Billy Graham - The Devil and Demons - Dallas TX 1971

I am going to ask that we bow every head bowed in prayer and every eye closed in prayer. Our Father, we pray that those words will come with great power and touch every life in this audience tonight in Texas and we pray that those who need burdens will be lifted. and problem solved and sin forgiven you can find all your needs met in him tonight because we ask it in his name. Amen now tonight I want you to turn with me to chapter 5 of the Gospel of Mark, chapter 5 of the Gospel of Mark. I'm not going. read it because it's too long, but I'm going to tell you the story because it's the story of Jesus' encounter with a man possessed by a demon and I want to talk tonight about the

devil

, the

demons

, the witches and the wizards that Jesus Christ had.

He had just crossed the Sea of ​​Galilee he had been in a little boat and he was tired now Jesus was divine he was God but he was also human he got tired he was thirsty and he was asleep in this boat and a storm arose and you remember the story the disciples were afraid and said teacher, we are going to perish, they were terrified and Jesus stood up in the boat and raised his hand and said peace, shut up, the wind calmed down, the lightning stopped flashing, the thunder stopped roaring and the The disciples were even more afraid, they said what kind of man is he?

This, that even the wind is a baby, had not yet come to the full recognition that here was the teacher of all ages, the king of kings and Lord of lords and god of God himself. but they reached the other side of the Little Sea of ​​Galilee and there they encountered a strange sight a wild man a naked man bleeding from head to toe from self-inflicted wounds he came running and screaming he told them and the Bible says he was possessed by a demon you say now Billy, do you think they really were

demons

? Yes, I believe there were real demons in Jesus' day and I believe they are real demons right now.

There is a real demon. There is a real demon in the world. Now the Bible. He teaches it and we can see evidence of his work everywhere and all of us who live the Christian life encounter it every day because we are in conflict not with flesh and blood, as the Bible says, but with spiritual forces, principalities, powers. and rulers of In the dark places there is a

devil

and now there are demons. They may be more sophisticated in the United States than in other parts of the world, but they are demons. However, you will see that the man has to have some kind of supernatural power beyond himself to continue. and many times if he does not follow God, the true God, he will fabricate God or simply follow the devil directly.

What does Satan mean in the Bible? The word Satan that is used so often in the Bible comes from a Greek word and the word demons comes from another word damania and the bible has a lot to say about these demons it says that they are able to enter and control a man they can enter into you and control you the bible says they are what is talked about throughout the bible is unclean, violent and malicious, the bible says they are now in conflict even with Christians. I do not believe that a Christian can be possessed by the devil.

I don't think a true born again believer. You may be possessed by demons, but the demons will bother you, irritate you, harass you and work on you night and day, and the moment you receive Christ as your Savior you will know that the devil is very much alive, we are not fighting with flesh and blood. blood but against principalities and powers now every person who hears this every person outside of Christ is in danger of demonic possession you are a possible subject of demonic possession you know that one of the terrible characteristics of the judgment of the end of the world is going to be that new demons will be pulled out of the abyss and will be powerful characters who will cause violence and problems all over the world and sometimes I think that someone else must have been freed in recent years. the demon of drugs there is a relationship between witchcraft, witchcraft and drugs according to the Bible that demon of alcoholism 7 million chronic alcoholics in the United States were disabled by sexual obsession with alcohol.

I've met people who tell me they're actually obsessed with it. Don't think about anything else, they are like the people of Noah's day whose imaginations were evil continually until judgment came. I think a lot of this is demonic power that we have to reckon with in our generation, you say Billy, that's not just the Devil, it's ourselves of course, but you see, we fell from our fellowship with God because of the temptation of the Devil. The devil was there in the beginning and he has been there all along and the only power in the world that can defeat Satan is the Lord.

Jesus Christ and you can say in the name of Christ and he was scared look you can quote the Word of God and he will flee you know Jesus was attacked by the devil in the desert when he was weak from thirst and hunger the devil came and attacked him three times Jesus he never argued with him he never debated with him what did Jesus do Jesus just quoted the scriptures that's why it's important for you to memorize the scriptures that's why we give you verses to memorize when you come to Christ it's important memorize Memorize the Scriptures so that you have scriptures to quote to the devil in the hour of temptation.

Now the Bible teaches that God never tempts anyone, if you are tempted to do wrong, that is the devil tempting you and the way to overcome that temptation is to quote. Scripture and being filled with the Spirit of God and walking in the will of God as Jesus was in temptation. Now I want you to notice this man who came running to Jesus that day when he landed on the other side of the Sea of ​​Galilee. look at some of the things about him, says an unclean spirit in the welt, look at all the filth and pollution in America today.

