Beware Satan and His Demons

Good morning to you from England. It is five o’clock in the afternoon here in good old, jolly England, and not quite as good weather as Mr. Fraser was referring to earlier in his opening prayer, although April was a gorgeous month here in this country, with temperatures unbelievably up to about 80 degrees. The month of May has been damp with lots and lots of rain, and of course everything looks beautifully green, so I guess I’m not really complaining, but it would be nice to have two or three dry days for a change.

Well, last week I spoke to the brethren in the United Kingdom about many of the difficulties which we face in this world. I’m talking largely about Christians, God’s people, and I think we all know that there are many difficulties out there in the world. It is quite an ugly world in places, and in addition to the world being a problem, there are in-laws and outlaws, perhaps where we work or perhaps in our schooling, and so on.

We also have to contend, have we not, with our own personal weaknesses? You might be the exceptional person who has no weaknesses, but for most of us, there is just the odd one or two weakness which we have, bad habits. It could be something as simple as perhaps enjoying a cigarette now and then, or it could be perhaps that we like to eat the odd (piece of) chocolate cake, or two or three or four. Perhaps it is a weakness toward bad language, but we all have little weaknesses that tend to stick with us no matter what we try to do.

Then, in addition to the world, in addition to our personal problems, there is one special area where we can be very vulnerable, an area where sometimes, because it is invisible, we tend to forget about. We can become rather careless and that would allow an enemy of ours to potentially take advantage of us, if we forget the existence of the spirit world.

In particular, I am talking about the spirit world of Satan and his demons. We certainly can’t see them, as a rule, so it very easy to forget that they are there, and yet, if we forget that we have an arch enemy out there, we could be in grave danger, couldn’t we? Now, while we don’t want to be preoccupied with the demon world, it would wrong equally to totally ignore it. So there could be two mistakes.

On the one hand, you can get people who just love to dwell in the occult. They like to spend time dealing with spiritism and tarot cards and reading about Satanism, and so on. That would be very wrong, I think, to get so immersed in Satan, his demons, and their activity that it could become very unhealthy.

The other extreme is to carry on through life blissfully unaware that there is a spirit realm and spiritual dangers, and we don’t want to do that either.

So today what I would like to do in this message is to review what the Bible teaches about demons, and in particular to see what you and I need to be doing with that knowledge. The title of this message is Beware Satan and His Demons.

Let us start by taking our Bibles and turning to II Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 5 (New King James). We will pick up the context here. Paul writes to the brethren, “But if any has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent—not to be too severe. This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man,...” This is dealing with a situation where a man in the congregation had caused difficulties and problems, which we know about, and the brethren had had to take action and exclude that man from their fellowship, which is a very painful experience, no doubt, for the man and really also quite painful for the rest of the brethren, too.

Verse 7, “So that, on the contrary, you ought now rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him.” So this man apparently had repented of his wrong doing, now he was ready to come back into the fellowship, and Paul was saying, “Look, brethren, this guy had sorted things out in his life, he is now ready to be readmitted, and now, please, don’t hold this against him. Don’t allow any spirit, if you like, of unforgiveness or bitterness to dwell with you. Reaffirm your outgoing concern for this man. Welcome him back into your arms.”

Verse 9, “For to this end I also wrote, that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” So Paul was saying, “Look, people, this may look like a physical situation. This man did some wrong; he has repented; I am telling you now that we should forgive him. I have forgiven him; let’s welcome him back, because, you see, it is not just physical.

If we don’t do this, if we don’t treat this man properly, in a Godly fashion, then I, Paul, am telling you, I know Satan well enough to know that he will take advantage of this situation to cause further harm, to cause, potentially, destruction, because,” says Paul, “we are not ignorant of his devices, of his schemes and his plans.”

You know, Paul was aware of the invisible influences at work in this situation. To perhaps many of the brethren it appeared to be just simply a physical thing - “Oh, wrong doer; throw them out; end of story.” Well, yes, to a degree, but Paul had a good pair of spiritual eyes. He could see that, in any situation among God’s people, there is another invisible adversary that we must always be aware of, and that is Satan the devil and, at times, his demons. They will take advantage of us, individually or as a church, because they are our enemies.

Let’s turn to Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 10. Paul writes here, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” So Paul is warning the brethren here in Ephesus, “Look, you should be on guard. You need this armor on you, protective equipment. Why? So that you can stand up against the wiles of the devil.” Other translations say the “schemings” of the devil, his “cunning devices or stratagems.”

It is not that Satan necessarily will come on head to head with you. He will often be using devious, cunning, underhanded stratagems, not obvious. If it is too obvious, you can see Satan coming; but if Satan schemes, if he is wily, if he is underhanded, if he operates in the dark, so to speak, then you may not notice. Paul is saying, that is why you have to be thoroughly equipped for what is a battle against the scheming, underhanded devil.

Satan doesn’t just do things in a completely random method. He has managed to develop his skills for 6,000 years watching man, and woman, at work in every situation and every circumstance. Satan knows how human beings operate.

I would like to quote one brief sentence from Mr. Armstrong, writing in Mystery of the Ages. He writes, talking about the angels and demons, “They have seen all the activities of mankind on the earth and therefore know more about the human mind, psychology, sociology, science, and all the arts than any living man.”

What Mr. Armstrong is saying is that Satan and the demons were here when Adam and Eve were created. We know that. The book of Genesis tells us that Satan was there, actually, in the Garden of Eden, and Satan and his demons have watched mankind down through the ages, generation after generation. They have watched mankind partying, fighting, lying, stealing, rejoicing, plotting, planning. You name it. Satan and his demons have watched men and women at work for 6,000 years and they are still far more aware of how we operate than any psychologist could possible be.

