in the book of Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. Pray for me. Luke chapter 8. We'll begin reading
in verse 26. And they arrived at the country
of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. And when He
went forth to land, there met Him out of the city a certain
man which had devils a long time, and wear no clothes, neither
a boat in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he
cried out and fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said,
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. For he had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man, for oft times it had caught him,
and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he broke
the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness. And
Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion,
because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him
that he would not command them to go into the deep. And there
was there a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain, and
they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them.
And he suffered them. Then went the devils out of the
man, and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down
a steep place into the lake, and were choked. When they that fed them saw what
was done, they fled and went and told it in the city and in
the country. Then they went out to see what
was done and came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the
devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed
and in his right mind. And they were afraid. They also
which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of
the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude of the
country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart
from them, for they were taken with great fear. And he went
back into the ship and returned back again. Now the man out of
whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be
with him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to thy house,
and show how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went
his way, and published throughout the whole city how great things
Jesus had done unto him." Now this is one of three accounts
that we find in the Gospels concerning our Lord's visit and His encounter
with this demoniac. The other two are found in Matthew
8 and Mark 5. And the verses in Matthew say
that there were two men possessed of devils who came out to meet
the Lord. So is there a contradiction here? Unbelievers like to say
the Bible is full of contradictions. But I don't think that's the
case. It may be that after the casting out of the demons from
these men, one departed, immediately, but the other stayed to be with
the Lord who had made him whole." And this brought to mind the
story in Luke 17 of the Lord healing the ten lepers. But Luke
only focuses on one man in that text. Starting in verse 12 of
Luke 17, speaking of the Lord Jesus, it said, And he entered
into a certain village, and there met him ten men that were lepers,
which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices
and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when He saw
them, He said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priest. That
was one of the commandments for a leper. The priest had to declare
them clean. And it came to pass that as they
went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw
that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified
God. and fell down on his face at
his feet giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus
answering said, were there not ten cleansed, but where are the
nine? They are not found that return
to give God glory save this stranger. Now all ten were healed, but
only one returned to thank the Lord. And so I think it was with
these two men possessed of demons mentioned in Matthew. One was
a chosen vessel of God's mercy and grace, who was not only freed
from his demons, but freed from his sins as well. And the other
went away, freed of his demons, but from all we can surmise from
the Scriptures, left in his sins. And this is why I think Mark
and Luke only write of this one man who stayed to sit at the
feet of Jesus. Now, I want to go through these
verses and try to show you some parallels and some similarities
between this man possessed of demons and those of us who have
been redeemed by God's marvelous grace. And hearing that, some may think,
I don't have anything at all in common with a demon-possessed
maniac, but stick around, you might find that you do. Now,
in all three of these books where this story takes place, it's
preceded by the Lord being in a ship with His disciples crossing
the Sea of Galilee. And as our Lord slept, we all
know this story, as our Lord slept, there arose a great storm. And the disciples, fearing that
they were about to perish, woke our Lord and said, Lord, carest
Thou not that we perish? And the Lord, I think, was a
little aggravated with them. And He got up from His sleep
and stilled the storm with three simple words, peace, be still. After which His disciples, who
were astonished by what they had just witnessed, made this
statement, What manner of man is this? For He commandeth even
the winds and the water, and they obey Him. But their astonishment
level was about to be raised again. They were about to see
the Lord cast out thousands of demons, from two men, and again
with merely a word." The Word of our God is unimaginably powerful. Powerful enough to speak this
universe that they have yet to find the edges of into being. In Genesis 1, we read this, and
God said, and then we read this, and it was so. Then in Psalm
33, it says, Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants
of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spake, and it was
done. He commanded, and it stood fast. And in Hebrews 11.3, we read,
By faith we understand that the worlds were framed, were created
by the Word of God. Now verse 26 says, And they arrived
at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
Now probably, this storm blew them off their original course,
and they landed at a destination which they had not originally
planned on. But you can bet that it was a destination that our
Lord intended to land. Because there was there at this
place one of His lost sheep, which He must bring into the
fold. And verse 27, And when he went
forth to land, speaking of Jesus, there met him out of the city
a certain man, which had devils a long time, and wear no clothes,
neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. There met him a
certain man. One of the meanings of this word
certain is destined, predestined. Predestinated. Predestinated to become a vessel
of God's mercy and grace. And we're told that this man
wore no clothes. He came to the Lord just as he was, naked. And isn't that the way we come
to Christ spiritually? Naked. Destitute of anything
to cover our guiltiness. And casting off our filthy rags
of self-righteousness. we come to Christ spiritually
naked, needing to be clothed with that perfect robe of His
righteousness. Now, modern day religionists
would hear that and think that you have to run naked down the
aisle from the pew to the front of the mourner's bench because
they see coming to Christ as a physical act. And it is not. It is an act of the heart. Job
made this statement, naked came I out of my mother's womb. We
come forth both physically naked and spiritually naked. But natural
man still thinks like his father Adam, and he tries to stitch
together a fig leaf apron to cover that spiritual nakedness.
