October 21, 2001

Doctrines of Devils

1 Timothy 4:1

This week several people have asked me what I was going to preach on today. I have had some ask me if I was going to preach about Halloween. I thought I'd preached about Halloween a couple years ago, but I went and checked, and couldn't find that I had.

I asked the Lord what He wanted me to preach on, and Halloween seemed like it was part of the answer, but I knew that it was not the whole answer. The reason for that is, it would be a short sermon.
By the time that Barbara got the kids sat down and sorted out, the sermon would be over, because it wouldn't take me too long to tell you what I think about Halloween.

Halloween is to the devil as Resurrection Sunday is to us. Satan has been trying for hundreds of years to turn Resurrection Sunday into an egg hunt, Easter bunnies, baby ducks, anything but the fact that Jesus rose from the dead. So he tries to reinvent it. He puts a spin on it.

And he also puts a spin on his day, Halloween. He tries to persuade both saved and unsaved parents to teach their precious children to celebrate his night of power. He tries to convince everyone that Halloween is something it's not. He does a good job. Millions of people buy into it. Why? Why do Christian parents -of all people- do the Halloween thing?

I think the reason why we do things like that is because we have lost the big picture. The forest and the trees bit. We have lost sight of who we are, what's happening, and why. Because spiritual creatures are not visible to our physical eyes, because we don't see demons, because we don't think like they do, we forget that there is a war going on. We forget to teach our kids that there is an enemy out there that wants to destroy their souls.

We let down our guard. We get careless. We relax. We sleep. The enemy does not sleep, he watches, and when we get careless, we get hurt.

Let's talk about the occult. Halloween is just one piece of the puzzle, let's look at several pieces and then put them together and see what the big picture looks like. Witchcraft, sorcery, astrology, horoscopes, spiritism, UFO's, charms, amulets, spells, incantations, tarot cards, fortune tellers, Halloween: are these all different things, or all part of the same big picture? Are they all different battles of the same war?

Something that has always distinguished this particular martial arts school, is that instead of learning 500 different responses for 500 different attacks, you focus on the simple basic principles of defense, and then no matter how the attack comes, you will know what to do. The spiritual realm is the same way: learn the basic principles of spiritual warfare, and then no matter what the particular situation, there will be certain principles that will show you how to respond.

If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, you've done well, but I don't want you chasing around today looking up verses, that's why they are printed in your bulletin handout.
1 Timothy 4:1 is our sermon text: "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;" There is a constant in the history of mankind: a seducing spirit, and devilish teachings. Satan led Eve down the primrose path, and he got her to believe a lie instead of the truth of God. That same thing has continued throughout history, Paul says that in the last days, it will get worse. But it won't be any different.

Remember what we said about patterns repeating themselves? Same deception, different day. Genesis 3:1 on your handout, Satan questions whether God really said what He said. Then in verses 4 & 5, Satan tells Eve that God didn't tell the truth, and then he tells Eve that God is holding out on them, that there is hidden information that God knows, but hasn't revealed.

Does anyone here know what the word occult means? It means concealed, hidden; something secret. The whole realm of the occult involves people trying to discover secret things; things to give them knowledge, power, things to make them like gods, secret things of the supernatural. The things that God has supposedly hidden. Then when people go looking for those things, they encounter demons, demons that reveal things to them to seduce them away from God, feed them a few crumbs to lure them on, teach them things that blind their minds to the things of God. Things that seduce them. The whole world of the occult is like the seduction of our first parents. The details change, the game plan stays the same.

Something else that we have said before, is that Satan's counterfeits are based on reality. If you wanted to counterfeit a $20 bill, you wouldn't make it pink and put Hillary Clinton's picture on it, nobody would fall for it. Well, maybe; the people in New York elected her... anyway, a good counterfeit always looks plausible. Satan makes His counterfeits appear reasonable.

Satan accused God of holding out on Adam and Eve, of keeping back a blessing that they would want. That was a half truth. God did not reveal everything to Adam and Eve, neither was He required to. But the truth was that God had plans to make men and women to become like God, but it was in and through Jesus Christ that it would be accomplished. God intends that we should have knowledge and wisdom that incredibly exceed what we have now, but it will be in and through Jesus Christ that we will have it.
God intends that we will not die, but have eternal life, but only through having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Satan accused God of hiding those good things from man, and that if Eve thought they were worth having, she would need to get them herself.