You don’t always have to hear someone’s voice to know what they are thinking. Most of us today are aware of something like, say, body language. Somebody may say one thing with their mouth, their words, but you can tell (something else) from the way they are holding themselves, covering their mouth with their hand, perhaps looking down at their feet. Their body language can give it all away. You and I can do that Many organizations and companies actually teach their staff how to read body language because it is such a powerful method of communication.

But Satan and the demons are far better than you or I could ever be at reading body language. They can watch you work; they can watch me around the house, and they can tell largely what is going through our minds. Satan and his demons know what buttons to press to get us to do things.

In the New Testament, there are over sixty references to demons and many experiences have been recorded by the New Testament writers for our education, to give us an insight into how Satan and his demons work. I would like to look at a few of these today, just to remind us; things that we are probably familiar with but there is not harm in going back over these things because, let’s face it, if we are going to battle, if we are in a war, the one thing that we don’t want to do is forget about the enemy.

Let’s turn to Matthew, chapter 9, to pick up a brief account. Verse 32 reads, “As they went out, behold, they brought to Him (that is to Jesus) a man, mute and demon- possessed.” So here was a man who could not speak, couldn’t open his mouth and issue any words, and he was demon-possessed. So, are demons real? Can they influence human beings? Well, absolutely!

Verse 33, “And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke.” So Jesus cast out this particular demon from occupying this body and mind. When the demon was thrown out, suddenly the man could speak, so it seems quite obvious that the demon was holding back this man’s ability to communicate. “And the multitudes marveled, saying, `It was never seen like this in Israel!” They were astounded! This guy hadn’t spoken for who knows how long, perhaps all his life. Now Jesus comes along, casts out this demon, a very real being, and when He does that, the man suddenly can hold a conversation.

Verse 34, “But the Pharisees (always willing to look on the good?) said, `Ah, He casts out demons by the ruler of the demons.`” Well, is there a ruler of the demons? Absolutely, as we will see later.

While we are in Matthew, let’s read chapter 10, verse 1, “And when He (that’s Jesus) had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out,...” Does that mean that there were unclean spirits? Absolutely. Otherwise, Jesus could hardly have given these guys the power, or the authority is what the Greek actually says, to cast them out. They were real and they did cause problems to human beings, so Jesus gave His twelve disciples authority over these unclean spirits (and unclean does literally mean “unclean, foul, dirty, horrible) to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease.

Dropping down to verse 5, “These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: `Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go, preach, saying, `The Kingdom if heaven is at hand.``” So we can see that they preached the gospel, the good news of God’s coming kingdom.

Verse 8, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” So we can see there that they are to cast out - and the word means to expel, to eject, to throw out - demons. It is like if you might go to a nightclub (not that I would recommend that necessarily!) and there was trouble, some people causing a difficulty. You could send in some heavyweights and they would grab the trouble-maker and just toss them right out of the nightclub onto the street. That is exactly what Peter is saying here. If you find these spirit beings causing trouble among the people of Israel, cast them out, eject them, throw them out. Don’t allow them to stay there.

If we turn to Luke, chapter 8, we can see that it not just necessarily one demon who may be in operation. Verse 1, “Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.” This is what we just read a verse of two back. Jesus preached about the good news of God’s coming kingdom. “And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities --- (such as) Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons...” That is really quite striking. This lady Mary Magdalene who is featured a number of times in the New Testament had been possessed by, or occupied by, seven individual demons, which, clearly, Jesus had cast out, bringing her back into her right mind, and so on. So we can see that it is possible for even multiple demons to be involved, and these things are written for us to learn from.

In Luke, chapter 8, let’s drop down to verse 26, “Then they (that’s Christ and the disciples) sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons (plural) for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.” So this would have looked like a madman to you and me. This guy is essentially naked and he isn’t living in a nice home. He is living in the tombs and caves where dead bodies were placed. “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him and with a loud voice said, `What have I to do with You, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me!`” Well, that wasn’t the man speaking, was it? Jesus hadn’t come to torment that individual.

Continuing in verse 29, “ For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles; and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness.” So these demons, or demon, gave this man, it would appear, tremendous strength, even though they wrapped him in chains, and shackles, and padlocks, and what not. Houdini used to do that. Harry Houdini was a man who was a bit skilled in using trickery. With this guy, it was just the power that he physically received from the demons which gave him the power to snap these chains, and he would take off into the desert places.

“Jesus asked him, saying, `What is your name?` And he said, `Legion,` because many demons had entered him.” You do wonder, what is it that creates the situation where demons can enter one? We might cover that later.

Verse 31, “And they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss (into no man’s land, so to speak). Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they (the demons) begged Him that He would permit them to enter them.” And He said, `Fine, OK. Go ahead.` “Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country.” So the demons exit the man; they enter into this crowd of swine - hogs, pigs - who panic and charge off down the mountain side and all drown in the sea.

Verse 35, “Then they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man from whom the demons had departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked Him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And He got into the boat and returned.”

That’s an interesting story. Here is a situation where a man is occupied by a number of demons who call themselves “legion” because there are so many. And the demons have a conversation with Jesus and say, “Don’t send us out to float around in no man’s land. We want to be part of some flesh and blood. Here are some pigs near-by; can we occupy the pig’s bodies?” Which they did, and whether that created panic in the pigs when the demons entered them, or not, is not totally clear, but the pigs ran galloping off, and so on.

I have always had a slight suspicion that, if you see a large crowds of people causing difficulty, like sometimes in Britain and Europe at the football matches, or crowds of strikers, you have to be very careful of this crowd activity because it does seem that the demons can cause trouble in crowds whose emotions are particularly raised up.

