In Peter Allison's sermon, 'Characteristics of Demonic Oppression,' various aspects of demonic influence are discussed, using the biblical account of the Gadarene demoniac as a central theme. The sermon highlights nine characteristics of demonic oppression: starting as an ordinary person, public nakedness, antisocial behavior, fascination with death, torment, self-mutilation, superhuman strength, violence, and complete control over the body. Allison underscores the impact of demonic oppression on individuals and society, drawing parallels with contemporary cultural issues such as public nakedness and body modification. The narrative of Jesus casting out demons from the possessed man into swine emphasizes Jesus' authority over demonic forces and His power to liberate those oppressed. The sermon encourages believers to engage in spiritual warfare through prayer, the Word of God, and the armor of God, asserting that victory over Satan has been secured through Christ's triumph. Moreover, the sermon warns against giving legal footholds to Satan through unresolved sin and emphasizes the importance of being watchful and prayerful in resisting demonic influences.

I'd like to begin reading at verse 26. Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when he stepped out on the land there met him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. And when he saw Jesus he cried out, fell down before him and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for it had often seized him and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles. And he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, saying, What is your name? And he said, Legion, because many demons had entered him.

And they begged him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain, so they begged him that he would permit them to enter them, And he permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. And when those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. And then they went out to see what had happened and came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had departed sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed then in his right mind, and they were afraid.

They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon possessed was healed. Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. And he got into the boat and returned. Now when the man from whom the demons had departed begged him that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away saying, Return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you. And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him." May our happiness be in Jehovah and in observance of His words.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word. It is a word of, breathed out by you. It is a word that is profitable for correction, for doctrine, for instruction, and for training. We ask that you would make it so this morning. And pray that you would sanctify these sinful lips that from a vessel of clave, your truth, your word might be opened, proclaimed, and then may your word come to us in power, in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance.

In Jesus' name we ask, Amen. Well, this account of the gathering demoniac picks up right where the previous account that we looked at last week left off. Jesus, you remember, had led the disciples to board a boat and cross the lake, the Sea of Galilee. As they were going across this little lake, a big storm arose. A storm that was big enough to strike fear into the hearts of seasoned sailors and put them in fear of their life.

So they awoke Jesus who was asleep in the stern of the ship and Jesus rebuked the wind and the waves and they immediately became quiet. Then they continued on to the country of the Gadarenes where Jesus is immediately met by this demoniac, this man possessed by many demons. The country of the Gadarenes where they went is on the southeast side of the Sea of Galilee. The east and the southeast side. It's in a part of the region or country that's called, a part of an area that's called Decapolis, literally ten cities.

Decapolis was a confederation of initially ten cities, But in its prime there were several more. These were Greek cities, not Jewish, evidenced by the fact that you had a large herd of swine. Jews wouldn't be keeping pigs. They couldn't eat the pigs. They weren't any good for sacrifices.

There was an unclean animal. So this is a Greek area, a Greek region, and it's decidedly anti-Jewish. This region had been under Jewish rule during the time of the Maccabees, but they were given their independence by Rome quite a number of years ago by this time. And initially this city of Gadara was the capital, the main city of the region of Decapolis. And so it's in this region then, in the southeast side, in this Greek area, non-Jewish area, that Jesus and His disciples have come.

And we know This was right along the sea, because Jesus is immediately met by this demoniac as soon as he landed. In fact, and the pigs run violently into the sea. Matthew and Mark also give parallel accounts of this event. Matthew, remember writing to the Jews, who are more familiar probably with the local region, Luke writing to probably a converted priest as a legal defense of the of the Christianity doesn't assume a localized knowledge of the local region. Mark writing to predominantly Roman audience doesn't presume an immediate knowledge of the local area, but Matthew writing to Jews does say that it's in the country of the Gyrgossines, which is a smaller city within this region of Decapolis.

