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Man, the title of my sermon this evening is Demons and Charismaniacs, Demons and Charismaniacs. In this passage that we just read, we have one of the most famous examples of someone in the Bible who is demon-possessed, and this is a really extreme example here, but it really shows us what it looks like when someone is demon-possessed. There are other examples throughout the New Testament, and you're going to see when you look at these other examples, that there are a lot of common denominators, a lot of the same type of things come up, and it always follows a similar pattern. Let's look at this quickly in Mark chapter five and see what this looks like. It says in verse number one, and they came over on the other side of the sea 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, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. So this guy, he's living out in the graveyard, he's wild. People have tried to just restrain this guy, and he just broke out of any kind of handcuffs or whatever they put on him, and it says in verse four, because that he had often been bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him. He's wild, right? He's untamed. He's like an animal living outside. Verse five, and always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones, and when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped him and cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not, for he, Jesus, said unto him, come out of the man thou unclean spirit. So this guy's demon possessed, he's cutting himself, he's wild, he's raving, he's a lunatic, he's living outside, he's naked, whatever. And then Jesus is gonna cast out the demon, and he says in verse number nine, what is thy name? And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are many, and he besought him that he would not send him away out of the country, and of course Jesus cast out the demons, cast them into the swine. And you could say that this is an extreme example because the guy's filled with a multitude of demons, but it still gives you an idea of what this looks like. If we look at other passages in the four gospels, we're gonna find similar things where someone's demon possessed and they're throwing themself in the water and throwing themself in the fire and falling on the ground, foaming at the mouth, all of these kind of things. A lot of people have physical problems and because they're demon possessed, they're not able to speak or they're not able to hear or they're not able to see or things like that. Now obviously we don't wanna come to the bizarre conclusion that anybody who has a physical problem must be a demon. Obviously there are physical problems, they're just physical. But the demons could also cause problems in people of that nature. That's what we see throughout scripture when we look at this. But there's a false teaching out there that I wanna talk about tonight, this so-called deliverance ministry of the Pentecostals or Charismatics or what I like to call the Charismaniacs. But these Charismatics that are into this deliverance doctrine, and this is a big thing right now. In fact, there's some movie coming out or it came out a few weeks ago or something by this false teacher, Greg Locke, that's all about casting out demons and so forth. Now who is Greg Locke? Well, Greg Locke is a guy who used to be an independent fundamental Baptist, King James kind of a guy. And Pastor Humanism, myself, we both heard this guy preach when we were younger and we both just thought he was really lame and boring. So he kind of just washed up in the independent fundamental Baptist movement. So then he decided to become liberal. So all of a sudden, he brought in all the modern versions and the rock and roll and just turned his church from being a Baptist church into just being kind of a non-denom, more of a fun center church. Then he ended up cheating on his wife with the secretary, divorcing his wife and marrying the woman that he committed adultery with, isn't that wonderful? And then he became very popular by just going on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and just saying everything Republican. So just whatever like the mainstream Republicans are saying, he would say it but he would act like it was like this really hot take, it was really edgy, like, I'm just going to come out and say it, you know, there's only two genders or something, you know, this really radical stuff that he would say, you know, he's taking a stand against Target or whatever. But whatever the Republican Party is pushing, the mainstream just Republican view that like literally half of America automatically agrees with, he would just act like that was his hot take. And of course, there are all kinds of Fox News heads and boomers that just eat this up with fork and spoon. And so that's how he got popular doing that. Well, he's found a new shtick instead of just repeating political talking points. Now his big thing is all about casting out demons, okay? But here's the thing, this so called deliverance ministry of the Pentecostals and you know, Greg Locke's getting in on this now. It's nothing like what we see in the Bible because when we see people demon possessed in the Bible, there really isn't any doubt about them being demon possessed because they're throwing themselves in the fire, throwing themselves on the ground, cutting themselves, acting all wild and crazy, whatever. But according to this so called deliverance doctrine, basically anybody who has any addiction in their life or any problem or any sin, that's a demon, it's like demon, demon, demon, demon. In fact, in Greg Locke's new movie, he's got a guy that's sort of the co-star of the film and the guy's name is Isaiah Saldivar or Saldivar, something like that. And this guy said that he thinks out of the general population, out of like 10 people, nine of them need demons cast out, like just in general. Nine out of 10 people are filled with demons according to Isaiah Saldivar. And according to the trailer for Greg Locke's new film, this is what he said. You know, if, this is what another guy said in the trailer, if you have an addiction, you've got company. And at first when I heard that, I just thought he meant, well if you've got an addiction, join the club because you got company because everybody's got different addictions, right? But when he said, if you've got addiction, you've got company, he means like you have demons living inside you. That's why you have addiction. Now that is not what the Bible teaches anywhere. There's nothing in the Bible about the demon of gambling, the demon of marijuana, the demon of alcohol, the