chapter five this morning mark chapter five and ushers uh... handing out uh... outline if you'd like to have one of those you can sort of follow along if you want to with that as well as in your king james bible which i hope that you do have with you always have with you if you can when you come to church we have been preaching on Sunday morning for a long time now on the doctrines of the Bible, and for I guess two or three months we've been talking about the doctrine of angels, and now specifically the fallen angels, or what are called the demons. I've mentioned to you before that in our King James Bible, you don't find the word demon. The Bible just calls them devils. But there are, if you want to know this, there are two different Greek words in the New Testament that are translated devil and devils. One of them is the word where we get the word demon from, the daimonion. Greek word, and we get our word demon from that. The other one, which is always talking about Satan himself, the devil, is the word diabolos. You can tell that that's a devilish thing. The word, for example, diabolical comes from that word, but whenever it's The Greek word is diabolos. It is talking about Satan himself, and when it is the other word, it is talking about the demons. So we will look at this morning in Mark chapter 5. We will read the story, one of my favorite stories that took place during Jesus' earthly life and ministry about the fellow that they refer to as the Gadarene demoniac. Mark chapter 5 and beginning in verse 1, and they, that is Jesus and the disciples, came over unto the other side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him, and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones, But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. and he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. deviled hound, as it were. And forthwith, Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, they were about two thousand, and were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city and in the country, and they went out to see what it was that was done. and they came to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. I've always marveled at that verse. You know, this guy had these demons and was living out in the graveyard and cutting himself and crying out and all of this, and evidently they weren't afraid of that. cast the demons out of him and the folks come out and see the guy sitting there now. Now he's wearing some clothes and he's in his right mind and that's when they got afraid. You know, it seems to me it might have been time to be afraid before that while the guy was out in the graveyard. But anyway, verse 16, And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. I mean, Jesus got rid of the devils, and these folks got upset about it and asked Jesus to leave. And when he was come into the shop, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. What a great story that is. And it's not just a story. I don't mean when I say a story, I don't mean something that's not true. It's true exactly like it says, but what a great account that is. What a marvelous thing Jesus did there. I'm going to use that story as a starting place and speak to you this morning for a while on the subject, demon possession. Father, would you help now in this service, forgive my sins, I pray, and help me as I try to preach your Word. I pray that the Spirit of God might help me to say what needs to be said and not to say anything that I shouldn't say. I pray that we might learn from your Word this morning. what you would have for us to know concerning this subject. I do pray if there's anyone with us who's never trusted the Lord Jesus as their personal Savior, that today might be their day of salvation. Would you please meet with us? Bless and help now We pray in Jesus' name, amen. And so as I mentioned in our study of the doctrine of angels, we're presently studying the fallen angels, also called demons. I mentioned to you before that I was somewhat hesitant to preach on this subject. This is, I think, we've had three or four sermons about demons, and I hesitated somewhat to even deal with this, and there are several reasons why, because there are several fears that I have concerning dealing with demons. For one thing, it has always bothered me a little bit that Christians, many times, seem to be more interested in learning about demons than in learning about the Lord Jesus Christ. It has always troubled me that a preacher can announce that he's going to have a series and preach a series on demons, and it will stir interest. among people, but then the same preacher can announce to the same people that he's going to preach a series about Jesus, and that's kind of ho-hum and brings forth yawns and all that kind of thing. And I don't think that's a good thing. There's this spiritually unhealthy fascination that people get about demons that is detrimental to their spiritual life, and that's something that I'm always a little bit worried about when I talk about demons. Another thing that I fear is that there are, you know, always some people that don't take it seriously. uh... when you talk about this kind of thing and the less are because of that they become parade to the very thing that they are not serious about somebody said uh... that the devil's greatest accomplishment uh... is found in uh... you know i'm having convinced so many people that he doesn't exist and i think that's true uh... and they are not a part of the offering that that uh... i fear has to do with people that become so obsessed with demons that they go around looking for demons, and they find one. Everywhere they look, they find one. That's a little bit Unhealthy now anybody that knows me knows. I'm not a spooky Christian And so you know I'm not that guy I'm kind of like the preacher that I worked for years ago, and I was in Bible college with Charlie O'Daniel He was telling