A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (pt-2) - [Ephesians 6:10-20]

Well, we started our spiritual warfare series a week ago, but that means I've been studying for two weeks And I don't know which ones are indicative of spiritual warfare and which ones aren't but I've had a horrible couple weeks all kinds of trials

It started off a couple weeks ago and someone In a wanna thought they'd do me a favor and try to flush one of my shoes down the toilet in the back room

Thought that was strange enough I had a scratched cornea and couldn't see for a couple days this week

And then I don't know if it's some kind of virus thing or something It's on my tongue and my lip, and I had a bronchial infection for the last two weeks

Friday when we're on our way to Battleship Cove and I get a phone call from Kim We've got a flat tire and so quick zipped up and and try to change the tire

And I thought this will be easy. You know I work out and stuff I'm just gonna change the tire, and you know the demon of flat tire for the visitors that are here.

I don't believe that That's just I You know why now what's a trial?

What's my own fault? What's spiritual warfare? I don't know and So it all started off on the wrong foot when

I got all the stuff out of the back the kids were playing it was Up in Lunenburg to the side, and I start popping off the the hubcap

I thought I can just do this and I popped it off and Kim was standing there, and she said honey What are you doing, and I said?

I'm changing the tire. You know I'm the one here. Don't bother me and she goes. It's that tire not that one

That for sure was not satanic warfare. That was my own sinful stupidity Of course the last lug nut wouldn't come off etc.

Etc One thing we do know for sure is that the Bible teaches. There's an invisible warfare.

That's going on spiritual warfare There are things happening that we don't understand The question that we should ask ourselves.

What should we do about that if? You are like the Florida town right after 9 -eleven

The mayor said this in the small filling village of Florida Satan ruler of darkness giver of evil destroyer of what is good and just is not now nor ever again

Will be a part of this town of Inglis, and she proceeded to try to cast Satan out of the town of Inglis, Florida well, there's an option another option would be what they did down in Pawtucket, Rhode Island and The article in the newspaper says the family that prays together stays together are so the old saying goes

But how about the family that performs exorcisms together? What happens to them and basically of this man?

Got together and the grandmother Supposedly had a bunch of demons and so he stuck two crucifixes down her throat punctured her esophagus

There was blood all over the police came and as the police arrived He was shouting out at the top of his lungs the devil is inside her the devil is inside her

Is that what we're to do? There is spiritual warfare going on. How do we go ahead and get the demons out should we get the demons out?

Are they really demons? There's a battle going on and ministry means conflict

I think of Paul even at the end of his life the last chapter he ever wrote 2nd Timothy chapter 4 he said in verse 7.

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course I have kept the faith The Bible's replete with complete with war

Motifs martial art motifs race fight beat our bodies look carefully how we walk press on towards the mark

What are we to do? And if you'll turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 19 I want to paint a picture of what was going on at Ephesus as we soon will get back into Ephesians 6 to find out what spiritual warfare was like in Ephesus and what did

Paul say to do? Did he say bind cast out run use a crucifix use a rosary bead?

What does he say to do? But it's almost not fair to jump into Ephesians 6 without going to Acts 19 a passage that talks about what was happening

What was the climate at Ephesus at the time last week? We saw the seven sons of Sceva and the people were trying to cast they were trying to cast the demons out of people

And the demons made them Naked beat them up and they ran them out of town.

There was all kinds of battles going on But what we didn't see Was a Acts chapter 19 verse 17 a little bit more of the

State of the Union address of Ephesus And then when we get into Ephesians, I think it'll make more sense as we see this

Battle that's going on below the surface above the surface if you will and the conflict when

God The supernatural power is at work Satan will try to undo what God is doing or has done

Acts chapter 19 right after the Sceva incident This became known to all verse 17 of Acts 19 both

Jews and Greek who lived in Ephesus This is good to help us understand the passage and fear fell upon Them all and the name of the

Lord was Lord. Jesus was being magnified many also of those who had believed kept coming Confessing and disclosing their practices.

There was all kinds of Gentile demon Spiritual occult worship

Jewish worship that was not right magic All kinds of spells and things happening verse 19 says and many of those who practice magic

Brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone Well, some were getting say this is a major dent and they counted up the price of them and found in 50 ,000 pieces of silver and then a great theme in the book of Acts verse 20, so the word of the

Lord was growing mightily and Prevailing even in the midst of all the spiritual warfare

God's Word was doing its work verse 21 as we're still trying to create the scene of The city where these people live that Paul was writing to now after these things were finished

Paul purposed in his spirit to go to Jerusalem after he'd passed through Macedonia and a Ki saying after I've been there

I must also see Rome and after and having sent into Macedonia two of those who ministered him

Timothy and Erastus He stayed himself in Asia for a while So Paul's sticking at Ephesus and that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way not about Paul Not about his person as character, but about the issue of Christianity the way

And it gets intense here Verse 24 for a man named Demetrius a silversmith who made shrines silver shrines of Artemis Was bringing no little business to the craftsman

These he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades and said men, you know that our prosperity depends on this business

You see in here that not only in Ephesus But almost all of Asia this Paul Is persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people saying that God's made with hands or no gods at all

Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute But also that the temple of the great goddess

Artemis be regarded as worthless That she whom all of Asian the world worship will be dethroned from her magnificence

Here in the middle of Ephesus is this huge temple to worship this false god

Artemis or as the Rome Romans would call her Diana and What happened was as many times would happen a meteor would come down and hit the earth and then where that?