Sort of like the Houston area, or Conroe. If someone from another state asks you where you're from, I often say, from Houston. But if somebody from Houston asks me where I'm from, then I say, well, I'm from Conra. And I think that's something that we have going on here where Matthew says that this man was a man of the Gyrgossines. This account of a demon-possessed man is the climax of a series of accounts that all touch in some way upon demonic activity.

This chapter, you remember, opens with Jesus preaching in every city in this region, accompanied by a number of unnamed women, Luke says, out of whom Jesus had cast demons. And he mentions specifically one woman, Mary Magdalene, out of whom Jesus had cast seven demons. And Then Jesus goes on to tell the story of the parable of the sower. And pointing out, Satan's work in stealing away the word of God as it is planted so that it never has a chance even to sprout, let alone to bear fruit. And then there is this account of how Jesus demonstrates His power over the created order by calming a very violent storm.

And he rebukes, he does it by rebuking the wind and the waves as if they had been stirred up by demonic forces. And in the next chapter, right after this, we see Jesus sending out His disciples, having given them power over demons and over diseases. But before Jesus sends out his disciples with power over the demons, Jesus decisively demonstrates his power over Satan and the demons. And in the process of doing so, he gives his disciples a first-hand lesson about demon possession and demonic oppression. It would seem that this is the only reason that Jesus came to this part of the country.

Because Jesus comes immediately, He gets out, He encounters this demoniac, He sets him free of the demons, and then he leaves and doesn't come back. Jesus had this appointment to free this man, to liberate this man from demonic possession so that he might be his first evangelist in this area. But Jesus, in this passage, demonstrates in a practical way to his disciples many of the characteristics of demonic possession or oppression. We see, first of all, the first characteristic is that this man began life as an ordinary Person. An ordinary man.

He lived, it says he was from the city. He wasn't born out here in the wild, in among the caves, but he was from the city. But something had happened a long time ago, and for a long time now, he's been living as an outcast from the city, a social outcast under the oppressive satanic tyranny. You see, Satan is at war with Christ. Satan is at war with Christ.

And since we are created in the image of God, One way that he seeks to attack God and attack his reign is to destroy people who are made in the image of God, to harden their hearts so that the word does not sprout or bear any fruit in their lives. To blind the eyes of men so that the Word of God never even germinates. And so this man has been living under this bondage, this oppression, for some time. It doesn't say how many years, but it says that he is for a long time, it says. The second characteristic we see here in this man is that he wore no clothes.

Public nakedness. This is the second characteristic of demonic oppression. Resulted in public nakedness. Public nakedness is forbidden in the Scriptures and it's especially a concern in worship. In Exodus 20, God forbade using steps up to an altar so that the nakedness of the person making an offering would not be exposed on it.

And a little later God required the priests who continually work at the altar offering sacrifices to wear linen pants down to their knees, down to their thighs, so that their nakedness would not be exposed in their offering of sacrifices to the Lord. In Ezekiel, priests are further forbidden from having shaved heads. They weren't to have long hair, they weren't to have shaved heads, they were to have short hair. See, public nakedness outside of marriage, any nakedness outside of marriage, is often closely connected with fornication. It's a precursor to fornication.

When the Israelites sinned at Mount Sinai in the matter of the golden calf. They were naked. They were described as sitting down to eat and to drink and rising up to play. It's a description of lewdness and fornication. That same word, to play.

That's the same word that Potiphar's wife used to describe Joseph. And she said he was mocking me. It's the same word that the Bible uses to describe Abimelech looking out. Remember, Isaac had wanted Rebecca's wife to lie that she was his wife. And Abimelech took Rebecca into his house until he looked out his window and it says he saw Isaac sporting with his wife Rebecca That's the same word That's the same word What what is proper within a marriage is not proper outside of it?

And so the Israelites sinned and In in this manner and in this way. And public nakedness has been a part of our culture for the last 100 years. The last 100 years. I recommend Jonathan Pollard's little book, The Public Undressing of America, as he summarizes this history over the last hundred years. And I recommend it to anyone who wants a better historical understanding of how we have come to this point of extreme public nakedness that is accepted in our country today.

