Demonology & Deliverance, Part 1 - Lester Sumrall — From the Pulpit & Classic Sermons

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, in Powerful Sermons for Modern Preachers 2. This week we have Lester Sumrall with his message, Demonology and Deliverance Part 1, and then also a Prophecy and Rapture End Time Study.

Welcome students to one of the finest series of lessons that we'll ever be giving and possibly one of the most exciting that we shall ever have. We consider that these very particular lessons on demons and deliverance, principalities and powers to be some of the most important lessons that we have ever given.

And because they are so important, you will be able to receive these in the audio form in this way, and a beautiful book that you just put right in your library, and you will be able to also receive these in the video, a one-half inch form to look through your own television set with, and then possibly the best of all, a teaching syllabus such as I hold here, exactly the same as I hold here.

And so we are going into this in the most thorough way possible, and in all of the various operations of learning, whether it is in the readied word, or the hearing word, or the seeing word, and so we are going at this very thoroughly.

The Universal Reality of Demonic Power

In the world that we live in right now, there is no topic so important with the occult growing in unprecedented ways in this country. It is most important that we as spiritual guides, spiritual leaders, spiritual spokesmen for the Most High God, that we inform our people.

We cannot make anybody do anything. We can only inform. We are informers for God. We are ambassadors. An ambassador comes to another nation, and he presents what his nation believes and expects them to do, and his responsibility terminates.

He cannot make that nation do what he wants them to do. He can only say, this is what my nation would like for you to know. We represent the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, and we can only say, this is what God wants us to know and what He wants us to be, what He wants us to do.

And it's very important that we teach these things, not that we just know them, but that we teach them. The Word of God very plainly says, that which ye have received freely, give freely. We are not to be storage tanks.

I am not supposed to know a tremendous amount about this tremendous subject from all over the world and keep it in my own bosom. You see, I am supposed to share it, and that you shall understand by it.

That's what the Bible is. The Bible is a story of what God has done, what God is doing, and what God is going to do. And then you make the decision, if you wish to believe what He has done, if you wish to accept what He is doing, if you wish to understand what is going to come to pass, then the Bible is the book of divine revelation.

These pertinent lessons, and I must say it very strong, possibly the most pertinent that I have ever developed, and that these studies have to do with the unnatural power and dominion over intelligent beings.

That is, the forces of the netherworld seeking to dominate spiritual life, unspiritual life, in the human world. And so, we must realize that. Now, we are not dealing with one part of the world. In my living in over 100 nations of the world, I came to understand that the devil wants to hurt people in India, and China, and Indonesia, and Malaysia, and in Australia, just as much as he does those in India, or in Pakistan, or in the Near East, or in Europe, or America.

The scope of these studies is universal, and you will see that it's universal. It not only has to do with this planet earth, it has to do with heaven, it has to do with eternity in hell, you see. And so, we are not dealing with a small subject.

We are dealing with a subject as big as the universe. When you go out and look up at the stars at night, that's how big this subject is. And no man has ever understood it completely. No man has a total of all the answers, but bless God, we together can have them.

And so, let's go after them, unitedly, sincerely, in depth, and God will certainly help us to know that. We have discovered that the devil has no relationship or respect for a race, for a nation, for a person, for a society, or for a culture, that he wishes to hurt every human person on the face of this earth, whether he be a primitive person in the jungles of New Guinea, or whether he be a person's walk in the United Nations halls in New York City.

The devil is a devil. He's not one thing in one part of the world, or something else in another part of the world. That's exactly what he is. He may have a different approach between a person that lives in Afghanistan, than that one that lives in Paris, France.

But the end result is the same, to destroy that person's relationship with God, to destroy his faith, and to help him not to know the truth that sets him free. And these studies, they're not only just imperative, but they are imperative in what I call a point in time.

Deliverance and the Victory of Christ

I am very conscious that thirty years ago, I was before my time. I exposed these truths, and I made a film about the girl in the Philippines that was delivered from the power of the devil by Jesus. And in America, there were actually full gospel Christians that wouldn't even go and see the film that documented the story.

