The Description of Demons (2)

As joy to see you here tonight, joy to be back in the Lord's house and our study in the Word tonight, as we continue, the study of what the Bible teaches about angels and focusing in this part of the study on what the Bible teaches about evil angels, the demons. It's been a couple of weeks since we have been in this study, so let me just remind you that we've been talking about the reality of demons that they are, they really exist. The Bible mentions them very many times. We've talked about the origin of demons where they came from and last time we were together we talked about the description of demons. What do they like? We saw that they are genuinely persons. The personality of demons is established quite clearly in the scriptures. And then we also saw some of the properties of demons. They are spirit beings. They typically do not have a body, but they are called spirits. But although they are spirits, they are limited in time and space. They are not like God, everywhere present at the same time, but they are limited in space. However, they are spirit beings. We also saw that they are morally perverted. In other words, everything about them is twisted with an evil bent, with an unclean, impure, evil bent to it. We saw that in a couple of ways last time in their persons, in their very nature, they are called unclean spirits. They are called impure spirits, wicked spirits. And so in their very persons, they are morally perverted, unclean, wicked. And also in their doctrine, we saw that their doctrine is the same as Satan. They promote his system of lies and cause people to forsake the Word of God and motivate false teachers to twist the scriptures and deceive people into believing what is not right. And so that is the perversion, the twisting of doctrine of teaching. And so they are unclean and impure in that as well. That's where we begin tonight. That's where we left off last time. So tonight we're going to see a third way that they are morally perverted. They are also twisted, perverted, wicked in their conduct. So not only in their persons, they're doctrine, but also in their conduct, what they do. Now remember that demons are Satan's angels. They are called his angels quite often in the New Testament. And so what we know of Satan doing, we would expect also the demons would join with him in that. And we have already seen earlier in our study that Satan is involved in a lot of evil work. He is sowing tears among the weak. In other words, sowing false disciples, false professors, even among those who are genuine and true believers and followers of Christ. He also disguises himself to confuse people about the teaching of the scriptures. Remember the passage in 2 Corinthians 11 that says he deceives others by presenting himself as an angel of light and even people who call themselves apostles. Paul said, we're false apostles, presenting themselves as messengers of the light when they really weren't. So we would expect if Satan is involved in doing those things and his angels would also be involved in doing the same thing. So they're involved in the same evil work that Satan is doing. They make it possible for Satan to be at work in many parts of the world at the same time. Because Satan is limited, he can only be in one place at one time. So his demons multiply his work. So in their conduct, they're really doing the same thing that Satan is doing. I want you to look at a passage which describes this on a national level. Look at Matthew chapter 12 with me. Please, Matthew chapter 12, we're going to look at verses 43 to 45. But let me set the stage for this. This is that well-known passage where the Pharisees who could not deny that Jesus was doing miracles ascribed the power for those miracles to Satan. Remember they accused Jesus of doing his miracles by the power of Bielzebub or the Prince of the demons Satan himself. And so they said really his power is wicked. Evil power comes from Satan. And Jesus just turned that inside out and turned that whole argument on its head with his answer. But right after that discussion, the Pharisees say, well, we want to see a sign. In other words, we want you to prove to us who you say you are. And Jesus answers them in verse 39, a wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign. None will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And he talks about Jonah being in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And then coming forth and the resurrection of Christ will be in the same way a sign to the nation of Israel. Now after addressing the spiritual leaders of the nation and after saying that the only sign the nation of Israel will get is the resurrection of Christ. Here's where we start with what he says about demons. Verse 43. He says when an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, I will return to the house I left. When it arrives, it founds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself. And they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation. And so what Jesus is addressing is the nation of Israel represented by the wicked generation led by wicked Pharisees who are demanding a sign when Jesus has already given them abundant evidences to who he is. So he's saying for this wicked generation, here's what the nation of Israel is. Israel is like. It's like a house that was indwelt by an impure spirit and the impure spirit has left. So what has happened is rather than rather than the house being occupied