Good morning. I invite your attention to the
gospel according to Mark chapter 1. My text will be found in verse
39. My message is titled, Jesus vs. Demons. There are four gospels. Matthew and John were both apostles,
eyewitnesses to just about everything they wrote, although Matthew
wrote mostly of the ministry of Jesus in Galilee and John
wrote of his ministry in Judea. Luke was not an eyewitness and
the only Gentile writer of Holy Scripture. But he spent much
time studying Jesus. Mark, he was a young man, probably
younger than the other apostles, although the other apostles were
not old. And that is a misconception so
often when you see pictures of the apostles with Jesus, you
know, and they're all grey-haired men, old as me. And that's not
true. Jesus, when he ministered, was
about 30 years of age, and so were the others. Peter was probably
a little older than the others, but these were young men. Old men do not go walking around
40 to 50 miles a day like Jesus did. These were men full of vim
and vigor. Mark was even younger, and later
in his life became a minister unto Peter in Peter's old age. Mark was undoubtedly a nigh witness
to some of the events in the life of Jesus, but he probably
got a big part of his gospel from Peter, for which reason
the gospel according to Mark is sometimes called the gospel
according to Peter. But we're looking at this first
chapter in Mark's Gospel, and we find, I'm just going to read
from verse number 1, because much of what I'm going to read
is going to tie in directly with my message. Mark chapter 1, verse
1, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
as it is written in the prophets, the Old Testament. Behold, I
send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy
way before thee. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, this is John the Baptist, prepare you the way
of the Lord, make his path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sin. And
there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem,
and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing
their sins. And John was clothed with camel's
hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins, and he did eat
locusts and wild honey. And priests said, There cometh
one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I
am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized
you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost."
And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth
of Galilee. and was baptized of John in Jordan. Notice he came from Nazareth
of Galilee down to the wilderness of Judea. He probably walked
about 40 miles just to be baptized. And straightway coming up out
of the water he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit like a
dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven
saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.' And
immediately the Spirit deriveth him into the wilderness." In
the Jordan he had his baptism of water, and in the wilderness
he had his baptism of fire. And he was there in the wilderness
forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts
and the angels ministered unto him. Now after that John was
put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel
of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the
kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. As he walked by the Sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea, for
they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come
ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook
their nets, and followed him. And when he had gone a little
further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John
his brother, who also were in the ship, mending their nets. And straightway he called them,
and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants,
and went after him. And they went into Capernaum,
the city of Nahum, on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee."
Jesus spent much time in Capernaum. They lived in a house in that
town. And straightway on the Sabbath
day, he entered into the synagogue. There was no church, had not
been started yet. And so Jesus, as was his custom
every Sabbath day, because he was under the law, went to the
synagogue to worship. And he taught. And they were
astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had
authority and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue
a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let
us alone. What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked
him, that is, the demon, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out
of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn the man and cried
with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed
insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What
thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth
he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately
his fame spread abroad throughout all the region, round about Galilee
and forthwith. When they were come out of the
synagogue there, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew
with James and John. But Simon's mother, he would
be Peter, Simon Peter's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and
anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the
hand, and lifted her up. And immediately the fever left
her, and she ministered unto them. And that even when the
sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and
them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was
gathered to gather at the door. And he healed many that were
sick of divers' diseases, and cast out many devils. and suffered
not the devils to speak, because they knew him." That's a remarkable
statement. They knew who he was, so he says,
you cannot tell anybody. Jesus was not one who sought publicity. was not one who bragged on himself. Jesus did not want you bragging
on him. He would heal you and say, now
do not go tell anybody. He tells this to the demons because
they knew him. And in the morning, rising up
a great while before day, he went out and departed into a
solitary place and there prayed and Simon and they that were
with him followed after him. And when they had found him,
they said unto him, All men seek for thee. And he said unto them,
Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also.
