"The Reality of the Occult"

This is on Solomon and I would like to welcome you to our program today.

You know it's a tremendous honor to God is given to us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truths of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward and I'm so glad you tuned in to listen and be part of that. Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio and now let's get to the word of God may want to think the Bible and let's open it together with putting day in the life of the great man. The apostle Paul. Acts chapter 16 if you will open there will be coming there just a moment accept the 60 but I like to begin the day by giving your list of movies and seeing if you can tell me what one common thread ties all these movies together here we go. Here's a list Rosemary's baby poltergeist carry the Amityville horror devils advocate the witches of Eastwick bedazzled the old men want to win three and the exorcist. Now, with the exception of Rosemary's baby, which I saw as a college student before was a follower of Christ. I've never seen any of these other movies but I know just as you do what it is. The ties of altogether.

What ties them all together is that they all deal with the issue of the devil, demons, and the occult in our question for this morning is, is there anything really to this is the devil, and the demons and the occult is not just a topic for making scary movies or there is some reality here that you and I as followers of Jesus Christ need to take stock of it, our lives here in the 21st century wealth that sort of talk about because were going to watch the apostle Paul confront this very issue in our passage for today. Chapter 16 verse 16 and once while we were going to the place of prayer. Her second. Remember, there were not enough Jewish people here in the town of Philippi to make a synagogue and so as a result they would meet down by the river that flows through town.

The Jewish people were there and every Sabbath, they would have prayer Sabbath prayer down by the river well Paul, this is where he went to preach first.

This is where he met Lydia. This is where he led Lydia to Christ, and now the for this verse tells us that this was his habit every Sabbath he would apparently go back to this place and continue sharing with them. That's where he is on his way to rest of verse 16, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. Now the Roman writer Plutarch refers to these people as belly talkers and the way this term came about is that these folks were going to trances and while they were in these trance is the voice that was coming out of them sounded like it was coming out of their belly and so he called them belly talkers.

The Greeks of this time believed that actually people like this were filled by the God Apollo Apollo was the God of the Delphic Oracle and they believe that Apollo would fill the life of these people and talk through them, giving Oracle's giving prophecies that it was Apollo who was doing the talking, but interestingly, this word Plutarch uses for belly talkers is the same word that the Greek Old Testament uses for people in the Bible that are possessed by demons that are demonized who have familiar spirits, and so therefore the little short in the simple answer is this lady was a lady who had a demon. She was demon possessed.

She was demonized and that's who was talking through her in terms of doing this prediction of the future. Now verse 16. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling and this girl began following Paul and the rest of us and shouting. These men are servants of the most high God for telling you the way to be saved and she kept this up from any days and finally Paul became her Paul became literally said now you say well you know the lot.

If I understand correctly, this girl was walking through the city, and wherever Paul would go this girl would go along with him and would say these men are proclaiming the most high God, why, why would Paul get mad about that. Seems to me if somebody who was supposed to have a God Apollo inside of them walks along and says hey a greater God that Apollo is now shown up listening to me. Paul Sherman excited about that. Well, not exactly. And I'll tell you why. First of all, this term the most high God is a term that was used for a variety of deities at this time, not just the God of the universe like we think, for example, we know that Zeus, the Greek God and ices.

The Egyptian goddess and bail the Phoenician God were all gods for whom this term was used, the most high God.

Therefore this cow walked into town and proclaiming that the most high God has representatives in town.

It doesn't automatically mean to them back there what it means to us to understand they could amend a number different things. Also, by having her do this.

Paul ran the risk of everybody in town thinking that he was connected with this lady and all of her demonic stuff and so balding really want to be connected with this lady. Finally, the Bible says he got fed up.

He said hey unknown off is enough.

Any turn in this lady. Verse 18 and he said to the demon in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her, and at that moment the demon left her. Paul dealt with this demon very authoritatively. Just like the Lord Jesus Christ out with demons when he was here. However, there is one difference that we should know when the Lord Jesus dealt with the demon. His authority was personal and direct.