And so you see, this goes with occult oppression. Given the pervasive, pervasive occult influence in our media, I'm talking about the news companies that you listen to on the evening news on television, and the companies that produce the media that we consume in our entertainment. The occult has a pervasive, pervasive influence in this part of our culture. It's no surprise then to see that they are the biggest promoters of public nakedness. And this acceptance of public nakedness has crept into the evangelical church.

And it's a slow, gradual process. Whereby, Hebrews talks about our senses become trained to recognize what is right. Well, our senses can also become dull and untrained in recognizing what is wrong. And that's what's happened today in our culture, that through one of the outworkings of satanic oppression in our land, through all of the media and entertainment that we see and that we consume and that we are inundated with has grown in acceptance of public nakedness To a level that would have been wholly unthinkable before And I realize this is a hugely controversial topic among the greater evangelical community. And I'm not going to get into this anymore this morning, but suffice it to say there are many wrong ideas and misunderstandings on all sides of this question.

If you read any history, even any non-Christian history, you can see that beginning 120 years ago, there was a very clear move that I think we have to say in hindsight was demonically produced. Does it mean these people were occupied by demons, possessed by demons in the same way this man was here, but these people were moved by demons, influenced by the demonic, brought a level of deception and blindness to us today in our acceptance of public nakedness. Anytime you see a Hollywood production of any sort, These people are basically naked, publicly naked. This brothers and sisters is demonic. It's sensual and it's demonic.

Doesn't mean that everything that people believed 150 years ago in this area was right. There are certainly errors I've said on all sides. But if you do look back in the history, I remember reading there's a book by the Galbraith family. It's called Cheaper by the Dozen. It's not a Christian family.

They were nominally Christian. Mr. Galbraith went to church once a year on Christmas, maybe Easter. But the children wrote a book about growing up in a life with their father and the 12 children and their family. It is an entertaining book, but it wasn't a Christian family.

And what comes out in this book is this... And these people were growing up in the very beginning of the 20th century, 1900 to 1920. And what comes out in this book is this amazing movement toward public nakedness. At the time, for example, the one that comes to my mind, at the time it was customary for, to, to, for people to wear two-piece bathing suits to the, to the beach to swim in. And the big scandal in the counting of this book and this story was that one of the daughters after the father died, one of the daughters wore a one-piece bathing suit to the beach.

Now I'll leave you to think about that one. That was scandalous. Instead of wearing two pieces, two garments covering the body, they wore one piece. The one piece was what we would call a leotard. It went from the neck to the ankles.

But what was one piece about it is it didn't have a second covering over it. And that was considered scandalous. Public nakedness is a characteristic that we see of this demonic possessed man. Thirdly, we see that he's antisocial. He's not able to maintain relationships with other people.

He's not able to live in a home. He doesn't live in a home. He didn't live in a house. Nobody could live with such a person. The excessive disruptions, continual division, continual violence.

You see, this is another aspect of our being made in the image of God, is that we can reason in logical ways, thinking God's thoughts after him. We can use language to communicate ideas as God does when he speaks to us in his word God is the originator of language And he's given And the fact that we are made in His image gives us the ability to communicate with language and words and ideas. And we can also interact socially in marriage, in families, in communities. We live in communities. This is a part of our being made in the image of God, just as God has perfect fellowship, inter-trinitarian fellowship.

The three persons of the Trinity have perfect fellowship. God doesn't need anything from us. He doesn't need our fellowship. He doesn't need our love. He has perfect fellowship within himself in the Trinity.

We can have knowledge of the law of how God governs His creation. We can make choices. Another aspect of our being made in the image of God is that we have a soul that never ceases to exist. And so it's part of Satan's attack on Christ that He makes people unable to live in communities, unable to communicate with each other, unable to have this fellowship. And so this demoniac doesn't live in a house.