demon of smoking. This is all just made up nonsense because when somebody is demon possessed in the Bible, they have these evil spirits in them, they're acting all wild and crazy and ferocious. They're not just addicted to video games or addicted to gambling or addicted to pizza or something, okay? It's so foolish. And if we actually study our Bible and find out what is the reason for the sin in our life, what is the reason for the addictions that we may or may not be facing? The answer is we are the reason. What does the Bible actually say? Go to James chapter 1. Let's see what the Bible actually teaches about this because when we look at people that are demon possessed, I mean, they're foaming at the mouth, throwing themselves on the ground, cutting themselves with stones, they're ferocious. They don't just have a problem with a sin in their life or some just any old physical ailment, okay? So look at James chapter 1 and let's see what the Bible says because there is nowhere in the Bible that teaches this idea of the demon of pornography, the demon of lust, the demon of drugs or whatever, okay? Look what the Bible says in James chapter 1 and this is a pretty famous scripture but beginning in verse number 13, it says, let no man say when he's tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. That's verse 14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. What is the source of our temptations and falling into sin and falling into, well look, we are led away, we are drawn away of our own lust and enticed. Every man is tempted. So this is where temptation ultimately comes from is our lust. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. So none of this the devil made me do it excuse and definitely don't blame God on the fact that you're tempted. You're tempted because you're being drawn away of your own lust and you are allowing yourself to be seduced or enticed. Now of course the devil is known as the tempter, but here's how that works. That works externally. Think about how Jesus was tempted by Satan, was he not? Remember how Jesus went out in the wilderness and he was tempted of the devil for 40 days and 40 nights. Okay, no demons entered into Jesus' body, but rather the devil just spoke to him externally in order to tempt him. He just said to him, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Or the devil just showed Jesus something and took him up and showed him something and said, hey, all this will be yours if you'll fall down and worship me. So he's showing him things, he's saying things to him, but ultimately of course Jesus Christ was not going to be tempted by the devil because of the fact that he didn't have lust in him and he didn't have this tendency to sin that we have. And so of course he was totally immune from these temptations and did not give in to anything. Whereas we do have the potential to be drawn away of our own lust and enticed when the devil maybe says something to us or put something in front of us. This has nothing to do with being possessed or having demons inside you or some nonsense like that. Where did I have you turn last? Was it James? Okay, flip over if you went to 1 Corinthians chapter seven. First Corinthians chapter seven because we want to lay down a biblical foundation of what the real cause of our sins and addictions and temptations ultimately is and it really is just our sinful flesh. It's just the lust that all of us have. We're unfortunately sinners and the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter seven, I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. And so no demons required. I mean in his own flesh there's a tendency to sin. We all have that sin nature and so unless we put on the new man, unless we walk in the spirit, our flesh can easily allow us to be led away and enticed and drawn into sin. Let me just further illustrate this. We talked about Jesus's temptation. We talked about James chapter one. Now let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter seven. It says in verse five, defraud ye not one the other. It's talking about the husband and wife not having a physical relationship. It says defraud ye not one the other except it be with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again, watch this, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency. Now how is Satan able to tempt someone into committing fornication or to tempt someone into committing adultery? It's because of the fact that they are already incontinent, right? So just as the Bible said every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed, well then yeah that's something that the devil can work with where the devil can show you an image or hit you with a slogan or give you bad advice from a friend or something like that and then boom you get led into temptation but the only way that the devil is going to be able to tempt you is that you already have that incontinency or lust or whatever inside you. You're responsible for what you do as a Christian and you can't say the devil made me do it. The devil doesn't come and take over your body and make you do things, okay? Rather you're drawn away of your own lust and entice. Now of course the devil is going to be the one that puts the carrot in front of you but you're the one who wants that carrot and is stupid enough to follow the devil and go there. You see in the Garden of Eden when the devil tempted Eve he spoke to her and of course then she looked at that tree and she saw the fruit as Achan said in the book of Joshua, I saw, I coveted, I took, right? That's the progression, that's what we see with Eve in the Garden of Eden and so forth. So of course the devil could speak to us. Now I'm not saying you're going to hear some voice of a little devil on your shoulder, you know you got a little porky pig devil on one shoulder and a little angelic porky pig on the other shoulder. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that if you turn on the TV, turn on the radio, listen to Hollywood and the music industry, there are going to be a lot of messages coming at you that are from the devil, right? If there's some kind of a magazine article or book or movie or TV show that's trying to influence you to sin, then you could say, hey this is the devil tempting me through this media or something, right? Or if there's some billboard that's trying to entice you to go down to the casino, that's of the devil. If there's some beer ad trying to make it look fun or whatever. But at the end of the day, if you commit that sin, it's because your flesh wanted to drink that alcohol or you wanted to go do the gambling or whatever. Speaking of gambling, go to 1 Timothy chapter 6. So we're laying down a biblical foundation here of how sin and temptation and the devil actually work in the life of a believer. The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 6, of course the famous verses here that I love to quote so often, but they that will be rich, verse 9, fall into temptation. So who falls into temptation? People that want to be rich, right? So where did the problem start? With their own lust for money. They were drawn away of their own lust and enticed. They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil. So what's the root of the evil? Is it a demon entered their body? No, it's that they love money. That's the problem. In a marriage, if man and wife are not being intimate with one another, then there's going to be a hunger there. There's going to be an unsatisfied craving there that could lead them into temptation. The incontinency because that relationship is being withheld. So just as if, uh, well, well, perfect example is when Jesus is tempted of Satan in the wilderness, he says, command that these stones be made bread. Why did the devil say to Jesus, if they'll be the son of God commanded these stones be made bread? Because he knows that Jesus hasn't eaten. So Jesus hasn't eaten for weeks. Well then that's the perfect temptation for the devil to pull out command that these stones be made bread. Well, here's the thing in a marriage. If you haven't had that marital relationship, then it's going to be a lot easier for the devil to hit you with that temptation. And that's why the Bible says to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, let every woman have her own husband so that Satan doesn't tempt you for your incontinency. Now look, if you're single, obviously that doesn't give you an excuse. You've got to resist that temptation, but it's easier to resist the temptation of an ice cream cone when you're already full. Then when you're starving hungry and that ice cream cone is put in front of you, you're more likely to give in to that temptation. That's kind of common sense, right? And that's what the Bible is teaching in some of these passages. And of course, uh, Jesus said, pray that you enter not into temptation, but you want to know what's conspicuously absent. Why are there no warnings? How come when we read all of these epistles of Paul where he's writing all these epistles to the churches, giving them all this advice, and he's often warning about sin. He's saying things like, Hey, flee fornication. The love of money is the root of all evil, right? And he's talking about how children need to act for their parents and how wives and husbands need to interact and how to interact with your boss on the job. And he's saying, don't steal, don't lie, uh, don't kill. You know, he's going through all these things, warning about sin. Why is it that he doesn't say like, Hey, you got to watch out because there are demons everywhere. You're going to get filled with demons and you got to cast out demons repeatedly and you got to keep getting the demons cast out over and over again. Now let me just tell you something right now that Christians are never demon possessed ever if they're actually saved, period. No saved Christian is demon possessed. That is stupid, bizarre doctrine to teach. All Christians can be filled with demons too. Well, you know, what in the, what in the world is salvation? Like like, and here's the thing, these deliverance ministries are all about casting demons, not out of the unsaved, only out of the saved, only out of the saved. In fact, let me give you a quote. I was just watching this on the way over here. This Isaiah Saldivar is one of the main guys in this, in this Greg Locke thing. He said that he only cast demons out of, of, of Christians. He'll never cast demons out of unbelievers, only Christians. And this is what he said. He said that every other deliverance ministry that he's ever known of or ever worked with is the same way. They only cast demons out of saved Christians. That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life because saved Christians don't have demons inside of them. In the Bible, the people that are demon possessed is when Jesus and his disciples are going out and trying to reach the lost and they'll encounter these people that are demon possessed before they know Christ, okay? Never in the Bible is there an example of a saved Christian all of a sudden needing demons cast out of them or some stupidity like, where is that in the Bible? And why doesn't the Bible warn us as Christians, Hey, just cause you're saved doesn't mean you're not filled with demons. You got to come in for your, Oh, you're for your checkup. And let me get to that. The checkup. Okay. It's coming. Let me give you this guy's testimony. Isaiah Saldivar. This is what he said in his testimony. He said that he was a total atheist, right? So he's a college student, he's an atheist. And then he quote, got radically saved. Now here's the thing about, I don't like that term. You're either saved or you're not. You know, I'm so sick of this thing of, well, when I got saved, I got all the way saved. Well why don't we just call that being saved? What does this thing, you got all the way saved? Well who's half saved? Who's three quarters saved? Who's 80% saved? Folks, you're either saved or you're not. This is a binary thing. It's on or off. You either are saved or you're not. If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in the heart that God hath raised from the dead, thou shalt be radically saved. No, no, no. Only the cool kids get radically saved. Most of us just get a basic package. You know, we didn't get the platinum salvation upgrade with all the bells and whistles. But he said, you know, I was an atheist and I got radically saved. So in the first few days of being radically saved, this is out of his own mouth, his testimony, and you know, if anybody thinks I'm lying, the video was about just a search Isaiah Saldivar deliverance and look at the video where he talks about casting demons out of yourself. Health deliverance, casting them out of yourself. That's the video I'm taking this material from. So don't call me a liar, all right? So check this out. He gets radically saved. And then within the first few days after being radically saved, he said he started manifesting. Now what does that mean? Well, in their lingo, manifesting is where basically it becomes obvious that you're demon possessed. This is what manifesting means. It's obvious that I'm demon possessed. It's manifest. It's obvious. Here's what he said. He said that within a couple of days of being radically saved from being an atheist, he started manifesting and he said he was