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[0:00] So the doctrine of angels is what it means. And when you think about it, there's this kind of realm of different kinds of beings, spirit, Revelation 10.

[0:30] How many angels are there? It's a good question. There are many, many angels. Revelation 5.11 tells about angels there. The number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands.

[0:43] So if you reckon all that up in Hebrews 1.14, that they're made to serve man. Angels and believers are fellow labourers or co-workers in the Lord's work.

[0:58] Revelation 19. It tells us there, Revelation 19. See thou, do it not. You know, there's some mistakenly kind of worship angels or pray to angels. It's unbiblical.

[1:09] We're not to use them in that regard. Mankind is temporarily lower than, no, not the angels of heaven.

[1:20] So there's a limitation to their knowledge. Angels have greater power than man. We see that there in Matthew 28, verse 2. One angel was enough to roll away the stone from the door of the tomb.

[1:33] Angels have power. And then we read on in Acts 5.19, talks about how the angel opened the prison doors. 2 Peter 2 talks about angels with great power and might.

[1:48] Angels have a greater power than man, though it is limited. One day believers will have a role to judge angels. So 1 Corinthians 6.3 says, Know ye not that ye, that we, shall judge angels.

[2:03] The Hebrew word for angel is malak. So similar to malachi, means messenger. And then the Greek word is angelos. So both words mean messenger.

[2:15] And describe one who executes the purpose and will of the one whom they serve. Messenger. Another term to get your head around is this one, host.

[2:30] The Bible calls God the Lord of hosts. And host is a military term. It means an army. So angels, holy and fallen, are talked about in military language and terminology.

[2:45] So it's got this idea of warfare behind it. As we read here, just one example is that one there, 1 Kings 22.19. It talks about the Lord, the host of heaven.

[2:57] Numbers of times God is called the Lord of hosts. It's one of his names. It's 235 times in the Old Testament. And so the Lord of hosts, this Lord of armies, it's like he's the commander of this angelic army.

[3:13] He's the Lord of armies. As someone has written here, God is the five-star general. And the angels are soldiers under his command. Matthew 26, verse 53.

[3:23] The Lord says the Father could give him more than 12 legions of angels if he sought it. That was at the cross there. He could have called 12 legions of angels.

[3:35] So a legion is some 5,000, 6,000 men. So you can see that these hosts, this army has got various ranks and various cohorts like legions, like groups of angels.

[3:53] So angels are referred to as the host or the heavenly host. So you see that there in Luke 2, verse 13. When the angel came at the birth of Christ, it says the multitude of the heavenly host was there, praising God, the heavenly host.

[4:10] So God's angels serve as the armies of heaven. They're engaged in this spiritual warfare, this conflict that's raging. 1 Samuel 17 tells of the name of the Lord, the Lord of hosts.

[4:27] This is David as he comes to Goliath. And he says, I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.

[4:37] God's angelic forces will one day do battle with Satan's forces and defeat them. We see some of that angelic conflict talked about there in that scripture there.

[4:49] Revelation 12, verse 7 tells us that there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon, speaking of the devil, and the dragon fought and his angels.

[5:01] So there's this whole angelic conflict, this battle going on, this spiritual, called the archangel or the chief angel. We'll talk further about him after.

[5:13] So there's other ranks and orders that are suggested by the various terms used of angels, principalities, powers, etc. That's kind of just setting the scene.

[5:24] So let's talk a little bit about God's angels then, firstly, and then we're going to talk about the fallen angels. So basically that's the two classifications. There's God's angels, then there's the fallen angels.

[5:36] Angels are spirit beings. Hebrews 1, verse 7 talks about how angels are spirits. So it tells us that God makes his angels spirits.

[5:47] Hebrews 1, verse 7. The unfallen angels are also called holy ones in Psalm 89, verses 5 and 7. So they were created perfect without any flaw or sin.

[5:58] They were set apart, holy angels. They were set apart for God and for his servants as attendants to his holiness. Isaiah 6 talks about that. So there we see the angels are spirits.

[6:12] But they can manifest in human form. So for example, we see one example there, John 20, where it tells of two angels in white sitting at the tomb of Christ.

[6:25] So they were physically present in that form of a human. So they are capable of taking a human form, a physical form, always manifested in the form of a man.