He's unable. He's unable to have that kind of fellowship, that kind of relationship. Satan divides. Satan brings division and discord. He splits families.

He splits churches. He splits countries. The division that we're seeing today, the antisocial behavior of one group of people with another group of people, this is, brothers and sisters, one sign and characteristic of demonic oppression, demonic influence. These people that are bringing this division on our land, it's demonically driven. The fourth characteristic we see is that he lives among the tombs.

We see a fascination and a focus on death. This is a very key characteristic of demonic oppression. Focus on death. A preoccupation with death. From dreams about death, about oppression, to the satanic worship rituals.

Death is a central recurring and essential theme of satanic oppression. This man lived among the tombs. He lived among the dead. We have a culture that for many years enjoyed relative freedom from these types of things. But it's becoming more and more evident, more and more public.

Ritual satanic abuse ends in horrific death for their victims, which are very often Children that are stolen away, kidnapped. But it even involves adults. We have enjoyed relative freedom from such things because because we were a people that acknowledged the Lord, that recognized God's Word as the standard of justice, God's Law as the standard of justice, God's Word as the standard of what is true and what is not true. And as we have abandoned that, and that goes back many, many years, as we have abandoned that, we have opened ourselves up to more and more of this demonic presence and influence. And what used to be kept hidden in secret where you could live and never see it, is now coming open.

It is becoming more and more common, more and more frequent. The Bible calls Saint in Him who has the power of death. Satan was the first tempter to sin and it's sin that brought death. Sin is the cause of death. And so Satan may be said to have the power of death in that he draws men into sin.

And he is often permitted to terrify our conscience, the conscience of men with a fear of death. That's another characteristic of satanic oppression, is this torment. Satan torments people, bringing them under bondage through fear of death. This demoniac was tormented. Mark says that this demon possessed man was continually crying out in torment.

Because to live under satanic oppression and bondage is to live in a continual state of torment. It's to live in a continual state of fear. This demon was tormented by Jesus' very presence. And this torment is of their own making. Jesus wasn't doing anything to hurt this man by simply being there.

See, this torment is not so much what is being done to them, but what is going on inside of them. This torment is what's going on in them. Jesus has come. He's not tormenting, He's come to deliver. He's come to free those who are in bondage to sin and to Satan Now the account in mark gives us a deep another detail that is not in Luke, but I'd like to draw your attention to it.

It says that, and always, day and night, Mark 5.5 in this parallel account, says that always day and night he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out in torment and cutting himself with stones." so another characteristic of demonic oppression is self-mutilation. This demoniac is cutting himself with stones. It's not helpful to him. It's destructive to him. Remember, Satan is the deceiver and he is the destroyer.

Remember, the demonically driven prophets of Baal cut themselves with their swords and their knives in a frenzied appeal to bail, to hear them. They cut themselves until the blood was flowing freely, but their blood was useless. God didn't hear them. Bail was helpless. He had no power.

And There is today, just like with public nakedness, there is an explosion in our culture of human cutting and marking. It's all around us. It really hit me one day about 22 years ago. I was walking down Main Street in Columbus, Ohio. I was in the immediate vicinity of the Ohio State University.

And I was struck just person after person was coming by. And this was a crowded sidewalk. Down here at Ohio State University, it's a very large university. Thousands and tens of thousands of students. And I was right down there and basically almost on campus, was right across the main street.

I was struck with all the body scarification, the mutilation, the piercing on person after person that walked by. It was almost everybody. And I remember thinking, I had never seen this many people in one place with so much scarring and marking. I'd say, this is almost like this is a different species of humanity in front of me. See this is a return to the practices that were common in pagan culture.

Eyebrow rings, belly rings, Tongue studs, multiple earrings and piercings of all sorts. These are the things that people find. These are the things that you find in indigenous cultures that have never heard the gospel. In cultures where they eat people, eat one another. This is satanic oppression bursting out.

