Month: March 2024

In the past two weeks, our study of Mark’s gospel has been in the first part of chapter 5. This is the story of Jesus’ encounter with the demoniac of Gadara. This was a man inhabited by thousands of demons. The story is intriguing and piques our interest as we dive deeper into its components. Today, we will finish and next week we will move on to another subject. I am sure Satan will approve of us forgetting him for awhile as another subject occupies our attention.

Two weeks ago, I read an interesting article about how we may hear about Satan and his activities, and we are quick to acknowledge his existence and the horrible ways he works in the worst forms of evil we can imagine. Soon after, we lost our alarm. Yes, Satan orchestrates abortions, sex trafficking, pornography, drugs, murders, and all the vices that plague our society. These past two weeks I am sure you thought more about Satan than you have for weeks. Discussions of encounters with Satan filled our Sunday Afternoon Forum Class.

Next week when we move on from Satan, our thoughts of him will diminish and we will experience much less alarm with his works. Many will not think of him at all as you listen to news reports of evils that continually confront us. Satan’s presence will fade from our consciousness and with it our careful vigilance to beware of entrapment by what Paul calls “the wiles of the devil.”

In Mark 5, the frightful description we use is “demon possession.” This is a condition we think happens to others who are far out there and not close enough to concern ourselves with it. Another word that should concern us is “influence.” The Bible says Satan is “the god of this world.” What would the god of this world do? He would and does influence everything that happens in his world. He actively controls it to affect his purposes. We need more awareness of Satan’s presence and activities than a three-part sermon.

Where is Satan at work? I will give one example. I believe one of the scariest places is not a séance but in the heart of the beginning of society. I mean those who will shape our society in the future. Who are they? Our children. What is Satan’s means? Our educational system. He starts at the lowest level, influencing the way our children think. Gender dysphoria confuses children about who and what they are by purging their brains of their developing common sense. Left alone without influence, what happens to children? They develop their natural sexual inclinations, marry each other, and start families. We do not need to teach them about proper attraction. Humanity has survived thousands of years without the need to discuss sexual orientation. In rare cases it went off, either we made course corrections, or we separated the affected for the harm they do. After these thousands of years, why is there now so much confusion? It is not difficult and needs little research. It starts with teachers teaching something different. We call them “influencers” and “groomers.” Behind them is the god of this world laboring to suppress natural affection to destroy humanity—those made in the image of God. Imagine for a moment if for these thousands of years homosexuality was normal. You cannot because you would not be here to imagine it.

I have just hit a small part of the Titanic’s iceberg. With more time and space, the applications are as wide and varied as there are subjects. In one article, I told you to leave the devil alone. Leave him alone but never forget he is real, and he is here.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

In our study today, we return to Mark chapter 5 and Jesus’ encounter with the maniac of Gadara. This man’s problem was demon possession, a condition Jesus healed him of, set him free, and changed his life from the darkness of Satan to the light of the gospel. It is an incident recorded in the gospel style to show Jesus’ power over all things visible and invisible. The submission of demons to Jesus’ authority proved His superiority over the spiritual dimension.

A scripture that stands out in my mind is 2 Corinthians 11:14-15. The apostle says Satan transforms himself into an angel of light and his ministers do the same. They work the way Satan works. They do not show themselves as manipulators of evil but as ministers of righteousness. In last week’s message, I told you to look for demons in places you would never expect them to be. And truly in this country, there are more demons in church than anywhere we can look. Satan is not busy making atheists and agnostics. We do not confront Islamic proselytization, but there are certainly multiple false evangelists. The worst harm happens in the steepled church or in the one that rents warehouse space with blacked out ceilings and stage lights illuminating gyrating false worship and bad bands on the platform.

The messenger misses the gospel and inaccurately interprets (or ignores) biblical doctrines. He twists truth to be a near likeness but not close enough. Usually, the devil does not work with outlandish extremes. He hovers near what seems reasonable and has imagined support from the scriptures. We may think we can easily refute Satan’s ministers. We think the Bible is clear enough in the doctrines we know, but if we are not familiar with Satan’s abilities, we will be stuck in arguments we cannot win and potentially sucked in by lies ourselves. Jesus warned of this when He said if it were possible these false ministers could deceive the elect. He does not imply it is possible for saved people to be deceived to the destruction of their souls, but warns false prophets are good enough at what they do to cause doubts and mislead believers into losing their influence for truth.

Interestingly, in this verse of Matthew 24:24, Jesus said the deception will come through signs and wonders. Is not Jesus,’ John’s, and Paul’s warnings for the present-day church? Who practices signs and wonders? Who claims unknown tongues are evidence of salvation? Who claims a second work of the Holy Spirit to secure salvation or to reach a level of higher spirituality? Who claims extrabiblical revelation? And importantly, who claims to have greater ability to deal with Satan? On this point, I agree. Satan’s ministers know Satan better than all of us. Only Jesus stands above in the spiritual world. Only He knows more about Satan than them. Jesus said Satan does not cast out Satan or else his kingdom divides and cannot stand.

Whenever you hear and see the false prophets of signs and wonders rebuke Satan, be confident Satan has not gone anywhere. He only increases his deception and control of his own. Satan is a constant nightmare for those without Christ and a continual nuisance for those with Him. Christ will come again to end this. Until He does, be sure you know enough about the way Satan works that you can defend the truth against his wily deceivers.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Today, we begin our study of Mark 5 and another of Jesus’ miracles in which He showed God’s power over the supernatural powers of darkness. The apostle Paul spoke of this power in Ephesians 6 warning us that the Christian life is one in which we fight against a non-human enemy. We fight against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness, and spiritual wickedness in high places. These enemies and this warfare are not imaginary. They are as real as flesh and blood as if we could see it and touch it. We are to take the warning seriously, but at the same time, we must be cautious how we engage it and careful about the misinformation spawned by these evil powers. They disguise themselves and hide their activities in places we do not expect to find them. What is their favorite hiding place? Look for demons in houses of worship.