Meteorite hit they would build a temple this particular meteorite. We think historians think that it looked like Artemis it looked multi -breasted it looked like the god of fertility so makes sense even though it's a swampy area

Let's build a huge temple over this meteorite So we could go worship this god of fertility and certainly back in those days to have a child was everything

And they wanted to make sure they could have a child so they built this mother goddess of childbirth

Right there Grotesque looking you can get online and see pictures of this

Artemis Diana Creature and she would have a complete high priest who is a eunuch and other priests going around serving her

And it was quite a business some of you have maybe traveled overseas and they have religious places whether Protestant or not

Protestant or Christian or some other kind of religion you go to these places And there's a month

There's money to be made you can buy little votive things you can buy little Miniature versions of gods because actually if you have to go worship

Diana at Ephesus What if you were coming from Macedonia someplace else and you need to worship you can't get back to emphasis

So you get a little God out and there's a little Diana And you can bend down and worship her and here Demetrius doesn't like it because he's not making enough money

Souvenir trades down all kinds of people would come here and they would actually put money in the temple of Diana because she would be better than the

Federal Licensing Commission because she would actually protect the money She would ensure the money because who would steal money out of this

God's temple Pilgrims loved her tourists loved her.

This is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and look at verse 28 What did they do and when they heard this they were filled with rage they began crying out saying great is

Artemis of Ephesus Can you imagine how they worshipped Artemis? We don't really know but I remember

I think about those people that just swing their heads around and doing all kinds of weird machinations

The city was filled with confusion everybody gets into it they don't even know why and they rush with one accord in the theater dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia and when

Paul wanted to go into the assembly the disciples would not let him Maybe he wanted to appeal to his Roman citizenship.

Maybe he wanted to preach the gospel. That's more like it Paul said later in first Corinthians 15.

He fought wild beasts in Ephesus. Maybe these were some of those also, some of the

Asiarchs verse 31 who were friends of his sent to him and repeatedly urged him not to venture into the theater I mean people are pagan worshipping.

There's all these wild things happening So then some were shouting one thing some another for the assembly was in confusion and the majority did not know for what reason they had

Come hey, it looks like a good thing to do the crowds all whipped up Some of our anti Diana and some just are there for the ride look down in verse 33 some of the crowd concluded it was

Alexander since the Jews had put him forward and Having mentioned motioned with his hand Alexander was intending to make a defense to the assembly

But when they recognized that he was a Jew a single outcry arose from them all as they shouted for about two hours

Great is this Artemis of the Ephesians That is amazing one man said in the final analysis

The only thing heathen ism can do against Paul is to shout itself horse two hours you try to get a word in edgewise great is the

Artemis of the Ephesus city city of Ephesians point being this city was

Full of diviners full of magicians full of all these little votive people offering of a little votive

Idolatries all kinds of issues. What would Paul say? Before he left or what would

Paul say in prison as he wrote to them? What would you tell them? There's demonic warfare going on now.

Let me tell you what to do. Well, it's very interesting Let's go to Ephesians chapter 6 and be reminded again of a very popular passage and find out if Paul leaves them in the lurch

Find out what Paul says to them He doesn't say figure it out on your own get the crucifix ministry and jam him down the throats of people

What does Paul say and we come to this final section in the book of Ephesus book of Ephesians that kind of just smacks us we've been talking about husbands and wives and children and parents and Masters and slaves and all of a sudden out of nowhere.

He just says for the rest You think he'd say something what do we do with demons do we cast demons out?

This is amazing. He says We're in a war and here's how you operate the war Here's what happens in the struggle and the confrontation that it's a high point here at the book of Ephesians Just for a review we were looking last time and this is going to be multi week series

Strategies to hold your ground against Satan and his desire to devour you at Bethlehem Bible Church That's the theme and let's give you some strategies in review the first strategy against this

Evil one is that you must not rely on yourselves found in verse 10 We believe here at the church that the point of the passage should be the point of the sermon

I just want to tell you what the text says and means and by the spirits power Exhort you to believe it sometimes when we hear sermons by the way

They are do this and do that sometimes we hear sermons They should be think this way and think that way to have a high view of God this particular sermon

We're not going to get to these are the five easy things I want you to do when you get home one get the anointing oil oil out to walk around your house seven times three

We're not going to do that We're going to see what Paul begins to say the church at Ephesus and then we're going to see the authority of Christ as he

Cast demons out and see that tremendous passage in Mark chapter 5 Strategy number one you can't rely on yourselves when it comes to spiritual warfare

You cannot in other words live the victorious Christian life on your own you can't do it verse 10 says finally for the rest closing word of instruction be strengthened in the

Lord literally and In the strength of his might in the his supernatural power that only he has

Is the God of the universe you have got to be strengthened by him? You can't do this on your own. I can't do it on my own

The NEB Bible translates it this way find your strength in the Lord It's an ongoing thing.