For therefore came I forth, and here is my text. And he preached
in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils. He cast out devils throughout
all Galilee. Jesus made three preaching tours
during his three years of ministry on this earth. Three and a half
years, but three preaching tours in Galilee going from place to
place. He would go to the synagogue
because he was a Jew, he was under the law, and he was required
to be during the Sabbath service. He would be in the synagogue
in whatever village he was visiting, that's where you would find him
on the Sabbath day in the synagogue. His fame had gone out and people
would ask him to teach and he would gladly oblige you and he
taught in the synagogue and then we found this statement that
he was casting out devils, actually demons, Our English word demon,
it actually anglicizes the Greek word daimon, d-a-i-m-o-n, daimon. Now, this Greek word daimon appears
many times in various forms in the New Testament, and unhappily,
I must say, it is translated devils. In reality, there is
only one devil, The devil, who is Satan, but he's got many demons. Many demons. An untold number of demons. We're
going to consider today these demons. And Jesus, in his ministry,
verses the demons. The New Testament teaches us
these facts regarding demons. Quickly, 15 of them. Demons are
Satan's angels. An angel is quite simply a messenger
or a ministering spirit. God has his angels and Satan
has his angels or ministers. And then demons are unclean and
evil spirits, unholy, wicked, malevolent. Not a good ounce
in the whole lot of them. Demons are distinct from elect
angels is the third aspect. You'll read of two different
sorts of angels in the New Testament. There are elect angels and fallen
angels. And the elect angels were chosen
of God before the foundation of the world like God's children
were. They will never fall. The non-elect
angels, they fail. Because if you are not one of
God's elect, you will fall, and ultimately, and never be recoverable. So it is with demons. Now, I
speak of fallen angels. Let me make this point, and it
is number four. Demons and Satan were not created
by God. I did not misspeak. Demons and
Satan were not created by God. Rather, God created angels who
became Satan and his demons when they fell. When did they fall?
We're not told. The angels were present during
part of the creation because The book of Job tells us, Job
38, 7, that the morning stars sang during the creation. And we do know that they were
not created as Satan and the demons, because on the seventh
day of creation, God looked upon everything that he had made and
he said, it's good. It is good. There is not a sin, there is
no imperfection in anything I have made. There was no devil and
there were no demons on the seventh day of creation. But a very short
time after that, the serpent tempted Eve. Now
where did he come from? He's one of the angels of God
who fell. That would be Satan. And along
with him fell many others as well. The circumstance of their
fall were not really told and many people have taken certain
passages of scripture and tried to force it in, but were just
not told. They fell. God did not create
them. Everything God created was good
and they became wicked and malevolent. Five demons are active in all
idolatry and in all worship contrary to Christ. Demons reside in spiritual
Babylon, which is anti-Christian seduction. 7. Demons wander in
dry places, figurative places described with three Ds, disorder,
desolation, and death. 8. Demons disseminate errors
among men and endeavor to seduce believers. 9. Demons have taken
possession of people in such a way as to control their actions. 10. Demons have afflicted people
with physical disorders including deafness and muteness, epilepsy,
spinal deformation, insanity. 11. Demons could speak through
the mouths of the persons they possessed. 12. While no demon
is good, some are more wicked than others. Twelve. Thirteen,
I mean. False doctrine being contrary
to wisdom descending from God above is earthly, sensual, demonic. James 3.15. Fourteen. Demons
will gather the ungodly to make war against God and His Christ
at the final battle at the end of this age. And fifteen demons
will have their final destination in the everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels. Now that is a brief description
of demons and the scripture references are there. You can look them
up later on. Today, I want us to look at this
subject of What happened when demons met Jesus? Well, actually, what happened when Jesus invaded their territory? He went to them. They were not going to come to
Him. He went to them throughout all Galilee. So we're going to
consider seven points quickly this morning. Demons believe
the truth regarding God with trembling. Second, demons acknowledge
Jesus as whom and what he is. Third, demons acknowledge Jesus
as their superior. Fourth, Jesus casting out demons
was proof that he had established his kingdom on earth. Fifth,
Jesus conquered demons in his ascension into glory. Sixth,
Jesus now rules over demons. And seventh, Jesus will be the
final judge and executioner of demons. Now consider that first
point. Demons believe the truth regarding
God with trembling. James says to mortals, you believe
that there is one God? You do well. Even the demons
believe and tremble. Now James, in his second chapter,
talks about two different kinds of faith. First, there's saving
faith. Saving faith will trust in God
for salvation and will manifest itself in justifying works. If a person believes with saving
faith, you'll see it in their life. Was not Abraham our father
justified when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? Was
not Rahab the harlot justified? Did she not believe God with
saving faith when she hid the spies? That's saving faith. It shows
up in the way you act. Then there is historical faith. Historical faith believes facts
about God, and it does not manifest itself
in justifying works. Men and women may know very,
very, very much about God. You can read theology books.
