Light Triumphs Over Darkness

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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A lot to cover today in the Word of the Lord.

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If you have a Bible, please turn to Luke Chapter eight.

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We're going to be examining verses twenty six to thirty nine.

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And when you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's word.

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Again, the text is Luke Chapter eight, starting in verse twenty six.

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Hear ye the word of the Lord this morning.

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Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.

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When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met with him a man from the city who had demons.

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For a long time, he had worn no clothes and he had not lived in a house, but among the tombs.

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When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I beg you, do not torment me.

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For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man for a time it had seized him and he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles.

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But he would break the bounds and be driven by the demon into the desert.

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Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons had had entered in him and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

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A large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside.

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And they begged him to let them enter these.

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So he gave them permission.

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Then the demons came out of the man and entered into the into the pigs and heard rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.

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When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it to the in the city and in the country.

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Then the people went out to see what had happened.

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And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone.

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Sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed in his right mind.

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And they were afraid.

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And those who had seen it told them how the demon possessed man had been healed.

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Then all the people of the surrounding country of the garrisons asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.

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For he got so he got into the boat and returned the man from whom the demons had gone, begged that he might be with him.

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But Jesus sent him away, saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

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So he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.

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This is the word of the Lord.

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You may be seated.

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Let us pray, Father, we approach you even now in this time and a space in this text that we find ourselves in this morning with reverence and awe and with a holy fear.

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We pray, God, that you would now help us, Father, to lay aside every earthly care, every worry, every high and lofty thing that would so easily entangle us from the teaching this morning and help us with eyes of faith and clarity, set our hopes and our eyes on Jesus this morning, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the scorning shame of the cross.

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We pray, Father, that you would enable us even now by means of your spirit to approach this text in a way that would be honoring to you and that your truth would come forward and that your spirit would lead us into all truth by the power and the authority in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, son of the most high God.

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We do approach you.

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Amen.

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Church, this morning, I want to approach this text of scripture carefully as we talk about a subject that isn't always touched upon, particularly in reformed circles, and it is the doctrine of demons.

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Jesus, while on the earth, often.

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Confronted the forces of darkness and the forces of darkness are a very true and stark reality, even for us today.

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Yes, we live in a modern world where modern conveniences and the things that we focus on tend to be more technological than spiritual.

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But I assure you, nonetheless, brothers and sisters, that there is a true spiritual reality beyond that which your eyes can see, beyond that which your hands can touch and feel, and beyond that which your ears can hear.

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There is a true, vibrant, spiritual reality unbeknownst to most of the world.

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And it is a very clear, present danger, even for us today as Christians.

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When you turn to news, what do you see? You see crime, wars, rumors of wars.

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You see earthquake.

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You see pestilences.

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You see sicknesses.

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You see corruption.

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You see scandal.

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All these things that are happening around the world have an origin.

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Why is the world the way that it is? Why is the world so wicked? Why is there so much wars? Why are there so much sickness? Why are there so many people dying of hunger? Well, the Bible gives us the answer to this.

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And it tells us in Scripture that the whole world is lying in the hands of the wicked one.

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The world that you see today, the world that you were you would be able to see in the time of Jesus, subject no less to anything's different other than the technological advances, wars, crimes, corruption, sickness, diseases is a result of sin and the result of a world under the dominion of our enemy, Satan, the devil.

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We live in a fallen world and we are under a fallen system.

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This system that is ruled by Satan, the devil.

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So then it is no wonder when you turn the news on that you see all these negative things, all these scary and wicked depravities that are around the world.

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It is because we live in a world that is ruled by the enemy.

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In Jesus's day, it was also the case that Satan's dominion was far and wide.

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In the Old Testament, in the book of Isaiah, there's a vision of the prophet Isaiah sees in chapter seven, eight and nine.

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In those three chapters, he's seeing the woes of Israel and the woes of the nations.

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And he points the prophet Isaiah sees this in Isaiah, chapter eight, that in the midst of darkness, both in Israel and amongst the nations that were Gentile, there was a light that was going to come forward and this light was breaking into the world.

