Get Romans chapter 1 and Mark chapter 5.  First of all, notice in 
Romans chapter 1 that nothing is said about demon possession at all.
   
On homosexuals and lesbians--which are two of a kind--in Romans 
chapter 1, you read this.  Romans 1:24:  "Wherefore God also gave them 
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts." Verse 26, He 
gave them up to "vile affections:  for even their women did change the 
natural use into that which is against nature"--lesbianism--"And 
likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in 
their lust one toward another"--that's homosexuality in the male.  
You'll notice in the passage there's nothing about demons at all.  
They're not even mentioned.
   
It's just talking about God turning a man over to his own self.
   
The worst thing that God can do to a fellow is leave him alone!  I'm 
convinced of that.  The worst thing that God can do is just pull back 
and say, "OK, you do it your way." That's when you get in trouble!  As 
long as the Lord keeps dealing with you, you know there's a way to get 
through.  But once God pulls back and just says, "OK, I'll watch the 
side show, and you perform"--then you're in trouble!
   
In Jeremiah, he said, "The tribulation will now bring even upon this 
people; even the fruit of their thoughts." So, in the tribulation, 
here's what's going to happen:  Men are going to be allowed to do 
anything they want to do.  That's what they've been hollering for, 
see?  Liberation!  Freedom!  Well, you're going to get it!  And, boy, 
when you get it, it's going to be hell on wheels!
   
Now about demon possession, turn to Mark 5.  The characteristics of 
demon possession are not given as that found in Romans 1, although 
that may be included.  Homosexuality and lesbianism--those things are 
lodged in the flesh.  You have to distinguish between these things in 
dealing with your opponents, the world, the flesh, and the devil.  
Now, the devil works in a religious realm, primarily--although we're 
going to see some interesting things here in a minute.  The flesh is 
something else.  The flesh is, "Satisfy me. Satisfy what I want." And 
then the world system is out there to get your mind off God and go 
after material things.  But those are three different adversaries.
   
Now for demon possession, turn to Mark 5, beginning at verse 2.  This 
is the encyclopedia on demon possession in the Bible.  Now, it won't 
match Unger's book on Demonology, or Shafer's Systematic Theology.  
But, I'll tell you, brethren:  Where the greatest and best men who 
ever lived depart from this King James Bible, they lose track of the 
truth.  So let's just stick by the text.
   
Verse 2:  "And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met 
him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit."
   
OK, here's Point Number One:  The first mark of demon possession is, 
they like to hang around dead people.
   
A fellow from Minnesota 15 years ago had a whole ice house full of 
cadavers.  He was eating human flesh.  The sheriff who arrested him 
went crazy about two years later, because he realized he had been 
eating at that fellow's house off and on for about five years, and 
found he had been eating people!
   
That's demonism!
   
Now, do you know how you can be certain that isn't the flesh?   
Because the flesh will just want to enjoy a good steak, or a lobster, 
or a champagne, or beer--that's the flesh.  But, when you can't be 
satisfied unless you kill somebody and eat their dead corpse, you're 
no longer moving in the fleshly realm; you're off in the spiritual 
realm.
   
Turn to Luke 8:27.  In Luke 8:27 it says the fellow was naked, doesn't 
it?  "And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a 
certain man, which had devils long time, and WARE NO CLOTHES, neither 
abode in any house, but in the tombs."
   
Now, there we find streaking!  You see, that gets out of the realm of 
the flesh, and gets into the realm of demons.  Because no man who 
wants to satisfy his flesh normally would think of getting 
satisfaction by running around naked where people could see him!  Now, 
when you come to the flesh, he might want a hot bath.  That's real 
sensual sometimes.  Or a cold one.
   
I take these ice baths in these spas--I like it, man.  It's almost 
masochistic--like plugging 110 volts of electricity into you.  I'll go 
into the sauna, and then run right out and jump into an ice bath.
   
A guy in one of those places said, "How old are you?"
   
I said, "Fifty-three."
   
He said, "We don't allow anybody in those things over 40."
   
I said, "Man, it's doing me good.  Boy, it feels great!"
   
He said, "Well, OK, it's your own risk, man.  It's your own 
insurance."
   
But there's something about an ice cold bath that I like, boy.  Man, 
that just turns me on like electricity!  That's the flesh.
   
Do you like a massage?  That's the flesh.  Vibrater?  That's the 
flesh, see.  Whenever the flesh wants satisfaction, there are certain 
ways he goes about it.
   
