Victory In Christ: Spiritual Warfare Against Demonic Influences

September 8 Power over Demonic Forces.mp4
Ross Sawyers: [00:00:00] What a good time in worship as we celebrate the Lord's Supper and sing God's praises, and he is the one that's worthy of that. One of the things that Jesus did on the cross, among many for us, is to destroy the works of the devil. In First John chapter 3, that is the specific thing that he did on the cross.

Ross Sawyers: [00:00:20] In the meantime, in the world in which we live, the Scripture describes that the God of this world, a little g god, is Satan himself, and he has an organized force of demons that he is unleashing, on our world. There will be a day when they're finally defeated. They're defeated, and there will be a day when it's finally over with in the new heavens and the new earth. Prior to that, there is this spiritual battle, this war that's going on with dark forces, demonic forces in our world. So I'd ask you a question this morning if I asked you, personally, like I did three other people earlier today before I arrived here. If I told you I was preaching about demons today, what comes to your mind? Well, it could be the one girl who looked at me with a blank face and I said, nothing comes to your mind, does it? Like, it's never a thought that you think about demons in this world. She said no. Or it could be the older gentleman that I was speaking to, and I asked him the very same question, and he immediately named off a presidential candidate. Or it could be the other lady that I talked to, she said, you know what? I've been thinking about this, actually, and there are some generational curses in our family, and I just believe that demons have gotten in there and continue to pass those down through our family. And I'm asking God to break those that are in our family.

Ross Sawyers: [00:01:58] If you'd turn in your Bible to Mark chapter 5, regardless of what your thinking is today, I'd like to just anchor ourselves to what Jesus is thinking is and what the Scripture tells us about this demonic and dark world that we find ourselves in the midst of, and how we can actually have power over demonic forces. In Mark chapter 5, we'll see that unfold. There are a number of instances in the Gospel where we're Jesus is encountering the demonic, and this is the story where we'll anchor in, and look for the power that we too can have today over those demonic forces.

Ross Sawyers: [00:02:37] But before we unpack this, I just want to say a couple of things about our Serve week that's coming. If you've signed up and not received your assignment on your way out, you can go to the kiosk in the hallway, and they can let you know where you'll be. It's also the place where you can sign up if you haven't signed up already to be a part. And then I want to invite you to a week from Monday, we'll not gather in here for our worship next Sunday, we'll gather in the community as we serve the community in Jesus' name. And then on Monday night, September 16th, that is our exact 25th year anniversary of the first worship service that we had for 121. Jeff and Jordan Johnson, who lead at Passion City in Atlanta, lead worship there, they were a part of the early years of 121. They'll be leading our worship that night, and it'll just be a time to celebrate what God has done over these last 25 years. I hope you can arrange your schedules to be a part of Monday night, 7:00 September 16th.

Ross Sawyers: [00:03:35] But I want us to think specifically this morning about the power that we can have over the demonic forces. The first thing that I would say about this is from this particular story is in the first five verses, and that's to recognize the reality of demonic forces. And there's this whole range of the way people think, it could be like that, young lady and it never crosses your mind. It might be that you're all over it and you're in the spiritual fight, and you get what's going on in the invisible realm today. Or it might be somewhere in between. Or it might be you're curious, and you don't understand, and please help me, I want to get in on the way. Jesus went at this with the demonic forces.

Ross Sawyers: [00:04:15] But the first thing is to recognize the reality of demonic forces that they are real. In chapter 5, verse 1, "They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes." They had just come off the storm that Jesus calmed, for them. Jermaine did a phenomenal job last week preaching on Mark 4:35-41. They are emerging out of that, and now they come to the other side into a Gentile region. Now, I don't know about you, but I went years as a Christian reading the Bible, and I could never figure it out. What is a Gentile? It's not in the common language, I don't remember talking about it in high school or college or anywhere else. It was just, what is this word? And a Gentile is just a non-Jew. So when we read the scriptures, you're talking about those who are Jews and those who are non-Jews.

Ross Sawyers: [00:05:02] Jesus had come into this region that is a non-Jewish region, "When He got out of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him." They get to the other side, and he gets out of the boat, immediately...That's a marker throughout Mark, 41 times, he'll use this word immediately, and there's an urgency in most of what he writes. And it says this man from the tombs has an unclean spirit. That unclean spirit is a demonic spirit, it's a demon. "And he had his dwelling among the tombs.", in verse three, and no one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain. So this is a man now that is gripped by demonic forces, and he is living in the tombs, that would have been caves. So just imagine an area of caves, and that's where he's living. In verse 4, "He had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces, and no one was strong enough to subdue him. 5Constantly, night and day..." In verse 5, "He was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones."

