Should you cast demons out or leave them in?

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

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

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Mystery Friday and the Goal of Biblical Provocation

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, I'm your host. We are here in the studio on Friday, thankful for Dr. Mohler and his appearance on the broadcast yesterday. If you'd like to pull up that podcast, you can go to the iTunes podcast, or you can go to nocompromiseradio .com, pull up the podcast, and you can get the last 20 podcasts there of the show, and then you can also see the graphics that Josh has put up there.

Today is Friday, Friday is Mystery Friday, and that basically means I can talk about whatever I'd like to talk about. And of course, at the show here, I want to talk about biblical things. I'd like to talk about them in a provocative way, as I was saying to Tom Krause, in an edgy way.

And then we also want to make sure that we keep it in that order. My goal is not to just be controversial, not to just be edgy, not to kind of push the envelope for no reason. It's to get you to think, and it's to get you to think biblically.

And when you look at truth from the biblical perspective, that's exactly what it should get you to do. So today I want to talk about demons and the local church. Specifically, do we cast out demons? Can Christians be demon-possessed?

Why Christians Should Not Practice Deliverance Ministries

And as I was thinking about the topic, I thought about this. Can demons be Christian-possessed? Yes, you heard that right. Can demons be Christian-possessed? Could demons somehow have the influence of some watered-down evangelical Christians in their system?

Could demons have, like too many church people, a low view of the word of God? Could demons be influenced by Christians to be lazy and to put a minimal effort into their Christian walk? Could demons have no motivation except on Sunday?

Could demons love everything but the word of God, like drama and skits and everything else? Could demons be emergent, trying to find some kind of conversation and there's no clarity to the word of God and no speaking with authority?

Could demons be hyper-charismatics? Could demons be word-faith demons? Could demons have a low view of holiness? And the answer to the question is, demons could never be Christian-possessed. Demons are hard-working entities.

They have a high view of the word of God. They might not want to agree with everything, but they know that it is true. They know that Jesus is the Holy One of God. They are not word-faith. They are not hyper-charismatic.

They know that God speaks in His word and that judgment is soon going to come. And they have motivation every single day to obey their master, Satan. And so the answer to the question, can a demon be Christian-possessed?

The answer could be no. And so the flip side though is, what about demons in general? Before I ask the question, can Christians be demon-possessed? I think it would be fair to ask this question first.

What authority do Christians today have over demons? What authority do you have if you're a Christian over demons? And of course, we don't want to have some kind of glib response. When in doubt over someone's demon possession, cast it out.

When in doubt, cast it out. When in doubt, cast it out. We don't want to have some kind of glib saying like that. What do we want to do? First of all, we want to go to the scriptures, not what we've seen on TV, not what our friends have done, not what pastors do, not what has been done on some island off the Philippines.

We can't base our truth on anything like that. We have to base truth on an external source. That external source is God himself. And he has spoken quite clearly in the scriptures. But I think you'll find that he's spoken about this in a way that's interesting to say the least.

Just because something is in the Bible doesn't mean we are to do it. Specifically, we have Jesus and the apostles casting out demons to validate their message and to validate themselves. They don't just cast out demons for any reason.

And so my question to you is, if you already have the Bible, why do you need to cast out demons? Hebrews 2 says, how should we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard.

God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will. We have these great signs, these great wonders, various miracles and gifts by the Holy Spirit.

Demons being cast out. Why was that being done? Well, because it was confirming the fact to everyone who would see, watch and listen that these apostles were in fact the Lords. There was no word to compare anything to.

And so for the church, why don't we cast out demons today? Well, the reason is there's not anything in the New Testament epistles that deals directly with us casting out demons. I'd say it this way. Show me a verse where I'm supposed to cast out demons.

What about Paul writing to Timothy or Paul writing to Titus? First Timothy, second Timothy and Titus. Out of any book in the Bible, out of any books in the Bible, don't you think the pastoral epistles should be the ones that would tell us if in fact we were to cast out demons, to cast out demons?

These would be the places, these books would be the place where Paul would say, now Timothy, there's lots of demons around here and you need to know how to cast them. You need to know how to bind them.

You need to know how to rebuke those. He doesn't say that at all. Do we as Christians have the authority of Christ to cast out demons? Do we as Christians today have the apostolic authority to do those very things?

