What does the Bible say about casting out demons?

Demons had never in such numbers been cast out before the Lord's time. Such work could only be the finger of God, and it required the positive conclusion that the kingdom of God had come upon them. This great work cannot be ignored. In one aspect of it, the kingdom was at hand, but in a very real way it had already come upon them in the person of the King, to whom they gave no recognition. Satan was as a strong man armed, keeping his stronghold, his goods not disturbed so long as his strength prevailed. But a stronger than he, the Son of God, had attacked in overwhelming power, divesting Satan of his goods and armor, dividing the spoils, that is, giving to others the benefit of His victory.

"And these signs shall follow those that have believed, in My name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they should drink any deadly thing it shall not injure them; they shall lay hands on the infirm, and they shall be well." There is not a word here as to time. It is not all who believe, but "those that have believed"; and, further, it is not said of those that believe even to the end of the age. Nothing of the kind is intimated. When, on the contrary, the Lord in Matthew commands them to disciple all nations, baptizing and teaching them, He vouchsafes the assurance of His presence with them to the end of the age. The Lord abides with the disciples till the age is completed — all implied in "Lo, I am with you all the days." But it is not so with these signs of Mark. Our Lord's word was fully accomplished to the letter in the particular epoch when these signs were given; but there was no bond of perpetuity. In this way the contrast with Matthew is striking, and the mouth of the objector or deceiver is stopped.

"In My name they shall cast out demons." He begins with power over Satan. They were to go forth in the power of His resurrection. Although He was going away, so far from thereby losing power, they would rather gain in this respect. "Greater works than these shall he do, because I go to My Father" (John 14:12).The notion of the Jews was that all the great works were to be done when Messiah was on the earth. Not so. In His name, during His absence, His servants should cast out demons, etc. "They shall speak with new tongues." What a wonderful testimony of God's grace towards all men! They were to speak now of His wonderful works (Acts 2) in the tongues wherewith God had confounded men at the tower of Babel. This was fulfilled, first on the day of Pentecost to the Jews, then to the Gentiles in due time. "They shall take up serpents" — the outward symbol of the power of Satan in this world — that which man instinctively hates since the fall, unless he be so besotted as to worship it. "And if they should drink any deadly thing, it shall not injure them." The power of nature, of things inanimate as well as animate, could not avail against them; but, contrariwise, "they shall lay hands on the infirm, and they shall be well." The beneficial power of good in His name overcomes evil and banishes it. "New": so Edd., after ACcorrD, etc., Syrpesch. it is omitted in CpmLΔ, etc.

It is clear, from chap. 3:15, that there was no excuse for the inability of the disciples to cast out the demon from this poor child. The power had been bestowed upon them, but when this opportunity for its exercise was presented to them, they could not use it. Combining the narrative in Matthew with this in Mark, we learn the whole secret of their failure. In answer to the disciples' own question, "Why could not we cast him out?" Jesus said, "Because of your unbelief"; and He, moreover, told them that nothing would be impossible to them, if they even had faith as a grain of mustard seed. We learn likewise, from both gospels, that for such faith, for the exercise of such victorious power, over the enemy, there must be a corresponding state of soul: "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29.) Prayer is the expression, in confidence in God, of the realization of absolute dependence; and fasting will mean that Nazarite state which refuses lawful things and lawful enjoyments (See Numbers 6:3-7) for the sake of more entire devotedness to the Lord's service. It may sometimes include abstinence from food, but to confine it to this is to miss its main import. A fasting soul is one so filled with the marrow and fatness of heavenly joys, as to be superior to, and independent of, the gratifications of earth. In this condition, faith will be in such vigorous exercise that "mountains" will be removed. (Matthew 17:20.) The same blessed instruction concerning the action of faith may be gathered from the Lord's words to the father of the child, who had cried, "If thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us." The answer was as to its meaning, "the 'If thou canst,' is, 'If thou canst believe' - all things are possible to him that believeth." Whether, therefore, in the Lord's service, or in deep personal need, the indispensable requisite for calling in divine power for succour and deliverance, is faith - faith that looks beyond all difficulties and obstacles, and lays hold of the arm of Omnipotence. And this unutterable grace and privilege are of divine permission and appointment.

The Lord Jesus said in Mark 16, that these signs should follow; but he never said how long they were to last. They did follow them that believed; and there is the simple truth of the matter. For their continuance or revival you have no divine warrant.

There may be light in a sense without the smallest trace of life, of which Balaam is an example. Of the stony ground hearers also it is said concerning the word that "anon with joy they received it" - they "tasted the good word of God." Moreover, Judas could cast out devils as well as the rest: he was a partaker of these "miracles of the coming age." And Christ had said (Matt. 7:22), "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works?" Still they are disowned of Christ as "workers of iniquity."

