"The Reality of the Occult"

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio. And now let's get to the word of God. Hey, we want you to take a Bible and let's open it together. We're going to be studying today in the life of the great man, the Apostle Paul. Acts chapter 16, if you'll open there, we'll be coming there in just a moment. Acts chapter 16. But I'd like to begin today by giving you a list of movies and seeing if you can tell me what one common thread ties all these movies together.

Here we go. Here's our list. Rosemary's Baby, Poltergeist, Carrie, The Amityville Horror, Devil's Advocate, The Witches of Eastwick, Bedazzled, The Omen, One, Two and Three, and The Exorcist. Now, with the exception of Rosemary's Baby, which I saw as a college student before I was a follower of Christ, I've never seen any of these other movies. But I know just as you do what it is that ties them all together. What ties them all together is that they all deal with the issue of the devil, demons and the occult. Now, our question for this morning is, is there anything really to this?

Is the devil and the demons and the occult, is that just a topic for making scary movies? Or is there some reality here that you and I as followers of Jesus Christ need to take stock of in our lives here in the 21st century? Well, that's what we're going to talk about because we're going to watch the Apostle Paul confront this very issue in our passage for today. Chapter 16, verse 16. And once while we were going to the place of prayer, let's stop for a second, remember there were not enough Jewish people here in the town of Philippi to make a synagogue. And so as a result, they would meet down by the river that flowed through town, the Jewish people who were there, and every Sabbath they would have prayer, Sabbath prayer down by the river. Well, Paul, this is where he went and preached first. This is where he met Lydia. This is where he led Lydia to Christ. And now this verse tells us that this was his habit. Every Sabbath, he would apparently go back to this place and continue sharing with them.

That's where he's on his way to. Rest of verse 16. We were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. Now, the Roman writer Plutarch refers to these people as belly talkers. And the way this term came about is that these folks would go into trances. And while they were in these trances, the voice that was coming out of them sounded like it was coming out of their belly.

And so he called them belly talkers. The Greeks of this time believe that actually people like this were filled by the god Apollo. Apollo was the god of the Delphic Oracle, and they believe that Apollo would fill the life of these people and talk through them, giving oracles, giving prophecies, that it was Apollo who was doing the talking.

But interestingly, this word Plutarch uses for belly talkers is the same word that the Greek Old Testament uses for people in the Bible that are possessed by demons, that are demonized, who have familiar spirits. And so therefore, the short and the simple answer is this lady was a lady who had a demon. She was demon possessed.

She was demonized. And that's who was talking through her in terms of doing this prediction of the future. Now, verse 16, she earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. And this girl began following Paul and the rest of us and shouting, these men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved.

And she kept this up for many days. And finally, Paul became irked. Paul became literally fed up. Now you say, well, you know, Lon, if I understand correctly, this girl was walking through the city and wherever Paul would go, this girl would go along with him and would say, these men are proclaiming the most high God. Why would Paul get mad about that? Seems to me, if somebody who is supposed to have the God Apollo inside of them walks along and says, hey, a greater God than Apollo is now shown up. It seems to me Paul should have been excited about that. Well, not exactly.

And I'll tell you why. First of all, this term, the most high God, is a term that was used for a variety of deities at this time, not just the God of the universe like we think. For example, we know that Zeus, the Greek God, and Isis, the Egyptian goddess, and Baal, the Phoenician God, were all gods for whom this term was used, the most high God. Therefore, this gal walking through town and proclaiming that the most high God has representatives in town, it doesn't automatically mean to them back there what it means to us.

You understand? It could have meant a number of different things. Also, by having her do this, Paul ran the risk of everybody in town thinking that he was connected with this lady and all of her demonic stuff. And so Paul didn't really want to be connected with this lady. Finally, the Bible says he got fed up.

He said, hey, enough is enough. And he turned to this lady, verse 18, and he said to the demon in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her. And at that moment, the demon left her. Paul dealt with this demon very authoritatively, just like the Lord Jesus Christ dealt with demons when he was here.

However, there is one difference that we should note. When the Lord Jesus dealt with a demon, his authority was personal and direct. He would turn to a demon and he would say, I command you.