You can study the doctrine of God, you can memorize everything
that's in there, but that doesn't mean it's going to make a difference
in your life. Demons have that kind of knowledge. Demons know
more about God than you do, because they've been around Him
now for a few thousand years. They believe in God. and tremble,
and tremble, scared. That's the faith most men have
of God. They believe there is a God.
They believe maybe that there is only one true God, but they
do not trust in Him. And like demons, they tremble
because they know the consequence that is coming someday. Let there
be no one here today who believes in God the way that a demon does,
believes facts and figures about him, but does not trust in him,
and lives your life to please the world. That's the way demons
believe. Let there be none like that among
us today. Second, Demons acknowledge Jesus
as whom and what he is. There is a reason for that. They
know the truth about God. They know the same about Jesus
because they know Jesus is God. Demons have better sense than
most theological people nowadays. They know Jesus is God. They
know God and they know Jesus. When Jesus, and you saw it here
in the passage, when Jesus showed up, he did not have to introduce
himself. Demons said, I know who you are. I know who you are. Did you notice
that in the passage? Jesus said, do not tell anybody
who I am because you know me. Demons, when he showed up, they
said, I know who you are. Yeah, they knew. Jesus never
had to introduce himself to a demon. Men may not have known him, but
the demons did. I know who you are. Well, who
am I? Well, first of all, I know who
you are. You are Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus
of Nazareth. They knew that he'd been raised
in that place. They had watched him grow up. They kept an eye on him. They
knew why he had come. Keep your friends close and keep
your enemies even closer. Yeah, they stayed close. They watched him. And when he
would go around Galilee, I know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth.
They probably knew of the denigration that was given to that place,
Nazareth. As when Nathanael said to Philip,
can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip had said, come,
I need to show you Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Nazareth? Can anything
good come out of Nazareth? Ask a demon. Yeah. He knows something
good came out of Nazareth because not only does he know Jesus to
be Jesus of Nazareth, he knows him to be the Holy One of God. Now there is an interesting phrase.
I know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth, the Holy One of God.
Where did that phrase, the Holy One of God, come from? Evidently
it comes from Psalm 1610. In that Psalm, Messiah says,
you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your
Holy One to see corruption. Jesus spent three days and three
nights in a tomb, and his body did not decay, and was not embalmed,
did not decay, because you will not allow your Holy One Who is
Jehovah's Holy One? He is the Holy One of God. You see, demons not only knew
Jesus, they know the Scriptures. They have memorized more Scripture
than you and I have. Look at Satan using Scripture
when he tempts Jesus. He knows the Scripture, so did
the demons. The demons knew that The psalmist
spoke of him as the Holy One of God, and that's what they
called him, the Holy One of God. Jesus, or demons, knew he is
the Son of God. You are the Christ, the Son of
God. Now, our word Christ comes from
the Greek, translates the Hebrew word Messiah. Messiah means anointed
one. The anointed one is introduced
in the second Psalm, where Jehovah speaks of the Christ as my anointed
one, anointed with oil of gladness more than his companions. And
then he says, and you shall rule over all the earth. And the demons
knew that. The demons knew that. They knew
Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God, that He was born, not
born, but begotten by an eternal generation, begotten in old eternity
by an eternal generation, and then born into the earth to rule
over the nations. They knew that. They knew Him
as Jesus, Son of the Most High God. There's an interesting thing
about a son in relation to his father. You've heard the expression,
like father, like son. And there may be physical differences. A tall father may have a short
son, vice versa. But there is always one aspect
that cannot be changed. The Son always has the Father's
nature. The Father has a human nature,
therefore the Son is not a horse, nor a chicken. He's as much a
man as His Father from the day He's born. He's human. Jesus is the Son of the Most
High God. Demons have no problem acknowledging
the deity of Jesus Christ. Yea, they know Him as the God-man. They know Him as Jesus of Nazareth,
born of a woman, having the human nature. They know Him as the
Son of the Most High God, having the nature of His Father. He
is the God-man and demons know it. They are convinced of it. Third, Demons acknowledged Jesus as
their superior. They feared him. They said, let
us alone. What have we to do with you?
