If you have been attending regularly in our Sunday morning services this summer, then you will know that I have been preaching over the last few weeks about the power of the gospel. I believe that is what Luke, the human coauthor of Acts is attempting to show us about the gospel of Christ. Way back in chapter 1, the Lord tells His disciples that they should wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then they would receive power to preach the gospel and to be His witnesses to the whole world.

So that is exactly what happened. On the day of Pentecost, as the disciples were praying, the power of the Holy Spirit manifested Himself in tongues of fire, and they began to speak in other languages, so that people from all of the various nations in Asia who were attending the feast heard the gospel preached in their own language. A language foreign to the apostles and foreign to the Jews.

Then immediately afterwards, we see the power of the gospel was manifested through the Holy Spirit as He worked through the apostles and dramatically built this great first church in Jerusalem. Then when persecution arose against the church the disciples began to spread out into the surrounding regions, throughout Judea, then into Samaria, and then into the far flung regions of Asia, and eventually even into Europe. And that is where we are today as we look in this chapter. The gospel has been taken by the Apostle Paul into Europe, and we have seen that the power of the gospel is undiminished even among the pagan European cultures.

So as we studied these last chapters we saw that the power of the gospel was able to save. We saw that the gospel is powerful to deliver from illness, it is powerful to deliver from not only the penalty of sin but also from the power of sin, that the power of the gospel is able to refute philosophy and science, that the power of the gospel is able to defeat anxiety and depression, and today we will see that the power of the gospel is able to deliver from demonic forces. The power of the gospel is greater than that of Satan. As 1John 4:4 says, “Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world.” There is no power in heaven or on earth that is able to defeat the power of the gospel. Jesus said, “I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” There is no power in heaven or on earth that is able to prevail against the power of God.

Now as I said, we are going to see the power of the gospel over demonic forces demonstrated in this passage today. And by way of introduction, Paul is in Ephesus, an extremely evil, pagan culture. One that practiced witchcraft and idolatry and every sort of depravity and sin. But by the power of the gospel Paul was able to establish a great church there which would impact the larger region with the gospel.

The text indicates that Paul started out, as was his practice, teaching in the Jewish synagogue. For about three months they were receptive to him and his teaching. But then as was typical, some of the Jews began to become resentful of his teaching, perhaps even jealous, and began to turn the Jews away from the truth so that they became hard hearted. So it says that Paul withdrew from them and began teaching in a school down the road.

Now we’ve seen this practice a couple of times lately haven’t we? Paul has some initial success, but the religious people start to resent him and are jealous and turn the people’s heart away from the truth, and so Paul leaves that company and goes down the street, or even next door as we saw in chapter 18 and continues to preach to those who will accept his message. We can learn a couple of things from that; one is that we should expect jealousy and resentment when we preach the gospel. We shouldn’t expect cheering crowds, at least not for long. We should expect people to get their feathers ruffled when they start to understand that one of the pillars of the gospel is repentance from sin. And especially when they understand that the sin you are referring to is their own. It’s one thing to speak about sin in a theoretical way, but when you rebuke their sin, then expect some people to get resentful and even try to affect others as well with their resentment.

So Paul met in a school house of some sort down the road and he began to preach daily it says.   Twice in this passage it describes Paul’s preaching as reasoning. I like that. As Peter said in 2Peter 1:16, “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Peter goes on to describe the message as a more sure word of prophecy, and that prophecy is not of some private interpretation, but based on scripture which is inspired by the Holy Spirit.

There are a lot of so called prophets out there. There are a lot of people that would like to share their interpretations, their wisdom, their knowledge and especially their experiences. Some people love to hear themselves talk far too much. But the true messenger of God will realize that if his words are to have any real power at all, any power to deliver, then they must be the words of God as given in the scriptures by the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

So that is what Paul is doing. He is explaining, he is reasoning on the basis of scripture. That is what we saw Apollos doing in the last chapter. Refuting the Jews by scripture. By the wisdom of God, the truth of God. As Jesus said in John 8:31-32, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” The word of God is the basis for all truth, and only the truth of God’s word can truly make you free.

Now Paul was preaching the gospel, the truth of God’s word for two years there in that school. And it says in vs.11 that God was attesting to the word that Paul was preaching by performing unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. Now I want you to notice that word, unusual. These miracles were not the usual, or ordinary miracles that one might expect. They were not only miracles, but were extraordinary miracles. And it goes on to say what these miracles were. There were handkerchiefs or cloths or aprons which were carried from Paul’s body to the sick and the disease or evil spirit went out.