[6:39] And we'll just read on there. Just kind of summed it up a little here. So angels are celibates. They will not marry. They're mighty and have power.

[6:50] They're subordinate to God. And they are called innumerable. So you can't really put a number on them. They do not die. Angels worship. They provide. They protect.

[7:02] Comfort. And give directions. There's lots of things. Sometimes it appears that this reference, it speaks really of God. There's this term called a theophany.

[7:14] So theos meaning God. The theophany means the manifestation of God and message. And it was like this special manifestation pre the incarnation.

[7:26] So the Lord Jesus presented himself and he came to different ones as we read here. To Jacob. To Moses. To Gideon. To Hagar. To Abraham.

[7:37] The angel of the Lord. Not just a messenger. We see how they shout out blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving. And honour and power and might be unto our God forever and ever.

[7:50] Amen. And then we see Hebrews 1 verse 6. It tells let all the angels of God worship him. So we see one of the functions of angels obviously worship.

[8:01] Another function as we talked about the meaning of the word angel is that they are messengers. Angelos means a messenger. One who is sent to proclaim, to teach or announce, to perform or explore something.

[8:15] And there's lots of references there in your notes. We see that the Lord uses angels to announce not only the birth of Christ. But the birth of John the Baptist. And then at the resurrection, angels announced he is risen.

[8:28] So we see they're used in this way of giving a message, of giving an announcement. And then we see that they're executors. They execute God's plan and put it into effect.

[8:40] So you see that one there, Psalm 103 verse 20 to 21. Hebrews 1 verse 14 again. They're ministering spirits. Sent to minister. In his agony in the garden at Gethsemane, angels came to help the Lord, to minister to him, strengthening him.

[8:59] It says there, Luke 22 verse 43. And Matthew 4, that one earlier there, we see that the angels ministered unto him at the temptation as well. So we see that angels come and help even our Lord.

[9:13] And they assist us too with our prayers. Some have kind of described them as like heavenly postmen. That they help present our prayers. When we pray, they present our prayers.

[9:23] We see that there in Revelation 5 verse 8, that they come with these vials full of odours or this fragrance of worship, which are the prayers of the saints.

[9:35] So this kind of picture of incense, they present that before the Lord as a sweet-smelling offering. They present our prayers to God. And so the angels are sent by God in answer to the prayers of the saints.

[9:49] And they carry our prayers to God. And they carry the souls of believers to heaven when they die. So we see that there in the story of the rich man and Lazarus, Luke 16.

[10:03] It simply says the rich man died and went to hell. But it says about Lazarus, the beggar, it says when the beggar died, he was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

[10:14] So we see that they're especially used of God to take the soul of believers to heaven when they die. Another thing is that they are guardian angels.

[10:28] That's a term we could use. It's maybe not strictly a scriptural term. But there is that sense where angels watch over God's people. So Matthew 18 verse 10 talks about little ones.

[10:39] Angels take care of God's people. They watch over, they protect. Psalm 91, it says that he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.

[10:56] Of course we know in Daniel that angels shut the mouths of lions. In Daniel 6 verse 16 through 22, angels freed the apostles from prison.

[11:06] And angels watch over churches and ministers. They watch over our worship. And one day, angels are going to gather the church up to heaven at his coming.

[11:22] Two angels are named. Two angels. Michael and Gabriel. Michael. We see Michael talked about in Jude 1 verse 9.

[11:35] He's a prince with God. It's also talked about in Daniel 10. Called the great prince. In Jude 1 verse 9, it tells us that Michael is the archangel.

[11:49] Michael and his angels in Revelation 12 verse 7. So it's got this sense that he's got some special higher roles. He's got some elevated rank.

[12:01] Michael is really the only archangel mentioned in the Bible. So the word archangel only is two times in the Bible. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16.

[12:13] And then this one here, Jude 1 verse 9. So the word archangel, it means chief angel. So ark has got the sense of chief. It's a chief angel.

[12:24] And whilst Michael's the only one named an archangel, Daniel 10 verse 13 might indicate that he's just one of the archangels.

[12:34] So we don't know who the others are, if that's the case. So there's a bit of conjecture. Is he the only one or there could be others? If he is the only archangel, then it's his voice that we'll hear at the rapture when he calls us to himself.

[12:48] Remember, angels are messengers and his message, the Lord's message has come up hither. The other one named is Gabriel.