about an aunt of his who was a charismatic Christian and was one of these demon-type people that everything had to do with the demon. You know, if a fellow drank, that was because he had the demon of drink. And if he smoked, it was because he had the demon of smoke and, you know, whatever. Also, Brother Charlie told her, I think you have the demon of wearing britches. But anyway, I'm always a little bit worried about this kind of a fascination and obsession that people get with demons, but we do want to see what the Bible teaches, and we'll consider today what the Bible tells us, or at least some things that the Bible tells us about the phenomena that is known as demon possession. Now, when we speak of demon possession, we're speaking of a condition in which one or more, as in the case of this fellow in Mark chapter 5, one or more demons inhabit the body of an individual and can exert control over that individual. Now, the Bible gives a number of cases, especially during the earthly life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ in the days of the apostles, of people that were possessed by demons. Now, I do not believe that a true Christian, a truly saved person, listen to me, I do not believe that a truly saved person can be demon-possessed, but now, hear this, I know that Christians can be demon-oppressed, as in the case, for example, of Job. You remember how that the Lord allowed the devil, and thank God the devil can only go as far as the Lord allows him to go, but the Lord sometimes allows him to go a pretty good distance, as He did in the case of Job, and the devil assaulted Job, and Job was under satanic oppression and became, well, the Bible says that Job, who the Lord acknowledges in Job chapter 1 and 2 as being the greatest Christian, the godliest man of His day, and yet the devil assaulted him and under demonic oppression Job developed sore boils, the Bible says, from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. So a Christian can be demon-oppressed and a Christian can be demon-influenced, as was the case with the apostle Peter. Now let me show you what I'm talking about. If you look in your Bible back to Matthew chapter 16, we'll see a case where the devil actually influenced the apostle Peter and very, very interestingly and maybe very tellingly, this account that we're going to read about Peter and the influence that Satan exerted on him took place immediately after Peter had made his great confession of the Lord Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and Jesus had told him that God the Father had revealed that to him, and then immediately after that this took place, Matthew chapter 16, verse 21, The Scripture says, from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him. Now, when it says he took him, it means that Peter literally grabbed hold of Jesus But so then Peter took him and began to rebuke him. Isn't that a blessing? Peter rebuking Jesus and saying, "'Be it far from thee, Lord. This shall not be unto thee.'" So Jesus had started telling the disciples, "'Now I've got to go up to Jerusalem. When I get there, I'm going to be crucified and raised the third day.'" And somehow they evidently didn't get hold of that part about him being raised the third day. They just got hold of the part about him being killed, and that's what Peter here is thinking. And he grabs Jesus and rebukes him and says, Lord, that's not going to be, we're not going to let that happen. Now, look at how Jesus answered Peter in verse 23. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. Isn't that a blessing? I mean, right after Peter had just, in the passage before, confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus then had complimented him by telling him, man didn't reveal this to you, but the Father in heaven did, then this account takes place where Peter rebukes Jesus and Jesus refers to him as Satan. Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." You see, Jesus came so that He could go to the cross and die for our sins, and Peter here unknowingly and thinking that he was doing a good thing. But Peter said, Now, Lord, we're not going to let that happen. That's not going to take place. Jesus understands that in making the suggestion that he should not go to the cross and be killed, that he was being influenced by Satan. We see another case if you'll look over a couple of books in your Bible to the Gospel of Luke and notice Luke chapter 22 and this is just shortly before the cross, just almost right before Jesus went to the cross, but I want you to notice here in Luke 22 and beginning in verse 31, and the Lord said, Jesus said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren, And he, Peter, said unto him, Jesus Lord, I am ready to go with thee both into prison and to death. And by the way, no doubt Peter was sincere when he said that, and he sincerely intended that regardless of what anybody else did, that he was going to stick with Jesus all the way But, verse 34, he said, Jesus said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. And later we're told, of course, how that took place and how Peter, as Jesus was there standing trial, Peter stood over by a fire where it was warm but there at that fire were the Lord's enemies, and three times Peter denied that he knew the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said Satan had desired to have thee that he may sift thee as wheat, and that's what the devil did. But thank God Jesus also reminded Peter, I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, And so, thank God, Jesus is praying for us now, by the way. And so I'm saying, I do not know. There are those that believe a Christian can be demon-possessed. I'm not one of those. I don't believe that a true Christian, a truly saved person, can be demon-possessed, but I know that a Christian can be demon-oppressed and demon-influenced. Now, the results of demon oppression and influence