Sermon Notes: Fighting Demons

Demon fighting

Have you ever wondered what demons know?

Can demons read your mind?

Can demons place a thought into your head?

What can demons know, and how do we fight them?

If you are not fighting them, you are helping them.

Reading:

Heb 4:12 KJV For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
 13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
 14  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.
 15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
 16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

Pray

I preached last week about the limitations of Satan.

Just as a quick review, Satan is not Omnipresent, God is.

Satan is not Omniscient, God is

And Satan is not Omnipotent, God is.

There are certain things Satan and the demons are allowed to do, and many things Satan and his demons cannot do.

As far as reading your mind, our opening reading from Hebrews says:

Heb 4:12 KJV For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
 13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
 14  Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

In our battle gear there are several defensive pieces: the shield, the helmet,  the breastplate and others,

But the one offensive weapon is the sword and our sword is the Word of God.

When Jesus was being tempted to sin, He used the Sword of the Spirit very skillfully.

Mat 4:1 KJV Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
 2  And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.
 3  And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
 4  But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
 5  Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
 6  And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
 7  Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.note
 8  Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
 9  And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
 10  Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
 11  Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

3 times Jesus was tempted.
2 times Satan said, If you are the Son of God meaning Satan was not really sure about Jesus' true identity.
3 times Jesus responded by quoting God's Word.

No super power, no revealing His identity. Just quoting Scripture.

Jesus did Exactly what we are able to do He used the quoting of Scripture to make Satan flee.

Jas 4:7 KJV Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

But at other times the demons, who are lesser beings than Satan, knew exactly who Jesus was

Mat 8:28 KJV And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.
 29  And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Luk 4:40 KJV Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto him; and he laid his hands on every one of them, and healed them.
 41  And devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God. And he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.

The devils or demons could not read Jesus' mind, but by observation and hearing Jesus they were able to recognize Him.

Act 16:16 KJV And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:
 17  The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.
 18  And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.

How did the spirit, or demon, recognize Paul?

Not through mind reading, but through observation and listening.

When we combine the events of Matthew 4 with

Heb 4:12 KJV For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Heb 4:13 KJV Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Here the Word of God is identified as not just the words of the Bible, but the presence of Jesus Christ

The Word of John 1 that became flesh.

When we quote Scripture we are not saying magic words from a magic book.

It is not the Christian version of spell casting

We are actually saying the words that Jesus said.

All Scripture is given by the breath of God

It is not the Bible which has the power, it is the Author, the Creator of heaven and earth.

As you can see the demons do not have the power of mind reading, but they do have the power to hear your words, to see your facial expressions and to guess what is happening and what you will do next.

1Ki 8:39 KJV Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)

Only God knows what is in the heart of man

Satan and his demons are limited to what they can see and what they can hear when they are either physically present or when they are informed by another being.

Demonic resources are limited. Satan will not assign a powerful demon to do something that a weaker demon can do.

This way the easier jobs are done by weaker demons and harder jobs are done by stronger demons.

Satan has many more weaker demons than stronger demons so he uses the strongest demons for the hardest jobs.

Think about the angel world like the military world. There is rank, there is authority, there are duties and responsibilities, there are orders and objectives.

Satan will even put multiple weaker demons with one person than waste his more powerful demons.

Demons can only come inside an unsaved person.

A saved person, someone that has been born again, an authentic Christian, has the Holy Spirit living inside them.

There is no way any demon, or even Satan himself, can move into the same place as the Holy Spirit.

However demons can move into any unsaved person at will and stay as long as they want.

The unsaved person has no presence of the Holy Spirit to stop the demon from coming in.

If the unsaved person, possessed by a demon, comes in contact with an authentic Christian, that Christian by the power of God, can cast the demon out.

If the unsaved person has the demon removed and remains unsaved, the situation will become much worse.

Mat 12:43 KJV
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
 44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
 45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

It is also not a good idea for unsaved people to try and cast out demons

Act 19:11 KJV And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
 12  So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
 13  Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
 14  And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.
 15  And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
 16  And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

Even if you are saved, it is not always possible for weak Christians to cast out  strong demons

How do you cast out strong demons?

 17  And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.
 18  And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds.
 19  Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
 20  So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.

Some of you, in order to grow mighty in the Word of God, need to first throw out your objects of Satan.

That is why we are careful about the symbols and the images we use in the church and in my home.

You may also need to spend more time in study of God's Word, in prayer, in fasting, in witnessing, in submission to God's law.

Mat 17:14 KJV And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,
 15  Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.
 16  And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.
 17  Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.
 18  And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.
 19  Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?
 20  And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
 21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Are you saved? Do you know Jesus as your Saviour, your Master, your Friend?

How skilled are you with the Sword of the Spirit? The Holy Bible?
Are you praying and fasting?

If Jesus were to say, I want you to cast out a demon, would you be ready?

END