In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the seriousness of backsliding and falling away from the faith. He refers to 1 Timothy 4:1-2, which warns about deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons that can lead people astray. The preacher acknowledges the presence of unclean spirits in the world and the negative impact they can have on people's minds and lives. He urges the congregation to stay rooted in the Word of God and not neglect their relationship with Jesus, highlighting the authority and protection believers have against evil spirits.

I'm pretty much alarmed by what I see happening to many in the church who call themselves Christians. It's becoming very alarming to me. It's not so much what they're doing that bothers me, it's what they're becoming. It's what some Christians are becoming that's a matter of great concern, not only me, but I believe the Holy Spirit. It's what they're becoming that's very frightening, in fact. They saw them, if ever opened this book, then come on Sunday mornings, we've heard a strong word from this pulpit here, if you attend these meetings, a very strong word about this book. That we're cleansed. The only cleansing you get is from the book. The blood is the finished work of Jesus Christ, but the cleansing is the word. By reading this, you are bathed. How do you stay clean? How do you stay clean if you will not read this word? We have Christians who will come Sunday morning and really get into the service, and will work all week long for Jesus, will not do anything wrong, will not live in open floundered sand, but they'll embrace Jesus. And when I open this book, and the preacher can scream and yell and quote scripture and try to bring condemnation and guilt and everything else and steal God's people, you're not determined and make a commitment to get into this world and be bathed and cleansed. It becomes a burden to them and it becomes rather boring. I am shocked at the number of Christians and even preachers who don't pray. I don't care where you go, what kind of preaching you hear, who teaches you, you can't get away from two simple things that your growth depends on your love for the word of God and your prayer time with Jesus. It's that simple. You go round and round in theology and you always come back to those two simple points that a man who walks with God or a woman who walks with God is a man or woman of the word and secret prayer. We have Christians who sit for hours and talk to each other about everything. They have friends that they can discuss everything. That they don't even notice like to discipline themselves to spend even one hour alone with him. Except there's a tendency in all Christians that when we get sick or in a crisis and there's something moving in the future or there's a lack of guidance and we need some clear word from the Lord. We do better remember to go, don't we? Just nod your head if that sounds like you and me. Most of these people that I'm speaking of are loving and kind, don't go anywhere to do anything for anybody. They don't live in open front and sin. They're mostly good moral people. In fact, we would call them nice people. They're nice people. I know nice people don't smoke, don't use drugs, don't drink, they don't fornicate, that they don't read the Bible, they don't pray, they don't seek God, they're not totally given committed in our hearts to Him. Because if you were, you would be drawn. And the very test of whether or not you're walking with Him is this drawing of the Holy Spirit to His word. The Holy Spirit will draw you to this book. He will draw you to a place of being alone with the Lord. Until finally, you will honestly, you will say, I don't want anything. You will almost resent anything that comes between you and your time with the Lord. Resent an interruption between you and walking with the Lord. You remember that young man came to one of our meetings and we were preaching like this. He said, but what about all those drug addicts come for counseling? What about all the people around me who have need? What about all these coming and my time is taken up, my need and human need? And he was praying and he said, Lord, what about all these needs around here? And the Lord said, what about my need? What about me? Sometimes we forget that. Occasionally, these people get a revival. They'll go to Red Hot Leader, the Holy Ghost outpouring and they'll cry and they'll weep. And you say, finally, you know, boy, they're going to make progress now. I've been in crusades in churches where a pastor told me he prayed for his son for five or six years. His son's on drugs and get saved and resaved, baptized, rebaptized. Remember people like that? Saved and resaved, baptized, rebaptized, filled and refilled. Never have a steady, solid walk with the Lord. And I'll pray for him. That boy will get down and cry and weep. And his dad will cry and weep and they'll hug. And the church will rejoice. I'll get back two months later to visit. And that boy's back where he was before. No hunger for the Lord. No hunger for God. There's always something that cools him off. There's a lust somewhere that lasts for a while. But then this spiritual badness, restlessness comes and leaves him empty. Then you look at him and you say, what's it going to take? And I look at the church today and say, what is it going to take to wake up God's people? AIDS doesn't even bother us anymore. When it first came out, everybody's scared now. Not even the homosexuals are afraid of it. You know what the attitude now in all the homosexual communities? Well, so what? First of all, they don't believe it's ever going to hit them. They believe they're different. They're somehow immune to it. And if it does, what a way to go. That's the attitude. You say, what's it going to take? What is God going to have to do to wake up God's people? What's it going to take to wake up America? And I look at the backsliding people. And I look at the Christians now who hear such strong preaching. And there's never been a time that there's been such strong preaching going forth. There's some strong preaching going forth, not just from this pulpit, from other pulpits. Most of you sitting here have heard some very strong preaching that should have gotten such a hold on your heart that you would be motivated to seek God. Then I say, Lord, is it something in their personality? Is it a weakness of their character? You know, there are some Christians out there, well, they're wishy-washy on their job. They're wishy-washy on their marriage. Maybe they're just wishy-washy toward the Lord. It's a part of their character quirk in them. A personality quirk. But I can't believe that either. I wish it was simple as that. I wish when I see Christians that are just getting cold or Christians who are lukewarm, I wish I could just say that's their personality. They'll never be on fire for God. They'll never give God their whole heart. I wish I could just say, I wish it was that simple. It's not that simple. There's