I said, now that's interesting, that you're even afraid of the victory, much less the battle. You wouldn't have shown up for the battle for sure, but you're even afraid of the victory. This is the victory film, showing what God did, and you're even afraid of victory.

Well, bless God, if you were afraid of victory, what would you do in a day of war? In point of time, I was before my time in relating this, and it made me to be known in this country and around the world as a pioneer in understanding the phenomena of demons and devils and netherworld personalities.

But now the time has come when everybody must know the truth. Millions are desirous of knowing the truth, and this is the way to give it to them. As we create this class here, and this class here goes out to millions of people other than ourselves, then we are disseminating divine truth that must be given today.

This is our day. This is the day. This is a good day. This is God's day. This is a spiritual day. This is the prophetic day. So let it ring deep in your heart. Let it ring deep in your souls, and let this be a day that you will never forget.

But more than that, it is time for us to understand that we are all deliverance, that God created us. You have no right to sit in a comfortable situation and say, well, I'm free of the devil's power, and that's all right.

How about your neighbors, or the boy that's been on drugs and has no more mind to function? How about the girl that has broken her life in sin, and the devil has possessed her with a spirit of the craving for sex that she has no control of herself?

These people need love. They need an understanding, and they need to know there's a big bad devil out there that's to blame for this problem, and that Jesus can set them free. There is nothing the devil has ever done that Jesus cannot undo, and there is no power that he has demonstrated that Christ cannot subdue.

He is the King of Kings. He is the Lord of Lords. He is the Mighty One. He is the Deliverer. Know it. Believe it. Accept it. You'll sure be glad that you did. Our world today, not just America, but Europe is in front of us, and England is in front of us, our world today is rapidly and drastically changing in its relationship with that which is a power beyond human power, whether it's ESP, or whether it's EP, or whatever, or ET, or whatever it might be.

Our world today is being attacked by occult forces. Magic is one of the greatest resurgence in the total of human history. It's enjoying it right now. Never has there been a time when the occult has sold as many books, has many meetings, and has been accepted by so many people.

It's riding high in the world today. Now, that would be distressing except for one thing. The Lord Jesus Christ predicted that in the last days. The Word of God teaches us very clearly. The Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4 and 1 says, The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.

We will be studying that in this series of beautiful lessons that we have together, that we shall discover and join together in our knowledge, and we'll grow in these things and come to know the truth that helps people to be set free.

Neighbors, there are literally millions of people right now who need to be set free from forces and powers beyond and outside themselves, and they cannot set themselves free. They need God. They need the Lord Jesus to come and set them free.

I'm sure you are aware of this and that we're right on the ball, and we're right on the time schedule. At this point in time, it is the time to do this. And so with all kinds of magic and occultism, with its greatest resurgence in modern history, Satanism springing up in every city and every town throughout our land.

It's not isolated in the big cities like New York and Chicago and Los Angeles. It's also in Timbuktu, you see. It's in all the villages, and I can't go into that at this moment. And so these studies that we have especially prepared for our class and our Bible training center here in South Bend, Indiana, and that we are now sharing through you from our World Harvest Bible College, sharing it with the whole of the world.

We're delighted to share, and we can share it through the audio tape and through the videotape and through the printed page that they can know exactly as you and I know and understand these great truths.

Church Leaders on Occultism and Demon Power

We thank God that there are many church leaders who are tremendously concerned about occultism and demon power, that it is not an isolated situation where Lester Sumrall is the only one concerned. Pope Paul said these words, whole societies have fallen under the domination of the devil.

Now, when a pope in Rome makes such a statement, it reveals that he has been studying the needs of the world, the problems of the world, the sorrows of the world, and that he has made a declaration that whole societies, what a statement, it's further than I have made personally.

Whole societies have fallen under the domination of the devil. He says sex and narcotics provide openings. You see, he has an understanding of this. When you lose your normal thinking, that is an open door for Satan to walk in and to do whatever he wishes and desires to do in your life.

So he tells us here that sex and narcotics, he means perversion in sex, provide openings for Satan's infiltration of mankind. He says one of the great needs of our time is a defense against the evil which we call the devil.

