The Power and Influence of Demons

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I'd like to welcome everyone back to our last night in the study of the subject of angels.
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We have examined at great length various aspects of this particular part of systematic theology, and angelology is a subset of what we would identify as systematic theology.
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It's a subset that is often overlooked.
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Sometimes you would open up certain theology books and it's not even listed among the categories of study, and I think that is a disappointment that we would see something that is so common in God's Word, the existence of angels, the portrayal of angels and demons, and yet we would not consider that enough to warrant a place in our theology.
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Now, in last week's lesson we began our subject of demonology, which is a subset of angelology, and we began by looking at demons, and I gave you homework.
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I rarely do that, but if you were here last week, I said I wanted you to read the passage regarding the man who was filled with a legion of demons, and I gave you the passages for that.
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Now, if you were not here, I will not give you a bad grade on your homework, of course.
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Your dog ate your homework? Okay.
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Again, I won't chasten you for having not done that, but I will say that's where we're going to focus some of our time tonight.
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Last week we looked at the fact that angels do exist.
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They are part of the angelic realm, but they are known as the fallen angels.
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We said we don't know when they fell, but biblical evidence seems to suggest that when Satan fell because of pride, that he took with him an army of those who would be his followers.
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And we identified the fact that the Bible indicates that the angelic realm is immense in its size, and so when we think about the fact that there is a passage in Revelation 12 that says the dragon whipped his tail and he drug down a third of the stars of heaven.
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Many people, including myself, would take that to have a relationship between Satan bringing a third of the angels with him.
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And if you have a heavenly host that is numerous to the point of an amazing number, well, a third of a lot is still a lot.
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And I know that's maybe just a simple thing to say, but if Satan has a third of the angels as his angels, and that's what Matthew 25 calls them, calls them the devil's angels.
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Remember, it says that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.
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And so if they are the devil's angels, and they are a third of a huge number, then that is something for us to consider how many demons are at work.
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Now, you have a handout, and if you don't, raise your hand.
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You don't have one? Okay.
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Miss Jennifer, would you please ensure that everyone has one of these? I would like to give you the blanks, because I know sitting with blanks is a little disheartening to some.
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So I'm going to give you the blanks to fill in, and then we're going to go back and we're going to flesh out as much as we can.
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As Andy already mentioned, this is our last meeting before the break, and we'll get through as much of this as we can.
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But I definitely want to look at that passage that you were supposed to have studied, so I'm going to hold some time at the end for looking at that passage.
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Under the existence of demons, we looked at this last week.
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We said we looked at their creation, and we looked at their fall.
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So that is the first two blanks.
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Under existence of demons, you have their creation and their fall.
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That was our subject last week.
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If you want to go back and listen to it, if you were not here, I would encourage that you do.
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Under the nature of demons, demons are by nature the same kinds of spirit beings as angels.
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That's the first blank there, letter A under Roman numeral II.
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And how do we know this? Well, they are called angels, Matthew 25.
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They are called principalities and powers, and they are called cosmic powers.
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They're given the same type of language as the angels.
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And so that would lead us to believe they were created when the angels were created.
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They fell when Satan fell.
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Therefore, their quality of being, or their nature, is that of an angel in their type.
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They're not man, and they're not God.
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They are angelic beings.
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Demons are morally wicked.
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Demons are morally wicked.
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They are called unclean spirits, Matthew 10.
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They are called evil in Luke 7.
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And they are referred to by wickedness and darkness in Ephesians 6.
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And so there is our reason for considering them wicked.
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And honestly, you might think that goes without saying.
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I've never heard anyone describe a demon as a positive.
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The Bible, when it refers to demons, it's always a wicked explanation.
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Demons are invisible, but also able to appear.
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Demons do make appearances in the Bible.
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Probably the most graphic example is in the book of Revelation.
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The Bible talks about what will happen toward the end.
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And that there will be an appearance of certain beings.
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And we can only assume that these would be demonic beings.
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Revelation 9 talks about locusts that were like horses prepared for battle.
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Their heads looked like crowns of gold.
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Their faces like human faces.
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Their hair like women's hair.
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Their teeth like lion's teeth.
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Breastplates like iron.
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The noise of their wings was like the noise of chariots.