something behind it. There's something behind the coldness. There's something behind the lukewarmness. There's something about leaning toward the world. There's something behind it. When they begin to talk like the world, look like the world, and speak like the world, there's a spirit behind it. It's not just a part of the personality. It's not just being wishy-washy toward the Lord. I want to make it as bold as I can this morning, that the lukewarm, the half-hearted, the backslidden, and all those who are going back to their old ways are being driven by a spirit. They're being lured by the spirit, in fact. And I'll tell you something. There has to be a deliverance or there'll be damnation. Now, I've never preached in my lifetime that Christians who are spirit-filled, who have any idol pulverized in their life, and they're walking in righteousness, I've never believed they could be demon-possessed. I've never believed an unclean spirit could touch the light of their body, and I'll stand on that till I die. There's a bloodline that the devil cannot and will not cross. You remember when the blood was applied to the doorpost, that the angel of death would not pass that doorpost, and if the angel of God won't pass it, how's he going to let a demon pass it? Get that in your mind now. If God won't pass the bloodline with the death angel, neither can the devil pass the bloodline. If you're walking uprightly before the Lord, you're not before idols, you're seeking God with your heart, you're loving Him with all your heart, giving Him your whole heart, you're safe, you never have to worry about the devil. You can say to Jesus, the wicked one cometh and hath nothing in me. But you see, there are some that are under a spirit's dominion, they don't know it, they're ignorant about it, they don't know what's driving them. I've never, I've watched, this has come, what I'm going to tell you this morning, what I'm preaching this morning has come through some hard, hard thinking, a lot of observation in the lives of Christians. Remember God says to the lukewarm Christians, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth? Why would God spew a whole church age out of His mouth if they weren't driven by spirits? Why would God say, if these were those who once walked in the spirit, and the message, the way you see in church, is hearing what the spirit says to the church. He's speaking to the church. And this church is so blind, it's boasting that it's rich and increased with goods and need of nothing, but it's totally blind and naked, and corrupt, and wretched, and poor. Not even knowing, totally blind that they're being driven by the spirit of materialism. Driven by the spirit of this age. They don't even know here in the land they see in church that they're being driven and occupied by spirits. I want you to turn with me to 1 Timothy. The first chapter, 1 Timothy. I'm going to take you through the scripture this morning and show you how Christians who are not living and overcoming life are in danger of being ruled and even possessed by unclean spirits. Now, I want to put this amount of backsliding in perspective. I want it to be as serious as God makes it in His Word. Alright, 1 Timothy, 4th chapter. I want to read just the first two verses. 4th chapter, 1 Timothy, 4th chapter, verses 1 and 2. But the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to what? Deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own consciences with the branding iron. Alright, look at me please. There are unclean spirits that are in this world but in the atmosphere. You understand that? There are unclean spirits loose in this world. Paul called them seducing spirits. The Greek word for the seducing spirit is planos which means a roving spirit, roving as a tramp. The very word tramp is used. Roving about as a tramp. An imposter, a misleader, a deceiver. These tramp-like spirits, there are masses of them. Tramp-like spirits loose in the atmosphere running around seeking to lie, to deceive, to become into, to move into a person's life to create in them an attitude of an imposter to make them a deceiver to give them a roving tramp-like spirit. And listen, when I see people tramping all over the country from church to church and seminar to seminar I know they are being driven by a spirit. Every man never coming into the knowledge of the truth. There is nothing wrong in going to a few of these meetings but I know people that have a full-time job of nothing but tramping about. They are driven by a spirit. They are never at rest. They don't even know what it is to settle down in a body of believers and dig into the Word and be taught. They are driven! They'll go to California, they'll go to Spain, they'll go all over the world. I don't know how they afford it. I don't know how they afford it. Some people are running all the time and all they talk about are their teachers. They are never learning, never coming into the knowledge of the truth. Like this chap, look at that first verse again. That the spirit explicitly, what does King James says, I believe clearly says, what's that? Especially says. Now who says it? Who is speaking here? The Holy Spirit explicitly, clearly says that in the latter times, what days do you think we are living in right now? Are these the latter times or are they not? In the latter times. He is pinpointing our day and age. In the latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful and seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. They will give heed. That word heed in Greek means to pay attention to, to learn, to lean toward it, to give your mind over to it. There are going to be Christians that are going to give their minds to seducing deceitful spirits. He's talking about the church. He's not talking about drug addicts and alcoholics and street people. He's talking about the church. Together it reads, in the last days some believers will give their minds over to tramp-like, roving, deceiving, unclean spirits. Now I'm going to tell you something. The Bible says they're going to fall away. And you can't fall away unless you've already been there, can you? You can't fall away unless you've been there. And they're going to fall away. Now I take this serious when the Holy Ghost is speaking. And the Holy Ghost is looking at the church and He said, some of you are going to fall away. And some of you are going to start listening to deceitful, unclean spirits and they're going to rule your life. And He said it's because of a form of hypocrisy. It's because you're going to believe a lie because, in the real meaning of that, because you have lived a lie. You have not been living the truth. You have been sitting in church, living a lie. You've been saying, I follow Jesus, but you follow with a half a heart. How could such a thing happen in this verse? Speaking lies and hypocrisy. Seared in their own conscience. That means to be rendered insensitive, without feeling, dead. Somehow the Holy Spirit talked and spoke and spoke