Deliverance Ministry Part II

[Music]oh[Music]hello my name is Pastor Conrad Vine andI'd like to welcome you today to thesecond in a three-part series on thebiblical basis for Deliverance Ministryis my privilege and joy to serve as thepresident of Adventist Frontier missionsin Baran Springs Mission Michigan youcan read about us at AFM online.org uhwe send Miss Aries to unreach peoplegroups in uh countries across the 1040Mission window again you can read allabout us and about our missionaries andif you want to serve maybe go online atAFM online.org and you can learn moreabout us there it's my privilege to besharing with you today the second in athree-part series on the question ofDeliverance Ministry I recognize this isnot a topic we often talk about withinthe Adventist Church but it's a veryimportant topic that we do need toaddress not only do missionaries comeinto contact with witch doctors andshamans and shape shifters and the thereality of spells and black magic andwhite magic and curses all across the1040 Mission window but we are seeingincreasingly in the west with theexplosion of interest in the occult andincreasing Demand by people whether theyAdventists or or or Christians ingeneral or or people from a secularbackgrounds people are looking for helpbecause they're experiencingdemonization the the attacks of demonsin their lives in a certain way and sotoday we're going to be looking at thebiblical basis for Deliverance Ministrywe're going to be looking in particularat Deliverance Ministry in the OldTestament then in the life and Ministryof Jesus our lord and savior before wemove on to the life of the Apostles inthe book of Acts and then we'll draw ourconclusions on that in the first part ofthe three-part series um we looked atthe what Jesus taught us about how werespond to the attacks of demons and we'Focus for a few moments on the the ideaof the great controversy the strugglebetween Christ and Satan which hasplayed out in the lives of people allaround the world today whether we admitit or not and in the third part thefinal of this part of the three-partseries we going to be spending some timetogether looking at some of thePractical ingredients of what what aresome of the ingredients of DeliveranceMinistry from an Adventist framework andso um please uh as if you are sensingGod's need for for deliverance in yourlife please playay careful attention towhat I'm sharing with you today um theselessons that I'm sharing with you arenot derived entirely from my ownexperience these are some of thecollective lessons that we in AFM ourmissionaries and other colleagues inMinistry around the world have beenreflecting and chewing on as as we thinkabout the reality of the need forDeliverance Ministry and you candownload a free manual on this um onwww.s setfree in Christ that's one wordset free in Christ christ.org and if yougo to the resources page you candownload a free manual that includes alot of this material that I'm sharingwith you today and also a lot of quotesfrom the writings of sister white wecall the spirit of Prophecy in theAdventist um worldview and uh so Iencourage you to download that um justso you have as much of this informationavailable at your fingertips as possiblewe are dealing here with importantmatters with the reality of the strugglebetween good and evil so as we begin I'dinvite you to Bow your head with me andwe're going to invite the presence ofGod and his Blessing as we share thesemoments together so shall wepray dear heavenly father I want tothank you for the privilege of sharingthe good news of Christ's victory overSatan father I want to thank you thatJesus has never lost a battle with Satanand father I pray that as I share todaythat hope will spring in the hearts ofthose who are watching and listeningthat you will stand tall and fight thebattles in their homes in their heartsand around their hears that they cannotfight for the themselves elves I askLord for your spirit to be presentwithin this church where I'm speakinghere today that your holy spirit willdwell within the hearts and the homesand the rooms of those who are watchingthis that there will be no Spirit uhthat is not of your kingdom presentwithin any of these places I ask Lordfor the protection of your angels uponour families our children our loved onesour properties and our possessions thatSatan will not be allowed to runinterference father we give this next uhthis session into your hands I prayyou'll speak through me and for me Ipray you'll Lift Me Up and may the wordsI speak be be true and absolutely truemay they bring hope and joy and peaceinto the lives of those who are watchingin the name of Jesus I humbly askamen so Deliverance Ministry in realitycan be a very complex topic it isfraught with areas of conflict um peoplewhen they talk about DeliveranceMinistry uh they they they think aboutmovies like The Exorcist and um thereare some very dramatic portrayals inHollywood of Deliverance Ministry and itis true that uh there are differentapproaches to Deliverance Ministry thereis the Roman Catholic approach toDeliverance Ministry which has a veryformalized ritual you can download it onthe internet there are some very poeticprayers for instance oh father of lightto come and dispel the Prince ofDarkness and so forth but there is avery highly ritualized approach withinthe Catholic worldview within theEvangelical Protestant worldview umthere is a very offensive mindset thatwe're going to go on the attack we'regoing to name it and claim it we'regoing to claim this city this communityfor Jesus Christ we're going to haveprayer walks and so forth and Adventistsuh we we don't take either of theseapproaches uh we base our approach basedon on the the testimony of scripturewhich we're going to be focusing ontoday and also on the counsels that wefind in the spirit of Prophecy and youcan read all those councils in themanual that I've just referenced at thestart of this uh this second segmentwith you here here today and so andtoday we're going to be looking at thebiblical basis for Deliverance Ministrywe're going to look at some basicterminology what what are some of theterms that we use we're then going to belooking at um uh what are demons whatdoes the bible tell us about demonsbefore we go on to looking atDeliverance Ministry in the OldTestament in the New Testament and lifeof Jesus and the life life and Ministryof the Apostles and then we're going tocome to our conclusions so that's kindof where we're going with this and inour third and final segment we're goingto be look looking at um some of thePractical aspects of DeliveranceMinistry so let's start out together bylooking at some of the key terminologyrelating to Deliverance Ministry um uhonce there once a scholar and a pastorcalled Prince and he discussed this atsome length and he argued that there arethree names used in the New Testamentfor