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And with horses rushing into battle, they have tails with stingers like scorpions.
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And the power to hurt people was in their tails.
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So you say, that sounds like a symbol.
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Well, it is.
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It's symbolic, but what's the symbolic? I think it's a symbolic representation of the angelic, demonic realm.
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I don't think any one of us would hope to see something like that coming after us.
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And then we see in Revelation 16, I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs.
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For they are demonic spirits performing signs and they go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle in the great day of God Almighty.
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So again, this is again referencing demons that are seen.
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For the most part, we do not see the work of demons.
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Even in Scripture, ordinarily you don't see the demon, you see the effect of the demon.
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When we look later at the story of the man who had the legion of demons, we're going to see in his situation that he was not...
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You didn't see the demons, you heard them speak through him.
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They were cast from him into the pigs, but you didn't see them go.
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So ordinarily demons are not visible to human eyes.
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But again in Revelation there is a reference to seeing them and so there is a potential of appearance.
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Have any of you ever seen a demon? I'm kind of kidding, I would hope the answer would be no.
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Let me tell you this though.
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A lot of people would say they've seen angels.
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And I don't mean that in a negative way.
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A lot of people would say, and the Bible says, we will entertain angels without knowing it.
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The King James, entertaining angels unaware.
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And so if I let each of you speak, you could probably tell me at some point in your life where you think maybe you were in an encounter with an angelic being.
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But I've not met many people that says, you know what, I was in the presence of a demon.
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Some people have.
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Some people have said, I've met people that were demon possessed.
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But it's definitely not as common to hear somebody say that.
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I saw a demon.
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The next one down, letter D.
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Demons have great intelligence.
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You say, well how do you know that? Well, let me give you what my reasoning behind that is.
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One, they knew about Christ and who He was and His identity and His power well beyond what men knew.
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And while men denied Jesus, the demons did not deny Jesus.
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That's a certain level of knowledge and understanding that is recognizable.
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Mark 1.34, it says, He healed many who were sick with various diseases and He cast out many demons and He would not permit the demons to speak because they knew Him.
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Jesus wouldn't let the demons speak because He didn't want them to testify about Him.
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People often say, well, why wouldn't Jesus want everybody to know who He was? Demons are not looking to have demonic evangelists.
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Jesus is not looking to have the demons proclaim His message.
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So He would not let them speak.
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But they knew Him.
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The text says that very clearly.
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Mark 5, it says, And when He saw Jesus from afar, oh, that's what we're going to read in a minute.
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We'll go back to that because I want to look at that more closely.
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Moving on, they also know about their future judgment.
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The demons know about their future judgment.
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That's another way to say they have intelligence.
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And we're going to look at that when we look later at that story of the man with the demons because what's one of the things they say? Have you come to torment us before the time? They know there's a coming judgment.
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And that's a way of saying that.
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The last letter under the nature of demons is demons have great strength.
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We're going to look at this.
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But the man who had all the demons within him was able to break chains.
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He didn't do that under human strength.
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He did that under demonic strength.
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But also, there's a very humorous...
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I think it's funny.
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Maybe I shouldn't.
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Maybe I have a weird sense of humor.
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But Acts 19.16 when the man was proclaiming that he was going to expel the demons, and the demon says, Jesus I know and Paul I've heard of, but I don't know you.
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And I think about all these false teachers today.
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It really blows my mind that we don't see this happen more often.
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Because they're always going around saying that they're casting out demons and healing people.
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It just blows my mind that they're not just getting the brakes beaten off of them every time they turn around.
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Because that's what happened to this guy.
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Acts 19.16 And a man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered all of them, overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
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He jumped on them, stripped them bare, and beat them down.
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That's the Callahan way of saying that.
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But he did it.
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And he did it with very little effort.
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Because he did it with demonic power.
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And so the demons are intelligent and they are powerful.
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They have intelligence and they have strength.
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Again I'm just trying to give you these blanks so we'll move on.
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I'm going to come back and say a few things later but we'll move on to the last.
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The activity of demons.
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Demons are involved in what Satan wants.
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They're his angels.
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Remember that.
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Remember that term, his, that is in the possessive.
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They are his angels.
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And so they do what he wants.
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They want to accomplish his goals.
