environment, Lucifer became Satan.

Lucifer became Satan. Pride was the beginning of his downfall.

In your notes, you might want to jot a couple more of these things down. Doubt is a tremendous tool that Satan loves to use. Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 6, I'm not going to go there. Doubt. Satan loves us, just as he did with Adam and Eve. Doubt the Word of God. Doubt the testimony of God. Doubt God's instructions that therefore our best interests. You see then Genesis 3, verses 1 through 6. Also, deceit. These are just some examples. First Timothy chapter 4 and verse 1. Again, I won't turn there. First Timothy 4.1. Satan wants to deceive us and lead us away from God's truth. He wants to lead us to a counterfeit. Fool's gold.

Let's look at just a couple of examples of demonic possession. Now remember, 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7. 2 Timothy 1, 7 says, For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. Keep that in our forefront. James chapter 4 and verse 7. Therefore submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. We're not helpless as Christians. We are well-provisioned, well-provided for, well-armored as we rely upon the great and powerful God. We are not helpless as Christians. We are well-provisioned, well-provided for, well-provisioned for, well-provisioned for, we've got a wide array of spiritual tools that help us. Let's turn to Mark chapter 9.

Again, I'm going to go into Bible studies and some of the studies we've gone through this portion already. Mark chapter 9 starting in verse 17.

Then one of the crowd answered and said, Teacher, I brought you my son who has a mute spirit and wherever it seizes him it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. Now, brethren, there are a number of people who have these kinds of symptoms who aren't at all affected by demons. You can have any different kinds of physical issues. But in this particular case, there was a demon here. Rest of verse 18. So, I spoke to your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not. And he answered and said, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me. Now, Jesus Christ had given these men the power and authority over demons. So, what gives here? Why not here? Maybe they were taking their walk with God a little for granted. Maybe they were not staying as close to him as they should have been. Again, brethren, words of warning for us. Then they brought him to him, and he saw him. Immediately the Spirit convulsed him. He fell on the ground and wild foaming at the mouth. So, he asked his father, how long has this been happening to him? He said, from childhood. Now, notice verse 22, which is a key verse. And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us. So, one of the indications of demonic possession would be suicidal, destructive tendencies and thinking. Does that mean everybody who's in this line of thought is demon-possessed? Of course not. Of course not. But that can be. It can be an indication, as we see here. The demon wanted to destroy him. He was doing things that weren't in his best physical or mental interest. Of course, the rest of the story is that Jesus Christ was able to help this individual. Go back to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5.

Verse 1, then they came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gatorines. When he had come out of the boat, immediately there met him, one of the out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one could bind him, not even with chains. So, this individual was a, who was not in his right mind, he was a detriment to society. Society wanted nothing to do with him. They basically put him away outside of society and superhuman strength. As I've made mentioned in the past to you, we never approach a demon thinking that we can out muscle a demon. You know, if something should ever happen here in a Chicago congregation or wherever you may be, I don't care if you are built like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. I don't care if there's a hundred of you built like Arnold in his prime. We don't attack it that way. We don't attack a spiritual problem with physicality. Verse 4, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broke into pieces. Neither could anyone tame him. Reflection of his mind. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. Again, this self-destructive behavior. And when he saw Jesus from afar off, he ran and worshipped him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, son of the Most High God? I implore you by God that you do not torment me. For he said to him, Come out of the man, unclean spirit. He asked him, What is your name? And so Jesus Christ, you know the whole story. I'm not going to read the whole thing here. But after the demons are cast out, notice that we come to the very end here, verse 15. After the demons are cast out. Then he came to Jesus and saw the one who had been demon-possessed, who had been demon-possessed, and had the Legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind. And in his right mind. So not only is an indication suicidal, destructive thinking, actions, but also just not in a right mind. Not in a proper mind. And again, we've got individuals who've got all sorts of mental issues. They're not always demon-possessed. Don't want to say that. Want to make sure I qualify that. But it could be an indication. I mean, when you see these mass murderers, when you watch the news and you find you get a little bit of background as to the individual went and shot up this place or that place or whatever, bombed this area, they just weren't in their right mind. Was every one of those actions demon-inspired? Not necessarily, but some of them I'm sure were.

Coming to the end. How do we protect ourselves? It was read earlier today in the sermon ep. Let's go back to Jude. Jude, verse 9, if you think that you are facing, if you're a toe-to-toe with a demon or someone who's demon-possessed, you'll want to pray.

And it doesn't have to be a long prayer. Notice what it said here. Jude, verse 9. Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil, when he disputed about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him a viling accusation, but said, the Lord rebuke you. Four simple words. Very short prayer. Very effective prayer. We're not rebuking anything. We don't have the power to do that. There's an example in the book of Acts where somebody tried to do that.

Didn't meet with very good results. No. The Lord rebuke you. And, brethren, there have been a number of times where I've had to personally make sure I'm saying that over and over. Again, I won't get into the circumstances here and now. But we certainly want to be praying. That's one way we protect ourselves. Let's look over here at Matthew chapter 4. We were there earlier today. Matthew chapter 4.

We've got Satan attacking Jesus Christ. What does Jesus Christ do? What is his defense? Matthew chapter 4 verse 3. Now when an attemptor came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread. Notice what Christ does here in verse 4. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Jesus Christ there is quoting Deuteronomy chapter 8 and verse 3.

He's fighting Satan with the Word of God. Verse 6. He said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down for a threat, and he shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bury you up, lest you dash your foot against the stone.

Now verse 7. And Jesus said to him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. This is a citation from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 16. So Jesus Christ was a man of tremendous prayer, but he's also a man who wielded the sword of the truth to defend himself spiritually. Verse 8. Again, the devil took him up into an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory. He said to him, All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Notice Christ's response in verse 10. Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

A quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 6 and verse 13. This is one of the reasons why I was wanting or thinking of going through the book of Deuteronomy. There's so many powerful sections in that book. Powerful. It's not just a book of history. There's a tremendous amount of powerful Christian living principles in the book of Deuteronomy. Finally, brethren, the last part of my sermon here, an action list for you. An action list for maintaining a healthy spiritual mind and environment.

First and foremost on your action list is maintain vigorously your daily spiritual disciplines. Have a tremendous walk with God in your prayer life. Keep your nose in the book. Study. Make sure you're meditating on what you're studying. Think these things through. Think them over and over.

Make sure they are a part of who you are. They're a fabric of your heart and mind. And, of course, occasional fasting. I would add along with those daily spiritual disciplines, make it a point to be in church. Make it a point to observe not only the weekly Sabbath but the annual Sabbaths. Meet with God's people. Let there be an iron sharpening iron spiritually, a spiritual relationship there. Other things you can do. Keep a orderly physical environment. I know of a situation. This person never became demon-possessed, but this person I'm thinking about many, many years ago had all sorts of mental issues, stability issues.

And I often wondered why until I went and took somebody with me. It was a lady. He went to go visit her. She had painted every room in her house black. Now, lest you think that's okay, that's not okay. And she was always fighting despair, depression, and other things. So watch your physical environment. We talked about earlier about watching your spiritual environment. Watch your physical environment. If, you know, for all of us as human beings, we have the temptation to sin, we need to work on whatever our issues are.

Don't allow Satan to have a foothold. For example, we talked about anger. If anger is an issue for you, work on that. Don't allow Satan to get in there, to use that anger. Because you can use that anger toward another individual, and then after a while that anger can be pointed toward God, pointed toward the church, pointed toward His Word. You name it, it can go that direction. We've talked about the various things you need to watch out for in terms of the seances and all that sort of thing. I can recover that. I would say, if you know of individuals who are dabbling into black arts, I was pastoring one area and there was an individual.

This case happened to be a lady, could have been a fellow, but happened to be a lady. She spilled something on her dress, went into the restroom to go clean herself up or whatever. She was taking off her garments there in the ladies room to do what she could with her situation. Some of our other ladies were in the restroom with her and they saw that when she took off her outer garments, she had the dress of a wicca, of a witch on. And the person came to me and said, Mr.

D, did you know we've got a witch in our congregation? I said, no. Didn't know that. So I got the person off by, you know, just her and I, and I said, well, related the how I came to know that. And I said, now, were they mistaken? Are you not a practicing witch? She said, oh, no. I'm a practicing witch. I'm a practicing witch. I said, well, we've got a decision to make here. If you want to practice that, you can't come here. I'm not going to allow you to walk into the assembly of God's people with all that. I've got a responsibility before God to do what I can to protect the people.

She said, very well, then. She got her stuff and went home, never came back. You know, brethren, wicca is a very, I don't want to go wax eloquent on this, but it is such a growing phenomenon in this country that we now have laws in this country that protect wicca.

We now have laws, laws to protect us as Sabbath keepers are eroding, but laws to help and protect wicca adherence seems to be increasing. So be careful. Remember, brethren, last statement for the day. We must respect and understand Satan and demons, but not fear them. We must become acutely aware of their methods and strategies and prepare ourselves spiritually through the power of God to wage successful warfare.

You know the truth. The truth will set you free. The truth is that God has beaten Satan, will continue to beat Satan, and we can do the same thing.