[12:59] And Gabriel stands in the presence of the Lord. So Gabriel is God's messenger of mercy and promise. And he appears by name four times. Each time he's bringing a message to an individual, to Daniel, to Zacharias, to Mary about the birth of a son, the Lord Jesus.

[13:17] So he's got this special announcing role. When you look at the different angels and the kinds of angels, there's different divisions of angelic beings. So we'll go through that now. And Revelation 8.13 talks about how angels fly.

[13:34] Seraphims and cherubims are mentioned as having wings, but angels and archangels do not. It's a common way that people picture them, angels having wings.

[13:46] But only the seraphim and the cherubim are mentioned as having wings. So angels and archangels, it doesn't say that they have wings. But they do fly, as we see in these couple of scriptures here, that the angels fly.

[14:03] So let's have a look at some of these different divisions of angelic beings. So seraphims, let's look at them firstly. And we see they are talked about in Isaiah 6.

[14:14] And we see how they cry, holy, holy, holy. It talks about these seraphim. They've each got six wings. With two they cover their face. With two they cover their feet.

[14:25] And with two they fly. So this fiery six-winged creature announces the holiness of God. Holy, holy, holy. Holy, holy.

[15:03] The next one we see are the cherubim. So cherubim is the word, it's the plural for the word cherub. And the cherubim are mentioned in 15 books of the Bible. So quite a lot of references to cherubim.

[15:16] And they're mentioned right at the start, right at Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve were excluded from the garden. And we see that the cherubim were there, guarding the way to the Garden of Eden with this flaming sword.

[15:30] So they couldn't go back into the garden. And then we see that they're talked about in Exodus 25. You see there that reference there of two cherubims of gold.

[15:42] There was this form there of the cherubim over the mercy seat. And then in 1 Kings 6, it talks about the cherubim in Ezekiel's visions too. So again, that's a very important kind of angel, the cherubim.

[15:58] And they have got this role of protecting the holiness of God, cherubim. So let's have a look at angels now, just angels in particular. And what does the Bible say about angels?

[16:12] What does Christ teach us about angels? So here's a few references to angels. What our Lord taught about angels. Angels are in heaven. It talks about the angels of heaven.

[16:22] Angels. So when they came to Abraham, they had this human form. Had the willpower to reject and to forsake his place in heaven.

[16:34] They've got linguistic ability. It talks about tongues of angels. Of course, whenever they do speak with languages of angels, it's always in an understood language, but they do speak.

[16:46] And we see the angels talked about having glory. Other things about angels, they need no rest. They ascend and descend from heaven.

[16:56] We see that in Jacob's ladder. They wear garments. So they're clothed. They're subject to God and they stand before him. And angels can appear unaware.

[17:06] So it talks about entertaining strangers, that we can entertain angels unawares. So who knows whether you might have already encountered an angel. It's conceivable. And we see that angels are inferior to Christ, now that Christ is exalted and risen.

[17:24] So let's have a look at some of the responsibilities of God's righteous angels. Again, we're just really giving you references here. There's lots of scriptures you can look up for yourself. But think about what does the Bible say about the responsibilities of righteous angels.

[17:38] It tells us that they're going to guard the gates of the new Jerusalem, our final home. It says they'll help regather Israel. They'll separate the righteous from the unrighteous.

[17:50] They will accompany Christ to earth at his coming. And they will bind Satan and guard the abbess, the bottomless pit. So what are angels doing right now?

[18:03] Presently, angels are waging war in actual combat. They're helping execute judgment. They're ministering to the saints. They're helping real nations.

[18:13] They're helping individuals. They praise and worship God. They strengthen us in trial as they did our Lord at the temptation. They help direct sinners to the gospel witness.

[18:25] They help direct gospel workers to witness to sinners. And they minister before God. They protect the saints. They witness our confessions. So when we confess Christ, the angels hear that.

[18:36] And they help transport the saved to the presence of God at death, as we talked about just before. What are some of the ministry of angels? Some dot points here just summing up the ministry of angels.

[18:50] They're called ministering spirits. In Hebrews 1, verse 14. So their ministry is the worship of God. As we talked about, very commonly talked about, their worship.

[19:03] They're messengers of God. Their very name angel means messenger. They're soldiers in spiritual combat. They're part of the host, the heavenly host. The angel of the Lord is the Lord of hosts.