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And so they promote his plans.
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And so I've given you just a few things that their activities are.
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Letter A, demons promote idolatry.
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Demons promote idolatry.
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I mentioned this last week, but you know you go back to the Old Covenant.
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You read the Old Testament Scriptures.
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And you read it and it says they were worshiping demon gods.
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False gods are false gods for certain.
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They don't exist.
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But there are demons that do exist.
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And I tell you, I look around and I see demonic activity all around.
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And I say there's idolatry there.
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You know what Molech was? In the Old Covenant, Old Testament Scriptures, Molech was the god that people would offer up their children.
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They would bring their children and they would sacrifice their children to Molech.
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I tell you what happens every day at Planned Parenthood.
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People are bringing their children and offering them up on the altar of convenience.
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And it is idolatry and it is a demonic spirit that would encourage a person to destroy a life for the sake of mere convenience.
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I can keep going.
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I will too.
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It should be a hot button issue for us.
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You know how many Christians sat by and watched during Hitler's reign and did nothing? They didn't want to upset the apple cart.
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How many of us drive by these abortion areas and we don't say anything? Oh, well, it's legal.
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It must be right.
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Everything Adolf Hitler did was legal.
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Don't tell me because it's legal, it's right.
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I'm going to be teaching a class on ethics in a month from now.
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You want to come in and argue because it's legal, it's right, I'm going to body slam you with the Bible.
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I said that in a nice way.
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Because it's just not true.
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Legality rarely equals morality.
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And so we have to consider what's happening is not moral.
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It's not ethical.
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No matter how legal it might be.
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And it's demonic.
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I've said enough.
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I'll move on.
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But they promote idolatry.
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Demons are actively hindering the spiritual progress of believers.
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Let me say it as it's written.
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Demons are active in hindering the spiritual progress of believers every way they can.
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They are actively hindering the spiritual progress of believers every way that they can.
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You say, well, where do you get that? I think that's clear in Ephesians 6, 10, 11, and 12.
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It says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against the heavenly realm, and against the rulers in that sphere.
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I don't think that there's...
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I've already mentioned the threefold battle.
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The world, the flesh, and the devil, right? So I don't think there really should be a dividing point.
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You say, well, why would demons bother Christians? They can't make them not Christians.
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And that's true.
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Demons cannot steal your salvation.
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They can't affect your salvation.
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They didn't get you saved.
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They can't get you unsaved.
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But they can affect us in various ways.
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I'll give you an example.
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You've got a church, and you've got believers that are seeking after the Lord.
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And you've got a couple of people who are not believers, but yet are in the church.
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And they bring in with them that demonic spiritual influence.
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And they bring the entire church to a screeching halt with their foolishness.
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That affects the progress of the church.
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Wouldn't you agree? Wouldn't you agree with that? That one person can bring a church to a halt with their nonsense? And especially if they create a coalition of people? But it can also happen in our lives if we have family that's bringing in that influence, or maybe it's in our home, maybe you have a spouse that's not a believer, or maybe you have other family, and they're deliberate and organized in halting your spiritual progress.
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I've got news for you.
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The world does not want you to progress spiritually.
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The world has every desire for you to stop all your progress.
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That's why it makes it so hard to do everything we do.
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That's why it makes it so hard to do everything we should be doing.
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There's no desire from the world's part for the church to be successful.
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If it were the world's desire, the church would become a museum, or it would be given over to government buildings or whatever.
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You go over to Europe and you'll find out what the church looks like when the Christians have essentially abandoned, and now the churches have turned into mosques and to nightclubs and skating rinks and movie theaters.
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It's a shame.
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You don't think it can happen here? What happens oftentimes, it's sad, if you look at what happens in Europe, it makes its way here.
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It just takes time.
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And it's usually, you know, it kind of makes its way up through Canada, down through California, and back through.
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Sort of the way.
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Sort of that direction.
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Did you ever think in your lifetime that you would see marriage between a man and a man become the law of the land? And you tell me there's no demonic influence? Now the big thing is the push for euthanasia.
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I've been reading a lot about ethics, so you can see what's on my mind.
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I've been reading all these books.
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But the whole idea of bringing in, if you're old, you're useless, we just want to have you die.