But, running around without any clothes on, where folks can look at 
you--that thing is another realm.  So, if you're looking for demons, 
the two things that characterize them, first of all, is a desire to 
take off their clothes, and secondly, to hang around corpses.  That's 
the mark of demon possession.
   
And, for that, I guess Los Angeles is just about as stuffed full of 
demons as a turkey is stuffed full of Christmas dressing.  I mean, up 
there at that beach there in L.A., boy, they're just crawling all over 
the place, man!  Now, that's your demons.
   
All right, verse 3:  "Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man 
could bind him, no, not with chains." One of the characteristics of 
demon possession is unusual strength.
   
All that karate and kung fu stuff is connected with demons.  Now, the 
average kid that takes it isn't going to get messed up with it.  You 
have to take a form of Buddhism, and meditation with it, to really get 
into it deep, and the average Occidental or European can't follow it.  
I mean, Zen is 'way out in left field for him.  But, you take those 
guys who are real professionals; they're fooling with spirits!  In 
advanced kung fu, there are certain moves where you knock a man down 
without touching him.  You project the force--and it sure isn't the 
Holy Spirit, that's for sure!
   
All right, you can't chain them.  They have unnatural strength.  In 
Daytona Beach, Florida, there's a guy named Little Moses.  Little 
Moses makes an offer of a thousand dollars to anybody who can lift him 
off the ground when he doesn't want to be lifted off the ground.  And, 
when he doesn't want to be lifted off the ground, you can't lift him!  
Charles Atlas and "The Angel," back in the 1940s, almost tore Little 
Moses limb from limb, trying to lift him off the ground--and they 
couldn't do it!  And he won't stand on a platform; he'll stand up the 
street or in his front yard.  He's about 5-feet-4.  And, when he makes 
up his mind that you're not going to lift him, you don't lift him! 
That fellow's got power; but it's not the Holy Spirit.
   
Verse 4:  "Because that he had been often bound with fetters and 
chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the 
fetters broken in pieces." Now, look at this:  "neither could any man 
tame him." One of the characteristics of demon possession is no 
response; you can't get people to respond.  You love them, you beg 
them, you plead with them--no response.  You threaten them--no 
response.
   
One of the ways you know that America is getting demon-possessed as a 
country is that way.  I mean, as a country, America is getting demon-
infested.  The people are passive; you can't get them to react.  I 
would finish drawing up here and give an invitation; you know how a 
lot of folks take that?  They take that like a TV program that just 
went off.  And they're waiting to switch the channel or watch the next 
commercial.  They don't intend to do anything about it! And you've got 
a whole nation of people who just sit and look, and sit and look, and 
sit and look, and that boob tube just plays before their eyes 
constantly.  And, after a while, they get the idea that everything's 
just a picture.
   
A preacher said to me once in Macon, Georgia, "Brother Ruckman, I 
suspect you have the same trouble with your congregation that I have 
with mine.  My congregation done concreted on me!"
   
They concreted on him!
   
A lot of congregations have concreted on him, brother!
   
Let me show you what I mean.  Here's this nut in Baltimore, Maryland, 
drawing out a gun and firing at people on streets--five times, man!  
Well, how does he get off five shots?  He wasn't a quick-draw artist.  
Some of these men can pull off, firing two times a second.  But, not 
him; he's just a common, ordinary bum, firing spaced shots in a crowd.  
How come nobody hit him?
   
I mean, you mean to tell me if a guy was standing right next to you 
and pulled out a gun and--BLAMM!--shot a guy--that you couldn't hit 
him on the arm, or just, you know, on the ear?  I mean, if you stand 
next to him here, you can reach for the mouth, that way.  That hurts!  
If you hit him, there won't be any more shooting.  Or, if you kick 
him, and you give him a compound fracture in his knees sideways, he 
isn't going to do any more shooting, man!  He isn't going to fire 
anything!
   
But you take that guy, and he fires the gun.  BAMMM!
   
People stand around.  "Oh, lookie, he's got a gun."
   
BAMMM!!  BAMMM!!
   
"It's a real gun he's shooting!"
   
BAMMM!!  BAMMM!!
   
"Oh, look at the blood.  I saw that on the TV the other night." You 
know, that's how they are.  They're demon possessed.  They're in a 
passive state. They're just standing there, and they just let the guy 
go on and shoot people.
   