We are becoming, we are regressing as a culture. We are going back to this sort of thing. It's becoming common, more and more common. See when these cultures are evangelized and become Christian, they take out their piercings Because Christ comes and makes us free. One tattoo artist said, a tattoo is a complex signifier.

It signals class. It signals sexuality. And it has specific content as a signifier. A depiction of an animal, a person, an abstract tribal design. It goes on to say, the most usual motifs are signifiers of power and masculinity.

But What the tattoo signals above all is the power one seizes over one's own body." What a tattoo signifies Above all, he says, is the power one seizes over one's own body. Those aren't my words. That's what they say they are doing to themselves. You see, this is an open and outright rejection of God. It's to shake their fist in God's face and say, my lips are at mine.

My body is mine. This is what we hear the abortion people saying, my body is mine. But Those who are in Christ, we know that we belong to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, body and soul. That we've been bought with the price, the precious blood of Christ, and we are not our own. We are Christ's.

Our body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It's to be regarded as holy. It's to be set apart. You see these practices of tattoos and self-mutilation are direct attacks upon God and His Spirit. The Bible forbids tattoos and markings for the dead.

You shall not make cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Jehovah." That's Leviticus 19, 28. Leviticus 21 also forbids the priests from making cuttings on their flesh. Paul reminded the Corinthians. Remember, the Corinthians were people that had come from a very sexually, or a culture steeped in fornication.

He reminds them, do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? And he's talking in this context about fornication with a harlot. He is warning them against sexual immorality. He says, Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? And you are not your own, for you were bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Body and spirit, we belong to God. We're to glorify Him in our body. And those who are making cuttings and markings on their flesh and piercing themselves are directly attacking God. They are saying, no, my body is mine.

See the response of these demonic cultures when they are converted is that they throw aside, they cast aside these piercings and self-mutilation practices. They're rampant in any pagan culture. They're horrific. They're cruel. They're barbaric.

They're destructive. They're satanic. Pagan culture. They are horrific. They are cruel.

They are barbaric. They are destructive. They are satanic. When Jacob called his family to worship the Lord, Jacob said to his household, put away the strange gods that are among you and be clean and change your garments. And that's worship the Lord as a family.

It says that they gave Jacob all the strange gods that were in their hands and all the earrings that were in their ears and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem. To be pierced is a sign of submission. And it's proper for a wife or a woman, but not for a man. We are to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. We are to glorify God with our bodies.

You see, just because somebody is ignorant of what they're doing when they do these things doesn't change the fact of what they are doing. Aza might have been ignorant when he reached out his hand to touch the ark, But it didn't change what he was doing. He didn't mean to offend God. He wasn't intending to bring God's wrath on him. He was trying to help.

And people today may be getting tattoos, maybe They don't realize what they're doing, but it doesn't change what they're doing. It's a demonically inspired attack on God. Now the seventh characteristic of demonic oppression is this superhuman strength. This man is not able to be bound. The citizens of the region have tried to bind him with chains, but like Sampson, he just breaks the chains and runs away.

He breaks these metal bonds. And most policemen today could probably tell many stories of superhuman strength in drug-possessed people, where it takes six men to subdue one of these demon-possessed people. This is a characteristic of demonic oppression, superhuman strength. Eighthly, he's given to violence. He's given to violence.

He's a violent man. Mark tells us that the people couldn't even go by the road where this guy was known to be Because he was so violent and they were in danger of being hurt It the demons when they came out of the man and went into this herd of pigs Luke says that the pigs ran violently down the mountain, given to violence. What do we see again around us in our culture? Culture, public nakedness, self-mutilation, and violence, mobs given to violence. The ninth characteristic is this body that is under demonic control.

This demon drives this man out of the house. He drives him into the desert. He drives him to fall down at Jesus' feet. He drives the pigs into the sea. Pigs don't run into the sea.

Animals don't just run into the water unless they're inhabited, possessed by demons. Remember The boy that was casting himself into the fire under demonic oppression. The demons occupy the body in sort of one of the most extreme forms of demonic oppression. The demon even spoke to Jesus through the voice of the man. Jesus asked this demon, what is your name?