demons uh the first of those is inMatthew8:31 where the Fallen Angel is called ademon in mark 1:2 3 the demon isreferred to as an unclean spirit and inLuke 11:24 the demon is referred to notas a demon or an unclean Spirit but thethird term that is used is an evilspirit now these terms are usedinterchangeably particularly in thegospels to to refer to Fallen Angelsotherwise known as demons and the KingJames version often translates demon asdevil which can be misleading and reallythe King James should be uh translatingthe underlying demon um as demon inEnglish because in the English mindsetwhen we talk about devil we think aboutthe devil that is Satan as opposed tohis Fallen Angels who we refer to asdemons now the word devil is taken inthe English language is taken from theGreek word diabos which means slandereror accuser or maligner of the saints ofGod and that has no relation to theunderlying Greek word for demon which isdiamonon now the New Testamentrepeatedly uses the verb Dion dionisiIt's a middle version or a passive itmeans to be demonized uh it refers tothe influence of an evil spirit on ahuman being some examples are found inMatthew 4:24 Matthew 8:16 and Mark 1:32if you want to check out some of thesescripture references now this verb isoften understood as referring to demonicpossession but it only occurs in the NewTestament in the passive form that isthe best translation would be that youare demonized rather than you aredemon-possessed and that is why in thefirst segment first of the three- partseries I was talking about to bedemonized is probably the best way ofunderstanding this Greek verb within theNew Testament of the word of God now theEnglish language phrase in common usethat is to be demon possessed or to bepossessed um Can erroneously um orwrongfully imply that an individual ispossessed by or owned by or is thesubject of of or under the authority ofa demon but there is no basis in the NewTestament Greek to come to thatconclusion the verb is best understoodas referring to someone who is subjectto demonic influence which may happen tovarying degrees and as we discussed inthe first part of the three-part seriesyou may experience harassment a greatexample is job in the Old Testament youmay experience oppression where Satanwhere because of your choices you givingSatan control of a certain part of yourlife that's a good example is Matthew 16where Peter rebukes Jesus and Jesus saysget thee behind me Satan and then youhave um fullon possession which was theexperience of Judas where he waspossessed by um diabos says Jesus inJohn chapter 6 and verse 17 but in JohnChapter 13 at the end of his ministry umJesus says to Judas go out and do whatyou're going to do and Judas goes outand then it says and Satan enter Ed intohim and so at the end of his ministrywhen he goes out to complete hisbetrayal of Jesus and to lead thesoldiers to arrest Jesus in Gethsemaneum Judas is operating under the fullcontrol and possession of Satan and it'sinteresting that in the beginning of hisministry in John's gospel Nicodemuscomes to Jesus um during the MidnightHour and Jesus is the light of the worldand he comes for light and understandingand now at the end of his ministry Jesussends Judas out and it says and it wasdark and so Judas leaves the presence ofJesus the light of the world and he goesout into literal the darkness of nightbut he also goes out into spiritualdarkness and later that day of course onthat uh Good Friday both Jesus and Judasboth of them hung on a tree outside thewalls of Jerusalem and Judas Died ForLove of Money and Jesus Christ died forlove of you and for love of me and so umwe have these examples in the NewTestament of various levels or kindsof of um the expression to be demonizedwhether it's harassment which is theentry level um oppression then fullonpossession and in my experience as apastor and as a missionary I would saythis that I have I've never seen fullonpossession among Disciples of Jesus I'veseen plenty of harassment by Demons ofDisciples of Jesus and you may beexperiencing that today I've alsowitnessed plenty of cases of Oppressionof Disciples of Jesus and these days thenumber one cause for that that well thetop two causes are child sexh abuse umchildhood abuse as as a child thatcarries scars that is often passed onthose scars those emotional scars that'soften where Satan can enter someone'slife unwittingly or it comes through umporn addiction and then you have fullonpossession which is normally somethingyou see in animist Hindu or Buddhistsocieties and so um Satan manifestshimself in different ways in differentcultures you kind to get a sense this asyou serve as a missionary with culturesaround the world and so the most commonverb though in the New Testament fordelivering individuals from demonicinfluence is the verb e balow e meansout of like Exodus means the the roadout of like the road out of Egypt is ehodos eek means out of we have the wordexit in English that means the way outum and then ballow means to throw or todrive and so e balow means to throw outor to drive out but this should not betaken to imply in the New Testament thatthe demon possesses or owns anindividual rather that the minister ofthe Gospel is acting under the authorityof Jesus Christ to cast out the demonand its malign influence from the lifeof the individual who is turning toJesus Christ for assistance and fordeliverance and so in this context inthe context of the New TestamentDeliverance Ministry may be bestunderstood as delivering an infl anindividual from the influence ofpersonal malevolence there evil intentuh Fallen Angels so then we come to thevery basic question what is a demon andthe the short answer is a demon is afallen angel that is it is an angel thathas turned its back on the lordship ofJesus Christ because Jesus is thecommander of the armies of Heaven theangels and a fallen angel is one who haschosen to follow Satan or Lucifer ratherthan Jesus Christ as the head of thearmies of heaven and so if you turn inyour Bibles and you'll probably see thison the screen here Revelation chap13 and verses 3 and 4 they give us someinsights into into the reality of ofdemons it's Revelation 12 uh: 3 and 4 itsays there and you'll see this on thescreen then another portent appeared inheaven a great red dragon with sevenheads and 10 horns and seven diadems onits heads and we ask ourselves who wasthis great red dragon look down at verse9 and explains it to us it says therethe Greatwas thrown down that ancient serpent whois called the devil and Satan the diserof the whole world so in Revelation 12in verse three the dragon that we seethere is Satan and it says in verse fourhis tail swept down a third of the starsof heaven and through them to the Earthand this is almost universallyinterpreted as representing a third ofthe angels as the stars of Heaven is apoetic wave referring to