[19:14] And then we see they minister to God's people. They're ministering spirits. So they minister to us. Maybe they're ministering without us even realizing it. Who knows whether we might have had an accident we've averted because an angel helped.

[19:29] Who knows? We could kind of contemplate that. It could be a prospect. It could be a possibility. Next, we see the ministry of angels towards God. Again, some of this is a bit repetitive, but they worship.

[19:42] Worship is really one of the primary ministries of angels. They worship God. Again, they minister. Hebrews 1, verse 7. There's that sense where they're ministering.

[19:54] They're agents of God's rule as well. And angels can even control nature. They're used of God to deliver the Lord to Moses. What about the ministry to Christ?

[20:07] As we talked about, angels announced his birth. They predicted his birth. They protected him as a child, as a baby. And then at the temptation, they strengthened him.

[20:19] They prepared to defend him. But he didn't call on them, as we talked about. They rolled away the stone and announced he has risen. Serve our life and our experiences.

[20:31] Angels are interested in evangelistic efforts. You know, Luke 15, numbers of times it talks about joy with the angels in heaven. I do that. We're not to pray to angels or worship them.

[20:43] That's very clear. It's often talked about. And angels may have contact with humans without their knowledge. So again, who knows if that could be so.

[20:54] Because we know when they appeared to like Abraham and Sarah, they were just in human form. They just looked like men. It tells us again, just the last one there, that believers will judge angels.

[21:05] So there's some sense where we're going to have some authority over angels. There's going to be a judgment of angels. Next one, the ministry of angels to unbelievers. So angels minister to unbelievers too.

[21:16] We see that Michael is Israel's guardian. And there's a sense where he has some role there to play. Angels are going to be involved in the executing of the judgments of the tribulation period.

[21:27] Angels bring punishment to unbelievers. Now, next we're going to look at the devil's angels. All right. Top of page five there. The devil's fallen angels.

[21:37] So we've looked at angelology. You could call this demonology. Again, there's lots of scriptures. We're just glossing it over really. But let's have a look at what the Bible talks about of these fallen angels.

[21:50] These fallen angels. What does the Bible talk to us about, these fallen angels? So the word devils is found 55 times in the King James Bible, four times in the Old Testament, 51 times in the New.

[22:03] So the New Testament word in the Greek is daemon, from which we get the word demon. Of course, the word demon is not found in the King James Bible. But we could understand that they're the same.

[22:15] Devils is the Bible word in the King James. And so the meaning of the term demon means evil spirit or a devil. And so this word occurs numbers of times here, 61 times in the singular, 55 in the plural.

[22:30] So the word devil and demons are this translation of this Hebrew word here. And it can refer to a he-goat or malignant spirits.

[22:40] It has the idea of destruction. Then in the Greek, in the New Testament, you've got the word daemon, daemonium. A demon, a supernatural spirit of bad character. And so someone could be possessed with a devil.

[22:53] So to be demonised is to have a devil or an unclean spirit. It's almost like you could picture it as like a puppet. A person having a demon is under this control, as a puppet master would control a puppet.

[23:06] And a person who is demon possessed is said to be vexed with an unclean spirit. So to be vexed means to be miserably disturbed or troubled or tormented. And so when you look at the influence of demons, you could see it as twofold here, from within or from without.

[23:21] So from within, this sense of being demonised or being demon possessed, it's where a demon takes full possession or control of a person. Where a person is demonised, there's got this sense of this total control, where the demon performs his will through his victim.

[23:39] Speaking through him, making him dumb or blind, giving him superhuman strength, causing him to run around naked, making him mutilate himself or driving him insane.

[23:49] And so the victim is indwelt by the demons and becomes its slave. So that's the influence from within, when there's that really possession. And then there's a sense where demonisation, this being demonised can come from without.

[24:05] Where the demon tempts the person to cause him to sin. So it's not within the person, but it's coming, it's more like oppression. You could say there's possession and then there's oppression.

[24:15] So from within, they're demonised, they're demon possessed. From without, it's more like demonic oppression. So it comes from without. And so a demon can tempt the person to sin, to jealousy, to pride.

[24:32] We know that in Ephesians 6, it talks about the context about the spiritual armour, the whole armour of God, that the devil fires his fiery darts. So it's coming from without. These darts get censored as from outside.