But God doesn't regard man's so-called righteousness. Hebrews
4.13 tells us, neither is there any creature that is not manifest
in his sight, But all things are naked and open unto the eyes
of Him with whom we have to deal. When our God gives us a gift
of faith to believe, He does what He did for Adam and Eve
and strips off our filthy rags of our so-called good works and
self-righteousness. And He provides us, as did the
father of the prodigal, with that best robe. that robe of
Christ's righteousness. This verse also tells us this
man had no home. He dwelt in the tombs, which
was an appropriate place for him to be. He was as we were
before the Lord gave us life. And you, Hethi Quicken, who were
dead in trespasses and sins, were told in Ephesians. He was
spiritually dead. So the tombs were an appropriate
place for him to be But this was to be the last day that this
man dwelt in these tombs, because he was about to be freed from
all that had bound him up to this point in his life, and to
be released from that hard bondage under which he had lived for
so long. This verse says that he had been this way a long time,
for years and years, no doubt. And Mark's account tells us that
no man could bind him, neither could any man tame him. Sound
familiar? It should. It describes us before
mercy and grace found us. Our mother and dad and our society
in general tried to constrain us, tried to tame us, tried to
make us conform to the rules. And those of us that grew up
in religion, you know all too well how the
good church folks and the false preachers tried to bind us with
the law. But we were as this demoniac,
we could not be tamed. Not by any man anyway. But one
came to us where we were and did what no amount of religious
teaching and constraints could do. He made us children of the
living God. Verse 28, when he saw Jesus,
he cried out, and fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said,
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High
God? I beseech thee, torment me not. This man, when he first saw the
Savior and knew who He was, desired Him to just leave him alone,
to not torment him. And is this not how it was with
you, dear saint, when the Lord first began to deal with you?
Our desire was simply to be left alone. We were perfectly content
to dwell where we were living, in the tombs of our depravity
and sin. But our blessed Lord was not
going to let us have our way, because as this man, we were
chosen vessels of His mercy. And when this verse records the
request of this man that the Lord not torment him, it is typical
of what the awakened sinner experiences when we first see the Lord who
He is. One who will by no means clear the guilty. We realize
by the grace of God which is given to us that we are as guilty
as we can be before a holy and a just God. He teaches us that
we are indeed worthy of the punishment that we are about to receive.
which is described in God's Word as eternal death. And it's a
torment, a terror to the awakened heart and mind. But as it did with this man,
our torment eventually leads to our deliverance. And if what
I'm describing sounds foreign to your experience of coming
to Christ, you might want to examine your assurance of salvation.
Because if you found that coming to Christ was a pain-free, easy
experience, that there was no terror of soul, that there was
no overwhelming guilt, that there was no feeling of sure impending
doom, then you came to Christ via a different road than what
is described in the Scriptures. And it's especially painful to
religious lost men and women because they're forced to admit
that all their so-called goodness, that they've been putting all
their hope of heaven in is but a sham. A house built upon the
sand of man's imagined good works and self-righteousness. Our Lord
described this in Matthew 7 when He spoke of the foolish man which
built his house upon the sand. And He said, and the rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that
house, and it fell. And great! was the fall of it. I picture this as some of the
videos I've seen that you probably have too of what happens to a
house that's built on the ocean, on the beach front during a hurricane. I think most of us have seen
these. Here you have a gigantic beautiful house that someone
has put all of their life savings, all of their hard work into building
and it has a pristine view of the neighborhood. It's surrounded
by beautiful scenery. It's the envy of all the neighbors. And the owners are so proud of
it. I mean, who wouldn't be? It was built as a result of their
hard work. They earned it. And they're sure
that they'll live there the rest of their lives. But one day that
hurricane hits and the rain descends and the wind blows and it takes
the foundation completely out from under that house and it
collapses into the ocean. And sadly, many of these coastal
areas are so prone to flooding, you can buy no flood insurance.
