If you would open your Bibles
to Matthew chapter 8, Lord willing, we'll finish up our study in
Matthew chapter 8 this morning. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
gracious Heavenly Father, we bow in Your presence this morning. So thankful that sinful men and
women such as we are can come into your presence accepted in
the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray this
morning that by your spirit you would enable us to worship you
in spirit and in truth. Let the name of Christ our Savior
be lifted up and exalted that he get all the glory revealed
to us this morning, your glory, the glory of your mercy and grace
to sinners. Father, I pray this morning that
you would bear your mighty arm of power and mercy and reach
down and stir the hearts of your people. Reach down and gather
your people together to yourself through the preaching of your
word. Let us see and learn more of our Lord Jesus Christ and
leave here this morning trusting him. If we've never trusted him
before, let us leave here this morning trusting him today. And
if we've trusted him before, enable us to leave here trusting
him more fully. more confident, having more peace
of heart by looking to Christ our Savior. Father, I pray you'd
bless us in this hour as we look into your word. I pray you'd
bless our teachers especially, our children, that you'd bless
them mightily, Father. Enable them to lay out the truth
of the gospel to our children. Use this as a time that you might
plant the seeds of faith in the hearts of our children. Give
them a ready mind, an interest in the gospel, an attitude that
would cause them to listen and Father, take your word and apply
it to their hearts, we pray. Father, for those who are in
a time of great difficulty, sorrow and loss and difficult trial,
we pray for them. We know that your grace is sufficient. Father, I pray you give them
a fulfillment of that promise, that your grace is sufficient
in every difficulty, in every trial, in every sorrow. All these
things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name. In the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. I've titled our lesson this morning,
What the Lord Has Done for Me. And I chose this title because
the story here in our text is also told in Mark 5 and in Luke
8. In Mark and Luke record that
our Lord told the man who had been possessed with these demons
to go home to his friends and to tell them what great things
the Lord had done for you and how the Lord had compassion on
him. And that's what I want to do this morning. I want to tell
you what great things the Lord has done for me. And if the Lord's
had compassion on you, I believe that you'll hear your story of
grace as well. Matthew says here that there
were two men possessed with devils and Mark and Luke only mentioned
one man. But there is no contradiction in scripture here. They don't
say there was only one. They just mentioned one. What
the Lord does for one of his people, he does for all of them. What great things the Lord does
for one of his people, the great things he does for all of his
people. And in the other accounts, just one of these two men is
probably mentioned because he was more vocal than the other.
You know, one believer may be more vocal than another. But
if the Lord saved us, he saved us all the same way. He's done
all the same great things for us. So here's what the Lord's
done for me. That's what I want to tell you
this morning. I pray you'll be able to see and say in your heart,
this is what the Lord's done for me too. Number one is this. The Lord came where I was on
purpose and he saved me on purpose. The Lord travels here to the
land of the Gadarenes. Well, how did he come to the
land of the Gadarenes and meet this demon possessed man? Well,
he had to leave where he was. Remember that great crowd, that
great multitude was following him, and he left them. He went
across the sea to find these two men, just to find them. God
the Father has elected a people into salvation, and the Lord
goes to save them. Look here, let's review a little
bit, beginning of verse 23, where we looked at last week. And when
he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold,
there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship
was covered with the waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples
came to him and awoke him saying, Lord, save us. We perish. And
he sayeth unto them, why are you fearful? Oh, ye of little
faith. And he rose and rebuked the winds in the sea. And there
was a great calm, but the men marveled saying, what manner
of man is this? And even the winds in the sea
obey him. Now the Lord led his disciples. into this sea where
he raised it. He didn't just know there was
going to be a big storm out there where he raised this tempest
that scared his disciples to death. And the Lord brought them
through that storm. So they learn more of his power,
that they learn more of his love and care for them, that he would
increase their faith through this difficulty. But the disciples
also went with the Lord, following him into the ship to go to one
of the Lord's suffering sheep. Now I ask you, was it worth it?