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And it is within those three chapters of Isaiah seven, eight and nine that you have the great prophetic hope of Emmanuel, God with us, the one who is to undo the effects of sin, the one who is going to bring light out of darkness to the nations.

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And friends, here in Luke, chapter eight, verses 26 to 39, we see that foretold light interacting in the world.

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And he's interacting even in this text with the forces of darkness.

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In Isaiah's vision, the reason why the world was under darkness was because it was under the principalities of evil and because they had not yet received the light of the light of hope of Israel, who is the Messiah, even Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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And here in the text, we find in Luke, chapter eight, verse 26 and 27, it says, and they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.

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When Jesus has stepped out on land, there met with him a man from the city who had demons.

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For a long time, he had worn no clothes.

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He had not lived in a house, but among the tombs.

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Something that is of interest and that is of note here is that Jesus was not afraid to confront evil.

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Now, I want you to write this in the notes.

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Jesus was not afraid to confront the demons.

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You have a note to your insert this morning in your bulletin.

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You're welcome to follow along in today's teaching.

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Jesus was not afraid to confront the demons who oppress people.

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Instead, the opposite was true.

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He was eager to confront the forces of darkness.

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Jesus, unlike many of us, did not operate in fear.

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He saw the supernatural realities of his day.

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He saw them clearly.

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He did not shrink back from ministering to those under the dominion of Satan.

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Jesus was eager to step out of the boat onto this land to meet this man who had been oppressed by demons.

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And the way that this oppression manifests in the life of this man is that he wore no clothes.

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He had not lived in a house, but among the tombs.

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This means that he was homeless.

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Probably, if you ever go venture into the city of San Jose or San Francisco, you'll find people who might meet this description.

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Who may not seem in their right state of mind, who may tear their clothes off.

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The first time I went to San Francisco was in 2018.

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When I went there, I had in my mind a beautiful city, picture perfect, kind of like what I saw in the full house.

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That's what I was looking forward to.

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I wanted to see the full house vision of of San Francisco.

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But instead, when I went there, I saw depravities of all sorts.

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And I was walking down the street and this guy was taking his clothes off and he threw a fist at me.

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It was like like an itch from my face.

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I just kept walking.

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And I was just another day in San Francisco.

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The reality is, folks, why are people the way they are in these cities? Yeah, we can chop it up to mental health and mental health has a huge role to play.

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If you were to meet this man who Jesus was interacting with, you'd probably think, well, there's a man with mental health illnesses.

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And no doubt, no doubt.

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But where do these things come from and what attachments often come alongside issues of mental health? You see, mental health is not completely divorced from spiritual health.

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You might need to hear that again.

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Mental health is not totally divorced of spiritual health.

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These things are linked together and they're linked together in ways that maybe some of us aren't familiar with or are unwilling to understand.

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But I believe this, brothers and sisters, that things of mental health often have a cure in spiritual health and discipline.

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The pastors of this church, we often deal with cases and individuals and our counseling who struggle with various mental health issues.

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And these things are real.

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These things are true.

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But often what is even more true is that God's word gives us the antidote to life's problems.

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God's word is the solution.

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And God's word speaks to us spiritually and spiritual truth and spiritual life.

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Therefore, the thing that really helps with issues of mental health is things of spiritual health.

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God's word.

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How does Jesus confront this man? Who is possessed by demons.

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It says in verse 28, when he saw Jesus, the man is possessed.

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He cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me? Jesus, son of the most high God, I beg you, do not torment me.

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For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.

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For many a time he had seized him and he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles.

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But he would break the mounds and be driven by the demon into the desert.

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What does Jesus do when he confronts the reality of spiritual forces of darkness in a man's life? He doesn't sit down and start working through childhood trauma.

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He doesn't sit down and start to try to figure out what his secret mystery sins are.

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He, being the son of the most high God, commands and he calls the demons to come out of the man and they obey and they listen.

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Jesus is authoritative.

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And it's this same Jesus who we beckon you to come to today.

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It's the same Jesus who we call you to repentance and belief in.

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It's this same Jesus who can command every storm, every wind of your life, and they must obey.

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That's the Jesus that we present to you in Holy Scripture this morning.

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He command the unclean spirit to come out of a man.