Still in the book of Luke, let’s turn to chapter 13, verse 10. Looking at crowd activity... sometimes when you speak to an individual face-to face, things seems OK, but when you get a gang together of 15 or 25 or 50 or 100 or 200, then suddenly the crowd mentality changes. Sometimes people who on their own seem fairly reasonable, when you get hundreds together, some strange spirit or attitude can overtake them. That is just something that I have always been a bit cautious of.

Here in verse 10 of Luke 13, “Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath (talking of Jesus). And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, (a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years!) and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up” So this lady was bent over and virtually paralyzed. She couldn’t straighten up, because she had a spirit of infirmity. “But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, `Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.` And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.”, and you would think everybody would glorify God at this stage.

“But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, `“Hey, folks! There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.`”

“Don’t you dare come to Jesus Christ and get healed of your plagues and problems on the Sabbath day. Try on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.” Of course, that is hopelessly the wrong attitude.

Verse 15, “The Lord then answered him and said, `Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it?” “You look after the needs of your animals on the Sabbath day, which is entirely right and proper.” Verse 16, “`So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan bound---think of it---for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?` And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame ( and so they should be); and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by Him.”

So we can see here that Satan and the spirit of infirmity had bound this woman in a paralyzed way for eighteen long years of her life. Eighteen years is a long time. If you start off in mid-twenties and you are not released until you are mid-forties, nearly, that is a large chunk of the top, cream years of your life when you are bent over double. Look what is behind this - Satan and a spirit, a spirit of infirmity that had caused this sickness and illness in this lady.

Let’s turn to Acts, chapter 10, verse 38. “...how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” So Jesus went about, we know, preaching and teaching, and so on and so forth, and “healing all who were oppressed by the devil”, such as that lady, who had been oppressed for eighteen years by a spirit from the devil.

And so we can see that the devil is able to oppress people, and healing is part of that, at times. We could read many other illustrations, in the gospels in particular, where time and time again, Jesus had to cast out demons, from young boys who were thrown down, and twisted, and their mouths foamed, and so on, and in some of the situations from those who were deaf. Demon activity was something that Jesus came across from time to time and which He dealt with.

But perhaps we think that all demon activity ceased at the time of Jesus. Perhaps after Jesus’ death and resurrection, that was it. All the demons were dealt with, all back in their kennels, and no further problems with demons thereafter! Is that the case? Was it something that was just a situation in the gospels? Once Jesus had “seen off”, shall we say, Satan after His death, His resurrection, His ascension to heaven, was that it? No more demons, no more problems, and you and I can relax and rest easy and just look after the other issues we have - the world around us and our weaknesses. Can we ignore the demons now?

Well, we are in the book of Acts. Let’s carry on a few more chapters to Acts, chapter 16, starting in verse 16. I have a marginal note saying that this was about 50, AD, so that is about the best part of nearly twenty years after the resurrection, twenty years into the New Testament church era, so let’s see if there is any demon activity around at this time.

Verse 16, “Now it happened, as we (this is Luke writing who is involved here, as well as Paul) went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.” Here is a young girl, slave girl, and she is a fortune teller because of a spirit of divination that she has.

It is certainly the case that people can tell fortunes, to an extent, and that is not because they can actually tell the future. The reality would simply be that demons are present upon this earth and they are very active. Demons can listen and hear people plotting; they can hear people saying what they want to do tomorrow or the day after; they can hear assassins plotting about assassinations; and, of course, demons who hear these things can come along and whisper them to those they are close to.

So people like, say, Jean Dixon and others can have an idea of what is going to happen in a few days time because if human beings are planning it and talking about it, then demons can hear these things and obviously will pass them on.

That probably is what was happening with this young girl here. She brought her masters much profit. She was a very important financial income to these individuals. “This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying `These men are the servants of the Most High God who proclaim to us the way of salvation.`” One translation says “a way of salvation, one way of salvation.,” perhaps not the only way, she was saying. “And this she did for many days.” So she kept on hounding them, shouting out, “These guys are the servants of the Most High God. They are proclaiming a way of salvation.” After a while, Paul had had enough. “But Paul, greatly annoyed, (or distressed) turned and said to the spirit, (not to the girl, but to the spirit) `I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.` And he (the spirit) came out that very hour.”

So notice that Paul took authority in this situation. Paul said, “I command you.” Paul had that authority as well as the confidence as well as perhaps the spiritual courage and he “grabbed; the nettle.” He just said, “Look, spirit, out!”, and the spirit came out that very hour.

So do spirits exist twenty years after the resurrection? Absolutely! Let’s carry on the story in verse 19, “But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone...”, because no spirit means no information; nothing is going to be brought to this little girl, none of the things happening around them in that area would be passed on, their ability to find out the secrets that people were plotting and planning had disappeared.

“...they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, `These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.`” That, of course, was a bunch of lies. The reason they were upset was that they had lost their fortune.

“Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods. And when they had laid many stripes on them, (stripes being caused by rods beating them on the naked back) they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely. Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.” Which I have to say doesn’t seem like a great reward for doing God’s will and sorting out these demons, but still, Paul had a very interesting and adventurous life, didn’t he? But we can see clearly there that demons were still active and fundamentally causing problems, here about 50 AD.

Let’s carry on a bit further in the book of Acts, chapter 19, verse 11, which again one of my “inspired” marginal notes says is now round about 54 or 55 AD, so about five years on from that last episode. Verse 11, “Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them...” Hey! We know about that, don’t we? That’s the example Mr. Armstrong used for the anointed cloths that the ministers send out if people want to be healed. If you want to be healed and you can’t get to a minister then, traditionally, we have called and asked for an anointed cloth. That is based upon this particular illustration given here. Verse 12, “...so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.” Oh! So even in 54, 55 AD there were still evil spirits going out of people for whom these handkerchiefs, or perhaps today, anointed cloths, were delivered. So it was still something that was happening now 25, 26 years after the crucifixion.