It's not something We just say well I'm strong now and I can handle all this and I've understand demonology 101 and how to cast things out

I'm set no this is always Depend on the Lord Then he tells us in verse 11 how this can be carried out, which would be our second strategy

Number one was don't rely on yourself number two was you must rely on God's weaponry make sense one's a negative one's a positive

One states the fact the other one explains how it should be done verse 11 put on Most like a commanding officer no connective

Just another order put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of The devil clothe yourself, that's the language he could just say be strong in the

Lord but now he's trying to help us with the language and he says you need to put on the Garment or the dress are the clothes of another?

The full armor last week. I said it was a Roman hoplite. It's a Greek hoplite. It's a hoplite soldier

Plenty of those around and he's trying to make this point beloved be complete with your armor

When you have armor from God make sure you get all the armor of God don't forget something I remember when I was a football player, and we go to have the games and we go in the locker room

It was almost like you check yourself making sure you've got all your things on because you're so nervous that you're gonna Go play football.

Remember my first time I Broke the huddle I was a senior and I was offensive tackle and we broke the huddle and I ran out and assumed my position

My three -point stance and in front of me was a guy who was six six 260 and that kind of thing will make you check to see if you got your chin strap on I just thought great

So what did I do in our football team the Tackle would call how the line would block the strategy the quarterback tells the receivers and everyone else what to do

I called the strategy for what the line would do and So I called for a play where the guard would come down and block my guy and I would pull over Because I thought

I can't block this guy When I was a junior in high school, I think I was five foot six hundred and thirty pounds

I thought there's no way I can do it. I grew some I Remember when

I went to the locker room Inside the locker room. They had this kind of shiny slippery cement kind of thing and the coach grabbed my face mask

Ava Roth and he was shaking me back and forth. Oh yikes You're gonna be in a battle.

You better have all your armor You're not gonna forget your shoes and your helmet everything that God provides if this is a supernatural war

We've got to make sure we're equipped so that what you can see the goal right there in the text that you may be able

Capable to stand firm against the schemes of the devil if the victory has been accomplished at Calvary We can't lose ground.

In other words, we have to maintain our ground. We have to hold out. No surrender. No retreat. No backpedaling

Can't break ranks with everyone else. Remember this is a corporate setting. This is not spiritual warfare for you the

Christian This is spiritual warfare for you the Christian as part of this church You've got to be careful because Satan has schemes see that word schemes.

It means Wiles it means methods. It means stratagems It means things that he's cunning and he's smart and he's been practicing for thousands of years 2nd

Corinthians 11 14 says no wonder for even Satan disguises him as an angel of light

He's not so obtuse to go around with some kind of horns and a pitchfork. He's smart. He's clever.

He has negative bad methods And you put power and methods together and you've got trouble you're going to need all the armor from God Keeping your finger at Ephesians 6

Would you turn over to first Peter chapter 5 as I again try to put some verses on this canvas?

So you see the intense nature of Satan so you will make sure you don't rely on yourselves So you don't just run into spiritual warfare

Naked you need to be clothed with this armor First Peter chapter 5 he just gets done talking about anxiety

He's wrapping up some issues with authority and leadership in chapter 5 in this book that teaches us about suffering

Following the submissive Christ and he says in first Peter chapter 5 verse 8 Whenever I read

Peter I always think of Peter's life by the way And I'll Peter denied Christ and what Peter said and did and how

Peter here would not want to retreat Like he did before he doesn't want his people to do that Be sober in spirit pay attention something that Peter didn't do when

Jesus said go pray for an hour sleeping Be on the alert Keep your eyes wide open spiritually.

Why your adversary? You know what adversary means it means against the law against a lawsuit when you go to jail

There's someone prosecuting you and they're after you there your adversary The word literally is against the lawsuit the adversary in a lawsuit.

He's after you he's a slanderer That's what he's called here. Very interesting that the name of Satan can even be slander

Diabolos He slanders he sows discords discord. And what does he do? He does what he?

Prowls around like a roaring lion literally he walks back and forth like teachers of old walking back and forth

Peripatetic teaching just walking back and forth. That's the exact word here He's walking back and forth Sometimes when you walk by someone's yard, and they got a big dog in the front yard

And they've got a fence you can just see the worn area there with no grass because they just walk all around Trying to bite you through that until they get to the end and then they walk back to the other side waiting for the next

Victim right walking back and forth and here's Satan always on the prowl looking for someone that he might what?