growling and barking like a dog and things and he said he'd never had this problem before. So here he is just going through life as an atheist, no issue, no issue as an atheist. But then as soon as he gets radically saved, all of a sudden now he's growling and barking like a dog. Now look, Miriam, you listed this on the way over with me. Am I telling the truth Miriam? Can I get a witness? So then he said any time he tried to talk about God or think about God, he'd start manifesting. So he'd start growling and barking. So then he went in his car and he's trying to get rid of this demon so he starts yelling at the demon and he said that the demon was yelling back at him with his mouth though. So the only one who's actually talking is him. He's yelling at the demon and the demon's yelling back at him and he says, ah, ah, you know, in the car. Now look, why don't you keep that radical salvation? Why don't you keep it? I'll take the basic, just sign me up for the basic salvation. You know, isn't it funny that we Baptists who simply just confessed with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believed in our heart that God raised him from the dead. Isn't it funny how we that just believed on Jesus, salvation didn't have that effect on us. You know why? Because we actually believe the real Gospel, which is salvation by faith alone, not of works lest any man should boast. But you see these Pentecostals and Charismatics, they don't believe salvation is by faith alone, do they? No, they believe in a works based repent of your sins salvation, also known as another Gospel, also known as a false Gospel. So here's what happened. He believed in a false Gospel and he went from being an atheist to becoming twofold more the child of hell. And now all of a sudden, by his own admission, he became demon possessed as a result of getting saved, quote unquote, in the charismatic movement. Wonderful, isn't it? Sign me up. So he's yelling at the demon and the demon's yelling back with his mouth. He goes home and comes to his sister and says, sister, I need you to cast these demons out of me. And so the sister starts casting demons out of him or whatever. Apparently she was just like, yeah, let's go, let's party. Apparently she knew what to do right away. It's like having an EMT in the house or something like an emergency or an exorcist technician or something. So you want to have a lawyer, a doctor, a dentist, and an exorcist in the family apparently can come in handy and a mechanic. So anyway, but then he was talking about how some of these things are more subtle than the barking and growling that he did. He said that he'd never been able to make eye contact with people before this because he was a police cadet or something and his sergeant was yelling at him for not making eye contact. But then when he got the growling and barking demons cast out of him, then all of a sudden he realized that also she cast out the demon of shame. So once he had the demon of shame cast out, now all of a sudden he can look you in the eye. But you see what these false prophets and false teachers are doing, they're just trying to say everything's a demon. So oh, you can't make eye contact, demon. If you're addicted to literally anything, demon. Video games, demon. Gambling, demon. It's not the love of money, it's just you have this demon of gambling or whatever. It's like this little slot machine, little gremlin guy, you know, whatever. And then he proceeds to go through a process, he has all these tutorial videos about how to cast out demons and how you got to tell the person to breathe really hard because usually it's going to come out their mouth, but sometimes it can come out their nose, their head, their ears, and there's growling, coughing, foaming at the mouth. But here's what's funny, he's talking about how when you cast out the demons, you're going to make them manifest. And he said one of the ways that you can really get the demons to manifest, and Miriam, if I'm lying, I'm dying, you were there, did he not say one of the ways to get the demons to manifest is play worship music for them? He literally said if you play worship music for the person, it'll get the demons to manifest. So let me get this straight. So you went to a charismatic church and got radically saved and that resulted in you growling and barking and being demon possessed two days later by your own admission. And worship music brings out the same in others. Maybe there's something wrong with your church. Maybe there's something wrong with your music and your church and what you guys are doing down there at the Pentecostal church. And isn't it interesting how our church is not filled with people foaming at the mouth? I mean, I've been pastoring here for 17 years, right, and in 17 years, you know, we've had I think one person passed out one time from heat exhaustion. We gave her a glass of lemonade with some salt in it and she was great. She was fine. Everything was cool. One other time in 17 years before the service even started, we had a guy who had a stroke. We called 911 and he went to the hospital and he had a stroke. Just coincidentally, he had a stroke, but it's demons. I remember when I was a teenager, I worked at Round Table Pizza and there was this Pentecostal chick that worked at Round Table, okay, and she was one of these charismatic and I had like a little bit of a nervous tic in those days and she's like, that's a demon. You're demon-possessed because I had like a little twitch or a tic or something, which a lot of people have little tics and twitches and whatever, you know, but according to these people like it's a demon. Not making eye contact, demon. You stutter, it's a demon. Addicted to literally anything, it's a demon. Folks, that is not in the Bible anywhere. But the reason that they do this is because they want everybody to get sucked in to their bizarre ministry. So the idea is everybody needs this. Nine out of 10 people need it. Do you have any addiction? Who here would just say, well, I've never been addicted to anything. No, everybody's addicted to something virtually, right? I mean everybody, even if it's not even necessarily a bad thing, people get addicted. We're human, right? People are addicted to candy. They're addicted to sugar. They're addicted to coffee. They're addicted to video games. They're addicted to whatever. I mean, give me a break, right? Some of these things are sinful. Some of them are just maybe bad habits. People get addicted to whatever, okay? But no, no, it's just demons. This is a lie. And here's what the guy said. Nine out of 10 people need it. And of course, 10 out of 10 people are going to find some nervous twitch, tic, some