Herbert W Armstrong

   Now if you want to really get a laugh out of the Bible sometime, you try to do that. Just read along and when you come to the word spirit, say "all of my bad thoughts." All of my bad thoughts walk around like a roaring lion seeking whom they may devour. You know, it beats the comic strip and most of the newspapers.

   Is there really a devil? You know, how did they begin? What about some of the unexplainable weird things that are going on in the world today when someone just spontaneously erupts and shoots 13 people from a tower? And when he's questioned, he said, "Well, I don't know what came over me. You know, I don't know what got into me. I don't know what possessed me to do that." Pretty good descriptions.

   So today I'd like to take you through the Bible and show you the different scriptures about these different types of spirit beings that are very real, that exist as surely as you and I do. And more surely in a way because they are, they are not here today and gone tomorrow. Their life is not like a vapor that appears for a while and vanishes away. And by learning and knowing about the spirits, it's not gonna cause you any trouble. It'll solve you, it'll save you a lot of troubles.

   A lot of times people think in certain subjects ignorance is the best protection. That's ridiculous. I can't think of any place that ignorance is the best protection or the best security. There's no reason we should fear the devil at all. He is powerful. I was reading this past week and I noticed a lady writing in the Worldwide News referring to some trouble that a person was having. And she said, "Yes, it's written in the Bible, the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour. James chapter 4."

   James chapter 4. I've marked all of these verses. I thought it was smart when I was in college. I marked the devil yellow, yellow-bellied devil. Boy, I know he was a yellow-bellied coward, so I marked him yellow. But after 25 years in the church, I'd mark him red if I had it to do over again. But here's a lot of yellow in my Bible here in James 4. He says in verse 7 (James 4:7), "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

   Now that is hard to imagine. You mean that superpowered archangel, that anointed cherub that was one of the two angels that covered the mercy seat? That spirit being that's always existed that had that position equal with Michael the archangel and got kicked out? You mean that powerful being will flee from you? How can that be? Why should you be afraid of them and flee from them?

   I know a deaconess we have up in one church area I used to be in. We had an elderly lady that became senile and because of a wretched diet, because of, you know, God didn't mean for you to wear out in the head first. I mean, if you wear out in your circulatory system, you probably had a hereditary weak circulatory system. If you wear out in your glandular system, if you wear out in your respiratory system, you know, we inherit certain weaknesses from our parents and grandparents down to 3 and 4 generations. But God didn't mean for you to wear out in the brain first. That ought to be the last place anybody could wear out.

   But you can, and this lady did because when her husband died and she was elderly, she hated to cook. She just despised going into the kitchen and preparing a meal for herself alone, so she just ate junk, ice cream, all kinds of already prepared stuff. That's all she'd eat. Well, she became senile. First thing I knew about it, I had a phone call in the middle of the night telling me this elderly widow lady was running nude down the street of the town in that state.

   So I called the deacon right quick and asked him to go over and take her and get her back home and I'd be right over. So I dashed over there and started talking with them and found out she hadn't slept in several nights. Found out that she'd had this wretched diet and hereditary weaknesses in her physical structure anyway. But you know, just from having this deaconess give this lady a regular balanced diet and having her out in the country in the trailer house, the lady very quickly got rid of this senility and this evil spirit that made her run nude in town couldn't bother.

   Well, I've seen this deaconess lady up there when this spirit would come around to trouble this lady because of the senility, rebuke the spirit and leave. Wasn’t a matter of ministerial authority, it ought to be a matter of any of you who have enough of God's spirit. You can do that. I mean, this isn't the ministerial chapter here in James 4 when it says resist the devil. How do you do that? What if you don't do that?

   You know, the biggest problem with some people is curiosity. I know we had a student that came to Pasadena one time, and he wasn't alone. He brought some spirits along with him, and he got some of the students excited about this little show he put on. You know, "Come over to my apartment, let me show you this real funny trickery stuff." So they come over there and you know a candle would just float off the mantel piece and across the room and so big deal. This little invisible spirit demon underneath there, old Billy Demon is just walking around with that candle on his hand. Everybody's standing there, "Wow, look at that, boy, this is something."

   And you know that's ridiculous. If you know spirits exist just as sure as you do, sure as I do, you know, I know they're there and I know they hate the work, and I know they hate me and they hate the church and they hate Christians who are going to kick them out of their positions and take over the world. They get angry about that. They don't like that. But you know, because these students didn't resist the devil, they thought it was fun.

   Now you know you can go to extremes. I remember one man in a sermonette and I almost passed out to think the guy would give a sermonette like this, but this one man in his sermonette said, "If you let your children watch Bewitched, you might as well be feeding them a ham sandwich." Now that's ridiculous. That is really ridiculous. Well, there are certain things that are harmless, maybe depends on the individual.

   Now some people say don't ever go see a spook movie. I and my brothers and I used to go see Frankenstein and the Wolf Man and everything like that we could see. Man, that was fun. We laughed and on the way home down through the alley we'd run as hard as we could run. We'd be afraid that they might be around there, but you know I never ever woke up in the middle of the night screaming and yelling and bawling because the wolfman was gonna get me. It was funny to watch that guy's hair grow out on his face and his hair filled out all the time and so don't get extreme and snatch your kids up from a good old wolfman movie or Frankenstein movie or something like that. Those things aren't gonna hurt anybody.

   But on the other extreme, how many people have you read about in the newspaper that literally got demon possessed from sitting in the movie "The Exorcist?" I mean when that advertisement for that movie even came on on television, I would stand in front of my TV and not let my kids watch it. They were teenagers, they weren't young. You couldn't have dragged me. And if you handcuffed me and dragged me in there, I'd have shut my eyes and I'd have been thinking about everything that I try to keep from listening.

   Now there are extremes. I'll tell you all you have to do. I picked up the Albuquerque and El Paso papers this past week when I was over in New Mexico. Boy, I'll tell you there's some ghastly horrifying movies being put out nowadays. You know, once "The Exorcist" made all that money, you'd think people wouldn't make another movie that caused people to blow their lid or go off their rocker or come out of a movie nutty as a fruit cake. You think they'd care more about humans than to make another movie like that, but no, well they made another one and they're gonna keep on making them. And you better just keep on ignoring them and not watching them.

   Now I asked a minister one time about going to see an Alfred Hitchcock movie, which normally I've enjoyed. This a lot of suspense and a lot of fun and you know foolishness and this minister said, I said I think that's an educational thing that you can learn from that. You can see what it's like when someone has something like that happen to them. So I made a mistake, I went to see Alfred Hitchcock's movie. I wish I'd never seen it. I've tried all I can do to get that out of my head. I've flushed my brain with everything I can think of. I've poured in scriptures and I've poured in prayer and all kinds of things to wipe out Psycho out of my brain. But I haven't been able to. Because when a guy at the end of the movie ends up being his own grandma, it's not too laughable, you know, it's kind of horrifying.

   So you know, you know, you have to know where it's harmless and where it's dangerous, but notice what it says. The two opposite scriptures I want to start off with. One says all you've got to do is resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now that's really a comfort, but you better watch that little sandwich, that's just the meat in between the two pieces of bread. Look what the two slices of whole wheat bread are. "Submit yourselves therefore to God." That's the top slice of bread. "Draw near to God," that's the bottom slice of bread. So right in between that "resist the devil and he'll flee from you."