It hasn't changed. That's why every other religion on earth requires man to obtain salvation through his own works, to seek out and acquire salvation through his own efforts. Satan deceived man into trying to discover and obtain for himself what God had planned to freely give all along. Some people he deceives with false religion, some he deceives with the occult, hidden things, tempting them to try and discover the secrets for themselves. And then he gives them just enough spiritual crumbs to make it seem plausible and worthwhile.

What do those crumbs look like? God gives us a list of them in Deuteronomy 18: 9, look at what He says:
"When thou art come into the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations.
Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch.
Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Deu 18:12 For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee."
Quite a list. The first one, thankfully, we don't hear of too often, sacrificing your child to some god as a burnt offering.

The next one, divination, we hear about a lot, but we don't always recognize it for what it is. Divination is trying to find out the future. What's going to happen next? God knows the future, and we want to know it too; maybe there is some way to find it out? I know: I'll call and ask Miss Cleo! "You better stay away from that man, Honey, he going to cheat you and leave you in the dirt!" We see her and her Tarot cards on TV, that is a popular method with some people.

Other people think that dreams can reveal the future. God used dreams in the Bible in a lot of places to reveal the future to a number of people, and Satan likes to counterfeit the methods of God. There is an interesting passage in Isaiah 65:2, and it is helpful to understand exactly what it was that these people were doing that was so bad. "I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
Isa 65:3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
Isa 65:4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels"
The Egyptians believed, and some of the Hebrews copied, the practice of sleeping among the graves of their ancestors. They believed that if you did that, the spirits of the departed ancestors would reveal the future to you. God has Isaiah to condemn the practice of the Israelites sleeping among the graves of their ancestors to learn the future.

The last part of the verse also refers to divination; "broth of abominable things is in their vessels." The Greeks and Romans believed that by eating the hearts of different creatures, men could take the soul of that animal into their body and see things and understand things the way that creature did.

God reveals to us, through His prophets and through His Word, what He wants us to know, and when He wants us to know it. He tells us about the end times. He tells us about specific countries, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Israel. He tells us in Isaiah 45:11 "Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me."
There are some things God wants us to know, and He is anxious that we should go to Him and ask Him.
In Daniel 2:28, Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar; "There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days." There are some things that God is pleased to reveal to us, and some things He doesn't think we need to know about. No big deal; we treat our kids the same way, right?

Keep in mind that the things God does choose to tell us about are true, they are reliable. They strengthen us and build us up. But when we go to the occult, instead of God's Word, when we go seeking things from the wrong source, bad things happen. Demonic spirits are waiting to feed us lies, and seduce us away from God, and ruin us.

There are other methods of divination; how many of you have ever seen a dowsing rod, or a water witch? You hold a forked rod out in front of you and when you get over water, it pulls down. That is nothing new, Hosea 4:12 tells us: "My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them:" The word staff here means a stick or a wand. A divining rod.

How about seances? Everybody gets together in a dark room, and you sit around a table, and call up the spirit of the dearly departed, and ask them questions about whatever? Nothing new about that. In Isaiah 8:19, God tells His people; " And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? Instead of for the living to the dead?" God doesn't want us trying to ask the dead anything, that is called necromancy. All you get from that is a lying spirit. When you open that kind of door, nasty things come in.

How many of you have ever seen the magic 8 ball? It has some kind of black inky stuff in it, you ask a question, and when you turn it over, some kind of generic yes/no/maybe answer will appear? Or Ouija boards? You ask some kind of question, and your hands get guided to spell out some answer. Who or what do you think guides your hands? The tooth fairy?

About now, you ought to be noticing a common thread that runs through all this stuff: it is not the method that matters, it is that you are asking someone or something other than God. Forget the trees, the forest is right in front of you. The forest is that God is the answer to what you need to know. God will supply all your need, but when you turn from that, when you start seeking something that God has chosen not to reveal, you open your door to deception.

When you go out in a fishing boat in the ocean, if you want to catch fish, you first need to attract fish to you. You take with you this slop that is called chum, it is a bucket of dead fish that is all chopped up and mixed with water, and when you get to a good spot, you dump this chum over the side, and it attracts fish like crazy, because they think there is a lot to eat there. If you want to catch sharks, you stop at a butcher shop on the way to the dock, and get a bucket of blood and pour it in the water, and it attracts sharks.
If you want to attract demonic spirits, you start trying to find out the future, and spiritually speaking, you have chummed the water, you'll get some action.

The spiritual principle is that God will reveal through His Word what He wants you to know, but if you rebel, and start to go off into the things that God has chosen not to reveal, the hidden things, then you attract the attention of the enemy. You have chummed the water. Lying spirits, seducing spirits, that will teach you demonic teachings, not the truth, not the things of God.