Let’s carry on and read verse 13, “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits,...” Oh, so there were others who had evil spirits. Even these Jewish exorcists recognized that these spirits existed and were possessing people, but they now wanted to change their methodology. They had seen Paul in action. They had noticed the tremendous authority that Paul wielded when he cast out spirits. That would be, I am sure, not just the one from five years earlier, but probable time and time again, and these Jewish exorcists had identified that Paul has got tremendous ability. “We have to do all sorts of mumble jumble and sprinkle holy water and all those things, but this guy just speaks and the spirits depart. Wow! We are going to do the same as Paul does!”

That reminds me of when I was about ten or eleven years old. We moved into a new house, actually a very old house, but new to my family. The house was built round about 1895, a very old house, a very primitive house in some ways. There was so inside toilet. You had to go outside to another outbuilding to use the toilet. Inside was only one tap for the entire house, a cold water tap, and no central heating, no air conditioning, not much at all.

The one thing the house seemed to have, my mom thought, was ghosts or demons. I don’t know now why she came to that conclusion, but she certainly believed that it did have some sort of spiritual “spooks” there. I do recollect on one occasion that she called for the Catholic priest, because we were a Catholic family, more or less, and she called for this Catholic priest who was Irish I think. He came around with his little bottle of holy water and he sprinkled water on the walls of the bedroom, and another bedroom, and the living room, and so on. He sprinkled the water and said some mumble jumble, probably in Latin, I suppose, but I don’t recollect clearly, with the view to try to scare off these “ghosts,” or whatever it was. To be fair, I didn’t come across any ghosts thereafter. Perhaps it worked. Anyway, I was just thinking of this Jewish exorcist and this Irish Catholic exorcist priest.

Carrying on, verse 13, “Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, `We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.` Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest who did so.” So these guys had a bit of a pedigree. They were the sons of a Jewish chief priest. These guys were high up the ladder. Surely demon spirits would recognize, “Well, these are important, these Jewish lads!” Verse 15, “And the evil spirit answered and said, `Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who do you think you are? Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.” So he beat the daylights out of them and they ran off with no clothes on. Right? Well, I think that is perhaps an important lesson for anybody who wants to go about casting out demons and evil spirits. You had better make sure that you have the authority. These guys certainly did not.

Verse 17, “This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.” This was, like, public news. It was in the newspapers for days and days, “Hey! These Jewish guys thought they could cast out a demon, and he beat them up and left them a bloody mess”, because they thought they could just pop the words, just sprinkle the name of Jesus and Paul around, and the demons would take off. Well, demons can be quite dangerous and, really, unless you have the authority, you are probably better off not messing around with them.

Are demons still around today, nearly 2,000 years later, or did they perhaps die out late in the first century, AD? What do you think? Well, I will quote once more from Mr. Herbert Armstrong, again from Mystery of the Age. Mr. Armstrong says, “I have had a number of personal experiences with demons through a few demon-possessed people.” So Mr. Armstrong came across them.

Continuing, “I have cast out demons through the name of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Some demons are silly, like spoiled children. Some are crafty, sharp, shrewd, subtle. Some are belligerent; some are sassy; some are sullen and morose; but all are perverted, warped, twisted.”

So Mr. Armstrong in his long life as a minister and pastor had come across a number of demon-possessed people and he had, as a minister of Jesus Christ should, cast them out at the relevant time. He says, `Look. They vary. Some are cheeky, like little children; some are very shrewd, devious; others are really quite belligerent, quite aggressive`, a bit like those who took care of the sons of Sceva.

The scriptures make it plain that demons do vary in their attitude. They are not all the same. Turn to Matthew, chapter 12, verse 43. You might think that all demons are identical. Well, no, they are not. We read here, “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, (or it could be, of course, a woman) he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then He says, `I will return to my house from which I came.` And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself...” So, you see, there are some spirits who are higher in terms of their evil and wickedness than others. So he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than he himself was, “...and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse that the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.” Absolutely right!

When one casts a demon out, and nothing else changes, and the individual doesn’t watch and guard the door to his mind, then that demon might well bring back seven others, actually more wicked, more evil, more belligerent than himself. Then, of course, the end of that person is far worse than when they started.

So then we can see that spirits and demons are very real. It is not just a question of a fertile imagination. The Bible talks about them through the gospels. Paul and Luke came across them. Mr. Herbert Armstrong came across them.

I think from time to time, probably if we ask around in our fellowship, perhaps many of us have stories we could tell. Thankfully, I think, they are fairly infrequent. I know I have come across a few situations, mostly second hand, once or twice first hand. I guess if you asked other brethren in the church, you could probably find a few more stories to add to them.

I recollect one early on, which was a friend of mine in the church, in fact the best man when Maureen and I got married. This individual, I recollect him saying, was in his upstairs bedroom one night. It was dark; he was in his room doing whatever he was doing, minding his own business, and suddenly there was a tap-tap-tapping on the window. Now this was an old house and quite a tall house. The window was probably about, I would guess, 25 feet up from ground level. He heard this tap-tap-tapping in the window and he looked across and he was horrified because looking in the window was his own face! I know that scared him quite a lot; he was a big lad as well, a big toughie, but he was petrified!

