The Description of Demons (3), Duties of Demons

So it's been a couple of weeks since we were in our study just a moment I want to kind of back up just a little bit and remind you of a few things But I love the hymn we just sang how firmer foundation one of the greatest hymns I think ever written and there are certain verses of certain hymns that just jump out at you and grip your heart and that last verse of that Song we just sang is so appropriate for our study for tonight The soul that on Jesus Hath leaned for repose what a beautiful poetic way of saying trusting him for the peace that comes with our salvation I will not I will not dessert to his foes Who are our foes? Well, certainly in spiritual warfare Satan and his demons that we're talking about and It is true that God promises he will not desert us to those foes. He will not leave us to for them to ravage us in any way they see fit he is our protector That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake I'll never know never know never Forsake I love the certainty of that the triumphant nature of that just a glorious hymn Good to sing that one often isn't be reminded of those blessed truths Well, we've been looking at the foe here recently and never forget when we're looking at the foe looking at Satan and his demons that we are We are blessed to be on the winning side that they will not defeat us and We we know that Christ will give us the victory in the end. We will be victorious The Bible speaks of believers as overcomers the one who has overcome the world first John 5.4 is the one who has faith in Christ and so It's good to know that we're on that side since it's been a couple of weeks that we remind you where we were last time We've been talking about what kind of beings demons are the description of them and where we were last time and finished up Was talking about the powers of demons what kind of powers do they have and we saw that they have Greater power than we do but not as great a power as God does so they are just like Satan in the sense that they are not Omnipotent they do not have all power, but they have greater power than we do we saw they have supernatural intelligence They know things that even we don't know and that certainly they demonstrate that throughout the scripture supernatural intelligence We saw that they have supernatural strength in controlling people and afflicting people and working supernatural feats even miracles and And then tonight we're going to pick up at this point. They also have a supernatural presence supernatural presence and what I mean by that is that they are able to move in ways that human beings cannot move They are able to be present in a way that we cannot be or to move from one location to another in ways that we cannot So let's kind of flesh that out and see what we mean by that and see if you have any questions about it One of the things I mean by supernatural presence presence which is above the natural realm of mankind is the fact that they can move swiftly in space Because remember they are angels and just like good angels move swiftly In the air from one location to another demons can do the same thing We saw an example of that in the book of Daniel and so let me just let me read for you those verses in Daniel chapter 9 verses 21 to 23 Where the angel has come to explain to Daniel the answer to his prayer gives him the vision of the 70 Weeks he says while I was still in prayer Gabriel the man I had seen in the earlier vision came to me in Swift flight About the time of the evening sacrifice in swift flight it says Instructed me and said to me Daniel. I have now come to give you insight and understanding as soon as you began to pray a word went out Which I have come to tell you for you highly esteemed therefore consider the word and understand the vision that he gives him the vision of the 70 weeks of Israel God's Plan for how to deal with the nation of Israel so we know that angels Gabriel in this case is able to move swiftly through the air being given the the Responsibility by God to come deliver this this message to Daniel well in chapter 10 you find another situation with a good angel but this time this good angel in in Explaining a vision that Daniel has had In counters an evil angel and the evil angel is evidently able to keep up with him in chapter 10 verse Verse 10 we read this a hand touched me Daniel speaking here and set me trembling on my hands and knees He said Daniel you who are highly esteemed consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you and stand up for I have now been sent to you and when you said this to me I stood up trembling then he continued do not be afraid Daniel since the first day that you set your mind to gain Understanding and the humble yourself before God your words were heard and I have come in response to them but the prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me 21 days now this prince of the Persian Kingdom is not a human being Because this angel is intercepted in his flight in his Coming from the heavenly realms to earth and so this is a demon obviously who is Is operating over the kingdom of Persia? All right, we've looked at this passage before to talk about how they're involved in governmental affairs But then the passage goes on to say then Michael one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there With the king of Persia now I've come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future for the vision concerns of time yet to come now Here's the point If