The demon answered, Legion. The demon is speaking through the voice of this man. The demon has completely taken over the body of this man. Bible says it was the demon that was talking. And people that are possessed by demons, they're not under their right mind.

Their wills are being controlled. Because after Jesus casts out these demons from the man, the people, the talisman come out and they see Him sitting at the feet of Jesus. He's clothed, He's put away the public nakedness, and He is in His right mind. He wasn't in his right mind before, it was a mind possessed by a demon. Now some people in the broader reformed world today believe that demonic oppression is not something that we need to be concerned about.

Demonic influence, demonic movement of people. Dr. J. Adams says, We fight against spiritual forces as we battle the lies and sins of those who know nothing of Christ. We are tempted by the devil who like a roaring lion deprived of his offspring rages against us, but there isn't one scintilla of evidence that people may any longer be possessed of the devil, and absolutely no reason to think believers may be possessed or oppressed by Satan.

Jesus' death changed things." Well following Dr. Adams, I used to think that the Bible had very little to say about being the influence of demons. But I've come to see that that's simply not true. Now Jay Adams is one of my personal heroes. I love that man.

I still remember the main point of a sermon that I heard him give in 1984, because he was a very gifted preacher of the Word of God, and I've been blessed by every sermon I've ever heard him give. I consider him one of the greatest pastors of the 20th century. The whole field of Newthetic counseling was essentially single-handedly recovered by Dr. Adams from the grip of Freudian fraud. He's written over a hundred books, and I recommend every one of them to you.

I read as many of them as I can. They're excellent. They're excellent. But I think on this point that he's wrong. Puritans had much to say about the influence of the demonic.

We battle the world, our flesh, the Bible says, and the devil. Now We can't, not every problem is caused by demonic power, far from it. There's the world and there's our flesh. We can't, we don't want to forget those. Those are equally, if not more prominent in our battle.

And neither can we blame the devil for what we do any more than we can blame the world for what we do. So just because somebody is moved by Satan, just because somebody is under satanic oppression, just because Satan has tempted somebody, or led somebody to do something, that is absolutely no excuse for saying, well, the devil made me do it, as if that somehow diminishes our responsibility. We are responsible for what we do. It doesn't matter the source of the temptation. It doesn't matter whether it arose from the weakness of our own flesh, from the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life, or from Satan himself.

We are responsible. We are responsible for what we do. But this does inform our defense. How do we fight against Satan? Well we see Christ's power in this account as well.

And the first thing we see about Christ's power over Satan is that these demons are under the sovereign direction of God. They can only go where God commands them to go, and nowhere else. The demons begged Jesus to send them into the swine. They had no authority to enter the swine on their own. For them to enter the swine required Jesus permission.

It required Jesus giving them authority to do so. They can only live where they are given the legal authority to live by God. We see this in Job as well. God has to explicitly give Satan permission for everything he does and he can only do that which God gives him permission to do. You can go take all that Job has, but do not touch his body, and Satan could not touch Job's body.

You can touch his body, but do not take his life, and Satan could touch Job's body, but he could not take Job's life. The second thing we see is that God grants, God often will grant the requests of the demons where there is no legal opposition to those requests. God grants the requests where there is no legal opposition to those requests. They desired to enter the pigs and God granted them the authority to do so. Because there was no one at the foot of God's throne opposing them.

What's that say? About the necessity of praying without ceasing. You see, Satan desired Peter. Satan asked, Jesus said, Satan desired Peter. Satan liked these demons, asking to go into the swine.

Satan asked to enter Peter. Jesus said, Satan desired Peter to sift you like wheat. But Jesus opposed him on Peter's behalf. What a precious thought. Jesus told Peter something he wasn't even aware of.