Was it worth it? You bet it was. When this work
first began, we went through some difficult times. And after
a certain amount of time, I don't remember how long, there was
a young man came to John and asked him to baptize him. John
said he would. And I told John, if everything
we've been through is for this, Isn't that true? When we go through
our storms or difficult trials and somehow the Lord works things
together for good. Maybe not for us, but for the
good of one of his other people. Was it worth it? Was it? Yes,
it was. And the lesson here is this.
The Lord will do whatever it takes to go to his elect and
save them. That's what the Lord did for
me. Number two, here's what the Lord
did for me. I was demon possessed and the Lord cast them out. He
set me free from the power of Satan. Verse 28. And when he
was come to the other side, into the country of the Gorgosines,
there met him too possessed with devils coming out of the tombs,
exceeding fierce so that no man might pass by that way. And behold,
they cried out saying, what have we to do with thee Jesus, thou
son of God? Art thou come hither to torment
us before the time? And there was a good way off
from them and heard of many swine feeding. So the devils besought
him saying, if thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the
herd of swine. And he said unto them, go. And
when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine and
behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place
into the sea and perished in the waters. And they that kept
them fled and went their ways into the city and told everything
and what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. And
behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they
saw him, they besought him, that he would depart out of their
coasts. These men were possessed by many
demons. Mark says that their name was
Legion, for they were many. And these demons controlled every
action of these men. Every action was controlled by
these demons. These men were tormented. And when they spoke to the Lord,
you couldn't tell, is it these men speaking or is it the demons? Verse 29, behold, they cried
out saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of
God? Are thou come to torment us before our time? Now we know
that was the demon speaking, but to the disciples, just hearing
these men say this to the master, they didn't know these men speaking
or these demons, they didn't know. And that was me. I was under the control of the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, even as others, just like the
apostle Paul said in Ephesians 2.2. Everything I did was controlled
by sin, controlled by Satan. I could not believe Christ. I
could not love Christ. I could not come to Christ. I
could not believe the gospel because I was under the control
of sin and Satan. And I don't care what I did.
I could not set myself free from that power. Could not do it.
Now Satan and demons are real. They're real beings. They're
fallen angels. And I tell you this often, don't go looking
for them. They're real, but don't go looking
for them. They are very real and powerful
enemies. And we are no match for them.
We don't want to see them. We don't want to come across
them. We fall faster than Peter did. when Satan desired him to
sift him as wheat. These demons are strong men armed,
and buddy, they're well armed. They're well armed. But they're
not omnipotent. No, they're the stronger. They're
the stronger man armed, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he has cast
out the power of Satan. As our Savior died upon Calvary's
tree, he crushed Satan's head, took away his power, because
he took away the sin of his people. Satan's the accuser of the brethren.
Well, he can't accuse the brethren anymore, can he? I mean, he'll
do it, but the Lord won't hear it. Because the Lord says, Satan
accuses us of sin. And the Lord says, what sin? There's no sin, it's gone. When
Christ shed his blood to put away the sin of his people, he
took away Satan's power. He took away the authority of
Satan over them. And that's what God did for me.
And now Christ rules him and he didn't cast out Satan and
let me rule my own self. No, he rules. He rules and reigns. I'm controlled now by the power
of his love and grace, the power and grace of Christ my Savior.
That's what God did for me. Then thirdly, I was dead, living
among the dead. And the Lord gave me life. Now,
these men were living among the tombs. Pretty fitting place for
them to live, wasn't it? being controlled by these demons,
spiritually dead. Living among the tombs is a pretty
good place for them to live. Well, that describes me. I was
born in sin. I was born dead. And I had no
way to get life. There was nothing I could do
to give myself life. Everything I touched, that was
dead too. So I couldn't use those dead things to give myself life.
And every religious thing that I tried to use to give me life
was powerless and dead. because it was without Christ.
