Satan's pawn?

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.".

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

We're here to take your calls as well. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. This is your host, Mike Abendroth, and we are live here today at Bethlehem Bible Church.

The Program Focuses on Demons, Satan, and Spiritual Warfare

The studio is here at the church, and we're talking today about demons, Satan, demon possession. Should you cast demons out? Should you rebuke them? Should you send them to Fitchburg? What should you do when it comes to demons?

No Compromise Radio ministry likes to discuss things from a biblical perspective and then make it fairly interesting through controversy, through pushing the envelope, through opening the Bible. As I've said many times before, J. Gresham Machen, the old scholar from Princeton and then Westminster Seminary, said that if you open the Bible to almost any page, it's full of controversy, and that is because it is the truth from God.

From the infinite, spotless, holy, pure God, we read about who He is, and He is condescended to tell us about Himself. I couldn't believe it the other day. I walked into the store, and there we have Halloween sections up already at Target and in Hannaford and other stores.

I thought, Halloween starts quickly these days, and I began to think about Satan and demons and everything else. There's a house down the street, and it's already decorated with full, ghoulish garb, and we've got Frankensteins out there, we've got Draculas, all kinds of things.

So what about demons? Years ago, Neal Anderson's book came onto the scene, Bondage Breaker, and everybody went flipping out with all kinds of demons under every cover. You've got lots of extreme charismatics groups that have some kind of demon exorcism, and what we want to do here is take a look at that very issue.

Demons, exorcisms, do we cast demons out? We don't want to be ignorant of his schemes, and so what we want to do here at the radio show is to stand up for truth. I was thinking about a song a while ago, and I thought it would be a good song for our radio audience, that when it comes to truth, we can't back down, and so now many of you maybe don't like Tom Petty, but I think that would be a good theme for us, don't you think so?

I'm not sure exactly if everyone likes Tom Petty, but I do, and I don't have my computer exactly hooked up right, but in the background, you could hear and you could tell what was going on. So we're not going to back down from the truth today.

Standing Firm Against the Schemes of the Devil

If you have a Bible, you might want to turn it open to Ephesians. If you're in your car, you don't want to open up the Bible or get on your Blackberry Bible or anything like that. Ephesians says this, be strong in the Lord, Ephesians 6, and in the strength of his might, put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

We're going to have the full armor of God because we don't want to have the devil trick us, and he's got some kind of schemes, and we don't want to be ignorant of those schemes. We also don't want to be ignorant of Bible study and proper Bible interpretation.

Most people today listening to this show think this way, and you think this way improperly. Jesus cast out demons, apostles cast out demons, I should cast out demons. Jesus cast out demons, the apostles cast out demons, therefore maybe my pastor should cast out demons.

After all, I've seen the Exorcist movie, and people cast out demons, and friends, just because something is described in the Bible doesn't mean it is prescribed. Just because something is described by Jesus and one of the apostles doesn't mean you ought to do it.

Could someone in the audience tell me one verse in the Bible where it tells you to cast out demons? You, specifically the church. Maybe if someone would know about casting out demons, it would be Timothy or Titus or one of the elders.

Don't you think Paul would say, now this is how you're going to have to do spiritual warfare in the church. You better know the right formula to cast demons out. There's nothing like that. The Bible is silent, and so when Jesus is on earth, there's a bevy of information and assault from demons because they're trying to attack him, and then things seem to quiet down a little bit.

Do I believe in demons today? Of course I do. Do I think Satan is real? Of course I do. Jesus thought he was real, Paul thought he was real, John thought he was real, James thought he was real, Peter thought he was real.

He is a real person, and I believe that, and I believe people can be demon-possessed today. The question is, can Christians be demon-possessed? Another question would be, if a person is demon-possessed, how do we get rid of that demon?

How do we battle with Satan, who's called in the Bible the prince of this world? He's called the prince of the power of the air. He's called the god of this age. He's called the chief of demons, Beelzebub.

How do we deal with this spirit, this person who does not have a body? He is not omnipresent. He's not everywhere all at once. Even in Daniel chapter 9 and chapter 10, you get inklings of Satan roaming around, and he can't be every location simultaneously.

Satan is a real being. He's a fallen being, and he specializes in all kinds of things. He tempts like he tempted Eve. He tempted Christ. He loves to pervert God's word, Genesis chapter 3. He loves to stand up against God's work.

