Matt 8:28 When Jesus came to the territory of Gadara on the other side of the lake, he was met by two men who came out of the burial caves there. These men had demons in them and were so fierce that no one dared travel on that road. 29 At once they screamed, “What do you want with us, you Son of God? Have you come to punish us before the right time? 30 Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding. 31 So the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine.” 32 And He said to them, “Go.” So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and perished in the water.
2. I recall when I was younger there was a movie of a 12 year old girl that was demon possessed called “The Exorcist”. Considering that people were more pure minded and church going in 1973, it was a very shocking and disturbing movie! It still is, don’t see it! It was the highest grossing film ever in history until “Jaws” came out over a decade later. It really was repulsive and frightening so why was it so popular? Why are people so fascinated with evil and demon possession? Is fear really entertaining? Without Jesus demonic power is overwhelming!
Just mentioning demon possession as a sermon topic, I am sure is making some of you uncomfortable because you have had some bad experiences in life already with evil spirits and I have too! It is not a subject I mention very often at all, but every person does have to deal with it sometime or another. Considering the study we are doing on ‘spiritual battle’ and Jesus in one of His commands us in Matt 10:8 says to cast out devils, then we must learn something about it. Grammy awards seem to include a lot of Satanism, so it is time we learn more about how secret societies, politics, and evil is affecting the world around us! People near us have demons!
Sadly, the culture today accommodates many demonic practices and we as Christians must be aware of this and be sure that not one of us permit any occult or demonic influence to destroy our joy, and peace with God. There are some evangelical churches that see demons in everything and they are every Sunday talking more about Satan and his works than Jesus himself. Some churches do exorcisms every Sunday; have you been to a church like that? You see the occult is more exalted than Jesus Christ! On the other extreme, we cannot be silent on this issue either or we will not know how to deal with it. How can each of us conquer demons then? First, start with yourself! Are you purified by the burning of the Holy Spirit of all vices, uncontrolled emotions and words?
3. For an outside influence to not have a dominating power over you, you and I must recognize our own weaknesses, and before anything else free ourselves from any sin, fear, temptation, bitterness, and in particular, pride where demons come in. Jesus spent 40 days tempted in the wilderness and He conquered Satan’s same old tricks through the ages of trying to get him to succumb to the desires of the flesh, to abuse his power, and to get Him to worship him.
So first, how do you cast out any demons you may have? Think of it this way, can a drunk help another drunk to stop drinking? Can the blind lead the blind? One has to abandon all bad friends and start over! I left all my bad friends when younger. No person can ever have power over a demon unless they have replaced their emptiness with the power of Jesus Christ living in them! A demon may grant a person a little temporary power, but Jesus is a power above all powers! With Jesus you can grow your spirit powerful in a position of holiness, which is God’s pure power, into a position of having full control over any weaknesses of the flesh or spirit. To conquer spiritual powers another person who is full of the spirit walking in holiness must pray with you with you asking to be free! Jesus is there where 2 or 3 gather.
Would you not agree that many church going Christians have never taken this first step of ridding their own selves of their own demons? My experience as a young man, getting corrupted a few years by pot and drugs, when I gave my life to God, I had to cry out to God desperately, repenting saying, “Forgive me!” “Never again do I want to offend You by harming my body that You created, the temple of the Holy Ghost!” I knew that any un-submitted area of my life, any area that caters to the desires of the flesh, allowing any abuse of power on my part, and any fascination with evil which is an unconscious worship of Satan, would be the gap where the demons could get in and overpower me.
Some of you here may know people with demons. You see how they lose control in being wild with fits of rage. These may be addicts, obsessed and destructive, and in the end they suffer mental and spiritual torment which they overflow on you and those around them! Families suffer greatly due to demon possessed relatives! Total repentance and a concentrated spiritual effort with fasting and prayer is a must for every new Christian to be free from spiritual oppression!
4. Satan always jumps in and tempts you and me through pride for power and success. I will use myself as an example again. At age 18 I dreamed of being a rock star and voices in my head told me that if I wanted to be a star, I needed to first sell my soul to Satan, worship him, and then I would become great as the other bands that had done this?! To make it to the top you have to ‘make a deal with the devil’?! Everywhere people always talk about making a pact with the devil?!
The Doors, Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones and dozens of others had done this and they overtly practiced the occult and their lyrics and lives reflected this, and of course drug use was a central part of connecting these persuasive deceivers to the evil spirit world. The spirit world is dangerous: I have even heard voices tell me, ‘Kill yourself! Die in glory! Show your power!’ Think, How absurd is that! Drugs, alcohol, and certain repetitive beats of psyche-cracking music open the channels for demonic possession! Avoid all substances and evil music at any cost!
I use to be a very proud and contaminated by the world as a young man. My hippie clothes always had to be just right and cool, my philosophy of life was in agreement with the trends of the culture following Oriental philosophies, and I believed my creativity and empowerment to ‘do as I please’ made me superior to the stupid ones out there in the world around me. But what happens when you are empowered by demons of pride? You have fears, a fear of ‘I will go to hell if I don’t change’. I got tired of the torment so thank God I chose to change because other Christians loved me with the gospel and exposed my shallowness, ignorance, and fears! Start with casting out the demons in yourself first!
5. I love Jesus and I think Jesus is amazing in His power to overcome everything! He was tempted and He overcame! When I compare myself to Him I think, how stupid and how wrong I was to do just the opposite of Him. I did every wrong mistake! I gave into the desires of the flesh, I gave into being immoral and abusive, I was destined for hell but God’s spirit shocked me and woke me up and Jesus saved me from my horrible destiny!