Ross Sawyers: [00:06:17] We've called this series The Real Jesus, and Jesus is encountering real demonic forces in the lives of people. And we see the reality of the effects of the demons on this particular man. There's no doubt that growing up, or at whatever point he became overwhelmed by these demons, and everybody in their small community would have been doing whatever they could to be a help to him. But it was clear that he had a strength beyond what they could handle, he had a superhuman kind of strength, so we see that from the demonic. They couldn't even with chains, they couldn't keep him under wraps that way, they weren't strong enough to subdue him that way. I'm reminded of the Lord of the Rings, and Gollum in the mountains, in the caves, just screaming and shrieking and tormented. And I think that's a decent idea of what was happening here with this man. He was cutting himself as well, night and day, his body would have been scarred all over from the cuts of what he had done. So these demonic forces had hold of this man.

Ross Sawyers: [00:07:37] He was at a point now where he was isolated from the community. I've been reading a book by Chuck Swindoll on the life of Paul, and there's a quote I was reading this week from a Stanford University psychologist. He said, "I know of no more potent killer than isolationism. There's no more destructive influence on physical and mental health." The effects on this man, this demon gripped man, were ones of isolation, of torture from the inside out, and all that was being expressed in outward ways. I don't know what you think about the demonic, but it is real, and there are dark forces that are at work in this world today, as much as they were at work in the world then.

Ross Sawyers: [00:08:33] Mark Bubeck wrote a book called The Adversary that someone recommended to me probably 2 or 3 years ago now, and I found it to be an incredibly helpful book about demons, about warfare. So if this would be something you'd be interested in spending a little more time on, I think he's very helpful. He gives practical ways to pray, he organizes the scripture in a way to understand that Satan is our adversary. Satan has an organized group of demons, and demons, by definition, would be fallen angels and rebellion against God. Satan has this force that he's organized and unleashes on all of the world, and he unleashes that force in varying degrees for a variety of reasons in what he's trying to do. And what will always characterize what Satan is doing and his demons are doing will be destruction. He will be characterized, and where there's destruction, you can be sure that Satan is somewhere in the mix of what's happening with it. That is his primary goal. One of the things I appreciate about Brubeck in his book is the way he ties together talking about the flesh, our sinful human flesh, the world, which is in opposition to the things of God, and then Satan himself. This is what he says about the flesh on page 36, and we have the quote on the screen. He said, "This warning indicates that when a believer exercises his or her will to commit these fleshly sins, they give place, literally playing practical ground to Satan's activity in his life." He goes on to say, "It's a believer's willful indulgence in fleshly sins that gives the enemy a place or a claim against us, which he will be quick to exploit."

Ross Sawyers: [00:10:35] In Galatians 5, there's this ugly list of sins, that characterizes our flesh, our human, sinful flesh. And if we continue in those particular sins, over time what he tells us is that Satan will begin to co-opt that, and he'll lay claim on it in a way that it's all the more destructive on the person. And then he goes on to talk about the world, and in a quote on page 54, he says, the world system intensifies our fleshliness by offering a climate and a system that promotes these fleshly sins. The world system begins to surround man with that which intensifies the inner problem he already has as a fallen creature. I think it's a good descriptor of what happens. We have this human tendency to sin, we're prone to it. The Scripture says there's no one good, not even one. As much as we want to make ourselves out to be good, the Scripture says clearly, we are not, we are sinful, and our hearts are deceptive. And when we continue in sin, then that gives Satan a claim in that, a foothold, a stronghold, and once he gets in there, it makes it more difficult to break free. Now, the way we fight sin on a daily basis is to die to it. We're asking God, I'm asking God every day to kill today the pride, the selfishness, the lust, the anxiety, the jealousy, the envy, the bitterness, and anger. I ask him to kill that, so it won't kill me. As the Puritan writer John Owen described it, If we allow it to continue to get a hold, Satan co-opts it. And he works with the world, which creates an environment that makes it much easier for the flesh to sin against God and Satan to co-opt it". So he's working together with those two avenues.