But there is another incident, too, peculiar to Mark, of which we hear directly after this. The Lord rebukes them by taking a child, and thence reading them humility. What a withering censure of their self-exaltation! Even John proves how little the glory of Christ, which makes one content to be nothing, had entered into his heart now. The day is coming when it would all take deep root there — when they would really gather everlasting profit from it; but for the present it was the painful demonstration that there is something more needed than the word even of Jesus. So it is, then, that John immediately after this turns to our Lord, complaining of some one that was casting out demons in His name — the very thing they had failed to do. "Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name." Was not this, then, a matter for thankfulness of heart to God? Not a bit of it! Self in John took fire at it, and became the mouthpiece of the strong feeling which animated them all. "Master, we saw" — not "I" merely; he spake for all the rest. "We saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followed not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us." It is evident, then, that no previous reproof had in any way purged out the self-exalting spirit, for here it was again in full force; but Jesus said, "Forbid him not." Another most weighty lesson in the service of Christ is this. The question here is not one of dishonour done to Christ. None in this case contemplates or allows any act whatever contrary to His name. On the contrary, it was a servant going forward against the enemy, believing in the efficacy of the Lord's name. Had it been a question of enemies or false friends of Christ, overthrowing or undermining His glory, he that "is not for him is against him; and he that gathereth not with him scattereth abroad." Wherever it is a question of a true or a false Christ, there cannot be a compromise of one jot of His glory. But where, on the contrary, it was one who may have been unintelligent, perhaps, and who certainly had not been so favoured in point of circumstances as the disciples, yet who knew the value and efficacy of His name, Jesus graciously shields him. "Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is on our part." He certainly had faith in the Lord's name; and by faith in that name he was mighty to do what, alas! disciples were feeble to do. It was evident that there was a spirit of jealousy, and that the power which manifestly wrought in one who had never been so privileged outwardly as they, instead of humbling the disciples to think of their own shortcoming and lack of faith, led even John to cast about for some fault to find, some plea for restraining him whom God had honoured.

But these displays of miraculous power brought prominently to the front the question of exorcisms. And the marked effect of Paul's miracles led to attempts to rival and to equal them in the casting out of demons. Among the heathen there were those who professed to exorcise demons; among the Jews there were those who really did it. This the Lord distinctly owned when He was on earth (Matt.12:27); and Josephus tells us ( Ant ., VIII. ii. 5) that Solomon had left for future times different forms of exorcising, which were in use, we suppose, in that historian's lifetime. For he relates a case which he himself had witnessed, of one Eleazer, a Jew, casting out a demon in the presence of Vespasian. At Ephesus, it seems, there were such people, wandering Jews, as Luke describes them, and among them were found sons of one Sceva, a Jew, who did this, using doubtless some old and recognised formulas thought suited for that purpose. But now it was seen that without the use of any of the prescribed charms, simply in the name of the Lord Jesus, demons were exorcised by Paul. This was something quite new at Ephesus. And certainly, by the admission of all, that name was efficacious in this work. For these exorcists, accustomed to charms or incantations which any who knew them could use with effect, supposed that Paul was introducing a new charm, to which others could equally resort. For the name of the Lord Jesus, when used by him, had a power which no demon evidently had resisted.

This word is used to describe men who were possessed by demons, as revealed in scripture. In the N.T. those 'possessed' by demons were certainly under the control of the demons, even to casting them into the fire and into the water.

It has been argued that the persons said to be possessed were really lunatics, who imagined they were possessed; and to meet that fancy the Lord spoke to the supposed spirit and told it to come out! But this is simply an effort to deny the power of Satan and his emissaries over man, and also God's power in the miracles. The Lord spoke of the casting out of demons when he was not speaking to those possessed. The demons also knew the Lord to be the Son of God, answered Him, asked permission to go into the herd of swine, and feared he had come to punish them before the time. Those who were lunatics are mentioned along with, and as different from, those possessed with demons. Matt. 4:24. It is true that the father of a lad who was possessed by a demon called him a lunatic, and said the disciples could not cure him, in Matt. 17:14-16; but in Mark 9:17 he said his son had a dumb spirit, and in Luke 9:39 'a spirit taketh him.' It was clearly a case of possession: the Lord rebuked the demon, and it departed from him.