by God, it is just kind of swept out and cleaned and made to look good. See, that's what the Pharisees have done. The Pharisees had an external religion that was all do's and don'ts, legalistic. Everything looked good on the outside. They looked very religious, but there was nothing on the inside by way of the presence of the Lord, the true work of the spirit. So what happens is when the nation is led by those kind of people, it ends up being worse off than it was before. So that spirit comes, finds the house all nice and clean. So he moves back in and brings seven other impure spirits with him. Now what Jesus is getting at is that Satan himself has used the Pharisees as false teachers to deceive the nation of Israel and make them seven times worse than they were before. And he uses the word picture of an impure spirit. So demons who were involved in that process as well are doing the same work that their leader Satan does in deceiving the nation of Israel. And they deceived the nation of Israel with a religious system, that interesting, with a religious system, not with all kinds of sinful immorality, they deceived the nation of Israel with a religious system. His best disguise is religion. So that's part of what the demons are involved in as well along with Satan himself. So their conduct is evil and it is the same as what their leader is. Questions or comments? Yes, Julie? Yes. Okay. The only person who can be in more than one place in one time is God. He is the only one who is omnipresent. Omnipresence is a characteristic of deity. Well Satan is not deity. He is a created being. He was created first as an angel. So being a created being, he can only be in one place at one time. And the thing that's tricky for us to get here, and I struggle with grasping it too, is the fact that he is a spirit being. And we think of a spirit being as being all over. But a spirit being is not omnipresent. It doesn't mean the spirit is everywhere. That spirit can only be in one place at one time. So Satan is demons and even good angels can only be in one place at one time. That is the only being who is not a created being and is omnipresent. Part of the characteristic of God is that he is everywhere present at the same time. He is here. He is in Canada. He is in France. He is in Hong Kong. He is everywhere present at the same time. And in every part of the universe, well Satan is not that way. Satan can only be in one place at one time. He has a lot of demons. And so they multiply his work and enable him to be at work in the same way he would be working in multiple locations. Yeah. Very? Yes. I really do think it is both end. I think they know their masters will so well that they just do it on their own. But there is a hierarchy. Satan is their leader. He is called the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air. So he is the head. So you would think with that kind of hierarchy there would be some accountability structure, some reporting, whatever. How that works. We don't really have enough information to know. But I would also believe that they are so well versed in what he wants. They carry that out without having to receive orders about everything they do. Tommy? Obviously that would not be in New Testament times because the Roman Catholic Church was not really formed until the 400s to 600s AD. So 400 to 600 years after the birth of Christ is when the Roman Catholic Church really began to form. Yeah. You know, whatever church, denomination, religious group is not faithful to the scriptures or to whatever degree they are not faithful to the scriptures, then Satan is at work. And whether that is the Roman Catholic Church or Baptist Church or whatever. Any church that is not faithful to the scriptures, an individual church or a denomination as a whole that has left the faith and has become liberal and does not teach the scriptures, that would obviously be the work of Satan. How does he communicate with the demons? Interesting question. I don't know. I don't know. Again, he can only be in one place at one time. So there evidently is some kind of hierarchy. We know that there are different ranks of the angels listed, for instance in Ephesians 6, Prince Paladines, powers, so forth. So those are different ranks of angels. So you would expect that Satan, he cannot, I don't think he can communicate with all of them at the same time. There must be some kind of hierarchy that the chain of command that the orders go down. That would be my guess. Yes. Exactly. That's a good point. The ease of commute and speed with which they move makes communication and carrying out things much easier. And we'll actually talk about that a little bit later. They're supernatural presence that they are. They move very quickly. Exactly. Which again shows how twisted and perverted even rest is. For a demon, there's nothing more restful or peaceful than to be creating havoc in dwelling and monopolizing someone's life. Interesting thought. Okay. Okay. So demons are morally perverted in their conduct and what they do basically carrying out the orders of their commander in chief who is Satan himself. Okay. So we've seen that demons are spirit beings as part of their properties, what they're like. They're morally perverted. The third property of demons that we're going to talk about is that they are invisible but capable of manifestation. And what I mean by that is, okay, first of all, they're angels. So they are spirit beings. They're invisible. They do not