I do recollect him getting on to the minister in the phone box near-by that night and saying, “What do I do? It is like there is a spirit or a demon knocking at my window trying to get in!” The trouble was that this friend of mine had dabbled in the past in yoga and the martial arts and both of those are linked at times to opening one’s mind up to spirit forces. So he was told absolutely clearly, “Do not under any circumstances indulge in any of these Far East ways of doing things, like yoga and so on, and you pray and fast for protection, because you have opened your mind up and made it vulnerable to Satan and his demons.”

Then there was another story that I recollect which perhaps most of you have heard, of a situation at Ambassador College in Bricket Wood in England where many of the students woke up one morning and were all paralyzed. Dozens and dozens of them could not move because some sort of spirit force held them all paralyzed. It took a while for that to wear off.

A leading evangelist - I had better not name him, in case he doesn’t want the story passed on - described this one day. He said that when he was at Ambassador College as a younger man, he was walking on the campus and another friend of his was walking not too far away. A voice said to him, “Kill him!” He was suddenly urged to get this other guy and kill him. He said that he had to really fight that. He jumped into some bushes and threw arms around the tree trunks and hung on to them as this force, this voice, urged him to go out and kill one of his fellow students. So he was a man who was at times affected by the spirit world.

In another situation, Mr. Richard Plache, who was in the 1960”s the executive assistant to Mr. Garner Ted Armstrong, explained that he and another minister went to visit a lady in Southern California. They got there and were talking to this lady and they noticed that when you talked to this lady and asked her a question, it took about a minute for her to answer. He would say, like, “What is your name?” One minute later she would give you her name. “How are You?” One minute later she would tell you. It was quite obvious, as they soon found out, that she was communing with a spirit inside her!

The story came out, little by little. It started some years earlier when she had gone down to the basement in her house in Southern California. A voice spoke to her and said, “Open that trunk on the floor.” She looked around and there was nobody there! The voice said, “Open that trunk on the floor!” So she opened the trunk on the floor. The voice said, “Take out that book.” She looked around and there was nobody there, but there was a book which happened to be a Bible. The voice said, “Open it to Exodus, chapter 20,” so she did and the voice said, “Read those verses,” which she did and the voice said, “Do it!” The verses in question were, “Keep the Sabbath day,” so she kept the Sabbath day.

As the months progressed, she eventually got to the point where she would only take action when the voice spoke to her. By the time that Mr. Plache and the other minister got there, a couple years later, she literally was taken over by this spirit being, and she would only answer questions when the spirit being gave her the answers. Really, that was a very strange affair. It started off, interestingly, with this spirit being giving her some truth, a little bit of truth, and gradually leading her to the point where she was possessed.

One other situation which was more first hand was a young lady in the church some years ago, a very, very nice young lady. We were at the wedding for her and her husband. She had a little child, and then when the child was two or three years old, this young lady, still in her twenties, became very strange. She became very depressed, very odd in her behavior, and her husband and family had her put into a mental institution for quite a number of months. All they could do with her was put her on drugs and give her electric shock treatment. She would come out for a while and come back to church with her husband and she was still very odd, and I was absolutely convinced, and still am to this day, that she was affected by demons.

Unfortunately at that time, I guess the early 1980’s, the ministry of the church that I was in seemed unwilling to recognize even the possibility of a demonic influence. This young girl went through an awful, awful time, and her family, going back in and out of this mental institution with all these drugs and injections and spending time in solitude, and so on. I am absolutely, one hundred percent convinced that it was a demon that should have been dealt with, but unfortunately it never did take place.

Anyway, I think, thankfully, we can say that these direct attacks and influence of demons are relatively rare. So, if they are so rare, does that mean that we can just relax and coast through life, then, completely unconcerned? Nope! Nope, because there are things that still will cause us difficulty if we are not continually alert.

Let us turn to Ephesians, chapter 2. It would be entirely wrong of us to think that Satan and his demons are only working one day in every year, or something. They are spirit beings; they don’t really tire. They are active, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Starting in verse 1, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” So here is a being referred to as the “prince of the power of the air,” and this spirit being, it says, “now works in the sons of disobedience.” Some translations say the “ruler of the power of the air,” (note: the ruler), and for the spirit “who now works in...” is “who now energizes” the sons of disobedience. So here is this being who now, says the Apostle Paul, is energizing, or working, in the sons of disobedience.

There is a ruler of the power of the air. What does that mean? Who is this being, and what does it mean to be the prince of the power of the air? Does it have any effect upon you and me? Well, according, again, to Mr. Herbert Armstrong, same book as before, Mystery of the Ages, “In Ephesians 2:2, Satan is called the prince of the power of the air, working in (inside the minds of) people. I could never have understood this until:

1) I had understood how radio and television sound and pictures are transmitted through the air,

and

2) I had learned the truth about the human spirit in the human brain.”

So, Mr. Armstrong says, notice, that it couldn’t be understood really much earlier. But now that we know about TV signals and radio signals, and now that we have found out about the spirit in man, suddenly this becomes clear.

He carries on, “If your radio is set on the proper radio wavelength or TV set is tuned to the proper channel, the broadcaster’s message comes through clearly. Satan, as prince of the power of the air, broadcasts, not in words, sounds, or pictures, but in attitudes, moods, and impulses.” And that is absolutely the case!

What Mr. Armstrong is saying is that Satan actually broadcasts his attitudes, his greed, his jealousy, his envy, his treachery, his hostility. It is all around, broadcasting through the air, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and that broadcast is picked up by the spirit in man acting almost like a radio.

Mr. Armstrong continues, “Satan moves on the human spirit within people to move them in attitudes of envy, jealousy, resentment, impatience, anger, bitterness, and strife. People have no realization of the tremendous power of Satan. The human spirit within each human is automatically tuned to Satan’s wavelength. It seems as if Satan has surcharged the air over the entire earth with his attitude of self-centered and vanity.”

