If you did not pick up the one from last week, if you brought the one from last week that you had when Pastor Paul was here, there's a few, a little bit at the end he didn't finish, and you can fill in your blanks on that one. If you did not bring the one from last week and you would like a cheat sheet that has all the blanks filled in already, then I have one right here. If you'd like to have one of those just raise your hand and I'll give them to you. I'll give them to Mike. Mike, look around and see if anybody needs one. Anybody needs one of these cheat sheets from last week? It has all the blanks filled in. And I'm gonna start right up. Last week was week five. Pastor Paul taught on demons, unclean spirits, and it was the first part of three. And he talked, beginning talking about the reality of demons. There's been all kinds of doubts about that. The Bible clearly affirms the reality of demons. That's the testimony of Scripture. Jesus believed that demons existed. He talked about it many, many times. He gave the disciples authority to cast them out. He certainly wouldn't have done that if they didn't exist. He never corrected anyone that spoke of demons or wanted a demon to be cast out or anything. Then there is testimony of the other parts of the New Testament. All the writers of the New Testament except Hebrews mentioned demons. And then there is a testimony of the Old Testament. Then there was a discussion that he gave you about the origin of demons. Where do demons come from? Well some people think they are the spirits of wicked, deceased people. You know like the spirit of Hitler rises up and does this, that, or the other. No. Now there is no support for that kind of thing anywhere in the Bible. Some others think they are the disembodied spirits of a pre-Adamic race. That there was a race of beings that lived on earth before Adam and Eve and that they messed up and that is when the earth was without form and void so to speak and there are many problems with that thought considering that Eve is the mother of all living and so on. But that there is a pre-Adamic race and they are the disembodied spirits. Others thought that they are the offspring of the union described in Genesis chapter 6 verse 1 through 4. there will be a lot of reasons to talk about that. As a matter of fact I preached a whole series on that. And then the other one is the one that we believe the Bible holds to and promotes and that is that they are fallen angels, that the demons are the angels who rebelled with Satan. And I won't go through all of that. Now I want to look at this next little section that he didn't cover and that is the confinement of of some fallen angels. Where are all of them? Because you read in the Bible and you find that it says that some of them are confined, you know, under chains, under darkness, you know, until a certain time. They're confined. And then there's some other ones that are not confined. So let's just look at a little bit of that. The Scriptures clearly teach two groups of fallen angels. One consisting of those who have some freedom. They still have some freedom to carry out Satan's plans. others who are confined. Those who are confined, some are temporarily confined, and others are permanently confined in a place called Tartarus, or Tartarus that is mentioned in 2 Peter chapter 2, we are talking about the ones that are confined, 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 4, 2 Peter 2 verse 4 says, For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, and committed them to the pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and He did not spare the ancient world, and so on. He is talking about if God didn't spare these people why do you think He is going to spare you? He didn't spare the angels that fell but He can find some of them. And then Jude 6 look over there that is the next to last book in the Bible only one chapter long. Jude verse number 6, 1st, 2nd, 3rd John, Jude, and then verse number 5 let me read that one. Now I desire to remind you though you know all these things once for all that the Lord after saving a people out of the land of Egypt subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. And angels who did not keep their own domain or stay to their area of responsibility but abandoned their proper abode He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. So this is a group of angels who are permanently Greek people at that time thought of Tartarus as a place of punishment lower than Hades. When you read the word Hades in the Bible it is the grave, it is the place of the dead. And they thought this was somewhere far lower than that, or lower than hell. They are confined in what is called the Abyss. Luke 8, verse 31 calls it the Abyss. Revelation 9, 1-3 and 11 also calls it that. Some are consigned there to await the final judgment. some will be loosed temporarily. You remember, you probably remember that, that there is a place in the book of Revelation, speaking of it in chapter 9 where some really weird creatures come out of the abyss and you know they are just horrible and they've got all kinds of wild teeth and long hair and faces like you know lions and teeth and so on. But these are demons, these are the ones that have been confined but will be released for just a little while. Why are some there in Tartarus? If it is a result of original sin and rebellion with Satan then why are not all fallen angels there? Why is Satan himself not confined? That's a real good question. Why has God not just simply, well most of us are going to ask the question, why did He ever let him in the Garden of Eden? And then we're going to ask the question, well if he, you know, why does he let him keep doing what he does on earth? I mean why did he show up to tempt Jesus as well as everyone else? Why are not all fallen angels there? Why is Satan not in confinement? Confinement in Tartarus for some of the fallen angels is a punishment for some sin other