Friend, it is a hermeneutical faux pas. It is a Bible interpretation mistake to think that just something described in the Bible is prescribed for us. You cannot do all that Jesus did. You must not do all of what the apostles did.

Frankly, you can't walk on water and you ought not to go without food for 40 days. And Jesus did both of those. Just because Jesus did it doesn't mean we ought to do it. The slogan that has been kind of dying out throughout the years, WWJD, what would Jesus do?

That's fine if we're talking about compassion and generosity and hospitality, but it's not fine if you say he walked on water, therefore we are to walk on water. And the same thing goes true for demons.

Just because Jesus cast demons out, just because Jesus talked to Satan, it doesn't mean we have the same authority. And so we have to be very, very careful as Christians. I know it sounds strange. I know it sounds odd, but this whole binding and loosing and rebuking and exorcisms and all these other kinds of things are not for the Christian today.

How to Respond to Demon-Possessed People

What if you do meet a person who's demon-possessed? I believe there are demon-possessed people. I'm not sure exactly if we can determine if it's demon possession or some kind of ravages of sin, but I think there are demons around today.

Frankly, I think there are fewer demons involved on earth today, at least in tangible forms like embodying people because Jesus isn't on earth. When Jesus was on earth, you can imagine the floodgates of hell were open.

Satan tried to energize all his people to try to attack Jesus, the God-man, and prevent him from doing his work. But now that Jesus isn't on earth, I think we see less of that. There's not a less number of demons.

There's not a lesser spiritual warfare going on, but I think there are fewer actual cases of demon possession. What do we do if we meet a person who's demon-possessed today? I'll give you the answer, and it's a simple answer, and it's a blunt answer, and it's really the only answer besides pray for that person.

Here's the answer. Evangelize them. If you meet a demon-possessed person today, you must evangelize them. You will find that in Scripture. You won't find rebuking. You won't find binding. You won't find triple nodding.

You will find evangelism. James 4 is clear. Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. In the context there, he goes on in verse eight to talk about issues of salvation. When you meet a demon-possessed person, evangelize them.

When you meet someone who seems to not be in control of their faculties, you give them the good news that Jesus alone saves. That's exactly what you do. You don't bind and tie up and put a straitjacket on some demons because frankly, you can't do it.

They don't listen to you. Who do you think you are? You're no one. Frankly, I'm a no one. These deliverance ministries, the so-and-so's got a demon of lust, so-and-so's got a demon of envy, a demon of homosexuality, a demon of murder, and the list goes on and on and on.

That's just foolishness. That's just ignorance of what the Bible says. That's making the tragic mistake because the Bible says, one of the ways we know false teachers, it's not the only way, but one of the ways, is when people do a lot of demon-casting out and they start reviling angelic majesties, that's not to be applauded.

That's not to be commended. Here, listen for yourself to 2 Peter 2, verse 10 and 11. And especially in the context here, 2 Peter, for false teachers, of false teachers, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority, daring self-will, these false teachers do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties.

Whereas angels, 2 Peter 2, verse 11 says, who are greater in might and power than these phony baloney false teachers, do not, did I just say baloney? And do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord.

Angels like Michael, they may do things that we'll talk about in a minute, but it's not a good thing to be known as someone who reviles angelic majesties. We need to take heed. We need to be careful that we don't somehow say what the Bible calls not good, we think is good and to be applauded.

Deliverance ministries have no idea what they're doing. Frankly, you can try to bind Satan all that you want, it will not happen until the millennium when he is bound for a thousand years, according to Revelation chapter 20.

So why would you want to bind him now? Why would you want to corral him now? Of course, we don't want Satan working in the lives of people, we all understand that. But frankly, God of the universe has declared that he will not be bound until the millennium, so why would we try to do something against God himself?

God frankly and God thankfully is using Satan. Everything that Satan is doing is ordained by God and Satan can only do what God will allow him to do. Imagine back to Job chapter one, Satan wanted to kill Job and Satan wanted to thrash him and God said, this is what you can do and you can do nothing up past what I've told you you could do.

God's purpose, God's decree, God's sovereign control over Satan makes him what Martin Luther calls God's hardest working servant. He works day and night tirelessly fulfilling God's word. And we're very, very thankful that God can make something evil.

