I'm going to ask that we bow in prayer every head bowed and every eye closed in prayer Our Father we pray that thou would come in Mighty power and touch every life in this audience tonight in Texas and we pray that those that need burdens lifted and problems solved and sin forgiven may find all their need met in him tonight but we ask it in his name amen now tonight I want you to turn with me to the fifth chapter of Mark's gospel the fifth chapter of Mark's gospel I'm not going to read it because
it's too long to read but I'm going to tell you the story because it's the story of Jesus encounter with a demon possessed man and I want to talk tonight about the devil and demons and witches and wizards Jesus Christ 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 got thirsty and he was asleep in this boat and a storm came up and you remember the story the disciples became afraid and
they said master we're going to perish they were terrified and Jesus stood up in the boat and held up his hand and said peace be still the wind calmed down the lightning quit flashing the Thunder quit roaring and the disciples were even more afraid they said what manner of man is this that even the Winds of aame they had not yet come to the full recognition that here was the master of all the ages the king of kings and Lord of lords and God of very Gods but they got on the other side of the
little Sea of Galilee and there they met a strange sight a wild man a naked man bleeding from head to toe from wounds self-inflicted came running and screaming toward them and the Bible says that he was possessed by a demon you say now Billy do you believe that they were really demons yes I believe that there were real demons in Jesus day and I believe they are real demons right now there is a real devil there's a real devil in the world now the Bible teaches it and we can see evidences of his work everywhere
and all of us that are living the Christian Life meet him every day because we're in a conflict not with flesh and blood the Bible says but with spiritual forces principalities and powers and rulers of the dark places there is a devil and there are demons now they may be more sophisticated in America than they are some other parts of the world but they're demons nevertheless you see man has to have some sort of a supernatural power beyond himself to follow and many times if he doesn't follow God the true God he's going to manufacturer
God or he'll just follow the devil straight out now what does satan mean in the Bible the word Satan that is used so often in the Bible it comes from a Greek word and the word Devils comes from another word demonia and the Bible has a lot to say about these demons it says that they're capable of entering and controlling a man they can enter you and control you the Bible says that they're spoken of all the way through the Bible is unclean violent and malicious the Bible says that they're in Conflict even with Christians
now I do not believe that a Christian can be possessed of the devil I do not believe that a True born-again Believer can be demon possessed but the demons will bother you and irritate you and harass you and work on you night and day day and the moment you receive Christ as Savior you'll know the devil's very much alive we are wrestling not with flesh and blood but against principalities and Powers now every person you listen to this every person outside of Christ is in danger of demon possession you are a possible subject of of
demon possession you know one of the terrible features of the Judgment at the end of the world is going to be that new demons are going to be let out of the bottomless pit and they are going to be powerful personages that are going to cause violence and trouble throughout the world and I sometimes think some of them must have been released in the last few years the demon of drugs there's a relationship between sorcery and Witchcraft and drugs according to the Bible the demon of alcoholism 7 million chronic alcoholics in America made invalids by
alcohol sex Obsession I've met people that tell me that they're actually obsessed with it they can think of nothing else they're just like the people of Noah's day whose imaginations were evil continually till the Judgment came I believe that a great deal of this is demon power that we have to reckon with in our generation you say Billy that's not just the devil that'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's been there all the
time and the only Power in the world that can overcome Satan is the Lord Jesus Christ and you can say in the Name of Christ and it frightens him you can quote the word of God and he will flee you know Jesus was attacked by the devil in the wilderness when he was weak from thirst and hunger the devil came and attacked him three times Jesus never argued with him he never debated with him what did Jesus do Jesus just quoted scripture that's the reason it's important for you to memorize scripture that's the reason we
give you verses to memorize when you come to Christ it's important for you to memorize scripture so that you'll have scripture to quote to the devil in the hour of Temptation now the Bible teaches that God never tempts anybody if you're tempted to do wrong that's the devil tempting you and the the way to overcome that temptation is to quote scripture and to be filled with the spirit of God and walking in the will of God as Jesus was in the Temptation now I want you to notice this man that came running toward Jesus that
day when he landed on the other side of the Sea of Galilee notice some of the things about him it says an unclean Spirit indel him look at all the filth and the pollution in America today I'm not talking about the atmospheric pollution that's bad enough I'm talking about the moral pollution we have an unclean spirit that seems to have settled Over America and over the world it seems that people are sitting down and trying to think up new ways to do evil new ways to Violence new ways to hate new ways for sex perversion