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And when he commands, they do as he commands.

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You see, what's of interest in this text is that the unclean spirit, the demon, identified Jesus as divine.

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I want you to put this in a note so you're following along.

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The unclean spirit identified Jesus as divine and begged the Lord not to torment it.

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Notice again the cry of the spirit.

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What have you to do with me? Jesus, son of the most high God, I beg you.

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Do not torment me.

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Do not torment me.

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Here's a myth, a mythos in the modern world that is often associated with Christianity.

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If you grew up watching cartoons like I did, like Bugs Bunny and other cartoons, maybe you find there's episodes in pictures where, you know, there's a demon or Satan in hell with a pitchfork and you've got other demons and they're in fire and they're poking people.

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And that's the world's conception of the Christian ideal of hell.

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And that is not what the Bible teaches about hell.

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In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ says in Matthew 25 that hell is a place that was created for Satan and his demons not to rule, but to be tormented.

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That is the proper place of hell.

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Hell is a place where demons do not rule, rather they are subject to the wrath of the eternal God.

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And the demons in Jesus, they knew this reality.

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Therefore, they begged him, do not torment me because they knew what was on the horizon.

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They knew that there was a day of judgment that was coming for the demonic spirits, for the rebellious, unclean spirits.

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And so hell is not a place in which human souls are being tormented by Satan.

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Rather, it is the place in which even Satan himself will one day be subject to eternal conscious punishment for all eternity.

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It is not his domain, but what is his domain? What is the enemy's domain isn't hell, but it's actually the world that we live in.

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It's the world that we live in.

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This is his domain.

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There's a great quote.

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I forget who says it.

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I'm not sure if it was C.S.

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Lewis or someone else.

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But it goes somewhat like this, that for the unbeliever, this place, earth here now is all the heaven they will ever experience.

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But for the one who believes in Jesus, this place, the here and now, this earth is all the hell we will ever taste.

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Think about the implications of that for a moment.

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Yes, brothers and sisters, life is hard in this world.

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In this dispensation of time, life is difficult.

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Things come at us, sickness, financial issues, relationship issues.

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All the things of life come upon us in this world.

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But take and have faith in this.

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This is as bad as it gets for us.

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This is as bad as it gets.

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Because on the other side, there's an eternal weight of glory, the Apostle Paul says, that awaits those who trust in Jesus.

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And so, friends, we have a lot to look forward to.

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And yet there is also the reality of torment, torment for the unclean spirits who rebel against Yahweh and also those who reject the gospel of his son, Jesus Christ.

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Why, though, do the unclean spirits listen, obey, and are afraid of Jesus Christ? Again, the unclean spirit identifies Jesus as divine.

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They immediately say, Jesus, son of the most high God.

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The demons knew who Jesus was.

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You know, the Bible says in James chapter 2 that even the demons know that God is one, and they tremble.

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You know that the demons and the unclean spirits and those who rebelled in heaven probably have a fuller understanding of the Bible than you and I.

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They know the scriptures well, and they know and have seen and have communed with the face of God.

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These are powerful forces.

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And the Bible says that their main objective is to deceive.

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Elsewhere in scripture, they're referred to as deceiving spirits.

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Other places in scripture refers to them as unclean spirits.

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Why are they unclean? What makes them unclean? In the Old Testament, the term unclean is often used to denote something that is an abomination, something that isn't natural, something that goes against the natural course of God's design.

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So oftentimes you'll see certain things called an abomination that go against God's original design and intent and purpose.

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And the unclean spirits are referred to as unclean because they, too, have perverted the original intent of their created order.

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They have defiled God's intention.

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They have defiled God's purpose for them.

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Therefore, they are unclean.

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They are unfit.

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They are deceiving spirits who deceive others into following lies as they follow the father of lies, Satan, the devil.

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Satan is our adversary, is what his name means.

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And demons are those who follow Satan in his devious course of destruction.

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But the demons fear Christ and they fear him for a very important reason.

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And I want you to keep a finger in Luke, but I want you to turn to the book of Ephesians in the first chapter.

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And I want to read to you a very important scripture.

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In Ephesians, chapter one.