   You better be careful because I'll read you an example in the Bible a little later about 7 sons of one Jew that took on themselves to be exorcising spirits. Boy, they were gonna have fun. I mean it'd be just like me. What if I decided I'm gonna go over, I don't even know where it is out here and clear out the nut house? I mean, I'm gonna just cast out every spirit over there and give everybody an old job and just I'd like to do that really but I'm not about to do that today. Now I will in a few years and so will you. But I would like to do that, but you know, something that happened to me.

   And these Jews decided they take it on themselves to go around and exorcise demons, so they came up with this one scrawny puny looking character and commanded the demons to come out of it. They said, "We adjure you by Jesus and Paul preaches, and by the name of Jesus that Peter preaches," and somehow this nutty character looked at them and said, "Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. But now who did you say you were?" And leaped on them and tore them and ripped all their clothes off and they left wounded and naked, it says, 7 brothers. Just because of one scrawny little old ugly looking spirit power being.

   Now, I don't know whether you've ever visited mental institutions or not. I visited them from the outside. I've never been in one. I'm not committed, but I've been in them before. But you know they divide up the wards almost like the Bible divides up different kinds of spirits. Don't ever assume they're all one kind. They're as much different as we are. I'll show you in the Bible, melancholy spirits, violent spirits, proud spirits, intellectual spirits, unclean spirits. There are a lot of different kinds of spirits mentioned in the Bible.

   And one of the real keys is recognizing the different kinds of spirits have to have an inroad before they can bother certain people. You know, can old Billy Demon just say, "Oh, let's see, you know, who I sit in that Midland church this week? I think I'll take old Bill Smith." They can't do that. Can't do that at all. There has to be some reason you let them bother you. They cannot just decide to bother me or you or anybody else. Don't you remember what we read here? "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Draw near to God. He draws near to you and you can resist the devil and he'll flee from you." I mean that's just plain old pure scripture, and it'll always work.

   Now on the opposite end, I Peter, chapter 5. First Peter chapter 5. And here again it indicates that you better not be playing around with spirits. You better not just kind of seek your entertainment from them. You better not, you better know where to draw the line between harmless humor and laughter and costuming and but on the other hand, real brain influence, real mental influence because it's mighty important. The one said resist. Doesn't say play around with the devil, have fun, toy around with him. It says resist the devil.

   Now this one says I Peter 5:8, "Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary." The devil and he's your adversary and my adversary and anybody's adversary because their purpose is to harm mankind. Their purpose is to fort God's plan to cause trouble for God's creation. "Your adversary, the devil is a roaring lion." Walks about seeking whom. He may devour. Doesn't say can, he can devour anybody. He can devour you, me, everybody. You remember the old English days when your teacher drilled into your head the difference between can and may. Mighty important in this verse. Don't ever kid yourself. That lady misquoted it when she wrote it in the Worldwide News, doesn't say, "seeking whom he can devour." That's impossible. He can devour anybody. So don't make that mistake of thinking he can't. Sure he can. "Seeking whom he may." That's the important thing.

   Now how, how are you to be sober and be vigilant? And I'm sure if you were on your way to church today, you had your radio on and on the news and it came on all of a sudden and said the lions have just gotten out of the zoo and they're out on the streets. We don't know where they are. I guarantee you you're gonna be sober and you're gonna be vigilant, especially if you're walking to church or on a bicycle. You're gonna really be sober and vigilant. You're gonna be looking all directions, you're gonna be weaving out away from the alleys and out away from the shrubs and everything else. You don't know where that lion is. And if it's a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, boy, you're gonna be mighty careful.

   Well, that's what the devil is. He's roaring around like a roaring lion, and in some translations it says stalking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Now notice the key is the next verse, "whom resist steadfast in the faith." So if you're steadfast in the faith, you can resist the devil. He can roar around like a lion stalking whom he may all he wants. But if you resist him by being steadfast in the faith, you don't have to worry. If you're sober and vigilant, you don't have to worry. It doesn't say who he can devour, whom he may. If you don't give him an inroad, he can't. He has to have certain reasons or ways that he can cause you your trouble.

   Now in Ephesians there are 2 different places here that are mighty important. And maybe God knowing how people speak about spirit beings, scattered verses, little here, a little there, little here, a little there, and they're not very much in one place about the devil. It's scattered all through and you wouldn't hunt it or find it unless you just mark it as you read it. Verse 27 (Ephesians 2:27). "Neither give place to the devil."

   Now how do you do that? When would you be giving place to the devil? Why is the devil able to railroad some people into the sin or railroad some people into trouble? Why is the devil able to do it? He cannot just flip a coin to decide who he wants to take on. You remember the example of Job. The sons of God came together and the devil came among them. And God said, "Have you considered my servant Job? There's nobody like him." The devil says, "Yeah, I've been watching old Job. And he's in it for what he's getting out of. I'll guarantee you, God, if you took away everything he has, he'd curse you to your face." He couldn't do as he pleased to Job. God said, "Alright, everything he has is in your power except his life."

   So the devil went to work on Job. How did he get at Job? What was the place Job gave the devil? Well, everybody knows, self-righteousness, super righteousness, holier than God. He wanted to take God to task about the treatment he was getting because he didn't deserve it. He was better than that. He gave place to the devil. The devil sifted them like wheat.

   You remember what Jesus said to Peter when Peter said, "Well, Lord, I'm, I wonder about all those other guys too, but let me tell you about number one here. I'll never, I'll never deny you. I mean, I'm here to tell you I'll never forsake you, and God, I mean, well, God," but Christ just shook his head and said, "Peter. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." That's what Christ told Satan, I mean told Peter about Satan, "he has desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat."

   How's the devil do that with you? How does he sift you as wheat? Well, he'll try one thing, and if he can't get at you through that, he'll try another thing. And if he can't get at you through that, he'll try something else cause he got plenty of wiles or plenty of darts that he's throwing at you, and if he can't get you one way, he'll try to get you another way. And there are ways that you give place to the devil.

   In marriage, in drink, in sex, there are a lot of ways you get a place to the devil. There are sex demons, sure. They're not, they're not a sex. They're neither male or female. And they wonder what this great deal is about this sex. They don't, they can't experience it. So they try to experience it through the humans they can influence. So he says don't give place to the devil. That's a real key. It's one of the main verses in all the Bible, these three we've covered.

   But you didn't notice verse 26, so you better take this verse in context because one of the ways that you can give place to the devil is right here. Notice verse 26 (Ephesians 4:26). "Be ye angry and sin not." Now God doesn't expect you to be a pansy, a pacifist. God doesn't expect you to walk around like a holy Joe with your hands under your chin and a halo over your head. It's not wrong to get angry at it at wrong, at injustice, at human weakness. And the devil and the troubles he causes in the world, it's not a sin to be angry. Jesus got angry.