He would turn to a demon and he would say I command you, Lord Jesus would now when the apostle Paul deals with this demon. He doesn't have authority that's direct and personal like this.

The apostle Paul can't turn to a demon and say I command you anything. Rather, he turns to the demon with delegated authority and says in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out why Paul didn't have any authority over this demon didn't have any authority over this demon just because he was an apostle didn't have any authority over this demon just because he was a missionary are good guy. He only had authority over this demon because it was authority that was in the name of Jesus Christ member what Jesus said Matthew 2818. He said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me not to you as my followers not to apostles not to missionary the authority is mine, and in order to exercise this kind authority. The apostle Paul had to come with the delegated authority of Jesus.

He didn't have any authority all by himself.

Well as you can imagine this raise quite a stir in town, particularly with the owners of this girl who could make any money off of her anymore were to talk about that next week but we want to stop right here and right now NASD most important question in your body knows what the question is, so here we go nice allowed 123 right is a lawn. So what I'm really glad for this girl and I'm really glad that you know Paul cast the demon out of this girl.

But frankly big whoop on the differences is made to my life. Well, let's see if we can answer that question. I don't know if you're watching a few years ago the Bay Hill invitational golf tournament down in Orlando. PGA golfer John Daly was there and had a pretty amazing experience. He stepped up on the six hole part five and he took his is a driver off the tee and he hit the ball and it went right into the water hazard on the right of the whole. So according to PGA rules. He's allowed to drop another ball 30 yards in front of the tee box and hit it again takes a penalty stroke so we stepped up, got his three wood out of his bag and he swept the ball with his three would guess where the ball went right in order. He had five consecutive shots with his three wood and all five shots went in the water. Finally, on the six shot with his three wood. He hits the ball over the water.

J. And right in the sand trap he got in a scene on the whole. Now this is not you and me playing golf, we could get an 18 on a whole like this. This is John Daly, professional golfer third teen overpour. They don't even have a name for 13 over bar. It's not. There is no bogey that goes that high. You can't do it. 13 over bar and one of the commentators on television made this comment he said maybe his problem is that his three wood is demon possessed, well you know it's kind of funny because we all know three words can't be demon possessed.

But really, is this a joke. I mean, it really is this just a scary movie, topic, or is there some reality to all of this stuff about Satan and demons in the occult time magazine had an article several years ago entitled Angels among us, and they asked the question, they took a poll and they asked the question, do you believe in the existence of fallen angels or devils 45% of Americans said no. What that means is that one out of every two Americans you meet will think you are nuts.

If you tell them you believe in the devil if you tell them you believe demons are real they'll think you're crazy and yet listen to what time magazine's time magazine noted that when we look at the Nazi Holocaust. We look at the purges of Joseph Stalin. We look at the genocide of recent years in Africa and Eastern Europe. We look at the Charles Manson's and the Jeffrey Dahmer's that have been in our world.

Time said and I quote were hard-pressed not to recognize that there is some kind of super human evil present in our world." In other words, you can't just explain the evil in the world. By looking at human being something else bigger than that is going on in our world.

Well, congratulations tough time magazine. They have finally come around to seeing what God is been trying to tell the human race for thousands of years that yes there is a super human evil in our world and I want in the next five minutes give you the fastest course on biblical demonology in history were to teach everything the Bible has to say about the supreme human force in the next five minutes here we go. The Bible calls this supernatural being that leads this force Satan. Satan literally means in Hebrew adversary.

Satan is an adversary, primarily of Almighty God. Second Thessalonians 2 says that his mission statement.

Satan's is to oppose and exalt himself against everything that has to do with God. But you know in that same regard, Satan is the adversary of every single one of us was a follower of Jesus Christ because we love this God and we worship this God and we serve this God that he, Satan hates so vehemently that Satan is a finite meaning he can only be one place at one time but he extends his influence around the world by having a group of henchmen that the Bible calls demons.

The Bible does not tell us where these demons came from simply that they exist and that their real and together Satan and his demons have a twofold goal. Goal number one is to convince every person alive to reject God and to go his or her own way with their lot. Well, you say lawn.