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Starting in verse 20, speaking of the grandeur of our salvation in Jesus Christ, it says this in verse 20 of Ephesians one, Paul says that he worked in Christ when he that's God, the father, raised him.

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That's the Lord Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places.

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Notice where Christ is now seated upon far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named not only in this age, but also in the one to come.

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He put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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Notice where Jesus is seated today at the right hand of God, the father, and what is now made subject to him.

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All rule, all authority, all power and dominion and every name that can be named not only in this age, but also in the age to come.

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In other words, Jesus is Lord.

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He's Lord over all.

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His dominion is over everything.

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His power, his lordship is now truly uncontested.

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No power, no nation, no might, no military, no spiritual power can come against the lordship of Jesus.

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His lordship is absolute, which is why the demons fear him.

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The demons fear Christ.

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Why don't you write this in the notes? Because he is Lord over all principalities.

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And the Bible says this in Colossians 1, verse 16.

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That he, being the firstborn of all creation, the image of the invisible God, by whom all things were created in heaven on earth, were their thrones or dominions or lordships or principalities.

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All things are now subject to him as he is Lord over all.

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In the Bible, we see these terms used, especially by Paul in the New Testament.

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Authorities, powers, principalities.

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And I mentioned this in the Sunday school this morning.

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When I read those verses, especially as a young believer, I had no idea what those were references to.

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Powers, authorities, principalities.

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What is that even referencing? I mean, it sounds cool.

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It sounds interesting, but I just have no concept for it.

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And when the New Testament writers use these terms, powers, principalities, authorities, what they're referring to are the unseen governmental structures of this cosmos.

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In other words, he's speaking about the unseen realm that we do not see with our physical eyes.

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There is a true spiritual reality, again, unbeknownst, unseen by human eyes.

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And the scripture refers to authorities, powers, principalities.

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These are references to those unseen power structures.

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And so, again, the Bible says the whole world is laying in the hand of the wicked one.

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If you read the Old Testament enough, you'll start to pick up on this theme where you have these nations and these kings.

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And God often gives prophetic words to these kings.

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But what he's actually doing, for instance, in Isaiah chapter 14, speaking of the king of Babylon, I believe, he speaks his word, yet there's a reality that he's not always speaking to the king.

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You get to feel, you get to kind of pick up on this theme.

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He's not just talking about the king.

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He's talking about the king behind the king.

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He's talking about the principality behind the seen principality.

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Just as today we have world governments and structures, we have municipal governments, we have state governments, we have federal governments, and there are different levels and structures and offices that are held.

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So, too, in the unseen realm, there are spiritual structures, different offices, different things, principalities, powers, rulers that are behind the scenes.

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So that in the book of Daniel, you'll see that there was a conflict between, for instance, the prince of Persia and the prince of Israel.

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The prince of Israel was Michael the archangel, the spiritual principality that had watched over Israel, contending, fighting with the prince principality of Persia, another unseen spiritual being.

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And there's conflict between the two.

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And the same is true today, brothers and sisters.

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Our world is not only seeing conflict in the physical realm, but also in the spiritual realm.

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And our defender, our conqueror, our ruler, our king is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He is the king and ruler of the church.

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So that now in every nation, and every nation under the face of heaven has a people distinct for his own name, shining the light of Jesus, illuminating this world of darkness with the glorious light of the gospel of Christ.

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We are messengers of light.

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We are people of light.

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The demons fear Christ because he's Lord over all principalities and is sovereign over every spiritual dominion.

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He is sovereign.

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Why don't you write that in there as well? He is sovereign over every spiritual dominion.

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Now, what happens back in our main text in Luke chapter 8 and the narrative that we see here when Jesus confronts this man who is possessed by demons? It says again in verse 30, Jesus then asked him, what is your name? And he said, legion, for many demons had entered to him.

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Now, I want you to also take note of this.

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Again, demons are good at deceiving.

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They are creatures of deception.

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And one of the things that they do even in modern times is they take a truth of scripture and they twist it for their own means and purposes.

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Maybe you've seen clips on the internet or on television of these so-called televangelists who have what they call deliverance ministries, where they will have people who maybe have some mental health struggles or demonic possession, and they start battling with them, sometimes for hours.