Isn't that amazing? Now, you wouldn't expect the pope to be such a preacher, would you? You expect him to be an administrator of his church and all, but listen to what he's saying, that one of the great needs of our time is a defense against evil which we call the devil.

I'm going to teach you what those defenses are and how you can rise up. There is no infernal power that you cannot overcome. We're going to teach you that you have as much right as any other person living on the face of this earth to set others free, that no one has superior responsibility to you to set these free.

This is not for apostles and prophets and pastors. It's for everybody. You'll find that in the Great Commission, which we will very carefully, very carefully go through. And so he says the world is under an obscure domination.

Isn't that amazing? The United Nations under an obscure domination. The common market countries under obscure domination. The third world countries under very obscure domination. Isn't that amazing? Only the church can reveal this.

Only the church can rise up and say, wait a minute here. We need something. We need God. We need help. We need blessing. Only God, only God can do that. And so in this introductory lesson that we are bringing you into, we're hoping to stir up your pure mind, to stir up your soul within you, to rise up stronger than ever before and say, hey, here, we want to know this, and we want to understand this, and we want to be able to do it.

And the last statement that the Pope made, he said, it is by Satan, the prince of this world, the number one enemy that we must fight. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that something? Now that's stopping fighting denominations, you know, our doctrines to know who our true enemy is.

Now that's on the side of the Roman Catholic friends. On the Protestant side, Dr. Billy Graham said these words. He says, the devil is actively engaged in combating America's growing religious revival.

Now you have to pause for a moment. There is a mighty revival in our land today. It is being misunderstood. It is being ridiculed by the mass media. It is being spoken against, against the older faiths and denominations and so forth.

And so he's saying something that the devil is actively engaged in combating America's growing religious revival, not denominationalism, but revival. There is a revival in this land. There is a revival in this land, and the devil don't like it.

He wants to fight it. He wants to speak disrespectfully of it, and he uses the mass media and anyone else in order to carry it on. Now he says the proof of the devil's work is the increasing interest in the occult.

This is Dr. Billy Graham, a Baptist, a Baptist minister and a minister for the whole world and for all denominations, as you know. He says that the devil is doing this in an increased interest in astrology, tarot card readings, Ouija boards, palmistry, fortune-telling, and particularly witchcraft.

These are the words of Dr. Graham, and they're in this teaching syllabus here that you can obtain. It is perfectly obvious to all of us in spiritual work that people can be possessed by demons. Now you ought to underline that.

That's what Dr. Billy Graham says after his, you know, 30 or 40 years of experience all over the world, not just the reading of the Bible, but by living. He says it is perfectly obvious to all of us. That's not leaving anybody out.

In spiritual work, that people, human persons, human beings can be possessed by evil spirits that don't belong to this earth. They belong to something else beside this earth. They can be harassed by them.

They can even be controlled by them. And more and more ministers, now this is the challenge, the challenge, brother, this is the challenge that should reach every person in America today. More and more ministers will have to learn to use the power of God to release people from these terrible possessions by the devil.

That's the words of Dr. Billy Graham. Isn't that exciting? Isn't that exciting that he warns you and he warns me that more and more of us, but I believe, I believe he said ministers here. He did say, and I want to take it a further step and say Christians, believers, followers of Christ, that every lay person has the same right.

You know, in the Great Commission, it does not say you have to be a minister or a missionary or a pastor or anything like that. It says, they that believe shall exercise demon spirits. That if you believe, you can do it.

And so this lays it into the hands of every believer, and of course the ministers do have to lead the way. If you don't get preachers leading the way, you won't get far. They control those congregations.

They are the fathers of those congregations. They are the leaders of those congregations, and unless you can get it instilled deeply down inside of the spirit of a minister, then it won't get much further.

The lay people can do their best on the perimeter, but if it's going to go right down the main straight, the minister must be the one that speaks it from the pulpit, believes it with all of his heart, and pray over his people.