Ross Sawyers: [00:12:32] I'll give you an example, Ephesians chapter 4, verses 26 and 27. And it says, "BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not give the devil an opportunity." We live in an angry culture. We have homes that are loaded with anger right now. And when we continue in that anger, it gives the devil an opportunity to get a foothold in that home or in that nation. And as we continue to walk in darkness, Satan co-opts and gives more opportunity to the world and through the flesh through that anger. We have a solution for it in Ephesians 4, "BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN." There is a righteous anger, but I would submit a good portion of the time that's not what our anger is. Confession and repentance would be the way to work with that day in and day out. We're asking God to change it so there cannot be a grip of those demonic forces along with it.

Ross Sawyers: [00:14:00] A way to maybe picture this, is if you're ever on a trip and you drive by a hotel, or a motel and it says vacancy or something like that. Whenever we continue in besetting sins, what we're saying to Satan and the demonic forces, there's a vacancy here, come on in and occupy that room. And he can occupy one room in that motel, and it's going to make that whole place rotten. Think about ourselves, if we just thought about our bodies as a motel, if we just open up one room and say, here's a vacancy here for you, come on in, and he gets a foothold. The Scripture says that a foothold is like a stronghold, and it gets stronger and stronger the more we feed it. That would be an example.

Ross Sawyers: [00:15:00] We recognize the reality of demonic forces; they are at work. But what do we do with those? How do we have the power to overcome them? Because in Jesus, we have the power to overcome the demonic forces. So the second thing in this story as it unfolds is to look to Jesus to expel the demons. We're not going to be able to do this on our own, it's Jesus that can expel them. Verse 6, "Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him." Now, this is interesting about demons, the demons have taken over this man, and then they're running to Jesus and bowing before him. The demons are coming, and they are worshiping before Jesus. In James chapter 2 verse 19, it says, "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder." The demons believe God, they believe in God. And I just want you to hear this, well, I want you to hear a lot of things today. But when people say they believe in God, so do the demons. That does not mean they're a follower of Jesus. The demons believe, and they believe so much, they know who he is, they know he has power, and they bow before him. And yet we have a nation full of people that say they believe in God, that give him a quick head nod if they even do that. So the demons believe.

Ross Sawyers: [00:16:39] In verse 7, "And shouting with a loud voice, he said, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" They know who he is, he's the Son of the Most High God, and they say, "I implore You by God, do not torment me!” They know that their destiny is torment in the abyss, in an eternal hell forever; they know that. And part of what they're wondering is if Jesus casts them out, is this the time where they'll be cast into that eternal destiny, into hell, and they don't they don't want that to happen. "For He had been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.” The word Legion would be, that there'd be 6,000 Roman soldiers in a legion. So whether this was 6,000 demons that had a grip on this man, or whether it was thousands, the point is, this man was overcome by a whole army of demons.

Ross Sawyers: [00:17:41] And then in verse 10, "He began to implore Him earnestly not to send them out of the country." So apparently, we find in this story that demons don't want to just be wandering around, they want to occupy something that they can destroy. "Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on the mountain. 12The demons implored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.” 13Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine." And what the demons didn't know is that "The herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea." Jesus has the power and the authority to expel the demons. They are real. They are real in biblical days, and they're real today. They're not just real overseas, they're real in the US, they're real in our community right now, and Jesus has the power to expel them.

Ross Sawyers: [00:18:48] In Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12, we recognize where our real battle lies, it's not against people, it's not against flesh and blood. Verse 12 of Ephesians 6, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." So this story helps us see where the real battle is, where the real war is. And our battle is not against people, our battle is in the invisible places against Satan and his organized forces of darkness that he unleashes in varying degrees. In the Scripture, we'll see, that sometimes somebody has one demon, somebody might have seven demons, or there might be a whole army of demons, and there are different ways he'll oppress, and there are different ways that he'll attack. We also learn in Ephesians that his attacks are like fiery darts coming at us. So there's an onslaught of evil that is coming against us. Sometimes we've been told to be careful that we don't get too consumed with the demonic and with Satan. I don't think that's our danger today. We could, but I don't think that's the challenge. I think our challenge is to recognize that's where the real fight and the real battle is, and how do we actually engage and get in the fight so that there can be freedom for people who are being oppressed and gripped by the demonic? And that battle happens in the invisible realm.