angels can move swiftly through the air from one location to another But this angel is intercepted and detained by a demon and that gives you the clue that the demons can move as quickly What if if not then why wouldn't the angel just say well? I'll put on my afterburners and I can leave you in the dust back here I can get away from you really easy, but that's not the case. He couldn't There's a battle and he can't just leave so evidently demons are able to move and we would expect that since they are angelic beings in the in the same way that That good angels do now remember also that there are many demons so Satan's influence on Planet Earth may be felt in many places at the same time Now Satan is only in one place at one time because again, he's not God. He's not omnipresent So he can only be in one place at one time But because of all the demons his influence can be felt in many places at the same time because his demons are carrying out His work and you can guarantee that Satan is very effective very well organized very efficient and carries out his work with great effectiveness and and efficiency So that's one way I think in which they have a supernatural presence. They're able to move more quickly than than we would a Second way that angels demons have a supernatural presence is that because they are spirit beings They can pass through the normal physical barriers That may stand between them and another location so they're not like us We can't move through a barrier if you doubt that just start walking toward that wall See how far you get when you reach the wall Okay, you'll you'll come to an abrupt stop when you hit that wall Well, angels would be able to go right through that wall because they're spirit beings so Evil angels are able to pass through physical barriers and that's Seen at least in one way in the Bible by what is called indwelling or a presence of demons in a person or an animal Remember the story in Luke 8 the story that Luke's version of it with the D'Amani Acacadera Jesus asked him what is your name? Legion he replied because many demons had gone into him So they were possessing him indwelling him if you will they'd gone into him So they're able to pass through the normal physical barriers that opens up a lot of interesting possibilities In what many people refer to as the paranormal A realm of experience alongside the Greek preposition parameans alongside or beside Beside the normal another parallel realm if you will some people Talk a lot about the paranormal well the paranormal is nothing more than demonic influence. It's all it is because demons If they can move through solid objects they can transfer objects through closed rooms through sealed containers That may well be the evidence of demonic power. Now. I'm not saying every magician you've ever seen has demonic power A lot of that is just slight of hand obviously But it is possible that mysterious movements are the result of demonic powers or Telekinesis the ability to put objects in motion without any visible cause Without anything moving them that could well be demonic power. They have that kind of ability So they do have supernatural presence if you will Okay, and at least a couple different ways any questions or comments there about that To move an object I Can't think of any what right off The top of my head. No Not in scripture that I'm aware of but What what I'm saying basically is it's it's a possible extrapolation of the fact that they can move through Through barriers and so they may be able to move objects Through barriers to we know they're able to do miracles. We'll know that we'll see that a little bit later. So That could well be the case, but I can't think of a biblical example Right off the top of my head anybody come up with one I'm assuming angels would be able to do that too any angelic being would have that ability to transport themselves Yes and Yeah, an angel a good angel let Peter out of prison actually went in and poked him in the side because Peter was asleep in Acts chapter 12 The stone of the tomb was moved by an angel that that object was just moved which shows supernatural strength It did not necessarily pass through another object, but it did move Yeah, yeah Yeah, but yeah, the story of Peter in prison is a good example of angels being able to penetrate through any kind of closed object because he went right through the prison right by the the Guards and was able to get to where Peter was without being detected John did you have a question? Demons have power over good angels. I Think that's possible There are different ranks of angels remember different ranks of angels which seems to indicate they may have different levels of power I'm I'm I'm on a limb here. I don't have a lot to back that up really the only thing I have to back it up is the story in Daniel 10 And that is that the one angel couldn't defeat that demon, but Michael could So Michael seems to have more power than that other angel so that seems to indicate to me there are levels of power So given that and the fact that demons and good angels are both angelic beings It would logically make sense to me that there may be some demons evil angels that are more powerful than some good angels But again, that's just a logical deduction. That's not a Hard and fast biblical principle Okay Any others any other questions I can't answer Okay Good ones great ones tonight. Those are real head scratchers Okay, let's take a look look now at the duties of demons We're going to move into kind of a new area