There is a larger crowd here
today that cannot be seen. It's an unseen crowd. A cloud
of witnesses who are looking on, who are observing. They've come to church. I think
witnesses of believers who've gone on. I know there's a cloud
of witnesses here. I do know that. There are angels
here. Angels have come, not to perform
miracles, in great expectation of learning more of the Gospel.
They've come to learn. And angels are literally amazed
and caused to worship. We know that as we read the Revelation
when we get home, present with the Lord, and we're circling
the throne and crying out, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, The
Scripture indicates that we excite a host of angelic beings that
cannot be numbered, and they join in with the saints of God
in crying out, worthy is the Lamb that was slain. I think
we've got a little excited in here in our singing today. I
think the Lord is surely in this place, and it has caused maybe
some who don't often sing to even join in today. There's also
another crowd, sinister crowd. a demonic crowd that are attending
the service. Attending here to grieve and
wound and stop the ears from the little child of God from
hearing that comforting message, good news, that Jesus paid it
all. Many of you came with demons.
Those of you definitely out of the drug culture, when you came
here, there is no doubt in my mind that you came with a demon. Perhaps if you were already converted,
not perhaps, but truly, you were not possessed, but definitely
you were under the power and influence of a demon. It's very
clear that the pharmacia is demonic. Why do you think they call liquor
spirits? Come on in, we have spirits here.
Demonic spirits. And I can guarantee you that
demons hang out at Grace Gospel Fellowships. Wherever you find
the gospel comforting the little child of God, you're going to
find demons. Wherever the gospel is going
forth in power and in much assurance, you will find demons. Demons
are out to destroy your life and mine. To blind your eyes. To bring condemnation. Lack of
assurance. Lack of peace. Lack of joy. bring depression. I don't say
that everyone who is depressed is influenced by demons, but
definitely a majority of people in depression are experiencing
the influence of demons. Amen. Scripture is very clear
in the book of Ephesians that we do not wrestle with flesh
and blood. You know, we may think that we
are battling the Jehovah Witnesses, We may think we're battling the
Mormons or the Catholics or the Presbyterians or whatever. But your greatest war is not
with flesh. Your greatest battle, and mine,
is with those principalities and powers that we cannot see. There is an unseen, wicked world. And I'm very, very conscious
today of the fact that demons are here and that they are listening
to me. I want you to go to the book
of Mark, chapter 5. And I've been hearing little
things about demons being on Seneca Street. That street belongs
to Christ. There is no trespassing signs
to demons at both ends of Little Grace Village. No trespassing. Beware! In Mark chapter 5, the Lord and
the disciples came over onto the other side of the sea, verse
1, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when He was come out of the
ship immediately, there met Him out of the tombs a man with an
unclean spirit who had His dwelling among the tombs. He lived in
the cemetery. He was a walking dead man. And
no man could bind him, not with chains, because that he had been often
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him. He had extraordinary demonic
strength. And the fetters broken in pieces,
neither could any man tame him. Here was a bucking bronco. He's
about to mean up with one mean cowboy who's able to tame folks. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs crying, cutting himself
with stones. Does it sound familiar? I want
to say very gently and very tenderly to all of the cutters who are
here in the congregation today, demonic, All of you who are torturing
yourself with hooks and chains and burning yourself with cigarettes
and all of those things, demonic. No doubt about it. Demonic. You
don't have to question that. Listen to the old pastor today.
But there's freedom for you. You don't have to sit in your
room burning yourself with a cigarette. Cutting your wrists. Look at
verse 6. I love this. But when he saw
Jesus afire off. Now, let me tell you this. He saw Jesus afire off. This
is a strange verse. This doesn't make any sense.
If you try to figure this out, this little verse here just doesn't
fit. Here's a guy that can be chained. Here's a guy that has
been put in fetters and chained. could not bind him. He's living
in the cemetery, in the mountains, in the cave, tormented day and
night. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
I want to tell you this, I'm about to get happy here by myself. Jesus saw him before he ever
saw Jesus. and something happened to him
before he saw Jesus or instantaneously when he saw Jesus, and he ran
and he worshipped Him. Wild man, crazy man, living in
the tomb, saw Jesus and ran to Him and worshipped Him. Isn't that something? Oh, we
could go home right now and just think about that. We could just
think about that. Oh, He loved me ere I knew Him.