That’s really a very good analogy; it’s an analogy and may not be perfect, but Mr. Armstrong is saying, `Look, the spirit in man is like a radio. If you look around the room you are in at the moment, you can’t see TV signals. You can’t hear the radio broadcast. You can’t see it; but you bring in a radio, plug it in, switch in on and just play with the tuning knob, and suddenly you can hear music, or words!`

It is a bit like that with Satan’s broadcast. It tells us in Ephesians 2 that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we used to also conduct ourselves.

How did Satan energize or work in these people? It is very simple: he broadcasts through the atmosphere; and the human spirit, until it is converted, is tuned in to Satan’s broadcast. It just picks it up unknowingly, ignorantly, but Satan is so powerful that he can get his attitudes -violence, greed, resentment, jealousy, envy, and nasty things that make up human nature - broadcast and injected into our minds.. That is something that we have to deal with. It doesn’t go away.

I think that one of the tremendous things that will happen in the Millennium is when Satan is taken by that great angel and chained up and locked away for one thousand years. I am almost convinced that there will be a sudden, dramatic change in people’s minds and attitudes because the broadcast will be switched off. Satan’s broadcast stations will suddenly close down for one thousand years, and then, surely, people’s minds will become - “Well, what happened? I just feel like all the tension is gone; all my anger is gone! All that hate and violence is too. I don’t know why, I just feel much more peaceful.” The reason will be that the broadcast from this demonic, evil, malicious being will be closed down for one thousand years. That will surely have a tremendous impact on the way people live!

Let’s turn to I Peter, chapter 5, and remind ourselves that we need to be alert. We just read that Satan broadcasts as prince of the power of the air. Mr. Armstrong says, that surfeits the air across the whole world. But what about you and me as Christians? Perhaps we are OK, are we? It doesn’t affect us? We are safe, are we? We can relax?

In verse 8 we read, “Be sober, be vigilant;...” My margin says, “be watchful,” be on guard. Why? “...because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” So Peter is warning the brethren, saying, “You had better be on your guard. You need to be sober.” That doesn’t mean give up drinking, don’t be drunk, but that would certainly be part of it. It means to be very temperate, be balanced, don’t go to extremes. Watch your mind. Be ever so vigilant. Keep your eyes open spiritually because you have an adversary.

What is an adversary? It is an enemy and it is the devil and it is going about like a lion looking for someone to devour, and that would be to devour spiritually and to destroy. Can he get you; can he get me? Well, if we are sober and vigilant, the answer would be no! But if we are careless and neglectful and not watching, and complacent in wandering through Satan’s jungle, then perhaps we could be in danger.

Verse 9, “Resist him, (oppose him; stand against him) steadfast in the faith, (or steadfast in your faith, one translation says) knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

Satan operates on a global basis, whether you are a brethren in New Zealand, or Australia, or South Africa, or Canada, or wherever. Satan knows no boundaries. His demons are over the whole world and so we are all facing the same battle, the same fight, and we have all got to be continually on the alert, because here is a being who goes about like a roaring lion, looking for the weak ones.

I don’t know a great deal about lions, but I believe that when they see a flock or herd of deer in the wild, they look for the weak ones. They look for the stragglers; they look for the ones at the very edge of the herd. Those are the ones that they go for. They don’t go for the strong ones in the middle; they pick them off, one by one, from the outside. So we are told to be very careful because even as Christians, or we might say, especially as Christians, Satan is looking for you and me to see whether he can devour us.

Let’s turn to James, chapter 4, starting in verse 6, “But He (God) gives more grace. Therefore He says: `God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.`” I think it would be very dangerous for us to be so proud and so arrogant about our strength that we ever would try to take on Satan in our own spiritual might, but if we are humble and recognize where God fits in, then that really helps us. Verse 7 says, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Notice; we have to resist.

You can’t resist if you are sleeping on the job. If you roll over in your spiritual bed, yawning and paying no attention to the fact that there is an enemy out there, an adversary, you won’t be resisting very much. Satan could walk right up to you and beat you in the head!

We are told here to resist the devil, and if we are sober and watchful, then we will know when Satan is trying to put one over, and we can resist, and he, it says, will flee from us. It is not a question of us fleeing from the devil. It says he will from us. The word in the Greek is the same as what gives you the word “fugitive.” Satan will take off if we resist him properly.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” It is important that we do live properly, because Satan knows when we are rolling in sin, when our spiritual guard is down and we are in danger of opening our minds up. Satan can tell that quite easily.

Let’s turn to Ephesians, chapter 6. We have been here before, but we are going to pick up a bit more of the story now. Start again in verse 10. This is quite a powerful passage. Mr. Liebold covered a fair chunk of this at the last Feast of Tabernacles. “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” This would be very good advice. We must never think that it would be our strength that could ever win the battle against Satan and his demons. They are far more powerful than we would be - spirit versus human flesh and blood - but we are told to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and there is no demon, no army of demons, strong enough to win against the power of God’s might.

Verse 11, “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles (the schemings) of the devil.” So we absolutely know that Satan will scheme. There is no question. He will do it; he is doing it. There is no question that he will do it. He is doing it today. He was doing it last week and last month, and the church, as far as Satan is concerned, is good picking. Just look around.

Verse 12, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood...” We think we do, and very often we think we are up against family, coworkers at work, people down at the supermarket, people in other church groups. We often think that we are wrestling purely against physical flesh and blood, but the reality is, it says, that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. That is not where the problem lies. What we are wrestling is “...against principalities, against powers,...” These are hierarchies of spirits, this is an insight into the organization of Satan’s kingdom.