than the original one, and a very, very unique sin at that. A lot of people suggest this, Genesis chapter 6, 2-4, we spent a lot of time preaching on this when we went through Genesis that these sons of God looked on the daughters of men. You remember that passage, we studied it at length. and they desired them, and so these men took as many of these women for wives as they wanted to. I don't believe that it was the literal fallen angels that did it, but I think that these men desiring to be like the Nephilim, wanting great power, were ready to make a deal with the devil. who always wanted to experience all this kind of power and experience these things. These demons inhabited these men and they went into them and so on. But in any event whatever these particular angels did, these angels who were already fallen they were confined because of this unique sin that they had committed. There is, just at the end of it, just jump to the end of it so that we can go on to what I want to share with you tonight. Following, there's an outline at the bottom of the page there that tells about what is the present status of demons. this will really help you and try to understand where all the demons are and I've got verses there for you. First of all we mentioned all angels, and then the all angels are divided into two kinds. There are elect angels, they are unfallen, they are the ones that remain faithful. Many believe because of the third of the stars that fell with Satan, or falls down with Satan, or Lucifer, or the dragon in Revelation chapter 12, therefore there must be two-thirds of whatever the number was of original created spirit beings that did not fall. They are the elect angels. They are confirmed in their election. that is they are unfallen. Then there are the fallen angels, they rebelled with Satan, Matthew 35, 41 speaks about that, they are fallen angels. And then among those are the ones that are loose and active and they are demons and Ephesians 6, 1-12 is very clear about what their activities are. Then there are confined that's Luke 8.31. And then among the confined demons they are the ones that are temporarily confined Revelation chapter 9 verse 1 let's go over there and let's just see why they are temporarily confined and see what the next time we see them or hear of them is going to be. during the trumpets, the fifth trumpet sounded, and I saw a star from heaven which had fallen to the earth, and the key of the bottomless pit was given to him. And he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke went up out of the pit, like the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke of the pit, and out of the smoke came forth locusts upon the earth. Power was given to them as the scorpions of the earth have power. And they were told that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, or any green thing, or any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their forehead. permitted to kill anyone, but to torment for five months. And their torment was like the torment of a scorpion, when it stings a man. And in those days men will seek death and not find it, and they will long to die, and death will flee from them. And the appearance of these locusts," watch this now, "'was like horses prepared for battle, and on their heads, as it were, crowns like gold. And their faces were like the faces of men, and their they had hair like the hair of women, and their teeth were like the teeth of lions, and they had breastplates like the breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the sound of--" What a creature. So that's one example of the possibility of these confined demons, temporarily confined until Revelation 9 the 5th seal, or the 5th trumpet that is. Then there are those that we mentioned earlier permanently confined at 2 Peter 2, 4 and Jude 6. Enough of that. Take the sheet that you have for tonight and I just wanted to finish up that little bit and here is what I want to really get at tonight. What are demons like? What are demons like? Some, since demons belong to the same class of beings, demons and angels have a lot in common. We've already talked about how angels and demons operate in ranks, and categories, and hierarchies. Just as there is a hierarchy among the angels, evidently there is a hierarchy among the demons. They are called principalities, powers, and so on. And they seem to rank them just like the angels. Let's talk about their personal nature. genuine persons. And this is very, very important. What is a person? Well, demons are not just forces or concepts that merely exist in our minds. They're not just concepts. It's not just the presence of evil in the world. Now, I spent a lot of time talking about this a few weeks ago, that demons, demonologies, spirits, evil spirits, even Satan himself, while it's just the existence of evil, it's the permeating nature of evil in the world, that's Satan. No, Satan's a person. These demons were created. There is an angel that has a name. His name is Michael. There is an angel who has a name. His name is Gabriel. And I've got a sneaking suspicion every angel has a name. We just don't have them all. You know, God named all the stars. Do you know how many stars there are? Like billions of billions of stars? I mean, there's billions of galaxies. He named all the stars. He named the angels. He knows who they are. It's because they are persons. Do demons have names? Well they might. If you ask C.S. Lewis their names are Wormwood and some others, but anyway. But if you haven't read that book, if you have not read the book, The Screwtape Letters, who's ever read it? You read The Screwtape Letters? If you haven't read that book, it's an allegory But oh boy, it is really, really good. It's amazing to see just the vivid imagination that C.S. Lewis did, but how he gives personalities to these demons and suggests how they may operate among us. It's pretty, it's all very biblical, very good, but it's an allegory. It's really