Oh, my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the
foundation of the world. Can you imagine? I tried to think
about this this morning, about how the Holy Spirit on this particular
day was sent to the mountains, to the cemetery, to find this
old boy. We're not even given his name,
except he's called Legions. He has many demons. What a name! Many devils. What's your name?
Many devils. Many demons is my name. But when
he saw Jesus, he ran to Him and worshiped Him. His eyes on the
sparrow and he watches over me. The Holy Spirit of God had been
watching this man as he cut himself. God Almighty saw this elect,
chosen of God, his name written in the Lamb's Book of Life. This
man was wild and God was watching. One day the Father said to the
Spirit, catch him out. Catch him out! Let me tell you
this, wherever you find a seeking sinner, you find a seeking Savior
who has found the sinner. Philip over there in the book
of Acts, in that great revival, the Spirit of God said, I want
you to leave the great revival meeting. I want you to go into
a desert place. You mean leave all these people,
this great meeting, all kinds of wonders and signs and all
kinds of things that are happening, leave this meeting and go into
it? Yes. And there was coming a black
man in a chariot reading Isaiah 53. And the Spirit of God said,
go join thyself to this chariot. You know God works at both ends.
He's got a ready preacher to preach to a needy sinner. And
He brings them together. That's the providence of God.
It was no accident that you crack at it at the end of your rope,
nearly dead, walking in the tombs of life, cutting yourself, destroying
yourself. And all the time, God was bringing
you closer. It was no accident that you got
off the bus in front of 35 East Huron Street. It was the providence
of a mighty God who loved you ere you knew Him. Verse 7, He
cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee,
Jesus? Oh, you know, when a man or woman comes to Christ, they
have their theology all balled up. They don't know much. Silly
people. We don't even know whether this
was the demon crying out or the man himself. All messed up. What a mess. Only messed up people come to
Christ. That's the only people He saved. Messed up people. Listen,
if you're a theologian, you're in the wrong church. You can't
build a church with theologians. We need some mixed up people
who've been saved by the grace of God. You don't know it all. No doubt, this old boy says,
my feet are running to Jesus. I've never even seen Jesus before. I'm worshiping this man, Jesus. What is this all about? Jesus,
thou Son of the Most High God." Well, how do you know that? Well,
flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, but my Spirit,
saith the Lord God. He had to reveal it to this crazy
man. I don't know. I was in the hood,
but I know this. Jesus is the Son of God. Well,
how do you know that? Well, flesh and blood did not
reveal it unto thee. But My Father which is in heaven, I adjure Thee by God, that Thou
torment me not. For He said unto him, Come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit." This is what you call the effectual
call. When Jesus said to a demon, Come out, the demon is going
to come out because he is the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ.
And he asked him, what is thy name? And he answered, saying,
My name is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him much
that he would not send them away out of the country." Let's hang
out here now. It looks like the demons are
talking a little bit here. Now, there was there nigh unto
the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. Pigs. Not really a clean animal. And all the devils besought Him,
saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. You may leave. And notice the demons are asking
Jesus, Let us go into the hogs. They knew He was Lord. He's Lord. And the unclean spirit went out
and entered into the swine, and the herd ran down a steep place
into the sea. And there were about 2,000, and
they were choked in the sea. They drowned. We have a pretty
powerful Lord, don't we? He's a compassionate Savior,
but He's Lord. He is Master. He's Captain of
the ship. He's Sovereign of the universe.