typically have a body. However, they may be capable at times of appearing in some kind of visible form. The reason I would say that is, first of all, angels have done that. We saw that good angels sometimes appear in human form. Remember the angel of the Lord that would appear in human form in the Old Testament or other angels that would appear like the ones at the tomb of Christ who had a bright glowing appearance. So we know that at times God allows good angels to appear in some kind of form. We also know that evidently Satan at times has appeared in some kind of visible form. Can you think of any instances in the Bible where Satan appeared in a visible form? Tentation of Christ would appear to be one of those, wouldn't it? Because they carry on a conversation and Satan takes him up on a high mountain which all those physical references and movements seem to indicate that Jesus is not just talking to an unseen spirit being. He's talking to someone who has appeared. Any other times you can think of? Garden of Eden. He appeared in the form of a snake, didn't he? Or maybe influenced or indwelt a snake. It's hard to know exactly how that worked. But that was Satan speaking through the snake. So he did use a physical form to communicate. Can you think of any others? Oh, Balan's donkey. That's an interesting story. Actually the angel of the Lord appeared and scared the donkey. And then the donkey spoke. And how the donkey spoke was that of demon? I don't know. Don't really know. The scriptures don't. The stories in numbers 23, I believe. The Bible doesn't really identify why the donkey spoke. Whether or not it was a demon speaking through the donkey could have been. I don't know. But he was reprenanding Balan. And that always has fascinated me that story. Yeah. Yeah. Then first Sam with 28 with the Witch of Indoor and saw calling up the spirits through a witch. And that again is a fascinating story. We'll actually come to that a little bit later in our study. And what that was all about, what that witch was doing. Did she really communicate with a demon? Or was that all Hocus Pocus? Slide of hand type stuff. I think personally it was real. And she had what the Old Testament calls a familiar spirit. Which was she was in. Cahoods with a demon who worked with her to communicate different voices and visions and so forth. And I think that's a lot of what's involved in the occult. Okay. Okay. Invisible but capable of manifestation. Let's look at Revelation chapter 9 where demons appear in some very grotesque forms. Demons or a revelation, excuse me, Revelation chapter 9. Couple of passages in Revelation where demons are described in very unusual physical appearances. In Revelation 9 verse 7 this is an angel comes down in the beginning of chapter 9. Fifth angel with the fifth trumpet judgment in the tribulation time. This angel was given key to the shaft of the abyss when he opened it, smoke rose from it. And look at the number 7. The locusts. Locusts come out of the abyss. These are obviously demons that have been released from captivity because in verse 11 the king over these demons is called Abadhan and Apollyon or Destroyer. Those are names for Satan. So these are demons but they look like locusts. Locusts they look like horses prepared for battle on their heads. They wore something like crowns of gold and their faces resembled human faces. Their hair was like women's hair and their teeth was like lions teeth. I mean these are really grotesque looking creatures. I don't mean the part about the women's hair. That's not grotesque. Mixing with all the other stuff. Kind of bad. Verse 9 they had breastplates like breastplates of iron and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. They had tails with stingers like scorpions and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. Really grotesque looking creatures and that's how John describes these demonic spirits that are released from the pit and the tribulation time to inflict pain on people. For five months looked on verse 17. The horses and riders I saw in my visions looked like this. Their breastplates were fiery red, dark blue and yellow as sulfur. The heads of the horses resembled the heads of lions and out of their mouths came fire, smoke and sulfur. A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of their mouths. So these are pretty grotesque looking creatures, demons that are inflicting punishment, pain and so forth on mankind. Turn over to chapter 16. We find something very similar. Chapter 16, verse 12. The sixth angel poured out his bowl. This is the sixth bowl judgment right near the end of the series of 21 judgments that God pours out on the earth in the tribulation time. Sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. Then I saw three impure spirits, obviously impure spirit demons that looked like frogs. I've seen a lot of frogs that I thought looked like impure spirits. They came out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. They are demonic spirits that perform signs and they go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them for the battle and the great day of God Almighty. Now what's going on here is the dragon is Satan and the beast and the false prophet are the antichrist and his PR guy really and his religious leader is the third figure. It's out of their mouths that these frogs come. Now probably what this is referring to is their speech, their persuasive speech that ends up persuading these kings to join together with them