Interesting word He's a roaring lion and he wants to devour them to roar means to howl only used here like a wolf or a dog or a lion just This howl just in this insatiable desire to try to drink someone down to try to devour them to ruin them

First John 5 19 John says the whole world lies in the power of this evil one Certainly God's sovereign over everything.

But right now here Satan is is having this power and Paul wants us to be careful

Peter wants us to be careful Well, let's go back to Ephesians chapter 6 and break some new ground

Regarding the third strategy so we can hold our ground maintain our course so we don't go backwards Who knows what will happen in the life of the church?

I think when I first became a pastor I was quite naive I thought if I just came here and taught the Bible there'd be no resistance

Where Christ is building his church, what do you think happens Satan is there there are issues and And Paul does not want

The church at Ephesus and he doesn't want you God doesn't want you to be naive thinking that this is just a cakewalk

This is no big deal Don't rely on yourselves rely on God's weaponry number three the third strategy

You must be biblical because your enemies are many and they're superhuman You must be biblical because your enemies are many and superhuman

Technically he tells us why we should put on He says be strong in the Lord how put on God's armor

Why because there are many enemies and they're supernatural look at this passage and mark the hammer mark how many times against is used?

For a dramatic literary point for our struggle. It's not against flesh and blood but against rulers

He didn't even say and against the powers Against the world forces of this darkness against the spiritual forces wicked spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places

Why do you need armor because there are many of these demonic hordes out there John Calvin said quote he impresses them

And their danger by telling them the nature of the enemy It's a healthy respect if I could use a football analogy a little bit more

What would we do throughout the week? We were watch game films of the other team to see their propensities to see their tendencies to watch the enemy to study

Says you've got to know there's a lot of them. You've got to be smart. They're invisible dangers You've got to be diligent.

You've got to be earnest And he uses the word struggle if you look at your text in verse 12. This is a one -on -one thing.

This is wrestling It's a struggle, but it's a hand -to -hand thing. I remember when I was growing up in high school There's something about the wrestlers.

I don't know if you're wrestlers here. I'm not trying to Slam the wrestlers or anything, but there's just something about wrestling.

I didn't go for You know elbowing a guy playing basketball Or I was teaching

Luke you know if a guy goes up for a shot and you just kind of poke the guy in the solar plexus a little bit it Messes their shot up you know that kind of stuff.

You know didn't bother me. You can kind of touch guys a little bit Sometimes for free throws I would bend down like this and pull the hair on the guy's leg next to me and try to get

Him mad at me some guys when they get mad. They can't play well some guys when they get mad They play really well, so you had to make sure you knew

But some about this wrestlers Greasy kind of sweaty up real close closer than guys should kind of be just arm hand in hand just grunting and doing all that stuff, and I just thought

It's just too close. I kind of like the thing you know I could just get out of my personal space, but in wrestling It's always in your personal space

It's just right there close hand to hand moral combat to the end matter of fact It was moral combat in these days when you would wrestle it wasn't you know you pin them

And then stand up and they announced the winner and the other guy kind of sulks off This was lots of times you kill or it was under death this idea of struggle in Ephesians 612 is close

It's intimate. It's where the sweat of the other person gets on you kind of closeness And Paul knows that even though they're not tangible beings physical beings.

It's close warfare It's not something that well. You know they've got all the spiritual warfare kind of over there in Shangri -La, but not here close.

It's up there in Timbuktu, but not close to us. It's up close and personal like as some say violent

Close quarter struggle, and did you notice a passage the enemies that we are against are?

People who are pro -choice The real enemies are the Democrats you see that right there in your text the real enemies are homosexuals

Now they may be enemies along with pro -life

Republicans and heterosexuals But that's not the issue the issue is behind all of that behind all the political landscape

There's spiritual battles going on that are fueling that are propelling that are goading on these issues

These are the real people that we're warring against They're not technically people.

They're demons We're wrestling against them and what does Paul do he kind of just parades them down It's like you go with me to Iowa to my sister's farm town, and they have once a year a

Mon Dame in Iowa parade And you sit there and everybody on the floats they throw out candies

Candies for the kids, and here's this car that looks like a cheap Batman car goes by Here comes like the

John Deere tractor big corn harvester goes by and they're all throwing stuff I Kid you not on this one

The outhouse company comes by with the trailer with a couple outhouses We didn't pick up his candy

And What Paul's doing is he's parading these things before us so we start saying to ourselves

I can't taste them. I can't touch them. I can't feel them I can't see them But there are all these people out here that their number one goal is to destroy

Christ and his glory found in the local church John Stott said

Paul gives us a full and frightening description of the forces arrayed against us and Just briefly first.