on Christians is often very similar to demon possession of the unsaved. Demon possession is a reality. And many times, by the way, people open the door to this awful condition even unknowingly by getting involved in things that the Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, give not place to the devil. And many times people give place to the devil and his demons and do it unknowingly by becoming involved in things that have a direct connection to and open the door to demonic influence and, in some cases, demonic possession. Now, we're more accustomed to hearing people talk about this today than was the case probably 100 years ago. Now, you had it back then and people did talk about it and so forth, but not to the extent that people do today. For probably the last 50 years or so, demonism and demon possession and demon influence has been a familiar concept to most people. Hollywood, about 50 or so years ago, maybe a little more than that, I started coming out with movies and many of the popular television shows of the last several decades have been things that had to do with demons and that sort of thing. So it's not something that people are totally unfamiliar with. And yet the thing that many people do not realize is that the only place that we can find out the truth about the demons and the devil and all the rest of it is in the pages of God's Word. And I'll tell you something else. These demons are very deceptive. You remember that Jesus said of the devil in John chapter 8 and verse 44 that he is a liar and the father of it. And his demons are like him in that respect. They also are liars. They're very deceptive. They are tricksters and they lie. And so we want to consider various marks this morning of demon possession. And I don't want you to misunderstand what I'm saying or what I mean. What I'm calling here marks of demon possession, I'm not saying that anyone and everyone who exhibits some of these qualities has a demon, but there are some things, some characteristics that are displayed by demon-possessed people. And by the way, I think that today demon possession and, for that matter, demon oppression and influence is a far greater, larger thing than the average person realizes. In fact, you'd be surprised how common I think it really is. But I'm not saying that everybody that exhibits one or more of these characteristics has a demon, but there are some characteristics that are displayed by people who do. have demons who are demon-possessed, and this we'll see from the Bible this morning. And so then let's consider these marks of demon possession, and the first mark that I want to point out to you is the projection of a new personality. Now look again to Mark chapter 5, and let's start with verse 8, and we'll read down through verse 13. But I want you to notice how that this individual that comes out and meets Jesus as he arrives there in the country of the Gadarenes projected a new personality. The Bible says in verse 8, "'For he said unto him,' that is, Jesus said to this man that had the demons, "'Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit, And he, Jesus, asked him, the demon, what is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him, that is, the demon besought Jesus much, that he would not send them away out of the country. Now, in the parallel account of the us that's found in Luke chapter 8, it says that the demon asked Jesus not to send them into the deep, and the word there is the abyss, which is the prison for fallen angels. Some of them are already there. Some of them will be there later, but here it says he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now, there was there nigh unto the mountain a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, They were about 2,000 and were choked in the sea. Now, in this passage we see that several demons, at least 2,000 of them because it says there were 2,000 swine and when Jesus allowed the demons to enter into the swine, 2,000 of them ran down into the sea and were drowned, or maybe as many as 6,000, because a Roman legion in the Roman military numbered between 5,000 and 6,000 men, and this demon said, My name's Legion, for we are many, so there may have been as many as 6,000 demons, but at least 2,000 possess this one individual. So not only can a person be demon-possessed, but he can be possessed by more than one. Now, in this case, the demons, and especially the leader of all of these demons, used the victim's body as a vehicle for their own words, for their own thoughts, for their own actions. In other words, this man with the demons projected a new personality or new personalities. And this is a mark, this is a characteristic of demon possession, the projection of a new personality. Brother Carl, who was with us about a month or so ago, told me some time ago about an experience that he had when he was much younger than he is now. But he told of knocking on a door one day while he was out witnessing to people, and a woman came and opened the door, a somewhat elderly I say elderly, probably my age, about 60 or so, came and opened the door. And so he's talking to this—he's standing there at the front door, and this lady's standing, you know, inside the house, just inside, and he's talking to her. And he asked her, are you saved? And she said, no, I can't be saved. And so he began to talk to her about why she thought she couldn't be saved. and she said that she was a witch and that she had given her soul to the devil in exchange for powers and that sort of thing. And he told me that as he was talking to this woman, all the time he's talking to her, he could hear there was a room off to the side over here and he said that all the time he's talking to this woman that he could hear a four-way conversation taking place in this other room and he said there were four different distinct voices that I was hearing with this conversation and so he talked to the