Now let me hasten to add that this is not the sort of thing which you sometimes see on late night television with those televangelists who offer to send you a prayer napkin if you send them some money. Those people are frauds, playing on the superstitions and naiveté of gullible people. But notice that the word says this was God performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. Now why does God work this way at that time but not today? Well the answer is in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, in 2Cor. 12:12, where he said, “The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.” In other words, signs and wonders and miracles were the peculiar badge of an apostle, the means by which God authenticated their message.

See, God designed that the apostles would be the foundation of the church. That their doctrine, their word would become the written word of God which would be the basis for all that the church would stand upon and become. The church’s foundation is the word of God. And so in order to establish and show that the apostles spoke the truth of God’s word, God authenticated their word by miracles. That is why Jesus performed miracles. Jesus said to the men who brought in the paralytic to be healed, [Matt. 9:6] “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”–then He said to the paralytic, “Get up, pick up your bed and go home.” Christ proved he was able to forgive sins because He had the power to heal.

You might also remember the woman who had hemorrhaging that could not be healed by any physicians, who said if I just touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, I can be made well. And so it was. It was God attesting to her faith in Christ whereby she received the miracle. And then in a previous chapter in Acts we saw that when Peter passed by his shadow falling on sick people caused them to be made well. All of those occasions, as well as the present occasion, were times when the authority of their word as the gospel was in need of being attested to by the power of God as a means of authenticating their teaching.

Now today apostles are no longer on the earth declaring “thus saith the Lord.” God has finished His revelation and it has been written down for us as a more sure word, even as Peter said. So there is no longer any need for apostolic gifts in order to attest to the fact that they were speaking God’s word. So therefore I can say with certainty that those late night charlatans who attempt to bilk old ladies of their social security income are frauds and cheats and there is no divine power in their handkerchiefs.

But I will say, that though God does not work such miracles by the hands of the apostles today, yet God still works miracles according to the dispensation of His will. And furthermore, I will declare that though God does not promise physical healing of every disease, yet God does promise spiritual healing of every sin. That much I know the Bible teaches. The power of the gospel is the power over sin. Paul said in Romans 6:6-7, “that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died [with Christ] is freed from sin.”

So all sin is subject to Christ’s authority, and all power, all angels, both heavenly and demonic are subject to Christ’s authority. And because Paul is the appointed spokesperson of Christ, His true apostle, God delivers people from sickness and from evil spirits even by an apron that Paul had worn which was taken to the sick or demon possessed.

Now I believe that even though the apostolic gifts of miracles has been done away with, because there are no more apostles today, yet there is still promised in the Bible that we can expect God to deliver from demonic influence or even possession. We are not commissioned to start an exorcism ministry. I do not believe that is biblical. But I do believe that God is able to deliver from demonic possession or influence.

Some of you are probably asking how is being set free from demonic influence different than being set free from illness, like cancer for instance? What is the difference? Well, I am glad you asked. Because I believe that the Bible teaches that demonic influence is directly related to sin in an individual’s life, whereas physical sickness in an individual is not necessarily related to sin in their life. (John 9: 2) Physical illness is the result of living in a fallen world, in temporal, human bodies. And God does not promise to deliver us from all physical illness.

But I believe the Bible does teach that demonic influence and possession are related to sin. I believe it is best expressed in the old adage, “if you give the devil an inch, he will take a mile.” That’s not in scripture, by the way. That is just a truism. But it is founded on spiritual principles. The principle is that when you harbor sin, it is corrupting, it is consuming. Sin cannot stay compartmentalized. So when you open yourself up to a sin, even what you might think is a minor sin, the devil uses that opening to get a foothold in your life, and then from that foothold he establishes a beachhead, and from that beachhead he can take over the whole body and soul.