to the conscience and it just overruled the conscience. You know something? I find that true. The Lord will speak to me. The Holy Spirit will speak in a still, small voice. He'll say, David, it's time to get alone. It's time to get alone. And then there will be an interruption. The Holy Ghost will come and say, David, get alone. But after about the fourth or fifth admonition, the voice is gone. Isn't that true? He'll come and He'll speak and then you just override that voice and finally that's how you become dead and sensitive. The Holy Spirit expects us to listen when He speaks. And I'm learning that. When I'm gossiping about somebody or something, I'll hear the Holy Spirit thunder in my mind, stop! And if I keep going, it'll be a whisper, stop. I do it again and it's gone. I've grieved the Holy Spirit's voice. And He'll not, He said He'll not, He'll not break in on you. He'll not force Himself on you. These evil spirits will convince them of doctrines of demons. They will drop their way of holiness. They'll turn away from holiness. They'll become advocates of the devil's tactics in his own ways. Hey, listen to me now. Let me, let me share with you the doctrine of demons and how it comes out. Now, I'm not going to get into the theology side. I'm going to get on the outcome side. In other words, when this theology works itself into your body and the devil's deceived you, and there's a way to know whether there's a lying, deceiving spirit that's come to your mind. Now, first of all, these spirits, these lying, unclean spirits in the end will whisper to you. If you give them a place, and Bob Phelps made it clear, if you give them a place in your heart and you will not listen to the Holy Spirit, you give Him room and He'll occupy it. He'll occupy that place. And move into the mind. And begin to drive it. And the end of it can end up in possession. And I'll prove to you that it can be eight times as bad, not seven, but eight times as bad as it was before you were saved. I'll get to that scripture in just a bit. Now, let me give you the outcome, the way a person talks after it happens. It goes something like this. I really don't see anything wrong in it. Nobody can live that holy. Well, they're just too strict. Have you ever heard that kind of talking? I had somebody see me the other day and talk about their pastor. He's been preaching such a strong word of holiness. And some of the deacons have had a petition and they're talking to him. They come to him and said, Preacher, we can't live like that. Nobody can live like that. Nobody can live like that. And I'm hearing that from pastors all over the country who have begun to preach holiness. There are congregations that have been living in idolatry and sin. They're coming up and rebelling against it. We just can't live that strict. God doesn't expect that out of us. That's too legalistic. That's the sound of a doctrine of demons. That's too strict. It's too hard. You expect too much. That's too confining. I need more space. I need more liberty. I need a little more freedom. I can't live that way. I think there's a time I said things like that. Who do you think is really saying that? Who speaks like that? Who speaks like that? These unclean spirits are demonic. They come out of the very realm of Satan. Go to Mark with me. The 5th chapter and I'll show it to you. The 5th chapter of Mark. Please follow me because it's important that we see this. The 5th chapter of Mark. I'd like to start at verse 1 and just go right down to verse 13. It's a very familiar story. I think we need to follow it through. They came to the other side of the sea into the country. And when he had come out of the boat immediately a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. And he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no one was able to bind him anymore even with a chain. Because he had often been bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces and no one was strong enough to subdue him. And constantly night and day among the tombs and in the mountains he was crying out and gashing himself with stones. And seeing Jesus from a distance he ran up and bowed down before him. Crying with a loud voice he said, What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son, the Most High God? I implore you by God, do not torment me. Now you know that wasn't him. You know that. Those were the spirits in him crying. For he had been saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And he was asking him, What is your name? And he said to him, My name is Legion, for we are many. They began to entreat him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now there was a big herd of swine feeding there in the mountain and the demons entreated him saying, Send us into the swine so that we may enter them. And he gave them permission of coming out. The unclean spirits entered the swine and the herd rushed down the steep bank of the sea, two thousand drowning. You see that the unclean spirit is tied into demonic activity. Unclean spirits are tied to demonic activity. If you just go over to Mark 7. Just turn the page to Mark 7. And another very familiar passage there. Verse 25. Mark 7, 25. And after hearing of him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at his feet. Now the woman was again tied to the Syrophoenician race and she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he was saying to her, Let the children be satisfied first, for it's not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs. Look at verse 29. He said to her, Because of this answer, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter. Look at verse 25. The little daughter had what? An unclean spirit. Look at verse 30 now. And going back to her home, she found the child male in the bed. The what? The demon having departed. You see how Christ himself and in this passage the unclean spirit and demon are synonymous here. Now not always do the scriptures and unclean spirits synonymous with the demons. And I'm not preaching about demons this morning. I just want to show you that this is demonic activity and we're talking about something very serious this morning. We're not just talking about backsliding. We're not just talking about cold heart. We're not talking about lukewarmness. We're talking about Christians who open themselves to be driven and even occupied by unclean spirits. I'm going to have you look at something that really impressed upon me in Luke, the 13th chapter. I was preaching this on the street the other day and what an impact it had. As many people were giving their heart to Christ when they heard the story. I wonder what kind of impact it's going to have on you this morning. Very familiar also. The story of the woman who'd been infirm for 18 years. 13th chapter of Luke verse 11. Let's start verse 10. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold there was a woman who for 18 years had had a sickness caused by what? Now look at me. Can there be sicknesses caused by spirits? I will prove to you that all sicknesses are not caused by spirits. But it's possible for a sickness to be caused by a spirit. There it is. That's about as clear as it can be, isn't it? A sickness caused by a spirit and she was bent double and could not straighten up at all. How many years did that spirit occupy her? Isn't it amazing? She could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her woman, you are freed from your sickness. He laid his hands upon her. Immediately she was made erect again and began to glorify God. Alright, look at me please. Here's the point right now. A sickness caused by a spirit that had bent her over for 18 years and he calls it a sickness. The Bible says she couldn't straighten up at all. Why is it that many Christians can't straighten up their lives? Couldn't straighten up at all. I look at some people and I when I was on the streets of New York, there'd be kids I'd meet in the park year after year after year. Backsliders, Pentecostal preacher's sons. I said, Lord, what does it take? They burn by years. Is it just their nature? Is there something in them that just doesn't want God? Yes, there is something that doesn't want God. Unclean spirits. They can't straighten up at all. I'll tell you what, you can't straighten up at all by just saying, well, I'll make up my mind to go to Jesus or I'll do this, I'll do that. You've got to have a deliverance. There has to be a deliverance in your heart. And if you know someone in your family or friend who can't seem to straighten up spiritually at all, they can't stand erect for Christ because when the Lord cast that unclean spirit out of her, she stood erect, didn't she? How do we get these people erect for God? How do we get them to stand up with a heart totally committed to the Lord? I don't think we've been telling our backsliding friends the truth. I don't know if we've understood it. And it's taken me some 30 years to come to this place. I don't think I could have preached it even 5 years ago or 4 years ago, but I'd preach it now. But I believe the majority of the backsliders, the majority of those who are lukewarm and cold in the church are being ruled and brained by unclean spirits that are loose in the land. And I know we don't like this kind of preaching. It repels the flesh. It repels the flesh. And I'll tell you something else. If you're sitting here this morning and you are listening to the whispering, something whispering to your heart, and that whispering is against everything you know to be of the gospel truth, that whispering that comes to you, that keeps you, conspires against you, to seek God, to pray, to come in His presence, you'd better take it seriously because that's not just your voice. That's the enemy. That is absolutely satanic coming to destroy your very spiritual experience. I'm going to make it that strong. I'll believe it to be that strong anymore. I've had lying spirits try to find a place just to plant a lie in my mind. And if you'll buy that one line, you've given him a foothold. And the first lie that he comes to you and tries to First of all, he'll lie to you and say you'll never make it. He'll lie to you and say you'll never be what God wants you to be. He'll lie to you about your relationship with Jesus, tell you that you're unclean, that you're filthy. And all you have to do is stand up and say, in the name of Jesus Christ I bind this lying spirit. I cast it out in Jesus' name and they have to flee. At the name of Jesus He sent His Word and healed them. All you need is His Word. And His name. Cast that off so that there's not a room. He does not find a place in your heart. He can plant a seed. This woman for 18 years Now, you see the man that was in the tombs, he must have been an awful filthy sinner. A whole legion of unclean spirits to possess him. I don't know the history of man. The Bible doesn't tell us. We do know that this woman was a child of Abraham. She was a child of Abraham. Which means she was a part of the body at that time. This woman, I don't It doesn't talk about some sin being in her life or anything else. All we know is that for some reason another 18 years, she's doubled over. She can't walk. I see Christians just like that. Doubled over with doubt. Doubled over with fear. They're doubled over all the time. There's never victory. No stamina left for Christ. I think we better look a little more seriously and soberly at what's causing it. Now, I want to show you that not all sickness is the result of an unclean spirit. If you go to Luke 7. Luke 7, I want you to go to verse 21, please. At that very time he cured many people of diseases and afflictions and evil spirits and granted sight to many who were blind. I want you to look at the distinction. And in every occasion, every time he cured many people. You have diseases, you have afflictions, and then you have evil spirits. At this place, he draws a line. Now look at me, please. You can go out and you can eat junk food full of all kinds of carcinogenics that cause cancer. Cancer-causing foods. I don't think you can blame that on a demon. It's carelessness. You can go out here and just get careless and stick your finger in one of these sockets and that's not a demon going to send a jolt through you. It has a lot to do with carelessness and everything else. He does divide. You know, there was a time people thought that epileptics were demonic. It's been proven that this is a nervous condition. And yet I've met, there are times I've known there was demonic. But not on every case. And I can't, I don't think any of us have a right to go to anybody that's sick and say you've got a demon in you. You're unclean. There's an unclean spirit in you that's causing that. Not at all. Because some of you know what it's like to be living in absolute, total victory before the Lord and have all kind of pain in your body. You know that you're walking before the Lord in total righteousness and that there's pain. And you've suffered. And you may have had a righteous mother, father, grandmother, who died, cancer, anything else. Don't dare say they were demon possessed. That they were unclean spirits that were driving them. That is not always the case. That is not always the case. And there are three other references, I don't want to get into enough, there are other references where these lines are clearly drawn. They were drawn by Paul also. Jesus makes a difference here. Many are the afflictions of what? Many are the afflictions of the righteous. First the Lord delivers them from the mob, but then he's got to endure them too. David said if I had endured affliction, I wouldn't have sought the Lord. I believe in afflictions and I believe in healing afflictions. And I believe that there are demonic afflictions. But you see, we like to say it's either or all the time. So we've got people going around. My wife, when she was six, she had a president's, Carter's sister here, Carter Stapleton. And tried to tell her that she had to go back into quarters of mine and dig out those unclean