And then Christ came where I was. And he said, it's your time of
love. I say unto you, live. He saw me polluted in my own
blood, in my own sin. And he said, live. The Lord came
to the tombs where I was. And he did for me what he did
for Lazarus. He cried to me, come forth. And he that was dead came forth.
a life. And not just having life, I had
Christ who is my life. Now, I live and move and have
my being in Him because He's my life. Fourthly, I could not
be tamed. And Christ came and by the power
of His word, tamed me. Look at Mark chapter 5. You know,
Matthew says here that the People were afraid to pass by the tombs
where these men lived. Look at Mark 5. Here's Mark's
account of this. Beginning in 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 who had his dwelling among the tombs and
no man could bind him. No, not with chains 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,
neither could any man tame him. Now that is a description of
religion without Christ. You know, this man couldn't be
tamed with chains. I mean, they didn't even bother
trying to tie this guy up with rope. They bound him with chains
and fetters. They tried to make him to be
still. Be still. Don't be a danger to yourself.
Don't be a danger to others anymore. We've got to chain you down to
make you not dangerous. And he just broke those chains
off of him. Now that's a picture of the bondage of the law. False
preachers use the bondage of the law. They use the law to
try to chain people up. To make them look better outwardly
by restricting what they can and cannot do. By trying to chain
them up with the demands of the law. And for a few, it might
work for a short time. But I'm telling you, sin is going
to break out of that bondage. Sin cannot be contained by the
law. You know why? Because sin's in
the heart. Sin's not in the outward. Somebody
could chain you up where you can't move. You're still going
to sin. Sin's in the heart. And those
chains can't reach the heart. No amount of chaining us up outwardly
by the law is ever going to stop the power of sin in the heart.
So these chains could represent the law, but I'll tell you what
else they could represent. They could represent good, right doctrine.
You know, you can try to chain somebody up with good, right
doctrine. Make them memorize this doctrine. Make them spit
back this doctrine to you. It's easy to do. It's easy to
do. But you know, simply hearing
and knowing in the head the truth of sovereign grace, that's not
going to save a sinner either. That's not going to make him
be still. That's not going to stop the power of sin. You can know
the doctrines of grace and still be a child of hell. Salvation
requires God giving a new heart. That is the only way we can be
tamed, is if God gives us a new nature. And that's what Christ
did for these men. After the Lord cast the demons
out, he did for this man what he did for me. He gave him a
new nature. Look at verse 15 here in Mark 5. And they, the
whole town, they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed
with the devil and had the legion. They saw him sitting. He was,
they had never seen him sit still before. They saw him sitting
and clothed and in his right mind. And instead of rejoicing
and thanking God, they were afraid. They found this man quiet and
sitting still. The Lord did what those chains
never could do with the power of his word. He gave a new heart,
a new nature and made him still and quiet. And when God saves
his people, he gives them a new nature. When we talk about a
new heart, we mean a new nature, a nature that not the old nature
is not fixed up. He gives them a brand new nature.
And that new nature is quiet. That new nature is submissive
to God. That new nature believes and
is submissive to the gospel. That new nature is submissive
to the righteousness of Christ. So I tell you, be still. Quit working. Quit trying to
make God happy with you by what you do and be still. I'm going
to tell you that as long as the Lord gives me breath and ability
to stay in this pulpit, I'm going to tell you that. But you know
when you'll do it? When God gives you a new nature. You'll be still. Quit working
trying to please God. Just like this man. Alright,
fifthly, I was like this man. This is what the Lord did for
me. I was hurting myself and Christ stopped me from hurting
myself by giving me a new heart. Now, this man was in so much
pain. He was in so much agony because
of these demons that possessed him. Mark 5, look at verse 5.
And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, in the
tombs, crying. He was just crying all the time.
and cutting himself with stones. This man was suffering so much,
he just constantly screamed and cried to agony. Oh my goodness,
I just, I can't imagine. And he'd find these sharp stones
and he would cut himself. He was causing himself physical
pain to try to make himself feel something other than the mental
anguish he was suffering. That's just too sad to think
about. I mean, that is just too sad to think about. But you know, that's the way
I was spiritually before God saved me. I was hurting my own
self. The Lord, speaking in Proverbs
8 verse 36, that passage where he talks about being with the
Father before time was, I was daily his delight. At the end
of this, when he's describing himself and his Father, this
is what he said. He that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul.