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And one of the things that they say is, what is your name? What is your name? And they're trying to emulate scripture to a degree.

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And they're trying to get a name out of it because the superstition under those circumstances and circles is that if you figure out the name of the creature of the demon, then you can somehow get authority over that creature.

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And then you can get that demon out of that person.

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That's not what Jesus was getting at at all.

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Jesus didn't have to figure out the demon's name in order to have dominion over the demon.

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Jesus is the word of God made flesh.

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His word speaks a better word than even the blood of Abel.

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His word was sufficient.

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His word is powerful.

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His word, living in us, is also enough.

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The purpose here wasn't so that Jesus can get some upper hand over the demons in this interaction.

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Rather, it was to expose the demons for what they truly are, which are parasites.

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They're parasites.

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And where one is, many come and are attracted also.

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Not too long ago, I was having lunch outside, and as I brought my food out, I saw a fly come, and then, I'm not sure how they communicate, but I think they probably told their friends that there's food over here, and so then another one came, and more came, and all of a sudden, there's like 10 flies hovering around my food, and that's kind of how demons operate.

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Where there's a source, they gravitate towards it, and they try to overpower a person, a life, a circumstance.

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Jesus, again, he didn't need to expose their name to get an upper hand.

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He is the word of God made flesh.

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And when he asked the question, what is your name? He said, legion, for many demons had entered into him.

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And notice what happens next.

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In verse 31, it says, and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.

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Hmm, very interesting.

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They were afraid, this legion, this group, was afraid that Jesus would command them and cast them into the abyss.

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Now, there's two ways, theologically, you can look at this.

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We can say, well, Jesus, maybe their fear was that Jesus would toss them into hell at that moment.

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I would say that's probably not likely, as the Bible teaches that there will be a day in which there'll be a judgment where all good, evil, men, women, children, spiritual forces of darkness will be judged, and the eternal destinies will be separated there on that day, so heaven and hell.

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Yet, we know that the destiny for those who are spirit rebellious creatures will ultimately be hell.

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I think it was Paul Washer who put it this way, one of my favorite preachers.

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He says, Satan and his angels fell, and God sent them no savior.

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God sent them no savior.

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Humanity and Adam fell, and God, in his kindness, in his forbearance, in his mercy, sent us a savior in Jesus Christ.

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That's good news, but there is no good news for the demons, and they knew this.

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They knew that their destiny was to be tormented forever, as they have tormented souls even here on this plane of existence.

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Another concept that is seldom spoken of is that what the abyss could be a reference to is what the New Testament writer Peter says as Tartarus, and in Tartarus, which you'll find, I think it's in 1 or 2 Peter chapter two, verse four, which is a place in which the angels who rebelled in Noah's day are being kept and reserved until the day of judgment, is probably likely a different place than hell itself.

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If you look at the etymology of the Greek word Tartarus, where it came from, it came from in Greek mythology.

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It was the place where the demigods were placed in chains.

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It wasn't equivalent to Sheol or Hades in the Greek world, but rather, it was the place where the demigods, those spiritual beings, those mixture of spiritual beings who did evil things, where they were held under chain, and the New Testament writers take this term, borrowed from Greek mythology, and uses it as a term to say this is where the angels who rebelled in Noah's day are being kept, reserved until the day of judgment, the day of judgment being the place in which even those rebellious creatures will be sent to the eternal fire, which is hell.

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Whichever way we slice this, these demons were afraid to depart into this abyss, and they knew that it was Jesus who held the keys.

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Jesus was one who had the authority to cast these creatures into the abyss.

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And in verse 32 of Luke 8 says, "'Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside "'and they begged him to let them enter these, "'so he gave them permission.'" Notice who's in charge here, it's Jesus.

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He had to give them permission.

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What's also of interesting note is the desire of these unclean spirits, the desire of these demons, which is to inhabit some physical form.

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They desire to be clothed.

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These are spirits, so they have no physical body, yet what do we find them doing in Scripture? Trying to possess human beings, trying to take possession of their thinking faculties, of their movements, of their being.

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And then they say, well, if we can't be in this person, at least let us be in the pigs.