   But our world has you believe that someone who's really religious, a minister would never lose control. Basketball, softball, when he's wary and people confront him with an unsolvable problem, you know, a minister of God, and he would never get angry. Well, Jesus got angry. Abraham got angry. Moses got angry, but there's a difference, and I'll show you the difference. Because when Moses got angry, the devil took advantage of it. The devil was stalking around, seeking whom he may, and he saw Moses' temper building up, he saw Moses' anger and jealousy, and he knew Moses was about ready to blow his top, so. Boy, you guess who was there.

   Now, I'll warn you. You better watch your temper. There's a proverb that says, "Do you see a man given to wrath? There's more hope for a fool than for him." If a man doesn't rule his own spirit. There's more hope for a fool than him. You think how many times those warnings are there in Proverbs. I've got an uncle who had a real bad temper. He blew his stack one time and knocked out the eye of his horse. You know what that did for him. What they have to do is his income source. And a little later, you know, the same guy lost his own eye, not that there's necessarily any parallel or association, but you better watch your temper. That's one way you give place to the devil.

   How many times have you heard of someone who things built up and kept building up, kept building up then all of a sudden they just blew their top. They lost control, they said "I don't know what got into me. I don't know whatever possessed me to do that." They're labeling it right on the nose. Watch your anger. You'll give place to the devil if you don't. It's not a sin to be angry, but don't let your anger be developed to the point that it is sin or that it will make you sin.

   Then it gives you the solution to it right there in the verse. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Don't let it build up from day to day. Don't let it build up for weeks and months and years. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. Now that's a good example of an Old Testament law that's very plainly shown to still be in effect in the New Testament. That's not a new law, that's a law way back in Moses' day.

   Moses didn't follow that scripture. He got angry. He kept getting worked up. His temper kept just smoldering. And you know there's warning about a root of bitterness springing up in you and defiled. Some people by nature are the kind that don't let off steam. Things keep building up, building up, building up, and every so often, like a boiler or something, pop the cap goes off the top and steam comes out and blew it. Boy, I, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes. That is a frightening thing to have. I'd rather be a fool then be given to wrath. Don't give place to the devil by having that temper, that anger. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. If you do, you're giving place to the devil.

   Now in Ephesians chapter 6. You'll do yourself a favor if you'll mark all these in your Bible, so from time to time you can read over them. Ephesians 6 Beginning verse 10 (Ephesians 6:10). Paul says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

   Now you know what do you mean the wiles of the devil. They're literally schemes or seeking out a way to deceive. He's stalking about like a roaring lion, observing weaknesses, observing attitudes, observing people. Now you know Mr. Herbert Armstrong has always said that the devil, it's like a giant broadcasting station. The devil is always broadcasting and if you don't shut him out. He automatically comes down to human minds. No matter who you are, how old you are, no matter what. The devil's broadcasting comes in to human minds, but you can resist them. You can shut them out.

   And just like a giant radio station can be counteracted by another broadcasting going out somewhere not far off, you can block radio waves. You can refute the broadcasting. You can halt it. Jesus did it. You know, when the devil was broadcasting to say to Jesus, what they do? Jesus said he quoted scripture. Every time the devil would broadcast something, Christ would quote a scripture that would block it, that would put it out, that made a lie out of it.

   And the devil even quoted scripture, you remember? He kept miss quoting it. He misapplied it, he left some out. He said to Jesus, "Throw yourself off the pinnacle of this temple. Because it's written. He has given his angels charge over you, lest you dash your foot against the stone." But that isn't what scripture said. That's what the two pieces of bread in the sandwich said, what was the middle that he left out. Well, you turn back and read that scripture. It says "he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in the way. Lest you dash your foot against the stone."

   So I've known a lot of scripture quoting people that were influenced. That's no proof of God's presence at all. The devil, look what he did with Jesus. He was broadcasting, always broadcasting, you know, Mr. Armstrong said the devil doesn't broadcast in words but in emotions, in attitudes, in moods, and doubts, disbeliefs, negativisms, he doesn't broadcast. Like you said, "Well I was walking down the road the other day and the devil said, hey Bill." Devil doesn't do that. He broadcasts in temptations and attitudes and things like that, moods. He doesn't broadcast in words.

   But you know, God's spirit in order for it to come into you. You have to really exert a lot of work. You have to fast and pray and study and meditate and rekindle the spirit and stir up the gift and multiply the pound and increase the talent and you know it doesn't just come in. You just sit there and it just comes in automatically from day to day and week to week, no it doesn't. Satan's spirit does. Automatically. Automatically there.

   So notice looking back at this picture again. If you put on the whole armor of God, if you're strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. You'll be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, no matter what the wile might be. Wiles is plural. Anger, sex, moodiness, unclean spirit. There are a lot of wiles of the devil and you're gonna see them as we go on through scripture today. But as long as you're coated with the armor of God, and you're strong in the Lord and the power of his might, you don't have to worry. You'll withstand the wiles of the devil.

   Because you don't wrestle just against, well, you don't wrestle against flesh and blood, you know, from time to time, you might think you're big battles with family and neighbors and past friends and employers and fellow workers and all that, oh no. Somebody can cause them trouble for you. Somebody can use them and cause you a lot of trouble and not that it's necessarily the devil all the time, may just be their own nature.

   But notice it says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against principalities, against powers. What does that mean? Mayors and policemen and governors and, no, wait till you read on. We wrestle against principalities, powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Now that's kind of a funny terminology. The rulers of the darkness of this world against. Spiritual wickedness in high places. That's ridiculous. That's not what that says.

   You read that in other translations. Read it in the margin right here in this King James Bible. My National Bible says in the margin. We don't wrestle against principalities and powers. But and we wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly. That's what really is behind the scenes that you fight against. Against the wicked spirits that are influencing the rulers of the darkness. Against invisible demons that are inspiring principalities and powers, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, that's how human beings. Our big battles against the devil and his power to influence the wicked spirits in the heavenly places.

   So verse 16, he says, if you're going to put on the armor of God to put an end to all these wiles of the devil, you take the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts. And this says of the wicked. That's ridiculous. It's talking about the wicked one. It's talking about the devil there, it's talking about, it just got through saying we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the wicked spirits in the heavenly places. So now he's backing that up and saying, "Take the shield of faith. If you've got the shield of faith, you can quench, put out, totally wipe out the power to affect. All the fiery darts of the devil."

   Now you know, to me those scriptures ought to be confidence building, they ought to be inspiring, they ought to be making you realize why should you be afraid of the devil or his demons. You should be sober, you should be vigilant, you should draw near to God, you should submit yourself to God, you should take the whole armor of God. You should be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, and maybe you need to make you a list of those scriptures that are associated with being able to deal with the devil. And if you do that, you can quench all the fiery darts.

   But what are all those fiery darts? We've read about anger. That's one of them. How do you give place to the devil? As he hopscotches around like a roaring lion looking for what he may, what's he looking for? Well, maybe the best scripture in the Bible to answer that is in II Corinthians. II Corinthians chapter 2. Another mighty important passage dealing with the subject. II Corinthians chapter 2.

   Now here was the man who'd gotten involved with incense with his own mother and ended up having to be put out of the church to learn. You can't just lead that kind of a life and claim to be a Christian in the Church of God. But now the guy learned his lessons. Really sorry, he'd been. Really grieved over how far away he'd gotten from God's way in truth.