We're minding our own business. Just leave us alone. They were
afraid of him. When Jesus showed up, demons
trembled. They were afraid of him. They
begged him earnestly in Mark 5.10 to not send them to a faraway
place. Jesus never feared demons. He walked up to them to meet
them and confront them in the place where they were. He never
begged them. They begged Him. They begged
Him. They obeyed Him. You read it
here in our passage, Mark 1, 27. What kind of a man is this
with authority? He commands the unclean spirits
and they obeyed Him. They never obeyed us. Jesus shows up and speaks and
they obey. Demons always obeyed Jesus. They never disobeyed Him. They even worshipped Him, Mark
3, 11. And the unclean spirits, when they saw Him, fell down
before Him and cried out, saying, You are the Son of God. Now unhappily,
unhappily, many people worship Jesus the
same way demons do. They give lip service. They might even get down on their
knees in a church building and then get up and go back on
their merry lives like they were before they went in. Demons worshipped
Him, but they did not trust in Him. They did not believe in
Him. They did not follow Him. Let
it be said of us that when we worship Him, we do it in reverential
awe. We fear Him with reverential
awe. We fear Him in the sense of loving
Him and adoring Him. Demons beg of Jesus, let us beg
him. Save us. Save us, Lord. Save us. If you do not save us,
we have no hope of salvation. Let us worship him acceptably
and faithfully. Fourth point, Jesus casting out
demons was proof that he had established his kingdom on earth,
Matthew 12, 28, and 29. if in the sense of sense. But
since I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom
of God has come upon you. Or how can one enter a strong
man's house, which is Satan's domain, and plunder his good
that would be the souls and bodies of men, unless this one binds
the strong man and then plunders his house. So what has Jesus
done? In his first coming, in his incarnation, he walked up to the devil's house
and did not even do the courtesy of a knock. Walked right on in. Invaded the devil's house. Found
the devil and tied him up. Revelation 20. with a great chain. He tied up the devil. Then he walked through the devil's
house and he said, that one's mine. You come with me. You're
mine. You come with me. You're mine.
You come with me. He plundered the strong man's
house and the strong man could do nothing about it. Jesus did
it and he says that since I do this, This shows that God's kingdom
has been put here upon this earth. Some say, well, the kingdom of
Christ has not yet come upon the earth. It's still some time
off in the future. Jesus said, if I have plundered
the devil's house, the kingdom has come. The kingdom has come. Fifth point, by the way, demons
were powerless to stop him, they just had to sit there and watch
while he did that. Fifth point, Jesus conquered
demons in his ascension to glory. Now, let me set the background
for this. Calvary, outside the wall of
Jerusalem, Jesus is crucified and in fulfillment
of the prophecy. Satan has bruised his heel. The
serpent has bruised the heel of Messiah. His heel is the lowest
part of his humanity. Satan bit. Jesus died. The sting of sin is death. And Jesus was stung. He dies on Calvary, there on
the cross. Satan thinks he's won the battle. Jesus is laid into a tomb, and
the tomb has a giant stone rolled across the door, and a seal is
put there, and Satan and his demons are watching. We won. Are you sure? The scripture said
we were. He's dead, right? But we read
that he is dead. He's in the tomb and we cannot
let him out. Do not let him out. Three long days and three long
nights. The devil and his demons are
doing their victory dance over the tomb of Jesus. All is silent
except for their victory dance. Then all of a sudden, did you
hear that? Hear what? There is stirring in the tomb. Can't be. The stone is still
there. There is stirring in the tomb. Is he alive? And then an angel
comes down from heaven and rolls the stone away and out steps
Jesus. Out steps Jesus! Alive! Okay. Demons, do not let him
get into heaven. Keep him on earth! Well, Jesus
was not ready to go to heaven. He's got 40 days to walk around
on this earth, and the demons are going to try to keep him
from getting into heaven, but Jesus is still walking on earth. And He's with His disciples,
and He's with His apostles, and His brethren. teaching them for
40 days. And then on the 40th day, Jesus
is with his apostles. Heaven opens, a cloud appears, and Jesus begins
to rise into heaven. until the cloud received him
out of their sight. And the disciples are wondering
what's going on. Two angels, there's more up there,
I'll come to that, but two angels came down and said, why are you
gazed up into heaven? This same Jesus whom you just
saw go into heaven and the cloud received him out of his sight,
he's coming back, he's coming back. Now what happens when Jesus
is received in that cloud? It is described rather graphically
in the 12th chapter of the revelation of Jesus Christ in verses 7 through
9, and war broke out in heaven. Now remember, Satan and his demons,
all of them, they must not let Jesus get into heaven. If we can keep him out of heaven,
we're okay. And a war broke out in heaven.
