An Introduction to Spiritual Warfare

Introduction

This morning we are going to be looking at the story of the Sons of Scheva. Our topic will be Spiritual Warfare from Acts 19:13-20. I have been doing a lot of research in preparation for the message over the past month and one thing I have noticed is that there are a lot of ditches to avoid and yet many Christians have fallen into those ditches for one reason or another. But one thing God does not desire for our lives is for us to live in ignorance of our enemy. 2 Cor 2:11 “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” Ignorance of his tactics leaves us open to attack.

In Vietnam, we fought on of the bloodiest battles fought by American soldiers. Much of the warfare was in jungle terrain. New technology was being invented that allowed us to kill each other better. But as those GI’s walked into the jungles, they faced threats that were unconventional. I remember Chuck Coftey once telling the story of some of the booby traps that the enemy had laid out. One of those was a log with spikes on them, that when triggered would impale the soldier. Those soldiers could have continued to walk around in the jungle oblivious to the traps or they could choose to be aware of them. The soldier who remains ignorant of the enemy’s attacks is just going to get killed.

When it comes to Spiritual Warfare, we can not avoid the topic and live in ignorance lest Satan get an advantage over us. As we introduce this topic, I cannot deal exhaustively with every passage and every little detail though I will try to bring in as much as I can as it relates to this passage. This morning, we are going to take a look at this text and then draw three lessons from the text hopefully avoiding the ditches on both sides.

The devil and his demons are a real enemy vs 15

One of those ditches is believing that Satan has no influence in the life of the Christian. We are told in 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” teaches that Satan roams about seeking whom he may devour.

A. Notice in this text, Luke acknowledges the real presence of a demons in this man. As I studied, this topic i found that there is a group that doesn’t believe in a real personality called the devil or his demons. They believe the devil is a metaphor for evil; but that is not the witness of scripture.

The Christian has three real enemies:

The Flesh

The world

The devil

And yet we live as if we only had two enemies. We preach and talk about the flesh and its influence on the believer; we challenge young people not to be conformed to the image of the world; but we have a third enemy that hardly gets named. I think preachers avoid preaching on our enemy because they don’t want to focus on the negative or cause people to fear their enemy. But biblical teaching on the topic will not drive us to those extremes. Satan and demonic activity are real. I don’t just say this from a theological perspective. Living overseas, I saw and experienced demonic activity and oppression. In the Western culture, he thrives on our anti-spiritual ignorance; but in the rest of the world, he thrives by fear and control.

B. Also notice that this demon spoke through the possessed man. Evil forces without intelligence don’t speak. Satan’s main plan of attack is primarily lies and accusations. John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” In Revelation 12:10 “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” He is called the accuser of the brethren. When Satan attacks a believer, his main mode of attack is through lies and accusations.

C. Finally notice, that the demon physically attacked these men. When we consider the reality of our enemy, we must ask ourselves what he can do?

In the life of a lost person, Satan can nearly do anything he wants if it is permitted by God. Throughout the gospels and the book of Acts, we see multiple accounts of people possessed or taken over completely by demons. These demons control what they say, and do. Satan blinds the minds of the lost to the gospel 2 Cor 4:3-4 “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” I could keep on talking about the things he can do to an unbeleiver, but the question everyone always has is what can he do to a believer?

Let me start off first by saying I do not believe that a demon can possess a Christian. In John 17:15 “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” Jesus prayed that we would be kept from the evil one and I don’t believe that Jesus’ requests go unanswered. But to further establish this point lets turn to Heb 2:14-15 “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Jesus by his death and resurrection conquered the power of Satan over us who believe. We are free from bondage. Added to these verses is the fact that we never see any examples where it clearly shows a believer who is possessed by a demon. All the attacks of Satan are from the outside the believer.

This does not mean Satan has no influence in our lives.

Satan can turn us from the simplicity of the gospel 2 Cor 11:3 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Satan can convince us of false doctrines 1 Tim 4:1-3 “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.”

3. Satan can cause divisions between believers James 3:13-16 “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.”

4. Satan can afflict us physically 2 Cor 12:7 “And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.” 1 Cor 5:5 “To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

5. Satan can build strongholds in our lives 2 Cor 10:4-5 “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” The bible uses the words strong holds here for a reason. Strongholds are persistent patterns of sinful thinking in our lives. We have allowed Satan to whisper lies and we have believed them so much that we now by habit operate according to those lies. Notice the text tells us that those stronghold are called: imaginations, high things and thoughts that are against God and His word. Satan can trap us in addictions by these lies 2 Tim 2:26 “And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” When we look at how Satan attacked believers, he convinced them of lies. These lies can come through other people, influences, books; but Satan does have the ability to speak directly to your mind and heart. Acts 5:3 “But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land?” Spirit speaks to spirit. Not every thought that enters your mind is necessarily the Holy Spirit or even your own.

6. Satan can also ensnare us with temptations to sin 2 Cor 2:10-11 “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.”

a. unforgiveness gives Satan an advantage over you in your life

b. anger gives satan a foothold in your life Eph 4:26-27 “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”

We have gone into all this detail merely to point out that Satan is not an insignificant enemy and Spiritual warfare is real. We must avoid the one ditch on the one side of thinking he has no influence in my life.