The Lord Jesus would. Now, when the Apostle Paul deals with this demon, he doesn't have authority that's direct and personal like this. The Apostle Paul can't turn to a demon and say, I command you anything. Rather, he turns to the demon with delegated authority and says, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out.

Why? Because Paul didn't have any authority over this demon. He didn't have any authority over this demon just because he was an apostle. He didn't have any authority over this demon just because he was a missionary or a good guy. He only had authority over this demon because it was authority that was in the name of Jesus Christ. Remember what Jesus said? Matthew 28 18. He said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, not to you as my followers, not to apostles, not to missionaries. The authority is mine. And in order to exercise this kind of authority, the Apostle Paul had to come with the delegated authority of Jesus.

He didn't have any authority all by himself. Well, as you can imagine, this raised quite a stir in town, particularly with the owners of this girl who couldn't make any money off of her anymore. We're going to talk about that next week. But we want to stop right here and right now and ask the most important question. And everybody knows what that question is. So here we go. Nice and loud.

One, two, three. Right. You say, Lon, so what? Say, I'm really glad for this girl and I'm really glad that, you know, Paul cast the demon out of this girl. But frankly, big whoop.

I mean, what difference does this make to my life? Well, let's see if we can answer that question. I don't know if you're watching a few years ago, the Bay Hill Invitational Golf Tournament down in Orlando. PGA Golf for John Daly was there and he had a pretty amazing experience. He stepped up on the sixth hole, par five, and he took his driver off the tee and he hit the ball and it went right into the water hazard on the right of the hole. So according to PGA rules, he's allowed to drop another ball 30 yards in front of the tee box and hit it again. Takes a penalty stroke. So he stepped up, got his three wood out of his bag and he swacked the ball with his three wood.

Guess where the ball went? Right in the water. He hit five consecutive shots with this three wood and all five shots went into water. Finally, on the sixth shot with this three wood, he hits the ball over the water.

Hey, and right in a sand trap. He got an 18 on the hole. Now, this is not you and me playing golf. We could get an 18 on a hole like this. This is John Daly, professional golfer, 13 over par. They don't even have a name for 13 over par. It's not there is no bogey that goes that high.

You can't do it. 13 over par. And one of the commentators on television made this comment. He said maybe his problem is that his three wood is demon possessed. Well, you know, it's kind of funny because we all know three woods can't be demon possessed. But really, is this a joke?

I mean, it really is. Just a scary movie topic. Or is there some reality to all of this stuff about Satan and demons in the occult? Time magazine had an article several years ago entitled Angels Among Us. And they asked the question, they took a poll and they asked the question, do you believe in the existence of fallen angels or devils?

Forty five percent of Americans said no. What that means is that one out of every two Americans you meet will think you are nuts. If you tell them you believe in the devil, if you tell them you believe demons are real, they'll think you're crazy. And yet listen to what Time magazine said. Time magazine noted that when we look at the Nazi Holocaust, when we look at the purges of Joseph Stalin, when we look at the genocide of recent years in Africa and in Eastern Europe, when we look at the Charles Manson's and the Jeffrey Dahmer's that have been in our world, Time said, and I quote, we're hard pressed not to recognize that there is some kind of supra human evil present in our world.

End of quote. In other words, you can't just explain the evil in the world by looking at human beings. Something else bigger than that is going on in our world.

Well, congratulations to Time magazine. They have finally come around to seeing what God has been trying to tell the human race for thousands of years. That, yes, there is a supra human evil in our world. And I want in the next five minutes, give you the fastest course on biblical demonology in history. We're going to teach everything the Bible has to say about this supra human force in the next five minutes.

So here we go. The Bible calls this supernatural being that leads this force Satan. Satan literally means in Hebrew adversary. Satan is an adversary primarily of Almighty God. Second Thessalonians two says that his mission statement, Satan's is to oppose and exalt himself against everything that has to do with God. But, you know, in that same regard, Satan is the adversary of every single one of us who's a follower of Jesus Christ, because we love this God and we worship this God and we serve this God that he, Satan, hates so vehemently. Now, Satan is a finite being. He can only be one place at one time. But he extends his influence around the world by having a group of henchmen that the Bible calls demons.