Authority, Resistance, and Spiritual Warfare

Now, it is very simple to set anyone free from demon power. You can command that thing to come out, and as you believe, it will be so. It is not difficult. It is not a great deal that you're working with, some mighty object, you know, some mountain.

It is not. It's in just the pure way of living, a spiritual life, that when you come up against evil, as the Bible says, you resist it, and it flees from you, you see. You have the power and the authority.

He that is in us is greater than he that's in the world. And so we are not pushed back, and we're not pushed down, and no one can say that we don't have the right to do it. We have been commissioned to do it under the general of the armies of heaven, whose name is Jesus.

We have been commissioned to do it, so it's not a matter of we do it if we wish to, or we don't do it if we don't want to. It is a matter that Jesus said, do it, and so we are divinely inspired to bless our neighbors and our friends.

And if you had compassion in your heart, if you could see the things that I've seen, and if you could have been with me in Brazil when I was riding a bus, and could have seen, we pulled up at a little village way back in the backlands, in the hinterland of Brazil.

There they had a man tied to a post, tied to a post. He had no clothes on, and his hair was down at his shoulders and was matted, hadn't been combed maybe in months, and he was crazy. He was screaming, yelling, jumping up and down like an animal, cursing the people there, and the people were laughing.

The people were laughing. And he was just somebody in that area that nobody could control, so they tied him up like an animal to a big round post, just like you tie up a horse or something, and he would go around and around that post, and screaming and yelling, and they'd throw him little things, an orange or, you know, or a banana or something or another, and he'd eat it like an animal.

And I got back on that bus, I can't explain to you, you know, the depth of my feelings when I said, oh God, he is an immortal soul too. He is an immortal soul. And inside of me I said, if that man was born that way, and he did not deliberately transgress against God, his hard times are here.

God would not permit a person like that to go to hell, because you can't go to hell unless you want to. There are no accidents in hell, you know. There are no people that slid in there sideways. You walk in straight forward.

You walk in there in pure disobedience. You don't get there by accident, never, nobody does. But my feelings were so deep for this person. If you could have been with me in the Philippines when I prayed for Clarita Villanueva in the city jail, in Villabid Prison, downtown Manila, and if you could have seen those teeth marks that I saw that sunk into her body a quarter of an inch deep, and blood run 12, 10, 9 to 10 to 12 inches across as that monster, invisible monster bit her, and that it had been in the local newspapers for three weeks.

The doctors had reported it every day. They had sent out for help, for psychologists and psychiatrists and anybody to come and help, and nobody was coming to the rescue of this little girl. If you could have seen her faint into a coma, bitten by this thing, and look with your own hand, with your own eyes and see, you talk about getting angry at the devil.

Brother, I got angry at the devil, and that day we set her free, and she is free until this day. But you've got to have compassion. The church doesn't have compassion. You know, Jesus, Jesus looked and saw the people hurt.

Compassion in Deliverance Ministry

When He found a person that was possessed of the devil, He had compassion. He had feeling for them, and most of the church today, including the preachers, they have a feeling. It's a feeling of fear. They want to run away, and in our own town, in our own city, a family went to a local full gospel pastor and said, we have a problem in our home.

Emotions have gone away, and my husband is about, is talking about suicide, and the minister said, well, put him in the asylum then, put him away, and she began to cry and says, he's my husband. Can't put him away, and though they didn't come to our church, they do now.

They do now. She came to me with tears, and I went to see this man, and you talk about the last rung of the ladder, he'd make new rungs on the bottom. He was way down there, and he wouldn't even look at me when I walked into the house, you see, and very slowly, I brought him up out of his despair.

I brought him up out of that. He was a good, fine Christian, and he said, I'm lost. He says, I've never been saved. I'll never go to heaven, and I had to bring him above that, and that thing of taking his own life.

I'm worthless. I'm useless. I'll take my life, and that man is completely, gloriously, wonderfully, joyfully restored as of this very moment, you see, and so we know the power of God, and in our introducing these studies to you, we want you to come to know the power of God, and you know the power of God by deep compassion.