None can stay His hand nor say unto Him, what doest Thou? I want to read these passages
in Ephesians 6. You need to read them too. And
I want to say to those of you who are wrestling with this matter
of demonic influence, and you are a child of God, fear not,
little flock. Greater is He that's in you than
he that's in the world. And I'll tell you what demons
try to do. Demons will get on Seneca Street. Because all of
y'all have dabbled out there, many of you, out there in that
culture. And by the way, there are religious demons too. Maybe
I'll hit them a little later in the message here. We're not
talking just about crack demons. We're talking about churchy religious
demons too. But anyway, you can rest assured
of this. that if there are 98% of the
folks who are living in aftercare over on Seneca Street, there
are 98% of the folks over there who have used some kind of drugs,
you're influenced by demons. And if you haven't been born
again, more than likely, you have a demon. More than likely,
you are possessed. You can't go into the demonic
world and come out clean unless Jesus brings you out. Now, I also want to tell you
this. You haven't heard me talk about this too much. I don't
go looking for demons under rocks. You know, the devil made me do
it and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You did a lot of
things all by yourself. Don't give the devil credit.
You can take credit all by yourself. More than likely, the devil didn't
pull into the driveway of a crack house. More than likely, you
sought it out and you did it. More than likely. I guarantee
you this, when you go in a crack house, they're there. Oh yeah,
they're there. They will influence. Why do you
think a Christian relapses? I think there's tremendous influence
there. You need to be aware that we wrestle not with flesh and
blood. Now let's go back up to verse 10, Ephesians 6. Finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Be strong in the Lord and the
power of His might. Be confident of this, child of
God. You say, well, I think demons
have me. He's already bought you, child
of God. You don't belong to Him. In the book of Isaiah, it says
that we, as children of God, are on our way to heaven. We're
marching to Zion. We are children of God. We're
on the king's highway to heaven. And the Bible says that the king's
highway has been fenced off on either side. And there's a lion
on the outside of the fence roaring. What the children of God ought
to do is lay down, pussycat. Keep on marching. That's right.
Don't be paying any attention to that. Roar can't hurt you.
In fact, I actually believe this. As you grow in the Lord and the
power of His might, you ought to run toward the roar. You don't want me to pull the
blood on you. I'll take you like Grant took
Richmond. Back off. Amen. Children of God are not
to be timid about this business. You know, we're so superstitious. We are so superstitious. Our God is not superstitious.
Yes, there's demons. Yes, I know that, but I've read
the Bible. Christ is going to put every
one of them in hell. And His Spirit in us is greater
than any demon in or out of hell. That's true. He said, well, Pastor, do you
think strange things happened years ago? I had a young lady,
actually, they were attending the University of Kentucky, and
their pastor, Henry Mahan, was a friend, and they got to telling
him about that, and then they got to attending our church in
Danville, and they got to telling me that their dresser drawers,
where they were living on campus there at UK, in the dorm, at
strange times, those drawers would shake and open. You know,
I didn't go like that. I don't believe that. But I did
say this. I'm not scared of drawers opening. Because I believe in demons. But I think we ought to do things
like leave the drawers alone. I mean, I don't think that... And the next thing you know,
you've got 500 people going... And that's what can happen over
there on the street too. The demons get one. Next thing you
know, the demon's got another, and another, and another, and
another. And then the whole street is shaking in their boots. We
don't shake here! And if you want the elders to
come over to whatever house, I'm ready. And my gun is loaded. I do not come in my own strength,
but I know there is a name above every name and every knee must
bow and every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. They
don't belong in our houses over there. And we're not going to
have it. We're just not going to have
it. Put on the whole armor of God.
that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
He's wild. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. Stand there! for having
your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate
of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the Spirit." That's the way you go to war. You don't go to
war with self-confidence. You put on the armor and go to
war. We're in a war. Aren't we in
a war? They took Asmar out, but Asmar
came back. And he was telling me this morning
that they were singing hymns in the crack house. And that there was a guy who
said, you fell, but you need to get up and go back. The Lord
will go in the crack house. I want you to go to the book
of Acts chapter 19. This demonic thing is nothing
new. In fact, I think it's very important
that we're all aware of the power of demons. Maybe you're not running
around in the cemetery, but you might as well be if you're out
of your head, higher than a kite, just got you totally passive
about ever having life. Right? Look in the book of Acts
chapter 19 and verse 8. And Paul went into the church,
synagogue, religious place, and boldly for the space of three
months disputing and persuading the things concerning the Kingdom
of God. Church is a good place to go. But when divers were hardened
and believed not... Now let me tell you here, there
are some of you here today who are not believers. Unbelief is
not stupidity. Unbelief is not ignorance. Unbelief
is rebellion against the truth. I'll put it simple to you. God
sent His only begotten Son into the world to die in the room
and place and stead of poor sinners and tells you to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And you will not come to Me that
you might have life. That's rebellion against Almighty
God. You don't go to hell because
you're a dumbbell. You go to hell because you are a rebel against
a holy God. Am I right about that, church?