What what they actually do as far as their responsibilities and duties are what are they doing? Their activities are very diverse and when we look at everything they do in the scriptures It really is quite amazing the variety of things that they do But it is always directed toward the promotion of evil and the destruction of good Whatever God wants done. They're fighting against it. Whatever Satan wants done. They're pushing for it So their their activities their duties are always geared toward toward the promotion of evil destruction of good Now we're going to look over the course of Maybe two or three weeks at several different areas where they have duties first of all in relation to Satan's program Then secondly in relation to God's program then thirdly in relation to mankind as a whole fourthly in relation to believers How do demons Interact with believers and one of the limits there and then just in relationship to the world in general So we're going to look at several different ways several different categories of their duties and Responsibilities we're going to start with their their promotion of Satan's program in relationship to what they're doing To further Satan's program. What do they do two main things? One is the extension of Satan's power Now remember that Satan is not Omni-present which means he's not like God everywhere present at the same time. He's not omnipresent But his presence can be multiplied because of many demons that are out there doing his work Satan is not omnipotent. He does not have all power But his power can be magnified and multiplied because of all the demons and he's not omniscient He does not have all knowledge, but his knowledge can be multiplied and and can be greatly extended through the work of demons so the demons serve to extend Satan's power beyond what Satan himself is doing at any one given place at any particular time so Obviously they are they are called his angels. They obey him. They serve his purposes and so they certainly extend his power and they can also multiply their effectiveness by teamwork, if you will by Ganging up on someone or some situation demons can pull their resources and Have great power they can pull their knowledge and Have great knowledge and they can multiply their effect because of that there are lots of examples of this I want to show you a few put a couple on the screen too If you want to turn or just listen either way Matthew 26 Excuse me Matthew 12 Matthew 12 and verse 26 This is Jesus sparring with the Pharisees over are his miracles by the power of Satan or are they by the power of Holy Spirit and Jesus makes this comment verse 26 if Satan drives out Satan He is divided against himself How then can his kingdom stand so Satan does not work against himself demons do not work against Satan They work together they work to promote the same agenda and so they multiply their efforts if they were working against each other the kingdom of Satan would fall But the the implication of that the opposite of it would be that if they're working in conjunction with each other then that That extends the power of Satan's kingdom also in verse 45 of this same chapter Where Jesus is giving the story of what the nation of Israel is like with a house that's been cleaned out real cleaned up really nice looks good Demons have been cast out of it, but they come back find that nobody's residing there so the demon brings back seven more Jesus says then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there Now notice the result of the the combined efforts of the seven demons eight and all seven of whom are batter guys is that even appropriate English batter get worse worse off got more wicked than then the first one The final condition of that person is worse than the first and so they're multiplied efforts Create a worst situation for this individual this individual is an example of the nation of Israel and remember what Jesus is saying is you Pharisees have made the nation of Israel even worse than if there had been no religion at all You've cleaned out the house real good. You've got all these rules and regulations and self-righteousness and laws and things you shouldn't should not do But because there's no spiritual life in that then you've made this a more demonic place with your religion than if there had been no religion and So obviously their their efforts can multiply the effectiveness of Satan's kingdom We just saw the story in Luke 8 of the man demon possessed the man who dwelt in the tombs and There there are many demons in him which creates the this Superhuman strength that he has nobody combining with chains. He just breaks them And so that's the effect of the multitude of demons and so many other ways too I think we have on the screen first entity for one the spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and Followed deceiving spirits and things taught by demons again. Notice the plural It's not just one demon with a particular doctrine. This is a combined efforts of demons to persuade people of false doctrine and I am sure that the demons have the same bigger and energy and passion that their leader Satan has Now remember Satan is always on the prowl Look at this verse in Job chapter 1 verse 7. Remember when God Job enters or Satan enters the presence of God to accuse Job the Lord said to Satan where have you come from? Satan answered the Lord from roaming throughout the earth going back and forth on it Peter picks up on that and first Peter 5 Says be alert and if so remind