the angels andso when Satan was cast out of heaven hetook a third of the Angelic beings withhim this is a sobering thought becauseit tells us that Satan could deceive athird of the Angels uh who are createdbeings with infinitely greaterintelligence than I have or you have andso if Satan can deceive a third of theAngels it is no surprise that he's ableto deceive the overwhelming majority ofpeople on planet Earth today and sodemons were originally unfallen Angelicbeings in heaven who joined with Satanin his Rebellion against God angels areoften called spirits in the Bible andyou'll see on your screen there Hebrewschapter 1 and verse 14 uh the ApostlePaul writes there he says are not arenot all Angels spirits in the Divineservice sent to serve for the sake ofthose who are to inherit salvation So Inthis passage here we see that angels arecalled spirits and and Fallen Angelsseek to destroy those who are to inheritsalvation and unfallen angelsexist to serve those who are to inheritsalvation that's really good news thatthere are magnificent Angels who arestanding watch over you and me Matthew18 talks about every child has aguardian angel and so we have GuardianAngels incredibly powerful beings whoare watching over us serving usprotecting us uh so that we can make itthrough to the Gates of Heaven whenJesus comes again we can receive thegift of Salvation Matthew chap 8 andverse 16 discusses this a bit furtherMatthew 8 and verse 16 it says therethat evening they brought to him manywho were possessed with demons and hecast out the spirits with the word andcured all who were sick and so onceagain we see that the word demon is usedinterchangeably with the word spirit andsometimes you get an unfallen angel willbe a spirit and also you have a fallenangel might be a spirit so the wordspirit in and of itself does not tellyou whether this is a fallen or anunfallen angel uh you need to look atthe context to figure that out but inthis case here when Jesus was castingout demons he was casting out spiritsand just as in Hebrews 1:14 we see thatdemons are often referred to with theword um Spirits demons are oftenreferred to in scripture as being withSatan repeatedly we read in the Biblethat Satan and his angels uh forinstance Matthew 12:24 Matthew25:41 and Revelation 12:7 and like Satanthey able to enter within human beingsand control those individuals todiffering degrees depending upon thesituation again some good examples areMatthew 17114-18 Mark 9117-27 Luke 11114-15 and Luke 22 and verse3 now demonsare often referred to within thescriptures with the characteristics ofpersonhood they they they are referredto and they dialogue with Jesus in thegospels in a way that implies that theyare actually persons they're not justrobotss they're not just you know plantsgrown by the side of the road demonshave the characteristics of personalityand they have personhood we get thisfrom a number of Clues and if you lookat for instance Luke chapter 8 andyou'll see this on your screen now andI'd encourage you to take down thesenotes and just you refer to them laterin your private study Luke 8 and verse30 and uh we read there that uh this isthe the story of the gine demoniac backit says verse 29 uh so verse 30 it saysJesus then asked him what is your nameand he said Legion for many and demonshad entered him so Jesus referred to thedemon using a personal pronoun not animpersonal pronoun like it we find herea personal pronoun that is him or he orshe or her and in this case Jesus refersto the demon as him so there is apersonal pronoun at use here if you turnto Luke11:24 you also see that um the demonsthey they refer to themselves using thefirst personal first person personalpronoun Luke 11: 24 it says there whenthe unclean spirits are gone out of aperson it wanders through waterlessregions looking for a resting place butnot finding any it says I will return tomy house from where I came and so thethe double use of the personal pronounthe first person singular I and the useof the POS possessive pronoun my onceagain it affirms the personhood ofdemons they're not just inanimateobjects they really have a personalitylike you and I have a personality todaythey communicate with each other as wesee in this story Luke11:24 verse 26 it says then this Spiritgoes and brings seven other Spirits moreevil in itself and they enter and livethere and so in this story here we seethat demons they have thecharacteristics of personality and ofpersonhood they also have the ability tocommunicate with each other they havethe ability to act in harmony with eachother they have the ability tocollaborate with each other and theyhave the ability and the intent to harmhuman beings these are all the lessonswe can pick up from this story here uhwe also find in the gospels that demonsprefer to reside in a human body but ifnecessary they're willing to live inanimal bodies such as pigs in the storyof the demoniac in Mark chapter 5 theyhave a will and they can make decisionsif you turn to Matthew 12 verse 24 andif you take some time later to chew onthat story for yourself Matthew 12:44we've just been reading this in Luke butit's a better example here it says uhthe demon says to itself I will returnto my house from which I came when itcomes it finds it empty swept and put inorder then it goes and brings sevenother demons more evil than itself whatthis tells us is that demons do not justact instinctively but they have theability to to think and to rationalizeand this this demon didn't you say ohhere's an empty human being let meinhabit them he said no no let let mewait let me go and get seven otherdemons so they have a sense of maturitythey're willing to put off instantgratification for a a better pay payoffin the future so once again we find thecharacteristics of personhood amongdemons they can make decisions and theyhave a will and they're willing to actupon that will they experience mootemotions in James chapter 2 the demonsbelieve in God and they shudder thatmeans they they tremble because theyknow there's a final judgment comingthey have an intellect um if you look inMark chapter 1 and verse 24 and I thinkyou'll see this on the screen here thisis the story at the beginning of jesus'ministry where Jesus is teaching in thesynagogue in capernium and there is aman there sitting in the synagogue withan unclean spirit and it's veryinteresting because nobody in thesynagogue realizes there is a man who isexperiencing demonization sitting amongthe worshippers and for all they know heis one of the worshippers and we don'tknow what this man realizes about histrue spiritual condition but nobody inthe congregation realizes there is a manin thesynagogue listening to Jesus preach andteach and the demon is happy to sit inthere I mean this is astonishing is itnot because we learn from this that ademon is willing to attach itself to ahuman being and enter