You go to hell because you are a rebel against God. If I were
you, I would not tell God to keep His hands off me. I would
ask God to do something with me and for me that I cannot do
for myself. But when divers were hardened
and believed not but spake evil of that way, not a persuasion,
not an invitation, but that way, Christ is the way, the truth,
and the life. Before the multitude, He departed
from them and separated the disciples, disputing daily. in the school
of one Tyrannus. And this continued by the space
of two years, so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the
word of the Lord Jesus Christ, both Jews and Greeks. And God
wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, so that from his..."
I might just stop there. Somebody said, well, you know,
Pastor doesn't believe in miracles. Have you driven down Seneca Street?
Have you been over to 35 East Huron? I'm telling you, every year there
is a $4.4 million miracle that goes on every day. Absolutely,
I believe in miracles. You know, you're looking around
for just particular miracles, but if you look, you don't have
to look too hard either to see that there are miracles going
on. You know what you might do if you've been saved? You might
just look! You're a walking, talking miracle! And God wrought special miracles
by the hands of Paul, so that from his body were brought unto
the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and diseases departed from them,
and the evil spirits went out of them. I'll tell you this, if you think
you have a demon in your house, you need to call the elders.
Because we'll come over and we'll speak a word to the evil spirits. Get out! in the name of Jesus Christ.
I mean, it's really not a difficult thing. We don't have to pray
for hours and hours. We don't even have to shut our
eyes. I don't see you, but I know you're here because Susie says
you're here. And that's why I'm here as the
man of God and on the authority of the Word of God in the name
of Jesus Christ. Get out! I know some of you are thinking,
oh, I don't know what's going to happen to Pastor this week.
He's messing around in dangerous territory. You're still alive and you've
been in dangerous territory more than me. I've never lived in the hood.
You're still alive. How come you're still alive?
An unseen hand watching over you. 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." See, what these guys tried to
do is they were religious, they were exorcists, and they wanted
to work this miracle. So they saw Paul. I mean, he
was doing a good work. Things were happening. And so
they took it upon themselves to take His tool, which was the
Lord Jesus Christ. It didn't work. It didn't work. Don't mess with
demons unless you know Jesus. Don't mess. And just so you know,
we have no power to deal with demons. It's only in Christ Jesus. Listen, you are no match for
a demon. You are not. But Jesus is. Jesus is. And there were seven
sons of one Sheba, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did
so. And the evil spirit answered
and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you, big
boy? I'm going to get you. I'm going to get all of you.
And they did. Now, I don't play with demons,
but I'm not afraid of demons. And if you're a child of God,
you don't have to be afraid of demons either. In fact, the Lord
wouldn't want you to be afraid. Let's deal with it. And it's
nothing new anyway. You think what's happened to
you? There's nobody in here that hasn't had someone exert evil
upon them. You think about everybody in
here, you know, sexual abuse is a big thing. It's a big thing.
Much bigger. It's always been going on. It's
not just new in America. It's been going on since the
fall in the garden. There's nothing new under the
sun. Nothing new. You think all of this just happens? It's evil. And I'm going to tell
you this, you know when the Lord saves you, until you get to heaven, you're
going to have a new mind, new body, new everything. And what
really needs to happen, especially with this sexual abuse thing,
some of this stuff that's happened to you that's demonic, You've
got to deal with it. And there's only one way to deal
with it. If you think those demons will just go away because you
got saved, they'll come back and pick at you. And by the way,
even the people that the demons use to exert this on you, they're
still alive. So you've got to live with it.