[24:43] The demons do not take possession of and have no control over the believer. So like we studied before about the study of Satan, it talks about one of the names of Satan as Beelzebub or the prince of devils.

[24:57] It indicates that the devil has some kind of rule or authority over these fallen angels, these evil spirits, these demons.

[25:09] And we know that one third of the angels followed Satan in rebellion against God. As we talked about how they fell from heaven, he took a third of the angels.

[25:21] So he's got this kind of temporary rule over the earth. Now, as the notes tell us, this is a usurped role. So basically, he's dethroned Adam.

[25:32] He's kind of taken Adam's role. Adam was supposed to be having dominion over the earth, and now the devil has that temporarily. So it's by God's permission entirely as well.

[25:44] And it's a rule that's limited to influencing human beings to follow himself and his will instead of God and his will. And then the last one there, a rule is temporary.

[25:57] Soon it's going to be abrogated. Soon Christ is going to return and he's going to have rightful rule of planet earth. He's going to take rulership of the earth. So the devil's just got this temporary dominion of sorts in part, only at God's willingness to.

[26:14] So next paragraph talks about God is not at present theocratically administering the world. So it's kind of a big technical term in the sense that theocracy means the rule of the world by God, theocratic, that God is the king.

[26:32] So God is not kind of administering the rule theocratically in that full sense in an absolute or outright manner. He did so before the fall, before Satan's fall, but he will do so during the millennium and, of course, beyond.

[26:48] For the meantime, during these 6,000 years between Eden and Christ's return, or however long it works out at, the world's populated by sinful people, and to a large degree they're under the devil's control.

[27:03] And we know, as we talked about Satan before, so we won't go into the detail, take over. And destroy the devil's power. Of course, we know that through salvation, the Lord turns us from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

[27:21] Fallen angels were created originally good. They were created, really everything was good. He fell and took the angels, some third of the angels with him.

[27:33] So sin entered, some angels became fallen angels. Because Lucifer was the first and leader of the fall. Why did he fall? Because of pride. It says in Ezekiel 28, 17, that his heart was lifted up.

[27:47] So we see in the Bible, the heart is described as the centre of our thoughts, our emotions and intentions. And so pride was the big thing with Satan. He believed the lie that he could be God.

[27:59] And after the fall, he was no longer Lucifer, the light bearer, but Satan, adversary. So when you think about Satan's fall, and you see that really Satan's got this temporary kingdom.

[28:11] And the next section there talks about some differences between Satan's realm and the kingdom of God. So God's kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. The devil's kingdom is temporary.

[28:23] God's kingdom is universal. The devil's kingdom is confined to the world. And only for a time. It's limited. God's kingdom is one of eternal life.

[28:34] But the devil's kingdom knows this fear of death and the continued control of the devil. During our Lord's first coming, Christ bore witness to his kingdom that would not take possession of the world until the appointed time.

[28:48] So his kingdom, Christ's kingdom, is yet to be fully realised, is yet to come. Until our Lord comes again, the nations of the world are under this influence of the devil and his nominal control.

[29:04] You can see that in the influence that the world has. We see how the world is often really quite clearly it's a fallen world that we're living in because the devil's got this temporary sway.

[29:15] And then the next section there you see some of the characteristics of demons. So they're spirit beings. They know Jesus Christ. They know their own end. They know the plan of salvation even.

[29:27] They've got a system of doctrine. But they're immoral, wicked and unclean. So just back to the slides again. The devils basically exist in two kinds of groups.

[29:40] So you've got the fallen angels which are bound and then you've got the fallen angels which are free. So the Bible talks about certain angels that are fallen that they are bound.

[29:51] They were free at one point but because of their evil deeds they've been cast into hell and chained up. Now that's the Greek word tartarus which is this special kind of hell, this special kind of holding place.

[30:03] That they're held there. They're chained there. And that is talked about in 2 Peter 2 and Jude 1 verse 6. So some fallen angels are held in this holding place called tartarus.

[30:18] But it's a special kind of hell, a special purposefully for those fallen angels. Then it talks about fallen angels which are free. So these ones dwell with Satan on the earth at the moment under his rule.

[30:33] And they're free to roam in the air and on the earth to do Satan's work. So they're called devils or demons. These will end up in hell for that is why hell was prepared originally. Matthew 25 verse 41 talks about the hell was prepared for the devil.