We wrestle “...against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts (or armies) of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So there are at least four groups that we can see in that one verse, which constitute Satan’s demonic kingdom. Principalities. Then there are powers. There are these who are called the rulers of the darkness of this age. Their job is to keep people in spiritual darkness, utterly confused and perverted. Lastly, the spiritual armies of wickedness in the heavenly places.

“Therefore...”Because we have this battle against these spiritual armies and so on, we are told to “...take up the whole armor of God,...” verse 13, “that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth,..” So here is the armor of a Christian, but we have to put it on. God doesn’t put it on so it can just stay there all of our Christian lives. We are told, “Take it up”. You take it up. I must take it up. We must put on this armor. Then it says, “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness (that’s right living), and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” So we have all this armor, but Paul says, above all, most important of all, to make sure that you have this shield of faith in front of you, “with which you will be able to quench (put out) all the fiery darts of the wicked one.”

So are there fiery darts? Absolutely yes! The term is a bit odd to us, perhaps - fiery darts. We might say “fire- tipped missiles.” That is how one translation puts it - “missiles tipped with fire.” You can imagine in olden times that if you had arrows or javelins with bitumen in the front to which you set fire, and hurled those into a wooden building, it was pretty bad news. The illustration is that Satan is sending fire-tipped missiles, perhaps today we could say with explosive warheads, headed toward us. But we have a shield, or I should say, we have a shield available. If we were to take up this armor and put it on and keep it on, and we want to withstand these atomic warheads from Satan’s missiles as he fires them at us, then we need to have that shield in daily use.

Verse 17, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints---” So we can see plenty of advice there from the apostle Paul, “Get this armor on, God’s armor. Don’t try this on your own strength; and make sure, please.” he says, “above all make sure that you have a shield of faith in front of you to deflect and put out these atomic warheads that Satan puts in your way.”

Let’s turn to I Timothy, chapter 4. We can see even as Christians that there is a war that we are involved in, there is a battle that we are involved in, and it is with Satan, the wicked one and his fiery missiles, and so on. Begin in verse 1, “Now the Spirit expressly says (or explicitly says, or plainly says) that in latter times some will depart from the faith,...” Have we seen that? Are we in the latter times? Have we seen some depart from the faith? This is talking of people who were walking in the way of faith, and it says that they will depart from the faith.

Look what they are doing - “...giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,..”. The King James talks about “seducing” spirits and doctrines of demons. You know, these are false teachers, as it happens here, who were walking God’s way, but somewhere over the years they have listened to seductive, deceiving, seducing spirits. They have not been attentive to the wiles and schemings of Satan and his demons, and they have been caught. They have been trapped. They gave heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

I think probably many of us would be easily seduced by new revelation. “Hey! I’ve got new revelation!” “Have you? New revelation? Wow, that‘s exciting! Tell me all about it.” It is very easy for us, particularly as men, as it happens, to go chasing after “new truth” when the biggest problem we have is living up to the truth we already have. But it seems that men in particular, to a very large degree, are easily seduced by the promise of “new revelation.”

We have all seen it. The calendar, for instance. “We found out the real, true calendar of God. Only a few exclusive, particularly bright people know the absolute way you count God’s calendar. If you’d join us, you would be one of the few people who are really keeping God’s holy days at the right time. All the rest of them – pay no attention. They are deceived.” Or it could be, how about, the secret name of God? There are quite a few Church of God groups now that say, “Unless you use God’s special, real name you won’t be in His Kingdom. If you talk about “God” and “Jesus Christ”, you have no chance. But, if you are one of us, and learn God’s real name, Yaweh, or Yaway, or Yahoo, or whatever, and use that, then you will be God’s chosen and elect.” “Oh, really! I want some of that then.”

I saw in the recent Journal advertising for yet another Who or What is God seminar. “Was Jesus Christ eternal, or was He created by the one and only God? If you understand the real truth about this, you will have great understanding and insight, but those other people, Armstrongites and so on, are deceived!” And, of course, all these people will quote lots and lots of scripture at us. But what have they done? They have departed from the faith by giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines which actually come from Satan and his demon world.

Verse 2, “...speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,..” They speak lies and hypocrisy, because it is just not true. There are men who come across as ministers of God, ministers of Jesus Christ, and they are teaching lies. They are teaching doctrines of demons. Jesus warned them, didn’t He? He said “...many shall come in My name, saying, `I am the Christ`; and shall deceive many.” (Matt 24:5) No great surprise! But look where these things are coming from - from spirits and demons.

Now what is the outcome of this? Well, people listen to it, and they are deceived, and sometimes they will lose their spiritual lives, because they gave up the truth of God and they took up with doctrines of demons, These are where most of the problems that you and I will face will come from, not from an apparition one night, meeting on the stairs, but from the onslaught day-in and day-out of seductive doctrines of envy, of jealousy, of resentment, of hurt feelings, all those things broadcast day after day by Satan the devil.

How do we combat this? Let’s turn to Proverbs, chapter 4, for a key scripture. Begin in verse 20. We are looking at the dangers we face living in Satan’s world, where Satan is the god of this age, the ruler of this present age, broadcasting twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and the human spirit is just automatically tuned to this broadcast. Verse 20 says, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;” Don’t we take this as God speaking to us, to you and to me? We are told here to make sure that God’s ways and His words are absolutely the main focus of our thinking. We should never let God’s truths, His words, depart from our eyes. “Keep them in the midst of your heart.” Make sure that it is in-filled with God’s truth and His Word. “For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.”

Verse 23, “Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.” Keep your heart - that means to guard your mind with all diligence. Make absolutely sure that your mind is secure against Satan, his demons, and their activities.