interesting, I've read it. Read it three or four times in fact. So they are persons, they exist, their reality is, oh this is awesome, their reality is not dependent upon our belief in them. It's kind of like, do you believe man walked on the moon? Well, it really doesn't matter what you believe, does it? I mean, do you believe there is a God? Well, it really doesn't matter what you believe. His existence isn't dependent upon our belief in Him. Well, our demon's existence does not depend on anyone's belief in them, or our lack of being able to conceptualize or imagine them. That's not the way it works. In fact, demons are perfectly pleased to go about their evil in obscurity. They are more effective when we doubt their existence. That's probably when they can do the most work. when we doubt their existence. Now, before we get done somebody is going to say, okay, how do we deal with demons? Well, we'll get into that in the last lesson, but that's going to surprise you how you deal with demons. But I don't want you to think that they do not exist. Do we call them out? Do we call them by name? Do we, you know, have a fight with them? Do we do like Martin Luther did and throw your inkwell at them? I mean, what do we do? I want you to, we'll have a good time with that. How do we know they're persons? Well, they possess intelligence. They possess intelligence. Here's how we know that. Well, Mark 124, they knew who the Lord Jesus was when He was on earth. It's always funny to me that demons know that Jesus is who He says He is when men don't. But Mark 124, the demon said, let us alone. This is the legion of demons. What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. The demons know they have intelligence. What else do they know? Well, they know their own eventual doom. They know that they're doomed. They know their destiny. They know what's happening. It can't change. They can't repent. There's no second chance for them, so they're trying to wreak all the havoc they can along with Satan before they get there. Mark 8, 29, what have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Look at this phrase. Have you come here to torment us before the time? Now there's a group of them that are in torment now, they're confined and they'll never get out. They'll get out and be re-thrown into the lake of fire with all the other demons and all the lost people as well. But have you come to torment us before the time? Then number three, they are monotheistic. What does that mean? They just believe in one God. the demons can teach you some things. James 2, 19, you believe that there is one God. James is talking to people, you know, don't be overjoyed by, you know, making your belief statements because it says, you believe there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. The demons know there is just one God. They have intelligence. What else? Well, they possess emotions. We're talking about why we know, the question is, what are demons like? Well, they're like people, they're like persons, they have personalities, they have emotions, they can exhibit emotion when confronted with judgment. Luke 8, 28, again, when he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with you to Jesus? And he said, I beg you, don't torment. In other words, he was in great fear. Jesus was and what He might do to them. So, the next one, they exercise their will. They can exercise their will. In other words they can give expression to their will. They can say what they would like to do. This is because that is part of personality or persons. They exercise their will. Luke 8.32, a herd of swine was feeding there on the mountain and they begged Him that He would permit them to enter them and He permitted them. to enter into those animals. So they have intelligence. What are demons like? I'm talking to you about these spirit beings who were created angels who fell with Satan, rebelled with him, and they do have power to do some things. Let's see, there's one right here. If you don't want to climb, there's one right over here. Thanks. Something else. They have personalities, and I will just say this, from Luke 8, 27 to 30, they're always described by a personal pronoun, not an it. And I didn't say it, neither does that, it calls them by personal pronouns. There's something else, they are spirit beings. They are spirit beings, letter B, in contrast to flesh and blood beings, demons are spirit beings. Ephesians 6, 12, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. Now, I'm going to stop there and just put a little preacherly emphasis on that point for a moment. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this age, against the spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places. Now, let me just back up and say we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. How many of you ever have problems with people? How many of you ever have problems with Christian people? I do, I've got to just be honest. Do you know a lot of conflict, and a lot of trouble, and a lot of chaos, and a lot of head butting, and a lot of, is very much generated and engendered by the thoughts that go through our mind that sometimes are sewn in our mind and enforced with the circumstances of our life by Satan and his demons because our battle really isn't against the people as much as it is Satan who would like us to be against the people. You know that unity is the greatest force in Christianity when people are unified. What does it say? In Ephesians it says we're supposed to walk in love, walk in harmony, but the big word that comes over and over and over, let us walk in unity, let us be unified. One hope, one faith, one baptism, one Lord, it goes on and on and on. Be unified in what we believe, be unified in all of our affections and who we love and who we serve. Let's be unified and let's love one another. Unity is very, very difficult. You know, raindrops are not very significant until you get a lot of them together. You