I have a good friend in Pensacola, Florida, named Farrier.  He's a 
medical doctor.  He came over the other day and got him some coffee in 
the drug store.  He was drinking his coffee.  A black man came in and 
sat down next to him.  Took him a fork and stabbed him in the neck 
with it.  He just happened to turn this way, and hit him up here in 
the muscle, and he grabbed his neck and turned back, and said, "Hey, 
what are you doing?"
   
The guy stabbed him again.  Missed the jugular vein by about a half an 
inch.  A friend of Dr.  Farrier's who was with him got up and yelled, 
"Police!  Get that man!" The fellow just put down the fork and walked 
out the door.
   
They followed him out the door.  Do you think anybody tackled him?  
Nobody.  Twenty-five people in the store--they could tackle the guy.  
You tackle a guy into a counter full of glass, and he isn't going 
anywhere!
   
And he got out the door, and they were saying, "Stop him!  Stop him!  
Stop him!" Nobody stopped him.  They followed him down the street.  
Halfway down the street, they stopped a construction man in a truck 
and said, "Could you get the police on that shortwave?"
   
He said, "No, all I can get is my construction company."
   
They followed him a block, yelling, "Police!  Get him!" Blood was 
running all over this guy's neck.
   
The black fellow got to the entrance of the San Carlos Hotel, and he 
turned around and said, "You white so-and-so, if you keep following 
me, I'll kill both of you!" And he went on in!
   
And then a girl there in a clothing shop rental place in the San 
Carlos Hotel saw it and phoned the police.  They got that guy; he 
called himself Louis "X".  They put him in the county jail with a 
white man; he sharpened a spoon and stabbed the white man to death in 
the stomach.  So, they sent him down to the mental ward in 
Chattahoochee, and they'll keep him down there in Chattahoochie for 
two years, and then let him out, and then he'll get you.
   
That's what's going on in this country--just like that.
   
Do you know what the trouble is?  The folks can't act!  They're all 
frozen!  It's wild; I'll tell you, man.
   
I'm no hero, man, but I'll tell you right now--if I was in a crowd, 
and some guy pulled out a gun and shot a guy in the stomach right in 
front of me, he'd have to be good with a gun to get off another shot.
   
Maybe it has a lot to do with your training.  You know, I'm not a good 
Christian--practically speaking.  Christian's are supposed to be soul-
conscious, not people-conscious.  I'm very people-conscious.  You know 
the greatest temptation I have?  I have to fight it all the time.  I 
travel up and down this country in these airways and airlines.  My dad 
was a colonel in World War II and a captain in World War I.  My 
brother was a sergeant in World War II, and I was a lieutenant.  My 
grandfather was a general.  They were all infantry.  We didn't have an 
engineer in the group.  And Great Grandfather was a general--West 
Pointer.  And the first thing I remember shooting at as a boy was a 
silhouette target.  We didn't shoot squirrel; we shot men.  We came up 
that way.  When I was a boy growing up, we'd look at battle maps for 
an evening's entertainment.
   
I've been saved now for 26 years, but to this day I have to fight when 
I go out into the world, to be relaxed and a witness and at ease out 
there, moving up and down.  I'm always on the defensive.  I got up 
there in the airplanes, flying up and down this countryside, and 
coming in and out of those airports, and I walk up there, and before I 
know it, I'm just looking up and down the lines for buying tickets and 
checking baggage, and figuring what I'd do if a guy did this or that!  
Or figuring, "That guy's pretty big.  If he came this way, I'd get 
through here, over here, or pull over here, and get a Coke bottle over 
here."
   
And a Christian isn't supposed to think those things, you know.  
You're not supposed to think those things.  But that stuff used to go 
through my mind all the time.  I mean, I would down there and size the 
guy up--every guy I would see is a potential opponent.  And it isn't 
supposed to be that way when you're saved; you're supposed to have 
compassion on them.
   
Maybe that's bad, but I'll tell you one thing right now that's worse.  
Just to sit around in front of that boob tube at home until you can't 
move--that's worse!
   
Let's keep on going.  Verse 5:  "And always night and day, he was in 
the mountains." Demon-possessed people have an affinity for high 
places.  The mountains.  You remember that, in the Old Testament, they 
worshipped in the "high places," "the high places," "the high places."
   
So, there you are in Houston and Cape Canaveral--trying to get up.  
The devil, "I will ascend and put my throne above the stars of God." 
They have an affinity for high places.
   