spirits. And I ask her never to come back again if she's going to do that. I'm sorry to, you know, the Lord took her, not for that reason, the Lord took her and probably she knew what it was like to have an awful lot of pain because she had pain when she died and we regret that terribly. It's not a curse or anything else, it just, it rains on the just and the unjust, doesn't it? That's what the Bible says. I know what it's like. I'm in pain right now. I'm in pain most of the time. Some of you are in pain a lot of times. And yet I know the Lord delivers and I pray for the sick and God heals. And I won't let anybody... I can stand here and tell you I have pain and I do not have a lying spirit on me. I have the Spirit of the Living God in me. And I'll give you a test for that in just a moment to prove that. In your soul for any of us. But you see, uh, Acts, I'll tell you what, let's go to Acts 5. Let's make it clear. Don't listen just to me. Acts 5th chapter of Acts. 16th verse. And also the people from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem are coming together bringing people who were sick or afflicted with unclean spirits and they were all being healed. Now you see, in this case the affliction is tied in again to the unclean spirit. I'm just trying to show both sides of it now. Alright, later on we'll tell you how to see the line of demarcation. Alright, uh, the multitudes brought the sick and those who were vexed with unclean spirits in King James. James makes it a little different. The multitudes brought the sick and them that were vexed with unclean spirits. How many have looked at that word vexed in the Bible? Remember when Lot said, uh, he vexed his soul by the things he saw and heard? Now you've heard of hex. You go down to Pennsylvania and all the Pennsylvania ducks talk about hexes and they have hex signs on their barns. Have you seen those hex signs? This is vex, V-E-X. And the word means, uh, harassed by a mob of unclean spirits. Harassed by a mob. Vexed means to be harassed by a mob of unclean spirits. A rabble. A rabble. A huge rabble pressing in on the mind. And Jesus, they brought many who were vexed by unclean spirits. Their minds were being tormented and they brought them to Jesus and the Scripture said He healed them all. But if you go back to Mark, I'll show you how how, uh, these spirits would go to church. And you say, well, David, you mean these lying spirits would bring Christians right into church when they live in carnality? Yes, I won't prove it to you right now. Mark, the first chapter. The first chapter of Mark. And, uh, I saw this yesterday and I thought, how brazen of unclean spirits. Mark, first chapter, verse 21, begin to read with me. And they went into Capernaum and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and began to teach. And they were amazed at his teaching for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as a scribe. And just then there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. Now where was he? In church. He'd been sitting there. They didn't even recognize it. But then when the truth came forth, look what happens. The unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, what do we have to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to distress? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Well, he acknowledged he knew God, didn't he? And Jesus rebuked him, saying, be quiet and come out of him. And throwing him into convulsion, the unclean spirit cried out, and a loud voice came out of him. And they were all amazed. They debated among themselves, saying, what is this? A new teaching with authority. He commands even unclean spirits and they obey him. Well, what a sight. Here are all these people in the synagogue. For weeks this man sits there as one of them, a holy, pious man, and they don't even know he's full of unclean spirits. He's going to church every Sunday. Every Sabbath he sits there and he quotes the law, and when God comes on the scene, he says, I know who you are, the Holy One of Israel. Unclean spirit will go to church. In fact, Acts 16. If I show it to you twice, will you believe it? I want to show you how brazen these lying spirits are. Verse 16. Acts 16, verse 16. And it happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a certain slave girl, having the spirit of divination, met us who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling. Following after Paul and us, and she kept crying out, saying, These men are bond servants of the Most High God. Now these are unclean spirits preaching this. These men are bond servants of the Most High God who are proclaiming to you the way of salvation. And she continued doing this for many days, but Paul was greatly annoyed and turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her, and it came out that very moment. Now, look what these unclean spirits were doing. They weren't going along saying, hey, don't listen. They weren't trying to deceive the crowd, saying, hey, these are phony men, these are false prophets. No, the lying spirits were saying, Come on, hear the gospel! Come hear the gospel! Come, these men are God! That's why I say, it's so important to understand what God is saying, how serious it is when we don't walk with Him in righteousness. When we open ourselves to the spirits of this age, we do not have to walk in fear of the devil. No Christian need walk in fear of unclean spirits. But it's a very simple thing that God's called us to do, is to walk with a lot of fire around about us and the glory therein, and that's the Word and the Spirit. Many Christians are playing with fire. And what I'm trying to show you here is that these unclean spirits are in the synagogue, they're acknowledging who the Lord is. You see, this spirit of the world, there's a spirit that's in the world, and it begins to rule those who lean toward the world. The more you lean toward the world, the more you lean toward the spirit that rules it. In fact, 1 Corinthians, follow me, just a few more scriptures. 1 Corinthians, the second chapter, 1 Corinthians, the second chapter, and the twelfth verse. 1 Corinthians 2.12. Now we have received not the spirit of what? Is there a spirit in the world? The spirit of the world. But the spirit who is from God. There are two spirits mentioned here, the spirit of God and the spirit of the world. And we might know the things given to us. Ephesians 2.1 Turn back to the right. I'm sorry. Ephesians 2. I'm going to read verses 1 to 3 Ephesians 2. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air. Now isn't that the way you used to walk? You walked once bound by the prince of this air and the spirit that rules the world. True or false? You walked that way according to the prince of the power of the air and the spirit that is now working where? In the sons of disobedience. There's a spirit that's working in the sons of disobedience. Those who disobey God. There's a spirit that's at work in them. Among them we too are formerly lived in the lust of our flesh indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind and whereby nature children of wrath even as the rest. But God being rich in mercy because of his great love which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you've been saved. He's raised us up with him and seated us with him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now what I wanted to point out to you there's a spirit that's in the world that rules the sons of disobedience and that same spirit. You walk in disobedience and that spirit will begin to rule you. It will come and it will begin to rule your life. I've watched people when I preach or when Bob is preaching or any man of God is preaching and I'll watch the audience and I can see some people just rise up in rebellion. Where's that coming from? Where does that rebellion emanate? That's not that person's personality because usually they're very kind and considerate. They wouldn't do that in the flesh. It's a spirit that rests upon them. It's a spirit that has occupied their mind. I want to, I would like to take just at least one more scripture. Oh by the way, you remember Saul in the Old Testament? I was thinking about Saul. The Bible says, and the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and the Lord sent an evil spirit that occupied Paul. That means God didn't send him. He permitted him. He's sent by God as a rod. In other words, God permitted him to come as a rod. The spirit of God left him. An evil spirit came upon him and from that day on, this man, though he's king of Israel and he rules the whole nation, he's driven and ruled and reigned by an evil spirit. And what does a man with an evil spirit want to do? He wants to throw a javelin. There's a spirit come on him of anger and of temper. I'll tell you something. You better be careful when you have outbursts of temper. Better find out where it's from. Better get a hold of that and claim victory. I used to have terrible outbreaks of temper and I know what it was tied to. And I needed a deliverance. It wasn't that I was demon possessed, but I was allowing these lying spirits to have a place in my mind. And when you allow lust in your heart, right behind it are all the other spirits. Because the Bible said when an unclean spirit's gone out of a man, he goes out to dry places seeking rest. And he doesn't find any rest, so he returns to what is his house. You see, when evil spirits are driven out, lying unclean spirits are driven out when you come to Christ. They're driven out and they never do want to give up deed to your house. They always say, that's mine, that's mine, now right now I'm out, but that's mine and the first chance I get, I'm coming back. They wander about in dry places in the atmosphere and they come back. And this spirit sees that house swept and empty. It's all cleaned up, all swept out. But it's not garnished, that means furnished. Remember the Scripture says, we're to be furnished by the whole counsel of God. That's the Word of God, and the Word of God is not in their heart, they're not furnished by the Word of God. That unclean spirit says, I will go back to that house, and he goes out and finds seven more spirits, more wicked than himself, that makes it eight times as bad, including the spirit that was there and cast out, I will go back to my house, my house, my house. The only way you can dispossess the devil is to have your heart furnished with this Word, and that's why I scream it, I yell it, I do anything to say, get into this book, fill your mind and your heart with the Word of God so that the devil will know that he's been totally dispossessed forever. He can't come back. That's why Christians are being shipwrecked all over the country. Sit and read the newspaper, sit and watch television, he can't even open this book. He comes back, seven spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Better to never have heard the Gospel than to hear him say, Jesus I love you, and then neglect him days on end. I'm not mad. I just covet God's protection for you. There's a holy anger that comes on me when I realize that we have absolute authority, that we can have our home so furnished that the evil spirits within the world, the spirit of the world can come at you, and they see you buried in this book, and they see you with the Word in your mind, you've got a word for everything, the devil comes at you, you can quote a Scripture verse like Jesus did, look, if the devil can take Jesus out of the wilderness, what are you going to do with you? If the devil takes him up on a mountaintop, he puts him up in a steeple, what's he going to do with you? And me? And Jesus quoted the Scripture, Jesus stood on the Word of God, his mind full of it, he was the Word itself, but the Word poured forth, and I'll tell you what, when the enemy comes and sees you weeping before the Lord, and he sees you in the secret closet, he sees your heart drawn to the Lord, he says, that's not my house anymore. Those spirits that tried to occupy you, they'll go find someplace else to occupy them, they'll come a time, they'll never come back. Alright, let's go to 1 John. 1 John 5th chapter. I'm going to start first verse, please. Whosoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water, but with the water and with the precious blood. Am I reading 1 John? 1 John Yes, ok. Verse 4. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. How does faith come? How are you going to overcome this spirit that's in the world? How are you going to overcome these spirits that want to come and lie to you and possess you and drive you? For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world and the spirit that's in it, even our faith. And faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. By this we know the spirit of truth and by the spirit of error. You know, there's a test. There's a test. You can know it right now. Do you want to test whether or not you have the spirit of God on you or the spirit of the world? It's a very simple test. The Scripture says, they that have the spirit of the world, they speak as from the world. According to the Scripture, they speak as from the world. In other words, they take the side of the world. That's what bothers me about the young people who are taking side of rock and roll. They speak as from the world. They speak as of the world. For life, I can't understand Christians trying to justify something. You know, someone sent me a copy of the definition in Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone has what they call the rock and roll Bible dictionary. It's the Bible of the rock and roll. You know what Rolling Stone magazine calls rock and roll, the definition of it? It says the only definition of rock and roll has always been and always will be this. Rock and roll is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. That's from the world itself. Now you tell me, you tell me, I want to ask you, why are Christians defending a music style that represents sexual intercourse? Rock and