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Get on after it.
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You're going to die anyway, just get after it.
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And that's the way people treat other people.
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We have lost the appreciation for the dignity of life, especially elderly life.
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We kill on both ends.
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We have the ones in the womb, they are not people because they can't function outside the womb, so we kill them.
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They're not people because they can't function outside of the nursing home, so we kill them too.
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Getting close to home, right? Scary, isn't it, to think about the power that is being wielded.
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But the mindset is a demonic mindset.
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It's a mindset that life is only valuable when it's contributory.
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Life doesn't have inherent dignity.
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It doesn't have the imago Dei or the image of God to give it dignity.
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It only has dignity when it's contributory.
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And when it stops contributing, you kill it.
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It's a demonic spirit.
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And it's out there, beloved.
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Alright, sorry, I keep falling into my own realm of going off the track, so forgive me, brother.
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I'll continue.
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Carry on.
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Yeah, carry on.
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Alright, so demons promote false teaching.
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There should be two blanks there.
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Unfortunately, there's only one, so you can squeeze that in.
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Demons promote false teaching.
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I'll read this verse to you.
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It's a great verse.
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Commit this to your memory.
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Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teaching the teachings of demons.
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King James says the doctrine of demons.
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That's 1 Timothy 4.1.
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In latter times, people are going to depart the faith and they're going to devote themselves to lying spirits and the doctrine of demons.
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Turn on your television.
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Go on to YouTube and look up the preachers.
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I mean, as a preacher, it becomes very difficult because I know how many men and women get behind a pulpit, or they don't even use pulpits anymore.
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They stand behind a music stand or a table in a chair or whatever and they proclaim absolute falsehood.
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And if you say anything, you're being judgmental.
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The church of America is in desperate need of another reformation.
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We need a reformation back to the Scriptures.
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You know what has taken the place of the Scripture today? See, in the Middle Ages, what took the place of Scripture was the church.
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The magisterial authority of the Pope and the bishops and the priests took the place of Scripture.
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Therefore, people didn't really need the Bible.
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They had their authority.
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It was the authority that was invested in those people.
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What has taken the place of Scripture today? Feelings.
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People say, I say this is truth.
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This is what the Bible says.
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I don't feel the same way.
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What does that mean? Well, I don't feel like that's what that means.
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What's your feelings got to do with anything? But that is the new authority.
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If you hurt my feelings, you are the worst person in the world.
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You have breached the worst of etiquettes.
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You have done the most damaging of things.
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Therefore, it's all led about feelings.
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What do preachers do now? They stand up and they say, I want to share with you today.
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And this is what I feel about this passage.
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The whole language has gotten robbed.
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We've been robbed of language.
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Thomas Sowell is not a Christian.
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Thomas Sowell is an economist.
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But he said something that I remember, and I hope I say it exactly as he said it, but I may get it a little off.
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But basically he said this.
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He said the reason little Johnny can't think anymore is because he has replaced thinking with feeling.
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And he doesn't even know what thinking is.
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It's all emotion.
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And guess what demons really feed on and really promote? Emotion.
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Have you ever seen two men get in a fight? It's very rarely an intellectual endeavor.
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Have you ever seen two men fight? Like really fight? Intellect goes out the window immediately.
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As soon as one man lays hands on another man, he ain't thinking anymore.
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He's feeling.
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That's the realm of the demonic.
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It gets you out of the realm of thinking and into the realm of feeling.
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That is the heart of the modern church.
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I come in to get a feeling.
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I don't like this preacher because he doesn't give me the warm and fuzzies.
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I'll be honest with you.
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I don't know if I've ever given anyone the warm and fuzzies, but if I did, it wasn't on purpose.
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I certainly wasn't trying to.
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I want to challenge your mind and your soul.
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If you get goose bumps because of that, praise the Lord, but that's not the goal.
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I want to see you get goose bumps on your heart, on your arms.
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There's a difference.
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Again, the point is, demons promote false teaching.
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We have to be careful.
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Last two on here.
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Demons can possess and afflict people.
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Demons can possess and afflict people.
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The Bible shows they can cause physical ailments.
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They can cause mental disorders.
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They inflict problems upon believers.
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But I don't believe that they can possess believers.