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Let us be embodied in some regard.

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If you're following the notes, when Jesus confronts legion, they beg not to be thrown into the abyss, but instead ask permission to enter pigs.

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You see, the demons feared being thrown into the abyss, which is likely Tartarus, where the angels that rebelled already were.

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Why then would demons want to jump into the bodies of pigs? Again, demons are referred to in the Old Testament and the New Testament as unclean spirits.

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Pigs are associated with what kinds of animals in the Old Testament? Clean or unclean? Unclean.

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Their desire is to inhabit that which is unclean.

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In the Scriptures, do you see demons inhabiting Christians? No, but those who are unbelievers, those who are doing that which is unclean, they will associate that with which is unclean.

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And so, if they couldn't be within this unclean man, the next best thing was to enter into unclean animals, for these are unclean spirits, abominations before the Lord.

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What's also of note, and I debate whether or not to bring this up, but the New Testament writers often allude to and even quote a extra-biblical book called the Book of Enoch.

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Maybe some of you have heard of this book before, right? The Book of Enoch is a fascinating piece of literature.

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It's not written by Enoch.

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It is what was called Second Temple Period literature, so it was likely written around the time of the Maccabees in what's called the Intertestamental Period, so around 400 to 200 BC, you have this rise of lots of different apocalyptic literature, and three books of Enoch were among these writings.

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But what's of interest is not whether these were authentic books of Scripture, which I would contend they are not, but rather it's that this was a popular work of literature that even the New Testament writers grab and quote from.

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Luke actually quotes from the Book of Enoch.

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Jude quotes from the Book of Enoch.

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Jesus appears to even quote the Book of Enoch in the Olivet Discourse.

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And so, the Book of Enoch, it's not that they're endorsing this as canonical Scripture, but rather that the book was used enough in this day, in this time, to warrant quotation and to warrant theological discussion.

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And what was interesting is that one of the themes of the Book of Enoch is that demons have an innate desire to inhabit physical bodies.

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And why is that? The Book of Enoch answers it, and I'm not endorsing this view, but the Book of Enoch says the reason why the desire to inhabit is because the demons are not fallen angels, but rather they are the result of the mixture of heavenly beings with earthly beings.

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And so, they take a spiritual view of Genesis 6.

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Genesis 6 is where you find that the sons of God come down, mingle with the women of men, and they produce what is called the Nephilim.

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Book of Enoch says the demons are the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim, okay? Again, that sounds kind of crazy.

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I'm not endorsing that view.

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But what's of interest is the theological underpinnings that even the New Testament writers are comfortable enough with to quote from.

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And part of that discussion and what is the undertone discussion of the entire Book of Enoch is the spiritual unseen realm.

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And here, Jesus, in his interaction with demons, in his interaction with this lesion, is demonstrating that even they have this desire to be associated with bodily existence and particularly with unclean humans or creatures.

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It was better for them to be in a pig than to be disembodied.

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That was their motive, this lesion.

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But in Luke 8, verse 34, it says, when the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.

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Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his flesh, in his right mind, and they were afraid.

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Remember how I told you that mental health issues are not totally divorced from spiritual issues.

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Because when the spiritual was resolved in this man, where did he find himself? In his right mind, at the feet of Jesus.

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At the feet of Jesus.

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Every mental health struggle that we encounter in life, every depression, every anxiety, every high and lofty thing, we must bring to the feet of Jesus.

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Everything must be submitted to him, to his lordship, to his sovereignty.

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And we bring our thoughts, the scripture says, to yield, to submission to the word of God.

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Everything must be brought down to the feet of Jesus, so that you may be clothed also in your right mind.

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You see, Jesus delivers the demon-possessed man, and there is an immediate change in countenance, so much so that the people are filled with fear.

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I want you to write this in a note.

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Jesus delivers the demon-possessed man, and there's an immediate change in countenance, and the people were filled with fear.

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Jesus is the deliverer of those oppressed or possessed by demons.

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The difference between, there is a difference, however, that I want to point out to you, between one who is truly demon-possessed, which I believe still happens.