He says they're rulers Their principalities their sovereign they control things their chiefs

Then the secondly he says against powers this word talks about authority as well Notice the plural

Thirdly he talks about world forces someone who wants to conquer the world a

Hitlerian kind of demon mentality where they want to win over everything and actually the word in Greek is

Cosmocrats How we would English eyes it Cosmocrats cosmos the world crats like you're an autocrat self -rule

Cosmocrats Cosmo crator, and it's not nighttime darkness here.

If you look these Cosmocrats are there of the night that is of wickedness As seen in verse 4 as well against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places

Point being if this is all happening we better do things biblically we better do things, right? We better say the

Word of God is sufficient the Word of God is spoken Paul certainly if this is all happening at Ephesus And he'd been there would tell them exactly what to do and what not to do if he doesn't tell us to do it

We might be very careful to just go ahead out on our own How would we live in a society where there's a invisible warfare going on and Paul tells the church at Ephesus the surrounding churches?

And now 2 ,000 years later. He tells us what to do. We need to be biblical and Beloved it is naive to say if it's in the

Bible, then I'll do it It is hermeneutically naive to say Jesus did something therefore.

I can do it it is and We've all been ignorant at some time.

I have been as well, but it is ignorance to say If I see the

Apostles do it therefore I must do it Sometimes it's fueled by this WWJD.

How do we handle demonic warfare? Well? What would? Jesus do we have to be very very careful

One of the best things you can do with hermeneutics, and I taught this to the people in India And I've taught it to my men as well when you look at a

Bible verse you should ask this question. It's a simple question It's not a completely full of every exception

But this is a simple question when you read the Bible Does this describe something or does this prescribe something?

That is to say does this describe? What was going on does it picture it like a newspaper reporter does or does this?

Prescribe something that tells me what to do when you go to a pharmacist you give them the script you give them the prescription because the

Doctor has prescribed this dose at this time for you So does the passage tell me what to do or does it tell me?

What has been done and we want to make sure when we do issues like this? And we deal with issues like this that we don't just say if Jesus did it therefore

I will too if Jesus walked on water therefore I will if Jesus raised people from dead therefore so why if Jesus can command bread to come out of heaven so will

I? We have to be very very careful If you look at Ephesians chapter 6 and look down through the passage

Scan your eyes and try to find a place where it says bind Satan cast

Satan out rebuke Satan exercise people You're saying to yourself well surely there are other parts of the

Bible that talk about these things Paul Just didn't say it here because they could get their information elsewhere that may be true, but at least look at this passage here

There's nothing about slain in the spirit. There's nothing about words or receptacles There's nothing about whatever

Jesus did and the Apostles did we can too Let me push it even further

Would it be a good idea if pastors knew how to do spiritual warfare? Would it be good for the leaders of the church and the elders to know how to deal with somebody demon -possessed or deal with Satan?

That'd be probably a good thing for them to do Why is it when Paul wrote to Timothy at a local church in which town?

At Ephesus Why did Paul write to Timothy first Timothy and second Timothy and he never said anything about spiritual warfare?

Let alone binding casting out rebuking etc. Why didn't he do that? Once you want to tell him and the number one problem we run into as Christians is this

We somehow think that we have the same authority that Jesus and the

Apostles have Have Jesus had the Apostles because Jesus did something

We're gonna have to be careful as we expand this this week and next week that we don't necessarily do it

Let's turn to Mark chapter 5 and I want to show you an example of Jesus and his authority and then we'll talk a little

Bit about how it is Again at best naive to think that you can do what

Jesus did. I Read a title for a book this week by Doris Wagner how to cast out demons a

Beginner's guide read about a book this week pigs in the parlor by the

Hammonds and you need to have buckets in front of you So when you get exercised out

With the vomit comes the demons so you need to have the little popcorn vomit demon buckets

If you were at Ephesus you could sell those for a shekel 95, what do we do?

If you can bind demons, why didn't Job? Well, he didn't know it was all demon stuff going on.

But what if he could what if Job could bind demons? What if Job could bind not just a demon in that passage in Job chapter 1 but Satan himself when

God Uses the hardest working servant in all the world and universe by the name of Satan to carry out his plan

Like he didn't Job but all that to say we're gonna back up now just for a minute

And I want to show you how Jesus deals with demons they do exist They are powerful the disciples don't know what to do.

They're over on the side of the thing just going but they would have no idea Until God grants them authority that we'll see later on in the

Gospels in an axe and What mark is trying to say is Jesus is

Lord over all Jesus has power over everything and you will not see the full power of Christ with his demonic

With his ability to exercise the demonic forces you're not going to see that ever given to the local church ever

Now you're gonna have people say well Jesus did it therefore so can I but we're not gonna find it in Ephesians 6

I'm not gonna find it elsewhere either unless you try to go to a passage in Matthew Mark Luke and John or Acts and see what they do and you try to do it yourself

That is the hermeneutical fallacy the Bible interpretation error of if Jesus did it

So can I if the Apostles did it so can I but again?