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I want to say this, and I want to make this very clear.
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I think all of our elders agree on this.
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I want to have a poll right now.
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It would be embarrassing if I was wrong.
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But I don't think any of us believe that Christians can be possessed.
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I guess I'll ask.
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Andy, do you believe that? Okay.
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Jack, do we agree? We don't agree? Okay.
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You're shaking your head.
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I'm assuming Andy was agreeing with me too.
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And I believe, Mike, Richard, you would agree with that, right? That Christians cannot be possessed by a demon? You say, well, why not? There sure was a lot of people in Jesus' time that was possessed by demons, yes.
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But we don't see people who were born again possessed by demons.
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We don't see that in Scripture, at least nowhere I've ever seen.
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But also, there's a logical reason.
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Not just the Scriptural, which the Scriptural is enough, but because it's sort of a silent issue, you go from the Scriptural to the logical.
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What's the logical conclusion? If a demon possesses me and I am a Christian, that means I have both the Holy Spirit and an unclean spirit at the same time within me.
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And I don't think logically that those two things would be able to coexist.
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And when I say things, there are persons, the Holy Spirit is a person, a demon is a personal being.
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But I don't think the idea of having the Holy Spirit of God and the unholy, unrighteous, demonic spirit at the same time would be possible.
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However, I do believe that demons can oppress, not possess, but oppress the believer.
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Job was troubled by the devil and obviously demonic spirits as well.
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Paul referred to a thorn in his flesh in 2 Corinthians 12.
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Now that could have been, I want to admit, that could be a physical ailment.
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Because Paul did have certain physical issues.
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His eyes were a problem.
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He talks about that.
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He had certain physical ailments.
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He was beaten.
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He was stoned.
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He slept in prisons that were miserable conditions.
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We can't even imagine.
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He had many health issues.
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So when he talked about his thorn in the flesh, it certainly could be a reference to his physical ailments.
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But it also could be a reference to demonic oppression and seeking to oppress.
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If there was anybody in the world that the demons didn't want to see succeed, it would be the Apostle Paul.
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If there was anybody in the world the demons would want to see vanquished or put down, and even Paul talks about the fact that he continues to discipline his body so that he would not be outcast, that he would not fail to finish the race that God had set for him.
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And so I think if there was anybody who had demonic enemies in his life, it was the Apostle Paul outside, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So they inflict problems on believers, but I don't think that they can possess believers.
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Lastly on the list, and then we're going to look at that Scripture, is demons promote selfishness and division in the church? This one I want you to look at.
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Open your Bibles.
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Go to James 3.
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Now I don't have time to give you a full explanation of James' book, but if we go to the beginning of James' book, he tells us he's speaking to the brethren, he's speaking to those who have been dispersed from Jerusalem, they're part of the dysphoria or the dispersion.
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So we know he's talking to believers, we know he's talking to the church.
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Having said that, he asks this question.
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James 3.13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct, let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.
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Alright, just stop there for a second.
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He's saying who among you is wise, who is understanding? Now most people, me, I'm wise, I'm smart, I'm the righteous man, you know, everybody wants to raise that hand.
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And Paul's response, if you think that that's you, show it.
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Or James, not Paul.
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James is saying show it by what you do.
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If you're wise, show your wisdom.
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By your works and your meekness.
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Don't let it be just words.
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James is all about that.
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James is all about do not let your faith just be words.
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From the beginning of his book to the very end, it's all about showing your faith.
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Not just saying it.
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Verse 14, But, that's an adversative conjunction, meaning it is changing something.
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He says, But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.
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Notice that would be the absolute opposite of meekness would be boastfulness.
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If you have bitter jealousy, do not boast and be false to the truth.
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This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic.
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Notice the word demonic.
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Verse 16, For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice.
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So this is James referring to the church.
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And he says, Look, here's the deal.
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Where there is bitter jealousy, and where there is selfish ambition, there is demonic activity in the church.
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Where we see people behaving for themselves, when we see people promoting self-interest, when we see people promoting their own ambition, when we see people lifting up their own selves in boastfulness, there is the demonic.
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Now it doesn't specifically say an individual demon is doing this, but it's saying this is a demonic behavior.
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Thus we can say demons promote this type of behavior, selfishness and division.