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The reality is, and sometimes some of us in the Reform Camp get a little uncomfortable when we talk about things that are a little bit too spiritual or metaphysical, and I don't think we should be.

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I don't think we should fear these things at all.

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We live in a spiritual world.

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The world is strange.

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The world is filled with many mysteries.

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The world is indeed spiritual, and there are spiritual realities, and people are still being possessed and oppressed by demonic powers of darkness, but there is a difference.

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Not every person who is oppressed is possessed, and not every person who is possessed by demons necessarily have the same physical outbursts that we see here in this text of Scripture.

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These are things that must be spiritually discerned.

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Beware, though, of charlatans and self-proclaimed exorcists who treat these weighty and serious matters as a means of profit or exploitation.

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We see this so often in Christendom and evangelicalism in America today, and what's also being promoted in parts of Africa and Asia is this sensational whoredom of spiritual truth, where spiritual matters are treated like a circus and not with the weightiness that it truly deserves.

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When you come before these spiritual issues, do so with fear and trembling, not with a flippantness, as I see so many, particularly in the charismatic circles of the evangelical church, treating these things as if they're non-sacred, as if they are trivial.

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These are true, deeply spiritual matters that deserve true study and also careful examination.

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So again, beware of charlatans and self-proclaimed exorcists who don't treat these issues properly and as serious matters, but rather see them as a means of profit or exploitation.

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Such false teachers and prophets are only stirring up wrath for themselves, and the Bible assures us God will not be mocked.

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These things are truly weighty, and it also begs a question.

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Can a born-again Christian be possessed by demons? I share this story with fear and trembling.

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When my wife and I were dating, I was a Reformed Baptist Calvinist, and she was a skirt-wearing Pentecostal.

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And our cultures and our conceptions of church were quite a bit different, but we both were charitable enough to one another.

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She would come to my church, which she felt was boring and bland and not filled with the Spirit.

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So in the evenings, where her church was, we'd go to her church, which was a storefront little Pentecostal church with about 30 people and people running around, waving their arms, wailing, falling down, being slain of Spirit.

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And I would be honest, it freaked me out.

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It freaked me out.

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And it came to a point in our marriage where we were not seeing eye-to-eye on things, and the matter was because we weren't agreeing on things spiritually.

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And we had this great chasm, this divide between what I believed and between what she believed.

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And one of the teachings and practices of this church was deliverance.

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And they believed that Christians can be possessed by demons.

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So one Sunday, I went to church with her, and I can see where the pastor was going with his sermon, and I could discern where he was doing, and I said to her, I said, honey, I think this pastor's gonna say I'm possessed by demons.

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And she's like, no, he wouldn't say that.

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Sure enough, 10 minutes later, he invites me to the front.

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He begins to ask me to recite the sinner's prayer, and I'm trying to say, hey, I'm a Christian already.

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I don't need to do the sinner's prayer.

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I believe in Jesus, I'm on Team Jesus, okay? And he would not have any of it, and he began to put his hand on my head, and he began to say that I had a demon.

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And then the ushers came, and they started grabbing my arms, and they're expecting me to play the part, and I just got so frustrated.

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And the reason I got very frustrated is because I found this to be a complete mockery of Christ.

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And I yanked my arm, and I went right into the pastor's face, and I said, I rebuke you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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I rebuked him for his false teaching.

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And the church went into a frenzy that I have never seen.

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I believe, I believe in demons.

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I believe people can even be possessed by demons because I saw it.

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This was a wicked gathering.

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And I literally, and again, there are witnesses to this, and so I am not lying to you.

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And the Lord, as my witness, I went to the back of this church.

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There's one exit out of this church.

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It was the storefront church.

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I went to it, and I tried to turn the door knob.

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The door knob would not budge.

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And it was only a lock on the top.

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The door knob was one of those that don't lock.

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And the door knob would not budge.

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And I was overcome with fear.

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And someone in the back of the church said, see, God doesn't want you to leave.

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God wants you to confront this demon.

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I said, you know what, I think you're right.

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So I turned around with scripture in my hand, and I began to rebuke the pastor by reading Holy Scripture.

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And that door flung open, I'm telling you, it flung open.

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And after that, my wife never returned to that church.

