Look at verses 16 through 18.
We're just going to look at these three verses and try to deal
honestly with them. It came to pass, as we went to
prayer, Paul, Silas, Timothy, a certain damsel, possessed with
a spirit, of divination, or the name is Python, met us, which,
or this young woman brought her masters much gain by soothsaying,
fortune-telling, psychic readings. The same followed Paul and us
and cried, cried out, saying, These men are the servants of
the Most High God. would show unto us the way of
salvation. And this did she many days. This
went on. And Paul, but Paul being grieved,
turned, finally 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. This is a true story. of a young
woman possessed with a demon, which the Lord, through a preacher, delivered
her from this demon. And there are still many today,
women and men, possessed in such a manner. Now, let's look at
each line. It says, It came to pass. Now,
there it is again. It came to pass. All this, this
time, place, people, everything, this whole story was true, but
it came and it passed. So, as will everything concerning
us. Paul, he says, we went to prayer. They went either back to the
riverside, you remember how this story started, there were some
women who met down by the riverside. The Lord saved Lydia there. And they either went back to
the riverside or went somewhere where they were meeting to pray. So we went to prayer. And we
need to realize, we need to realize the need, the necessity, the
constant need of prayer. This was Paul's habit. Our Lord
prayed always. And we need to realize the necessity,
the need of prayer. All men ought, our Lord said,
to pray, to call upon the Lord. Because there are blessings which
come to us through prayer. Now, there is no power in prayer. This is what religion says today. There is no power in the act
of prayer or the saying of words. But there is all power in the
one to whom we pray. Now, do you remember the story
of Cornelius? In this book of Acts, Cornelius,
it says, was praying always. He did not yet know the Lord,
but he was praying. He was calling. And the Lord
heard his prayer, and the Lord saved him and his whole house. And then here in our story, Lydia
was down by the river. She did not yet know the Lord,
but she was calling. Whosoever shall call. on the
name of the Lord shall be saved." And she was diligent in calling. She prayed, and the Lord heard
her, and the Lord blessed her. Now her and Cornelius both prayed
always, and the Lord heard them both, and the Lord sent them
both the greatest blessing of all, the blessing of blessings. He sent the gospel. He sent the gospel. He sent a
man to preach the gospel to them and save them and their whole
house. Will the Lord still do that today
to someone who calls on Him? He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And He is rich unto all them
that call upon Him. If we want to receive a blessing,
He says, ask and you will receive. If we, right now, today, you
know how to receive a blessing from this Word preached? This
is the blessing. You know how? Ask and you will receive. Pray,
Lord, like Lydia, Lord, open my heart. Open my heart. Open my eyes and ears and understanding. Alright? There was a certain
damsel, it says. A certain damsel possessed with
a spirit of divination. Damsel means a young woman. A
young woman in her early twenties or thirties. Possessed with a
spirit of divination. The word python is used and that
comes from the the word Apollyon. It's used one time in the scriptures.
That was an idol that the Ammonites made up this idol, Apollyon. It means sun king. It had something
to do with worshiping the sun or whatever. This woman was possessed
with the devil and brought her masters, it says, great gain,
much gain by soothsaying. This young woman, I'm quite sure,
was beautiful to look at because there's nothing more spellbinding
or fascinating or with more drawing power than physical beauty. I'm quite sure she was a beautiful
young woman, and she was possessed with a devil, a demon, practicing
soothsaying, fortune-telling, psychic reading and prophesying. Does that sound familiar? The
same thing goes on today. There were some of these back
then, like this woman, there are many now. Our Lord said that
in the last days there will be many, many more people. Deuteronomy 18. Go back to Deuteronomy
18. Our young adults are in here
this morning because I wanted them to hear
this. Deuteronomy 18. The Lord, way
back in the beginning, in the books of Moses, warns about these soothsayers
and fortune tellers and diviners and observers of times and witches
and so forth. He warns about the, look at it
with me, Deuteronomy 18 verse 9. When thou art come into the
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to
do at the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found
among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire." One of these days I hope to fully
deal with that. And if you'll notice, I'll just
give you a hint. In most of religion today, there's something to talk
about. Fill the fire. I get junk mail all the time.