Now that is born out in Ephesians 6:10-12 which says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

See, what Paul is saying there is that our spiritual battle is against demonic forces, and to withstand those forces we need to put on the full armor of God. And then Paul goes on to describe those pieces of armor. But here is the thing. What happens when you give in to the schemes or temptation of the devil and deliberately sin, is you have in effect opened up a chink in your armor. Now you have this open weakness that the devil will exploit. And let me warn you of this. That is why it is so catastrophic when a person harbors their sin. Because the devil is going to keep on hitting you in your weak spot, and open up a greater hole there until he is able to completely defeat you and overcome you. That is the reason that it is so destructive to have unconfessed sin in your life. And what is even worse, is to tell yourself that your sin is not really sin. Now you have deliberately given place to the devil in your life, and you are basically quenching the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So when that happens, who is that person worshipping? Well you worship whom you obey. So who is that person obeying? You are obeying the devil. And that can lead to full blown possession in an unsaved person, but even in a Christian it can lead to a destructive influence which can cause your spiritual shipwreck and even physical destruction.

That’s why Paul in Eph. 4:27 warns against sins of anger and lying and stealing and other old corrupt practices by saying “do not give the devil an opportunity.” When we continue in unconfessed, unrepentant sin, then we give the devil an opportunity. We let our defenses down. We open up our armor. And the devil can take that opportunity and work through that sin and bring about all kinds of iniquity, with the ultimate goal of destroying you and your testimony.

I believe that many of the problems that face our society today find their root in a sin problem. Sin is the arena that all societal problems arise from. I’ll give you one very pertinent example and one that I am very familiar with. And that is the problem of drugs in our society. I don’t know if you realize it or not, but there is an epidemic of drug abuse in our culture, and our country is doing nothing to truly address it. Instead we are legalizing it. We attempt to say it really isn’t sin.

I saw an article on Fox News yesterday about the new DEA chief, Chuck Rosenberg, who said that heroin usage was the number one problem in all 21 jurisdictions. It’s use has jumped 150% in the last couple of years and casualty rates doubled as well. In fact, deaths from drug overdoses in America total 44,000 deaths a year, more than car accidents or gun violence. And yet I see more enthusiasm in restricting legal gun sales than I do in addressing drug addiction.

But what I want to point out to you is that the Bible speaks of drug use and equates it with demonic influence. Did you know that? Turn to Rev. 9:20-21; “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”

Now I want you to notice the word sorceries. The Greek word for sorcery is pharmakeia. Pharmakeia is defined as the use or administering of drugs, sorcery and the magical arts. You notice it sounds like our word pharmacy which is obviously from where we get that word. Particularly in ancient demonic arts, in witchcraft and sorcery, there was a use of drugs in order to produce spells and so forth.

And what Revelation is saying there is that in the last days, men and women will not repent of their sorceries, or their drugs, nor of their immorality or their thefts. I don’t know about you, but I find that pertinent to my experience with drug abuse. I find that people who experiment with drugs tend to go off into all kinds of perversions, they turn against God, they become interested in dark things, demonic music, demonic influences. It promotes a culture of death. And sometimes I think that it leads to outright demonic possession. But without a doubt, I believe that drug use is a sin that Satan uses to control a person, and ultimately try to destroy them.

But what I want to impress on you today is that there is hope for the those under demonic control through drugs by the power of the gospel. Because at it’s root is simply sin. When Christ rose from the grave He triumphed over sin and death. The hope for this world in all it’s problems, in all it’s addictions, is not more government intervention, or more programs, or more money, or more resources. Those things may have some limited benefit. But the only real hope for the world, no matter how great the problem, is the power of the gospel. Only God can change hearts. Only God can change their desires. Only God can set free those who are held captive by Satan. As 2Tim.2:25 says, “God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”

Once again we see that the power of the gospel is found in the truth of the gospel. Only the truth can set you free. A watered down gospel, a social gospel, a hipster gospel is not able to save. In order for the gospel to be able to save it must be the truth. The truth will set you free. But only the truth, not a half truth. And the devil is always working to water down the truth, to give an alternative gospel. To make you believe that there are different versions of the truth. And that is a lie of Satan.

We see that back in our text. There were these guys traveling from town to town, not unlike some of these healing evangelists that set up tent meetings from time to time. And for the most part they operate on the basis of superstition, or the power of suggestion. I think many of them utilize a form of hypnotism. I have studied these people to some extent, and I was surprised to find hypnotism was a common practice by many of these false teachers.