fault that they have because nobody's just living a perfect life. Everybody has physical or mental or spiritual issues or all of the above, every single person because no one is perfect. And these people, they capitalize on that and try to scare you and whatever. But he said that also, once you get all the demons cast out of you the first time, you need to come back for a checkup. Now he said if you have symptoms, come back sooner. But he said every three months is a good rule of thumb. You just come to your local exorcist or your local pastor at the Charismaniac Church and get your demons checked every three months, whether you need it or not, every three months. I mean, what kind of garbage is this where you go to this Pentecostal church and all these demons start manifesting that you never had before? Could it be that you actually just picked up demons from a demonic church? You know, and it's funny, on the trailer for this film, it's just, you know how trailers work where they're just rapidly cutting from scene to scene to scene to scene to scene? It's just cutting from like scary looking person. It's all at his church. Like all this happening in his church and it's just like a guy's like, and then it's just like all these scary faces. And I'm just thinking like, why don't I see that at our church? And do I envy him? Am I like, oh man, I wish our church was more like this. Everybody growling and barking and puking and everything. Because puking is a big part because he said, well, he said, you know, the puking is just a gag reflex, you know, I mean, you know, when the demon comes out, it kind of tickles your throat a little and you end up just puking, you know, some people just have a really, you know, sensitive gag reflex. And so, of course, this is total nonsense, it's total garbage. Look at Acts chapter 16, if you would, Acts chapter number 16. Now I do believe that in my life, I have probably encountered people who were demon possessed. I can't say that for sure because I can't always see what's going on. But I've had situations and I could tell stories for hours of different situations over the last few decades where I've encountered people that I think were demon possessed. Like one time I was out soul winning with one of my sons, I think it was John, but I'm not sure which one it was, but I was out soul winning with one of my sons and we knocked on this guy's door and he came to the door and he acted totally normal. He said he didn't have time to listen to the gospel because he was going to be going to work in a minute and a taxi cab was going to come pick him up and so he didn't have time so we left him with one verse and we left and then he shut the door. And after he shut the door, we just heard from the inside the guy literally sound like this. Faithful word, like you just start saying all these weird things in a growling voice including faithful word. That was super weird. And then we got a little down. So we our first thought was the guy is joking. He's just being silly or being weird. But then a couple minutes later the cab shows up and the guy walks out and just naturals rain gets in the cab and goes to work. So you know I don't know was that guy demon possessed or something just this random guy had some demon in him that freaked out when we came to the door. I don't know I'm not saying that he was or wasn't. It just makes it made me think like hey maybe that guy is demon possessed. Some unsaved guy who when I asked him if he was saved said he's not a Christian. He doesn't know and then did some weird growling and saying faithful word in a weird voice or whatever. Okay. You know one time I was given the gospel to some people outside of this event and I was given the gospel to this guy and the guy was claiming to be a Christian. He's wearing a T-shirt that even said Jesus on the shirt and literally the guy just blew up and just started just like cussing me out and saying all these really blasphemous things and yelling about the like saying negative things about the Bible. Like the guy had claimed to be a Christian a minute ago but now all of a sudden he's blaspheming God, blaspheming Christ, screaming and raving. And so I've seen people where I'm talking to somebody and all of a sudden they just snap and start acting really wild and their eyes get all bloodshot and they start screaming things that don't make sense and maybe even talking about things where a minute ago they claim to be a Christian and then all of a sudden now they're blaspheming and everything like that. But these people never gave an actual testimony. They never said oh I'm saved by believing in Jesus. They were always work salvation people or people that just weren't even claiming to be a Christian. And I've seen people snap and act really weird and freak out and you'll see some of these people that are homeless people or something and they're freaking out and yelling strange things and say you know I was out soul winning before and had some homeless person like start bowing down to me and kissing my shoes and stuff. You know I don't know if that person is demon possessed or not. Maybe they're just crazy. Maybe they're demon possessed but you know what that would actually make sense if we're going out in the world, if we're out in the world just out amongst the general population of Walmart at 2 a.m. types and you know you're gonna run into some people that could be demonic or demon possessed because you're out there amongst the unbelievers and the unsaved. And maybe occasionally there could be some Judas or some infiltrator in the church or something that would be demon possessed but would you just expect to go to a Bible believing Christian church and well 9 out of 10 people are demonic. That's crazy. But that's exactly what this guy is saying. That's exactly what these people are teaching. And it's all just a bunch of dramatic rah rah exciting music, people falling over, yelling, foaming, all this wild stuff. And then they even said in the movie you know trailer they said you know it's just something in human nature just craves the supernatural. So we're going to give it to them. We're going to put on a show for them is what they're basically saying. It's the biggest fraud. It's the biggest hoax. Do not fall for this stuff for one second my friend. If you study the Bible you'll find that people who are demon possessed they don't just have a nervous twitch or a gambling problem. They are actually acting like animals. They're out of their minds. They're cutting themselves. They're freaking out. They're screaming strange things. They're talking in other voices. That's somebody who's actually demon possessed. If you have sin in your life there's not some silver bullet that's just going to take away the craving. And that's what people want and that's why this is so popular. Because who are the most popular multimillionaire preachers today? Some of them are probably even billionaires. Who are the big name preachers? They're Pentecostals. Look at the guys that have the jets flying around in private jets and who's got 10 jets or whatever? Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn. These guys pack out stadiums. They're super popular. Why? Because people like it and they're giving people what they want. They're putting on a show. Why? Because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. You know the actual regenerate man wants to hear the Word of God. He wants to hear the Word of God preached but the carnal fleshly people out there that are not even saved, what do they want? They just want it. They're basically saying show us a sign. An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. Give us a sign. All they want to see is they want to see some crazy thing happen. They just want to see it. It's like when King Herod just really wants Jesus to do a miracle or something but he doesn't want to hear the Word of God and that's what we see today in our world. Why the Kenneth Copeland's and the Jesse Duplantis are multimillionaires or even billionaires and you see this makes perfect sense for Greg Locke because if you follow Greg Locke's ministry, he's always had one goal, be popular 100%. He just keeps following a path that just takes him to more popularity because he obviously just wants to be one of these Benny Hinn types, Jesse Duplantis type, Kenneth Copeland types. That's his goal. So he goes down that road. But people eat this up because obviously they're seeking a sign because they don't have faith. You know I'm not spending my life looking for some confirmation that the Bible is true. I already believe the Bible is true. I can go the rest of my life and never see a miracle and I don't even care. You know why? Because I already know that Christ died for my sins and rose again. I already believe it. I don't need to see anything. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. I don't need to see any miracles. Now look, if I see a miracle, that's cool. That's just icing on the cake. But you know what? That's not the foundation of my faith. This is the foundation of my faith. This is the only miracle I need right here, the Word of God. Some people who lack faith, they're constantly wanting to see some confirmation or some proof or something like that. But not only that, I'll tell you why people eat this up is because they're looking for something else to blame for the sin in their life and for the problems in their life. They want to blame something else and blame it on a demon, okay? And this gives them a silver bullet of, wow, if I can go get delivered, if I can go through this process of being exercised of all these demons, well then the cravings are going to be gone. The addiction's going to be gone. The desires are going to be gone. Now look, that sounds pretty appealing to just never crave sin again. I mean think about it. Look, a lot of people in America eat a lot of junk food, right? And they struggle with those temptations. You know, what if I could just basically pray over you right now? What if you could just line up right here and I could just pray over you and you would never want junk food again? You'll start craving nutritious food. You'll crave fruits and vegetables. You'll crave all the healthy things and you'll never want fast food again. You'll never want the partially hydrogenated soybean oils. You're not going to want all the high fructose corn syrup and all the junk, right? And if I could just pray over you and all of a sudden you just see donuts and ice cream and fast food and you're just like, I don't want any of that. That sounds pretty good, right? I mean if I could just push a button and I would only desire healthy food and I would never desire to eat all the overly sugared and unhealthy foods, processed foods, man, I'd push that button in a heartbeat. I mean who would love that to just snap your fingers and just change your desires when it came to food, right? The only drink you want to drink anymore is just water, you know? You just want to drink water and you just want to eat all these clean, healthy foods. I mean that would be great. And look, you say why do you bring that up so often? Well I bring it up because this is something that I struggle with because I love eating a lot of the wrong food, okay? You might not know that about me but my wife knows, okay? So I tend to be a bit of a glutton and I have to really work hard at this. I would love to push that button and just get delivered of the demon of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, you know, the cereal because maybe that girl was right in Round Table, it's the demon of breakfast cereal because man, I have fallen face first into a bowl of cereal more times than I can count and just eating bowl after. There's videos on YouTube of me just eating like a whole box of cereal in one sitting, you know? The devil made me do it. So people like this silver bullet of, oh, I'll just get delivered and I won't want to smoke anymore. Get delivered, won't want to drink anymore. Get delivered and I won't be lustful anymore. If only it were that easy because you know what? The Apostle Paul talked about how even in his life there's a constant struggle to do right and how his flesh constantly caused him to do the things that he hated and how the good that he knew to do, he didn't do it and then he did things that he hated and he said, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now look, he didn't say who shall deliver me from these demons? He said, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Because he knew that the source of the temptations that he was fighting were in his own body, meaning his own flesh. You want to know when you're going to be delivered from the desire to eat the wrong food, to drink or to lust or whatever it is. And by the way, different people struggle with different temptations. I'm not tempted to drink alcohol at all. But I guarantee you there are people in this room that struggle with that. Now it doesn't make me better than them or no, it's just because there are lots of things that I do struggle with. There are temptations I have, there are temptations you have. They're not necessarily going to be the same, but we all have sins that we struggle with in our lives. If we're honest, we all have temptations. Now someone in here might be really tempted to snort cocaine. Most