"And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, 
CRYING...." Excessive crying is one of the marks of demon possession.  
Paul says, "I would not have you sorrow as others sorrow who have no 
hope." Paul says, "Rejoice evermore!  Rejoice, and again I say, 
rejoice!"
   
A Christian may have sorrow and grief.  You're not going to bury a 
loved one without getting torn up.  Those things are bad.  But, the 
very worst thing that can happen to you is glory.  Eventually, it's 
going to work out.  So, you shouldn't go around always down in the 
dumps.  That excessive crying is one of the marks of demonism.
   
"....And cutting himself with stones." Sadism, masochism, self-
mutilation--one of the marks of demon-possession.
   
If you want a good demon-possessed fellow, check this fellow out down 
in Houston, who caught 27 of those 15-year-old boys, abused them 
sexually, and then tortured them to death and buried them in sacks.  
That's demonism. "Cutting himself with stones." Self-mutilation.
   
If you're ever over in the Philippines, you'll see them go down into 
the streets about Eastertime, whipping their backs till they're 
bloody.  You go to Spain, they're tying themselves to crosses.  You go 
to Italy, and they're crawling around on their hands and knees, and 
their knees are bloody.  They're full of demons.
   
Verse 6:  "But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him." 
Every demon-possessed man in the Bible is a fundamentalist.  Every 
demon-possessed man in the Bible believes in the deity of Jesus 
Christ.  There isn't an atheist in the bunch.  Atheists, generally, 
are not demon-possessed.  Demon-possessed people are always religious.  
He ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice.  One of the 
marks of demon possession is a loud voice.  That's imitating the Holy 
Spirit.  The Bible says, "Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, 
and she said with a loud voice." So, it's a counterfeit.
   
You can tell demon-possession by the voice and the eyes.  The Bible 
says, "Out of the abundance of man's heart, his mouth speaks." You can 
hear it in the voice.  The Bible says, "The light of the body is the 
eye." If demons are in the heart, they come out through the mouth and 
the eyes.
   
Demon-possessed people have two kinds of eyes.  One eye--it pops and 
stares.  Drug-induced dilated pupils sometimes look like that.  Drugs 
and demonism are very closely associated.  The other eye looks droops, 
almost as though they were sleepy.  When they talk, they won't look at 
your eye; they'll look at the end of your nose.
   
They'll say, "Now Brother Ruckman, I just want to have you know that 
I'm praying for you, and appreciate you, Brother Ruckman.  I love you 
in the Lord, but I believe you're wrong about that," etc., etc., etc.  
The voice is wrong.  I've met them.  The ones I've run into are all in 
fundamental churches.
   
I recall a woman one time, sitting down and saying, "Oh, dear Jesus, 
they just said some day you'd persecute us.  After all I've given to 
this church, and I've just given so much to this church.  Oh, dear 
Lord,...." Demons, man!  That isn't a natural voice.
   
There was a fellow on television a while back, who used to draw and 
make a few notes, and wore purple robes.  Somebody said, "He has the 
most fascinating eyes." He did; they were like a serpent; they were 
like a snake's eyes!  Have you ever seen a snake charm a squirrel or a 
bird?
   
So you have those things.  And then you have the voice.  Have you ever 
heard a bunch of Holiness preachers preach?  They preach like this:  
"So my friends--uh!--I bless God--duh!--Glory to God--duh!--he came 
down from the mountain--duh!--and he had--duh!--the Ten Commandments--
uh!--bless God!--uh..." What is all that stuff, anyway?  It's like 
he's getting prepared, and that gasp of breath gives him time to try 
and think of something to say, you know.
   
There are a bunch of preachers in this country who all use the same 
diction, the same enunciation, and the same phrasing and timing in 
their speech?  Why?  They've got the same spirit.  And, if I heard one 
of them in California, I'd know immediately what church he was a 
member of without even asking him.  If he was in Oklahoma, New York, 
Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, or 
Louisiana, he'd say:  "And so, friends, we see the Bible teaches that 
we must repent and be bup-tized, for the Bible says in Acts 2 and 
38...and again we read in Mark 16 and 16, that `he that believeth and 
is bup-tized shall be saved,' for the scriptures teach...." Every one 
of those preachers talk just like that--same phrasing, timing, 
diction, everything.
   
That isn't the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit doesn't lead 500 
preachers to all pronounce their words the same way.  That's a 
different spirit.  It comes out of the voice.
   
All right, keep on reading.  Verse 9:  "And he asked him, What is thy 
name?  And he answered, saying, My name is Legion:  for we are many."
   