He wants to hinder God's servants. He ensnares wicked people. He deceives nations. He disguises himself as an angel of light. What do we do about this creature called Satan, the father of lies? I don't want you to fall prey to his schemes.

I want you to know what his specialties are so you can run away from Satan. Satan is not a myth. Satan is real, and in the Bible, everywhere you go, you'll see the testimony of the Scripture to say that.

Three Ways to Keep Satan at Arm's Length

So since Satan is real, and since he tries to go after people today, what do we do? We want to make sure we're careful because there are no Geneva Convention codes for Satan. He is malicious. He is brutal.

He loves to kill, and when you look at the first Geneva Convention, second Geneva, third Geneva, fourth Geneva Convention, there are all kinds of rules, and governments agree on how to fight fairly, how to fight humanely, how to kill even humanely.

There are no protocols for Satan. Satan has no protocol one, protocol two. He has no Geneva Conventions. He has wiles. He has specialties. The word in Greek in Ephesians chapter 6 is he has methods. Satan was the first Methodist.

No disrespect intended. He's the one that has special cunning devices. He has arts and crafts. He's well-skilled in how to hurt people, and we're not going to be able to stop him by simply taking some oil and going to rub it on your house.

I met a guy years ago, and he got mad at me because I tried to tell him that's not going to do any good. It's just going to waste some good olive oil. He didn't like that. It's not going to do any good if you dedicate your house, if you have someone come in and cast Satan out of the hardwood floors or out of the linoleum or maybe out of the shed in the backyard.

I used to have a shed in California. There were so many black widows in it. It was known as the black widow shed. How can we cast demons out of our house? Should we cast them out? What should we do? I only wish it was that easy to walk around the shed and cast out Satan, and then we'd be good to go.

Satan has certain strategies, and there's a way that he can get into your house, right into your own home, even into your own bedroom, and you have to be very, very careful. Let me give you three quick things that you can do in a proactive way to keep Satan at arm's length.

These are three kind of stiff arms for Satan. If you don't do these, if you capitulate and if you sin, this gives Satan a stronghold. This gives him a foothold into your life and into your ministry, into your church, and you wouldn't want to do these things, and so it's good to be warned of what the Scriptures say.

The first stiff arm that you need to give to Satan, and you'll notice this has nothing to do with oil, has nothing to do with casting Satan out someplace. First one is don't go to bed with sinful anger.

Don't go to bed with sinful anger. We don't want to be taken advantage of by Satan and be ignorant of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2 says this is one of his schemes, for you to go to bed with sinful anger.

Listen to Paul in Ephesians 4. Be angry, righteously, and yet do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. I think we've all been there, haven't we? The kind of stewing and brewing and pacing in our minds, if not literally on the carpet.

Here we go to bed with sinful anger. Satan might even take our righteous anger and somehow tweak it a little bit, or twerk it a little bit, and our flesh actually does a lot of that as well. And then that gives Satan a foothold, it gives him a place.

You ought to make a commitment to God, God by your grace, by your Holy Spirit, I won't go to bed mad. Even if I have to stay up all night, I won't go to bed with sinful anger. I don't know if you go to bed mad or not, at your spouse, at a family member, at one of your children, at your parents, or maybe another church member.

When you go to bed in a sinful condition with unrighteous anger, you are giving Satan a foothold into your life. Who wants that? Let me give you a second way that you could stiff-arm Satan out of your life, and in particular here out of your bedroom, is that you need to not just say no to sinful anger, you must not rob your spouse of sexual intimacy.

That's exactly right. Who would ever think that in the Bible it says you want to give Satan a foothold into your life? You think your marriage is bad now? Well, just invite Satan in by robbing your spouse of what is due them, and what you promised to give them before God on your wedding day.

Listen to 1 Corinthians 7. Verse 1,. Now concerning the things about which you wrote, it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Paul is using a metaphor, a figure of speech for sexual intimacy. Verse 2,.

But because of immoralities, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. And so, because of porneas, because of sexual impurity and immorality, it's good to get married. Let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife.

Verse 3,. And likewise also the wife to her husband. Where celibacy says, you know, there's going to be, it's right for the single, celibacy is good for single people, celibacy is not good for married people.