Casting out demons is not normative Christian experience vs 12, 15

The second thing I want to notice about this text is that casting out demons was not intended to be normal Christian experience. This is the second ditch that someone could fall into: thinking that everything is a demon and we must cast them all out.

One of the graduates of Ambassador who was a well known evangelist for a time, Greg Locke, has fallen into this ditch. Greg Locke became popular for his bold support of Donald Trump, but they skyrocketed when he became a Charismatic Deliverance Minister. He came out with a documentary about his ministry called Come Out In Jesus Name though I don’t recommend you watching it.

Many deliverance ministries have popped up of all stripes. Because there is so much confusion on this issue, it has even made its way into our churches though men like Neil Anderson. Demon possession is a reality in the lost, but the ways that these ministries propose dealing with that are not consistently biblical.

As I studied this passage and the biblical message on this issue, I realized that casting out demons was never normal experience except during the time of Jesus and the Apostles. Even in the OT, exorcism was not a regularly practiced thing. Added to that we must consider that we are never given any instructions or teaching on it in the epistles which establish church practice. Why?

Notice the context of these verses: Paul has been preaching in Ephesus for some time now and God is blessing. Vs 11 begins by saying that God used Paul to do great miracles. And then in vs 12, we are told what some of those miracles were including casting out demons. These two verses introduce us to our story. But the whole point is that God showed His power through an Apostle confirming the message Paul preached.

These unsaved Jews, decide they want Paul’s power without Paul’s message. They wanted to use Jesus rather than serve Jesus. When they confront the demon, he challenges them back by saying Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you? The point of this text is that only Jesus and those he has given authority to have the power to cast out demons.

Casting out demons falls under the list of those gifts that would normally be called sign gifts or as 2 Cor 12:12 “Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” In the early days of the gospel, God confirmed the message by the use of miracles. As that message went out into the world, the signs fell away. Mark 16:17 “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;” ties the casting out of demons with the great commission and it does not claim all believers will have this ability.

Because it is not spelled out in the scriptures how to do this or even commanded to do this, I believe that this is not to be expected of the normal Christian experience. There may be circumstances that arise where one is confronted with this, but I believe the answer is prayer and fasting. Ask God to cast out the demon.

Also seeing that the Christian cannot be possessed, casting out demons is not necessary to liberate the believer from addictions and strongholds in their lives. The solution to these problems is normal Christian living of repentance, confession, mortifying the flesh, and renewing of the mind.

There is no magical formula of words to cast out a demon vs 13

The final thing I want to draw from this text is the principle that there are no magic words that will make a demon come out of someone. These men tried to use a mantra by claiming the name of Jesus and Paul to get the demon to come out. The words themselves do not have any effect. The power is only in Jesus Christ.

We see Jesus speaking about binding the strongman, but we never see any examples or instructions to bind Satan. Or making claims, that I am a child of God you must come out …

So many ministries have gotten sidetracked from the real battle by asking demons their names or their territories. Or by calling the demons out by name or binding them. Or by claiming that as a child of God I have the power to call you out. Tied to the previous point that this is not normal Christian experience, is that the power is not in some words.

If there was a magic formula that we were supposed to use, Paul would have left us one.

I found this list from one Charismatic preacher:

I break and release myself from all generational curses and iniquities as a result of the sins of my ancestors in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses on both sides of my family, back 60 generations.

I break all curses of witchcraft, sorcery, and divination in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of pride and rebellion in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of death and destruction in the name of Jesus.

I break and rebuke all curses of sickness and infirmity in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of poverty, lack, and debt in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of rejection in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of double-mindedness and schizophrenia in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from the curse of Jezebel and Ahab in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of divorce and separation in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of lust and perversion in Jesus’ name.

I break and release myself from all curses of confusion and mental illness in the name of Jesus.

I break and release myself from all curses of idolatry in Jesus’ name.

I break and release myself from all curses causing accidents and premature death in Jesus’ name.

I break and release myself from all spoken curses, from all negative words spoken against me and by others and by those in authority and I bless them.

I break and release myself from all self-inflicted curses by negative words I have spoken.

I command every demon hiding and operating behind a curse to come out of me in the name of Jesus.  You are no longer welcome in my body or soul, and you have no right or authority to be here.  I cast you out in the name of Jesus.  Every demon of depression, anxiety, fear, torment, every demon coming from curses from the bloodline of oaths and contracts, we break it in the name of Jesus and cast you out in the name of Jesus.

Conclusion

When presented with the reality of Satan, you might struggle with confusion or even fear, but that is not what God wants for his children. 1 John 4:4 “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” We have everything we need to live in victory over the devil. 2 Peter 1:3 “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:” In Christ, we do not have to let him have the victory in our lives. And In Christ, we have been given all the armor and the weapons to fight this battle.

I cannot preach through the armor of God right now, but I challenge you to read through Eph 6:10-18.

This message was largely teaching, but let me challenge everyone of you to ask yourself; how you might be allowing your enemy to get a foothold in your life.

Are you living in unforgiveness toward another brother? Forgiveness is to set a prisoner free and finding out that you were the prisoner.

Are you allowing anger to hurt your relationships with others?

What lies has Satan convinced you of that are keeping you from living in victory?

Our weapons are mighty to the pulling down of strong holds. You do not have to live in defeat. If you need counseling or prayer, please come see me as the piano plays. But lets take our battle seriously.