your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion Looking for someone to devour so Satan is very active very Eager to Attack and there's no doubt that his demons are the same way so the demons serve to extend the Satan's power Satan can only be operating in one place at one time So the demons greatly expand his work and extend his work through their multiplied efforts So part of what they're doing part of their duties it to extend Satan's power questions comments about that Yes Richard It's a very good question if we don't verbally Automaticalize what we're thinking can Satan and his demons read our thoughts and and I would say Couple different levels to that the answer to that first level is no they can't read our thoughts that that is a That's omniscience And so that's only true of God only God can read thoughts however having said that Satan and his demons have much more experience Through centuries even millennia of Observing human behavior and so they're much better at guessing what we're thinking than probably we realize So now I don't think they can read our thoughts To me that seems to be a feature of omniscience but But I they've got a lot of experience. So I think they can they can guess a lot better and we get them credit for You mean in the sense that as he observes our actions Certainly Satan observes our behavior and Through the centuries again, he has stockpiled information about how humans behave in certain situations and so I'm sure that it helps him in his schemes of temptation His wiles his strategies of temptation. He knows us pretty well So it's of course that's not to say that we should never do anything or we tip Satan off You know but but he does observe he does observe and he sees our weaknesses and our behavior and so he knows how how to attack us Because of that no question Yes, Bill Sure Good point. I mean I mean anytime we express or act in a certain way human beings pick up on that so certainly Satan would and Use that to his advantage. Yeah Okay, anything else there? Okay, Satan then or demons rather extend Satan's power But they are also in promoting his program They are also involved in the expression of Satan's philosophy Okay, there is a Satanic philosophy of a way of looking at life and thinking about life That Satan promotes well his demons obviously promotes the same thing and and help to promote that Let me give you three ways in which they do it first of all in individuals The demons no doubt are involved in in Causing men tempting men so forth to walk according to the power The prince of the power of the air That's what he's called in Ephesians chapter two You'll Paul said as for you you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live When you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air or the prince of the power of the air as the King James terminology the spirit evil spirit who is now at work in those who are Disobedient there's a lot packed into that description, but obviously it's a description of Satan's ability to deceive people and to feed them a philosophy a way of life that they think is right That they enjoy that's pleasurable, but which is sinful and according to the world's philosophy Well, obviously the demons are going to promote that too the demons are going to push toward Temptation which will lead us down that path so What specifically is it that they promote the ways of this world? What's that talking about and some of you who have heard me use this verse dozens of times know where I'm headed? First John 2 16 this tells us exactly what his strategy is for everything in the world and the world is a System a world system cosmos is the Greek word which we get our word cosmetics from and you know what cosmetics are for They're to bring some kind of system to disorder right is that the real definition of cosmetics and that what they're really for Maybe not but maybe I'm wrong on that, but The whole system of thought an organized system of thought that's what the world is But it's organized around three basic principles lust of the flesh lust of the eyes Pride of life and John says this is everything in the world this I mean you can fit everything in this world system this organized way of thinking and living in One of these three categories There are lots of other you know subcategories, but you can pretty well put them in these three categories lust of flesh lust of the eyes proud of life And this doesn't come from the father, but it comes from the world this world system that is under the power of Satan Now when you think about that the lust of the flesh is the motivations and desires of the sinful nature Whatever causes us to desire to do that which is apart from the will of God that's in the lust of the flesh Lust of the eyes the word lust epithume as a Greek word it simply means to have a strong desire it doesn't always have a sexual connotation with it and the lust of the eyes is one of those Instances where there's no real sexual connotation there It's just the strong desire of the eyes in other words the desire to have whatever the eyes see It's the principle of materialism. It's the principle of envy It's all of those things that go into whatever my eye beholds I want and that becomes my master my driving ambition in life and so forth and then the pride of life Pride manifests itself in Multitudes of ways, but the idea here is it's all centered around me It's what I want in life. It's my ambition. It's my plans my goals I want to be the best. I want to be recognized. I want