You've got to feel something. Yeah, you've got to feel something. If Jesus had not had compassion, he could not have set men free, and unless the church today can go on their knees before the Almighty and search themselves out and have compassion, we cannot set this world free.

There are literally millions of Americans right now who've lost their mental equilibriums, and their emotional balance, and they need love, and they need compassion. They do not need sympathy. Oh, dear darling.

Oh, dear. No, they don't need that. Love is deeper than that. Love will spank you, mom and daddy says. Yeah, pure love will spank you. Pure love will discipline you, and so we're talking about something deeper than saying, oh, I'm sorry.

No, no, no. We're talking about deliverance by the mighty power of the Most High God setting you free and commanding your mind to be stable, and commanding any interference into your life from outside entities, disturbing you to say, you go, and don't you come back.

I set them free from the authority of the one who died on Calvary to set the world free, and you better believe it. And you know, it works. It just works. That's all. That, it just works, and so we want to wake the Christians up to see the world that we live in today.

Now, I have been greatly criticized for what I have shared with you in this first lesson. You've got to be able to accept that. If you're not able to accept that, the devil will defeat you quite easily.

You've got to be willing to be mocked, to be laughed at, to be misunderstood in order to do what God wants you to do. But we live in a time when millions of Christians want information. They're seeking information.

They want to understand how to discern demon power and how to exorcise demons from people, and they want to know how to keep people free from all satanic forces. I mean, we live in a beautiful moment of history.

God wants them to do it. Now, Father, I believe you right now to set my neighbors free. I believe you right now to set everyone free. I believe you right now. I break the power of the evil one over you.

In Jesus' name, be free. I'd like to hear from you. I'd like for you to communicate with me and say, Brother Summerall, I do want to be free, and we will help you to be free. In Jesus' name. I'd be delighted if all of you had this beautiful syllabus.

This is a handmade book. It's expensive. It's a handmade book, and it's not easy to create, but it's a lesson book for students. You should have it. And also in the audio, we would be glad for you to have the whole audio story of all of these lessons, of all of these lessons, and hear them, if you hear them and read them together.

And then the video. The video is as the audio. It's exactly every word that you have heard. It is there. And these are the three ways in which you can obtain these lessons and study them and grow with them and share them.

Maybe that's the strongest word. And share them. This is the most wonderful hour of the Christian church. This is the golden hour of the Christian church. Let's go and set the world free. Let's go and bless the world in which we live.

May God bless all of you students here, and may God bless all of you that will receive these words as they come to you through television and also through the tape ministry. May God bless you. And above all, may the Lord set you free.

Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Be free. Thank you. God bless you, everybody. You may be seated. It's a great honor to stand before you and to explain the Word of God as we see it. And we thank you for being a student of the Word.

The Rapture and Revelation of Jesus Christ

There are so many people today that, for none obvious reasons, do not study the Word of God, and so they don't have an answer in the time of trouble. They don't have an answer when they have a person that needs talking to because they haven't attended unto the Word of God.

We are in the middle of a very exciting topic. It's called the rapture and the revelation of the Lord Jesus. The purpose in dealing with this so strong was that many people think there's just one coming of the Lord, and they don't realize that Jesus is coming by what we call rapture.

The word may not be in the Bible, but that's not necessary for it to be there. We can call it the catching away of the Church, which will be possibly sometime during the tribulation period. And then we will go and be with Him and have the marriage supper of the Lamb, and also have at that time the judgment seat of Christ.

At the judgment seat of Christ, there will be no sinners there at all. There will only be the righteous there, and maybe judgment seat is kind of a bad name for it because at that time, God, the Lord Jesus, will be giving us positions for the millennial kingdom because it says we shall reign with Him.

Because soon after that, we come back with Him riding white horses to fight the Antichrist. We are in His army at the time of the destroying of the Antichrist and the nations that have stood with the Antichrist.

And then you have the revelation of Jesus when He comes to fight. So maybe it's at least three and a half years difference between rapture and revelation. But they are two different and remarkable events.

The first one, Jesus does not touch the earth. He appears in the air. And He takes His church. The dead in Christ shall rise. We that are ready to remain shall be caught up together with Him in the air, and we shall forever be with the Lord.

