Is there activity of demonic spirits in the world today?

The evil spirits that possessed so many persons when the Lord was on earth were demons, and from the instances given we learn much respecting them. The Pharisees said that the Lord cast out demons by Beelzebub the prince of demons. The Lord interpreted this to mean 'Satan casting out Satan;' by which we learn that the demons were the agents of Satan; and that Satan as a strong man had to be bound before his kingdom could be assailed. Matt. 12:24-29. The demons also were strong ones, by the way they handled those they possessed, and by one overcoming seven men and making them flee out of the house naked and wounded. Acts 19:16. We know also that they were intelligent beings; for they knew the Lord Jesus and bowed at once to His authority. They also knew that punishment awaited them: for some asked if the Lord had come to torment them before the time. Matt. 8:29.

It must not be supposed that demon-agency has ceased: the exhortation is, "Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." 1 John 4:1. With this agrees the declaration that "in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons." 1 Tim. 4:1. Spiritualists and Theosophists carry on intercourse with such, and are taught by them. In a future day also, when God will be pouring out His judgements on the earth, men will not repent, but will worship demons and all sorts of idols. Rev. 9:20. The spirits of demons also, by working miracles, will gather the kings of the earth together to the battle of that great day of Almighty God. Rev. 16:14. And mystical Babylon will become "the habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Rev. 18:2. The world and the professing church are evidently ripening for these things; and some, under the plea of investigating phenomena, are unconsciously having to do with the wicked spirits themselves!

There is another class of fallen angels, in Scripture called demons, who evidently are allowed a range of activity in this world. We have ample proof of this in the four Gospels. That these unclean spirits have the power to enter and possess the bodies of men and animals is evident. We read:

As to these demons, we learn from the Gospels that they take possession of human bodies, even the bodies of beasts. When an unclean spirit was asked his name, his reply was, “My name is Legion: for we are many” (Mark 5:9). Out of Mary Magdalene seven were cast. The demons were subject to Christ’s commands, and after His resurrection to the power of His name as we learn from the case of Paul and the damsel of divination in Acts 16. They know their doom, as is evidenced by their cry: “What have we to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of God, art Thou come hither to torment us before the time?” (Matt. 8:29).

Why Satan and evil spirits are allowed liberty to act upon mankind is one of God’s secrets. Evidently it is for some wise reason, that they are held in restraint and not permitted to do all they would is clear from the fact of God’s Holy Spirit being in this world. But as the present dispensation draws to a close demoniacal power is allowed to increase. Especially will this be true after the church is caught up at the Lord’s second coming.

Our enemies are not of flesh and blood but wicked spirits of darkness and spiritual powers. The day of their judgment is certainly getting near and they know it. That is why we see in our days such a world-wide manifestation of occult and demonic powers.

Yes, we are under attack. Yes, we are engaged in a spiritual warfare. Therefore we should put on the whole armour of God and resist, and, having done all, to stand and not fail or falter. The Lord is our strength and our security.

You know how this Epistle speaks of the solemn times when the power of the evil spirits will be active to delude and lead astray. And this activity is prevalent now. I world raise a word of warning against the power of the evil one which displays itself in that particular way at the present time. Beware of the desire to traffic with the unseen powers that are not of God, nor of Christ.

Ephesians 2:2. Vol. II. p. 267. — Scripture explicitly proves the existence of Satan's power in a special and positive way over the minds and bodies of men, and nowhere intimates its cessation when Christianity began or prevailed. There is generally no little imposture along with it, so that the sceptic may find an appearance of reason in attributing all to human craft and superstition. But facts there are, and have always been, which attest a spiritual foe working still among men, and especially the heathen. See Crantz, Brainerd, etc. Our text, however, speaks not of such demoniacal powers or possessions, but of that universal influence which Satan exercises over all unconverted persons.

Intercourse with such in the Old Testament is sternly forbidden; whilst the activities of demons are outlined in the Gospels as seeking to gain possession of the bodies of men for the destruction of their souls; as bitterly opposed to the Lord Jesus, but yet subject to His commands, whilst the latter-day revival of their activities is prophesied in 1 Timothy 4:1-3, which is clearly seen today in the intensive propaganda of spiritism. Spiritism is purely Satanic and anti-Christian.

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.