into a consecratedhouse of worship and is happy to sit andlisten to the Praises of God while we wethink why would they do that wellthey've been listening to the Praises ofGod for eternity past in heaven they'requite used to singing and I can assureyou the Angelic choirs in heaven sound awhole lot better than many of the choirsdown here on Earth and so this is ademon that's willing to sit in thesynagogue to hear the Prophecies of ofJehovah read from the Hebrew scripturesis willing to hear this the the Jewishsongs of praise that that are ascendfrom the synagogue towards God and thisdemon is willing to to listen to theteachings of Jesus and the preaching ofJesus and uh in this in this uh thisdemon cries out in verse 24 and sayswhat have you to do with us Jesus ofNazareth have you come to destroy us Iknow who you are the Holy One Of God sowe pick up from this story here thatthis demon has has an understanding ofhis final Destiny have you come todestroy us he knows that he's going tobe destroyed at the end of time and Iknow who you are you are the Holy One OfGod it's interesting in Mark's gospelthat the first confession of theDivinity of Jesus really comes from ademon before any human being confessesthe authority of Jesus it is from ademon that we hear this confession thatJesus is the Holy One of God and sodemons clearly have an intellect andthey have a selfawareness we also see inthe in the gospels that demons cantravel at will around our world Satanwas able to travel from planet Earthinto the Heavenly councils in Jobchapter 1 and verse 6 and as we see inMark chapter 1 demons are able to enterand to to remain during worship serviceswithin synagogues and by extension byconclusion within Christian churches aswell Mark 51-12 and Luke 11:224-26 indicates that demons can actseparately and also in cooperation witheach other and they also have ahierarchy of wickedness even among theirmidst some are more wicked than othersand both fallen and unfallen Angelicbeings appear in the scriptures to behighly ordered along military term termswe know that Jesus appears to Joshua asthe commander of the armies of heavenand when Jesus comes again in Revelationchapter 19 he leads the arm the Angelicarmies of heaven and he says to thedisciples in the Garden of Gethsemane doyou not know I could ask my heavenlyfather and he would immediately send hedoesn't just say A large group of ofangels He says 12 Legions of angels sorepeatedly in the word of God we seethat angels have a military formationand we also see that uh within the fallwithin the Fallen Angels not just theunfallen Angels um in Mark chapter 5 andMark 1 we the the demons and Luke theyrefer to themselves as my name is Legionand Legion doesn't just mean a lot of alegion was a unit a military formationin the Roman army it was 5 to 6,000heavy infantry heavily structured highlyorganized they were the backbone of theRoman Empire so when the Fallen Angelssay my name is Legion they're expressingthe fact that they are highly organizedthey are organized for war War we callspiritual warfare and their purpose isto oppress or to destroy and theirtarget is me and their target is you andso let us take a moment for uh first ofall then to look at um having looked atsome definitions to look at some of thewhat we find in the Old Testament andactually I'm going to start in the NewTestament here so if you look at 1Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 20 wesee an interesting Insight from theApostle Paul he's discussing food beenthat's been offered to idolsand uh whether Christians should eat itand so forth and whether Christiansshould participate in food that's beenoffered to Demons in Pagan temples andin the end of 1 Corinthians chapter 10listen to what he says in verse 20 veryinteresting verse he says no he says Iimply that what pagans sacrifice theysacrifice to demons and not to God I donot want you to be partners with demonsyou cannot drink the cup of the Lord andthe cup of demons you cannot partake ofthe table of the Lord and of the tableof demons now this is very interestinghere because Paul does not say um theysacrific to Stone Idols or gold Idols orbronze Idols no Paul is saying here whatI'm saying is that when demons sacriwhen pagans sacrifice to their Idolsthey're actually sacrificing to Demonsvery important Point here a veryimportant Insight because it it startsto open our minds to the true horror ofwhat idolatry really is so then we'regoing to come back to uh to the to theOld Testament with this understandingthat Old Testament idolatry which weoften just think of you know as uh thepeople of Israel or the surroundingNations the Philistines the theEgyptians the Babylonians the Assyriansand so forth bowing down and prostratingthemselves before you know BronzeStatues of Molech or deeon or ashth andso forth or the Queen of Heaven in thebook of Jeremiah but there is more to itthan this the Apostle Paul tells us thatwhen people Bow Down for these Idolsthese Idols are are representations ofdemons so idolatry isn't just bowingdown before a an idol it is bowing downbefore a demon and by beholding youbecome changed if you worship a demonyou will become like a demon in yourcharacter if that is a demon thatemphasizes the sin of for instancesexual immorality such as Baal uh thenyou are going to engage in sexualimmorality if that is a demon thatemphasizes cruelty to children childrensuch as the a the the ashas and theMolex and you know they would take achild and they would have a statue ofMolech and the statue would have itsarms like this and there would be a fireunder the statue so that brass is veryvery hot and red hot and they put achild's a newborn child in its arms androast their child alive as a humansacrifice to Molech uh and so thereality is is as uh as we turn our eyesto Jesus and we Behold Him dayto day weare transformed into the character ofJesus Jesus when you turn your attentionto the idols of the ancient world you'reactually worshiping demons and yourcharacter becomes more demon-like yeahyou start to reflect the unique sins andthe horrors of those particular demonswhom you are worshiping so let's turnback to some Old Testament texts thatkind of give some more light on thisDeuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 17 andhere Moses is talking about the worshipof demons of of idols and noticeum the terminology that he usesDeuteronomy chapter 32 and verse 17 andMoses is talking here about how thepeople of Israel had had wanderedthrough the Wilderness and how Godsustained them through the Wilderness ontheir journey to Israel and yet theykept turning aside after foreign godsand he says in verse 17 they sacrificedto Demons not to God to deities they hadnever known and so when when Moses istalking about the Israelites bowing downbefore the gods of Egypt you the goldencalf that uh um that Aaron said to thepeople look