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I've never seen a church that was divided by righteousness and love.
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But I've seen many that were divided by selfishness and personal ambition.
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What divides the church? People.
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What is the instigation? Wicked hearts influenced by demonic spirits.
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You say, well, I don't know if I'd be so grand as to say it's demonic spirits.
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Well, James doesn't.
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He said that behavior is pure demonic.
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Have you ever talked to somebody and said that is just a demonic behavior? They think you're being too exaggeratory.
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Demonic? Oh, that's exaggeration.
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If you're seeking to divide the church of God, that's a demonic behavior.
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If you're seeking to divide God's people and teach false truth and have them follow after you rather than following after truth, that's demonic behavior.
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Are you saying I have a demon? No.
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I'm saying one might have you.
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One might be using you.
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One might be using your actions to satisfy his goal.
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Again, the goal of the demonic realm is that the church would be absolutely useless in this world.
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And many of them are.
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Alright.
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Let's finalize with a little exposition.
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Because I just love this passage and I want to look at it.
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So, if you don't mind, you already have your Bibles out.
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Turn with me.
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We're going to read the passage in the Gospel of Luke.
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So, if you'll turn to Luke's Gospel.
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And we're going to finish this study of demons by looking at Luke 8, 26-39.
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Now, there are two other passages which tell this same narrative.
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In Matthew chapter 8 and Mark chapter 5.
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But I prefer the Luke passage.
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It's a little longer.
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Tells a little bit more of the story.
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And also clears up some of the confusion that some people have when reading the other two passages.
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One of the greatest confusions is this.
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And I just want to mention this.
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If you did happen to do the study, I asked you to go home and read.
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You might have noticed Matthew mentions two men that had demonic spirits.
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But Luke and Mark only mentions one.
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And some people consider that a place where the Bible contradicts itself.
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And it's not a contradiction.
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It is a difference.
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You say, well, what's the difference? A contradiction is not the same as a difference.
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For instance, today, I woke up and I went out and opened my computer and I began to work on the church logo because I wanted to update some things.
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And we're starting a new track distribution that we want to have our name on.
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So I wanted to have a nice looking new design.
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And I like that.
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If you ever want to know what relaxes me probably more than anything, it's drawing.
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I can sit down and draw and it's just relaxing.
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I very rarely get to do it, but it's nice when I get a chance to sit down and do some designing.
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So I did that.
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When I was done, I liked it.
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So I sent a picture of it to Brother Andy because I wanted to know what he thought of it.
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And he wrote it back and he liked it and he gave me the thumbs up and I was happy.
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I'd had an encouraging thumbs up.
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Is that story true? Yes.
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I'll give you the answer.
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You don't know, but I'm going to tell you the answer.
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The answer is it's true.
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Well, but see, that's the part of the story I didn't tell.
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I also sent that picture to Aaron Bell, to Jack Bunning, and to Michael Collier.
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And I would have sent it to Richard, but he doesn't have a cell phone that takes pictures, and that's okay.
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I'm just saying, I would have had one more person on my list, but the point of the matter is this.
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Just because I didn't tell you everything doesn't mean I didn't tell you what I wanted to tell you.
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A contradiction would be as if I said I only sent it to Andy.
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That would be a lie.
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You see? That's a contradiction and that's where we have to learn how to harmonize the text.
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If one text says there was two men and the other text only mentions one of those men, that does not negate there having been two men.
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It just is that the Gospel writer under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God chose not to share that part of the narrative.
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And that really shouldn't bother us, but it does bother a lot of people because they want the Bible to be written less like a book of Revelation and more like a book of history textbook, like what they got in school.
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And let me tell you something, even your history textbook in school didn't tell you everything.
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Well, let's go back and read the text.
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I know I took a little extra time on that, but it's important.
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Luke 8, 26.
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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 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 to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.
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Just stop right there.
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Imagine the picture.
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This man lives in a graveyard.
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He's naked.
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He's crazy.
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In every sense of the word, he is not the type of person that most of us would want to have any interaction with at all.
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And Jesus was there, and it says the man met Him, and in verse 29 it says, For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
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So at that point, Jesus had already commanded the spirit to come out.
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And it goes on to say, For many a time it had seized Him.