Ross Sawyers: [00:20:33] In Mark chapter 3, verse 27, Jesus says “No one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his property unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house." He's talking about Satan. He said, that unless Satan is first bound and then removed then he can't wander the house, he can't take it over. I thought about it this way, it's one way that maybe you can have a picture of that. When I have to cut branches down out of a tree, we have to have them like four feet by four feet or something and wrapped up for them to be taken. And so I'll take them, I'll bind them up, and then I'll put them out by the curb. And then in the beauty of the way our cities are set up the next morning, they're gone. It's the same, with Satan and the demonic, they have to be bound up and put away. We've created vacancies, we need to get them out. But Jesus also says it's important that the room gets filled up with something else, or they're going to come back with more of a vengeance. So in Jesus's name and his authority and his power, demons can be removed, but if it's not replaced, they're coming back in full force to occupy that room and to begin tearing the house down again. I think we all know that when there's something amiss in a room in our house, the rest of the house feels the effect of it. It's not just that one room.

Ross Sawyers: [00:20:33] How do we do this? Here's a scripture that you could pray routinely to get in this fight. In Second Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 through 5, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh." So we walk in the flesh, we see each other, this is how we walk, this isn't where the war is; the war is not in the flesh. "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses." So we have this spiritual, divinely powerful kind of war that we're in, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." I could lock in every day and get in on the spiritual battle and pray Second Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3 through 5. Because what Satan does is he builds up these fortresses in people's lives, they're built on lies and on deception. And the more those lies are fed, and the more that that deception occurs, the stronger that fortress gets. And we can bring truth against it, it might take some time, but we keep bringing truth against it again and again and again, and we get in the fight, and we're praying that God will tear down those lies, that knowledge of arrogance, the things that puff up, the deceptions, the lies that God will tear those down and instead replace those with truth; that their heart and mind will be taken captive to the obedience of Christ. I'm praying that people will be taken captive to the obedience of Jesus. In Jesus, we have power over the demonic, and our primary weapon is in prayer, and that's where we can win with Jesus. Demonic is real, Jesus can expel it, and we can be a part of that in prayer, leaning on Jesus to do it.

Ross Sawyers: [00:24:47] The third thing we see in this story is to celebrate the calm that Jesus brings. He is the one who expels the demons in verse 14, "Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And the people came to see what it was that had happened." And everybody was curious, I mean their economic revenue was taken from them when those 2000 pigs went over the cliff. So the herdsmen were talking about that as well as what happened to this man. So everybody's curious, they want to know what happened. "They came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”; and they became frightened." So they come out here, and it's remarkable the parallels in this and what we talked about a week ago with Jesus calming the storm. In that storm, Jesus comes, and he brings a perfect calm to it. There's a storm in this man's life, and Jesus comes, and he brings a perfect calm. That's what Jesus does, he brings a calm and brings a peace. Satan is the destroyer, he's destructive, and there's upheaval. With Jesus, calm, peace, joy, and life.

Ross Sawyers: [00:26:08] Can you imagine? The whole community had watched this guy, they couldn't figure out how to subdue him. So they finally just took him out of town and isolated him. Now he's clothed and in his right mind. "Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man, and all about the swine." So they described everything about the man and the pigs, "And they began to implore him to leave their region." Now, the way I frame this third point is to celebrate the calm that Jesus brings. But that's not what happened here, they didn't celebrate it, they wanted Jesus gone.

Ross Sawyers: [00:26:54] People have wondered why pigs? Why did he cast out demons and let them go to the pigs? There are a couple of thoughts that some have offered. One, it gave a real, visible demonstration of the demonic power that had gripped that man. You could just see it visibly as the pigs went off a cliff. Or someone else said it might be that Jesus did it to give the people a choice in that community. Are you going to love your pigs or are you going to love Jesus? And they were more concerned that if Jesus stuck around, there might be more hurt to the economy, it looks like they chose the pigs; they wanted him to leave. And as someone noted, there are sometimes when requests are made to Jesus that it's sad that he answers them, because he left. But we want to celebrate the calm that Jesus brings.

Ross Sawyers: [00:28:15] We live in a culture today, in a nation that I believe has been blinded by the enemy. We may not see this exact kind of scenario, but Satan works with his demons in a variety of ways, and I believe our nation has been blinded. We're becoming increasingly darkened in our understanding of things. We have leaders actively advocating for the death of babies in the womb. We have a sexual ethic that has been completely turned away from what God's ethic is. We have gender confusion because we've run from what God says is male and female. We have addictions to drugs, alcohol, pornography. Just keep going down the list. We have isolation, anxiety, and depression, it's off the charts. We have, as was recently reported in a survey, a number of places popping up in former church buildings that no longer want to proclaim Christ, but they want to gather, they want everything the church has except for Jesus. And they're literally gathering around uncertainty, gathering up just like we are today around the idea that everything's uncertain. Now, every one of those things I just described gives an opportunity and a foothold for Satan to be able to get in, co-opt, and take over.