   So now Paul says verse 6. II Corinthians 2:6 "Sufficient to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many." Now there were those in the Corinthian church who thought the best way to deal with somebody in a wretched sin is to love them out of their sin. That is unbiblical, it's contrary to scripture. It's ridiculous, doesn't work, it won't ever work. But if someone is administered punishment, and you know the word punishment here, may be your margin even shows it's censure. If you don't eat with somebody, don't fellowship with them. You don't have any church service with them. They're excommunicated. They're disfellowshipped. They're out of the congregation. That censure will work.

   And you know anybody that loves anybody, if I ever end up out of the church, the best thing you could do for me is never eat with me, never fellowship with me. I mean, you know, if you see me in town, don't treat me like I'm a Hitler or something that you can't fellowship, you can't company with somebody that's insisting on living in sin.

   So Paul now says the man's punishment has worked, it's sufficient. Now look what happened. "So that contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him. And comfort for him. Lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up. With over much sorrow." That's the biggest danger when somebody has really deeply, totally repented, that is the biggest danger. They say, "Well, how can I face all those people? How can I go back and look at all those people in the face and they're gonna ask me this and that and the other thing."

   So as sure as anybody totally repents, here Paul says there are two things they need. Forgive them. Forget it. Act like it never even happened. And comfort them. So you know that could happen to me, that could happen to anybody. That could happen to the minister, that happened to the deacon, that happened to the that can happen to anybody. And it's no big deal that that happened to you. So forget it. You know, maybe you have more potential than others who have names gone astray that way. So it's water under the bridge, bury it. It's garbage. Forget it.

   So now he says contrary wise to their censure, now the opposite from this fellowship needs to happen. A guy needs comfort and forgiving and you know every well I have to say most people I've ever known who ended up out of the church because of. Backsliding. This was the biggest trouble for them. Facing the people. What are they, what are they, what do I say? What do I, how I face them, how I look in their faces. What do I tell them? What are they gonna ask? And you know if you're more God conscious than you are of people, who cares? If they don't receive you back like the Bible says they should, that's their problem. Then their attitude and problem is showing up instead of what you had.

   But here is a very important lesson. The guy can be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Now what happens to somebody that's swallowed up with overmuch sorrow? And I just can't be forgiven. I know I'll never be forgiven. God can't forgive me. I've committed the unpardonable sin. I've gone past the place of repentance. I can't turn back. That's what happens when you get swallowed up with over much sorrow.

   Now notice, "Wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him." That's when you can really confirm your love for the guy that did some dumb stupid weak backsliding carnal wretched, miserable sin. Now you can confirm your love toward him. "For to this end I did also write. That's why I've written that I might know the proof of you, whether you'd be obedient in all things."

   Now some of you didn't obey when I said disfellowship him, but now I hope that you will obey when I say comfort him, confirm your love toward him and forgive him. "To whom you forgive anything, I also, but if I forgive it, it's not just me, I forgive it in the person of Christ. I forgive it as the representative, as the minister in the name of Christ." And if I have forgiven him as the minister, then who are you not to forgive him?

   Look at verse 11. What if people didn't do this? Well, you better watch out, verse 11 "lest, that old roaring lion, stalking about, looking for things that give him inroads on people, less Satan should get an advantage of us." So as sure as you get swallowed up with over much sorrow, you're in trouble. I remember a student in Pasadena had a real pride about being pure and then she allowed some guy in college to take advantage of her no more than just necking. Never really did. As they say, go all the way, but just a matter of necking. Well then she hated herself and just really felt lower than a snake on the ground and abhorred herself and just felt wretched and miserable and terrible about a filthy thing like that that she'd done.

   And she'd get up in the choral and they'd sing different numbers and then they'd come to a sad song. Tears just roll, roll, roll, rolling or not normal bawling over a sad song. But when she got down in the dumps and swallowed up with over much sorrow, here came a melancholy spirit. And started influencing her. Well, she had to leave college, went back to the state. We confronted her with the trouble. Made her realize if you get rid of the causes, he'll leave. You know that's what people can't seem to realize, it isn't a matter of the power of the minister. It isn't that I can just go somewhere and boy with all of God's power, rebuke and command the spirit to leave and boy he'll just take off running. No he won't either. Unless he has to.

   If he knows he can't bother you anymore, he'll leave, he gonna waste his time. He's got plenty of other people to spend time with. If you get rid of what it is that's enabling him to have an inroad to you, if you get rid of the advantage he has over you, if you quit giving place to the devil, he’ll leave. And now I'll prove that to you, but notice he says here, if someone is swallowed up with over my sorrow, Satan gets an advantage and look at the last part of that verse, the mighty important statement. Colon. "Because we are not ignorant of his devices." We're not ignorant of his wiles. We're not ignorant of the fiery darts of the devil. We're not ignorant of the ways he's able to influence people and trouble people. We're not ignorant. Shouldn't be. He won't be anymore. Yeah, anger is one of them. Moodiness is one of them. That's a bad situation.

   Now let's just come for an example. Back in Samuel. This is perhaps the classic example, a real clear example of what happens. I Samuel 16. I Samuel 16:14, "But the spirit of the Eternal. Departed from Saul." In the words, the less of God's spirit you have, the more God's spirit has left you. Watch out. The more you're susceptible to certain kinds of other spirits of trouble. "The spirit of the Eternal departed from Saul. Therefore, and evil spirits troubled him."

   Now, two things you need to notice here. It says the evil spirit. Trouble him. Didn't possess him. There's a difference between influence and possession, and you'll see that all the way through the Bible as we go through. So this spirit at first only influenced Saul. Now how did it work? Well, you remember David would see all of the people praising Saul, I mean praising David and talking about how great he was and "Saul killed his thousands, but David his 10,000s." What happened? He got filled with envy. Got filled with jealousy and anger. So at one time he saw David and he grabbed back this spear and shoot, you know, if he hadn't had help he'd have been dead. That was the devil influencing Saul.

   So the, the devil can, he's always roaring around like a lion seeking whom he may devour, and he looks for certain ways that he can trouble people. Here's one of them. As the devil saw this attitude of Saul, now it says "an evil spirit from the Eternal." You need to understand that phrase because where God could prevent something, where God does hedge about his people, if he takes away that hedge and doesn't prevent it, then the Bible turns as if he did it. "God hardened Pharaoh's heart." No, he didn't. How did he do that? Hocus Pocus, you know, some kind of God can't do that. Some supernatural influence to make you do evil, God doesn't do that.

   So when it says "an evil spirit from the Eternal," that means God no longer protected Saul. He was protected before God's spirit protected him. But now he allowed God's spirit to weigh in and disappear. You know, the Bible talks about vexing God's spirit, grieving God's spirit and quenching God's spirit. You need to think about that. You can vex God's spirit. You can grieve God's spirit. And you can quench God's spirit. Alright, God's spirit had departed from Saul.

   Now my Bible in the margin shows it does not say an evil spirit. The Hebrew word says. Melancholy. The melancholy spirit. Troubled Saul, how they, how did he do that? Well, the devil was walking around like a roaring lion, Saul, Saul get moody and depressed and dejected and doubting and disbelieving and questioning and reasoning and finding fault with God and justifying himself and boy the melancholy spirit started to work on him.