know what I'm saying? Snowflakes aren't very significant until you get a bunch of them together. And one Christian may not be too significant until you get a lot of them together and they all start working in harmony. So remember, even in our own lives from day to day, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. Sometimes you ought to stop in the middle of an argument with your wife. with your children. You ought to just stop in the middle of that and have prayer. You really ought to. You ought to just stop and say, wait a minute, wait, wait, wait, wait. This knock down drag out that is going on right here in my family right now it's got to have a root. Maybe the root is in me. Maybe Satan is working on me. Maybe the root is in my wife or my children, but we need to stop and recognize what's going on. We're being attacked and we need to fight it. Number two, they have an intellectual nature. I said they're intelligent, but there's a little more to that. They have an intellectual nature. Demons show great intelligence. They're of the same class as angels. They have knowledge. We talked about that. They develop and promote systems of doctrine. They're religious. Boy, that always gets people. Demons go to church. We've already seen this in our study in Luke, haven't we? that there was a leprosy, there was a guy there, and there was demons in the church, demons in the synagogue, and Jesus threw out the demon right in the middle of everything. And somebody might have said, but what in the world is a demon going to the synagogue for? Oh, man, they are very present in the synagogue. Sometimes they are in the pulpit in churches. They develop and promote systems of doctrine. Turn to 1 Timothy. Did you already do that? Maybe I said that. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, let's see what their systems of doctrine are about. I pulled a fast one on you and I brought Old Faithful, this is my NASB so the words are going to be just a little different, but you all listen anyway. You can follow along in whatever version, laptop, phone, pad, whatever device you are using. But the Spirit explicitly says in the latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits. And do you see what it says right there? Doctrines of Demons. Now we're going to, I'm going to stop before I read the next verse and I'm going to quote an Old Testament verse for the book of Psalms. It says, let God be true in every man of what? Okay, now let me read this verse having said that, okay? Before I read this verse, I don't want anybody getting mad at me and say I'm picking on anybody, all right? I'm not zeroing in on anybody's past church experience, or your parents, or your grandparents, or your great-grandparents, and I don't have anybody in mind, and I'm just gonna read this verse. Can I do that? I mean, is it okay if I read a verse of the Bible here in the church house? Okay, here it is. Now, before I read this, no, I'm just kidding. All right, so the doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage, and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude, for it is sanctified by the means of the Word of God and prayer." So here's some doctrines of demons, and these aren't all the doctrines of demons, but here's some. There are religious systems that say men would be better off if they didn't marry. I'll let your mind wander on that. And then there are religious systems world over, many, many, many, many of them, not just one or two, that think that religiosity, holiness, piety is related to what you eat, what you drink, what you take in your mouth. By abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared. Now I know pork's not good for you. So please don't give me any lectures about, you know, this is the temple of the Holy Spirit, you know, we got all that stuff there. Man, a pork chop is just one of the most wonderful things on planet earth. You know what I'm saying? Sausage and bacon, everything on that pig. You know, I've had pig's feet. I've had head cheese. You name it, I have had it with everything off of that pig. And I'm not dead yet. Maybe killing me, I don't know. But doctrines of demons try to make religious elements of things that have nothing to do with following God or holiness. Now I won't argue the medical point of view. If somebody wants to get out a medical book and start talking about the advantages of eating nothing but asparagus every day of your life for the rest of your life, okay. But that would be hard. This is something, doctrines of demons, systems of doctrine. You see, they have intelligence. And there's something else, they have vast experience. This is probably one of the biggest issues right here. can seem to be three steps ahead of everybody. They know how to tempt us. I mean, don't make the assumption that every temptation comes directly from Satan himself. Satan may be doing, he may be the mastermind, but the demons are out in and among us. They are everywhere. You say, how many of them are there? Too many. I don't know. They are everywhere. So, they have lots of experience. They have existed throughout all of human history. been here on this earth? Well I have my opinion, but you know if the evolutionists are true they are pretty old. I don't believe in evolution so I think they are about 10,000 years old, 10, 9, I don't know. They are old. Let's see I'm 56 and I'd like to think I know a little more than I did when I was 3. And if I was 106, I bet I know a little more than I do when I was 56. Those dudes have been around for a very long time. And they're trial and error sort of beings. They just see what makes Mike fall and what doesn't make Mike fall. If this didn't work, they'll try something else. And then they'll use that information about a guy like Mike at his age, at his stage in life, with his family, get him alone or whatever. They'll take Mike and they'll say, well, it worked on Mike. Maybe this other guy that's in his same category. You