Michael, now who is Michael? He's the archangel. I'll just
tell you, Michael the archangel is Jesus Christ. His name means
who is like God. That's what the name Michael
means. God has many angels and Jesus
is the chief. Well, some say he can't be an
angel. Well, you read in the Old Testament
repeatedly about the angel of Jehovah, that's Jesus Christ.
That's Jesus Christ. The chief of all God's angels
is Jesus Christ. He is Michael the archangel.
Read about him in the book of Daniel. And here is Michael the
archangel with the rest of the holy angels, the elect angels,
and they're escorting him to heaven. And Satan says, we can't
let him get there. Come, demons! And so all the
demons have gathered and a great war is fought. Michael won. Michael won. The archangel Jesus Christ won
and he took Satan and cast him out of the heavens. You made
reference to this in your message to us a few weeks ago. Cast him
down to the earth. Satan no longer has access to
God's throne. Jesus cast him down to the earth. He conquered demons in his ascension
to glory. And having disarmed principalities
and powers, Christ made a public spectacle of them, triumphing
over them in Colossians 2.15. Now, what happened when he got
to heaven? Oh, he's triumphant. The devil
and his demons are defeated. He's in heaven. They're confined
to earth. He'll come back to earth, but
they can never go to heaven anymore. They're just banned from the
place. Jesus now rules over demons.
1 Peter 3, 22. He has gone into heaven and is
at the right hand of God. Angels, including demons, having
been made subject to him. He's their ruler. The devil is
Jesus' devil. The demons are Jesus's demons. They do what they want to do,
but only if he lets them. Only if he lets them. And then,
the seventh point, Jesus will be the final judge and executioner
of demons. Matthew 8, 29. Jesus showed up The demons have taken over a
man. He's now a demoniac. A legion
of them, evidently, 6,000 or so, in control of one man. And Jesus
showed up. And what did they say? Now notice
what they said. Have you come to torment us before
the time? Folks, that question is very
weighty. Have you come to torment us before
the time? They know Jesus will be their
tormentor. They know that. They know he's
going to come to torment them. They know there is a time that
is set, predestined of God, for him to torment them. They know
that. They knew that that time was not the present
time when he had confronted them. Jesus, there is a time for you
to torment us, but it's not now! Have you come to torment us before
it's time for us to be tormented? They knew that a day of torment
was coming for them, but it was not to be during the
days of His incarnation. They know there are two comings
of Jesus to earth. They knew that the time when
he would torment them would not be during the first coming, rather
when he comes back. When he comes back, okay, now's
the time for you to torment us. And he will. He will. They will
gather the nations to battle Gog and Magog against Jesus Christ. He will conquer them, and then He will torment them in
a place that is called the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels. That's where they're going to
spend eternity, in the flame that never dies, where the soul
never dies. For all eternity, the demons
are going to be there. And so will many human beings. For on the final day of judgment,
or the judgment at the final day, all unbelievers will be
cast, we read, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels. I hope none of you were there
on that day. We're all going to be judged,
but I hope that on that day we can have that justifying faith
of which James spoke Our works have justified us before
God. And the judge says, come, you
blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
before the foundation of the world. And they go, and who's
left? All unbelievers. All unbelievers. Oh, they might have believed
in God, but they never trusted in Him. Depart from me. and go to the everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his demons. I hope none of you are
found in that place for all eternity. And if you are there, God forbid,
but if you are to be found there, it is because you are no better than a demon
in your conduct. no better at all, knew the truth,
believed true things and facts and figures, but never trusted
Jesus Christ and died in unbelief. I pray that before you walk out
that door this day, you can say of a certainty, this one who rules the demons,
I trust in Him. Jesus of Nazareth has saved me
from my sins and now He protects and preserves me against all
the demons of hell. Our God and our Father, bless,
we pray this word to Your glory in Jesus' name. We pray, Amen.