He can make someone who is evil turn out for God's glory and for our good. And so why would you want to bind Satan if Satan's not going to be bound until the millennium? Put another way, why would you want to bind Satan if Jesus doesn't want him bound right now?

God does not want Satan bound now. Yes, that's correct. He does not want Satan bound now. So why would we bind him? Why would we send him up to Lunenburg or Fitchburg or I don't know, Auburn for that matter.

We're going to just send him away from here to go someplace else, this finite being? No, we are not to get caught up in this kind of deliverance ministry. Show me where it is in the Bible and I'll be glad to do it.

But don't show me it's done by Jesus and the apostles and then make the leap of illogic that says, oh, then that means we do it too. The sole prerogative of casting and binding is Jesus Christ alone. And thankfully he has the power to do it.

I can imagine when we're up there saying, we bind Satan out of this church and you do a prayer walk, I'm putting a hedge up around this church and Satan, thou shall not come into our church. I'm sure Satan, if he laughs, he's laughing his head off that somehow we have the power, that we humans, frail and finite and fallen have power over angels, these angelic, glorious beings.

Now fallen, of course, the fallen angels. Listen to Jude verse nine and 10. But Michael, the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses did not dare pronounce a railing judgment but said, the Lord rebuke you.

But these men, Jude is talking now about these false teachers who have infiltrated the church by covert ops, they're now in the church. These men, Jude 10, revile things that they do not understand and the things which they know by instinct like unreasoning animals.

By these things they are destroyed. He's basically saying these false teachers are going around rebuking, reviling, saying things against even the bad angels and they don't know what they're talking about.

They don't understand. And so we wanna be very careful that until Jesus throws Satan and binds him for a thousand years in the abyss, shutting it and sealing it over so that he will deceive the nations no longer, we are not going to have a bound Satan.

Sin, Responsibility, and the Limits of Blaming Satan

Do you bind Satan? Do you bind demons? Do you think your problem with alcohol is a demon? James 1, we'll look at in a moment if we have time, says our problem is our own lust. You are carried away by your own lusts.

It's not your Italian heritage. It's not the devil who made you do it. When I was a kid, I used to watch a Flip Wilson and the older people who are listening today will know Flip Wilson used to do, he was a comedian and he and Bill Cosby were the kind of famous comedians of the day.

And Flip Wilson did this skit, the devil made me do it. The devil made me buy that dress. And we can't blame the devil. You don't say, God, I do these things against my wife or my spouse or my friends and I'm gonna blame Satan.

That's too easy. He's too easy of a target. We'll just blame everything on Satan. No, we don't wanna do that. We are the ones responsible. And according to Proverbs 28, verse 13, aren't you thankful that when you go to God and say, I confess my sin, I agree with you that I'm sinful.

I cast myself on your mercy. I know you're good and kind and that you forgive. And God says, I grant you mercy for that. If you're just tuning in, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry at nocompromiseradio .com.

My name is Mike Abendroth and I'm your host. And I'm trying to push the evangelical envelope. And that pushing is away from air, away from traditions, away from other things that we have learned, but are not in the Bible.

So I try to be blunt. I try to be biblical. And I try to just pick topics that are going to stimulate conversation. Too many people are involved in deliverance ministries today and the demon of post-nasal drip, the demon of PMS, the demon of low batting averages, the demon of whatever it is, is just a bunch of hogwash.

That's what it is. It's hogwash. People are not understanding the nature and the character and the power of Satan and his demons. So if there's a powerful presence, person called Satan, what ought we to do?

And we ought to do what the Bible says, and that is leave Satan to God. And we ought to say to ourselves, if we meet a demon-possessed person, we go, I don't know if he's demon-possessed or just crazy.

The end result is the same. Preach the gospel to that person. Remember, we are to be strong in the Lord. Remember, we need the armor of God. We are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts and wickedness in heavenly places.

That is Ephesians chapter six. So preach the gospel to that person, because if you preach the gospel to a person and God of his own free will opens the eyes of that demon-possessed person, that demon will flee.

The demon will flee. Christians cannot be demon-possessed. You will not see the actual phrase demon-possession used in the Greek Bible. It did appear in Josephus, a Jewish non-Christian writer, near the end of the first century.