Peter, Satan, has asked for you, but I, Jesus said, have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren." This is why we have to pray without ceasing. Prayer is our Weapon. Prayer is how we come before the throne and plead as Jesus did for Peter. We plead and ask the Lord for victory over the demonic.

But we are also reminded in the Scriptures not to give a legal foothold to Satan through our sin. And one of the biggest footholds that we give to Satan in our sin is when we are not reconciled to our brothers and sisters. Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 11 that we must forgive our brothers who ask for forgiveness, thus Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices." Anger is another thing that gives a foothold to the devil. Ephesians 4.26 warns us to not let the sun go down on our anger, lest we give an opportunity to the devil. Be angry, it says, and do not sin.

Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, neither give place to the devil. Our own sin can give a legal foothold for some principalities or powers to have an influence and a presence in our life. Something to consider. When you're facing defeat after defeat, have you given a foothold to the enemy? Thirdly, Christ has defeated Satan.

Christ demonstrates that very convincingly here. These demons have absolutely no power over him. He stilled the waves, he rebuked them and immediately they are quiet. And he rebuked these demons and sent them into the pigs. And they ran violently down the steep place into the lake and were drowned, and the man was completely liberated.

Christ has defeated Satan. He has crushed his head at the cross. And Christ invites us, as those who are in him, to share in that victory. He calls us to fight against the wicked one through his name and by his power alone, and he promises us in the scriptures tools that are sufficient for the battle. He told the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 10, For we walk in the flesh, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, they're not fleshly, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

The whole end of the Ephesians chapter 6 is a manual on how to put on the armor of God. Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. We can be strong in the power of God's might. Put on the whole armor of God. Why?

So that you can stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. That's where our battle is. We may not see it, but we see the effect all around us. Just look at all the characteristics of demonic oppression in our culture that we've talked about.

They're all around us. They're even in the church. Because Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light. And there are demons. Revelation speaks of the demonic influence in the church.

Demons are very happy in the church. They are very comfortable where we are not actively putting on the armor of God and engaged in warfare against them, not with weapons of the flesh, but with the spiritual armor of God. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Take the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand against the wiles of the devil, but especially the shield of faith, which will quench the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and Supplication for all the saints for all the same we can pray for one another in this matter And the Lord has promised us victory. The Lord brings victory over Satan through the weapons and the armor that he has given to us.

It says to resist the devil and He will flee from it. We know that John wrote in his first epistle, chapter 518, we know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. He gives, Psalm 91 tells us that he gives his angels charge over us to protect us. His angels, his warrior angels, his fearful, mighty warrior angels. He gives to us to protect us.

And so J. Adams is absolutely right in that. We don't have anything to fear, but we do have to be watchful. We do have to engage in the battle with the armor that God has given to us, especially as we look out and we see the signs of demonic oppression. Well, let us pray.

Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you that you have crushed the head of the serpent, you have destroyed Satan and his works, and have preached to them your victory. That you have been victorious and defeated principalities and powers. Indeed, You described it to your disciples as you saw Satan fall like a bolt of lightning. So Father, we ask that you would give us an awareness and alertness that we might not be deceived by the evil one that we might not be unaware of his devices or ignorant of them but armed with the knowledge of your word the truth of the Scriptures and equipped with the armament that you provide the armor of God. Lord, we ask that you would cover us with your blood in our time of worship this morning, and enable us to take up the sword of the Spirit, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and to shot our feet with the gospel.

Oh, Father, we thank You for the victory that You have won. We thank You that You have called us to sit with you in the heavenlies, to enter into this warfare with you by your power, by your power alone and by your name alone. Lord grant us diligence that we may pray without ceasing, recognizing that we need you every moment of every day. And so we ask that you would fill us with your Spirit, that our emotions would be led by your Spirit, that our will might be directed by your Spirit, that we might have your will, that we might move by the action of your Spirit, That we might speak as we are led by your Spirit. That we might love as those who are led by your Spirit.

And then we might guard against any deception and division. And not give a foothold to Satan. We ask these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for watching!