this is the calf these arethe gods that brought you out of Egyptwhen Moses was up on Mount Sai receivingthe Ten Commandments and the people thatthey're dancing around this golden calfa representation of one of the he of theEgyptian gods Moses is saying thatthey're actually sacrificing to Demonsnot just to idols and not just to Godthey are sacrificing to Demons whichexplains the Demonic activity andbehavior we see among the Israelites umas we go through the the their theirtheir Pagan their Journeys in thewilderness David picks up on the storyin Psalm 106 and verse 37 and uh In thispassage here once again we have the ideathat I'm going to read it for you hereit says Psalm10637 they sacrificed their sons andtheir daughters to the demons and yousay well who is uh David talking abouthere well look at the context it saysthey angered the Lord at the Waters ofmarabi and it went ill with Moses ontheir account so the psalmist is talkingabout the people of Israel on their wayto the promised land they did notdestroy the peoples as the Lordcommanded them so we're now talkingabout the conquest of is OFA Canaan thepromised land but they mingled with theNations and learned to do as they didthey served their Idols which became asnare for them they sacrificed theirsons and their daughters to the demonsand so we see there that when the peopleof Israel were going after to the thethe idols of the Nations around theywere actually engaging in adulteryspiritual adultery because they weren'tjust bwing down to a block of wood or ablock of bronze or a block of gold theywere bowing down before another personalbeing and that was a fallen angel and sowe start to understand why Godrepeatedly in the Old Testament refersto idolatry as spiritual adultery youknow it's one thing if you have a of awife and you say and she says comes toyou one day and she's husband she saysI'm I'm leaving you and and you say wellwhy are you leaving me and she says wellI'm leaving me because you don't keep mein the manner to which I would like tobecome accustomed I'm going to go andsearch for money somewhere else in lifethat's very painful but to have yourwife come to you and say husband I'mleaving you why well I found somebodyelse and I love him more than you that'sfar more painful and so we start tounderstand the cries of God's heart whenhis people they don't just bow down toIdols their hearts are being Enchantedand entranced with a love for actuallyfor demons another person spiritualmalevolent being and so we see why Godcalls idol worship adultery and so wecontinue in in this pattern um the thethe the septu refers in Psalm965 as as Idols as being demons and inPsalm 10637 the psalmist talks of thesacrifices of daughters to Pagan Idolsin Leviticus 17:7 we come back to Mosesand we see there in Leviticus 17:7 veryinteresting Passagethat um it refers to the Pagan deitiesbefore whom the Israelites worshiped andif I may find it in my Bible here itsays yes Leviticus 17:7 says so thatthey may no longer offer theirsacrifices for and my version says goatdemons goat demons to whom theyprostitute themselves and so Mosesrefers to the pagan gods beh whom beforewhom the Israelites worshiped not justas Idols but as being goat demons andthe the writer of Chronicles writingafter the Babylonian exile uh Chroniclesis kind of a spiritual commentary onKings and Samuel the four books of kingsand Samuel in 2 Chronicles 11 and verse115 we have another reference as the samekind of reference um this talks aboutJobo setting up the the the goldencarves in the north and south of Israelto stop the northern 10 tribesworshiping in Jerusalem and it saysthere that he appointed his own priestsuh 2 Chronicles 11:15 for the highplaces and for the goat demons and forthe calves that he had set up and it'svery interesting that if you were toresearch some of the statues in Americatoday of um the temples of Satan youwill see that very very clearly uh oneof the most common um statues or imagesfor Satan is of a half man and a halfgoat um and so um bamet is one of thenames that is used for him uh for Satanbut one of the portrayals of Satan acommon portrayal of Satan even today isof as of of a half goat half humancreature and we see this idea of goatdemons within the Old Testament Isaiahreferred to Goat demons inhabiting thedesolate places of Babylon and Edomafter God's judgment had fallen in asIsaiah 13 through2 13:21 and so we mayconclude that deeon and ashth and Molechand baale were in fact names for demonsworshiped by God's people and by thesurrounding NationsSaul died because he consulted the witchof Endor in 1st Chronicles 10:13Manasseh sacrificed his son before thedemons in 2 Chronicles 33 and verse 6and Micah rebukes the practice ofWitchcraft among God's people before theBabylonian exile in Micah 5 and verse 12and it appears that the Israelites had aconstant tendency to idolatry that is todemon worship before they went intotheir Babylonian exile and this demonwor worship involved child sacrificedivination sorcery and mediums and thisthis um this love of idolatry and Demonworship it it disappears from the Jewishrecord after the Babylonian exile andparallel to this constant involvementwith demons we find repeatedlythroughout the Old Testament God warninghis people against any involvement withmediums with Idols or with divination uhjust as a couple examples and you'll seethese on the screen Leviticus 19 andverse 31 God says there do not turn tomediums or Wizards do not seek them outor be defiled for that by them for I amthe Lord your God the next chapterchapter 20 of Leviticus in verse 6 saysif any turn to mediums and wizardsprostituting themselves to them I willset my face against them I will cut themoff from the people consecrateyourselves therefore and be holy for Iam the Lord your God this is almost uhan exact parallel to where James sayslater resist the devil and he will fleefrom you turn to God and He will drawnear to you uh we see that the parallelparallel idea in New Testament and inOld Testament that turn away from thespirits turn away from the idols whichare manifestations of demons and turn tothe Living God and consecrate yourselfto him and uh because God is Holy and hecalls his people to be holy as well andso as we look back at the uh the theKings of Israel we see that there weremany reforming Kings such as Josiah orJehoshaphat or Hezekiah who wouldperiodically destroy the physicalmanifestation of idle work of idolworship particularly within the thenation of Judah we don't find it withinthe northern 10 tribes of Israel andthey get taken into captivity muchearlier in 722 uh BC but the tribe thetwo tribes in the in the Kingdom ofJudah that is Benjamin and Judah theysurvived over another hundred yearsbased around Jerusalem as an independentnation and perhaps the primary reasonfor that is they had reforming Kings whowould cleanse the nation of