Demon’s Orthodox Theology

In James 2:19 James says, "You believe? You do well." If you believe there's one God, you do well. "The demons also believe and tremble." Humph...do you remember we talked about devil faith, demon faith? What is it? What is demon? What is the kind of faith that demons have? People say, "Only believe, only believe... just believe... just believe, if you just believe, you're in."

The demons do that. People in John 8 did that. People in John 2 did that and they weren't in. And the people in James 2 to which he speaks believed but they had dead faith and that's demon faith. Now what do we need to know about demon faith? Well first of all, demon faith can have the right theology. You think the demons know who God is? You think they're confused about that? Not at all. The demons are monotheists, they know there's only one God in three persons. They know God's nature better than we do. They're more intelligent than we are, they've been around since before the creation of the world when God made them. They've seen more of God's works than all of the men of the world combined. They know the nature of God, they're very orthodox in their theology. They know the saving power of the work of Christ. They've seen Christ work. They've seen what He can do. They were around when He was on the earth. They know what He's done throughout history since that time. They understand Scripture properly. They know who the angels are. They understand men. They know men are sinful. They know about heaven, they've been there. They know about hell, they've been there perhaps. We don't know how much in and out access they have, some are there now permanently in a bound place of punishment.

They've been through a lot of religious experiences so they're pretty well along the line of understanding theology. They have supernatural knowledge of the invisible world. They have supernatural knowledge of the eternal realm. They have a lot of knowledge, see. Secondly, they really do believe it. They're orthodox. Oh, they're really orthodox. They can sign the Apostles' Creed. They believe in the scheme of doctrine as revealed in Scripture. They know Jesus Christ is the Son of God in human flesh, and died on a cross and rose from the grave, they don't have a problem with that. They know that's true.  Demons are Very orthodox.

Not only that, they're afraid of judgment. They are. They live in fear of judgment. It says right here they tremble. And they cried out to Jesus, "Don't send us to the pit, don't send us to the pit." They're afraid of that. So here you have individuals who have all this knowledge. They believe in an orthodox theology. They have a fear of judgment. Not only that, they feel guilty for their sin. Sure they do. They know judgment is coming on them. They know they've been justly condemned to hell. They're overwrought with their own guilt.

Not only that, they desire to be delivered. You say, "How do you know that?" Because Christ has to have a key to keep them in there. They'd like to get out of that whole thing. They'd like to get out of the bondage they're in right now. They'd like to not be put in bondage. Listen, Satan when he's bound for a thousand years has to be bound because he'd like to get out and get loose. They would like to escape from judgment. They would like to get rid of their guilt. They would like to eliminate their fear. They believe in orthodox theology. And they've even had a lot of religious experience. They've been in the church for years masquerading as false teachers and leaders, disguised as angels of light, very religious.

What am I saying? I'm saying this, there are many people who have knowledge and are not saved, right? Read Hebrews chapter 5 and 6. They have knowledge, they're not saved. And there are many people who believe the truth and are not saved. And there are people who fear God's judgment, look at them in Romans chapter 9 verses 20 and 21 as they fear God's judgment and they cry out in fear and instead of asking God to deliver them, they curse God. And there are many who feel conviction. And they feel guilt like those dignitaries to whom the Apostle Paul witnessed in Acts chapter 24. They feel the guilt of their sin, but they're not saved. And there are others who desire eternal life like the rich young ruler who comes and says, "What do I have to do to have eternal life?" and was not saved. And there are myriads of religious people who have the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees but will never enter the Kingdom.

The point is, you can know what you have to know, you can believe what you have to believe, you can fear God's judgment, feel conviction for your sin, desire eternal life, be religious and go to hell. It has to be more than knowing, believing, fearing judgment, desiring forgiveness, eternal life, being religious. I'll tell you, people, so many times when people come and they say, "Oh I know the gospel, yes, I believe it's true. Oh, I want to escape hell. Oh, I want to get the burden of my guilt off my back. I desire eternal life. And I want to be religious. I want to acknowledge God." They do all of that. You know who did all of that? The rich young ruler in Matthew 19. Jesus rejected him... He rejected him.

You say, "Well what's missing? I mean, what more could there be? If that's demon faith," by the way, demon faith doesn't save, right? "What more could there be if those aren't the marks of saving faith, what are? Or what is?"

Watch, back to Romans 10, very carefully, very simply, verse 10 says, "And with the mouth confession is made to salvation." Confession... what is confession? The word comes from a verb homologeo, homo means the same, like homogeneous; logeologic or ology, like any ology, biology, theology, a study of. What it simply means is to say the same thing... to say the same thing. Confession is to say the same thing. So if your mouth says the same thing, it's unto salvation.

What is it your mouth is suppose to say? What same thing? Verse 9, "You should confess with your mouth Jesus as... What? ...Lord." Now watch this. Do the demons do that? No! In fact, when Jesus went to Gadera one of them said, "What have we to do with You?" Remember that? They don't acknowledge Jesus as Lord. Perhaps they have no capacity for that. There's the issue. It isn't only believe, it's believe and confess Jesus as Lord. That's the issue. True saving faith acknowledges Jesus as Lord... Lord. And not just Lord in the sense of deity because that would be included orthodox theology. What it is saying is, "Yes, I have all the knowledge. Yes, I believe it. Yes, I fear judgment. Yes, I want deliverance from my guilt. Yes, I want eternal life. Yes, I want to know God." And then comes the crux. Will you acknowledge Jesus as your sovereign ruler? That's the issue.