But what if I give my life to Christ. What if I surrender my will to God. What if he loses this first goal because I become a follower of Christ. Well, that's wonderful. If he loses it. He then moves on to a secondary goal, and Satan secondary goal. Once we become followers of Jesus Christ is to nullify our effectiveness and and take away our impact for Jesus Christ is there. How does he do this. He does this by getting us to make choices in our life that ruin our credibility that undermine our authenticity, bringing us to the place where we ruin all platform that we have with people to reach them for Christ and by even getting us to make life choices that will actually hinder the work of God here on this earth he can get our soul, but he can certainly use us to keep the work of God from getting other people's souls.

And that's what he's up to in your life today. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ. Today the enemy is out to Madison Avenue to every newspaper you read through every magazine you read through the radio and television you watch through the friends at work you have that are followers of Christ, he is out to get you and me to make choices that will nullify our impact for Christ and maybe even make a choice so bad that we can actually hinder the work of God in other people's lives that we need to understand that Satan and his henchmen are absolutely ruthless in the pursuit of these to go and at the end of the age. God has a big surprise for Satan.

Revelation chapter 20 says the devil who deceived the nations will be thrown into the lake of fire, along with all of his henchmen where they will be tormented day and night forever, so Alanis good news right is but the bad news is, this isn't the end of the age. The bad news is that Satan is still alive and well on planet Earth.

The bad news is, for reasons God never explains in the Bible. He is chosen believe Satan and his demonic friends free to circulate and try to cause trouble here on earth now friends, that's it. That is the fastest course on demonology you will ever get.

That is a summary of every single thing the Bible says about Satan and demons. Okay, you got it good. Now here's the last question answer this morning in light of the fact that Satan is alive and well on planet Earth.

How do you and I as followers of Jesus Christ keep from being devoured. How do we defend ourselves so we are not one of these people that he chews up and completely nullifies in our service to God. What I got for suggestions from the Bible to give you and then were done number one suggestion number one is don't despair. After always set about Satan be easy for us to feel intimidated a little unnerved a little helpless but you know the Bible reassures us over and over that even though Satan's power is great God's power is greater. First John four. Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world in which you notice in the gospel accounts here in the Bible. Every single time Jesus met a demon desk who want every single time Jesus met Satan himself.

Guess who want and Jesus just didn't win. He dominated the devil and the forces of evil. Remember when Jesus and the double-faced off Matthew chapter 4, three times the devil tried to tempt the Lord Jesus into doing things that would've not only made in sin but robbed him of his Messiah ship and ruin the plan of salvation for the human race and all three times.

Would Jesus say to. He said no I'm not doing those things. It is written, it is written, it is written, how to Jesus fight off the enemy and leave an example for us.

He thought him by quoting to him from the written word of God is written, it is written in his written and the Bible says, Satan left. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. If you're using the right weapon and dear friends. This is the weapon God has given us to fight back with the problem is so many of us fight back against the enemy with the wrong weapon. He's out there, tempting us to do things we know we got no business doing. We know will hurt our platform for Christ. We know will ruin our authenticity and other people's eyes for Christ and yet the way we try to fighting back is in our own energy and in our own strength and we gotta go and we can we lose why because you and I don't have the energy or the power to beat him but it is written, no I'm not going to do that because it is written in what I have found is when we quote the word of God back to him or to any temptation he's going out of the way, the Lord Jesus did that temptation melt away like broken glass in the appeal just leaves.

This is the weapon and friends going out without the word of God is like going out to shoot without the bullets. This is why we encourage you here to read the word of God to study the word of God to memorize the word of God. So when you're in combat you got it right there at your fingertips and you can use it to say it is written, it is written, I'm not going there I'm not doing that. Don't go out every day with an empty clip you going to get shot in the bullets that work that's our weapon number three, if we're gonna survive.

Number three. Don't fixate don't get focused on Satan and demons, number four, and finally is. Don't dabble in the diabolical. You know, in spite of all the protection of God. We talked about God still says to us.