to be popular. I want to be famous I want to be whatever you can fill in the blank, but it all revolves around pride the pride that goes along with living that way the pride of life and so Those three categories pretty well summarize the way this world system operates and Satan is the prince of that. He's the leader of that. Well, obviously he's got a lot of underlings who are pushing the same agenda So no doubt they are in the lives of individuals Promoting this philosophy that Satan has this is how you live life first of all you get all the gusto you can You know lust of the flesh just Get what you want and whatever you desire and want to please yourself Sinfully you get it go for it and then the lust of the eyes get everything you can get Pile it up Make as much keep as much save as much you know as much as you possibly for yourself and And then the pride of life the desire to be recognized to be number one so forth Step over anybody else to get to that position That's that's how Satan and his demons promote an individual philosophy of life with those three examples or those three things But they also are very active in political governments Satan and his demons no doubt his demons are helping to express the same philosophy are working behind the scenes to set the philosophy the thought system the belief system and the courses the the actions and directions of Human government and we know that from Daniel Tan again those passages about the prince of the Persian Kingdom This is an evil spirit who has some ruling authority over the Persian Kingdom a demon who is influencing the Persian Kingdom now the reason this is so important The reason there's such a battle here is it's because the Persians were going to be the next ones to to do damage to the nation of Israel After the Babylonians would come the meads and the Persians and so the devil's plan For Israel and God's plan for Israel is what's being battled over here The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia is seeking to influence Persian governmental leaders Now the amazing thing is that we know that God won that one Because God put a man over the Persian Kingdom I know I'm running a rabbit trail here, but this is so so exciting when you see this a man over the Persian Kingdom named Cyrus and Cyrus in Isaiah 451 is called the Lord's anointed. He's an unsafe man He's a pagan king a dollar but he was God's man to be on the throne. Why? Because the Babylonian captivity was over the 70 years of captivity that God promised to run their course And so God made sure there would be a man on the throne that would have the right policies To end the captivity and send the Jews back home and we know from history Cyrus was a Benevolent ruler who had a different kind of policy than the Babylonians did He wanted to pacify Concord nations and so you wanted them to be able to live in their own land rather than taking him captive He wanted to live in their own lands, but he would maintain rule over them So that means the Jews get to go back to their land So God put Cyrus in power So that's what this battle was all about The Persian kingdom is the next kingdom to come to power and Satan's Emissary his demon who has this tremendous spiritual power over the rulers of Persia He's wanting Satan's will to be done and God says no, no, no We're gonna win this one and this is how happened the Michael one of the chief princes came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia So he said down in verse 20 Do you know why I've come to you soon? I will return to fight now There's this against the Prince of Persia and when I go the Prince of Greece will come Now you know what the next world ruler after Persia was don't you if you know your history you know it was Greece and so There is a Prince over Greece that's fighting good angels over what's gonna happen in the kingdom of Greece So you see this is there's a lot of spiritual warfare going on here between good angels and bad angels over who's gonna rule in governmental Authority and what kind of policies are they gonna have and what's that gonna look like? For God's people Now the amazing thing is that there are times in human history where It doesn't always go well for Israel and it doesn't always go well for God's people and God is just as much in control of those times In history because he has other ways of working long term that we may not see but I'll guarantee you this at any given moment in World history There are governmental powers being influenced in their thinking in their philosophy By either demons or good angels by either God himself or Satan himself by God's word or The philosophy of the world's system A lot of places I'd like to go with that but I Think we can kind of see the way things are leading in our country right now Anytime that a government begins to take moral positions that fly directly in the face of God's word You know who's got the most influence right now In the United States of America. I'll just stop there. That's the way it is Any governmental policies that oppose biblical values in the spread of the gospel are demonic in origin and And even though you know the world would laugh at that and say all you're assigning everything to some kind of Realm of the spirits Don't we aren't we free moral agents to make our own decisions? Yes, of course we are of course we are But we all have the capacity to listen to ideas and Satan is going to be promoting his ideas his demons are going to promote them through the entertainment industry through