an unclean Spirit was in control of that man and Jesus looked upon that unclean Spirit as a supernatural power and then notice he wore no clothes look at the increase in nudity today I wonder if the devil has something to do with that you can hardly go to a movie I'm told today that doesn't have a nude scene in it our obsession with nudity this man had no clothes on and then notice he was mentally deranged one out of every four Americans right now one out of every four families is affected someway by mental derangement
over half of all hospital beds in America at this hour are occupied by mental patience cut a great deal of this be demons I don't know because I could not say that everybody that is in a mental hospital has a demon that's not true many of them have organic problems and psychological problems that may have nothing to do with the devil but there are many people I'm convinced that are under the control and the power and the influence of demons who suffer from mental derangement and then notice that he was UN controllable nobody could control
this fell they tried to tie him up they tried to put him in prison they tried to put him in a mental institution he broke out he seemed to have Supernatural power and he was a violent man has there ever been an hour when there's been so much violence everybody wants peace and they hold up the peace sign and we all believe in peace but somehow we don't get peace violence and RI rioting and killing and murder some newspapers today and our big cities don't even print the murders any longer there's so many every night
they just list them in one spot and you can look over at a certain place and you just read it like you would a baseball School how many muggings last night how many rapings 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 we're not going to stop it just with more police power we've got to have prayer power and spiritual power we've got to have people on their knees praying and we must have a spiritual awakening in this
country and then notice he dwelt among the Dead the Bible says that this fellow lived out in the tombs he lived in a cemetery and did you know the Bible teaches that we are dead in sins and trespasses before we come to Christ your body is alive but your soul your spirit is dead toward God you need to be Made Alive and you could be made alive 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 away he can wash the
past away have you had race Prejudice he'll take it away he can give you love in your heart have you broken God's moral law and you've committed sin he'll take it away and wash it away and give you your power to resist temptation tomorrow and Jesus stood face to face with this wild angry violent naked bleeding man and inside the man a supernatural voice began to speak and say what have I to do with thee Jesus thou son of the Living God don't torment us what have I to do with thee the rich man says
I don't need the gospel because it's for the poor the intellectual says oh it's for the working it's for the uh uneducated the common man says I can't understand it the radical says it's not revolutionary enough what have I to do with thee I want to tell you every one of us have something to do with him and if you don't have something to do with him in this life you're going to have something to do with him in the future life because there's coming a day when every knee will bow and every tongue will
confess that Jesus Christ Christ is Lord and God you may not bow your knee down here to him but there's coming a day when you will bow your knee you will be forced to Bow your knee in that day when we shall all stand before him Jesus said what is your name he wasn't talking to the man he was talking to the demon in the man and out came the answer we allegion we are many this man wasn't occupied by just one devil he had many devils it says about Mary Magdalene that she had Seven
Devils think of it seven demons possessing one person Jesus all of a sudden commanded as he did the sea the night before he said come out of the man and then those demons prayed a prayer now there were three prayers prayed that day two of them were answered one was not answered notice here that demons prayed a prayer they immediately recognized Jesus they knew him to be the Son of God they knew that he had power over them they knew that he could send them to hell so they prayed they said Jesus please don't send
us to hell you see those swine up there 2,000 Hogs send us to the Hogs we'd rather go there and live in the Hogs than to go to hell and you know what happened Jesus answered the prayer of the Demons he sent the demons to the swine how terrible hell must be if the demons want to stay out of there and they'd rather live with the Hogs and live in the Hogs and live like a hog immediately the Hogs became wild they became violent they began to run and they ran over a cliff and drowned
in the sea and then the second prayer took place because all the businessmen in town came out all the leaders of the little town came out to see what was happening and there they saw the man that they' had so much trouble with this violent naked man sitting there clothed and in his right mind smiling absolutely transformed and changed but they weren't interested in him all they could think about were the Hogs they were more interested in economics than they were in spiritual transformation so they prayed the most terrible prayer I think in the Bible
they said Jesus leave us alone leave our Coast leave our town we don't want you you know what happened Jesus answered their prayer he left and he never never came back and it's possible for you to say Lord leave me alone you see the spirit of God is speaking to hundreds of you right here tonight he's making you uncomfortable he's speaking to you now and you're just about to say leave me alone Holy Spirit don't disturb 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 may answer that prayer and and he never came back how many times in the Bible you find that a man had one chance and he missed it he had one hour with God and missed it or one hour with God and he took the advantage of it look at zakus a big crowd was coming through his town and he heard that Jesus the famous Galilean teacher was passing by and coming in and zakus was a short man and he couldn't see Jesus so he climbed up a syamore tree and he was looking at