of us probably aren't. Who would just raise your hand and say cocaine is not a temptation for me. I'm not going to think about it at all this week. Okay. All right. Several hands are down, but since some of them were like under eight years old, I'm just going to assume that they just didn't understand the question. So here's the thing. But you know what? There could be somebody in here who really wants to snort cocaine. I don't know. But the point is, just because our temptations are different, it doesn't mean I can judge you. Oh man, I can't believe you. You want to take drugs. What's wrong with you? No, because I have other temptations that maybe you don't have. We all have different struggles. We all have different temptations. But you know what the common denominator is? That all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. So somebody claiming that they don't have any sin, the truth isn't in them. And then you have these preachers that talk about, oh, I got saved and just, you know, never craved a cigarette again. But then it's funny because I've talked to a lot of preachers that said, hey, a cigarette sounds pretty good right now and I haven't had one in 30 years, but it actually sounds pretty good. Now look, that's why you should never start smoking in the first place because you don't crave cigarettes if you don't even know what they're like. That's a good way to never crave them. Never do it the first time. But let me tell you something. There are saved Christians who struggle with that. You know, we've had people who came to our church for years, zealous, reading their Bible, praying, going soul winning, making all kinds of changes in their life. You know, just dramatically changing their life for Christ and continuing to smoke for years. I mean, being just a zealous, soul winning member of Faith Forward Baptist Church, all while smoking cigarettes every single day. Now why is that? Because it's hard to quit smoking. And so it's not that this person didn't love God. It's not that this person wasn't truly saved. It's not that this person was just filled with the demon of Marlboro and the demon of camel. No, it was that this person was just struggling with a certain weakness that they had for smoking. And eventually this person, after a few years, quit smoking and was able to get over that. And that's a blessing. You know, we can overcome things. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. We can overcome addictions and sin in our life. God can help us to get the mastery over those things, but there's no just easy silver bullet come down and the pastor prays over you and all of a sudden you're on a diet. You know, all of a sudden you don't smoke anymore. All of a sudden you're no longer an alcoholic. And you know what, I know that this always bothers people when I say this and people always get offended, but I'm going to continue to say it because it's true, okay? That Alcoholics Anonymous' slogan, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. I agree with it. It's true. And look, I'm not saying that everything about Alcoholics Anonymous is right. I'm not endorsing everything about 12-step programs, but let me tell you something. Their philosophy that says, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic is a right philosophy. That is true and that is why they are often successful is because they teach that. And what does that mean, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic? Here's what it means. It means that anybody who has at one time been a drunkard, what the Bible would call a drunkard, always has the tendency to fall back into that and therefore they should never touch alcohol again. That's what they mean when they say that. So basically what they'll do is they'll be sober for 10 years and they'll say, I'm an alcoholic, but I've been sober for the last 10 years. But what do they mean by that when they say, I'm an alcoholic, but I've been sober for the last 10 years? What they're saying is that, you know what, I'm the type of person who falls into that trap of abusing alcohol and so therefore I cannot touch alcohol because I have that tendency and that proclivity and that temptation is there for me. And I'm acknowledging that so that I can take heed unto myself and beware of that sin. That's what they're saying. And a lot of people say like, oh, it's so unbiblical to say once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic because you know, Christ can deliver you and God can deliver you, all this. Look my friend, of course God can give us the power to overcome sin in our life, but that doesn't magically turn you into somebody who doesn't have a tendency to abuse alcohol. You know what it does is Christ turns you into a person that overcomes your tendency to abuse alcohol and overcomes those temptations and successfully withstands those temptations. But to say that Christ is going to magically take those temptations away is a lie. It isn't true. It isn't biblical. The reason I hate this doctrine is because it makes a lot of people doubt that they're saved because a lot of people are like, oh man, maybe I'm just not saved because I still crave beer. No maybe you just crave beer because you still have a sinful flesh and that's the flesh talking. And you show me a person who doesn't have any temptations, I'll show you Jesus because every single one of us is going to fall into temptation from time to time except Jesus Christ is the only one who's totally without sin. And so these people are full of blowing. Don't fall for their propaganda of this deliverance doctrine that says, oh, you know, I got saved and I got radically saved and I got all the way saved and I don't crave anything. Well, it's funny because the apostles are talking about struggling with sin. Everybody in the Bible seems to have imperfections and flaws and faults and except for the people the Pentecostals have just found a way to just not even, I've sat in church and had the pastor get up and say, I don't even want to sin, I'm not even tempted to sin, I never even want to sin. You're a liar and that's garbage. Every single one, and the danger of that is that we need to take heed lest we fall. See why does Alcoholics Anonymous tell people, once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic? You know why they're telling people that is they want people to stay on their guard for the rest of their life. Now let me ask you this, are there people in this world who drink alcohol in moderation and they only drink small amounts and they don't binge drink, they don't get drunk, they don't go crazy with it, does that exist? Yeah, it does exist. Now to be clear, I don't approve of