woman for a while And then asked her, who's in the other room? And she said, well, my son is in there. And he said, well, why don't you call him in? Let me speak to him for a minute. And so she called for her son to come, and he came out into the front room where the woman was. And Brother Coral said that those four voices that he was hearing out of the other room were all coming from this one fellow. He said he had a knot or a goiter in his throat, just looked swollen like that, and those four different voices were coming out of that of that knot, of that goiter in his neck. Now, what he was seeing and what he realized that he was seeing, and he used to be real involved in this, like some people do get involved in it, but he said that all these four different, I mean, very distinctly different, that you could hear one would speak, then another would speak, and voices sounded completely different, All four of them, and all four of them were coming from this one individual. Now what was it? It was this fella, the son of this witch. And by the way, you get involved—this is something people don't realize— but when a person gets involved in witchcraft and that demonism, that sort of thing, The Bible teaches, and we talked about this a few weeks ago, that the activating principle behind false religion and idolatry is demonism. And when a person gets involved in this demonic stuff and really makes these deals and stuff with the devil, According to the second commandment of the Ten Commandments, that may be passed down for generations. And so the person's not only messing their own life up, but they may be messing up the lives of their children, the lives of their grandchildren, and even the lives of their great-grandchildren. grandchildren. And so the first mark, the first characteristic of demon possession is the projection of a new personality. Secondly, mark of demon possession is an attraction to nakedness. Now, by the way, when you consider all these things and just look at our society, you can see the influence that this stuff has had on our society, an attraction to nakedness. Notice in Luke chapter 8, and we'll see this in this account of this demon-possessed man, Luke chapter 8, notice verse 26 of Luke chapter 8. The Bible says, "...and they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes," which is over against Galilee. Now notice this, "...and when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time," now get the next phrase, and wear no clothes, neither abode in any house but in the tombs." And then it goes on to tell how Jesus cast the demons out of this guy. Then notice verse 35, "'Then they went out to see what was done, and came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus.'" Now get the next word, clothed. clothed, clothed, and in his right mind, and they were afraid, an attraction to nakedness. When this fellow had the demons, he didn't wear clothes, but when Jesus cast the demons out, then the fellow put some clothes on. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? And then notice another account over in Acts chapter 19, and in this case we're told a story about seven men who were not saved, but they were exorcists. and this is the only place in the Bible where you find the word exorcist, and it's used of these seven unsaved men who were trying to use the power of the Lord to cast demons out of people. And notice just one thing at this point in Acts chapter 19 and verse number 16, "...and the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them." them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. And so this guy that had the demons, when these seven fellows tried to cast the demon out of him, he jumped on them and ripped their clothes off so that they fled naked. Does anybody need to be told what kind of society we're living in? I mean, good night, even God's people go half-naked half the time. It's been a tragedy to me for a long time that the Muslims for all of their wickedness and involvement with Devil, and their founder was a demon-possessed false prophet by the name of Mohammed. And yet you see them and their women got enough sense to cover up, and then you see God's people, people that truly know the Lord Jesus Christ, and you can't tell the difference between how they're dressed or undressed. and how the devil's crowd is undressed. There is an attraction to nakedness that is a mark, a characteristic of demon possession. Now, you know, if you want to go home and in the privacy of your house with the doors closed and the curtains pulled, You can run around naked in there all you want to with your wife or your husband, whichever the case may be, but keep it in there. Don't bring it out in public, you see. And so a projection of a new personality is a characteristic of demon possession, an attraction to nakedness. And again, don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that everybody that goes half-naked has a demon, though they are influenced by demons. But I'm simply saying that you can see the influence that demonism has had on our culture as a whole by the way dress standards have deteriorated. And so there's an attraction to nakedness. And then a third characteristic of demon possession is extraordinary physical strength. You see examples of this in the Bible. Look, for example, back where we started in Mark chapter 5, and notice the strength that this demon-possessed man had. Mark chapter 5, and let's read verses 3 and 4. The Bible says about this man who had his dwelling among the tombs, now notice this, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. Now, when I read that story early in my Christian life about this guy that lived out in the graveyard, my first thought was, well, why didn't they get the guy and put him in jail or something so he at least wouldn't be attacking people and that sort of thing? But here's the reason why, because he had supernatural strength. He had superhuman strength. Apparently, at various times, they had ganged up on the guy chained him up, but he'd simply break the chains. He had supernatural, extraordinary physical strength. Go back again, please, to Acts chapter 19, and we see a similar thing taking place with this fellow that we I read about a moment ago that jumped on these guys that were trying to cast the demon out of him. Now, let's this time read the entire passage, the entire account, starting with verse 13 of Acts chapter 19, and notice here what happens. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth." Now, see, they didn't have a relationship with Jesus themselves, these exorcists. They were trying to use Jesus and they were calling on His name, asking Him to cast these demons out and they referred to Him as Jesus whom Paul preacheth. Now, it says in verse 14, "'And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests, which did so. and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Now this fellow who had these demons had extraordinary physical strength as is seen in the fact that he had the strength to overcome seven other men and send them on the run, one man. And so then, a mark of demon possession, number one, a projection of a new personality, number two, attraction to nakedness, number three, extraordinary physical strength, and then mark number four of demon possession is this, and this is something interesting, while demon-possessed, a person recognizes Jesus as the Son of God. Now, by the way, I'll show you something else about that in a minute, but at this point I just want you to see that these demons know who Jesus is. They recognize who Jesus is. Look, if you would, to Mark chapter 1. And notice verses 23 and 24. Here the Scripture says, And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone! What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. Here's this man with this unclean spirit, this demon, and by the way, he's at church. He's at the synagogue. See, demons, they have their religion too. But this fellow recognized Jesus as being the Holy One of God. Look over again to chapter 5, the story about the Gadarene demoniac. And verse 7 says that this fellow cried with a loud voice and said, "'What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not.'" And so here's another case of a man with demons, and these demons recognize Jesus as being the Son of the Most High God. Now, you may not know who Jesus is, but let me assure you the devil and his demons know who Jesus is. But now, having said that, let me also point this out to you. Demons will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Look over to the book of I John, if you would, and I want you to see What we're told in this passage about these demons, I John chapter 4, notice verses 2 and 3. John said, "...hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God." Now notice this especially in verse 3. and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world." Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, it said, is not of God, and that's the spirit of antichrist, the denial that Jesus is God in human flesh. and so demons will not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. Number six, we're talking about marks and characteristics of demon possession. Number six, demons believe in God and fear him to the point of trembling. Notice in the book of James, just after the book of Hebrews in your Bible comes the book of James. And notice James chapter 2 and verse number 19. Here James said to these people that he's writing to, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. Now notice this. The devils also believe and tremble. He's pointing out that there's a difference in head belief and heart belief. There's a difference in a faith of the mind and a faith of the heart, and he's pointing out even the devils, the demons, believe that there's one God. Now, it's a head belief, not a heart. They don't trust Christ as Savior, but they know there's a God. They've had dealings with him and will have more dealings with him in the future when he casts them into the lake of fire for eternity, and that's why they tremble. They believe in God. See, you can believe mentally all of the truths that the Bible teaches about God. You can believe that there's one in three and three in one God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. You can believe in the deity of Christ. You can believe that He died on the cross for your sins and that He arose bodily from the dead and that He ascended back into heaven and that He's coming again. You can believe all of that in your mind and still be no better off than the devils who all believe the same stuff and tremble for it, but they don't trust Him as their Saviour, you see. So demons believe in God and they fear Him to the point of trembling. And then a seventh mark of demon possession is extraordinary knowledge. Now, we don't need to turn there. We've read it two or three times already, but the story in Acts 19 about the seven sons of Sceva who were exorcists, who went to this man that had this evil spirit and said to him, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches. You remember the Spirit said, hey, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? And then the fellow jumped on them, gave them a beat and ripped their clothes off and sent them running. But here's the interesting thing about that, or at least one of the interesting things about it is that as far as we know, This man that had this spirit had never met or had any dealings with the apostle Paul, and yet he knew who Paul was. See, demons have extraordinary knowledge and sometimes express some of that knowledge through the human being that they are possessing. Then let me go on and say, number eight, that demons often attack the body of the person possessed. The Bible tells us, and in the last few weeks we've looked at these passages