   Now look at the solution, you can't believe the solution. You wonder how some hospitals get rid of demons that trouble people. Here's one example right here. Look what happens. "Saul's servants said unto him, behold now an evil spirit from God troubles you." Can you imagine that? Saul's servants even recognized what was going on. They said, "Hey Saul, you don't just have a mood problem, you got a spirit after you. It's obvious. It is just a normal melancholy depression you've got. Yours has gone beyond that. Oh it started that way, sure you got depressed and dejected and moody, but it's gone further than that now. You gotta spirit after you."

   But that wasn't a big deal. They knew they existed. They understood and believed them. They knew how to deal with them. Read on. These were just his servants, not his preacher, not his rabbi or his priest or his prophet, his servant. Now you ought to be able to recognize them if Saul's servants could. Well now notice what it says. "Let our Lord, now command your servants, which are before you, to seek out a man who is a cunning player on the harp, and it will come to pass when the evil spirit from God is upon you." Notice how it's turned troubles you, is upon you. "He'll play with his hand, and you'll be well."

   You've got to be kidding. It can't be that simple, can it? You mean if there's this depressive melancholy dejected, despondent attitude and you change that attitude and cheer it up and encourage it and inspire it and make it happy, that melancholy spirit will leave. Yep, that's right. I'll guarantee you there would be no more departure for a spirit to be forced to be around. Where it's just the opposite from the way they are. Boy, melancholy spirits can't stand to be around happy people. You know, just happy, happy, happy, and they just that's torture to them.

   Now, you know, you look back at some of the music. I can show you in Ezekiel, the devil has music. And contrary to popular belief, it's not one kind of music either. The devil has music of Beethoven, the devil has music of Bach, the devil has music of the cowboys, the devil has music of the rock and rollers, the devil has music in every era. He'd be stupid not to. I mean, you think the devil doesn't know what you can do to the human mind through music. I'll guarantee you some of those long haired writers back in the Middle Ages were as demon influenced as about anybody you can imagine. And when they wrote music that's morose that depresses. Get you all moody and dejected and why I had a couple of guys out of college. I mean they, they were buggy about that kind of music. I couldn't figure out what on earth would anybody want to have that kind of music for. You know it's hard enough not to have problems and get down in the dust without having music to help you. The two guys I had, I could name their names and won’t, ended up being nutty as a fruit cake just from wretched long haired music. Bach and Beethoven and some of those guys.

   Well, let's see if this works. Notice verse 23 (I Samuel 16:23). We know the story here how Saul sent and chose Jesse out of the sons, I mean chose David out of the sons of Jesse. Well, verse 23 says "It came to pass when the spirit from God was upon Saul, David took a harp. Played." The Strauss Waltz or some kind of a march or play some happy music and you know what, look what happened now. Why isn't the music that did it? Don't, don't misread it. It wasn't the music that did it. The music was the power, but look what happened. "David took a harp, played with his hand, and there's the key to the next statement. So Saul was refreshed," changed his spirit, changed his attitude, lifted him up out of the dumps, changed his morose, dejected despondent attitude "and was well and the evil spirit departed from him."

   Boy, what a, what a cure, you know. Can you imagine that? How many people in mental institutions could be let out. If you just say, "Well, all you got to do is keep away from the dejection. Stay away from the despondent moody depressiveness." You know, just always have happiness and happy music and rejoice and be happy and. Laugh you know, you're not gonna have any melancholy spirit around, boy that is torture for them to try to be around where there's happiness.

   Now I know one lady over in the Big Sandy area, used to work in a mental institution. She came over to live in a close area college because she believed the truth. She brought a few characters with her, invisible ones just demons, just spirits. Well, we went over and we sat down and we read through scriptures, and we showed her what she needed to do in order for us to be able to get rid of it. The student body president that year was with me and his wife to be their eyeballs were like. Giant saucers, they were, you know, they've never been in or anything like that. It's just kind of scared the liver out of them. There they were sitting in on this case and you know, we commanded that spirit to leave and boy off he went. The woman just as normal and natural and sane and sound as anything.

   Well, for some reason, after a few weeks. She didn't do her part, there's plenty of warning in the Bible, what happens when the demons cast out and comes back and finds the house empty. You know, that's what I think is one of the tricks the devil pulls. Like some of these circus healers, you know, you've got these tent shows where these healers cast out spirits. Well, I'll tell you what they do, in my opinion at least. Now if you said, "Hey, show me that in the Bible," I might have a hard time doing it, but I can show you scriptures I think would suggest that's what happens.

   But you know if somebody has several spirits and you get rid of one of them, you did that person any favor? What happens according to the Bible? That spirit goes about, find 7 spirits worse than himself. And you realize that? You know there are spirits that are worse than other spirits. You know there are degrees of demon spirits just like humans. That one that was cast out found 7 others worse than himself, and they entered back into that man says "latter end is worse than the first." So I wouldn't go to the healing circus or healing tent carnival. Because the guy might be able to get one of them to leave, but if he did, boy, oh boy, you'd still have several or maybe more to come back.

   But notice how simple it was to solve this problem here. Now notice I Chronicles 21. It's always sad when you give a sermon and a lot of cases of people that might be benefited the most are the ones that aren't there that Sabbath. I don't know how many times I've seen that. The very Sabbath somebody decides to be lazy and stay home is the very Sabbath that what was covered would have benefited them more than anybody else in the church. You know, that's why I, I've gone to church when I've had a headache. I've gone to church when I've had the flu. I remember calling Mr. Armstrong from Oregon one time and I said, "Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I got the flu" and he said, "Well Dean," he said, "I'll tell you what, over the years I've learned and when you're a minister, you do your job 2 times. When you feel like it and when you don't feel like it." So he said, "Hope you have a good weekend and call us over and let us know how how it turns out." So I've preached with the flu and gone to church and I didn't feel well and I always felt better afterwards. I don't think there's a time that that's not true.

   Now I'm not saying you ought to go to church if you got a fever where you might have mumps, measles, chickenpox, whatever, and everybody has to miss. You know, God's law is a quarantine, that's biblical. Where there's fever, people ought to stay home, but you know, when your fever is gone and it's just that throwing off the after effects of the flu or something and notice I Chronicles 21:1. Here's a good example. "Satan stood up against Israel."

   Now you know how did he do that? What did he do that's called, he stood up against Israel. Well, look what happened. "He provoked David to number Israel." And what happened? A whole bunch of them got wiped out, thousands of them got killed. They got whipped good by their enemy. How did the devil provoke David to number Israel.

   Oh, come on, you know how the devil works, you know, there was David getting ready to go out against the enemy. The devil was roaring around like a lion seeking whom he may devour. He said, "Hey, David. You don't have enough people there. You're gonna get whipped." David said, "Well, wait a minute, don't you remember Gideon and how many he took out? Don't you remember Jericho and how few there were there" and the devil said, "Hey, David. You're not a Gideon. You're not a Joshua. You're a bloody man. You got driven out of your capital city by your own son. What's the matter with you, David, comparing yourself to Gideon and Joshua? You're an evil man. Look at all the sin you commit. You're a dirty man. You think God's gonna, you don't have enough, boy. I'll tell you for sure, the kind of a man you are, you better go back and get some more solders."