Well, what does the Bible say about demon-possession and Christians? Well, 16 times you'll find in the Bible one having a demon. The idea was bearing a demon within themselves, and there would be some kind of concomitant of physical and mental suffering.

Going along with having a demon, it would be a bad thing. It wouldn't be a good thing. 13 times, in addition to one having a demon, 16 times you could find to be demonized. And that has the idea of having a control over and influence over, dominion over the victim.

It is a control that cannot be buffeted against by the victim. They are overwhelmed. They are taken over. They are demonized. And then there's also one case in Acts 5 .16, where the text says, "'One tormented by evil or unclean spirits.'".

It's kind of a torture. It's kind of like a terrorism torture from an evil spirit to a person. But we're going to have some argument of silence if you think any of these people are then Christians. There's no clear biblical example, no one in New Testament epistle ever warned about the possibility of somehow being demon possessed.

If you're a Christian, the authors did not say to Paul, excuse me, Paul did not say to Timothy in the pastoral epistles, this is what you do if one of your folks, one of your dear beloved saints, one of those adopted children of God gets demon possessed.

We are possessed by the spirit of God and the spirit of God versus Satan. There's no match like men among boys, except worse. We are God's own possession. And Ephesians 1, verse 14, and then Ephesians 4, verse 30, talks about the seal that we have.

And that seal is a person. He is the Holy Spirit. And that seal provides like the seal would in the old days, ownership and possession and inaccessibility. If you want to talk about what a seal did, you put a seal or your ring seal or signet in wax, and you made a seal.

Basically the sealed emblem would signify three things, inaccessibility, ownership, and possession. And so we are owned by God. We are protected by God, and we don't have to worry about Satan taking over our bodies.

Listen to this, in the light of the clear scriptural fact that Satan is limited in what he can do to believers, it is significant not only that we find no possessed Christians in the New Testament, but also that there is no practical instruction on exorcism within the church.

By the way, this is CRI's website. The epistles are certainly not lacking in teaching on spiritual warfare. This is a valid argument from silence. For if deliverance is as important to victorious Christian living as its advocates would have us believe, we can rightly expect the New Testament to deal with it.

Ice and Dean make the point forcefully, quote, We believe that such silence speaks volumes. The Bible clearly claims to give us everything pertaining to life and godliness, 2 Peter 1 .3, and is adequate to equip us for every good work, 2 Timothy 3 .17.

Those who teach Christian possession are by implication denying the sufficiency of scripture and are going beyond its authority by promoting their own. They have forgotten the warning of Paul that you might not learn to exceed what is written, 1 Corinthians 4 .6, CRI website.

Friends, we don't have to worry about Satan possessing a Christian because the Bible doesn't teach that. How different is that from people like Neil Armstrong, who years ago had all kinds of bondage breaker stuff out, and there was all kinds of bondages to break, and I think the circuit went dry.

I'm sure we haven't heard the last from Neil Armstrong, but instead of finding Satan under every rock and demons all around these Christians, I think it's important to understand we cannot be possessed.

Why? We're indwelt by God. You are from God, little children, I've overcome them because greater is he who is in you than he who is of the world. Satan would have to be stronger than God to possess you.

You are the temple of the living God. God owns you, and Satan has no squatter's rights. God protects us, he guards us, but he who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him, 1 John 5 .18.

It's just not some kind of tap. The word touch means to grab and to strangle and to really lay hold of. Does Satan tempt us? Yes. Accost us? Yes. Maybe play mind games? Yes. But really grab a hold of you?

No, because the Lord is faithful, and he will protect you from the evil one, 2 Thessalonians 3 .3. Jesus had prayed for us. Keep them from the evil one, John 17 .5. Christ has overcome the wicked one, and he's overcome what the wicked one has done or will do.

Wicked one is powerless over the Christian. Bondage breaker Neil Armstrong said, it is my observation that no more than 15 of evangelical community is completely free of Satan's bondage. The other 85 are struggling along fruitlessly at one of the three levels of spiritual conflict.

I have to disagree. I think that's wrong. I think it's a blame game, deliverance ministry type of thing. Don't buy into that. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. Can demons be Christian possessed?

Well, maybe, but can Christians be demon possessed?

Never. God bless you. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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