And the rich young ruler said what? Forget it. Jesus said to him, "I'd like to ask you to do something. Sell everything you have, give to the poor, come follow Me." And the Bible said he was very rich so he went away. He believed all the right stuff, came sliding in on his knees in a worshipful attitude. What do I need to do? Asked the right question, eternal life, felt the guilt of his sin, desired to receive from Christ eternal life or at least the way to eternal life. Jesus put him to the test, "Follow Me." And He gave him a very simple order, "Sell everything you have and give to the poor." Why? Do you get saved doing that? No, no, otherwise philanthropists would be saved, that's all. No. But what He was doing was saying, let's find out who is in charge and I'll just give you step one. The point was, "Come and follow Me," and when he wouldn't follow Him he was unwilling to acknowledge the lordship of Christ. That was the issue. That is the issue.

Some disciples showed up in Luke chapter 9. Oh, you know, they wanted to follow the Lord and the Lord says, "Come on." "Oh, well I have to go bury my father... have to go do this... have to go do that." It was the lordship issue again, wasn't it? They wanted to maintain control of their life. They wanted to stay in charge of their life. That's the issue. So if we're going to confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord, if we're going to say the same thing, who are we saying the same thing with? Well the answer to that is very simple. God. What does God say about Jesus? What does God say about Jesus? Jesus is Lord. That's what God says.

Go back to Matthew chapter 3. Jesus comes to Galilee to be baptized by John. And you know the scene, verse 16, He's baptized, the Spirit of God descends. And then a voice from heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." God says about Jesus He's My Son. Now go to Matthew chapter 17 verse 5. And in the transfiguration the disciples are there, Peter, James and John. The Father speaks in verse 5 and says, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased," then what? "Listen to Him." Which is to say He's in charge. He's in charge.

The Father affirmed that Jesus was Lord...that Jesus was sovereign. Over and over again Jesus said that the Father had committed into His hands judgment, that the Father had committed into His hands authority, the Father had given Him power. You see, the Father affirms over and over the lordship of Christ. And so does the Scripture. I mean, it's repeated in Scripture over and over.

In Romans 14:9, for example, "For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived that He might be Lord of the dead and living." His resurrection was to affirm that He was Lord. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, a very interesting verse, verse 3, "No man speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Spirit." So when the Spirit of God does a work in the heart, it is a work that results in the proclamation of the lordship of Christ. And in Ephesians 1 it goes on and on to talk about the fact that everything is put under His feet, that He's the one who fills all and all. And Philippians 9 He's exalted. In Matthew 28, all authority is given unto Him. It just goes on and on and on and all the apostolic preaching of the book of Acts affirms the lordship of Christ. Frankly, it's too vast to deal with all of the issues.

The words of Thomas are very familiar to us, when he sees Jesus he says...what? "My Lord and My God." God has to do with deity, Lord has to do with sovereignty. And if they both meant the same thing then he was repeating himself, he was stuttering. Lord is the word that indicates sovereign power, sovereign control. God is the expression of deity.

You see, the point is that the true heart that really believes understands the fullness of who Christ is and willingly submits to His authority. I'm sure that we don't understand all of the ramifications of such submission, but that's the essence of it. You see, some people want us to believe that the lordship of Christ is only an issue of deity, kurios only means deity. It only means just that He's God. But it doesn't mean that. It means a controlling authority, it means a sovereign ruler. That's been its historic meaning. That's its intent. And He is the one that we are to follow, that we are to serve. You might be interested to note in the book of Acts He is called Savior two times and Lord 92 times. And in the whole New Testament He is... the word "Lord" appears about 700 times. Savior, I believe, appears under 10 times and never before Lord but always after. And so the context here of Romans 10 fits right into the standard understanding of this word kurios that it is a word of sovereign ruler-ship.

For example, and just really wrapping our thoughts up, look at Romans 10:13, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," now that's a quote out of Joel 2:32. And when you look at Joel 2:32, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord," the word "Lord" in Joel 2:32 is Yahweh, the full title of sovereign God. And in the Greek it's kurios. So the New Testament writer when longing to express the full sovereign, the full extent, the full person of sovereign God chose the word kurios, so it embraces way beyond deity just that fact that He's God the fact that as God He rules all. And that shouldn't bother... that shouldn't be hard to understand because... somebody said to me, "Well I just believe it means deity," a professor said to me, "I just believe it means deity." I said, "Well then you tell me what deity means. Let's assume you're right, kurios just means He's God." If you're God, what does that mean? What is the implication of that? Is the implication of that that you're in charge? It certainly would be to me. Lordship is inherent to Jesus Christ. He is Lord. He is Lord as affirmed by the Father in His resurrection, when He exalted Him and made Him Lord, Philippians 2:9 to 11, and said every knee will bow. He's Lord. And salvation is to believe that He is all of that and to affirm that you take your place under His sovereign ruler-ship.

Demons believe the right stuff but have no capacity to submit to the Lordship of Christ. That's why the Bible in Romans 1 calls it the Obedience of Faith. It is faith that leads to obedient submission to the Lordship of Christ. Very basic.

Thanks for this excrete from Romans 10:9-10.

http://www.gty.org/resources/Print/Sermons/45-79