Let's go to Mark chapter 5 and I want to just try to confirm the fact that these demons are powerful

These demons are strong You need the authority of God Almighty to deal with these things before you go around trying to cast out demons a beginner's guide

You're gonna end up naked running like those seven sons of Sceva is what's gonna happen And we'll also talk in weeks to come about how even unbelievers do exorcisms and there seems to be effects

Mark chapter 5 Chapter 4 Jesus was the Lord over the storm and stilled the sea now.

He's Lord over these demons. I just love looking at Christ I remember I Was asking

Sinclair Ferguson in Scotland one day when you're in a passage like Mark 5 It doesn't tell the audience the congregation the reader to do anything

It doesn't say well Jesus has that authority you have that too. It doesn't say trust in the Lord It doesn't say Oh worship the

King now all those may be implied or not implied But I said when you preach a gospel like this a narrative a story about Jesus I want to tell the congregation to do something

You know after all isn't a sermon more sermons are just kind of life management skills how to cope for another week

No sermons are not life management skills how to cope how to be this or that five easy steps

Sometimes passages do tell us what to do like husbands love your wives those passages But here this passage isn't going to tell you to do anything

It's just going to tell you to think that God Almighty in the flesh Christ Jesus had power and authority over demons and you should look through this look at this passage going

Jesus and God man Jesus. He's awesome He's awesome sermons don't necessarily tell you what to do.

They also tell you what? How to think and this passage here. You'll see just the power of Christ Jesus from the still

Still see to now the blood -curdling shirks shrieks of the sky verse 1 of chapter 5

They came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Gerasenes Now they're all there the they is they

But you're gonna see the focus on one particular person of the day and his name's Christ We're not told what these other men are doing

Christ is the focus Christ acts alone Christ speaks alone Mark's goal is to teach us that Christ has authority

It's a general area there and when he had come out of the boat immediately Man came from the tombs with an unclean spirit and met him.

I love the way mark writes By the way, it's evening now. And so it's a little bit darker. If you look at mark 435 evening has come

They said let's go to the other side. It's evening it takes about two hours to get to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, so it's darker and Immediately this morally physically filthy man shows up Actually, there were two but mark focuses on the one whether this man was the leader the spokesperson

Maybe he had more demons. Maybe he's more violent It doesn't matter because mark didn't say there was only one demon possessed man.

He said this demon possessed man came a Man from the tombs

He lived in the tombs. He was very strong. He cried out and he cut himself. That's what he did

Look at verse 3 He had a dwelling among the tombs that place that you wouldn't go if you were Jew because it would make you morally spiritually unclean

No one was able to bind him anymore. Even with a chain. He was smelly. He was dirty

He was homeless and he was living in this place where the dead bodies would defile him as one man called it

He lived in this common haunt Something in my notes.

I wrote I said sounds like something or someone that the kids would call a boogeyman and he lives there

The original language is it's a settled down habitation It's unclean all the dead man's bones

The Luke account says he hadn't put on clothes for a long time. It was not living in a house, but in the tombs

And he was super strong. No one was able to bind him literally not even with a chain No longer could no one bind him just stacking up these words.

So you can't grab the guy You can't subdue him and you see the text can't do it any longer anymore.

It's almost as if he's grown Steadily stronger and stronger and worse and worse

It's like trying to take down a guy who's on PCP or something and the police have a hard time because he's superhuman

Matthew 8 says they were exceedingly violent so that no one could pass by that road We have a little story.

We like to read the kids and it's called Billy groat Billy goat what? gruff times a thousand

Verse 4 says because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been torn apart by him

Literally they were rubbed together to break him out and the shackles broke in pieces and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

I Don't care if you were a fisherman and could lift those nets up. It wasn't gonna happen Samson shows up.

It's not gonna happen fierce frenzied out of control and Constantly verse 5 night and day among the tombs and in the mountains.

He was crying out and gashing himself with stones He was cutting himself up screaming over and over and over cutting himself up Can you imagine all that dried blood and just the smell and the scar tissue and the scabs and the diseases?

Who knows why he was cutting himself? Probably because the Old Testament told the Jews not to do it and why to face the image and likeness of God We're not told but it's not good

Similarly on the mountains of Carmel in first Kings 18, so they cried out with a loud voice and cut themselves and the blood gushed out

One man said this is a vivid picture of the manic stage of a manic depressive psychosis What I think

I stole this from someone but he's not a manic. He's a maniac That's what he is It's like an animal almost now.

What would you do you meet this kind of guy? Pastor Steve and I are in our studies and we hear something going on out in the

I want a circle on a Thursday morning And here's this guy. What would we do?