He that sins against me is hurting his own soul. Guilty. That is exactly what I was doing.
And everything I did to try to ease the pain of my guilt and
my fear of punishment, all it did was make it worse. I was
just hurting myself. Everything I did to try to make up for my
sin. Everything I did to try to make my sin go away just made
me even more miserable. Like this man, he just, I mean,
he wanted He was so desperate, he would hurt his own body physically
to try to take his mind off the mental anguish of being controlled
by these demons. Oh, I feel miserable. And can
you imagine what this poor man looked like when he came to the
Lord, when he saw the Lord, he came running to him. He's a naked,
wild man. I mean, his hair's long. I mean,
they couldn't make him sit still for a haircut. He cut himself
with stones. They sure wouldn't give him a
razor to shave his beard down to here. Just a wild man. And
his flesh covered with new cuts. Old scars that were scarred over.
I mean, this man looked like a mess. And Lord's safety, make him be
still. and stopped all that pain, all
that suffering. He didn't have to hurt himself
to try to take his mind off his guilty conscience anymore, because
he didn't have a guilty conscience anymore. Christ soothed his guilty
conscience with the blood of his sacrifice. You know, when
you won't have a guilty conscience, you got nothing to feel guilty
about. That's what Christ's blood did for his people. He took away
all their sin. So our conscience is clear. Now,
of course, I know I still sin. Of course, I feel awful about
my sin and my meanness and my weakness. Of course, I do. That
doesn't mean I don't ever sin. My conscience and I hate it. I mean, I am utterly determined
not to do that again. And Wayne, tomorrow I'm going. But my conscience is clear in
this way. I mean, that don't bother you. Something's wrong
with you. That bothers me. But my conscience is clear in
this way, in this way. I wish I hadn't done that. I
ought not have done that. I ought not have thought that.
Christ's blood put that away, just like He put all of my sin
away. This man sat there still at the feet of the Savior. I'm
telling you, those scars are still in his flesh. The scars
are still there. The effect of sin is still in
his body, just like it is you and me. The difference is now,
he sat there quiet, worshiping the Son. And that's what God
did for me when he saved me. The scars and the effect of sin
is still in my body. This old nature, sin's still
in me. It's still as strong as ever.
But God's given me a new nature. A nature that's sinless. A nature
that rules over the old nature. That old nature cannot stop me
from believing Christ anymore. That old nature can't stop me
from loving Christ anymore. That old nature can't stop me
from worshiping Christ anymore. Because the new nature reigns.
That nature is sinless. Nothing to feel guilty about.
It cannot sin. That nature loves and worships
Christ. Rest in Christ. Say what God
did for me. This is what the Lord did for
me. He made me whole. Completely healed. All right,
here's the sixth thing. I was naked and Christ clothed
me. Now, Matthew doesn't tell us
this man was naked, but Luke tells us he wore no clothes.
He was a naked wild man. I mean, I just can't imagine
the sight. Can you imagine the horror, the horror of that sight? Years ago, I was driving to work
one winter morning, and I was going up Wheeler Hill on Flatwoods,
come to the top of that hill, and there's a long straight stretch
there, and I saw this man in the middle of the road. And from
a distance, he looked like he was naked. And I thought, That
can't be. He's got to be having some sort
of sweatpants or you know, someone. I kept driving and buddy, that
man was naked as a jaybird. I mean, what a sight. Oh my.
But at least he was clean shaven. You know, he'd escaped from an
old folks home somewhere. You know what I mean? He was
just in the middle of January. Just, I mean, oh, it's freezing
cold. Running down the street naked. I got to work. I called
the police. Yeah, we got about a hundred calls. We're trying
to get him, you know. That's this fella. I mean, he's a wild
man. He's a wild man. Angry and untamed,
running around naked. That's the way I was by nature.
That's the way I came into this world, a naked wild man. I was born just like my father,
Adam. I had no covering before God. I was as rebellious as Adam
was. I had no righteousness, no covering
before God, and I had no way to earn one. And here's the problem. If I'm going to come into God's
presence, I've got to be righteous. I got to have a righteous garment.