I'm not talking about air pollution, which is bad enough. I'm talking about the moral contamination that we have as unclean. spirit that seems to have settled in America and the world, it seems that people are sitting down and trying to think of new ways of doing evil, new forms of violence, new ways of hating, new forms of sexual perversion, a spirit Unclean had control of that. The man and Jesus looked at that unclean spirit as a supernatural power and then noticed that he was not wearing any clothes. Look at the increase in nudity today. I wonder if the devil has something to do with it.

You can hardly go to the cinema. Today they told me that. does not have a nude scene in his obsession with nudity this man was naked and then realized he was mentally disturbed one in four Americans right now one in four families is affected in some way by a mental disorder more Half of all hospital beds in the United States right now are occupied by mental patients. Cut a lot of this, they are demons. I don't know because I couldn't say that everyone in a psychiatric hospital has a demon. That is not true. Many of them have organic problems and psychological problems that may have nothing to do with the devil, but I am convinced that there are many people who are better under the control of the power and influence of demons who suffer from mental disorder and then notice that he was uncontrollable, no one could control this guy.

They tried to tie him up They tried to put him in prison They tried to put him in a mental institution He escaped He seemed to have supernatural powers and was a violent man Has there ever been a time when there was so much violence that everyone wants? peace and they hold the sign of peace and we all believe in peace but somehow we don't get peace violence and law riots and murders and murders some newspapers today in our big cities don't even publish the murders there are so many in every night simply They list them in one place and you can look at a certain place and just read it like it's a baseball school how many muggings last night how many rapes last night how many murders last night violence violence violence this is one of the characteristics of the devil and demons and I want to tell you that we are not going to stop him just with more police power, we have to have prayer power and spiritual power, we have to have people on their knees praying and we have to have a spiritual awakening in this country and then notice that he dwelt among the dead the Bible says this guy lived in the tombs he lived in a cemetery and did you know that the Bible teaches that we are dead in sins and transgressions before coming to Christ? your body is alive but your soul your spirit is dead to God you need to be quickened and you could be quickened tonight if you let Jesus touch your life let me tell you Jesus Christ can come into your heart right now and take that guilt He can erase the past.

Have you had racial prejudices? He will take them away from you. They can give you love in your heart. Have you broken God's moral law and committed sin? He will take them from you, wash them, and give them to you. Your power to resist temptation tomorrow and Jesus stood face to face with this wild, angry, violent, naked and bleeding man, and inside the man a supernatural voice began to speak and say: what have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the living God, do not torment? We, what do I have to do with you? The rich man says that he doesn't need the gospel because it is for the poor.

The intellectual says. Oh, it's for the workers. It's for the uneducated. The common man says I can't understand it. The radical says it is. not revolutionary now that I have to do with you I want to tell you each one of us has something to do with him and if you don't have something to do with him in this life you will have something to do with him in the future life because there will come a day when which every knee will be and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord and God. You and I can't bow to that here, but there will come a day when you will value a knee.

You will be forced to bend your knee and that day when we all stand before him, Jesus said what is your name, he was not talking to the man, he was talking to the demon in the man and the answer came out we are legion where many this man was not busy for a single demon, he had many demons. It is said about Mary Magdalene that she had seven demons. Think of the seven demons of her possessing a person. Jesus suddenly ordered as he did the night before and said to go out. of the man and then those demons said a prayer now three prayers were said that day two of them were answered one was not answered notice here that the demons said a prayer immediately they recognized Jesus they knew he was the son of God they knew he had power about them, they knew it could send them to hell, so they prayed and said: Jesus, please don't send us to hell.

You see those pigs up there. Two thousand pigs send us to the Pigs. We would rather go there and live. in the Pigs to go to hell and you know what happened Jesus answered the prayer of the demons he sent the demons to the pigs how terrible hell must be if the demons want to stay out of there and prefer to live with the Pigs and live in the hallways and live like a pig immediately the wild pigs became violent they started running and ran off a cliff and drowned in the sea and then the second prayer took place because all the businessmen of the city came out all the leaders of the small town came out to see what was going on and there they saw the man they had had so much trouble with this naked violent man sitting dressed and in his right mind smiling absolutely transformed and changed but they were not interested in him the only thing they could think about was The pigs, were more interested in economics than spiritual transformation, so they made the most terrible prayer.