it. I'm 100% against alcohol, I'm a teetotaler, I don't believe it's right to even touch the stuff ever. I think it's a sin to drink alcohol, period. That's where I stand. But I'm also smart enough to acknowledge that not every person who drinks alcohol abuses alcohol, quote unquote. There are people out there who can just drink in moderation and not go crazy with it. That's just a fact. There are people out there who do. But here's the thing about that, okay? People who have been an alcoholic have proven that they're not one of those people, right? And so it's not like, oh, I used to be this raging alcoholic, now I just limit myself to one beer. That doesn't work, does it? Now are there people out there who successfully limit themselves to one beer? Sure. I'm sure there are people like that. But guess what? People who are binge drinkers, alcoholics, addicts have already shown that they are not that type of person and they can never even have a sip of alcohol because when those people drink one beer, one becomes two becomes three becomes four, then they start hitting the hard liquor and then they start taking the drugs and it's a downward spiral. That's why they say once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic. What they're saying is that once you've opened that door, it's always a temptation. It's like I said earlier, if you've never smoked before, you're not going to crave cigarettes. If you've never snorted cocaine before, you're never going to crave cocaine. If you've never shot up heroin before, you're not going to be like, oh man, some heroin right now. This is just what I need. You have no concept of it. But every person who's done heroin for the rest of their life, that door is now open for them. And so when you're young, when you're a child, when you're a teenager, here's your goal young people. Kids, listen up. Here's your goal. Don't open those doors. The older you can get, opening as few doors as possible, the better off you are. And by the way, it's been also shown in studies that people who never drink alcohol until after they're 21, the chances of them abusing alcohol are way lower, statistically dramatically lower. And again, once you've made it to 21, just make it all the way to the grave and don't be an idiot and start drinking. But I'm telling you that if you can get through your teenage years and adult years even past 21, push it to 25, push it to 30. Look, if you get to 25 or 30 and you're not into some sinful practice, you're probably not going to get into it. You're probably not just going to take up all these wild sins as an adult after you're already 30 or something. But teenagers are open to these things, aren't they? And so if you're a teenager, if you're a young person, once you start smoking, once you start doing drugs, once you start drinking alcohol, once you start looking at pornography, once you start gambling, you're opening doors to all of these things and those doors will remain open for the rest of your life. Now look, you can successfully be sober for decades. You can successfully abstain from any of these sins. I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. But the way that you abstain is by not going through that door again, but the door is still open. Whereas for me, if I wanted to do drugs, let's say I just decide, you know what, I'm 41 years old, I'm ready to get into drugs. I've never even drunk a beer. I've never even tasted beer, never drunk drugs, but you know what, I'm 41, let's do it. Let's go for it. I don't even know where to begin. I don't even know what to do. I'd walk up to that door and I'm like, all right, that's it. I'm taking drugs. And I'm just kind of like, you know, like, come on, I want to shoot up a drug or something. You know, I want to snort a, I want to swallow a marijuana or shoot up a cocaine or something. You know, I mean, I don't know what, which one do I do? When doors jammed, you know, I mean, now look, if I really wanted to, I could kick that door in and be like, you know, I'm going to snort some coke. And I could, but it'd be pretty hard. It'd be pretty weird. It'd be pretty unlikely for somebody my age who's just been a teetotaler their whole life to just all of a sudden, hey, let's go get drunk, hey, just be like, whoa, it's not happening. But folks, teenagers are doing that every day. College students are doing it every day. What you've got to do is abstain from these things as much as you can so that you don't build these cravings and build these temptations. You know, I love ice cream, but if I had never tasted ice cream in my life, it wouldn't be that big of a temptation, right? I'd just be like, okay, there's some cold white stuff. I don't know what it is, whatever. Okay, but that's kind of a joke because ice cream is not that dangerous. The point is that you don't want to open these doors once they're open. They're always going to be open and no exorcist is going to fix that. What you need to do is pray that you enter not into temptation. Read your Bible, go to church, sing hymns, walk in the spirit, and you know what? You're just going to have to deny self every day. Sorry, you're going to have to deny self every day. It's work. It's hard work every day. But what if I told you that life is work every day? Every day we're going to work. There's no silver bullet or magic formula that's just going to make your life easy and just make you automatically do the right thing all the time. And well, if you're not automatically just breezing through the Christian life, well, you must be filled with demons. It's stupid and false. Let's bow our heads in the word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for your word. And dear Lord, I pray that you would just help all of us to every single day deny self and take up the cross and follow you, Lord. Help us not to be sucked in by these hoaxes, these wild charlatans, and these con men with all of their wild shows of barking and coughing and spitting up demons, Lord. Help us to have sound doctrine that comes from your word, Lord. Give us wisdom to navigate these times and all the strange teachings that are out there, Lord. Help us to study our Bibles so that we won't be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. And Lord God, I pray that you would help all of us to overcome the sins and the temptations and the addictions that are in all of our lives through quoting scripture, denying self, and following you every day, taking up the cross, Lord. Help us to be Christians that are constantly repenting of sin in our lives and not trying to just look for some kind of a cop-out or someone else to blame. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.