Ross Sawyers: [00:30:23] I want to be really careful here, sometimes we just need to die to a sin, sometimes we need to just escape something in the world, and sometimes there really are physical things that are wrong and need to be taken care of in a physical way. Sometimes a counselor is helpful. But do we leave out the possibility that there are dark demonic forces that have gotten hold, and maybe that's the problem? We want to fight each enemy in the appropriate way, and so we want to ask God for discernment to know when it's the demonic forces that we need to claim in the name of Jesus that they don't get to be here, and then celebrate the calm that Jesus brings.

Ross Sawyers: [00:31:28] It might be easy to look at this and say that I really can't identify with this story and this guy, but I would say today that all of us are this man. Prior to knowing Christ, we are all tormented and blinded by Satan. Sin occupies and darkens our hearts, but the good news is that Jesus came to rescue us from the domain of darkness and to transfer us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. There is a freedom that comes in Jesus Christ, and in who Christ is. It's why we take the Lord's Supper to remember, and that's where the victory comes, is through Christ and what he did on the cross on our behalf.

Ross Sawyers: [00:32:17] In Colossians chapter 2, we see the victory that we have and that we can walk in verses 13 through 15, "When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him." they thought they had him on the cross, that they had humiliated and shamed him. But on that cross, Jesus was making a public display of his enemies and the demonic and dark forces. And then he would go to a tomb, he would know what it would be like to be this man who lived in the tombs. He would go into that tomb, but that tomb wouldn't hold hi; God would raise him up out of that tomb, out of the dead. And he overcame death, overcame sin, and overcame all the demonic forces. We can walk in power, we can walk in victory, and we can walk in the authority of Jesus Christ. The whole Gospel of Mark is about Jesus Christ who is the King, who's the divine God, who has power and authority. He has power and authority over sin. He has power and authority over nature. He has power and authority over the Sabbath. He has power and authority over the demonic. That's just the first five chapters, and there's more to come. But he is the one who has the power, and he's given us with the armor of God, the ability to fight on going against the flaming darts of the enemy. And we do that with the Word of God, the way Jesus fought Satan was with God's Word. So we immerse ourselves.

Ross Sawyers: [00:34:07] How do we do this? When we receive Jesus Christ, what we're saying is no vacancy, there is no room for Satan anymore, there's no room for the darkness anymore, and light is what fills our hearts. And we keep the house lit by remaining in God's Word, by hanging out with Jesus, by singing praises so that he's not welcome here, by praying and fighting on our knees. We can sing the song The Battle Belongs to You, and then we want to get on our knees in the quiet place and get in on that fight. Because it's His battle and that's where we win it, is on our knees with him. And we keep the No Vacancy sign up for Satan because we're filled up with Jesus Christ.

Ross Sawyers: [00:34:50] And when somebody knows Jesus, yeah, go ahead. And when we're filled up with Jesus, then we do the last thing that he says in this story, and we report the great things that Jesus has done. “As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was imploring Him that he might accompany Him." I don't blame him, I would've wanted to go with him too, wouldn't you? He just rescued me from the darkest possible thing I could be in, now I have a right mind, I'm going to follow you. "And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to your people and report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” I want you to be the one person to go back into the Decapolis in verse 20, and you start telling what great things Jesus has done, and then everyone will be amazed. You're the one person that knows Jesus, and I want you to go into these ten cities and you start telling them about what's happened. He didn't have a discipleship course. He didn't have a Bible study teacher. He didn't have an evangelism training video. He just knew Jesus had met him and cleared him out, and he was filled with life, and he started telling people about it. And wouldn't we want to do the same? Because this is the hope for your family, this is the hope for our nation, and this is the hope for our world, it's Jesus Christ; Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ the victor, Christ the triumphant one.

Ross Sawyers: [00:36:24] Father, thank you for our time in your word. God, it's been a beautiful morning of praise to you, of remembering with the elements the victory at the cross. Father, help us be alert to the schemes of the enemy and the demonic forces. Teach us how to fight in the spiritual realms so that we can walk in ongoing victory and be a part, in Jesus's name, of people being freed, and released, and given calm and in their right mind, God. You do that one by one, in our nation, and in the world of which you're the only hope that we have today, and what a hope it is. We pray in Jesus' name. Let's just be quiet for a moment and begin contemplating what God is specifically saying to you and the ways you would walk in obedience to what God might be saying.



Recorded in Grapevine, Texas.