All I do now is thank God every day that He rescued me from myself! The old demons are long gone, but still Satan will reappear from time to time to tempt, but after having Jesus love, peace, and power, I would never trade that for anything! I think my experience of ‘doing as I pleased’ is typical of the lives of many youth and adults today as it was back the 70s. The old deceptions and temptations of Satan are still the same today.
Satan’s demons are very effective in controlling the mind and producing bad behavior, and only a supernatural power, like that of Jesus, can free anyone from their sins of the flesh, abusive nature, and horrific pride. So to be qualified to practice Jesus power of ‘casting out demons’ one must have the testimony that Jesus cast out the demons in yourself first! What is your testimony? When did you conquer your demons? What were they? How did you do it? How many do you know into the dark arts that have gotten liberated?
6. Let’s go back to the verses of today in the part where the demons say to Jesus, “What do you want with us, you Son of God? Have you come to punish us before the right time?” When you or I are a clean vessel, a Christian that is filled with the Holy Spirit, one that walks in righteousness and holiness, the people around you see that and they recognize your authority. The people with demons can see Jesus in you or me as well, and they fear Him and avoid you and me. Don’t forget that Jesus said that all authority is given to Him over all creation!
So when a person wants to practice something deceiving, or tempt a person, or practice occult arts such as voodoo, sanitaria, or the conjuring of demons, they can never do it if you as a practicing Christian are present because your light penetrates their darkness! Going to where the demons are, and praying in Jesus name is all that it takes for the demons to be cast out! But sometimes there is a long fight. Spiritually you and I are like the police, we expose deception, invoke guilt and fear so the demons want to escape and hide. When we show up in Jesus name, the demons flee.
I have learned this as a Christian, when some people avoid you, it is because they may actually have a demon or they are into something they know is wrong and they do not want to be exposed so they would have to stop their sinful habits. People even can get violent about how they do not want you to visit them or talk with them just as these demons did when Jesus came! Demons mentally, physically, and spiritually destroy and torment and yet they accused Jesus of coming to torment them, how ironic!
7. I recall my biggest fear when I started with a clean slate with Jesus was that of having a fear of evil people. When one meets demons that are loud and aggressive and screaming at you, you are tempted to fear! Doing mission work I met for the first time very filthy demons in the streets of Rio de Janeiro. Many times while preaching & praying in the streets demon possessed street people screamed at me in my face, insulting me, wanting to fight me! If you have ever had a screaming demon face in front of your face you know well that it invokes a great need to pray for God’s protection!
So how did I conquer the fear? Through the word of God! One of my favorite verses is 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” So I pray, Lord make me perfect in your love! I recommend you memorize this verse and repeat it often!
Another favorite verse of mine is Isaiah 26:3 “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You”. Trust in Jesus is the victory!
8. Never does a compromise with Satan ever turn out good! Jesus exposes that demons will always get a death sentence and then thereafter darkness and chains in hell! People that accept demons may be freed and healed but only if they chose to be! There have been exorcisms that have not been successful you know, because God respects everyone’s free will. People who want demons in their lives will suffer the same punishment of the demon! Doctrinally most Christians agree, hell was made for demons, not people, but people will go there having one!
Jude: 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
And the people who play with fire and think they will not get burned, what happens to them? In the case of the producers of the movie “The Exorcist”, they paid a high price for making such a frightful Satanic movie that in the end, made demonic possession appear more powerful than God. The set burnt down while in production, the men who played the Fathers had their mother’s die when the movie was released. The movie was considered cursed due to so many other strange mishaps. Why do many musicians and actors die young with drug overdoses? Everyone I have ever known who played around with demons usually ended up physically sick, depressed, and tormented mentally, and random bad things happened to them. They became cursed in the here and now and for later!
9. You are responsible for your own salvation. Philippians 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
No one can say one day, oh, it’s some Christian relative, or some Pastor’s fault that I never had an exorcism done on me to be free from my demons. Being free from spiritual oppression is something only you and Jesus can do but usually you cannot do it on your own so that is when a Christian strong in the faith can get involved to help you with prayer and fasting.
Jesus gave us the warnings: each of us must free ourselves from demons and evil! Mark 9:43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched:
10. Ask yourself today, am I proud, rude, and shallow with God? Am I violent at times? Am I addicted to something my flesh cannot control? Do I say things that harm others because I am angry? Am I attracted to occult or Satanic practices found in movies or music, or do I condone people who practice these things? If you answer yes to any of these questions you may have a demon inside you deceiving you! Does your life revolve around the things of the flesh or the things of God? Matthew 7:20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
All it takes is Jesus presence to make all the demons run away in fear! Have you invited Him in all the secret dark places of your life? Some of these questions make some of you think, well yes, I have, I know Jesus is there and I feel no condemnation. If so, then you are blessed! 1 John 3:21 “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.” If that is true in your life then you should be one of the strong ones who stands up to battle to help a weaker person who needs prayer and help to cast out any demon(s) they may have.
Not all demons make people vomit and scary looking as Hollywood presents it. And I am appalled at the volume of the horrific violent demonic movies that are produced each year! Don’t let the enemy trick you into comparing Hollywood’s idea of exorcisms to the way a demon possession actually appears. Jesus made it simple and showed us by example in the desert that if a tormenting spirit or demon does not leave you alone and you feel powerless, then you should do what? Fast and pray and quote the Word of God to the evil voice attacking you! If you keep repeating, “leave in Jesus’ name!” you will make the demons flee.
See the world through the lens that there are not just mentally ill people out there, there are people who have opened up their hearts to evil spirits. James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” I pray that no one here suffers any torment any longer; pray with someone now if you need the Holy Spirit to clean you and make you strong in Jesus.