all forms ofidol worship these are house cleaningsthey would destroy the idols they woulddestroy the high places and the kingswere removing the physical manifestationof demons from the nation's life so thenwe come to the New Testament and we'lldwell for a few minutes now on the lifeand Ministry of Jesus himself now if ifyou look in the New Testament uh the thedescription of jesus' ministry you'llfind that Jesus his his miracles aredescribed really in two ways the firstway that we find is that is um thegospels describe general summaries ofthe ministry of Jesus and uh I'll justpull up one for you here it's in Matthewchapter 4 and verse24 and that's the wrong the wrong quotethere Matthew8:16 and I think I have the wrong quotethere but basically let me go to I'm inmark That's why these are appearincorrectly my apologies for thatMatthew8:16 it says there they brought thatevening to him many who were possessedwith demons and he cast out the spiritswith the word and he cured all who weresick and if you go back to Matthew 4:24you see there another transitionalsummary statement that summarizes theministry of Jesus it says there and theybrought to him all the sick those whowere Afflicted with various diseases andpains demoniacs epileptics andparalytics and he cured them and so wefind in the gospels these transitionalsummaries that summarize the fact thatJesus he cured all the diseases and oncloser examination you realize there arethree words for for healing in the Greekand one is just like um to to heal adisease like therapain we get the wordtherapy from that and so Jesus healsphysical ailments Jesus also healssocial dis dis disagreements but themost important thing that Jesus heals isleprosy but nowhere does it say that hehealed lepers it says in the NewTestament he cleansed lepers and andleprosy is is a is a physical disease italso serves as a metaphor for sin thatJesus doesn't just heal us of theresults of sin but he has the ability tocleanse us that is take it out of us aswell but the gospels also present sevenstories seven distinct stories that haveto do with Jesus casting out demons thefirst of those we find the Sabbathworshipper in Mark chapter 1 we'vealready l to that story and you're goingto see these on the screen we see thedeaf and dumb demoniac of Matthew 1222-29 we then have the gadin demoniac ofMark 5 1-20 we then come to the syropphenician mother pleading for herdaughter to be set free fromdemonization in Mark 7224-30 we then come to the epileptic boyof Matthew 17114-21 we have the bound woman of Luke 1310-17 and then the final of the sevenstories is the mute moniac of Matthew 9:32-34 and so we find in the stories ofJesus we have these summary transitionalstatements that said he cast out demonsand he healed the sick you find that ina number of places in the gospels togive you this is the summary of whatJesus was doing and then the gospelwriters give us seven specific storiesEach of which is slightly different Eachof which deals with a different kind ofdemonization and demonic harassment andpossession and we have these sevenstories and we see the authority ofJesus over all kinds of demonicharassment and truly in the gospelsparticularly in the gospel of Mark it isjesus' ability to set free Satan'scaptive was a tangible sign of the truththat the kingdom of God is at hand thearrival of the kingdom of God meant thatthe strong man that is Satan had beenbound up in the wilderness and now Jesuscould go around and he could set freethe captives of Satan and what I want toshare with you today is jesus' Authoritydid not finish while he was here onEarth he has and he remains allauthority in heaven and on Earth whichmeans that he can still set free Satan'scaptives in 2020 or 2021 or wheneveryou're watching this particular serieshere Jesus has the authority to set freeto set free the captives of Satan and soin in Mark chap 1 verse 27 and 28 we seethere the the the people recognizeJesus's Authority by virtue of the factthat he is is casting out demons it saysthere m Mark 1:27 they were amazed thatis when Jesus cast out the demon fromthe man in the synagogue and the peoplekept asking one another saying what isthis a new teaching with authority Hecommands even the unclean spirits andthey obey him so the casting out ofDemons by Jesus is a tangible and avisible sign undeniable that nobody candeny that the kingdom of God has arrivedin a real and a personal and a tangibleway among God's people and I just saypraise God for that because Satan seeksto kill and destroy and Jesus came thatwe might have life and have itabundantly and so we find that Jesus hasthe authority to cast out demons we alsofind in the teachings of Jesus that weare to ask our heavenly father toDeliver Us from the evil one we touchedupon that in our first of thisthree-part series we're not going to sayany more about it there other than tosay that we are to pray on a daily basisfor deliverance from a personalmalevolent evil being known as Satan whomakes war on God's children Revelation12:17 very famous verse in the AdventistWorld Satan was wroth with the woman andwent off to make war with the remnant ofher children those who keep theCommandments of God and have thetestimony of Jesus while as Adventist wefocus on the having the command keepingthe Commandments of God as in the TenCommandments and having the testimony ofJesus which in Revelation 19:10 theangel says the testimony of Jesus is thespirit of Prophecy we focus on that butwe tend to ignore the first half of thatverse which says that Satan makes war onthe remnant of God's children and sojust because you're a born againdisciple of Jesus Christ doesn't meanyou're immune from the attacks of Satanquite the opposite it means you are nowhave the special focus of satanic attackbut it also means you are the specialfocus of divine protection and that isinfinitely greater than anything Satancan throw our way we also find in thegospels in Matthew 10 and verse one thatJesus didn't just keep the authority tocast out demons to himself he delegatedthat authority to the 12 Matthew 10:1you'll see this on your screen it readsthen Jesus summoned his 12 disciples andgave them authority over unclean spiritsto cast them out and to cure everydisease and every sickness and so Jesusgave the TW the explicit authority tocast out evil spirits and we readthroughout the gospels that's preciselywhat they did such as Mark 3:15 Mark6713 and 30 Mark 9:1 14-29 and Mark 9:38there are many verses you can look atwhere it shows that Jesus gave thedisciples authority to cast out demonsand that's exactly what they did he theywent around casting out demons in thename of Jesus Christ they were anextension of his ministry if you look inLuke's gospel at Luke chapter 10 youfind there that not only did Jesus givethe 12 authority to cast out demons buthe also appointed 70 other of hisdisciples to to rep