Ephesians 427 do not give the devil a foothold in your life. God still warns us that we dare not underestimate the maniacal power. The harmfulness of Satan schemes in our lives and how do we give Satan a foothold in our life. One of the key ways is by messing with dabbling with experimenting with things of the occult. Remember who Satan is.

You give them a foothold. He's going to try to turn it into a stronghold. You give him a beachhead.

He's going try to take the whole island remember who he is and God says don't give them a beachhead. Don't give them a foothold.

Don't get anywhere near some of this diabolical stone is Avalon but all these things bogus anyway. I mean, fortunetellers and palm readers and Miss Cleo on television. You know what her to row cards, body weight is reading the paper that the federal government recently ran a sting operation against Ms. Cleo and they found she was teaching people about put them on hold for 1/2 an hour to an hour to time in charge of nine dollars a minute. While there were no she's under federal indictment. Now you know it doesn't it seem strange to you that she didn't see it coming seem strange to you. Okay well before any of because she's bogus and so is all I have all this other stuff that goes on but you know, not all of it is bogus. Ouija boards in séances and tarot cards and fortunetellers and mediums will going to connect you with dead people and crystals and palm readers Dungeons & Dragons demonic movies friends. These are not harmless thing.

These are things that open our life up to the occult and give the enemy an opportunity to establish a foothold in our life and God says we have no business messing around with this stuff. We need to guard our lives like a hall from exposure to the stove and we need to guard our children and we need to guard our grandchildren's lives. Don't underestimate this guy always safe as followers of Christ. Yes, we are unless we step outside of God's guidelines and start playing around with this guy. Don't under estimate. Our enemy will summarize what we learned today we learned that God wants you and me to be one of the 50% of Americans who believe without a doubt, there is a devil who believe without a doubt, there are demons who believe without a doubt that the occult really does exist and God wants us to know how to protect ourselves. As followers of Christ from being devoured by the speed how we do it number one by not despairing were not intimidated by this God because greater is he who is in us than he was in the world.

Number two. By using the weaponry that God is given us to resist the devil with by using the spiritual, kryptonite God is given us using the word of God. It is written, it is written, it is written, number three, by not getting obsessed with this guy.

We don't care about this guy. He is irrelevant. His doom is already settled and he can't bother us unless we leading why are we even worried about why we even care about it. Why do we even want to focus on and we don't. He's irrelevant what is relevant is the person the nature and the character of Almighty God. That's where our focus needs to be and forth and finally don't dabble in the diabolical friends stay away from this stuff.

She does not harmless it is dangerous. Don't underestimate the power of the enemy is we open our lives up voluntarily and we let them in.

Don't under estimating. Remember who he is and he's out to ruin us to play around with this guy.

Let's pray together for Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about truth that I don't really matter to us Lord of half of America to believe in the devil we don't care it on matter to us if 80% of America didn't believe in the devil we don't care. Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ and who believe the Bible we believe in him because you say he's real Lord. We certainly don't think that we know more than you do. So thanks for reminding us today that the occult is real, that this demon stuff is real, that there are some dangerous stuff in our world and that we need to follow these four principles. If we want to make it to our world and not get devoured and I thank you Lord for the wonderful good news that if we follow these four principles. There is no way in the world that we can become the victim of Satan.

It is impossible to grant that if our lifestyle doesn't line up with these four principles that will make the lifestyle changes we need to for not giving enough time to the study and the memorization of the word of God for not using it in the fight change I have a pattern and if we are involved in things like to row cards in séances and movies, and other things that we got no business being involved or change our behavior patterns grant that we might live out these four principles because if we do, there is no way we can be a victim of the so thanks for speaking to us today. Lord, protect and change our lives because we were here. We pray in Jesus name, amen and listening to their wetlands. Dr. Lon found that plan is an outrage of Lon Solomon ministering to listen to today's message, or for more information visit our website. Lon Solomon ministries.org. Thank you for your support. If you would like to contact us, please visit our website or call us at 866788777 we had people join us next time in line 16 answer one of life's mission question