I'd say Steve. It's my study day. That's what I do. That's what I do. I Bind you

I Loose you in The name of Jesus. I mean, I don't want to run out of here naked like the seven sons of Sceva The issue is the passage is focusing on the authority of Christ and what you're going to have to do is you're gonna have to find

Other passages that give you the same authority when it comes to the supernatural issues and again, we're ahead of ourselves

But I'm just trying to show you Christ authority on the spectrum of things

Highly charismatic highly non -charismatic the highly charismatics problem is

They think that if it's in the Bible they can do it if it's prescription They can do it. But if it's pretty description, they can do it as well

The problem on the other extreme is the anti -charismatics the non -charismatics their issue is this

Satan's not that big a deal. Anyway, he doesn't affect me that much That's all going around when just Jesus was there and so there's an error on this side and there's an error on this side

What happens this guy? He's running around naked cutting himself with stones crying out

Can you imagine? Not an everyday occurrence even in the

Gospels where this scary situation with this crazy naked man Who's got already some kind of flint cutting himself up and is by you?

Was the last time you ran into some naked man with some kind of sharp object running around me once Probably for a sermon illustration.

I'll never forget it. I get home late at night. You probably remember the story I get home We have a small home in North Hollywood.

I think we're gonna have Bible study that night or something and Long story short is I thought I better go out and mow the yard

There was an elderly man lived next door. We were new to the neighborhood. I didn't have a lawnmower I said if I can borrow your lawnmower,

I'll mow your lawn, too No problem. He's 85 and I'll just take care of both and so I would go across both wands

Just back and forth back and forth and I'm trying to hurry because it's getting dark people coming over for Bible study

I'm gonna make your yard look halfway decent back and forth we go and then one time I came over here And I noticed there was a guy in the very middle of the street and he was doing kind of a

Grateful Dead dance right in the middle of the street So this I don't know what he's doing this side because I'm mowing

But this side I get to see what he's doing back and forth I go Well off goes the shirt

Next thing I know the guy's completely naked in the middle of Carpenter Street, North Hollywood So my first instinct was turn off the mower run inside and tell

Kim don't let the kids outside and don't look but how can you? Do that don't look outside, honey. I mean

Don't you know this is Doesn't work How if I go

I got to finish it and my thought process was How can I be hurt by this guy? He's come to find out he was a guy

He would didn't take his medicine, and he was live two houses down the street He was freaking out doing all these weird things He forgot his medicine didn't sleep drank a bunch of alcohol and everything else, but I was thinking to myself

I've got the mower. He's got nothing

So I just kept mowing back and forth then the next thing I know he's going up to neighbors houses kind of climbing up on the windows looking around I Thought there's just something that guy's eyes aren't quite right, so I said to Kim or Walter next door call the police

So I just have to tell you the end of the story But the police finally showed up, and I just kept mowing I was kind of looking over my eye going that way

So the police came and tried to grab him But that was just post all this Rodney King issue and so they couldn't really touch him

We're trying to do come you know community policing and everything And here's this guy by now He's got his jeans kind of half on and so he's he's running around and he runs over to his house turns on the hose

And lays down in like military position to shoot the police with the water He's shooting

Finally they ran up and kinked the hose and he took off running.

They didn't grab him and about every ten steps He would just drop his drawers a little bit and pull him back up again as the police were chasing

I thought what am I seeing? How can you study with this? How can you mow? What can you do? But I'll tell you what

I was doing what I think the disciples were doing the disciples aren't even talked about here basically It's all

Jesus in the guy. I want to stay away from those kind of people. That's why you call 9 -1 -1 What authority do

I have over that guy? I could have just yelled at that guy repent for the kingdom of God is at hand You know maybe

God would have saved him through the preaching of the gospel And we'll get to preaching the gospel to exorcisms later This guy was a maniac crazy naked running around Terrible what would

Jesus do? What did Jesus do? We're almost out of time. So Let's just see what he does verse 6 and seeing

Jesus from a distance He ran up and bowed before the disciples

Why didn't he bow before the disciples lots of reasons one was they had no authority for anything yet hadn't been given to them

Jesus was cold totally calm and he they weren't worshiping like true worship. We worship and adore you.

This is homage This is respect. This is compulsion. It's almost like a magnet where this demonic

Horde knows that this is the Lord of the universe creator and judge When you study the

Bible ask yourself the question Where are the disciples? What are they doing? No, this is the authority and the power of Jesus and Jesus alone

They're dumbfounded. I think Imagine how surprised they were and crying out with a loud voice.

He said What do I have to do with you Jesus son of the Most High God? I implore you by God.

Do not torment me Literally what to you and to me? What do we have in common might be the meaning?

Why are you interfering with me? Might be the meaning Mind your own business might be the meaning Maybe it's a curse on Christ because if you knew someone's name you could know know about them and give them a curse one thing's for sure

Matthew 8 says You have come here to torment us before the time the final doom of some of the demons

They knew what was gonna happen. What did Jesus say verse 8? He had been saying to him come out of the man you unclean spirit

Notice what the text doesn't say There's a formula. There's incense. There's a prop.

There's a bucket doesn't say anything like that Come out of the man you unclean spirit and he was asking him.