licate his ministryto be his ambassadors among the LostHouse of Israel the lost sheep of Israeland we read there in Luke 10:1 it saysthis and after this the Lord appointed70 others and sent them on ahead of himin pairs to every town and place wherehe intended to go now did Jesus uhcommission them to send out to cast outdemons by implication he did becausewhen they come back listen to what theysay in Luke chapter 10 verse1 17 it saysthe 70 returned with Joy saying Lord inyour name even the demons submit to ushe said to them I watched Heaven Satanfall from Heaven like a flash oflightning see I've given you authorityto tread on snakes and scorpions andover all the power of the enemy andnothing will hurt you and so byimplication Jesus gave the 70 theauthority to cast out demons becausewhen they came back to Jesus at the endof their missionary Journeys they weresaying Lord we saw even demons beingcast out in your name name and so theauthority to cast out demons is anintrinsic part of what Jesus gave to hisdisciples while he was on Earth and ifyou go to the end of Mark's gospel Markchapter 16 and verse17 uh Jesus discusses to he he teachesus today of what's going to happen whenhe goes back to heaven and what's goingto happen on planet Earth and he talksabout the disciples going to the wholeworld to share the good news then hesays in verse 17 he says these signswill accompany those who believe byusing my name they will cast out demonsI goes on to say they will speak intongues they will pick up deadly snakesand they're not going to be hurt by thesnakes now I'm not suggesting that yougo and you you pick up a Viper and saysee I can hold a Viper and it's notgoing to hurt me there are plenty ofinstances of preachers who pick uppoisonous snakes and they're bitten andthey die so that would be the sin ofpresumption but uh we see elsewhere inthe scriptures that God has has givenhis disciples and his disciples the theauthority to cast out demons as in whenthey come looking for you that is we arenot to be afraid of the Demons we're notto live in fear of the Demons but whendemons come our way we have thedelegated authority of Jesus Christ torebuke them and to drive them away andso we don't go looking for trouble butwhen Trouble Comes looking for us wedon't need to run we can stand firm andfight the good fight of faith knowingthat Jesus gives us the authority tocome cast those demonsout an intrinsic component of the goodnews of Jesus Christ is that he's neverlost an encounter with Satan and forthat we say amen and amen if we thenjust turn briefly before we come to theend of this session this second of thethree-part series on DeliveranceMinistry we look at the ministry in theapostolic era for the demonized if youlook in particular at the ministry ofPhillip Phillip um is is recognized asan evangelist in Acts chap 21 and: 8and he is presented in the book of Actsas being the prototypical or the idealevangelist to the Ethiopian unic Philippreached of Jesus in Acts chapter 8:35kickstarting the African church to theinhabitants of Samaria he preached ofChrist in Acts 8 and verse 5 Lukerecords Philip's evangelism in Samariain Acts 8: 5-8 and you're going to seethese verses on the screen now let meread them out for you this is what hisministry consisted of Acts 8: 5-8 followme on the screen it says Philip wentdown to the city of Samaria andproclaimed the Messiah to them thecrowds with one Accord listened eagerlyto what was said by Phillip hearing andseeing the signs that he did for uncleanspirits crying with loud shrieks cameout of many who were possessed and manyothers who were paralyzed or lame werecured so there was great joy in thatCity and so we see in this passage herethat in the early Church in theapostolic era they proclaimed the gospeland the proclamation of the Gospel wasaccompanied by physical healings and byuh deliverances from demonic demonicharassment oppression or possession andthe the the result of this was was Faithgrew within that community and it wasthe establishment of newcongregations among the Gentiles whopreviously had been separated from Godand by virtue of the split between Jewsand Gentiles up until that timewe see that in the book of Acts 5 and:16 that the apostles were casting outunclean spirits in Jerusalem uh let mejust find that text for you here Actschapter 5 and verse 16 it says a greatnumber of people would also gather fromthe towns around Jerusalem bringing thesick and those tormented by uncleanspirits and they were all cured and weknow later on in the book of Acts on hisone of his missionary Journeys hissecond missionary journey in Actschapter 16Paul meets a girl who has a spirit ofdivination and acts chap 16: 16-8 thisis how the encounter goes it says oneday as we that is Luke and Silas andPaul were going to the place of prayerwe met a slave girl who had a spirit ofdivination and brought her owners agreat deal of money by fortune tellingwhile she followed Paul and us she wouldcry out these men are slaves of the mosthigh God who proclaimed to you a way ofsalvation she kept doing this for manydays but Paul very much annoyed turnedand said to the spirit I order you inthe name of the Lord Jesus Christ tocome out of her and it came out of herthat very hour interestingly enough thatshe was a slave girl and she acted underthe authority of her owners but sherecognized in the apostles that theywere also slaves as Paul says in Romanschapter 1 Paul a SLA an apostle calledby God to be an apostle a slave of JesusChrist and so Paul Paul viewed himselfas a slave of Jesus Christ and thisslave girl recognized that Paul was alsoacting under the authority of a morepowerful person and uh in this storyhere um Paul turns around and he castsout the demon from this young lady inthe book in Ephesus Paul wasunsuccessfully imitated by the Jewishexorcists in the story of the Seven Sonsof ska and you'll be seeing that on yourscreen acts 19: 14-1 17 well this storyteaches us is that success inDeliverance Ministry does not depend ona formulaic or lurgical approach but inthe empowering presence of the HolySpirit and a personal submission to theauthority of Jesus Christ and so Paullists the Discerning of spirits as oneof the gifts of the Holy Spirit to hischurch we find that it's it's a gift wedon't often speak about but you find itthere in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 a veryfamous passage that talks about umspiritual giftand 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse10 and Paul is discussing the variouskinds of gifts that the holy spiritgives to his church and in 1 Corinthians12: 10 he says to another that is theholy spirit gives to another person theworking of Miracles to another prophecyto another the discernment of spiritsand so God gives his church the giftwithin every congregation there's atleast one person who has as and whennecessary the gift