The Storm on the Lake was the work of Satan, but here the power of the enemy is more prominent. The description of the demoniac differs from Matthew's and Luke's account. His condition is described in fullest detail. He dwelt in the place of the dead. No one could chain him; Satan's dominion and power cannot be conquered by the effort of man. Then there is self-torture and delusion in thinking of Christ as a tormentor. The complete identification of the legion of demons with this poor victim is seen in verse 9. The power of the Lord delivers the man. This miserable world is still in the thraldom of Satan and his legion of demons. Demon possessions have not ceased. And the Lord Jesus Christ is still the same. The demons enter the swine by their own request and when granted the herd of swine rushed to destruction. This is an evidence of the character of the devil. He is the murderer from the beginning. But oh! the blessed change which had come for the demoniac. Delivered completely, in the attitude of rest, no longer rushing to and fro in torment, his nakedness covered and in his right mind. These are still the results of salvation. He would remain in constant fellowship with His deliverer. But the Servant demands service--and He announces directly what the Lord had done for Him. This is still the blessed privilege of all who have been delivered. They asked the Servant, with His loving Power to save to the uttermost, to leave their coast. "When the presence of God is felt, it is more terrible than that of Satan. Man would wish to free himself from the latter, but cannot; but the presence of God is insupportable when it makes itself felt, and indeed man has driven God (in the person of Christ) out of this world." It shows once more the rejection of the Servant.

I desire, beloved friends, with the Lord's help, just to bring before our hearts this evening three incidents in this chapter, the power of Christ, His gracious, wonder-working power over demons, disease, and death. And I think you will find as we study it together that there are peculiar voices of God to us of a very practical nature in connection with each case in the chapter. First of all — and I need not dwell long upon this case — we have the demon-possessed man. God only knows whether there is anyone here to-night morally like that, but it is the picture of a person who is entirely and completely under the enslaving power of the enemy. I have no doubt whatever it is the picture of a man who is not merely in his sins, but who in his sins is peculiarly a slave of the devil. Now there are characters of sin amongst men very diverse in nature the one from the other. The leper, for instance, is a type of the sinner in one aspect, the blind man is the type of the sinner in another. We might go through all the various cases that came in contact with the Lord of life and glory in this world, and your feelings would be very differently moved in each case; you would not have the same kind of feeling with regard to a man blind as you would with regard to a leper. But when you come to a case like this, a man that was possessed with demons, a man distinctly under the mastery and dominion of the devil, bound as we would say hand and foot by his power, one shudders with horror at a case of that kind. I believe such cases morally abound: I am not prepared at all, beloved friends, to deny that there is a peculiar power of Satan at the present moment. I see, for instance, in the New Testament scriptures that long after the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and long after the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the day of Pentecost, there were persons who were distinctly under the blinding, tyrannising power of the devil. If ever there was a time when one would expect to see the power of Satan entirely broken and annulled, so that persons should not be subjected to his thraldom, it would be immediately consequent upon Christ's victory and His resurrection, and the coming down of the Holy Ghost. But you have only to study what is called the Acts of the Apostles (really the Acts of the Spirit through the servants of God), and you will find a very solemn power of the devil in those days. Now observe, I do not speak at all of that power in any other sense save after a moral and spiritual nature; I do not speak now of a person's body being possessed, as we know this poor wretched man was possessed with a legion; I am speaking entirely now, as I have said, of the moral power, or what we might call the spiritual power that Satan exercises; a power that we see is positively in progress to an enormous extent at the present moment. If ever there was a time that was a witness to the tremendous exercise of Satan's virulence, and his hostility both to God and man, the day that we are living in is the witness to it. It is increasing, and it will increase; and persons are now in their souls and in their minds (I have come in contact with them myself) as distinctly devil-possessed as surely as ever they were in their bodies in past days. Now that is a very solemn reflection for us all. You remember how the apostle describes it, for instance, in Ephesians 2, when he says, You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world," — now mark the words according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." Now that is very striking and very solemn: that is development, beloved friends, and that is the development that we avow. I fully admit development, but development in what way? Development in evil, and in the exercise and display of Satanic power; and that we have all round us. Here is a striking case that comes before the Lord in Mark 5; and all through this chapter, the details which the evangelist presents are positively appalling. This man is described in this way: he "had his dwelling among the tombs;" "no man could bind him, no, not with chains;" and that had not been untried, for that means to restrain, to keep in subjection, a person under this influence had been attempted; "he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him and the fetters broken in pieces; neither could any man tame him; but always" — not on one isolated occasion, but as the habit of the man's life, the perpetual, dreary, wretched position that this man ever occupied — always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones."