[0:00]
We pray that God will open our hearts and minds to understand His Word. God, we ask now that you would open our hearts and minds to understand your Word, please through your Spirit. Give us this understanding. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. We are in a place where Kathy and I and our daughter Josephine Liv is called Wollongong. It's a beautiful little city, about 200,000 people, about an hour's drive south of Sydney. It's beautiful. It's prosperous. People are just kind of happily getting on with life.

[0:38]
And I share things with Singapore. I've only been to Singapore once. I may get invited back again sometime. It's like Singapore. Singapore is prosperous. For people who are getting on with life, a beautiful place, safe place. And yet Wollongong and Singapore have this in common. They are both war zones. There is a battle that rages there. And you know, the other thing they have in common is most people can't see it. It's like they're blind to what's actually going on. There is a battle there. It's a battle that conflict is between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of the evil one and the kingdom of God. And the battle is on for the souls of humanity. It's a life and death struggle.

[1:26]
And that struggle has been going on as long as humanity has existed for all the time that we've been on the planet. The battle is almost over now. It's been won. It's just been mopped up. The battle itself focuses down to one particular hotspot. Just a few short years that happened in places that we still visit as tourists if we want to. Mark shows us, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, I want to look today at Mark. Mark shows us what the hot point in that battle actually looked like.

[2:04]
And if you've got your Bibles open, I hope you have, at Mark chapter three, let's see what it is that Mark shows us here about the two champions. The two great generals, the champions of these two sides of the war. See, Mark chapter three, verse 20, we're introduced to both the champions. They lead the side. Mark chapter three, verse 20, then Jesus entered the house and again a crowd gathered so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat.

[2:36]
When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, but they said he's out of his mind. And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said he is possessed by Bibles above by the Prince of demons. He is driving out demons. We have Jesus and we have the other champion, if you like, here referred to as Bibles above the Prince of demons. Now, I'm about to introduce the devil.

[3:10]
I have six points and I need to apologize. It really is just a huge download on you. I do apologize. I can't say the devil made me do it. I have to take full responsibility. I have six things and this is probably the hardest work of the whole week. And then after this talk, the rest do get easier. Trust me. But here we go. I finally worked out how I want to do this. That is to introduce both champions. When it comes to the devil or Bibles above, if you're taking notes, this is not exactly a detailed outline. I'll give you in the book, but here's six points.

[3:48]
About the devil, his names, his origin, his power, his minions. If you like, or his henchmen, what if you want to call his minions. Number five, his weapons, number six, his future. And I'm just going to download it on you. Do your best to hang on. Here we go. The name P. Elsie, Bob, or Bob, the different ways of spelling it. It's kind of a pun on the name of one of the false gods in the Old Testament.

[4:19]
And it really means, as I said last night, the Lord of the House, the Master of the House, Lord of the House, the Lord of the Flies, or even the Lord of Dung, depending on how it was said. And it's identified with its derogatory name for the devil, or the Prince of Demons, as he's called here. In the New Testament, the name Satan is from a Hebrew word, meaning adversary. Devil comes from a Greek word, devil-os, meaning accuser or slanderer.

[4:50]
And in the New Testament, as far as I can see, the two names are used just interchangeably, the devil or Satan. In fact, the devil is actually called by quite a few different names. Joy, can you just show us that first slide. In Revelation 12, there's five different titles that the devil is called by. Here we go. Revelation 12, verse nine. The great dragon, first name, was hurled down. That ancient serpent, second name, called the devil, third name, or Satan, fourth name, who leads the whole world astray.

[5:25]
He was hurled to the earth and the angels with him, and then in verse 10 he's called the accuser of our brothers. So that's five names there in just a couple of verses. He's also called the God of this world, the ruler of the kingdoms of the air. In Ephesians 2, last time we saw the spirit that's now at work in the children of disobedience, and you'll see Jessica, down in Mark 3, 27, Jesus calls him the strong man. Lots of different names. Now the devil or Satan is mentioned in the Old Testament, but only briefly.

[5:56]
Mentioned in Job, chapters one and two, in one Chronicles 21, in Zechariah 3, but not very much. He's there, oh and of course so, in Genesis 3. He's there, but we're not told a lot about him. Okay, second thing, he's origin. Satan just turns up in Genesis 3. He appears in the form of the serpent, the subtle deceiving serpent, and he temps out of the minute. He's the thing, well what happened? Where did he come from? What happened before the creation of the world?

[6:30]
The answer is, the Bible says surprisingly little. You think, oh no, wait a minute, it was about like his Lucifer and the rebellion in heaven, and the air except the Bible, I don't think the Bible actually tells us that. A lot of what we believe, or a lot of what anyway the Western world believes about the devil and so on, comes from a poem called Paradise Lost, written in the 17th century by a man called John Milton. And what Milton's done is take the few facts that we actually know and make up a great story, 12 long chapters of the story of the rebellion of Satan and how it happened and his temptation about,

[7:15]
filled in the gaps, but it's just creative writing. Now that's had a huge effect though on the way that kind of folklore sees the devil. There's also some things written in the inter-testamental writings between the old and the New Testament, some things written in these apocryphal books about the devil and so on. But not a lot said in the Bible. You think, but wait a minute, I thought Satan was Lucifer, he was the bright morning star, he was thrown out of heaven,

[7:45]
maybe, maybe. Now, you're still with me, I can see a few screen savers have gone on in people's heads. Just look at the person beside you, if you get teddy bear eyes, just give them a little, okay? Now, what we need to do, I want to show you, and hang in there with me, my guess is you've never had a long Bible study on the devil, because we don't want to give the devil central place and I will try very hard not to this week, but we want to do the work. Most of what we know or kind of think we know about the devil comes from two old Testament passages, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.

[8:23]
I want you to turn there now, no more easy things on the PowerPoint. Can you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 14? I'm doing it, you can do it, Isaiah 14, about the middle of the Old Testament. Okay, Isaiah 14. Now, have a look, I'm going to read to you from verses 12 to 15. Verses 12 to 15. How you have fallen from heaven, oh morning star, son of the dawn, you have been cast down to the earth, you have, you, who once laid low the nations,

[9:03]
you said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven, I will raise my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in throne on the mount of assembly, on the utmost, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain, I will ascend above the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the most high. And that certainly, but you have been brought down to the grave to the depths of the pit. Now, that certainly sounds like, well, it's the devil claiming to be what God was and so to be as great as God and so. So it's thrown out of heaven. Yes, but have a look at chapter 14 verse three. Okay, and this is what I said, the Bible is not a bag of marbles. Do you remember?

[9:45]
The Bible is a story. It's a book. I'm going to read it like a book. So look at 14 verse three. On the day the Lord gives you relief, as he speaks to Israel and promises them relief and so on. On the day the Lord gives you relief from suffering and turmoil and cruel bondage, you will take up this taunt against who? The king of Babylon. That chapter, verse 14 is not obviously about the devil. It's about the king of Babylon. It's poetic language. Look at verses 16 and 17. Chapter 14, verse 16 and 17. Those who see you stare at you, they ponder your fate.

[10:20]
Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble? The man who made the world a desert who overthrew its cities and would not let its captives go home? Is it about the devil? Well, it could be echo. It could be echoes of him, but it's obviously out front. It's about the king of Babylon and God's judgment on Babylon. Well, have a look at a Z key, 28. The Z key or cross to the right, two books after two or three books after Jeremiah. You've got a Z key, chapter 28.

[10:54]
Is it your 28? Have a look at verses 13 to 17. I'm sorry, what am I doing wrong? Well done. Okay. Is that better? Okay. You're good at this. Well done. Okay.

[11:28]
Is it your 28? Have a look at verse 13. This is juicy stuff. You were in Eden, verse 13. The Garden of God, every precious stone adorned you. Ruby Tope has emerald, crystallite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise and barrel. Your settings and mountains were made of gold. On the day you were created, they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub. For so I ordained you, you were on the holy mountain of God. You walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade, you were filled with violence and you sinned.

[12:06]
So I drove you in disgrace from the Mount of God and expelled you a guardian cherub from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth and made a spectacle of you before the kings. That sounds like the devil, doesn't it? Except look at verse 11. Remember, read it like a book. Look at verse 11. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre. And stating him, this is what the sovereign Lord said. This is about the king of Tyre. Tyre was a trading nation in the Mediterranean, a bit north of where Israel is.

[12:44]
And it's about this king who got to big priest boots and I think it's a poetic language. Is it about the devil? Well, it could be echoed that way. Well, look at 28 verses one and two. The word of the Lord came to me. Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, this is what the sovereign Lord says. In the pride of your heart, you say, I am a God. I sit on throne of a God in the heart of the seas. But you are a man, not a God. And though you think you are wise as a God, it's, you see, I think it's poetic language about these two great kings who had pretentions of being like God and God throws them down.

[13:22]
Or revelation chapter 12, one last one that you've got to look up, you can do this. Revelation chapter 12 in the olden days before PowerPoint, we used to turn our Bibles all the time. You can do it. You can do it. Revelation chapter 12 and have a look. Do you know what? It is on the screen. Here we go. Sorry. Sorry about that. We'll just edit that out before that goes on the internet. All right. Okay. All right. Revelation chapter 12, see people say, oh, look, here is the great rebellion before creation. Revelation chapter 12 verse 7, and there was war in heaven, Michael and the angels fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back. And he was not strong enough. And they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down. That ancient serpent, the devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth. And his

[14:15]
angels with him, that's got to be about the kind of pre-creation rebellion. I don't think so. When you reach chapter 12, and you might like to read it yourself later on, the beginning of the chapter is all about the birth of Jesus. And the people of God about to give birth, if you like to, the Messiah. And it's all about Jesus to feeding the devil through his birth, death, resurrection, and ascension. And then immediately after that, it's the people of God defeating Satan through trust in the cross. So the war in heaven here is about Satan being thrown down from his position because of Jesus' death. And we'll see more of that tonight.

[14:50]
It could be the case, but once you come with that idea and then bring it to the scriptures, that's what the scriptures say, of course. If you just start with the scriptures, the New Testament doesn't go back further than Genesis 3. Okay. You think, oh, that's different to what I thought. Yeah, that's different to what I thought before I started preparing these talks. In two Peter 2, it'll be on the screen. Two Peter 2, four. Thanks, Joy.

[15:20]
We've got the idea of the spirits that sinned. I forgot to not spare the angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons, held for judgment. That could be about a pre-fall, sorry, a pre-creation fall, etc. Except when you go to one Peter 1 that talks about spirits held in prison because they did the wrong thing at the time of Noah. Okay. So it could be right. The whole thing about the pre-creation fall and so on and the bright morning, it could be right. But I don't think we can be absolutely sure.

[15:57]
It's interesting that the Bible doesn't tell us everything we'd like to know. Why? Because the Bible is interesting. God's interested in keeping us safe and telling us what we need to know for Godliness and salvation. The New Testament doesn't go back past Genesis 3. Why is Satan fallen? Well, I think the thing that keeps coming up again and again about Satan, if he's fallen, it's because of pride. See, in 1 Timothy 3.6 it'll be on the screen. We're told, don't appoint a new Christian to be an elder or a leader in the church. Why? Because the new convert, the six and not a new convert so that he will not become conceited and fall under the condemnation incurred by the devil.

[16:43]
And what we'll see this week, as we look about spiritual warfare and the devil's influence on people and some, the issue of pride comes up again and again and again. You see, the devil is seductive and clever. We keep looking for the work of the devil in the wrong place. We keep looking for the headspin around the green vomit or the voices like all that kind of voice. And when the real work of the devil is in pride, arrogance and so on, anyway, more of that will come. Okay, next we get to his power. The New Testament is clear that the devil has great power.

[17:19]
He's called the dragon, the roaring lion and so on. One John chapter 5 verse 19 says, we know that we are children of God and the whole world is under the control of the evil one. Now, as I said again, there's no, there's no dualism in the Bible. It's not the good power versus the bad power and who will win and we have to pray the right way so God can act and in the, in the great arm wrestle who will win. No. God has allowed our world to be under the influence under the power of the evil one. It is his judgment on us.

[17:51]
But what you must not do is take the characteristics of God, if you like, the attributes of God and apply them to the devil. The Bible, nowhere says that the devil is omnipresent, being everywhere all the time, the way God is. The Bible, nowhere says that the devil is omniscient, all knowing, nowhere. He's powerful and you need to take him seriously, but he's not the same as God. His minions, the next one, his minions, his, his henchmen, the devil in Matthew 25 in the power of the sheep and the goat's Jesus talks about the devil and his angels.

[18:30]
And so we get evil spirits, sometimes called demons. People like to work out and try and work out how many are there. So quick calculation. Someone said around the throne room of God in Daniel's vision. There are 10,000 times 10,000. How many you guys should know? 10,000 times 10,000 is 100 million. Well done. 100 million in Revelation 12. The devil sweeps a third of the stars away with his tail. So that's one for 30 million demons. Someone's worked out.

[19:03]
I, some people have too much time in their hands, I think. What are we told? We're told that these things exist. How many? Who knows? There are seven things that the New Testament writers tell us about demons. And I want to tell you, I believe in them. I believe in the devil. I believe in evil spirits, demons, all that stuff. I believe. Seven things. Here we go. One. The demons work for Satan. Mark 322. The demons inhabit a different places. They're sometimes inhabited. This is sometimes inhabited water. Matthew 8.22. Sometimes inhabited desert places. Matthew 12.43.

[19:45]
The fourth one is controversial, but the Bible says it again and again clearly. And that is behind idolatry. Behind the idolatrous false gods that deceive the nations stands the demons. I'll show you. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 19. Do I mean then that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything or that an idol is anything? No. But the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too.

[20:22]
You cannot have a part in both the Lord's table and the table of demons. Behind the idolatry are the demons or Deuteronomy 32. Go back to the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 32 verse 16 will be on the screen. They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons. This is Israel, sorry, when they walked away. They sacrificed to demons which are not God. Gods, they had not known and they were not.

[20:52]
And God's a recent, sorry, that recently appeared. God's your father did not fear. And if you wanted to serving ones and look at later, Psalm 106 verses 37 and 38 say that the child sacrificed that was practiced in the ancient world was actually done to gods who were truly demons. The fifth thing about the demons and that is they could actually speak through those that they controlled. Sixth thing, they caused physical suffering. Here's the thing to notice, when the evidence of demon possession, what the presenting problem with demon possession and so on in the gospels is physical suffering.

[21:35]
And seventh, the Christians in the New Testament, Christians need to be alert to false teachings and lies that the demons bring. Paul talks about, and I'll cover this a little more later on, the principalities and powers. Three different times and Ephesians in Colossians and so on, talks about the principalities and powers or the powers and the authorities in the heavenly realms. That's his way of talking about the evil spirits.

[22:09]
Okay, pushing on the next one, his weapons, the great weapon of the devil is the lie. He comes to, he comes to even the garden and says to her, did God really say and then he twists scripture? You will not surely die, he says, that the lie. The Lord Jesus says in John chapter 8 verse 44, John chapter 8 verse 44, you belong to your father, the devil. And you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language.

[22:45]
And the father of lies. And the devil's aim is to destroy people, is to take them from God the source of life and bring them to death. He's seen in Genesis 3 and every time since then. How does he do that? Mostly the most effective way, he blinds their minds to see who the Lord Jesus is. Two Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, the God of this age is blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

[23:20]
Satan accuses people, stands before God and accuses us and points to our guilt, which gives him power as well. Satan sends false teachers, one Timothy 4 verse 1, the Spirit clearly says that in the latter time some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits, things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been said, but how do the demons teach? They teach through human agents who are liars.

[23:52]
And Satan dresses up and, in order to remember this, Satan dresses up as an angel of light. Two Corinthians 11 verse 13 says, as Paul speaks about false teachers, he says, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ, and no wonder for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. Two Corinthians 11, 13 and 14. So it's worth understanding remembering that today, isn't it? Who is it that's most likely to be working for the devil?

[24:26]
The devil doesn't turn up in the redous-bestos tracksuit with horns. What does he turn up with? Well, very often, I've just feeling I'm doing something wrong. Okay, well done. Well done. What's it say? When the devil turns up, he will be… he'll appear to be an angel of light.

[24:57]
He'll be good and kind and nice and he'll be the voice of pure reason. He'll come presenting pluralism. Come on, every religion is the same, ultimately. They're all leading to God. And isn't that the angel of light thing to say today? Or it'll be the voice of liberalism that says, we need to grow out of that simplistic faith and leave all that judgment stuff behind and so on. And you know, the devil does his best work through institutional church leaders. Really? It's church leaders who do his best work today.

[25:32]
Those with theological degrees, and like I keep saying, watch out for bishops. The devil does some of his best work through bishops. All right. As well as that, the devil can actually bring physical disasters. So Joe, one and two, and he can bring persecution. Physical persecution, you see that in Revelation chapter two. We'll come to that later on and I'll actually get you to look at that in your Bible study groups. Okay. And six, Lee, his future. The devil is a defeated enemy. His final place, Revelation chapter 20, verse 10, and the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur.

[26:15]
And they're the beasts and the false prophet had been where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Satan will finally be completely destroyed. Okay. So having just said the power of the devil, where he's called the dragon, the lion, the strong man, there is one who is stronger. That's the good news. And we see it. Jesus talks about him, Jesus himself being a stronger man. Now we're back to Mark. We have eventually got back to Mark three, verse 23.

[26:50]
So Jesus called them and spoke to them in parables. He's just been accused of being in league with the devil. So he calls him and speaks them in parables. How can Satan drive out Satan if a kingdom is divided against himself? That kingdom cannot stand if a house is divided into self. That house cannot stand. If Satan opposes himself and he's divided, he cannot stand. His end has come. What he's saying is if the devil was fighting against himself, he'd be weak. He'd be powerless, but he's not. He's strong. And you can see that the devil has control of these people. What is actually happening? It's not the devil in league with the devil. It's verse 27. In fact, no one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can rob his house unless you're stronger. Unless someone stronger comes and binds him and rescues people.

[27:41]
He is aware, we see, as God's Messiah arrives to destroy the work of the devil, that is why you get this hotspot in terms of the activity of the demons and the devil and so on. It's not evenly spread across the whole Bible. The devil is not obviously mentioned very often. In the New Testament, it does focus down to the gospels where the devil is truly at work against the Son of God. Here's some things I'll learn. I'll put this to you and I want you to think hard about this and see whether I'm right.

[28:15]
People today want to talk about spiritual warfare or particularly about deliverance ministries and so on or power encounters. The best book that I've been able to find about this, the power encounters is by a man called David Palanson, P-O-W-L-I-S-O-N. David Palanson, he's a lecturer at Westminster Theological Seminary in the USA in Pennsylvania. It's called power encounters reclaiming spiritual warfare. It's very good. If you're confused about the whole idea of, you know, concussions have demons and what about exorcisms and all of that kind of thing, we'll be doing that in church and so on is brilliant.

[28:58]
David Palanson, he's the difficulty, I think it's out of print, but you still track it down on Amazon or some way. And what he's shown me is this. You've got to always look at what's really going on because a devil always is confusing. In the Gospels, Jesus confronts two different kinds of evil. He confronts what Palanson calls situational evil. And that is, when things are out of shape, things are wrong, things are bad, they're not what they should be, but they're that like that because as a consequence of sin.

[29:33]
So because the sin in our world, things are a mess. What he means by that is sickness, storms, hunger and so on. And as Jesus confronts these things which are situational evil, he uses his power of his command to bang, fix them. There's a storm threatening life, bang, it's fixed. The people are hungry, hand out the food, he fixes it. Sickness with a word, it's fixed. And here's the thing.

[30:05]
With demon possession, the symptoms or what shows itself that someone has a demon or some kind of evil spirit is controlling them or inside them, what shows is not sin, not sin, but sickness. They're sick. And I see it now, it's everywhere through the New Testament. When Jesus comes to contact, how do you know someone has some kind of evil spirit? They're sick. And even the gospel writers put demon possession in the list of all the illnesses that are healed.

[30:35]
So Joy, let's see, Matthew chapter 4 verse 23, Jesus went through our Galilee teaching in their synagogues preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria and the people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering from severe pain, the demon possessed, those having seizures and the paralyzed and he healed them. It's also, if you're taking notes, it's also in Luke 618, Luke 8.2, Luke 9.42.

[31:08]
In Mark 9.25, Jesus heals a boy who's got an evil spirit. How do they know that? He's deaf and he's mute. Or Luke 7.21, at that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits and gave sight to those who were blind. Or one that really jumps out, Luke 13 verse 10, on a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years and she was bed over and could not straighten up at all.

[31:39]
And then jumped down to what Jesus said and should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound for 18 long years, be set free on the Sabbath. She's all crippled up. So Jesus confronts these people who have some kind of evil spirit and by the way we're not told how the evil spirit enters them. We're not told us through any particular sin that they've done or any particular sin that are relatively done or anything like that, they're just we're not told. Isn't it a temptation to want to fill in the gap about how it happened? No, no, no Bible doesn't say. Don't fill the gap. We don't know.

[32:15]
Now Jesus means these people, they're sick, these spirits are doing that and Jesus says you shut up, get out. Bang, that's how long it takes. There's no exorcist, there's no chanting, there's no ritual, there's no whatever. He's the boss, you shut up, get out and it happens. And here's the other thing, when Jesus confronts the evil of sin, what does he do? It's very different isn't it? When Jesus confronts the evil of sin in the human heart, he doesn't exorcise sin out of the person, he calls on them to repent.

[32:51]
Whose people are responsible for their sin. We are responsible for what we do, we make choices and so on. So when Jesus confronts the Pharisees, the ones who ultimately killed him, what he doesn't do is exorcise the demon of pride or anger or jealousy out of them. He says to them, repent, turn around, ask forgiveness. Now see, there's people today in the deliverance of ministries. And as I said, there's a big spectrum. There are some people who are careful and thoughtful about this. I have friends who believe this and I've told them I think they're wrong and they think I'm wrong.

[33:31]
You've got to work out from the scriptures. So people who are thoughtful and careful, write through on the spectrum to people who are just crazy about this. Just whack up. What they say is, Jesus cast out demons so we should expect to do this all the time. And Christians are going to have demons and come in and bring sin and so on. Demons with the names of, you know, anger, lust, jealousy, that kind of thing. And so we should cast those out.

[34:02]
First thing to say is this, Jesus did all sorts of acts of power that we don't expect to imitate and we're not told to imitate. And no one does. So for example, I haven't heard of anyone walking on the water raising the dead, catching fish miraculously, feeding 5,000 people with a cut lunch or controlling the weather. It does it. Okay. So here's the thing. Jesus did all these things. Therefore we should what?

[34:39]
Pray to him when we've got problems. He's the boss. Do you get it? And to say Jesus did these exorcisms. Therefore we should. When Jesus confronted demons that made people sick, he cast them out. Now can people be possessed today? I can't see any reason from the Bible why that's not possible. I don't think Christians can be possessed or controlled. I'll say more about that later.

[35:09]
But can someone be controlled by the devil? Yes. But I've got to say in Australia where I've worked, it's very, it's rare. I mean the devil is everywhere. He's busy. He's having a field day down Mariahle. But it's not kind of the heads of being around the green vomit. It's people busy at Westfields ignoring God on their way to hell. That's, you know, that's another story. So it's possible. Yes. But when it comes to actually dealing with sin, the problem is believing the lie of the devil not being possessed.

[35:47]
And look at the way that Jesus responds to people and the idea of confronting sin. Here we go. So see the deliverance ministry people say the sin in your life, you've got to have some kind of demon cast out. It's not what Jesus does. So Jesus needs the woman, caught in adultery in John chapter 8. He does not cast the demon of adultery out of her. Does he? What's he do? He forgives her and tells her to sin no more. Or the Pharisees. Does he cast out the demon of pride and so on? No. He calls them to repentance.

[36:21]
Or the woman at the well in John chapter 4. Does he cast out the demon of sleeping around from her? I can't think of a better name for that demon. I would say, you know, the demon of sleeping around. No. What's he do? He tells her the gospel. He tells her about himself and says, trust me, believe in Jesus. Was the key is does the key is have the demon of greed thrown out of him? No. Jesus tells him about himself. He calls Jesus Lord. He becomes a believer.

[36:52]
So Jesus preaches the gospel to them, believing they and be forgiven. If you want to see what the normal Christian life looks like, remember I said the Bible is a book. You've got to read it. You want to see what the normal Christian life looks like. You go to the letters, the epistles that Paul and Peter and James wrote and so on. And what we're told there is not to exercise demons out of one another. It's just not there. What we're told is to be aware of the schemes of the devil, not to be deceived, put on the armor of God and we'll get to that in talks.

[37:23]
Okay. Setting people free from the power of the evil one is all the work of God's spirit. And that's what's going on in March 3. Do you see the work of the devil is about seeing the truth. Sorry, the work of the devil is about hiding the truth from people. The work of God is about people seeing the truth. And that's why Jesus warns people in warns these religious leaders in verse 28. I tell you the truth, he says to them. So these are the people who just called him be Elsie Bubb and Jesus gives this warning. I tell you the truth. All sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven.

[38:03]
Whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an eternal sin. He said this because they were saying he has an evil spirit. And it doesn't mean if you blasphem against the Holy Spirit, you know, you're doing some handyman work for your wife and hit your thumb with a hammer and you cuss and you say Holy Spirit, right? You swear. That's it. You're gone on your way to help. No, it's not what he means. What's happening here? These people have looked at the son of God in action, rescuing people from the power of the evil one. They look at that. They look at the work of the spirit of God, rescuing people and they say, this is the devil.

[38:48]
And Jesus saying, if you will not recognize the truth, if you want to call this the devil, there is no forgiveness for you. It's not one or thing. The words there, they were saying in perfect tense. They were continuing to say, if you continue to say this, if you don't change from this, there's no forgiveness. Now I'm about to go really quickly. Okay. Even see, here's the thing. We always keep noticing the wrong things in the spiritual warfare thing. What you notice is Jesus casting out the demons. Yes, he did that. But that was never his prime agenda. That was always just kind of. It just happened. Yes, he did it because he was softhearted and he'd come to destroy the devil. It was like people came to him with sick and he's softhearted. He healed them. He cast out demons as well as he healed people. What was his main agenda? Just turn back to Mark chapter one with me.

[39:35]
Turn back to Mark chapter one. I promise this one isn't coming up on the screen in a minute. So you got to mark chapter one. Okay. What was Jesus main agenda? What had he come to do? Well, look at chapter one verses 14 and 15. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God or literally preaching the gospel. The time has come. He said the kingdom of God is near repair and believe the good news. He came preaching the gospel. And so as part of that, he healed people out of compassion. He cast out the evil spirit who happened to be in the synagogue in verses 21 and following. Then he heals Simon's mother-in-law in verses 29 and 31. People know that Jesus can heal. And so as the Sabbath finishes, look at verse 32, chapter one, verse 32. That evening after sunset, people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon possessed. The whole town gathered at the door and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.

[40:33]
He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Okay. So he healed all the more and more people are coming. Why? Because Jesus could really heal. You want to have a healing ministry? Go and empty a few hospital wards. I guarantee you'll be on the news. You'll have more work than you can cope with. And that's if people came to Jesus. Why? Because he could really heal. But look at what happens in verses 35 to 39. Very early in the morning while it was still dark, Jesus got up left the house and went off to a solitary camp. He had to go out what we call out into the bush in the dark to get some time and space to pray. Simon and his companions went to look for him and when they found him next time, everyone's looking for you. I bet they were. People lined up for miles to get healed. Jesus replied. And here's the thing to know. This is Jesus deliberate priority. Jesus replied, let us go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can what?

[41:31]
I can preach there also. That is why I've come. He came to preach. He came to preach the message of what repentance and forgiveness and ultimately because he was a preacher and wouldn't shut up, he would end up on the cross. But that he's come to preach the word and you see what happens incidentally. Verse 39. So we travel throughout Galilee preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons. He threw out the demons wherever he encountered them, but he didn't go. He didn't say, I've got to go looking for demons. I've come to preach. And the real battle is going on there as well. You see, just turn over to chapter 5. What's it all about? It's about blind eyes and closed hearts. Jesus has just cast the demons out of this man called Legion and they go into the pigs and then run down into the water and drown and so on. And then what happens?