   So. Now you think David didn't say, "Well, you know, I know I'm not any good. I know all I've done wrong, but you know, maybe he's right." How did, how did David know that maybe that was his own conscience. Maybe it was God's spirit warning him. How did he know what it was? There's no way you can know. So David listened to the devil. The broadcasting got through. David numbered Israel. Trust to their numbers trusted in power of volume and he got whipped.

   You know, there's a lesson in that. To me it's a real sobering lesson. I've seen people do it. You can actually help the devil bring to past what he tells you is going to happen. I've seen people do that. I've seen people have a handwriting analysis or crystal ball gazer, and they told them something is going to happen and you know, by their worry and their own fear and their own way, they really help bring it to pass themselves. It happened right here. Satan told David, "You don't have enough, you're gonna get whipped." And sure enough, he did get whipped and they helped bring the past what the devil was going to bring on him, make happen.

   Now I look for an example with the example of Moses, and I won't turn and read it to save time right now, but. Here is Moses. God is always, you know, Moses always came to God and said, "Now God, your people, these are your people and your people have done this and your people have done that and your people have done this," but you know when they came to having no water and having to eat that manna all the time and they got bellyached and fed up and gripe and sick of that and they finally came to Moses and Moses went to God and you remember it's kind of an unusual example. God said to Moses, "Your people," only time God ever said that. "Your people," and I'm sure Moses kind of backed off a minute and scratched his head and said "What are you talking about? My people, those aren't my people, God, those are your people." But God called them Moses people.

   And God said, "All right, go over and I'll work another miracle for you. You touch that rock. I don't have water gurgle out of there forever." But you know between the time God told him and when Moses did it, he got to thinking about it and got angry at those people and got provoked. Now he wasn't gonna enter the promised land and all of the things built up inside of him and by the time he got to the rock, he was so mad, he just blew his top and he took that rock and smashed and he smashed that rock. And your Bible says he smote the rock. He didn't tap it or touch it like God told him to do.

   And God said, "Well, Moses. How can I tolerate as the top example and leader for all those people, somebody blowing his top and me working a miracle through him when he blew his stack and too bad Moses, I'm not gonna let you go into the promised land now for sure look what you did. You lost your control and you didn't control your temper and you were angry and sinned and you blew your top." You know that's kind of sobering when you think a man like Moses didn't even get to enter the promised land. Just because he blew his stack. You think you're temper isn’t dangerous? Well, I don't tell you, you better be careful with it. It's a frightening thing.

   I Corinthians chapter 7. This is a sad example here. When I think about all the things I've seen happen to people, but because they've ignored the warnings God's given it. I Corinthians 7:1. Paul says "Now concerning the things where all you Corinthian Christians wrote to me," so he, they didn't wait for Paul to come there. They were so anxious to find out an answer to this question they had that they got together and wrote Paul a letter and said "Say Paul, what about this new attitude and idea that some of these nuns and monks and friars are beginning to perpetrate that the guy that's. The eunuch can serve God better. What about that, Paul? Is it good for a man not to touch a woman?"

   Now that's one of the biggest evidences to me that Paul was a widower. Can you imagine somebody writing a bachelor? Questions like this, when they could have written to Peter, a married man who had a wife and kids, they could have written to all kinds of guys that were married and they can ask Doctor Luke. After all, you know, you better get your counsel from the doctor, but no, they didn't do that. They wrote Paul, and he just wasn't a bachelor. I just can't see how anybody never figured he was a bachelor. Here they wrote to him about whether it's the right teaching that it's good for a man not to touch a woman.

   Now Paul says. "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband." Now you might not look on that as idealism in marriage, but that's still scripture. God is a realist. God's not an idealist. God knows how we humans are. So God flat outright plainly says whether you like it or not, "To avoid fornication. Let every man have his own wife and let every woman have her own husband."

   Now look at the next verse. "Let the husband render unto the wife according to her needs." Now that's funny that it would save the man or the wife first cause people have been taught that it's natural for the man to be the one that's always catered to and given in to and satisfied. That's not necessarily so. You know I've known of the devil to cause people to think they're weird and freaks. Because the man didn't have a stronger drive because the woman did have a stronger drive.

   I remember a girl I counseled one time about marriage. She said, "Well, could I ask you something in private?" and I said, "Sure." And she said, "You know, I just find that I want to come down when my husband's doing tasks that are burdensome and I want to just pull his chair back and sit in his lap and love him and hug him and kiss him or just, you know, pulling into an embrace, but I'm afraid to, you know, cause I'm afraid my husband would kind of back off and look at me and say, 'Well, man, she's been around the track more than Seabiscuit.'"

   You know, I have known people that actually were afraid to really be like the Bible says. It isn't any big deal if a woman has a stronger sex drive and the man's no big deal, so what? It doesn’t amount to a hill of beans, isn't anything. It's not odd, it isn't unusual, it didn't weird, but how many men would you ever know that wouldn't have as much sex drive as their wife but what they get complex. The devil would make them feel almost like a demon, sexless. "Boy, you're some eunuch, look at you, not even a man, can't even lead about your wife. Don't even have a stronger drive than your wife. You're freakish." That's a big lie. Don't let the devil lie to you. They're sex demons, boy, they just love to cause you troubles sexually.

   Notice what it says, "Let the husband render unto the wife." God knows that'd be a shock, that's why he put it first. "Let the husband render to the wife. According to her needs, likewise also let the wife render to the husband," which is what most people would normally think, "Yeah, sure, that's natural." "The wife doesn't have power of her own body." Now he reverses. Look at that. "Why did God write that that way? Show you it's no big deal. It doesn't make a bit of difference one way or the other. The wife doesn't have power over her own body, but the man, the man doesn't have power over his own body, but the wife."

   Now watch out though, look at the next verse. "The fraud you not one the other. Except that be with consent for a time." Now how many times I've heard people. "Well, I'll show him. I'll just not let him touch me, boy, that'll teach him." And you know, maybe the man says, "Well, I'm sure, I'll just stay gone all the time. I won't even be around." And I've heard men say that, "Well, all I got for the last month. Was a hot tongue and cold shoulder, and that's a bad diet. You can't live very well on a hot tongue and cold shoulder."

   But how many times do we ignorantly give place to the devil, even in a marriage, even between a man and a wife, let the old roaring lion come charging in there and devour. Because we don't obey these scriptures. Now if you want trouble, you just ignore I Corinthians 7. I'll guarantee you there's been as much trouble over this one as any other one I've ever read about. And look what God says it is when one person cold shoulders the other. "Fraud, Defraud." Boy, that's a bad word, that's a pretty rough word. You look up the word fraud. Look it up in the dictionary. I'll tell you what it says, "To rob someone of his legal rights." That's what you do. Robbing someone of his legal rights, and God says, "Don't you defraud one or the other."

   Now there is an exception. A man and a wife consent for a time. They agree on a length of time, and they both agree, and there's only one reason for it. "That you may give yourselves the fasting and prayers." So as long as you can fast, that's how long you do it. I mean, I have had it. If you want to agree for a time, as long as you can fast, that's as much time as you can have. You want to go without for 40 days, you'll never make it. You'll die before you make it there. You want to refuse one another for 2 or 3 weeks. Just be sure you don't eat or drink anything at the same time. That is the only excuse the Bible gives for refusing one or the other.