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He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but He would break the bonds 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.
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Legion, of course, means many.
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And that's what it says.
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For many demons had entered Him.
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And they begged Him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
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I've always found this absolutely fascinating.
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Demons negotiating with Jesus.
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I don't know if it gets you the way it gets me.
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It just seems to me like as soon as Jesus said go, they would have went.
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But they're arguing.
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And then I think, how many times have I argued? You know what I mean.
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You think they're just going to obey.
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These are demonic, evil spirits.
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They don't want to obey.
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They want to negotiate.
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They want to have some kind of their own way.
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You ever stop and think we ought to just do what God says and not try to argue? Well, here they are.
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They're arguing.
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And they begged Him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
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There's a lot of theological baggage there.
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I won't go too far into it.
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But there is a sense in which there are some passages that seem to indicate that there are certain angels that are held in chains in darkness even now.
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And I didn't get into that in the study of demons because I didn't want to take us too far out.
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But ultimately there could be some demons that are even now chained and awaiting the final judgment.
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We see this.
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I think it's in the writings of Peter.
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And so this could be what they're afraid of.
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Don't send us where those...
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No, it's in Jude rather.
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Don't send us there.
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Right? They're asking.
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Don't send us there.
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Okay? Now 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 the pigs.
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And the herd rushed down.
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The steep bank into the lake.
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And drowned.
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I can't get past this passage without mentioning this is the first case of deviled ham.
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I can't help it.
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It's a bad joke.
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But you'll never forget it.
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I figured that's one that Richard might have heard of.
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Yes.
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And so we have here a very interesting situation.
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Don't send us into the dark chained abyss.
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Send us into the pigs.
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Okay? Jesus sends them into the pigs and what do the pigs do? They commit suicide.
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But this is the part that Luke really nails down that we don't see in the other narratives.
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That's why I wanted to look at Luke.
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It's what happens next.
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Verse 34.
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When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it to 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 they found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in His right mind, and they were afraid.
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Okay.
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This guy was naked.
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For a long time, he'd been in the tombs, he'd been living in the graveyard, he'd been chained, he'd been broken the chains.
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He was out of his mind.
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He is now healed.
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He's clothed and he's in his right mind.
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They were afraid, naturally so.
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I mean, if I saw somebody that had the power that Christ had, I think fear is a natural response.
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Every time Jesus expressed even a little power before the disciples, the disciples were afraid.
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So I don't...
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The fear is not the issue.
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Here's the issue.
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It says, Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.
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So He got into the boat and returned.
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Isn't it amazing that the people would rather live with the demon than with Jesus? They'd had that crazy, demon-possessed man with them for all that time.
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They now have Christ and they say, You go away.
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You go away.
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But notice the man and his response.
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The man from whom the demons had gone begged that He might be with him.
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Why? Because he had his heart changed.
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The world doesn't want Christ.
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But when Christ changes a heart, that's all we want, is Christ.
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This man's heart was saying he wanted Christ.
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But Jesus sent him away saying, Return to your home.
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Declare how much God has done for you.
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And he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
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Earlier we noted, Jesus didn't want demons as evangelists, but He does want people whose hearts had been changed as evangelists.
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And that's what this man became.
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This man went from being the most famous demon-possessed person in history to being the greatest evangelist in the city of the Gerasenes.
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It's just an amazing change.
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Christ can take the demonic and turn it into the holy.
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He can take someone whose heart is filled with demons, take those demons out and give them a new heart.
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What do we take away from that? One, let us not be like the people who would rather have demons than Jesus.
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That's number one.
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But number two, if Christ has changed our heart as He changed His, may it be that we have the same desire both to be with Him and to proclaim Him everywhere that we go.
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With that, let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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May it be that Your Word, as we've learned earlier in our devotion, be the light to our feet and the lamp to our path.
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And Lord, may it be that when we think about this man whose life was completely changed by an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ, that Lord, that we would remember how Christ saved us and that we would understand that we were no better off than this man.
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Even if not filled with demons, we were lost.
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We were dead in trespasses and sins.
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And the Spirit came and gave us life.
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Lord, let us be as desirous as this man to be with You and as excited as this man to share You with the world.
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Lord, may the demons flee at the proclamation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.