see what I'm saying? They have vast. experience. And so they've observed human beings in almost every conceivable situation. They can accurately predict what individuals will do under most circumstances. To put it simply, they've got your number. Intellectual nature, we're talking about what they do now, or what they're like. Number three, their immoral nature. immoral nature. Their state of existence is immoral always. In other words their state of being, they are always immoral. They are completely immoral. They cannot, they can be, they can appear like angels of light but the ulterior motive is always evil. They are always, always, always dedicated to the destruction of everything that's right. The Bible calls them, Matthew 10, verse 1, unclean spirits. When He called the twelve disciples He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out. What are they called? Evil spirits, Luke 7.21. He cured many infirmities, afflictions, and evil spirits. They are the spirit of an unclean demon. It's another way that it's said in the Scripture. They are spiritual forces of wickedness. That's Ephesians 6.12, the last part of the verse, spiritual forces of wickedness. It quotes it this way, our fight is against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. And all of these terms clearly indicate the immoral nature of demons. They are immoral. so they are immoral in their very nature, their very being, their existence, everything about them is immoral. And then second of all they are immoral in their goals. What is it that they want to do? Well immorality is whatever is inconsistent with good, righteousness, and holiness. But good must ultimately be defined in relation to the will of God. immoral activities of demons may include anything that opposes the will of God. Satan is the, he is the opposite of, his will is the opposite of the will of the Father, or the will of the Son. Here are some observations, you don't have this on your sheet, I'm just going to read it to you, it's from a guy named Ernest Victor, or Victor Ernest, the name of his book is called, I Talk With Spirits, he used to be a demon worshiper. Devil worshiper. The spirits I encountered at seances were for the most part very moralistic. They encouraged us not to smoke or to drink or to do anything that would harm our minds and bodies. Ministers, get this now, ministers were told to preach morality, good manners, and civic pride. I knew ministers who actually had spirit messages taken down by their secretaries and used from the pulpit given to them in seances. The spirits often talked about an ethical Jesus who was a moralizer, but never about sin and a Savior who died, that Savior dying a sacrificial death for sin. And in contrast sometimes to the high moral and ethical tone of the seances at others, I attended where the spirits were blasphemous and sensual and incredibly wicked. And that's this guy that says that he is converted from being a devil worshipper. His name is Victor Ernest, wrote this book, I Talk With Spirits. Now the immoral goals of demons would incite to vile acts, to discord, chaos, blasphemy, hatred, rejection of authority, and many other obvious deeds and thoughts of wickedness. So there's a lot of things. He would incite to wickedness is what you should write down. You can imagine, I mean, everything that's evil, wicked, ungodly, unholy, horrible, hating authority, disruptive, that rebels, that causes trouble in families, all of these things are the kinds of things that demons would like to incite. But then there's the not-so-obvious activity, or the not-so-obvious goal, and that would be the religious aspects of demonic goals. they would promote false religion and even moralistic Christianity. And let me just pull over and park. There is a great effort to moralize America right now. We need to just get some morals. We just get our country a little more moral. And I'm for electing the right people, voting for the right people. As a citizen of this country, I am going to inform myself. I'm going to involve myself. I'm going to vote. And there's not been an election come by that I didn't vote in. If it's my turn to vote and the thing won't keep me out, I'm going to vote. And we should vote. We should know how to vote. We should encourage other people to vote. That's all wonderful. The idea that it is our calling to moralize unregenerate people and an unregenerate nation is a complete failure as a Christian and as a church. Because we could roll this country back to 1950 and still have everybody die and go to hell. Oh, I like the culture better in the 50s. I like the authority better in the 50s. I like the home better in the 50s. Laugh it, leave it to be all you want, but it was a better day. But we could take the whole country to 1950 and, you know, we could set, I don't know who, on the throne at the White House. That's what it is now, the throne, by the way. Just kidding, just threw that in there for you. But we could put anybody we want in the White House, and the State House, and the Mayor's Office, and we could do anything we want, and we could just get everything just humming along beautifully, and the economy, stock market could triple, and everybody would just be grinning and happy except for one thing, moralizing America will not save her soul. Our calling is not to moralize. And do you know what Satan is doing? Do you know what the demons are doing? They're working hard. are working hard to try to infiltrate the ministries of otherwise godly, God-fearing, Bible-believing pastors to get them involved in the moralization process of unregenerate people. It won't work. It cannot work. We are to stand and call. They are happy with anything that happens in a church. short of repentance of sin, and calling on a Savior for salvation, and having a true life change where they begin to follow the God, not of this world, but the true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And Satan is going