   Now you know, stick your nose back in the Bible and read it. That's the Bible. Now I don't care how much we've been brainwashed by past so-called Christian teaching. I mean, the Bible says what it says, so don't defraud one or the other unless the man and the woman both consent and they set a time limit and they're going to be fasting all that time and praying and look what happens if you don't do that. "And come together again that Satan tempt you not for your incontinence."

   Oh, there's that roaring lion walking around, looking in the marriages, boy, oh boy, he knows what he can do. Just waiting for that inroad, waiting for that. Fiery dart, that wile of the devil and boy he's gonna burn you. He's gonna, he's gonna stick you with it too. "Come together again, or Satan is going to tempt you from your lack of self-control."

   Now I'll tell you, Mr. Armstrong, absolutely. I've heard ministers talk to Mr. Armstrong and say, "Well, you know, I'd like to go overseas and travel and be gone over to the Middle East and the Far East and Europe, and you know I'd like to take about a 6 weeks tour to make it worth my money" and Mr. Armstrong said, "Wait a minute, wait, hold it. Your wife's staying here and you're going. Don't ask for my consent. I never agreed to it. If you're gonna be gone more than a few weeks, you'll never have my OK if you're looking for that. If you're asking my counsel and my recommendation, I'll never give it." And he never has.

   Now I know one man that just decided that he just, I mean he was an older man it was his life and he was gonna run his own life. So he took off and went. And his wife died while he was gone and was buried and he didn't even know it till he got back. And he was one of the ministers. So you don't, you don't come out ahead when you ignore scripture, when you go contrary to God's word, you don't ever come out ahead.

   Now we haven't really covered all of the darts for the wiles of the devil. We hadn't even read about an unclean spirit yet. We haven't even read about a violent spirit yet. There are a number of them yet we haven't read about. Now one last example we might turn, and we read in the Passover service about Judas and if you noticed. If you read the harmony of the gospels in one gospel it says "Satan having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot," and how did he do that? How did Satan put into the heart of Judas Iscariot? What with his broadcasting saying "Uh oh they won't kill him. I mean he just needs to be put through the mill and do him good. I mean, everybody needs chasing so and he's no different. And you know I, I can just imagine the broadcasting the devil put into the heart of Judas Iscariot."

   But if you read a little further, later on it says "When Jesus did the sop and gave it to him, it says then Satan entered into Judas." Well that's different. You know that's different than just having the spirit upon you or troubling you or vexing you or influencing you. That's different.

   Now, we'll notice here in let's see, let's look in. Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8 beginning verse 28 (Matthew 8:28), "When Christ was come to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, over on the east shore into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two, possessed with devils." Now the word devils is always in this translation. There's only one devil. The Greek word is diabolos or diabolical or else adversary, so it pretty much makes you know the devil is diabolical and he's adversary. He's against everything. He's just always adverse. No matter if you're, if you say green he'll say blue. If you say white he'll say black. If you say yeah he'll say no. If you say no I shouldn't, you'll say yeah maybe you should, you know, he's he's just contrary, always adverse and he's diabolical.

   But now when it says demons, that's other angels that followed the devil when he rebelled and they fell with the devil. So there were a third of the angels that went down with the devil when he rebelled and they're called demons. They're just invisible spirits. They're always out doing harm. A lot of the people in mental institutions are there because they've got these different kinds of spirits.

   But notice Christ comes across the Sea of Galilee, and here come these two possessed, not influenced. Not visited or vexed but possessed. Now, how is it that a spirit is able to occupy or possess a human faculty? Well, apparently there's, there are different parts of the brain that different kinds of spirits can possess. You know, some can possess your brain where it's the automatic nerve that is your speech and you have a deaf and dumb spirit. Some are able to possess your hearing and you can't hear. You remember one lady was bowed in the middle. Walked horizontal to the ground all the time, strictly because some spirit got in her to torment her. You know how many people you see that way that it might literally be that cause.

   Now you have to always realize that one of the things connected with the devils, demons, the unclean spirits is discerning of spirits, you know, how do you know whether someone has just had a physical injury? How do you know whether they had brain damage? How do you know whether they have birth defects? How do you know whether it's just normal epilepsy? How do you know when it is from supernatural power and when it isn't. Oh, that's the hardest part. You know you can find out maybe they've had a Pentecostal background or maybe at one time in their life, something happened and they blew their top or they got swallowed up with over much sorrow but they got lifted up with pride or one of these darts of the devil happened to them, they separated themselves from their wife, teach them a lesson, and sooner or later if there's something abnormal there other than physical, you'll find out. You can't always tell.

   Now some spirits are obvious because there's the bug eye. I've got pictures of the freaks over in Pompeii. Who were apparently swallowed up with sex demons and boy they were bug-eyed, all their lives. All they did was drink and sex and run around naked and just real degenerates and freaks, you know, you see their pictures even on the walls over there, Pompeii, big bug eyes. That's what turns me off when I see people, musicians or whoever, with bug eyes. Well, I can't stand that. I can't tolerate that because there's demonism right there. I mean somebody that's bug-eyed now what does it do to your normal sight when you're in this trans type bug eyedness all the time? Boy, you know, they're injuring and damaging and punishing and hurting humans. That's their purpose, destroyers.

   Now you know in Jesus' day, we've become so ignorant in our day, we're so intellectual, so educated, so civilized that we're so far ahead of the Bible times that we don't even believe there are any demons. We don't believe there is a devil. We don't even believe that any people have any kinds of these troubles anymore. I guess they were just nutty back in Jesus' day and somehow we don't have any more of it ever since. That's ridiculous.

   Now a lot of people want to pass it all off and say, "Well they all went to the Orient, they're all over Hinduism, they're all over there in Buddhism or those millions of gods the Buddhists worship. That's where all those demons went" and probably a lot of them did, but a lot of them didn't stay there either.

   But notice here then. "Who possessed. Coming out of the tombs." And why we always attach eerie. Just, you know, boy, you get the graveyard and the fog and the night and the full moon and boy, oh boy, you know, you ever walked through a graveyard? You run through a graveyard or you walk around it, you know, you don't walk through a graveyard. Why don't you live next to a graveyard? You know, how would you like to live? Do you build your house on top of an old graveyard? I mean, why not? What's the matter with it? Those guys aren't gonna hurt you down there, the ones around you have to worry about, not the ones underneath there.

   But notice there's something weary or eerie or odd or I don't know exactly what it is, but here are these two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs. "Exceeding fierce." And you know, I just talked to a couple of ladies. One works at the mental institution in Abilene, and one works down in Fort Davis. And within the same week, I talked to this one lady over at Abilene and she was talking about she had this bruise on her eye on the side of her head there and you know, they just kind of hadn't noticed any trouble with any one of these persons. They just seemed so mild and calm and normal and bang all of a sudden one day whacked and this person just clobbered her upside the head and started violently just flailing away and it took 4 big strong young interns to hold the person down. The same way with this young girl, that was what's sad to me, this girl down in Alpine or in Fort Davis is only in her twenties. And everything seemed normal for a long time and boy all of a sudden this person blew their top and I mean it took 5 big huge aids to take care of that one.