But there was a traveling family which were the called the Seven Sons of Sceva. These guys were exorcists and they seem to have established a reputation as such and traveled from town to town. These guys were the original Ghost Busters. And it was customary then as it is now to claim all kinds of things as having some sort of demonic origin and they would then produce all these incantations and supposedly cast out the demons for a price and then move on to the next town before anyone was the wiser. But in this situation they actually come upon a truly demon possessed person.

Now they have obviously heard of Paul and his success in casting out demons by the power of Christ. So they say to this demoniac, “I adjure you to come out by Jesus who Paul preaches.” So they are using a formula. A formula of using the name of Jesus to bind a demon. There are a lot of people who claim to bind Satan that way today as well. I would suggest that we have not been given the authority to bind Satan. The Bible says Satan will be bound one day and thrown into the lake of fire. But for now he is loose, and he knows that his time is short, and the Bible says that he goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Jude warns against the folly of thinking you can bind Satan. Jude 1:8-10 “Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.”

So we are to be careful not to overstep our authority, or rely upon some incantation or ritual or rite of exorcism. No one in the Bible uses a formula to cast out demons. It is simply the authority of Christ over the demonic realm of sin. That is it. I’ll give you the only formula that Jesus gives. It is found in Matt. 17, a man comes to Jesus and begs him to heal his son who is demon possessed, he says he falls into the fire or in the water, and says your disciples were not able to deliver him. Well, at an earlier time the disciples had been given authority by Christ to cast out demons as they went through the country preparing the way for Him. But this is sometime later, after that event. And the disciples evidently thought that some sort of power to do this resided in them. But they could not cast them out.

So Jesus says, if you say unto this mountain, be taken up and cast into the sea, and if you have the faith as of a mustard seed, it will be done. So here is this mountain, this impossible situation, this demonic beach head, but if you have faith not in your power, or in your word, but in the power of God, it will be cast into the sea. But Jesus adds, but this kind does not go without prayer and fasting. So the formula is intensive prayer, supplication to God that His power would be manifest over the power of darkness. And Jesus says that we have that resource available; the power of prayer combined with our faith in Christ to do what is impossible for men.

Well, these seven sons of Sceva said their little incantation, they said the name of Jesus, the name of Paul, and much to their surprise, the demon speaks back to them. I’m sure he spoke through the natural voice of the person he inhabited; “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the demon leaped on them and beat them up and sent them running naked through town.

Now that would have been fun to watch. I would love to see something like that happen to some of these televangelists one day. But here is the result that God used out of this; the fear of God fell upon the town and the name of the Lord was magnified. The townspeople recognized that demonic power was real, they recognized that the gospel Paul was preaching was true, and as a result they did two things.

First they confessed their evil practices, vs. 18. The whole town came out to church and started confessing their demonic practices, their idol worship. And then secondly, that repentance resulted in a change in practice. They brought out their books and so forth of the magic arts and burned them in the middle of the town.   And Luke tells us that their repentance had a price tag on it. I read somewhere that if you were to bring that sum up to modern standards it would be close to a million dollars worth of material that was burned up. We need to understand that; repentance often has a price tag. It costs you something to turn away from evil and turn to the Lord.

Some people here today need to have the fear of the Lord fall upon them. You know, the text indicates that this wasn’t just unsaved people that repented of demonic practices. It was believers, it says in vs. 18. Some of you folks here today may need to confess of some things that are demonic, that are idolatrous. Maybe some of you are holding onto drugs. Maybe you tell yourself it’s natural. It’s not addictive. You think you are in control. But today the Holy Spirit is convicting you of your drugs or perhaps alcohol which really has taken control over you. Satan is taking advantage of that sin, that weakness, and he is going to exploit it until he ruins you. Maybe it’s time for you to bring that and confess it to God as sin, and lay it down, burn it, be done with it and be free from it.

I don’t have time to address all the potential sins that could fall into this category. But I will briefly suggest that perhaps it may be music that glorifies Satan, it could be pornography that gives place to immorality, it could be movies or other media that promotes ungodliness. We could go on and on. The Bible says that whatever is not of faith is sin. I will leave it to the Lord to bring you under conviction of sin this morning. But whatever sin it is, I am here to declare to you that the power of the gospel is able to deliver you from the power of sin, and the power of darkness.

I will close by quoting from Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD.” This is the favorable year of the Lord. God has provided salvation through Jesus Christ. God is able to deliver you today from captivity to sin. Won’t you humble yourself and pray and seek Hs face today that He might save you and deliver you.