And most of these so-called youth meetings says something about,
come feel the fire. Well, read on. It says, there
shall not be anyone who useth divination or observer of times,
an enchanter, a witch, a charmer, or a consulter with familiar
spirits, wizard or necromancer, that's the one who calls up the
dead, seances and so on and so forth. The Lord, if you'll keep
reading, he says, all that do these things are an abomination
of the Lord. And because of these abominations,
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee. Thou shalt
be perfect, upright. with the Lord thy God. These
nations which thou shalt possess, they hearkened unto observers
of times and to diviners. But as for thee, the Lord thy
God hath not suffered thee, or hath prevented thee from doing
so." Us and our children. We know better, don't we? We
know better. Go back to the text. Go over to 2 Thessalonians 2. I thought to myself before this how blessed
we are, so the Lord's mercies and His grace, that us, beginning
with me, and our children, are not deceived by and taken up
with all these things. There many are. Evil men, seducers,
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. How blessed
we are, how blessed your children are, to hear the truth of what
God's Word says about all things. so as to not be led astray by
these hucksters. Second Thessalonians, is there
any truth to what these soothsayers and fortune tellers and people do, these psychic readers? Is there any truth to what they
say and do? There's no truth. There's no
saving truth. See, the truth enlightens you. God's Word is truth. God's Gospel
is truth. God's Son is truth. Anything
less than or more than that is not the truth. There may be some
truth or true things to it, but it's not the truth. The truth
sets you free from deceivers. The truth sets you free from
believing a lie. The truth sets you free, gives
you knowledge, gives you wisdom, gives you salvation. But some
of the things they say and do come true. Some of the things
that these diviners and psychics and so forth are saying and doing
come true. Look at this, 2 Thessalonians
2. That doesn't mean they're from
God. It doesn't mean that anyone will profit from them. As a matter
of fact, the opposite is true. 2 Thessalonians 2, 7 and following. It says, The mystery of iniquity
doth already work, only he who now let it, that is, God, he
who now alloweth, will let until he be taken out of the way, the
wicked one. Then shall that wicked one be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, with just a word, and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, even him whose coming is after the working of
Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness, and them that perish." because they received not the
love of the truth, God's Word, the gospel of Christ, the truth,
that they might be saved. For this cause God shall send
them strong delusions. God shall send them strong delusions. Things that actually take place. They see. They hear. God sends
it. Not to save them, but they should
believe a lie and be damned who believe not the truth. You see
that? It's powerful, isn't it? Very
plain to us. So, yes, some of these things
do come true. Go back to Acts 16 now. And some
of them say true things. Some of them use God's name. Most of them use God's name and
even evoke or invoke the names of Paul and Peter and So on and
so forth. Talk about salvation. Look at
it. Verse 17, this woman followed Paul and us, cried, saying, These
men are servants of the Most High God, which show unto us
the way of salvation. This woman is talking about God,
the Most High God, and that Paul is his servant. and showing the
way of salvation. Is that the truth? Absolutely. Well, how can this be? She's possessed with the devil.
How could she say something like that? Because the Lord said,
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. Even devils are forced to call
him the Most High God. You remember the man whom the
Lord took the demons out of and put them in the pigs? Remember
right before that, John, they said, we know who you are, the
Holy One. Are you come to torment us before
it's time? They were forced to say it. We
know who they are. Even hypocrites are forced to
tell the truth. Sometime. Even out-and-out frauds
and hucksters and demon-possessed false prophets and prophetesses
are at times, because they have this Bible in their hand, are
at times, if they just read it, at times they are forced by God
to tell the truth. And men hear it out of their
mouths. And their very words are going
to condemn them someday. and condemn those that hear it. But no one has ever been or ever
shall be saved through the preaching of a false prophet. The clearest example of this
is Balaam. If you'll read the story of Balaam,
Scripture plainly says he was a man who was in it for money,
for reward. And he said there are many like
that who have gone the way of Balaam. But Balaam, if you'll
read his message, he spoke of Christ. He told the truth. But no one was saved by him,
by his preaching. No sir. But he is condemned by
the very message that he preached. And so is Ahab who heard it,
and others who heard that message. They are all condemned. And look
at it now. Here in verse 17, it says, 16,
she, this woman of divination, brought her masters much gain
by soothsaying. She brought her masters. There's
always a connection between demon possession and religion for gain. There's always a connection in
false religion with money. Solomon said this. He said, money