Now, of course, there's issues of ability, and there's issues of age, and, you know, are they able to physically, etc. I'm not talking about any of that. I'm talking about able, and so here the text says, let the husband fulfill his duty to his wife, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

Verse 4,. The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. The husband doesn't have rights or an exclusive claim to his own body.

The wife, she does not have rights over or exclusive claim to her own body. And so you don't want to deprive, to rob, to take away something from your spouse that really isn't yours to hold back. First Corinthians chapter 7, here's the tie-in to Satan.

If you've just tuned in, we're looking at some areas of our lives that we don't want to let Satan into our lives. WV &E, 760am. We're not taking calls today. You can check out our website at NoCompromiseRadio .com for all kinds of details, podcasts, etc.

First Corinthians 7 .5, Stop depriving one another. Talking about in sexual, marital intimacy, stop depriving one another except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again physically lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

If you're married, do not rob your spouse of what is rightfully theirs. If you think your marriage is difficult now, just invite Satan in through a lack of giving in this particular area, and you will really see how hard life is.

Yes, there could be something harder in life than a difficult marriage, and that is a difficult marriage where Satan is allowed in because of robbery in the first degree against a spouse. We don't want to deprive our spouses on something that is theirs.

Of course, there are all kinds of other issues with husbands being kind to their wives and loving to their wives and sacrificial to their wives, etc. But just looking at the passage today, don't rob your spouse of sexual intimacy.

If you have, confess it, repent, God is very forgiving, God is very patient, and move on with your life. And you can't use this as some kind of weapon or some kind of instrument of exacting punishment when the punishment is really on you.

You will be the one chastened. You will be the one having Satan around more. So don't do that. Let me give you the third way to keep Satan at arm's length, to stiff-arm him like a football player would stiff-arm another player right in the face mask.

Don't withhold forgiveness from anyone who asks. Be a forgiving person. If someone wants your forgiveness and they ask for it, I've sinned against you, and it was unbiblical, I've already asked God for forgiveness, and now I'm asking, do you think you have it in your heart to forgive me?

Your answer always needs to be yes, or you will allow Satan a stronghold in your life. Second Corinthians chapter 2 verse 10 and following gives us that tie-in with Satan. Just like the tie-in with the denial of sexual intimacy to a spouse gives Satan a foothold, just like going to bed with sinful anger gives Satan a foothold, we want to make sure we don't give a foothold to Satan by not forgiving people who ask.

Second Corinthians 2 .10, but whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ. In order, Paul says, I want to be a forgiver, and I have forgiven, and so why do I forgive this way?

Why do I forgive in such a selfless fashion? Verse 11, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes. That is the issue there. Here we have this Satan, this person who loves to mix truth with error, who loves to misquote scripture, who loves to masquerade like an angel of light, who loves to promote the idea he doesn't exist, who creates doubt, who persecutes, who hinders service, who infiltrates the church, who divides the church, who does everything in opposition to God, who promotes false doctrine, who wants us to be idolaters, who wants us to do all kinds of other things.

We need to stand up and say, we ought to be forgiving people, and we ought to just let things go, and we ought not to hold and to be bitter and to remember all the things that have been done against us.

Are you that kind of person? Are you the kind of person that goes to bed mad, big fight with your spouse, and then marches off and goes to bed not saying another word, mad at the kids, you go to bed mad, the kids know you're mad, and you storm off?

Don't do that. Repent of that. Again, God grants forgiveness to the repentant. So confess your sins and forsake them and find mercy, Proverbs 28. Are you the kind of person that uses sexual intimacy in a marriage as a weapon, and you withhold, and you deny, and you rob, and you steal?

Well, repent of that. That's what you need to do. You don't want Satan involved. You don't want to dishonor God and dishonor your spouse. And are you the kind of person that is bitter, and you think of all the people that have hurt you, and you're going to hold that against them?

It's not hurting them, really. It's hurting you, and it's hurting you for lots of reasons. Maybe physically it's hurting you, but it's also hurting you because you're disobeying God. Whether we eat or we drink, let everything be done to God's glory.

Whether you eat or drink or go to bed happy, be giving to your spouse in the bedroom, or when it comes to forgiving, we do all to the glory of God. That's the issue there. That's how Satan climbs in, creeps in.

And we need to make sure, as 1 Peter 5 says, that we are of sober spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And so we are in a war against Satan, no doubt.