The list in Deuteronomy 10 continues; "an observer of times, or an enchanter." The word enchanter here refers to an astrologer. Astrology. The constellations of the heavens are divided into twelves signs, the signs of the Zodiac, and your future is supposedly determined by the stars, and the times. Do you know anybody that takes their horoscope seriously? A lot of people do, it's big business.

Christians are beginning to discover that it was God that put the Zodiac into place, and that originally the Zodiac taught and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, most of what the ancients understood about that is lost to history, and now there are more gaps than information. But the Zodiac was originally a testimony to Jesus Christ and His salvation. Over the centuries it has been corrupted into astrology, and it has become a tool of the enemy. The truth has been changed into a lie.

The next thing in Deuteronomy 18:10 is a witch. The Hebrew word for witch means; "one that knows," and can refer to either a man or a woman. Something that is really interesting, in verse 11, the part about "a consulter with familiar spirits, a wizard, or a necromancer," all of these terms are variations on the same thing. They all refer to someone who communicates with spirits, or has a familiar spirit that advises them, what we would call today a "chaneller,"

We think of a witch or a wizard as someone that casts spells, but that is not a very good translation of the Hebrew, actually our language doesn't have any really good words to translate it. So all these different terms refer to people that communicate with spirits, and that just points us back to our original idea, seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. The enemy using various similar methods and techniques to try and seduce us away from God's truth, get us to believe lies instead.

There is a word in verse 11 that we skipped, it has a different meaning, and that is "a charmer." Language changes over the years, and this refers to what we would call a sorcerer, or a warlock. A powerful wizard, a magician of the black arts. The Hebrew word is khaw-bar, and it means a whisperer, a spell caster.
One who ties knots and uses knot - k n o t- knot magic to unite people together, or to bind certain actions, or bind demons. They would make fancy knots, whisper spells over them, and those knots would have power over the spirit world, they would bind the spirit to the will of the person having the knot, or they would protect whoever carried them against evil spirits.

Does that sound familiar? It ought to, those things are more popular today than ever before. Go into any store that sells Native American items and you will find them in all shapes and sizes. Who can tell me what they are called? Dream catchers. A dream catcher is a perfect example of an ancient fetish or amulet, a charm that was used 3500 years ago has come back to our modern culture.

Isn't it interesting that certain things keep coming back, from culture to culture, through all ethnic groups, certain things keep repeating themselves? Why is it that people in all cultures, all races, have this persistent tendency to want lucky charms, amulets, fetishes? The only way that could happen, is for some very old intelligence to keep repeating the same strategy and techniques.

Amulets, charms and fetishes come in all shapes and sizes, some of them would surprise you, the common thread is why you have it, and what you think it's for.

We will not take the time to really get into it, but there are a lot of places in the Old testament where God really gets down on the Israelites because of their earrings. Exodus chapter 32, "And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
Exo 32:2 And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.
Exo 32:3 And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron.
Exo 32:4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

In that culture, earrings were not primarily for decoration, they were charms, they were used as amulets for protection, and isn't it wonderful that they used those amulets to make the golden calf? They went from one occult purpose directly into another.

Genesis 35, "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there: and make there an altar unto God, that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother.
Gen 35:2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments:
Gen 35:3 And let us arise, and go up to Bethel; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.
Gen 35:4 And they gave unto Jacob all the strange gods which were in their hand, and all their earrings which were in their ears; and Jacob hid them under the oak which was by Shechem."
Their earrings were put into the same category as their household gods. That would not have happened unless there was a reason. Their earrings were their amulets, their fetishes. Jewelry that was used as charms to give power over or protection from, evil spirits.

That is why God condemned those things. That was what made those things evil. The people were using a form of the occult to meet their needs rather than trusting in God, trusting in His care and protection.
When you put your trust or confidence into some charm, or amulet, or fetish instead of God, then you might just as well set up an idol in your living room and bow yourself down to it, there is no difference, you have committed the same spiritual adultery either way.

If I was to ask for a show of hands; "How many of you would set up an altar to a false god in your home?" I know that none of you would raise your hands, but lets look at another scripture, and see if we are as faithful as we think we are.

Deuteronomy 7 gives God's instructions to His people as they are coming into their land from Egypt; the land is full of Canaanite tribes, idol worshipers, false gods, and God is warning them not to compromise.
He tells them: "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therin: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God."

They were not even allowed to peel the gold or silver off a wooden idol, burn the idol, and melt the gold or silver down and reuse it. Once it was defiled by it's use on an idol, it was worse than useless, it was a dangerous temptation, and they were to consider it an abomination also. Next verse: Deu. 7:26 "Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing."