answereth all things. If you want to know what's behind
most things, money. The love of money. Our Lord considered
Consider the depth of what he said. The love of money is the
root of all evil. All evil. It's behind. Well, this woman brought much
gain to her masters. Her masters. In other words,
somebody owned her. Somebody profited by her, and
I'll tell you who they were. I know who they were, because
nothing's changed. They themselves were rich men
who promoted her, who made her famous. She would not be well
known and getting much gain had they not advertised her, made her famous, in order for
them to make money by her. Does that sound familiar? And now this young woman, and
the reason I deal with this in depth is to warn us, to warn
our children. These things need to be exposed
because there's so much of it. As we said, this was a young
woman, a damsel. She was very appealing to the
flesh. And I'm quite sure she was a good talker, at least a
fast one. Had the gift of gabs. She had
the Spirit, but it wasn't the Holy Spirit. She had beauty,
the gift of gab. She was enthusiastic, excited,
animated, charismatic, full of the devil. There's a nationally known young
woman, pretty little blonde, named Paula White. Anybody seen
her? Anybody? Good. I'm glad. But she is nationally
known. You just don't know her. She's
everywhere. Very famous. If you look in her
face, you'll see demon possession. As is the case with all of these
women and men. And men. How about hirelings
is what they are. Possessed. She acknowledged Paul. She flattered him. She flattered
him. She talked about God, talked
about salvation, but Paul saw right through her. He saw what possessed her. And
you do too. Thank God. Thank God. Verse 18, it says, Paul being
grieved. She did this many days and Paul
was grieved. Would you turn quickly to Jeremiah
23 with me? Jeremiah 23 deals as much with
false prophets as any chapter in all the Bible. If you want
to read it on your own. Jeremiah 23. This woman, there was nothing funny about
what she was doing. Nothing funny about it. All false prophets and prophetesses
and diviners and psychics and all that, it's not funny at all.
Although they are foolish and sound funny, like that woman
on the radio. There's nothing funny about it.
It's grievous. It's grievous. Because many follow
their evil ways, the Scripture says. Many, the Scripture says,
are deceived and being sinned. Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah is called
a weeping prophet. He grieved over the false prophets
of his day. You know what the Word says about
a man going forth weeping, bearing precious seed? A man who grieves over error
and people that are following it and grieves over the souls
of men and bears this precious life-giving seed. You know what
it says about him? He'll doubtless come again. rejoicing, bringing
his sheep with him. The Lord bless that man. Like
Jeremiah. Look at Jeremiah 23, verse 1. Woe be unto the pastors that
destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture. Verse 9. He said, My heart within me is
broken because of the prophets, because of the word of God's
holiness which they Corrupt. Verse 11, prophet and priest
are profane in the house of God. Wickedness. Verse 16, thus saith
the Lord, don't hearken. Hearken not unto the words of
the prophets that prophesy unto you and make you vain. They speak
a vision of their own heart. They're not telling you the word
of the Lord. And he goes on and on he goes. He was grieved. And so Paul was
grieved. Go back to the text. Paul was
grieved. Very grieved. And finally, Paul couldn't take
it any longer. The zeal of God's house and for
his truth, like our Lord Himself, ate him up. And finally, he turned
to that woman. And he said in verse 18, I command
thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came
out. He came out. Because there's
power, all power in that name. And he came out. Now, nothing
more is said of this woman after this. She was rich and famous. But from here on out, you won't
hear anything about her. She must be a nobody now. with
nothing poor and common, just one of many. Nothing is said
by her after this. The Lord shut her mouth. She had a lot to say before,
and people came to hear what she had to say. Not anymore. She has nothing to say. For these reasons and more, I
believe this woman was saved. I believe the Lord saved this
young damsel in distress or possessed. I really do. A certain damsel. She's called a certain damsel.
The Lord cast out seven devils out of Mary Magdalene, didn't
He? Seven. She's one of the Lord's. And I've often said this, if
a person is possessed with some spirit, either he or she is captive,
like Paul wrote, held captive by Satan at his will, or the
Lord himself has led captivity captive. The Lord himself owns
them. One or the other, we're possessed
with the spirit of Christ or the spirit of This world, huh? And it says her masters forsook
her, verse 19. They forsook her. They forsook
her. And they hated Paul. They grabbed
hold of Paul and Silas and Timothy. And we'll look at the rest of
that later. But they hated Paul. They hated
Paul for what he was doing. Telling the truth. And they forsook
this young woman. They liked her better when she
was possessed with the devil. And they hated Paul for simply
telling the truth. Now, there are many of these
young possessed damsels today. Very obvious, isn't it? Very
obvious. But there are some whom the Lord
has mercy upon. And may the Lord use that word for
our understanding. Okay.