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And she saw that this was indeed a false message, a false gospel, and a charlatan who was deceiving many.

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And so, friends, the spiritual world is very real, and it's true.

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And at the heart of this was a theological question that me and my wife could not agree on.

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And it was, can Christians be possessed by demons? The biblical answer is no.

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For a Christian, according to the Bible, in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16, is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

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Who is greater, God's Spirit, who was deposited in you as the guarantee of your inheritance for the day of redemption, or these pathetic demons that have to beg to be tossed into the body of pigs? Who is greater? Well, I know the one who is greater, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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And he is the one who is our protector, and he is the one, and it's because of him that the Bible says in 1 John 5, verse 18, that the evil one cannot even touch us.

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He cannot even touch us.

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Because as other parts of scripture says, we are the apple of his eye.

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We are protected, sealed by the spirit of redemption.

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And so, to answer this question, can a born-again Christian be possessed by demons? I want you to write this in notes.

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No, for a Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

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And how can light mingle with darkness? For even the evil one cannot touch us, as 1 John 5, verse 18 says.

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Now, again, Christians can be seriously oppressed by demons and demonic activity, especially when they pursue sin or dabble in occultic practices, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

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That is why it's so important, beloved, that we, as believers, stay far away from false forms of spirituality, including that of the New Age, divination, crystals, tarot cards, palm readings, seances, earth worship, or any other form of paganism.

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Demons can mislead us, even as spirit-sealed children of God.

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Demons can mislead us, but they do not have authority to enter and possess us, which is, again, to have complete dominion over the believer, because who has the dominion? The Lord Jesus Christ.

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And His dominion is sure.

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As we close this topic in this teaching, the people of the country gather, they see the man, they see what Jesus has done, and they are filled with fear.

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And it says in verse 38, and the man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.

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You see, after God cleans up the messes of our life, He wants you to now be a living testimony.

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He wants you to be a witness of His goodness.

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He wants you to be a witness of His light, in showing that light truly overcomes darkness.

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And He was given this instruction, declare how much God has done for you.

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And it says, He went away proclaiming, doing as He was told throughout the whole city, how much Jesus had done for Him.

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I want you to write this in the closing parts of the notes.

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The Lord tells the delivered man to testify of all that God had done for him.

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He goes and tells all that Jesus had done.

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Why? Because Jesus is God.

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Jesus, as Lord God, has supreme and sovereign authority over all forces of darkness.

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In Him, we are safe and secure as long as we abide in Him.

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And we arm ourselves for spiritual battle.

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Know and rejoice in this truth, especially because the Bible informs my doctrine of this, and it informs my eschatology of things, things not yet to be fulfilled, but things are yet to come, that the war is indeed won.

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The victory is Jesus's.

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And Satan and his demons are a defeated enemy because Jesus Christ is Lord, and He's Lord indeed, amen? Let's pray.

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Sovereign Lord Jesus, we do come before You.

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At the name that even the demons hear and they tremble.

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The name that is above every name, the name by which every tongue shall confess and every knee shall bow, even those on the earth, underneath the earth, in the sea, in the heavens, and all that is in them.

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Lord Jesus, we do now willingly bend a knee to Your awesome sovereignty.

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Asking that You would forgive us of our sins, of our weaknesses, and that You, by Your Spirit, would lead us and give us the guarantee of our salvation by that indwelling of the Holy Ghost.

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Lord God, in Jesus' name, we do pray that You would help us to overcome the darkness that is in our own hearts and our own lives.

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Lord, that the demons that even we fight with, unbeknownst to us, would be banished in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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That every authority, every spiritual principality would come under the submission of King Jesus.

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And we ask, Lord God, that You would have Your way in our hearts, in these people, and in this church.

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That we would continue to be a beacon of light to this dark and fallen world.

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And Lord, help us to come under the full submission of Thy word, so that we may be strong in dealing with the issues of spiritual warfare and the unseen realm.

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Lord God, keep us and protect us by Your word.

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And we pray, God, that all these things would be for Your glory and for our benefit, to the glory of the one true and triumphant God, Father, Son, and Spirit.

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In Jesus' name we do pray, amen.

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Amen.