roll was something that was done in private, behind closed doors in a bedroom. And see, they speak as from the world. When I hear Christians defending rock and roll, I'm not saying violence is in the world. It's the wrong spirit that's moved in. It's the wrong spirit that's already found a place. Now that, sometimes someone just worked that out because of a past, you know, they're out of habit. Then they'll catch themselves or they'll go and say, hey, I was wrong, I heard something and then I don't like what I heard. I'm not saying everybody that defends rock and roll has an evil spirit, but I'm saying if they keep defending and defending everything that there is of the world, here it is, they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them, the Scripture says. The world listens to them and they do not like to hear the words of God. Alright, look here. Boredom, sitting in God's house. I can see it every time. Boredom, can't wait until the message is over. Don't like to go through the book. Absolutely bored, restless. I see them moving about just like this. There's a total restlessness. There's an emptiness. There's a defense of the things of this world. They speak of the world and the world listens to them. They have friends that are of this world. They speak as of the world. But if you don't know the Spirit of God's on you, by this we know the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Air. For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory over the world and even our faith. Hallelujah. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you do not, if you're not attached to this world and the things that are in this world, if you find yourself being drawn away from the world, now you may have a fight, but you're beginning to say, I have enough. I'm beginning to withdraw. Your shopping patterns are changing. Instead of rusting and leaping after things, you're drawing the line and saying, I have enough. And you're starting to draw back. You're giving more rather than possessing more. You're reaching out to people more than being self-centered. There's something in you that's opening up to the world. You say, I have not arrived, but I've got a hunger for God. And you begin to reach out. You begin to change toward Him. That's the Holy Spirit abiding in you, drawing you to the Father. Drawing you away from the world and the things that are in the world. Folks, I still have that battle. I have the battle against materialism. We all do. But the thing is, the man of God has the spirit, the woman of God has the spirit of God dwelling in them, begins to recognize the Holy Spirit, begins to show them. And then you quit lusting after the things of this world. You find yourself saying, hey, so far, no further. That's enough. You begin to draw back. Hallelujah. And then the Lord gives you peace as a result of that drawing back. Glory be to God. You know, the Bible said that that evil spirit that was allowed by God to come on Saul was sent to terrorize him. Terrorize him. I tell you, this is the tragic part. I see many Christians who are terrorized in their minds. God said, I've come to give you peace that passes all understanding. If you're sitting here this morning, your mind's been terrorized. You're terrorized about the future. You're terrorized about sin. You're terrorized about almost anything. I'm going to read to you the good side. Okay? I hope... Listen. I'm preaching to you in weakness this morning. Very worried from the demands of this past week. But... I've got to say something to you people. It's got to come out. I found myself yesterday on the street preaching to backslidden Pentecostal people. Backslidden. Backslidden Baptist. Right in that park, the Lord said, you take dominion in Jesus' name. I've been driven far enough. And those people were hungry. I said, how many are hungry? You know you've been driven. Dozens of hands were raised, driven by spirit beyond themselves. I saw the Lord bring deliverance. I saw the Lord set people free. And I know that when people are free, when that's all gone, when those blocks are gone, then there's a hunger for the word. You need to stop and say, why is it? Why is it that I can't bring myself to take time daily to read this book? Why is it that I can take time to do everything else that I can? What's blocking me? Stop and think about it a minute. Why don't I want to pray? What is it that's blocking me? And then get serious about it and listen to what I've told you this morning. The unclean spirit that was cast out of you, still going around seeking rest, and comes back and says, that's my house. It's empty, it's clean. You don't smoke, you don't drink, you live a clean moral life, but you're not furnished. Huh. Then you've got to take it seriously and say, then maybe I'd better get a hold of God and pray for deliverance. What's the Scripture say I'm going to read it to you? They brought to him, don't even turn to it, they brought to him many who were demon possessed and he cast out all the spirits with his word and he healed them. What's it take for Jesus to do it? Just his word. And he called his twelve disciples and he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. First he said, you can cast out unclean spirits, you can cast out diseases and infirmities. He went through the line. The thing that hit me, and I'm going to close in this minute, the thing that really hit me all this week when I was reading this, it hit me so hard. Jesus is sending his own disciples out to God's chosen people. And he said, I want you to cast out unclean spirits. Now that's saying that unclean spirits do possess the body. And Jesus went and I said, go cast them out. And I said, Lord, if unclean spirits do possess bodies, and Christians are not walking in the light all for themselves, then we'd better have this authority. And I believe that God's given you that authority to keep your life free. He gave it to every one of his disciples. He gave them authority over every unclean spirit to cast them out and then to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Listen to about Philip. And Philip preached Christ. The unclean spirits crying out with loud voices came out of many that were possessed by them. And many were paralyzed and lame and they were healed. They were paralyzed by these evil spirits. They were paralyzed with fear. Just his word. Philip just said the word in the name of Jesus. Depart! The paralyzation was gone. The fear was gone. The spirits were set free. James 4.7 Submit to God. Resist the devil. And he'll what? He'll flee from you. And I looked up that Greek word flee. It means to vanish completely, to escape and begin to shun you. He'll want to escape. He'll say, I can't exist in this. You'll put him to flight. This word right here in the Greek is one of the strongest words there is. To vanish, to escape and to shun you. I want nothing to do with that man anymore. I don't want to deal with that woman anymore. Hallelujah. Resist the devil. He'll flee from you. In 1 Peter 5.8 I'll just read it to you. Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert. He's talking to spirit-filled Christians. Be on the alert. Now, Jesus, help us to understand it. I'm trying to put you on the alert this morning. I'm trying to wake us up, saying there are spirits in the world. There's a spirit in this age. That's why I say, don't sit in front of that TV. Come on, Christian. If you don't have enough Christian guts to get rid of the thing, at least shut it off. Or if you can't say, well, I only watch the news. Well, just watch the news. I'm glad I have it out of my house, and by God's grace it'll never come back again, because I don't want it out of my house. But I want you to know that the reason we talk about that, there's a spirit to that thing. The spirit of the world is in that. And the Lord says, be alert. Wake up, Christians. There's a spirit in this age that's at work. There are a lot of spirits coming to see me that would possibly even elect the chosen of God. Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil prowls about like a man seeking someone to devour. But resist him. Form him to faith. Glory be to God. I'll tell you what the Holy Spirit told me to do this morning. Take dominion. We talk about a dominion people. We are a dominion people. You're talking about the spirit world. I want us to stand. I'm going to ask you a very sobering question now, please. Have you been hindered in your pursuit of this? Have you been hindered? Have you been hindered in your prayer life? Is it becoming a very difficult thing for you? It could very well be that those spirits that were cast out of you, running about in dry places, still saying, that's my house. God wants you to put them to chase forever. Hallelujah. I didn't preach this this morning to make you afraid. Not at all. I don't stand here in fear of the devil. Nor should you. No fear of the enemy. But not to be blind to these spiritual battles. We fight not against flesh and blood, but against powers and powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. Spiritual wickedness in high places are in the house of God. This is His high place. This is the house of worship. And that's where those spirits rage. There may be some of you that are still bound by drugs or alcohol. Or some habit. A habit has a hold of you. If you're still smoking cigarettes, if you've been trying to serve the Lord and that hangs on and hangs on, you can mark it down. There's probably a spirit behind it. You can come here this morning and we'll pray. Lay hands on you and ask God. If you want deliverance. Your heart really wants it. You can be set free. I don't need to know what the habit is. If you're standing here this morning, you have a habit that's been holding on to you. It's sucking your spiritual life like a leech. Come and stand here and we'll lay hands on you. God's given us authority this morning. Now believe that. If He'll do it on the street, He'll do it in the church. He'll do it in His house this morning. Get right out of your seat and come and stand. I don't... The audience doesn't need to know. I won't ask any questions. Just want to believe God with you for absolute, total freedom and victory. And beyond that, hallelujah. I don't know about you, but when I see the day approaching of judgment, I want to be strong in the Lord, the power of His might. I don't want to face this age weak and frail spiritually. Now the times you go through dry spells, but those dry spells are meant to drive you to the Word. I recently went through 30 days of dry spells where I had nothing but my faith. But I kept saying, Lord, I don't feel much of anything, but I'm just going to read and read and read. And I just kept baptizing my mind. Little by little, He brought me out. But otherwise, you're listening to doubts, you're listening to fears, you're listening to all kinds of lies from the very pits of hell. And God doesn't intend for us to live that way. He intends for us to live with His joy and His peace flooding our hearts. We don't have to live in that kind of fear. If you have fear and bondage, I want you to agree with me right now. I'm going to come against this, and I want you to come against every lying spirit. I never go to prayer anymore. Never. Without praying. Lord, I bind every lying spirit that tries to possess this room. I bind every principality of darkness. I bind the powers of darkness in Jesus' name. And I want my mind free. Comprehend the word. I want my mind free to sense the presence of Jesus and to hear His still small voice. And you can have that. You can clear your prayer closet. We can clear this atmosphere right now in Jesus' name. So that you can walk out of here without any fear, without any bondage. That's what the message is about. Victory. It's not about bondage. It's about victory. It's about Christians walking free from the lies of Satan. Heavenly Father, and you agree with me right now, Father, we agree together as one body. We come against every lying spirit that would try to find a place to whisper to our hearts some lie out of the very pits of hell. Lord Jesus, we take Your dominion right now. And we say we will walk with You. Lord, create a hunger and a thirst for Your word in our hearts. Put it in our hearts to become disciplined so that we will pray and seek the face of the Lord. That we'll grow in the might and power of the Spirit. That our faith will grow strong because we're feeding with the word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Lord, I'm trying to show Your people this morning how serious it is. How serious it is to neglect this word. How serious it is not to pray. How serious it is, O Lord, because we're opening ourselves to the spirit of this age. How serious it is to walk with idols in our heart. Lord Jesus, bring victory this morning. Absolute, total victory. Is anyone here this morning backslidden? You said, Brother Dave, I'm not where I should be with the Lord at all. And I feel the Lord calling my heart. Get right out of your seat and come and let me pray for you right now. You say, Brother Dave, I'm not where I should be with the Lord at all. Be honest about it. We're among friends. You step right out and come and stand here and we'll agree with you right now. The Lord Jesus, bring you through. You come back to His love right now. You may be bound down by a habit. I'll wait for just a moment. Is anybody here this morning? Maybe all Christians, but there may be one, there may be two here this morning. Is anybody else? You said, Brother Wilson, I am bound and I want to be free this morning. I'm not where I should be with Him at all. Blessed be the name of Jesus. Sonny, give me your right hand right here. Look at me now. You don't have to be afraid anymore. Jesus will come against this. These lying spirits will try to lie to her mind. They cannot possess her. Give me both hands. Now Jesus, listen, Jesus, I surrender everything to you now. Turn the Holy Spirit's on you right now. That's the Holy Spirit.