If I'm going to come to the wedding supper of the Lamb, I got to
have a wedding garment. And buddy, I don't have one.
So somebody's got to give me one. Now we talk about this righteous
garment, the garment of Christ's righteousness. This is not like
a robe that just covers the sin and the filth that's still there. You know, you can put a robe
on after you got out of the shower just to cover up, you know, but
you're still naked under there. Scott Richardson used to tell
us that the righteousness of Christ is not something that's
pasted on. It's a new nature. It's a new nature that is righteous
through and through. And the way God gives his people
this righteous nature is the new birth. And God gives that
nature to his people because that is the only nature that
God can accept. It's the nature that Christ earned
for his people. Look at verse 15. We read it
a minute ago here, Mark 5. They came to Jesus and saw him
that was possessed with the devil, had the legion sitting, and he
was clothed. He was clothed. They never could
get clothes on that man. All the Lord had to do was speak
to that legion. Tell them to get out. This man is clothed
in his right mind. And that's what God does for
his people when he saves them. We're like that son. A prodigal
son who ran away from his father. He ran away from his father.
When he depended upon his own self, where did he find himself?
Eating husk with the swine. And Scripture says he finally
came to himself. How did he come to himself? God
gave him the right mind. And when God gave him the right
mind, you know what he did? He said, I'm going to go beg for
mercy. I'm going to go ask for forgiveness. That's what this
man did. God gave him a new nature. That's
what God did for me. He gave me a covering. He gave
me the righteousness of Christ. His blood washed away my sin. And he put me in my right mind
by giving me a brand new mind, a mind that loves God, that worships
Christ, that comes to him asking for forgiveness, seeking mercy.
That's what this man did. He was in his right mind, sitting
at the feet of the master, begging for mercy. Tell him, teach me
more. Tell me more. Tell me more about
yourself. This is so sad, but it's true.
You know, put back in our text in Matthew chapter 8, I thought
that the Lord was coming to torment me, to judge me, to condemn me. But you know, Christ came to
save me. This man, look what he says here in verse 29. Behold,
they cried out, saying, What have we to do with Jesus, thou
son of God? Art thou come to torment us before
our time? See, this man thought For these
men thought that the Lord was there to torment him. And these
demons, it was the demons speaking, thought that the Lord was there
to torment them before their time. And isn't that just what
a demon would think? That the Lord is going to be
unjust and torment me before the time. But that describes
me. I was demon possessed. I thought
the same thing. I thought that before God saved me, I thought
the Lord let me hear the gospel for this reason. I thought he
let me hear the gospel. so that it would be worse for
me in the day of judgment than Sodom. That's exactly what I
thought. I thought I'd heard the gospel
so often and I kept refusing to believe it and tried to believe
it and couldn't. I thought the Lord did that just
so my punishment in eternity would be worse. That's what I
thought. I kept hearing, I mean, four times a week I heard, God's
mercy for the sinners. I wish I had a nickel for every
time I heard that. But I thought, I heard that, But I thought God
was coming to punish me. I continually heard how that
God's gracious, that he saves any sinner that has need of saving.
But I was afraid. I thought God was coming to damn
me. I heard about God's love and his pity for sinners, but
I was afraid and thought God would only ever be harsh with
me. That's what I thought. We're the same. Boy, if that's
not the evidence of a dead nature, I don't know what is. Let me tell you what the Savior
did for me. He came where I was and he saved me. He came where
I was and just crowned me, covered me with his mercy. He set me
free from the power of sin. Christ came to wash me in his
blood, to soothe me with his touch, just like he did that
poor leper. Master reached out and touched him and said, I will,
you be cleansed. He came to calm me and give me a new nature and
make me sit at His feet because He's merciful. Oh, God's merciful
to sinners. If I could tell you now, this
is what God did for me. The Lord's merciful to sinners. He's merciful. He'd never run
out of mercy for sinners. I don't care what you've done.
I don't care what your background is, who you are. I don't care.