An abomination is a wicked thing, something evil or contrary to the holiness or knowledge of God. In this situation, it also means something that has spiritual baggage, demonic ties, roots in spiritual evil.

A couple weeks ago we studied the verse from 1st John, "that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." Since that is true, we shouldn't be trying to bring things associated with darkness into where we live.
God was telling His people right from the start not to bring anything into your home that has it's source or basis in the occult, or comes from demonic teachings. If that was true for Israel thousands of years ago, then it ought to also be true for us today. This has nothing to do with Old Testament/New Testament, Law/Grace, Israel or Church dispensations; this is good common sense that has application just as much now as it did back then.

God says that we are to detest things that have demonic ties. We are to abhor things that have demonic roots, things that point to demonic concepts. If it was true for Israel back then, surely it ought to apply to the church today. But do we do it? Maybe. Maybe not.

The problem is not always us, it's our kids. Satan attacked Eve when she had no experience in dealing with a treacherous enemy. How much experience do our kids have in dealing with him? None.

What happens is, we take our kids to the store with us, and they see things they want. Toys. That's normal, no big deal. Or they see things advertised on TV for kids, and they want one. So what? That's normal too. But isn't it remarkable that toy makers and toy sellers seem to have this constant urge to make and sell stuff with demonic baggage tied to it?

How about Trolls? Troll dolls were big several years ago, cute little guys with Don King haircuts. The Germans believed that trolls were earth demons. The Swedes and Norwegians believed that they ate humans. All of them believed that trolls were wife stealers. The occult teaches that there are two types of sexual demons, the incubus and the succubus. The succubus spirit materializes at night as a woman to have sex with a man, the incubus spirit materializes as a man to have sex with a woman. The troll is a personification of the incubus spirit, and troll dolls were primarily marketed to little girls. You don't suppose that was just a coincidence, do you?

I know a gentleman involved in ministry who will tell you of three different households with little girls who very innocently brought troll dolls home, and nightmares started. The little girls began having horrible dreams. But when they got rid of the troll dolls, the nightmares quit. Is that too far out? Is that being superstitious? Is that being simple minded? It probably depends on whether or not it was your daughter, and how well she was sleeping.

At this point I could stand up here and give you a list of a whole bunch of other things that I have serious doubts about. Harry Potter, Poke'mon, Dungeons and Dragons, whatever. That is not my place. I would very quickly become a legalistic person, and God does not need me to play Holy Spirit. He does not need me to try and go around convicting you of what convicts me. We do not need to play Holy Spirit to each other. What convicts some one of us, -and I am speaking of things that the Scripture is silent on, not things that the Bible makes plain- concerning the things that the Bible is silent on, it is not wisdom for us to then go around trying to play Holy Spirit convicting each other.

I'm sure that I do some things that some of you wouldn't approve of, and I'm sure you do some things that I wouldn't approve of. So? What else is new? You don't need a legalistic list from me, and I don't need one from you.. What we all need is the Holy Spirit making us sensitive to things that grieve Him, and then be willing to get rid of those things.

Even more important, we want to ask the Holy Spirit to make Jesus Christ even more lovely to us, even more wonderful to us, realizing that He is even more capable of meeting our needs, than we have ever seen Him before. Jesus has always been able, the problem is that our faith has been too weak to appreciate His wonder, His loveliness, and His abilities.

We have a faith that is based on love. The love the God has for us, because He loved us first. And the love that we have for Him, because He did love us first, even when we were unlovely. That is the greatest positive there could ever be, and it is such a big yes that it makes it pretty easy when sometimes we need to say no to something.

I want you to leave here today determined that you will not give the enemy an inch in any direction.

I want you to teach your kids to love Jesus so much that they wouldn't want to give the devil an inch either. You will need to do that by example. That kind of love is caught as much as taught.

How do you make those decisions as to what is innocent and OK, and what is enemy action? Remember the basics of deception: what does a seducing spirit do? Cast doubt on the love and sufficiency of God. Make you think that you need something more than God can supply. Make you think that you can be more or better than you are, by learning hidden things.

The devil wants to be like an infestation of fleas. He wants to get into your life, into your home, into the lives of your kids, how you think, how you act, seducing you away from God, teaching you to follow him instead of trusting in Jesus to meet all your needs. How you act and what you do depends on who you love, and who you trust in and believe.

Proverbs 3:5 says: " Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." It's true. God is able and He is faithful. He wants us to take Him at face value and prove Him to be faithful and true. Will you do it? I trust that you will.