The Bible does not tell us where these demons came from, simply that they exist and that they're real. And together, Satan and his demons have a two fold goal. Goal number one is to convince every person alive to reject God and to go his or her own way with their life. Well, you say, Lon, but what if I give my life to Christ? What if I surrender my will to God? What if he loses this first goal because I become a follower of Christ?

Well, that's wonderful if he loses it. He then moves on to his secondary goal. And Satan's secondary goal, once we become followers of Jesus Christ, is to nullify our effectiveness and take away our impact for Jesus Christ.

You say, well, how does he do this? He does this by getting us to make choices in our life that ruin our credibility, that undermine our authenticity, bringing us to the place where we ruin all platform that we have with people to reach them for Christ, and by even getting us to make life choices that will actually hinder the work of God here on this earth. He can't get our soul, but he can certainly use us to keep the work of God from getting other people's souls. And that's what he's up to in your life today. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ today, the enemy is out through Madison Avenue, through every newspaper you read, through every magazine you read, through the radio and television you watch, through the friends at work you have that aren't followers of Christ.

He is out to get you and me to make choices that will nullify our impact for Christ and maybe even make a choice so bad that we can actually hinder the work of God in other people's lives. Now we need to understand that Satan and his henchmen are absolutely ruthless in the pursuit of these two goals. And at the end of the age, God has a big surprise for Satan. Here, Revelation chapter 20 says, The devil who deceived the nations will be thrown into the lake of fire along with all of his henchmen, where they will be tormented day and night forever. You say, well, Lon, that's good news, right?

It is. But the bad news is this isn't the end of the age. The bad news is that Satan is still alive and well on planet Earth. The bad news is for reasons God never explains in the Bible, he has chosen to leave Satan and his demonic friends free to circulate and try to cause trouble here on Earth. Now, friends, that's it. That is the fastest course on demonology you will ever get. That is a summary of every single thing the Bible says about Satan and demons.

OK, you got it? Good. Now, here's the last question to answer this morning. In light of the fact that Satan is alive and well on planet Earth, how do you and I as followers of Jesus Christ keep from being devoured? How do we defend ourselves so we're not one of these people that he chews up and completely nullifies in our service to God? Well, I got four suggestions from the Bible to give you and then we're done.

Number one, suggestion number one is don't despair. After all we've said about Satan, it'd be easy for us to feel intimidated, a little unnerved, a little helpless. But, you know, the Bible reassures us over and over that even though Satan's power is great, God's power is greater.

First John four, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. And would you notice in the gospel accounts here in the Bible, every single time Jesus met a demon, guess who won? Every single time Jesus met Satan himself, guess who won? And Jesus just didn't win. He dominated the devil and the forces of evil. Do you remember when Jesus and the devil faced off Matthew chapter four, three times the devil tried to tempt the Lord Jesus into doing things that would have not only made him sin, but robbed him of his Messiah ship and ruined the plan of salvation for the human race. And all three times, what did Jesus say to him?

He said, no, I'm not doing those things. It is written. It is written. It is written. How did Jesus fight off the enemy and leave an example for us?

He fought him by quoting to him from the written word of God. It is written. It is written.

It is written. And the Bible says Satan left him. Resist the devil and he will flee from you if you're using the right weapon. And dear friends, this is the weapon God has given us to fight back with.

The problem is so many of us fight back against the enemy with the wrong weapon. He's out there tempting us to do things we know we got no business doing. We know we'll hurt our platform for Christ.

We know we'll ruin our authenticity in other people's eyes for Christ. And yet the way we try to fight him back is in our own energy and in our own strength. And we kind of go, no, we'll not do that. And we can't. We lose. Why?

Because you and I don't have the energy or the power to beat him. But ah, it is written. No, I'm not going to do that because it is written. And what I have found is when we quote the word of God back to him or to any temptation he's throwing at us the way the Lord Jesus did, that temptation melts away like broken glass and the appeal just leaves.

This is the weapon. And friends, going out without the word of God is like going out to shoot without any bullets. This is why we encourage you here to read the word of God, to study the word of God, to memorize the word of God. So when you're in combat, you've got it right there at your fingertips and you can use it to say it is written.

It is written. I'm not going there. I'm not doing that. Don't go out every day with an empty clip. You're going to get shot and the bullets that work.

That's our weapon. Number three, if we're going to survive. Number three, don't fixate. Don't get focused on Satan and demons. Number four and finally is don't dabble in the diabolical. You know, in spite of all the protection of God we've talked about, God still says to us, Ephesians four twenty seven, do not give the devil a foothold in your life. God still warns us that we dare not underestimate the maniacal power, the harmfulness of Satan's schemes in our lives. And how do we give Satan a foothold in our life?

Well, one of the key ways is by messing with, dabbling with, experimenting with things of the occult. Remember who Satan is. You give him a foothold, he's going to try to turn it into a stronghold. You give him a beachhead, he's going to try to take the whole island. Remember who he is. And God says, don't give him a beachhead.

Don't give him a foothold. Don't get anywhere near some of this diabolical stuff. You say, well, Lon, but aren't all these things bogus anyway?

I mean, fortune tellers and palm readers and Miss Cleo on television, you know, with her tarot cards. By the way, did you read in the paper that the federal government recently ran a sting operation against Miss Cleo? And they found that she was cheating people by putting them on hold for a half an hour to an hour at a time and charging them nine dollars a minute while they were on hold. She's under federal indictment. Now, you know, doesn't it seem strange to you that she didn't see it coming? That seem strange to you?

Well, okay. Well, the point is, of course she's bogus and so is half all this other stuff that goes on. But, you know, not all of it is bogus. Ouija boards and seances and tarot cards and fortune tellers and mediums who are going to connect you with dead people and crystals and palm readers, Dungeons and Dragons, demonic movies. Friends, these are not harmless things. These are things that open our life up to the occult and give the enemy an opportunity to establish a foothold in our life. And God says we have no business messing around with this stuff. We need to guard our lives like a hawk from exposure to this stuff. And we need to guard our children and we need to guard our grandchildren's lives.

Don't underestimate this guy. Are we safe as followers of Christ? Yes, we are. Unless we step outside of God's guidelines and start playing around with this guy, don't underestimate our enemy.

Well, let's summarize. What have we learned today? We've learned that God wants you and me to be one of the 50% of Americans who believe without a doubt there is a devil, who believe without a doubt there are demons, who believe without a doubt that the occult really does exist.

And God wants us to know how to protect ourselves as followers of Christ from being devoured by this being. How do we do it? Number one, by not despairing. We're not intimidated by this guy because greater is he who is in us than he was in the world. Number two, by using the weaponry that God has given us to resist the devil with.

By using the spiritual kryptonite God has given us, using the word of God, it is written, it is written, it is written. Number three, by not getting obsessed with this guy. We don't care about this guy. He is irrelevant.

His doom is already settled and he can't bother us unless we let him. Why are we even worried about him? Why do we even care about him? Why do we even want to focus on him? We don't. He's irrelevant.

What is relevant is the person, the nature and the character of Almighty God. That's where our focus needs to be. And fourth and finally, don't dabble in the diabolical. Friends, stay away from this stuff. It is not harmless.

It is dangerous. Don't underestimate the power of the enemy if we open our lives up voluntarily and we let him in. Don't underestimate him. Remember who he is and he's out to ruin us.

Don't play around with this guy. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about truth. Now it doesn't really matter to us, Lord, if half of America doesn't believe in the devil. We don't care. It doesn't matter to us if 80% of America didn't believe in the devil. We don't care. Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ and who believe the Bible, we believe in him because you say he's real, Lord.

And we certainly don't think that we know more than you do. And so thanks for reminding us today that the occult is real. That this demon stuff is real.

That there is some dangerous stuff in our world. And that we need to follow these four principles if we want to make it through our world and not get devoured. Now thank you, Lord, for the wonderful good news that if we follow these four principles, there is no way in the world that we can become the victim of Satan.

It is impossible. So, granted, if our lifestyle doesn't line up with these four principles, then we'll make the lifestyle changes we need to. If we're not giving enough time to the study and the memorization of the Word of God, if we're not using it in the fight, change our habit pattern.

And if we're involved in things like tarot cards and seances and movies and other things that we've got no business being involved in, Lord, change our behavior patterns. And grant that we might live out these four principles because if we do, there is no way we can be a victim of the enemy. So thanks for speaking to us today, Lord. Protect and change our lives because we were here, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. 788-7770. We hope you will join us next time when Lon seeks to answer one of life's most important questions, So what?