[30:48] We see that demons can inflict disease. They can possess humans, possess animals and they can spread false doctrine. And they oppose the spiritual growth of God's children.

[30:58] You can look up all these various verses to test with devils or a devil. It occurs 11 times in the Gospels and cults and such things in our day.

[31:11] We see churches called spiritualist church as it talks about the love of the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh. Certain derangement of mind and a body. So demon possession is to be distinguished.

[31:24] There's a lot of teachers out there on the internet lately making a lot of show of his personality. So on the one hand he ran to Jesus for help yet he cried out in fear and entered the swine.

[31:35] So it's a good picture of what demon possession actually is system. But they cannot touch God's child. We're protected from the evil one. And we never find any indication that a believer can be indwelt by a demon.

[31:50] Nor are we ever given any command or instruction concerning the casting out of demons. So this passage speaking of delivering a believer to Satan, that's 1 Corinthians 5 verse 5, where they're handed over someone to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

[32:05] It's not meaning that they're delivered to devil possession, demon possession. I know there's some very popular charismatic teachers at the moment there. And they're making a big thing about delivering people from demons and including Christians.

[32:20] It's one of the big fads lately where they're getting Christians to be delivered from demons routinely. But the whole idea is false because if you're really a believer in Christ, you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

[32:34] You cannot have a demon indwelling you. You cannot be possessed of a demon. So there's a whole lot of false ideas like in this next section here. And really these are things you hear a lot about.

[32:45] It's constant on the internet, especially from charismatic teachers. And really these are false ideas. Even the idea of binding Satan.

[32:57] So this comes from misinterpreting three different passages there. Matthew 12, 16, 18. The context is talking about Christ's personal power over Satan, not ours.

[33:10] And in Matthew 16 and 18, it's talking about church discipline. It's about fulfilling God's will on earth. It's not telling us that we can bind Satan as much as that is something commonly people say.

[33:22] So rebuking the devil, again, that's another thing that believers are never instructed to rebuke the devil or his demons.

[33:34] In fact, it tells us that only Christ can do that. In Jude 1, verse 9, it says, The Lord rebuke you. And so really it's a mark of false prophets rather than anything. They're doing something that's not biblical, basically.

[33:47] Rebuking the devil is not really a biblical thing to do. And then praying the blood, some say, or will pray the covering of the blood. Again, it's a phrase or idea. It's not actually biblical.

[33:59] When we save, Christ's blood delivers us from sin. When we save, Christ's blood covers us. But we don't need to pray the blood, the covering of the blood. And then another one that's commonly talked about is the inherited curses.

[34:14] And again, this is inaccurate too. Because when we save, Christ delivers us from all of our sins. Including occultic sins. Including any sins that our forebears might have been involved with.

[34:25] The Bible doesn't recognise occultic sin as some special category that is not dealt with at the cross. So when we save, all of our sin is dealt with at the cross. We don't have to be worried about whether our father or grandfather was a Freemason.

[34:39] Or involved in seances or Satan worship or anything like that. When we save, Christ delivers us. He sets us free. He saves us from all our sin. We don't have to be worried about what our forebears have done.

[34:51] So as you see in the Bible, you see bad kings and good kings. You know, they're either a righteous king or they're an unrighteous king. And some righteous kings have very unrighteous fathers and grandfathers.

[35:05] So it's really, it's a very personal thing. When we get saved, we get saved. And we get delivered from all of our sins. So there's no example in the Bible of a saved person being under some satanic curse.

[35:17] That has to be broken by some kind of exorcism. Or distinct confession. We would understand that really the sign gifts, as we talked about in earlier sessions, like tongues, prophecy and such.

[35:32] And really including the casting out of demons in terms of the context of Mark 16. It's more of a sign gift. It was for that purpose of that time where God's word was yet to be fully delivered in the canon.

[35:46] And so there was this kind of temporary period. So the sense of casting out demons like the apostles did is not really applicable.

[36:00] What we can see for ourselves today, the best way to get rid of a demon is for someone to get saved, basically. So we know in Romans 1.16 it talks about that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes.

[36:15] And so that includes deliverance from demonic possession and control. Really the gospel is the most powerful means to deliver a person. Not only from sin, but from Satan as well.