One thing, for example, I would say, is never allow yourself to be hypnotized. When you are hypnotized, you yield your mind to another human being. You almost give over your ability to make free, moral decisions. You should never, in my view, in my opinion, put it that way, yield up the door to your mind to another human being. Absolutely not! But Satan’s society - we call it civilization - that you and I live in today is built upon Satan’s values, Satan’s life style: competition, get, take, perversion, corruption. It is very easy in this world to just rather casually and carelessly open your mind up to things that really emanate from Satan’s mind and Satan’s thinking, and they are not good things at all

We need to guard our heart with all diligence and be very careful what we allow in. For example, drugs. How many people when they start taking drugs expect to end up as physical wrecks dying in some dingy apartment with a syringe sticking out of their arm? Well, they don’t! They start out thinking it is “cool, sexy. Hey, I feel really in a high!” But drug abuse takes its toll, and leads, of course, to a great deal of crime and stealing and embarrassment and humiliation, and very often a very horrible, nasty, disgusting death, while Satan just relishes it, because he uses drugs to get to people minds.

What about sex? Sex is something God designed for within marriage to help a husband and wife enjoy the physical side of marriage! But what is it today? I believe it is one of the biggest industries in the world! I heard recently a figure of ten billion dollar industry in the USA. Ten billion dollars is the pornographic industry in the USA! Ten billion dollars. How many men and women are involved in pornography if it can make ten billion dollars a year? And what happens? People get so perverted, so mixed up, that they destroy every chance of happiness in marriage. It breaks up homes, society, causes disease. It is horrific, and Satan who is, of course, sexless, relishes destroying every possible happiness within peoples lives as he perverts sex. People start off sometimes thinking, “Oh, it is just a little fling.” But years later, their mind is utterly corrupt and perverted. They opened their mind to something unclean and unwholesome, and they wrecked their lives in the process.

Take the movie industry. What are the movies like: up-building, clean, wholesome, encouraging right values? Or are they filled with, strangely enough, sex, drugs, violence? If you spend too much time watching the movies, whose mind is it that you are actually looking at, whose values are you taking in? Take the music industry. Please do take it! There is an awful lot of music in this world that is very dodgy. I wouldn’t want to spend too much time discussing it because most of the youth would just ignore me and say, “Ah yeah! Old fuddy duddy. It was different in his day, no doubt, but we like the music of today, and it is cool.” Well, don’t ever forget that Satan had musical abilities, and Satan is highly perverse and corrupt.

I remember several groups of the past (showing my age a little bit, perhaps) but there was a group called the “Black Sabbath.” Black Sabbath? The name of a musical group? There was a group called KISS. Several people said it meant different things, but a rock musician who had left the rock industry and who was speaking about it, said that it stood for “Kids in Satan’s Service.” Kids in Satan’s Service!

A lot of rock music has backward masking on it. There is quite a famous, popular song called “Hotel California” done by a group called the Eagles. When that comes on the radio, I will switch it off because I have heard that music played backwards, and certain sounds which you don’t detect when you play it normally, when you play that song backwards, the words “Satan, he is god; Satan, he is god” can be heard. That is in the song, “Hotel California”!

A great deal of today’s music is designed to corrupt the human mind, and we do have to be very careful what we allow into our minds. You wouldn’t eat any old junk, well, perhaps many of us would! But we are supposed to be careful about what we take into our mouths and feed our physical bodies. Good food equals a good body and rubbish equals not such a good body. Our minds are probably even more important! Let’s watch what we let enter our minds.

Turn to Colossians, chapter 1, starting in verse 9, ”For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;...” This is what we need to have in our minds, not today’s standards and values from the TV or the movie or the music industry or pornography or whatever. Let’s be filled with the knowledge of God’s will...”...in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (not the knowledge of Satan’s world) strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”

You know, we can be thankful to God the Father because we have been qualified to enjoy a super inheritance in the world to come. But notice verse 13, “He has delivered us from the power (authority) of darkness...” It says “power of darkness”; that would be OK, but the Greek is actually “authority.” “He has delivered us from the authority of darkness and conveyed (translated) us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.: You know, God has actually delivered us from Satan’s authority.

Satan should not have authority over us, but, of course, it would be very foolish of us to deliberately go into Satan’s world and just try to enjoy some of Satan’s civilization and open up our minds to Satan’s standards and values and expect, somehow, to be immune from that.

Colossians, chapter 3, tells us what we should be doing with our minds. In verses 1 and 2, Paul says, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.” Seek out things of heavenly value. Seek out God’s valuable things, not this world’s. “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” We have a choice; we can either go with the world, go with Satan, dabble with the occult, play our Tarot cards, listen to some of the real, head-banging music of today, or we can try to find things of eternal value and focus on those, setting our mind “on things above, not on things on the earth.”

Let’s turn, finally, to Ephesians 6 again, our last chapter. Verses 10 and 11, just as a final reminder, “Finally, my brethren...,” says Paul, and it is my final scripture, too, “therefore be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God ...” It says whole armor; that means not a bit of it; that means all of it “Put on,” and that is you put on; I have to put on; no one can put it on for us. “You put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles (or schemings) of the devil.”

You see, brethren, Satan is out there. His demons are out there. Hopefully, we won’t come across them on a direct basis too often, but they are real. Satan is a deadly enemy, and I mean a deadly enemy. We don’t have to play in Satan’s garden. If you play in Satan’s garden, his dogs will bite you. We need to keep close to God, to His ways, and to His teachings and be very alert, guarding always the door to our mind. Then, if we do all that, and are alert and sober minded, we can be safe and secure. So, brethren, as the final comment, I will remind you of the title of this, which is, brethren, Beware Satan and His Demons.