of discerning whetherthere is a spirit a fallen Spiritpresent or not and this is a veryimportant teaching because we think ofcertain gifts as being higher profilelike being a preacher or a pastor orevangelist or a teacher or the gift ofleadership or the gift of encouragementfor instance or speaking in tongues umor the gift of languages but we find inhere that one of the gifts that Godgives his church because his church isunder attack by Satan is precisely thegift of the Discerning of spirits we'regoing to talk a bit more about that inour third section session of ourthree-part series on DeliveranceMinistry so hang around for that so whatdo we say in conclusion today well onceagain I want to invite you if you want afuller discussion of this topic go tothe website that we in AFM have put upthe website is called www.s setfree inchrist.org and you can download the freeonline resource that provides anAdventist a uniquely Adventistperspective on Deliverance Ministry youwill be surprised at just how muchsister White has to say in the spirit ofprophecy about this kind of ministry shehad pages and pages and pages to sayabout this very important topic thetruth of the matter is is that everydisciple today including you who arewatching this program every discipletoday will face attacks from demons atsome time in our life from what Paulcalls in Ephesians 6:13 that evil dayevil does reach into our lives itreaches into our homes it reaches intoour marriages it affects our children itaffects our local congregations itaffects our nation and it affects theworld and all of us are acutely aware ofthe reality not just that we are Fallenbeings but there is such a thing as evilin our world evil it goes beyond humanwords we just recognize the presence ofevil and Paul makes it absolutely clearin Ephesians 6:13 that we are to put onthe armor of God so that we can stand onthat evil day the assumption is is evilwill reach into my life and evil willreach into your life and therefore we'reto take this very seriously evil in theform of personal literal Fallen Angelsuh re who reach into the lives of Jesusdisciples and they come as Jesus said inJohn 10 they come to steal to kill andto destroy to destroy everything andanything that is good and Noble and pureand loving in your life that is whatthey're seeking to destroy andultimately they're seeking to destroyyou as a person and to make sure thatyou um are eternally destroyed uh whichis the same fate that those demonsthemselves are going to experience andso the Apostle Paul counsels us to puton the armor of God precisely so that wecan stand on that evil day when it comesknocking on our doors and our homes andI can say as a pastor that no matter whoyou visit in a pastal visitation behindevery door no matter how fancy the doorno matter how upscale or low scale theneighborhood there is always a story totell there is always a story of humansuffering of human indignity of humanpain of human abuse and of humansuffering I see it everywhere I go as apastor it doesn't matter whether youdrive a Ferrari or a forward there'sgoing to be suffering in some aspect inyour life and so when that evil daycomes we are not left to be alone we canindeed put on the armor of Godrecognizing There Are Spiritual attacksand for those spiritual attacks there isis a spiritual solution that is theauthority of the Lord and Savior JesusJesus Christ spiritual preparationbefore and faith during the evil day aretherefore the keys to survivingspiritual battles we need to take thisseriously brothers and sisters victoryin the battle today is possible but notin our own strength submit yourselvestherefore to God writes the ApostleJames resist the devil and he will fleefrom you draw near to God and He willdraw near to you it's a beautifulpromise from the book of James chter 4:7 and 8 commenting on this uh an authorcalled Allan he wrote the followingwords he said the gospel is to bepreached right up to the second comingof Christ or at least until probationcloses just before Jesus returns sincethe gospel commission applies until thesecond Advent the signs that accompanythe preaching must also apply untilChrist comes and among the signs andPromises is the one that says Devilswill be cast out wherever ever thegospel is preached end quote so thatbrings us to the conclusion of thissecond of a three-part series onDeliverance Ministry the good news isthat wherever the gospel is proclaimedthe authority of Jesus is also presentto set free the captives of Satan uh wesee that in the Old Testament idolatrywas a form of demon worship and it ledGod's people inevitably into a downwardmoral spiral we see that in the ministryof Jesus Jesus never failed to cast outdemons and Jesus delegated his authorityto the 12 and then to the 70 and when hewent back to Heaven he delegated itagain to his disciples and the ApostlePaul speaking to the Church of Corinthemphasizes that God gives to his churchthe gift of the discernment of spiritsthat is to to understand whether aspirit is from God or whether a spiritis from the the principality of evil andto deal with it appropriately and so Godhas not left us alone he is a god oflove and Jesus was promised to always bewith us until the end of the age he hasall authority and all power and he wantsto fight the battles that we cannotfight oh praise the Lord he will fightthose battles for us and he will winthem because he is the the coming againand the Risen Son of God may God blessyou as we chew on these matters and aswe go soon into our third part of thisthree-part series we talk about thepracticalities my prayer is that thatyour confidence and the ability of Jesusto set us free will grow in your life inyour heart and through faith in JesusChrist you will experience theDeliverance that only comes throughfaith in our Lord and Savior Jesus let'sbow our heads and close with the word ofprayer dear father I want to thank youfor these teachings of scripture fatherI thank you that you are patient withthe people of Israel during hundreds ofyears of spiritual adultery as theyworshiped demons in the form of Idols Iwant to thank you Father that when Jesuscame he didn't turn his back on thosechildren of Israel but that he heministered to them and he never failedto cast out those demons and father Iwant to thank you that Jesus has givento his church today the authority tocast out demons the authority to discerndemons the the discernment of spirits sothat we can drive out Satan'srepresentatives and people's lives maybe filled with the presence of the HolySpirit oh father as we live our lives inthe 21st century I pray that thesestories from the scriptures will be asreal for us as those experiences were indays gone by and I pray that each one ofus will experience the abundance of lifeand the free freedom from Satan thatonly you can give this is our prayer injesus' holy name amen[Music][Music]