   But you know, any one of us with the power of God, if we've drawn near to God and we're close to God and we have the armor of God and the power of God, we could just command them to be silent and they'd sit down just like a little baby. You could command them to be still and they wouldn't even lift a finger to hurt a flea. Because God's power is way more powerful than these type beings.

   Notice what happened then "coming out of the tombs exceeding fierce. Why no man might pass by that way," but if they did, they got ripped and torn and beaten up "and behold they cried out saying what do we have to do with you, Jesus, you son of God. You come here to torment us before the time," and you know they've always got that sassy, negative, sarcastic attitude. They know who God is, they know who Jesus is. They know who God's people are, God's servants and God's ministers. So they said, "What do we have to do with you, you Jesus, you son of God, you come here to torment us before the time," they know what their fate is too. They're gonna be dealt with in God's kingdom. We're gonna put away all these devils and the devil and the spirits. They're gonna be bound for 1000 years.

   Can you imagine a world with no demons period, no Hindu demons, no Buddhist demons, no insane demons, no violent demons, no moody, no sex, no demons at all, all locked up in a restraint for 1000 years. Boy, that's what Revelation 20 promises. Everybody's gonna gather together all their bad ideas and lock them up for 1000 years. That's kind of weird to think that's gonna happen. I thought if you control your mind, you could do that if it's just your bad thoughts.

   Well, anyway, notice what happened. "There was a good way off from them herd of many swine feeding. So the demons besought Jesus saying, if you cast us out," they weren't sure he would, it might not be his job. You know, it didn't our job just go around getting rid of all the devils, not telling the money, and we'll do it then they'll all be locked up somewhere then. But until then, unless it's our job, we better mind our own business. But anyway, they said "if you cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine."

   So these two guys wanted to get rid of all their bad thoughts and put those bad thoughts in the pig's heads and they drowned themselves in the ocean. Boy, that's better than Mother Goose rhymes, isn't it? I mean is that a real Buck Rogers story that beats anything you ever heard of. So the devils, the demons said "if you cast us out, let us go into the herd of swine," and he said to them, he just said one word, "Go." It's all Jesus said.

   Now why would they want to go into the swine? Because the torture of the spirit is being disembodied, not having anybody to use. There's so many things they can't experience because their spirit. So their torture is being out having nobody to be in. Or as they say, "I ain't got nobody." I guess that would be an example, you know, that's their, they go around with their blues song. "I ain't got nobody."

   Well, anyway, look, Jesus just said "Go." "And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine." Now imagine this if you can. All the Old Testament laws were done away with in the New Testament. Now all those swine were cleansed by Jesus. And yet, you know, how would you feel if Jesus came out and wiped out 2000 herds of your cattle? You, you'd call the law and get him locked up and you'd say that guy is guilty of a crime. That man committed a sin. But he wiped out that whole herd of swine, and he was guiltless.

   Now you know, somebody approaches you about clean and unclean foods being done away, just ask them to explain that. I mean Jesus died sinless. Jesus didn't ever commit a sin. Then it's alright for me to go out and take target practice on 2000 pigs. Jesus did and he didn't sin. I mean, why couldn't I do it? It wouldn't be a sin he did it. Well, those guys knew better to be raising pigs in Palestine. They knew that was God's land and they shouldn't be doing that, but look what happened.

   "When he said go, they came out and went into that herd of swine, those swine ran violently" because that's the kind of spirit they were, violent spirits. Not melancholy, not sex, not proud spirits, they were violent spirits, so that's how they affected the swine that they were able to spook and run. "So the whole herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished in the waters."

   Boy, these Jews that were keeping these pigs ran the town. They're gonna tell everybody about it. "They went their way into the city and told everything and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils." Boy, the whole city comes out looking for a 40 ft tall, 8 ft wide, 10 ft thick man with lightning going out from his ears and rockets from his head I guess. No telling what they were expecting, but somebody that could do that, wow, what were they looking for? "The whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him," just looked like anybody else. But the power of God's spirit is what made the difference. "And when they saw him, they thought, boy, our businesses are wiped out if we don't get him out of here."

   So would you mind getting out of town? Before you decide to take on all of our other pigs too, so you know, they didn't care about two people who had been insane being healed. They didn't care about that. Their business was at stake. So people don't care about people going off their rocker from seeing "Exorcist." They'll make more movies. They don't care how many people have weaknesses that allow something like that to give place to the devil and they end up with troubles because they don't resist the devil, they entertain him. They welcome him, they listen to him, they tolerate him, they play with him, they enjoy having his company around and you can't do that.

   You know, we don't need to be afraid of demons. We need to just know that they're real, that there are different types. And that by being close to God and having on God's whole armor and drawing near to God and submitting yourself to God and resisting the devil. Don't have any worries. But watch those pitfalls, you know, don't let yourself blow your top. Don't let yourself be swallowed up with over much sorrow. Don't let yourself be influenced by some sex spirit. Don't let yourself be lifted up with pride. That's the condemnation of the devil. You know, there are the other wiles and darts of the devil, and we'll have to cover those next time, but I hope you can mark those things in your Bible and get to learn and not have any fear but be ready to straighten up the world that's really sadly influenced.

   I know when I was first the first time I remember going to a mental institution was in Kankakee, Illinois. I had a lady call right and say that she'd been railroaded because of her religion and she wanted to talk to somebody, so I went down to visit her. I was just walking along there on the sidewalk. I went up to the information deal and they told me where she was, so I was walking along there, walking down the sidewalk, and some lady came running up to the bars that was as far as from here to the back door back there, and she screamed out and said, "I know you, you're Dean Blackwell. You're with that Worldwide Church of God. You've got a church up there in Chicago and you live in Joliet," and I'm glad she didn't give out my phone number, my address and everything else. I never seen her, never heard, never even knew she existed. Until she came yelling out, well I hotfooted it over to the other side of the street and started walking down the other sidewalk.

   Well, I found out right then that they had different wards. I mean, we may use technical terms and call them paranoid, schizophrenic, depressive or whatever, but you know they're aware that those people have different kinds of troubles. There's a violent ward, you know, there's an unclean spirit ward. There are different wards right there just like there are different spirits in the Bible. I just wish people knew that those kind of things can be dealt with and all those people would be freed.

   You know, isn't a shame that a person could say "Go." And somebody who's been dwelling in the tombs, violent. Would be as sound and normal as you and me just from one person saying "Go." But instead of that, what do we do? Lock them up in a building with a lot of others in the same kind of category. Give them electrical shock treatments. Give them slapping of shock treatments of that sort. Give them some kind of medicines. How can you dislodge your spirit unless you damage the part that it occupies and then it'll leave.

   But to me, one of the sad, you know, 1 out of every 10 hospital beds is a mental case. 1 out of every 10. Well, God's gonna call on us in the future to have all these spirits chained for 1000 years, and that's gonna be a great day in the kingdom of God and the millennium and but I hope we can be educated and be aware that these things exist and not be afraid of them, not play around with them, but do our parts. We'll finish it on another time then.