[36:28] When someone gets saved, if they might have been a witch or a warlock or playing around with seances as a kid. Or doing spiritual things like playing around with astrology or voodoo or whatever it be.

[36:40] Witchcraft of any kind or shape or form. When they get saved, they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And God delivers them from all of that sin.

[36:50] And he saves them and forgives them. And darkness cannot fight the light. But as it says in 1 John 4.4 that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So when the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you, he's greater than all of that.

[37:04] All of that baggage that you might have had. And here's another kind of good summary of really the provision of victory that we have as saved people. Faith is the victory.

[37:15] Really, it tells us that this is the victory that overcomes the world. Even our faith. 1 John 5.4. So when we save, we've got victory over Satan. We don't have to be worried and spooked about any kind of weird stuff.

[37:28] Or some people go on and on about cleansing a house of demonic spirits. Or worried that they've gone to a haunted house. And getting all this spooky weird feelings about stuff.

[37:40] You know, we've got Christ in us. Greater is he that is in you, the Holy Spirit, than he that is in the world. And so we've got that victory that we can claim by faith. We've got the filling of the Holy Spirit.

[37:51] That he's filling our life. We've got victory over the flesh and over the devil. We've got victory because of the word of God. As we know the word.

[38:02] As we hide the word in our heart. How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto. According to thy word. You know, we've got the indwelling word of God. We've got sound doctrine because we know the scriptures.

[38:14] And the word will build our faith. And help us to grow. And to be strong. And to combat the evil one. And then we've got the sense of diligence and discipline. As we are filled with the spirit.

[38:26] We're filled with the spirit. We have that disciplining of ourselves. That putting on of the righteousness of God. Putting on the whole armour of God. And so we've got that provision for victory.

[38:38] Friends, you know, as believers. Really, we don't have to be scared about the devil. Really, he's a defeated foe. For all of his roaring and noise. And all of his cohorts. We don't have to be worried about them.

[38:49] Because that simple scripture there. James 4, 7 through 8. Puts it really clearly too. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil. And he will flee from you. So again, a born again believer cannot be possessed by demons.

[39:02] As much as there's some false teachers. Really going on and on about that lately. And trying to get people all worried. And fretting and fussing. And thinking that they've got a demon under every bush.

[39:13] Or every little hiccup or cough that they have. Or every little mishap that they have in their life. Satan cannot dwell together with Christ. You know, how can light dwell with darkness?

[39:23] It can't. There's no communion there. And so for us, what are we to do? Put on the whole armour of God. There's a wonderful whole armour of God as we see. Ephesians 6, you know the scriptures here. That talk about this great armour of God.

[39:36] It tells about the belt of truth. The authority of God's word. It talks about the righteousness. The breastplate of righteousness. So the righteousness of Christ that we have. That salvation is credited to us.

[39:48] And then the practical righteousness of following him. Living right. The shoes of the gospel of peace. As we have God's peace. We have the shield of faith.

[39:59] Of course we're saved by faith. We have salvation by faith. And then there's the living out of the faith. The living out. Living by faith. The just shall live by faith. And then there's the helmet of salvation.

[40:11] Our assurance of salvation. We've got our confidence in God. We've got the sword of the spirit. The word of God. So all of these things help protect us. We're fully armed. If we would have that whole armour of God.

[40:21] We're fully armed to overcome the devil. And all of his cohorts. And so we don't need to be afraid about the devil. We just need to get more trusting in our God.

[40:32] To fulfil his word. In having the victory that overcomes the world. Even our faith. In wearing the whole armour of God. And growing in our faith. In getting stronger. Knowing his word.

[40:44] And letting our faith get stronger and stronger. And so ultimately the word of God tells us that the destiny of devils. Of these false spirits. These fallen angels.

[40:56] Is to be cast into the bottomless pit. Then to be loosed during the tribulation. And then eventually to be cast into the lake of fire.

[41:07] So the devil and all these angels. Are going to be cast into the lake of fire forever. So that's Matthew 25.41. And Revelation 20.10. Verse 10. We can be encouraged to know.

[41:18] That the devil and all these angels. Are going to be consigned to hell forever. The lake of fire forever. So for the meantime. In this battle that we're in. We can take heart. We can take encouragement.

[41:29]  We've got victory. Because faith is the victory. And we've got the armour of God to wear. And that can fully equip us. To overcome the devil. And all of his works.