[42:24]
Verse 14. Chapter 5 verse 14. Those tening the pigs ran off and reported this to the town in the town in the country and the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the Legion of demons sitting there dressed in his right mind and they were afraid. Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon possessed man and they told about the pigs as well. Jesus was there and Jesus would have stayed with them for a few days and taught them, spent time with them, told them about himself. Instead, what do they do? Verse 17, then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region. They asked him to leave.

[43:07]
And as one commentator said, people have been choosing their pigs ahead of Jesus ever since. Verse 18, the penalty for asking him to leave, he gets in the boat and he leaves. Why? Why does it happen? Why is it again and again and again? People don't get it. Answer, what's really going on with the devil? Where the devil really, where the conflict is really sharp, Jesus tells a parable to explain what's going on. Have a look at chapter 4 and the parable of the solar. I'm sure most of you have read this. If you haven't, you can do it later. The parable of the solar, the solar goes out, throws out the seed, the word of God is spread across the different soils. Why is it that so many people just don't get it? Have a look at chapter 4 verse 15.

[43:50]
Some people like seed, someone along the path, where the word is so one. As soon as they hear it, what happens? As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was so one in them. It's about the work of the devil. And the real battle is for the hearts and minds of people as they hear the word of God. In fact, John can write his whole gospel without one exorcism. In fact, no, it's not right. There is one casting out of the devil in John and we'll see tonight what that's all about.

[44:28]
But it's not what we usually think of. John can write his whole thing without any obvious exorcisms or whatever you want to call it. Becoming a Christian is about having your eyes opened to the truth. That's what it's all about. That's where the real spiritual battle is. Don't get kind of sidetracked by these other things. We'll see Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 3, I'll read it to you, beyond the screen. He says, and even if our gospel is vailed, it is vailed to those who are perishing. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

[45:06]
For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ is Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. Why is it that we, if you can see who Jesus is, why is it that you can see that? He says, for God who said, let light shine out of darkness, made His light shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. We continue to look, the whole spiritual warfare thing is so easily looking in the wrong places. You know, we think about the head spinning round and all that kind of thing. It's not.

[45:45]
It's will people here and understand who Jesus is. And becoming a Christian is to move from one side of one one army if you like to the other to move from darkness to light. It's as clear as that. You're moving from darkness to light. When the Lord Jesus stops the apostle Paul on the apostle Paul was so all of Tarsus. When the Lord Jesus stops Saul on his way to Damascus, he was planning to kill Christians, Saul later who became Paul says the job description that Jesus gave him. Have a look at this for a job description. Acts 26 verse 17.

[46:21]
The Lord Jesus says to Saul, I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to the Gentiles to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me from darkness to light. Or in Colossians, the apostle Paul will write the same Paul who heard Jesus say these things. He says Colossians 1, 13, for he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the sun. He loves in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

[47:02]
It's a fundamental change. That's what spiritual warfare is all about. You're either in darkness or in light. You either serve the strong man or the stronger man. Can you see that? Can you see the knowledge of God and the face of Christ? Can you see that? If you can, thank God, realize you're in a war, pick up your rifle. Okay, and we'll find out more about that in the coming talks. Tonight we'll look at how does Jesus destroy the works of the devil? How does Jesus destroy the works of the devil?

[47:40]
Understand again, have Bible study groups this morning. It'll be a wonderful time as you wrestle with this question. When hard things in life come, when real painful difficulties come in your life, who has sent them? Which stronger man? Which strong is it the strong man or the stronger man? Do these difficulties come from the devil or do they come from God? And how can you tell the difference?

[48:15]
Will you pray with me? Lord God, we ask please that we may have eyes to see the spiritual battle that our world is in. And we ask please that we may be able to, or that we may all come to see the knowledge of God and forgiveness through Jesus. We pray please that you give us gratitude and humility and ask please that we may be able to see what's going on in our world and have our priorities and our passions in the right place.

[48:52]
And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.