And we need to do things in a biblical fashion. So lots of times people say, well, alright, I've got that down, but what about this whole demon possession? Can Christians be demon possessed? Can Christians cast other demons out of other Christians, etc.?

Ephesians says our struggle is not against flesh and blood, against rulers. And here comes this parade of evil forces, against, excuse me, powers against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When it comes to spiritual hand-to-hand combat, when it comes to wrestling, when it comes to this close-quarter struggle, when it comes to face-to-face encounter with this cunning opponent, we have to make sure we don't do things according to our own ingenuity, that we say, well, here's how we would fight a regular enemy.

No, we want to be careful. Our fight in this world has to be done according to God's ways, because we're not fighting against flesh and blood. Friends, the real enemies that you have in your life are not the homosexuals and their homosexual movement.

It's not ACORN and their movement. It's not the pro-choice people and their movement. It's not the Democrats and their movement. It's not, if you're a Democrat, it's not the Republicans and their movement.

Those people are sadly pawns in this great battle. The text says the real struggle is against these invisible forces, rulers, powers, forces of darkness, spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.

That's the real battle. That's the real enemy. And so all these evil folks come along, and of course they're evil, but behind the scenes there is a more cunning enemy. Did you know Ephesians chapter 6, really the passage in all the Bible for the church regarding spiritual warfare, should be noted for what it does not say.

What does Ephesians 6, 10 through 20 not say? It talks about all kinds of things for spiritual warfare, about girding loins with truth, breastplate of righteousness, all kinds of issues about helmets of salvation with prayer, etc.

But it is conspicuously absent casting out demons. It can't be found. Where does it say to cast out demons? Where does it say, like with the imperative formula that Rome uses, the Roman Catholic Church uses, when they have to go to the two-month course so they learn about prayers of liberation for diabolic possession?

Where is that? Where is it found in the Bible where we have to learn formulas as the Catholic Church teaches, I order you, Satan, talking about him as the prince of the world, go back, Satan. Where's that kind of language?

I don't think you're going to find that language at all. You're going to find this kind of language in church history, maybe, but you're not going to find it in the Bible. I read today that Salvador Dali is reported to have received an exorcism from Italian friar.

Annalise Michael was a Catholic woman from Germany. She was supposedly possessed, and the story of the exorcism of Emily Rose was about her. There was a boy identified as Robbie. He's also known as Robbie Doe.

He was a subject of exorcism in 1949, and he was the subject of The Exorcist, the film and the horror novel by William Peter Blatty. Mother Teresa, she supposedly underwent an exorcism under the patron of Al-Qaeda, Henry de Souza.

What's happening with all this casting out demon business? Where is it found in the Bible? That's my point. That's the issue. Just show me from the Bible. That's all I'm asking. If you tell me it's based on your own personal experience, Jesus did it, therefore we're supposed to do it.

Friends, I just don't believe that, and I don't think you have a leg to stand on. You're poor in your hermeneutics. You're bad in your Bible exegesis. You simply pick up the Bible and say, oh, all these verses are for me, and you play the where's Waldo game.

Where am I in this verse? Friends, where is casting out demons in these verses? Where would it be in the list of spiritual gifts? You can't find it. Did you know for the church, there's no passage where we as church people are supposed to directly deal with Satan, directly deal with demons?

We can't find it. Jesus did give apostolic authority to the apostles, but we're not the apostles. Poor Job didn't have the information to cast out demons. Too bad he couldn't just cast out Satan or cast out demon or send Satan to Iceland or something.

Poor Icelandians if they received him. What happened? He didn't even know until he got to heaven that there was this cosmic battle. We want to be careful that sometimes even false believers do some kind of demon casting out.

Well, I never got today to can you meet a demon-possessed person? What should you do if you meet a demon-possessed person? Can Christians be demon-possessed today? What about the demon of lust, the demon of Miller High Life Beer, the demon of all these other things?

We're going to have to get to that next time. Friday is Mystery Friday, and that's exactly what it was today. It was a mystery on where I would end. Can Christians be demon-possessed? Can you cast demons out?

You want to find out from the Bible. We want to be Bible people, people of the book, understanding what the Bible says and the Bible alone, scripture alone, sola scriptura. That's what we're after. NoCompromiseRadio .com.

There's a big youth concert this Saturday night at Bethlehem Bible Church at 7 p .m. You can look on our website. We'd love to see you. God bless you. Open your Bibles. No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.