You can't out sin God's mercy. Now come to him begging for mercy.
God's merciful to sinners. I can tell you that from experience.
That's what God did for me. Then eighth, the Lord made me
his disciple. Look back at Mark chapter five.
You know, the people of this town, they were afraid. They had seen the Lord's power
to cast out those demons, and they hated losing those pigs. They hated that. More than be
happy this man was no longer a danger to them or to himself,
they were sad about losing all the money those pigs were worth.
And they asked the Lord to leave our country. Just leave us alone. Leave us in the status quo. They
thought the Lord may be able to do wonderful things. But if
he's gonna do wonderful things for me, I'm gonna have to give
up some stuff, and I'm not willing to do it. And then the most frightening
thing in this world to me happened. The Lord gave them what they
wanted. Were they demon-possessed? Asked the Lord to leave them
alone. The Lord gave them what they wanted and left them alone. Mark 5, verse 17. And they began
to pray him to depart out of their coast. And he left. When he was coming into the ship,
he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he
might be with him. Oh, I want to be with you. I
want to be your disciple. I want to be your follower. Albeit
Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, go home to thy friends
and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and
hath had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him.
And all men did marvel. This man said, Lord, I want to
be your disciple. I want to go with you. Don't
leave me here. These people are crazy. Let me go to you. And Lord told
him, no, don't go with me yet. I've heard a number of believers
say, wonder why the Lord don't take me home. I wish Lord just
take me home. Why don't the Lord just save his sheep and immediately
deliver them from this world? I want to go be with him, don't
you? But he's telling you and me the same thing he told these
men. No, you go home. You tell your family. You tell
your friends what great things God has done for you. How he's
had mercy on you. And that's just what this man
did. And people marveled. They marveled that Almighty God
would do something so wonderful for such a wretch as this man.
But that's what he did. That's what he did for me. They
never thought there'd be any hope for this poor man. Boy,
I bet people thought that. Matter of fact, let me tell you
this. I know they did. No hope for that fellow. And
they marveled at God's grace to them. And that's what God's
done for me. He made me His disciple, His
follower. And I love, I love, I thank God
every day that He's given me the opportunity to tell the old,
old story. of God's mercy and grace in Christ
Jesus. To be able to tell week after
week after week what wonderful things God's done for me. Now
he's been merciful to a wretch like me. Now if any sinner perishes
in hell, I'm telling you, it'll be their own fault. This is what
wonderful things God does for sinners. What wonderful things
God does for his people. So if any sinner perishes in
hell, it's gonna be their own fault. Because they refuse to believe
on Christ. They heard of him asking Leave me. I don't want
to hear any more of this. Just leave me alone. It'll be
because they're just like the people here in our text. And
if any sinner awakes in Christ likeness and glory, that'll be
all God's doing. And we're going to spend eternity
singing of the wonderful things of what's done for us, how he
had mercy upon us. As I studied this this week,
I thought of one of this one, my very favorite songs, it's
entitled a poor sinner like me. I'm not going to sing it, but
let me read it to you in closing. This song just encapsulates the
lesson we looked at here just in these past few minutes. I
was once far away from the Savior and as vile as a sinner could
be. And I wondered, I wondered if Christ the Redeemer could
save a poor sinner like me. I was wandering on in my darkness.
Not a ray of light could I see. And the thought filled my heart
with sadness. There's no hope for a sinner like me. And then,
in that dark, lonely hour, a voice sweetly whispered to me, saying,
Christ the Redeemer has power to save a poor sinner like me.
I listened, and lo, it was the Savior who was speaking so kindly
to me. I cried, I'm the chief of sinners.
Oh, save a poor sinner like me. I then fully trusted in Jesus.
And oh, what a joy came to me. My heart was filled with his
praises for saving a sinner like me. No longer in darkness I'm
walking, for the light is now shining on me. And now unto others
I'm telling how he saved a poor sinner like me. When this life
journey is over and I, the dear Savior, shall see, I'm going
to praise him forever and ever for saving a sinner like me.
Oh, I hope Lord will bless that too.