to fight that, and every demon is going to fight that. they're active, they're busy, they are doing these kinds of things. They use culture. They use the power of peers, the peer pressure, even among pastors. They use all kinds of things in order to get us off of what God wants us to do. What are their powers? Well strength. At times it can exhibit superhuman strength in the Scriptures, although they work through human beings. Everybody remembers the demon possessed man of the Gerasenes, or the Gadara, he was able to break shackles and chains and they couldn't bind the guy, he was demon possessed. And then there were the sons of Seva. How many of you remember the story about the sons of Seva in the book of Acts? These guys were, they weren't sage people, they were but they had heard about throwing out demons and everything. So, man they were running around throwing demons out, at least they were trying to. And they came to these certain demons and the demons that were in this particular individual said, you know, Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who in the world are you? And they jumped on them and overtook them and ran them out and they evidently tore all their clothes off of them and they ran out naked. I mean it was terrible. So, it was a terrible, terrible situation. strength. Do demons know the future? Well they can certainly understand the plan of God for the future as they find it in the Bible, and by the way most demons are pretty good Bible students. cannot tell the future. They know what God says the future is going to be. And they cannot tell fortunes like Acts 16, 16 the woman that was running around behind Paul saying, these men are the most high God and they preach the way and all that of Jesus. And Paul finally rebuked her and cast the demon out of her and they wanted to throw him in jail. It was very lucrative because this woman, they reported that she had the ability to tell the future. Everybody was going to her to find out, you know, what horse to bet on and so forth, I guess, or things of that like. And so that's what was happening. But they can't tell the future. They can only guess according to what history has been. Their presence. This really gets interesting and we're going to spend a little time on this one as we finish up. Their presence. First of all, demons are not infinite. are limited, they are creatures, that is they are created, they are superhuman, they are more powerful than humans, but they are infinite. Two demons are not as restricted as humans are. They are not present everywhere, but they are not restricted like humans in the normal barriers of space. You remember when we talked about Luke chapter 8 in the story of the storm and then the gathering demoniac here a few weeks ago, this fellow had a legion of demons, perhaps as many as 6,000 demons in him. And so they don't occupy space like, and they don't need the space of a full body like, you know, I mean, they don't need that. don't have the barriers of space. And demons then, the next one, demons can enter animal or human bodies. Animal or human bodies. The very fact that demons can enter human or animal bodies shows that they can pass through barriers that would restrict human beings. There is a lot of curiosity going on in the room right now about, you know, how come I don't ever see this? We are going to get to that in just a minute. I want you to look at something else that wasn't in my notes until today. I got to looking at this and studying this. It's a very curious passage. I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. We're talking about demons now. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 14. Paul is speaking of the Corinthians and Incarnate. There was tons of idolatry, in fact a factory of idols. Verse 14, therefore my beloved flee from idolatry. Idolatry, idolatry. Idolatry is anything to which you give the attributes of God. Anything that you believe can supply your needs, can do things that God and only God can do for you, to give anything that allegiance, affection, attention, and loyalty, you've made an idol of that. But here we're talking about something a little different. We're talking about the actual images. Flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men. You judge what I say. Is not the cup of blessing which with which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ since there is one bread we who are many are one body for we all partake of the one bread. This is in preparation for the Lord's Supper. They had made a mockery of the Lord's Supper and so Paul has given them some real instructions about the reverence that is called for at the Lord's Supper. Verse 18, look at the nation Israel, are not those who eat the sacrifices sharers in the altar? What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idol is anything or that an idol is anything? No. Now let's stop right there. the idol anything? You stop and think about this. We just had the missionaries here and we had all, especially Yohan Jamulamudi from India had pictures of the most incredible. Everywhere you look, I mean they say it is a land of 330,000, 330 million gods and most of them those 330 million gods have millions of little images made in their honor. Some of them are not little images. Some of them are enormously giant, big images. And there's Kali, and there's all these different images and everything. And my question is, are those images anything? Paul puts it flat out, no. They're not anything. They have to be built. They have to be maintained and painted. They have to be carried around. Yet, there is power associated with those images. is evil associated. Let's go back. What do I mean then that a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. That's a pretty powerful statement, isn't it? He said, what he's saying is, is we know that these things, and I've gotta tell you a story. There's a lady by the name of Amelia Rojas that was in our church