What is your name? And he said him my name is Legion for we are many how many in a Roman Legion? Depends on which legions you want to look at from 3 ,000 to 6 ,000 250 ish.

Let's just say 6 ,000 Mark that sorry full Roman Legion 6 ,000 826 men according to the

Southern Baptist scholar AT Robinson, but 3 ,000 to 6 ,000. It doesn't really matter.

There was a lot What's your name? Luke 8 says he said Legion for many demons had entered him

Verse 10 of my mark chapter 5 he began to entreat him earnestly not to send them out of the country They knew what

Jesus was gonna do. No, they didn't they had no idea So they were begging and they kept on begging with fervency and they wanted good treatment

Luke 8 says they wanted him not to cast them into the abyss And now we come to a passage that I've heard people preach by this title mark chapter 5 verses 11 and following deviled ham

I Didn't make it up It's true though by the way

This part of the passage is why Bertrand Russell said I can't be a Christian that God would do something like that to some animal

Time's gone, but I'm gonna keep going Why because we're just thinking about Jesus. What's he gonna do? What kind of authority does he have?

There was a big herd of swine feeding on the mountain clean or unclean to the Jews And demons were entreating him saying send us into the swine so we may enter them

Who knows maybe you don't want to go to the abyss yet. Maybe we know they're unclean and we want to go there maybe we want a body maybe we want to just try to Be you know, maybe the people get maddened at Jesus and try to kill him who knows why

Motives aren't good. We know that Jesus gave them permission and coming out the unclean spirits enter the swine And this is so graphic and the herds rushed down the steep bank into the sea about 2 ,000 of them

There are 6 ,000 demons 2 ,000 pigs and they were drowned in the sea One man said a hasty headlong motion and the language is almost like one

Pig after the next like dominoes click click click click and I've been told that sheep follow

But pigs don't pigs are independent But here these demons according to the power of Christ and his authority just start going off the precipice

One by one by one and the text says they were not drowned in the sea. It says they were choked

It's an imperfect tense meaning they just were choked one after another after another after another and you can just imagine the choking

Drowning sounds and the squealing sounds that must have been amazing. What do you think the disciples were doing?

I know they weren't doing this Whatever Jesus can do we can do too. Whoa, I Know that because they couldn't do anything like this until Christ had given them the authority

And in weeks to come we'll learn that if we don't have apostolic authority, what can we do answer Ephesians 6 tells us everything with great sufficiency and completeness

Liberal scholars would say in this passage. The wild man was so freaked out. He chased the pigs into the water I didn't come up with this one either last bit of comic relief.

He did not send them to hog heaven This is talking about the authority and the power of Christ Over demons he'd been there for a long time.

He kept getting worse He was undefiled he was defiled rather William Barclay said there's a cheap sentiment

Talism, which will languish in grief over the pain of an animal and never turn a hair at the wretched state of millions of God's men and children.

This is not about pigs. They have no souls. They're made for us. Jesus can destroy the pigs anytime he wants

The people were mad no prophets people responded differently

Point being we better stop there Christ has the authority over everything you can read

Psalm 2 about the authority that Christ has power over the demons power over everything

The real question is going to be in weeks to come Do you have the same power or as our third strategy has been stated?

Should you be biblical and do what God tells you to do as a prescription or what

God has? Described to you like Jesus has done and you'll find the answer that we need to be careful to say to ourselves

What does the Bible teach us to do and what does the Bible teach us that has been done because they are two separate issues?

And I just love watching Jesus Can you imagine all the demons and all the issues and this same

Jesus has given these apostles particularly Paul? The exact words to write to tell the church at Ephesus and now us to tell

Timothy at the church at Ephesus Here's how you do spiritual warfare and you have to ask the question.

Why is there no casting out demons binding? Demons are even exercising people and I believe in demons and I believe in binding and I believe in casting and I believe in Exorcisms, but I don't believe they do it the way we think it's done today

By some in Christianity, you're in a warfare if you get a flat tire this week, you can't say well, it's the devil

I don't know. What's the devil? What's my own trial? And what's my own sinful stupidity? But there's a war going on Phase one acknowledge it phase two is

I can't rely on myself So I better make sure I take up God's armor. You say what's God's armor?

We'll see you next week God's armor. Let's pray Father what a great son

What a magnificent powerful Wonderful Savior and father

I'm glad the story doesn't stop there because you have been in the business of rescuing people Whether it's from demons are from themselves from their own sin ever since father

We acknowledge that you are God our Savior and you do everything well And father we are so thankful that we can trust in your scriptures that are sufficient to teach us

To guide us in our life to guide us in godliness and certainly you wouldn't strand us on a desert island

With no revelation to tell us how to please you you've been kind and merciful So benevolent to tell us exactly what to do and I think even as a church pastor and as a leader

What to do when crazy people maybe even demonically possessed people come into our church. How do we handle it father?