How many?  Verse 13--enough to take care of two thousand hogs!
   
All right now, there are two of these men here.  Mark is giving you 
the detailed account of dealing with one man, but in Matthew we read 
that when Christ came over to this side of the lake, he ran into two 
men coming out of the tomb.  And Mark has only given the account of 
one of them.
   
All right, in Matthew 8, when Christ comes across here, there are two 
men.  Matthew 8:28:  "There met him two possessed with devils, coming 
out of the tombs." So there are two of them, and each one of these 
fellows has a thousand demons in them.
   
All right now, folks, you are asking about demons in relation to these 
things.  How can a thousand demons be in a man if demons are 
disembodied spirits or angels?  They can't be!  Back in the old Dark 
Ages, the Roman Catholic scholastics used to talk about putting a 
thousand angels on the head of a pin.  They used to joke about those 
things, as if they were discussing something intelligent.
   
But a man can have a thousand demons.  This fellow had them.  Mary 
Magdelene had seven devil.  Now, if your body can contain a thousand, 
do you know what size they are?  About the size of a mosquito or a 
fly--whatever those things are.  Whatever those things are, they have 
wings.  Let me show you something from Ecclesiastes.  Have you ever 
asked a lady where she got her information from, and she said, "A 
little bird told me"?  Ecclesiastes 10:20:  "For a bird of the air 
shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the 
matter."
   
Did you ever read over in Matthew 13, where the sower is putting out 
the seed, and the "fowls of the air" came down and picked it up?  When 
somebody said to Jesus, "What do the fowls represent?" He said, "They 
represent Satan."
   
Did you ever read in Revelation chapter 17 where he says, "Come out of 
Babylon, because she hath become the hold of every unclean and hateful 
bird, and unclean spirit"?  Demons have wings.  You know what they say 
out in the world?  They say, "Bats in the belfry." They say, "Bats in 
the belfry." You know how Alfred Hitchcock put it?  Alfred Hitchcock 
came out with a movie called, "The Birds." Birds.
   
You know how they do it in New York?  They call them "bird watchers." 
Germans say, "He's got a bird." Bird brain.
   
And so, whatever those things are, they're like mosquitoes or flies.  
You remember what they said about Christ?  They said He's Beelzebub 
and casts out devils by the "prince of devils"?  You know what 
Beelzebub was lord of?  Lord of the flies.  Lord of the filth.
   
So, God gave you two animals on this earth to show you what demons 
are.  And there isn't any book on demonology that will recognize that 
truth--none of them.  So don't waste your time buying them; it isn't 
even in there.
   
Those two animals are (1) the filthiest animal with wings--the fly; 
and (2) a bloodsucker--the mosquito. Those things are pictures of 
demons.
   
All right, verse 12:  "And all the devils besought him, saying, Send 
us into the swine, that we may enter into them." And they go out and 
go in those swine, and they run down the hill, and they're choked.  
And that shows you that demons don't have any preference for live 
bodies or dead bodies.  Evidently demons are perfectly capable of 
inhabiting a dead body as well as a live body, and it doesn't bother 
them a bit.
   
Now, the last thing about demons is this:  When the demons go into 
those pigs, they go down to the sea.  They head for water.  And in 
Mark, I read, there was a demon-possessed boy whom the disciples 
couldn't cure, and the daddy came to Jesus and said, "The devil gets 
hold of this boy and oftentimes casts him into the fire and water." 
See those two things?  Demon-possessed people have an affinity for 
warm, wet places--because the final end of demons is a lake of fire. 
Warm, wet.
   
So, if you want to get to a first-place hell-hole, the best place 
would be San Diego or Los Angeles.  And if not there, Miami or New 
Orleans.  And if you missed it there, take Shanghai or Cairo.  And if 
you really want to hit it, hit Honolulu.  And when you get to a warm, 
wet place, that place is crawling with them.  They have an affinity 
for warm, wet places.
   
And, it also explains something else.  It also explains why people 
love to buy a house on a lake or an ocean.  And to sit there and look 
at that water, and to look at that water, and look at that water, and 
look at that water, and look at that water.  Now, you go out to the 
beach at night, and build a big bonfire, or get a fireplace in your 
house--people want a fireplace in their house.  And they sit around 
looking at that fire and looking at that fire and looking at that fire 
and looking at that fire and looking at that fire.  And something 
happens!  There's something about fire and water that's magnetic.