several times, so I won't turn to them now for time's sake, but you can look them up. and study them out for yourself, but the Bible tells us of people who were afflicted by demons, some people afflicted with dumbness, muteness, speechlessness. They could not speak. You find an example in Matthew chapter 9, verses 32 and 33, somebody that couldn't speak because this demon held his tongue, and yet when Jesus got rid of the demon, then the fellow could speak. We're told in the Bible of people who were afflicted by demons with blindness. An example of that in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 22. This demon had made this man blind, but when Jesus got rid of the demon, then the fellow could see. The Bible tells us about people that were afflicted by demons with deafness. You're given an example of that in Mark chapter 9, verses 25 through 27. The fellow was dealt because the demons made him dealt, but Jesus got rid of the demons and then the fellow could hear. Again, this is not to say, obviously, that every person who suffers from one of these afflictions or others has a demon, but I'm saying that demons do sometimes cause various afflictions to the human body. Good night, just consider Job. And Job wasn't demon-possessed, he was oppressed by the devil, but he had sore boils from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. These demons, I'm going to tell you something, friend, they're not something you want to mess with. And so, number nine, demons. lead a person to self-destructive tendencies, even suicide. In Mark chapter 5, the story about that Gadarene demoniac, verse number 5 says, and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. I don't wonder about this outburst in the last 20 years of everybody getting a tattoo. The devil leads to that kind of stuff, and I'm not saying everybody's got a tattoo who's got a devil. I am saying people are demonically influenced, not even realizing it. yet. We have an example in Mark chapter 9, if you'll turn to that passage, Mark chapter 9 and beginning in verse number 20, and they brought him unto him, unto Jesus, And when he saw him, straightway the Spirit tear him, that brought this demon-possessed boy to Jesus, and this spirit seeing Jesus says, tear this boy, and he fell on the ground and wallowed foamy, foamy at the mouth. And he asked his father, Jesus asked his father, how long is it ago since this came unto him? In other words, how long has he had this problem? And he said, of a child. He's had it for a long time. And oft times the father said, yet this demon hath cast him into the fire and into the waters to destroy him." I mean, this boy, apparently he'd walk by a fire and the demon that was possessing him would cast him into the fire seeking to take his life. Or he'd walk by the side of a lake or a pond or something and the demon would cast him into the water seeking to destroy him, the man said. Demons lead a person to self-destructive tendencies and even suicide. Remember what happened to those 2,000 swine in Mark chapter 5 when Jesus allowed the demons to leave the man and go into the swine? They all ran down the hill to the sea and there they were choked, the Bible said. They committed literally suicide. And so this is a mark, a characteristic of demon possession and then number ten, Demons sometimes cause insanity. In Matthew chapter 17, we have Matthew's account of the same story that we read part of in Mark chapter 9 a few minutes ago, but I want you to notice here what this father said about his son who had this demon and went, verse 14 of Matthew chapter 17. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying," and I've told people before that verse 15 was my mother's favorite verse, the first part of it, "'Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic.'" It's an interesting word, by the way, lunatic. It means moonstruck. Luna, lunar, moon. Well, the word comes from a word that means struck, lunatic, moonstruck. But this boy had these demons that we saw in Mark chapter 9 would cast them or cause the boy to fall into the fire and into the water trying to destroy him. His father recognized that the boy had a case of insanity He may not have even necessarily known why, but he knew that the boy was a lunatic. He was insane. You see, really the same thing in Mark chapter 5 with that fellow in the graveyard. That's another thing, a death obsession that a lot of people have nowadays falls under the heading of self-destruction. But in Mark chapter 5, now listen, I'm talking now about the fact that demons sometimes cause insanity. And listen, don't go out and go overboard and become like the woman I was talking about a while ago, think there's a demon about everything. Not everybody that has mental problems, it's not always because of a demon. Sometimes it's some chemical imbalance or something like that. But this is something that sometimes is caused by demons. Now, listen to what the Scripture says about this man in Mark chapter 5 and beginning in verse 3. who had his dwelling among the tombs, there you see that death obsession, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because he'd been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him, and always, night and day, He was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. Pardon me, that's not normal behavior. And then just jump down and look at verse number 15, after Jesus had sent the demons out of this fellow, and he now says, the townspeople, they come to Jesus and see him that was wise, look at that, I like that, wise, possessed with the devil. After he met Jesus, he wasn't anymore, you see. and had the legion, now the fellow is sitting and clothed," now get this expression, "...and in his right mind." Once the demons left, now he was in his right mind, which obviously implies before that he hadn't been in his right mind. That's why he had been out there crying all night and cutting