Jesus and all of a sudden Jesus stopped and said zakus come down I'm going to go to your house and eat with you today zakus jumped to the ground and DL Moody said he was converted from the limb to the ground and he was transformed and changed and he was a tax gatherer and he'd been taking money from the people without Authority and he told Jesus Jesus I'm going to give it back fourfold he was repenting and making restitution of his sins when he met Jesus that could happen to you the people requested that Jesus
leave and he left now another prayer was made the man that had been touched and the man that had been healed he prayed a prayer what was his prayer he said Lord Lord this is wonderful I've been changed I've been transformed I've been converted I've been saved I want to go with you I want to live with you from now on Jesus said no that's the prayer that Jesus refused to answer he said go back to your home go back to the same address go back to your village go back to your town go back
to your school go back to your family and tell what great things God has done for you you see we get in a great Crusade like this and here's a great crowd of 43,000 people here tonight and we say isn't this wonderful all this great music and getting together like this Baptist and Presbyterians and Methodist and Catholics and Jewish people everybody's here how wonderful wouldn't it be wonderful if we we could stay on this high all the time Jesus said no where it really counts is back where you live back where you go to school
I've got a chapter in my new book called getting high and staying High you know the Bible teaches that there are many Highs but there are also some loads you read the book of Psalms I read five Psalms every day how many times the psalmist was down at the very bottom looking up to see bottom there are highs and lows but in the midst of it all there's 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's a wonderful thing in
the midst of a low to have Jesus there because you see you're going to to face problems you're going to have disappointments you're going to have heartaches you're going to have problems and difficulties in your life but in the midst of it God's Grace will be there you know Paul had some Affliction we don't know exactly what it was but he prayed three times Lord deliver me and God said no Paul I'm not going to deliver you from it but my grace is going to be sufficient for you in the middle of it you can
endure it my grace and my love and my presence will be there now there were three things that this man had after he met Jesus he had rest notice he was sitting Jesus said come unto me all ye that labor and a heavy laden and I'll give you rest and how many of you are restless in your spirit tonight Disturbed confused searching desperately for something that'll give you meaning in your life and you haven't found it come to Jesus he will give you the rest you've been searching for and then notice he was clothed you
know the Bible says we have to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ many of you tonight filled with sin and guilt you need a new suit of clothes in fact you're not going to be accepted by God in his kingdom until you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ and that's why Christ died on the cross he died to provide that righteousness for you I could SE all day long and my wife could sew all day long and she's a marvelous seamstress and makes many of her own clothes and when we when the children
were younger she made nearly all their clothes but she couldn't sew well enough to sew a robe or a suit of clothes that would fit me in heaven that was bought 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 Redemption Avenue not because of me not because of my goodness and my righteousness but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and then the Bible says this man was in his right mind sin destroys our mind it influences our mind it distorts our
mind and we look at things from a wrong perspective and we get our values all mixed up but when you come to Christ and you begin to see the world through the eyes of God you don't go around ringing your hand and saying what's going to happen what's going to happen there's a peace in your heart you can read the headlines that frighten and scare but Christ is there he's in control I'm going to ask you to receive this Christ tonight I'm going to ask hundreds of you right now to get up out of your
seat right now get up out of your seat and come and stand in front of this platform and say by 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 heaven thousands of people in the past few days here in Texas have made this commitment I'm asking you to join them tonight in make this commitment to Christ and after you've come I'm going to say a word to all of you I'm going to have a
prayer with you give you some literature and then you can go back and join your friends if you're with relatives or friends or you're in a bus they'll wait on you you just get up and come we'll only keep you a few moments and if you start from the top Gallery up there it'll take two or 3 minutes to come so start now and we're going to wait and I'm going to ask people everywhere to be in prayer that you will come and let Christ transform and change your life and make you a new person
quickly right now [Music] and to [Music] [Music] I'm sure that you that are watching by television can see that there are hundreds and I suppose even thousands of people that are on their way to make their commitment to Jesus Christ here in Texas tonight you can make that same commitment right now in your home or hotel or wherever you are you can bow your head and say Lord Jesus Come into my life and change me and transform me as you did that man so long ago and he'll do it [Music]