Incorrect teaching about demons is common among those who believe they have special insight into and powers to deal with demons. When people become overly interested in the spiritual world, their minds are ripe for plundering and deception. An example is the charismatic churches who believe in speaking in tongues, healings, and surprisingly, the power to cast out demons. Erroneously, they teach there are demons of special sins like fear, alcohol, tobacco, depression—or anything you have trouble dealing with and cannot get rid of. The special powers of the one who exorcises these demons drives them out, and when they go out, there is a physical expression of their leaving. The late R.C. Sproul wrote: “Others say we can recognize the departure of a demon from a human soul by a manifest sign that is linked to the particular point of bondage. I have listened to recorded talks from well-known deliverance ministers (whose names I will not mention, to protect the guilty) in which they teach the signs of departure of the demon. A sigh, for example, indicates the departure of the demon of tobacco. Since the tobacco demon enters with the inhalation of smoke, he leaves with an audible exhale. Likewise, vomiting may be the sign of departure of the demon of alcohol. There are demons for every conceivable sin. Not only must each one of these demons be exorcized, but there are necessary procedures to keep them from returning on a daily basis.” I agree with Sproul who also wrote: “I have no polite way to respond to this kind of teaching. It is unmitigated nonsense.” This is true of much of charismatic teachings.

Without doubt, the doctrinal underpinning of the charismatic churches is the belief in tongues which they call a spiritual angelic language. The worst forms of it—beyond those who parrot or are faking or have hyped-up imaginations—are truly demon possessed. False teachers sometimes fool Christians and they mix them up with charismatic doctrines. Although fooled, a demon cannot inhabit them. The demon possessed are not Christians looking for deliverance but Satan’s plants to confuse and obfuscate truth.

Many, if not all the insistent proponent teachers of this wickedness fall into this category. Careful observation yields a mesmerizing spirit of demonic powers. Twisting the word of God with most unholy blasphemy is their teaching about the Holy Spirit, about prosperity, and being able to control demons, is the demon himself disguising his activities.

In today’s study, I will only scrape the surface of this problem as we look at Jesus’ encounter with the maniac of Gadara. I will introduce the subject by explaining demons. In no sense do I encourage you to do anything more than look at the biblical record. The world has nothing to offer on this but confusion and experiences that are unhealthy, unspiritual—quite frankly—demonic.

Thank God the true Christian has protection. We can learn truth without fear that the devil can shake us away from our faith. Best advice—leave the devil alone. Fight him when you must but otherwise let him and his followers continue to self-deceive. God will deal with them in His time.

Pastor V. Mark Smith

Today’s message takes us into the Old Testament to learn the background of one of the New Testament’s most famous chapters. This is the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3. At the time of this conversation, there were no New Testament books which meant the entirety of scriptures was the Old Testament much of which the leaders of Israel committed to memory. Not having chapter and verse divisions and with scriptures written on long scrolls meant the religiously educated were very good in their knowledge of scripture. Jesus marveled at Nicodemus, a ruling elder in Israel, with his lack of understanding when He asked in verse 10, “You are a master in Israel, and you don’t know this?” The subject was regeneration and how God secretly affects it above our comprehension.

From this point, Jesus treated him as a man without understanding even though He well knew the training Nicodemus received in the scriptures. He asked, “If I have told you of earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you understand if I tell you of heavenly things?” And then, like a youngster, Jesus led him to the Old Testament account of Moses and the fiery serpents in the wilderness. To be fair, how would we understand this event in Numbers without Jesus’ explanation in John 3? He certainly put a new twist on it for Nicodemus. Jesus gave the true meaning of the symbol. The serpent on the pole was emblematic of Him whom God sent to the cross to bear the sins of all who trust Him. God must lift His Son as a sacrifice to die for forgiveness of sins and to reconcile us to God through His death. Through this sacrifice, believers would have peace with God and own eternal life.

The Bible does not record Nicodemus’ further reaction to this enlightenment. I believe it is a good assumption that either then or sometime soon after Nicodemus came to trust Christ as his Saviour. The Bible describes how he helped Joseph of Arimathea prepare Jesus’ body for burial. This was not the act of an unbeliever, for this action outed Nicodemus to the Jewish elders of the prestigious Sanhedrin of which he was a member.

The existence of the serpent of brass does not find its end in Numbers 21. Amazingly, Moses did not melt this fashioned serpent and make it into a bowl or drinking vessel. Israel kept the serpent as a memorial. Scriptures do not tell us its use and whether Moses at times would bring it out to remind them of God’s anger and His power to save them. It was seven hundred years later before the scribes wrote of it in the records of the Kings of Israel. When King Hezekiah returned Judah to the worship of the one true God, part of his reforms involved this serpent of brass. “He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.” (2 Kings 18:4).

Interestingly, in the centuries after Moses made the serpent, the people converted it to the opposite of God’s intention. They made an idol of it and worshipped it as a god with healing or divining powers. Nehushtan was its name, a descriptive name, meaning simply “serpent of brass.” In a sense, Nicodemus had no more sense of how to worship God than these ancient Israelites. He too trusted a religion of self—of his own hands. This religion is still alive in the world in greater splendor than the gleaming serpent. It is a religion that God will destroy with the brightness of Christ’s return.

The first Sunday of 2024 is a good time to strike down self, the perverted serpent of brass, and exalt Jesus Christ. Like Nicodemus, come out and identify with Christ. Own Him or He will break you in pieces.

Pastor V. Mark Smith