the media through whatever and God is promoting his ideas moral values his word through many means as well and it depends on who you listen to So yes governmental authorities and all of us have the moral responsibility to listen to the right voices but everybody is informed and directed and Moved by the voices you listen to If you're listening to the voice of the word of God, then you're going to go the right way if you're not then you're listening to the voice of demons demonic thoughts that Prevade this world system Okay, at least one other thing here before we open it up again and that is they express Satan's philosophy in a third way not only in individuals and political governments But as we've already indicated in the world system as a whole in the world system as a whole And I've already talked about this some so we won't go much further with that that this this whole world system is under the control of the devil And his angels obviously are promoting that same That same agenda look just a couple of verses on the screen to support that Fez. 611 12 we've looked at plenty of times before put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes For our struggle is not against flesh and blood Again, this is spiritual warfare. It's not warfare against people Not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers against the authorities against the powers of this dark world and Against the spiritual forces of evil that occupy the heavenly realms. That's demons demons and so that's what we're fighting that's the battle. It's not against people It's against the spiritual forces that are developing the ideas that these people are listening to That's where the battle is So the battle really isn't a spiritual in nature and it's because these evil forces the demons wicked beings in high places are are developing a System and philosophy of thinking that is ingrained in this whole world system one of the verse first John 519 We know that we are the children of God and that the whole world again Cosmos world system is Under the control of the evil one So this world system the system of thought Lust the flesh lust the eyes Prada life three pillars of that world way of thinking We know that that whole thing is under the control of the evil one under Satan's control And so his demons are pushing this world system They're pushing his philosophy in the hearts and minds of individuals in the ideas of Governments and also in the world system as a whole So they're doing a lot of dirty stuff a lot of evil stuff Okay, that's just their promotion of Satan's program. Let's pause for a moment See if you have any comments or questions anything to contribute or question you might have Yes Well the Bible tells us exactly what we're to do in the verses we just looked at in Ephesians 6 If we were to read further it says put on the whole armor of God that you may stand Against the schemes of the devil and then he goes on to describe what that armor is and The armor he takes pieces of the Roman armor and describes different character qualities that we need to develop to protect ourselves Against the attack of the enemy things like the helmet of salvation in other words the protection of the thought life So we protect our minds By thinking as Helmet of salvation by thinking as children of God Okay, that's just one of the six pieces armor you go through and study each of those pieces armor and you find that's our protection We're not at the mercy of these evil beings that can pass through walls and whatever we have a way to protect ourselves if we're just put on the armor of God Control our thought lives Think as God's children should think breastplate of righteousness belt of truth shoes of the gospel piece Shield of faith sort of the spirit six wonderful pieces of armor and they basically describe Character qualities or in the case of the word of God the one offensive tool that we have to use against Satan and if you if you develop those character qualities and and live in those ways then you will stand you Satan will not be able to defeat you So that's that's how we're to respond and react Great question Because see one of the dangers of what we're doing right now is We're talking so much about the enemy that the enemy begins to loom pretty large Doesn't it begins to seem invincible and he's not he's not invincible So it's always good to come back to that what we're saying about tonight how firm a foundation you say to the Lord We have an in our faith in Christ Very good. I think that's Probably a good place to end tonight unless you have another question. Yes Yes, if I caught everything you were saying and I'm sorry that this I'm at the point in my life where any background noise like the air conditioning running is distracting to me So I think you were talking about the fact that we the real power we have is in God and that the fact that we're in him and He is is our defense and shield and I think that is so true. We have to remember that Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world again. That's in first John 5 so You know again when we're taking all this time and if you kind of drop it in the middle of a study about demons It may look like all we're talking about the power of demons But that is all in the context of the fact that we have greater power through Christ and through our relationship with God and our security And our Lord is so important that we remember that so thanks for bringing that focus back Tonight that's good Okay, anything else Okay, let's pray