in a battle which will lead up to the battle of Armageddon. The kings coming from the east to Israel, verse 16 tells us that. They gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. So this is probably the persuasive words of Satan through the antichrist and the false prophet, but their words are being prompted by impure spirits who are pictured as frogs coming out of their mouth. It's a pretty grotesque figure there. So demons can take on physical forms just like Satan himself did at times and angels have done as well. So they typically are invisible. They do not have a body but seem to be capable of manifestation whenever God chooses to allow them to do that to accomplish in the end his purpose what he once done. Okay, those are some of the properties of demons, some of their characteristics, any comments or questions before we move on? Yeah, I do. I do think there is still such a very real, a very real thing as demon possession and not too far ahead in our study. We're going to actually deal with that demon possession and what that's all about with the characteristics of it are and so forth. Okay, very good. Anything else? Yeah, I think that's very real. The Bible does say that it is possible to entertain angels, good angels. I mean that verse in Hebrews 13 is talking about people in the Old Testament who had people in their homes like Abraham and and Samson's parents that actually ended up being angels and they didn't realize it first. And so it is possible for that to happen and maybe still we may be still possible. So by the same token as Bill is saying, it is possible that we have encountered demons in a physical form that we didn't know we didn't know they were demons or certainly demon possessed people. I think I have seen some demon possessed people come across some in through the years. I think I can think I can safely say that. People demons can control and influence people in amazing ways as we'll see here in just a moment. All right, let's move on to the powers of demons then. What kind of power do they have? They are capable of supernatural power just like angels are and just like Satan is. Remember, they're in the same category of beings. We saw that all angels were created with more power than we have as people. So that's also true of evil angels. They have supernatural power. Not they're not omnipotent. They do not have all power like God, but they have greater power than we do. So let's take a look at some of the powers that they have. We're going to talk about three of them, probably not all of them tonight, but we'll get to them. First of all, demons have supernatural intelligence. Now remember, kind of our baseline for understanding demons is to understand Satan. And remember that the Bible says Satan has vast intelligence. Remember the verse in Ezekiel 28, we'll put it on the screen for you. One of when Satan was first created as an angel of light, a good angel. Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of tyrant, say to him, this is what the sovereign Lord says. You were the seal of perfection. Notice full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. And as we saw earlier, this passage does seem to refer to Satan as being the power behind the king of Tyre and saying he was full of wisdom. So Satan, Satan has supernatural intelligence, which means above natural intelligence, above the natural intelligence that a human being would have. And since demons are in league with him and share the same nature, we would expect for that to be true of them as well. There are multiple examples of this in scripture. Let me just list a few of them fairly quickly. First of all, demons know the identity of Christ when they see him. They in the New Testament, they knew who he was. Look at these two verses in Mark 1. We're going to put these on the screen so we don't have to take the time and turn. What do you want with us? Jesus of Nazareth, this is a demon speaking. Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. In Jesus healed many who had various diseases. Now, at the end of verse 34, he also drew out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was. Well, Pharisees didn't know who he was. Most of this, Christ didn't know who he was. They didn't get it. But boy, the demons knew who he was. They knew that he was the son of God. They knew that he was God come down and human flesh. They had better intelligence than the average person did in Israel. So they knew the identity of Christ. Secondly, they know his great power. They know the power of Christ as well. Mark chapter 5 verses 6 and 7. The familiar story will use a lot of the demon possessed man in the tombs near Gideira. When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran, fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice. What do you want with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? In God's name, don't torture me. They know that Jesus is capable of having power over them. The demons do. And so they are aware of his power. They also know demons know that there is a place of future confinement and judgment for them. In Matthew chapter 8 verses 28 and 29, when he arrived at the other side, this is the same story of Mark 5, but his Matthews account. When he arrived at the other side, in the region of the Gatorines, two demon possessed men coming from the tombs metting, they were so violent that no one could pass that way. What do you want with us, son of God, they shouted? Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time? So they know there is an appointed time in the future where they will be judged. They know that. And then in Luke chapter 8 in verse 31, and they beg Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the abyss. This is Luke's account of the same story. They beg Jesus. Don't send us to the pit to the abyss yet. They know that that is their ultimate destination. That is where they will be confined. So they know the confinement and future judgment that awaits them. They also are able to withhold information or twist information that will cause people to believe false teaching. We have already seen these verses. So we are not going to put them up before we put them. First John 4, not to believe every spirit because the spirit that does not confess Jesus has come in the flesh is not of God. That is an evil spirit. So they twist doctrine to deceive people. They know how to do that. First Timothy 4, we saw earlier in the latter times, some showed the part from the faith and give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines taught by demons. So deceptive spirits and doctrines that are taught by demons. So demons know how to twist the truth just enough to get people into false religions and cults and denying who Christ really is. They are pretty smart. They have supernatural intelligence. They also appear to have at least some knowledge of the future. Acts 16, 16. Remember Paul and Silas and Philippi? Once when we were going to the place of prayer this verse says, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit. She was evidently controlled by possessed by a demon by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. Now we are going to talk about this more when we get into the demon possession. But I do not think that demons know everything about the future. Again they are not omniscient. They are not God. But they can foretell some things. Maybe that is because of their vast experience. They have been around for a few thousand years and they were created as exalted beings with great intelligence anyway. So maybe that combination enables them to predict certain things with a great degree of accuracy. Remember in the Old Testament one of the signs of a false prophet, a deceiving spirit, was if any of their prophecies did not come to pass. In other words to be a true prophet you have to have 100% accuracy. So that would lead us to believe that demons can sometimes get it right when they are foretelling the future but they do not always get it right. So that is why I say they have some knowledge of the future able to predict some things but they are not omniscient. Okay questions about their supernatural intelligence comments about that John. I think they do know their end because it is clearly described in scripture and they know the scripture is pretty well. So I think they do know their end and that is part of what they cry out to Jesus for in that story. Don't send us to the pit yet. I think they do know that the Bible says the lake of fire was created for Satan and his angels Matthew 2541. I think they do know Revelation chapter 20 which describes death and hell being cast into the lake of fire and Satan and all of his angels as well. I think they know that. Okay let's at least start a little bit on their supernatural strength. Not only do they have supernatural intelligence demons also have supernatural strength in at least three ways. First of all in controlling people again we are touching here a little bit on demon possession which we will get into more later. But remember the story in Mark 5 again the the the money act of G'dara the demon possessed man at G'dara verse 3 says this man lived in the tombs and no one could bind him anymore not even with a chain. So this man had the ability to break chains nobody could bind him he's too strong for them. So obviously supernatural strength because of the control of the demons in his life. Here's a fascinating story let's look at this one in Acts 19 Acts chapter 19 Paul has been ministering in Ephesus verse 11 says God did extraordinary miracles through Paul so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick their illnesses were cured there and the evil spirits left them so Paul being a possible had the gift of the signed gifts the ability to do. Sign gifts and God in Ephesus just just saw fit to do some amazing miracles through him but now look at verse 13 some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed. They would say in the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches I command you to come out. Seven sons of Skiva a Jewish chief priest were doing this one day the evil spirit answered them Jesus I know and Paul I know about but who are you. Can you imagine you know you're in trouble when that question gets asked. Look what happens in verse 16 then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all he gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding seven of them. One demon possessed man put such a beating on seven other guys that they they had to get out of there. That's that's more than average more than ordinary strength that's supernatural strength demons are also seen quite often using this strength to destroy people or try attempting to destroy people. Do you remember the the demoniac at the tombs in Gideira one of the things he was doing according to Mark 5.5 is he was gashing himself with knives or stones and then remember the the man who brought his son to the disciples the disciples