I think in the Bible they said: Jesus, leave us alone, leave our coasts, leave our town that we don't want. You know what happened Jesus answered his prayers, left and never came back and you might say Lord, leave me alone. You see, the Spirit of God is speaking to hundreds of you right here tonight, he is making you uncomfortable, he is speaking to you. You now and you're about to say leave me alone Holy Spirit, don't bother me, don't make me uncomfortable, don't let my conscience bother me so deeply and you're about to say, leave me alone, he can answer that. prayer and never returned how many times in the Bible do you find that a man had an opportunity and lost it had an hour with God and lost it or an hour with God and took advantage of it look at Zacchaeus our great A crowd passed through his town and heard that Jesus , the famous Galilean teacher, was passing by and coming in and Zacchaeus was a short man and couldn't see Jesus, so he climbed up a sycamore tree and was looking at Jesus and everyone. suddenly Jesus stopped and said Zacchaeus come down, I'm going to your house to eat with you today Zacchaeus jumped to the ground in DL Moody said he was converted from the limb to the ground and he was transformed and changed and he was a tax collector and he had been taking money from people without authority and told Jesus I'm going to give it back for the food he was repenting and making restitution for his sins when he met Jesus that he could pass it on to you the people asked Jesus to leave and he left now he made another prayer the man who had been touched and the man who had been healed said a prayer what was his prayer he said Lord this is wonderful I have been changed I have been transformed I have been converted I have been saved I wantgo with you I want to live with you from now on Jesus said no that is the prayer Jesus refused to answer he said go back to your house go back to the same direction go back to your town, go back to your city, go back to your school, go back with your family and tell the great things that God has done for you.

You see, we go on a big crusade like this and here's a big crowd of 43,000 people here tonight and we say isn't it wonderful all this great music and coming together like this Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, Catholics and Jews, they're all here, how wonderful, Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could stay at this height all the time? Jesus said no, where he really counts, is back, where you live, where you're going. to school I have a chapter in my new book called getting high and staying high you know the Bible teaches that there are many ups and downs but there are also some downs you read the Book of Psalms I read five Psalms every day how many times the The psalmist was in the bottom looking up to see the bottom.

There are ups and downs, but in the middle of it all there is the Spirit of the living God to give you joy and peace. There are certain rivers for the Christian that run very deep and it is a wonderful thing in the midst of depression to have Jesus there because you see that you are going to face problems, you are going to have disappointments, you are going to have anguish, you are going to have problems and difficulties in your life. life, but in the midst of this the grace of God will be there you know that Paul had some affliction we do not know exactly what it was but he prayed three times Lord deliver me and God said no Paul I am not going to free you from that but my grace is going to be enough for you in the midst of this you will be able to endure it my grace in my love in my presence will be there now there were three things that this man had after meeting Jesus he had rest notice that he was sitting Jesus said come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will I will give you rest and how many of you are restless in your spirit tonight, disturbed, confused, desperately searching for something that will give meaning to your life and you have not found it? come to Jesus, he will give you the rest you have been looking for and then notice he was clothed, you know the Bible says we have to be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, many of you tonight full of sin and guilt, you need a new suit of clothing, in fact, you are not going to be accepted by God into his kingdom until you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and that is why Christ died on the cross, he died to provide you with that righteousness.

I could sew all day. and my wife could sew all day and she's a wonderful seamstress and she makes a lot of her own clothes and when we, when the kids were younger, she made most of the clothes but she couldn't sew well enough to sew a robe or a suit of clothing that would fit me in heaven that was purchased by the blood of Christ on the cross and clothed in his righteousness. I'm going to heaven and I'm going to walk down the Avenue of Redemption not because of me not because of my goodness in my righteousness but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and then the Bible says that this man was of sound mind sin destroys our mind it influences our mind distorts our mind and we look at things from the wrong perspective and we confuse our values ​​but when you come to Christ and start to see the world through the eyes of God you don't go around wringing your hand and saying what's going to happen what's going to happen There is a peace in your heart you can read the headlines.

We are scared and afraid, but Christ is there, he is in control. I am going to ask you to receive this Christ tonight. I'm going to ask hundreds of you right now to get up from your seat right now, get up from your seat and come and stand in front of this platform and say as you come I want to receive Christ into my heart I want him to touch my life I want him to forgive my sin I want to know that I'm going to help thousands of people in the last few days here in Texas have made this commitment.

I ask you to join them tonight and make this commitment to Christ and after you have come I will say a word to all of you. I will have a prayer with you I will give you some literature and then you can go back and join your friends if you are with family or friends or you are on a bus they will wait for you just get up and come they will only keep you for a few moments and if you start from the top gallery it will take two or three minutes so start now let's wait and I will ask people everywhere to pray that you come and let Christ transform and change your life and become a new person quickly now same.

I'm sure those of you watching on television can see that there are hundreds and I suppose even thousands of people who are on their way to making their commitment to Jesus Christ. here in Texas tonight you can make the same commitment right now in your home or in a hotel or wherever you may value, go ahead and say: Lord Jesus, come into my life, change me and transform me like you did with that man so long ago. . and you will do it