You've got to see them, especially if they're in your own family.
How am I talking today? I'm talking to somebody. I'm
talking to somebody today. I'm talking to somebody today.
I think I have a message from the Lord to comfort you today. Of course, those people are still
around. You've got a mind and a memory. And the demon gets
with your conscience and begins to talk to you. The other thing
is, you don't need to be having fellowship with demons. Don't
be talking back to them saying things like this. Who can lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Give them the boot. Start
quoting Scripture to them. They can't take Scripture. They
cannot. It's the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is no reason for you to
go on crying. And I want to say this to you.
Whatever has happened to you, whatever sin you have committed,
As a believer, you need to know this. Your sins are gone, gone,
gone. Yes, they're buried in the deepest
sea. That's good enough for me. I
shall eternally praise God. My sins are gone. Forgetting those things which
are behind. God is not reminding you of what
your uncle did to you out behind the barn. Fear is not of God. God wants us to have Boldness! Even in the day of judgment.
As a little boy and growing up in the Baptist church, I was
always hearing that Burger Bear message about, you know, how
God's going to get all the pictures of everything you've ever done
and show everybody. I didn't want to die. I mean,
I was afraid of judgment. Little child of God. Jesus paid
it all. There is no judgment for you.
There is therefore right now, right now, no condemnation. Say, oh, pastor, I know you're sitting
here and I know what you're thinking. Oh, pastor, you don't know what
I've done. I don't care. I know what Jesus
did. And I know He's got your back.
And I know underneath are the everlasting arms of God. He's
got you surrounded. You're in His arms. He will not
let go of you. And learn to rest in this Gospel
of Jesus Christ that He paid the debt. Yes, we're all messed
up. We're all messed up. You know,
I honestly think this. I would say three or four times
a week, what a mess I am. If you could see You would call
another pastor. Now, I know what you're thinking.
Oh, no. Oh, no. Because you don't like
to think about we're all a mess. But we are. The only thing is
that I'm 65 now and I have been growing since I was eight years
old. I have been growing in grace. And it's pretty tough for the
devil to booger bear me now. because I'm all settled in. I
pitched my tent at Calvary. I'm not moving. I'm not budging.
Nobody can move me. There's power, power, power,
wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb. There's a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners
plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. If the
Son sets a free, you're free indeed. There is therefore now
no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. I will never
leave you nor forsake you. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. He who hath begun a good work
in you will perform it unto the day of redemption. If I go away,
I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I
am there you may be also. Let not your heart be troubled.
Don't be walking through this life All downcast. We got good news. It's a good
news gospel. It's wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Now, those of you who are dealing
with this demonic thing, and there may be more than I already
know, if you want us to come to the house, we'll do that. But you know, I've already started
praying. You remember the woman who had a daughter, and the daughter
was dying, and they went and told Jesus about it. And Jairus'
daughter, I think it was Jairus, Jairus was telling the Lord Jesus
about it. And when he got home, he found
his daughter was well, alive, and doing really good. And it
was at the same time as he was telling Jesus about it. Jared
said, come to my house and heal my daughter. She's dying. But
if you just give the Word, she can be whole right now. The truth
is, I mean, I'd do it for you, but the truth is, we don't have
to come to the house. The truth is, I'm telling the
demons right now on Sunday morning, get out of the house! Now what you need to do is leave
the service, go down to your house and say, You're not here. And if you are here, I'm not
listening to you. But if you keep it up, I'm going
to call the pastor down here. You don't want to deal with the
pastor. He's a wild, crazy man. And he is totally consumed. He's
about half out of his head most of the time. He's a mess and
he just doesn't give a rip about demons. Get out. All right, I think we ought to
praise Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, and thank Him, and give Him glory. I do want to say compassionately
to you, though, if you're wrestling with this, and maybe you're just
a babe in Christ, and you seemingly can't get over the hump, you
just can't get any peace about it, we'll talk about it.