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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
Demonic Possession
Series The Doctrine of Angels
| Sermon ID | 1030161325174 |
| Duration | 1:01:00 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Mark 5:2 |
| Language | English |
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