You like that word forever? Yeah, I believe that too, that we shall forever be with the Lord. Then we shall come with Him, and at that time they shall see Him whom they have pierced. Not the first time.

No one shall see Him except those that are caught away into the Bride of Christ. And so they are the two different comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have worked our way over to page 77 in the teaching syllabus.

The Manner of Christ's Coming

And in your lesson, it says that we should begin with a manner of His coming. That would be point number eight in this lesson. When He comes, He told us Himself in Matthew 24 and 27 that He will come as lightning that flashes out of the east into the west.

And lightning moves with a rapidity of light, of course, which means it will be an instant coming. It will not be a slow event. It will not be an event that takes place by steps, and that'll be it. He will appear, the trump of God shall sound, and God's people will hear that.

And the dead in Christ shall rise again. Now, the dead in Christ are not in the grave. They shall have to come back and pick up the remains there. They are with Christ. They'll come back and pick up the remains, and then they shall go to meet the Lord in the air.

And we that are ready and remain, we should be caught up with Him, and we shall go and be with the Lord forever. He will appear publicly and will be seen by all men in the manner of His coming, Matthew 24 and 30.

And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. Now, that has to be at the time of the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and not at the rapture, because at the rapture they will not see Him.

Only those that are caught up with Him together shall see Him at that time. He will come in brightness. He is the giver of light. And His brightness was as the light. He had horns coming out of His hand, and there was a hiding of His power.

When He comes, He will come at that time as the brightest spectacle that has ever taken place upon this earth. The brightness of the sun will be very insignificant to the brightness of His coming. So He will come quickly.

He will come publicly. He will come with great brightness. D, He will come back to the place from which He departed. And Zechariah 14 and forward, and it says,. And His feet shall stand, and that day, say that day, not before, and that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west.

That is very remarkable, because the structure of the earth in a hill is north and south, you see. It strings itself along up and down, and He's going to abruptly change the direction and go east and west with this breach that shall come into the Mount of Olives, and which shall make Jerusalem almost a seaside city, that water will flow up.

And scientists have already discovered that sea of fresh water far down below Jerusalem, and they can't get to it. But after the earthquake, it won't need them to look for it. Everybody will see it. There should be so much of it that it will heal the Dead Sea, and waters will flow from the Dead Sea down into the Red Sea, and there will be no more of a Dead Sea after that time.

East and toward the west, and there should be a very great valley, and half of the mountains shall remove toward the north, and half of it shall be removed toward the south. And so when He comes back, there's going to be a great movement in the earth.

In this number here, we're trying to tell you something about what will happen at the time of His coming. In your E, it says, He will come in the same manner in which He went away. That's in Acts 1 and 11.

Which also said, the angels did, you men of Galilee, why stand you gazing up into heaven the same Jesus? Say same Jesus. This is 2 ,000 years later. But it's the same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into heaven.

So He will be seen at that time, and He will come back to the same spot that He went away from. And so what a day, what an opportunity that will be to be there with Him. Don't you like to see great things take place?

And we will see them at that time. He will come back, your F point, and that's on page 78. He will come with clouds, that's Revelation 1 and 7. Behold, He cometh with clouds, and you see that over in the book of Daniel.

We'll read that in just a moment. He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him. Now that cannot be rapture, that has to be revelation, when He comes back. For many years, people said, now how in the world could that be?

Says it don't matter if He's big as a mountain, everybody couldn't see Him. Well, they didn't know that God was going to release the facilities of television. And now He has released it until one can be in any part of the world and can see something taking place in any other part of the world.

And so we today have the facility, which means that we're close to the time of seeing it, because man might use these things, but God ordained them in order to bring about the completion of His Word. He will come with clouds, Revelation 1 and 7.

Behold, He cometh with clouds, every eye shall see Him. That has to be by television. And they also which pierced Him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. And so when He comes in His revelation, even His enemies, those that said His blood be upon us and our children, that they shall come to understand that they were wrong, and that He was the Messiah, and that they made a mistake.