himself with stones and all that. He wasn't in his right mind. Demons sometimes cause insanity. Now, these are just some various characteristics of demon possession. Again, I'm not saying that everybody that has one or more of these characteristics has a demon, but sometimes that is the problem. a pastor friend of mine, preacher friend of mine, this happened years ago, but he told me this story, I'll tell you who it was, it was Keith Gomez, told me this story that there was a uh... lady in his church and again this has been probably twenty-year twenty-five years ago but a lady in his church she had a little boy i'm talking now ball probably nine or ten years old and uh... she asked him about this little boy because she said breacher the softball and uh... she told him some things that the little boy told her would happen in his room real early in the morning, late at night, three, four o'clock in the morning. And so he was talking to this lady about her little boy. He said he also had in his church at that time a child psychologist. So I guess either the child psychologist overheard the conversation that this lady was having with the preacher, or else the lady got with the child psychologist and told her the same story. Well, she was afraid, the mother was afraid, that it had something to do with the devil, with demons, because some of the characteristics were such as to indicate that. This child psychologist, as is true of most psychologists, didn't even believe in the devil and demon influence and that kind of thing. And so she suggested to the mother, she said, I'll tell you what, why don't you let me come over and spend the night at your house. I'll stay in the room with the boy and just to show that it's not what you think it is. And so a week or two went by and the preacher saw this mother at church again. He brought it to his memory that he hadn't seen the child psychologist in the last couple of few weeks, and since she had stayed in the boy's room. And he asked the mother, he said, hey, what happened with, and he called the other woman's name, And the mother of the little boy said, Preacher, I don't know. She said in the middle of the night, she came over and was staying in the room, but in the dark of the night, three or four o'clock in the morning, she came running out of that room, ran out the front door and left, and I hadn't seen her since or heard from her. And so he, over the next few days, tried to get in contact with this lady. He caught this woman, the child psychologist. He called her on the phone, and he said that as soon as she heard his voice, she'd hang up. And she did this two or three times. And so he finally called her, and she answered the phone. Now, this was back before they had the things that show, you know, who's calling. uh... me you know uh... on my phone it shows who's caught if i don't recognize the person or the number i just don't answer it uh... and some people got upset well i don't think you ought to do that and i've told them well if you don't think you ought to do that don't ever do it well i don't think you ought to do it well yeah but see your opinion doesn't mean nearly as much to me as it does to you and uh... so But anyway, she answered the phone this time. He said, he said, don't hang up. And so he kept her on the phone, I guess startled her into holding on to the phone. And he asked her, I hadn't seen you in a while, just wondered what happened. You were here and then you said you were going to help this lady with the boy that had the problem and I hadn't seen you since. What happened? And he said that the lady answered him this way. She said, Preacher, I don't know what's going on, but she said, I'll tell you this. She said, I know what it is to be sexually molested, and there's something in that room that sexually molested me that night. Well, her problem was she had discounted the obvious. that what it was, there actually was demonic activity taking place in that room. And as I said before, friend, you better hear me. You don't want to get involved in this stuff. You better leave the Ouija boards and all this stuff that open the door for demons to come in. You better leave that stuff alone, especially if you're a Christian. They hate your guts just by the very nature of the case. And so these are simply some marks of demon possession, and you don't want to get involved with the devil and the demons. Now, let me say this to you. If you're here this morning, And you've never had a time in your life when you got saved, a time when you personally, consciously, deliberately called upon the Lord Jesus and asked Him to come into your heart and asked Him for salvation. You need to be saved. That's the first need of everybody. If you've never been saved, you need to be saved. Now, that in itself will go a long way toward warding this kind of stuff off. But if you are saved and are a Christian, the devil hates you. Now, if you're lost, he hates you and wants to keep you from getting saved, because he knows he's going to hell and he wants you to go there, too. And if you listen to him, he'll take you there. But if you're saved, he knows he can't take you to hell, so he really hates you and wants to do all the damage. He knows he can't take your soul, so he'll do everything he can to destroy your life. If you're not saved today, the Bible says, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. You ought to get saved today if you're not saved. And if you're a Christian, I'm telling you, you can do what you want to, but I'm telling you just by way of friendly warning, you better leave this stuff alone that opens the door to demons coming in. I'm not saying they can come in and possess you, but they can bring some severe oppression. Just ask Job. They can severely influence you. Just ask Peter. Father, would You bless now these things that we've seen from the Bible this morning? I pray that You might use this to help