Now we have another thing, the ministry of Jesus in presence of Satan's power, and the utter confessed weakness and misery of nature. An instructive lesson, indeed, for not only do we see the all-conquering might of Him who was crucified in weakness, but the extent of the deliverance shown forth in him who was both set free from the thraldom of Satan and who afterwards became the active witness to others of the Lord's greatness and power to others. It is not merely sin here, or the lusts of the flesh and the world. We know how continually God does save from human violence and corruption and their consequences. In Legion, however, we have, rather, the direct agency of Satan paramount, if not there. As to this, men ordinarily are incredulous; or, if they admit it ever thus acted, they would limit it to the time of Christ on earth. That there may have been a greater rising up of the enemy's power in opposition to the Son of God when here below is a very different statement, and I believe it; but it is a most erroneous conclusion that his power was then so shattered as a matter of fact that cases of demoniacal possession were never afterward to appear. The New Testament refutes the illusion. After Christ died and rose (and this must have gone in the direction of destroying the energy of Satan further than anything else), He charged His servants to preach the Gospel with this sign accompanying them: "In My name they shall cast out demons." (Mark 16:17) And so, in the Acts of the Apostles, we find the word confirmed thereby. Sick folks were brought, and persons vexed with unclean spirits; "and they were healed every one" (Acts 5:16). This was after the descent of the Holy Ghost, too; so that this mighty event, following redemption, had not of itself extinguished cases of possession. Nor was this confined to Peter or the other Apostles; but similar power accompanied Philip, the evangelist, at Samaria. "For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed by them; and many that were paralyzed and lame were healed." I need not dwell on such strong cases as the divining damsel of Philippi, nor that at Ephesus (Acts 19), which the seven sons of Sceva proved to be too real to their cost: they are well known.

But the presence and power of the Holy Ghost had been manifested in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and, while the disciples had yet to seek for the power of the Holy Ghost to be present with themselves, the Jewish nation were thus accomplishing their guilt in denying and blaspheming His power And indeed the possessed man was just a type of the operation of grace in power on the Remnant of the people. Others in the midst of 10,000 miracles seek a sign. The Lord in principle morally judges the nation on these two grounds, but the point of moral condemnation is, they did not hear His word. He shows, as to the first, the discernment of the thoughts of their heart, then shows the perfect absurdity and therefore pure malice of the charge. Their own sons cast them out, and they should judge their wickedness. But, for the fact was admitted, it was by the finger of God that the devils were cast out, then the kingdom of God was come among them. They would give the credit to Satan rather than admit that God had visited them in goodness. They proved themselves therein the children of Satan. The real truth was then - a great conflict was manifested between Christ by the power and finger of God, and Satan. It was not merely a question of Jewish reception, it went deeper. And this conflict really existing, they must take one side or the other. He was casting out Satan, and spoiling his goods. They must side with Satan or with God. Christ was the only Centre. No Jewish nation, nay, nor no Church could now hold this ground. It might be in blessing gathered, but could not be the One gathered to, though all the saved might be brought there. But Jewish centrality was gone indeed then. The Person of Christ under the law as giving it was the Centre, but now in flesh and in the manifestation of power. He was the only Centre. Whoever gathered not with Him scattered. By progressive rejection, the Lord becomes the necessary and manifested Centre of His own rights. It gradually ceased to have the character of benefits on rejecting Israel, and became the manifestation of His glory against those that rejected Him. And thus all was centred in Him; whoever was not with Him, etc., for they must take the one side or the other. And whoever did not gather with Him scattered.

207 The Holy Ghost was the great Manifester and energy of power. Where this was not, the unclean spirit might leave a man, and the form of piety be there, but the Holy Ghost is not, and the unclean spirit returns with abundance more, and the last state is worse than the first. This is a solemn revelation of the dispensations of God's house: "Out of a man." But there is no fellowship or dwelling of God there. It is thus his house. The restless spirit of evil, removed it may be in the dispensations of God by the outward effects of mercy, has, though long wandering, not lost his remembrance of his house. Providence, the dealings of God have long kept him at a distance, but though empty it has not ceased to be his house. On his return, there is nothing to impede his entrance, no power of the Lord there. It is still, however swept and ornamented, the empty house of Satan; he comes there with his friends, and it is worse than before. The interferences of providences prolonging the time and celebrating mercy, blessed to many, in that blessing dispel Satan; but many houses are left thereby untenanted - the Holy Ghost, the presence of Christ is not there. By degrees Satan, restless ever, finds occasion to return and, as we have said, there is nothing to impede his entrance, and finding this with renewed energy, conscious of the absence and desertion of the interfering power which expelled him once, he takes possession of the house where he knows there is none to disturb him; for when he was gone none other came. There was form while power acted close by, but no presence of power, and in its proved emptiness he takes possession, and the case is hopelessly worse than before. Before, Satan was there in a deceived heart, whence he had not been expelled even by the sense of power near and its effect on the heart; now, that effect is shown to be no presence of divine power there, and he takes possession on the evidence of it.