in Peru. She was a Beata, B-E-A-T-A, Beata. That means the highest rank of the highest loyalist of what is known as the parade of miracles that happens every October, from October the 17th through the 31st in Lima, they carry around a picture of an Afro-American Jesus. They carry this around in the streets. He is the Lord of Miracles and they believe that this person can do all sorts of miracles only between these periods of times if people will honestly confess, write their confessions down, and put it on his parade platform as he goes by. Well, she was a Beata, which means she was one of the ones that was able to put on the purple outfit with the yellow cord, go barefooted, and stand and for one day actually have her hand on this thing. The procession sometimes has five million people in line. That's how big this is. So she was a Beata. came in contact with some missionaries, not me, not Bonnie this time, but some missionaries that were from somewhere in Ohio that had lived in their area. And the man was very straightforward and honest, and he had a wife, and he had children. They didn't practice the doctrine of demons where the religious leader couldn't marry. And so this really bothered her because she knew that he was a religious leader and how dare him have a wife and children. So she went over to see him and said, what a blasphemy this is for you. Why do you have this wife and children? says, why not? And so she went to explain that all religious leaders, she just went on and gave her perception, her being a Beata studying everything. She had studied, studied, studied. Her perception was that you know religious leaders, priests, why their priests would never do anything like that. Now we could talk about what they would do, but would never do anything like that. And so to make a long story short over a period of about two years of her watching them, and watching them, and watching them, and watching them she finally decided to visit our church. So she came to the Vida Nueva, Vida Nueva which is New Life Church of La Molina, came, sat, came for about 18 weeks. On a Tuesday morning, she went to a Tuesday morning Bible study, listened to my wife read some verses out of the passage of Scripture that I'm going to read to you in just a few minutes, and it all came clear in her mind. Now I want you to see what it was that got her attention about this whole system. Take your Bibles and look at the book. Let's do a little Bible exercise, Isaiah 40, verse 19. Isaiah 40, verse 19. This is what she heard. for the idol the craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, a silversmith fashions it with chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot. He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter." An idol that will not totter. Look over to chapter 41 verse 7 and 8. So the craftsman encourages the smelter, and he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, saying of the soldering, it is good, and he fastens it with nails that it should not totter or fall over. Look at chapter 44 verse 9, this is the particular passage right here, Isaiah chapter 44 and verse number 9. who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit. Even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men." Let them all assemble themselves. Let them stand up. Let them tremble. Let them together be put to shame. Here's how they make their idols. The man shapes iron into a cutting tool where he makes the tools that he's going to use to make the idol. He makes his iron into a cutting tool and he does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and becomes weary. Another shapes wood. He extends a measuring line. He outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass. He makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of a man, so that it may sit in his house. cut cedars for himself, and he takes a cypress or an oak, and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for a man to burn. So he takes some of them, and he warms himself. He also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it. He makes a graven image and falls down before it. it burned, half of it in, he burns in the fire. Over this half he eats meat and roast to roast and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, ah, I am warm, I have seen the fire. But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships. He also prays to it and says, deliver me for thou art my god. do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes, so they cannot see, and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. And no one recalls, or is there knowledge or understanding to say, I have burned half in the fire, I have also baked bread over its coals, I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood. He feeds on ashes, deceived heart, and His deceived heart has turned Him aside. And He cannot deliver Himself, nor say, Is there not a lie in My right hand? This lady who was a Beata had been buying relics, statues, religious things that had been told her all of her life were her way to be able to get through to Mary so that Mary would get through to Jesus so that Jesus would get through to the Father and would give her all the things that she wanted. She read that and tears burst forth in her eyes. went home her husband called Pastor Tom Pace at the church and said, you have got to come over here, my wife has gone crazy, I don't know what has happened to her. But she has gone through the house, she has ripped all of the statuettes and all the statues down. She's ripped out the fixtures and the water holders in the wall. And she's in the backyard with a poker from the fire beating this statue in the backyard. And And when she got done, the head on the top of the statue of the Virgin Mary was there and was just tottering back and forth. And that's what she said. She said, she said, mira como vacila. In other words, look how it's tottering. She says, just like it says in the Bible.