could not cast out the demon and Jesus did and the man said this spirit often throws my son into the water or into the fire. Obviously trying to kill him trying to destroy him and so that kind of behavior destructive self destructive behavior was at least in those two cases promoted by demons so demons exercise supernatural strength in controlling people in bad ways to do bad things even to themselves. Any comments questions there also they have supernatural strength in a flicking people not just in controlling people but also in a flicking people and I just take you back we won't turn there it's not on the screen but remember the two passes are read in in in revelation nine earlier when the demons are pictured as locust remember what they did they painfully torment people for five months with like this thing of a scorpion later on in that. Later on in that passage which is briefly touched on it they are pictured as horses with lions mouths that pour out fire and sulfur and kill one third of the human population on earth so this is supernatural strength in a flicking people in tormenting people and then lastly they they have supernatural strength in working supernatural feats supernatural feats. They are probably just like their master Satan in the ability to do deceptive miracles. Did you know that Satan can do miracles legitimate real miracles. Look at these two passages second Thessalonians two nine talking about the Antichrist and Satan's power through him the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works he will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie and the lie is the denial of Christ and the worship of the Antichrist. So he'll use all sorts of miraculous displays of power and that is described for us also in Revelation 13 where the beast the Antichrist and the false prophet particularly the false prophet in this case performed great signs even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people. The second beast that's the false prophet was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast the image of the first beast that's put up in the temple the false prophet has the power to give breath to that image so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed and this is miraculous stuff. So evidently demons carry out their leader Satan's will and power through sometimes performing miracles they are deceptive miracles their purpose is to deceive people into moving away from God and worship of Christ to the worship of the Antichrist and his program and Satan's program on this earth. Now there does seem to be a limit to their power remember the magicians of Egypt who tried to imitate the miracles and the judgments of God they were able to do some but they couldn't do others the first three they were able to imitate the rest of them they couldn't. So there seems to be some limit to Satan's power obviously does not have all power because he's not God but he is able at times to perform miracles signs wonders. Which ought to give us pause not every miracle is from God even legitimate miracles not everyone ovens from God remember we have to test the spirits what what is that miraculous power being used to do to promote someone other than Christ other than God to promote some agenda that is not according to the Bible there are even modern miracles that may really happen and they may not be fakes they may be real but you have to always entertain the possibility that may be counterfeit miracles done by Satan himself or his demons to try to deceive people because that's exactly what he'll do in the tribulation time. That's a very important topic and one about which books have been written. Okay I don't think I need to say more there any comments or questions before we close I couldn't agree more I think first of all we know that any perversion of God's word is demonic it is Satan's program and certainly what is being forced on us as a culture is a perversion of twist and twist. What a means is you sometimes is the the rapidity of it how fast it's happening and how forceful it seems to be and how many people are bending to it that you're thinking wait a second don't can't these people see what's happening and yet can't and that is demonic deception I am convinced. I think you're exactly right Jerry no other way to explain that. Wow that's a good point if people swallow stuff now without miraculous powers behind it just imagine how easy it will be for the antichrist to get across his program. I mean the intimidation today is not for miracles the intimidation is because you don't want to seem out of sync with political correctness you know if people will bend to that I mean just throw a couple of miracles at it and no problem yeah antichrist will have it easy. Okay our time is gone so we need to stop thanks for the good questions and discussion let's pray. Father thank you for your word and the clarity of your word if we just take the time to study it seek it out and see what it has to say Lord we need to be warned in this day and help us to be serious about what we see in your word about the power of the word. About the powers of evil that are right against us but we thank you father that your powers greater and that you will win the battle in the end thank you that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world we cling to that promise and trust you for victory in the future even if it does not come until we stand in heaven with you thank you for that promise in Jesus name amen.