So these folks see all of their life's work and all of their
life savings washed away in but a moment, and there's not a single
thing that they can do about it. And that is exactly what
happens spiritually when our God sends that hurricane of the
true Gospel to a self-righteous sinner. That Gospel which Paul
declares as the power of God unto salvation, the dynamite
of God. It blows away every hope of false
religion until all we have left is to look to Christ for all
our hope. It completely demolishes our
religious house of cards which we built upon the sand of our
own supposed good works. Verse 29, For he had commanded
the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for oft times it
had caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters,
and he broke the bands and was driven of the devil into the
wilderness." In the previous verse, the demons acknowledge
the sovereignty of the Savior and declare that He is who He
is, the Son of God Most High. James tells us in James 2.19
that the devils also believe and tremble. This word tremble
means to shake in a way that you cannot control because of
overwhelming fear. There was no argument put forth
by these demons when they met this sovereign potentate. They
knew that they had no power to resist His will. And in that
sense, they're not nearly as bad as depraved men and women
who think they can resist God's will and bend His will to their
desires. These devils admit that He's
the unchallenged ruler of this universe and of all things in
it. This verse also tells us that
this man was bound with chains and fetters, but he always broke
those bands that men had put on him. And I said before, this
is a good description of us before the Lord came to where we were.
Verse 30, and Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, legion, because
many devils were entered into him. Now this name legion, it
describes a division of the Roman army consisted of 6,000 men. 6,000. That doesn't necessarily
mean that there were 6,000 demons in this man, but we know from
the reading in verse 13 that the number of swine that were
feeding there were about 2,000. So we know that there had to
be at least 2,000 demons in this man. And when we consider the
numerous stories that we read in Scriptures of what just one
demon does to a human, how it tries to destroy them, it's astounding
to know the number of demons that was in this man. In verse
31, "...and they besought him that he would not command them
to go into the deep." Now this verse clearly shows us that our
blessed Lord does indeed have all power over demons and men. They do as He commands and are
powerless to resist His will. And verse 32 says, And there
was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain. And
they besought Him that He would suffer them to enter into them. And He suffered them. Now, I
don't know a lot about demons because the Scriptures really
don't tell us a lot about them. But they do require a body in
which to dwell before they can do any harm to the person they
possess or those around them. So rather than to be cast into
the sea, they were content to go into this herd of swine, and
with permission of the Lord, they did so. In verse 33, then
went the devils out of the man and entered into the swine, and
the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake and were
choked. When the demons which had dwelt
in this man were sent into the swine, this verse tells us that
those swine immediately ran into the sea and were drowned. Now
these demons accomplished with these swine what they were unable
to do with this man. They drove them to kill themselves. The accountant Mark 5 tells us
that this man was always, night and day, in the mountains and
in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones, doing self-inflicted
harm. And of all the times in which
he cut himself with stones, ironically, none of his wounds proved fatal.
You would think that of all this cutting, he would have hit an
artery and bled to death and perished in his sins. But we know why He didn't. For
the same reason that many of you and myself sitting here tonight
did not perish before the Lord came to us. We lived all our lives before
God's grace came to us doing harm day and night to ourselves
by vile actions. Figuratively cutting ourselves
with every stone that we could get our hands on. And I'm not
just referring to the lives of vileness that some of us indulged
in. Many of us dwelt in the tombs
of dead, empty, Christless religion, cutting ourselves with every
false doctrine that we held dear, secure in our hope. But the Lord showed up and cast
those hopes from us. He drove them out. as He did
to those demons that abode in this man. Verse 34, And when
they that fed them saw what was done, they fled and went into
the toll in the city and in the country. Now we're not told how
many men oversaw the care of this herd of swine, but all of
them, to a man, were terrified at what they had just witnessed.
This madman who we're told was a danger to both himself and
to all that came near him, running to meet a man, but doing him
no harm, but rather falling at his feet in submission. They
had never witnessed this before. This madman who was described
in Matthew 8 as being exceeding fierce, So much so that no man
might pass by that way. People had to avoid even coming
near where this man was because he would run out and attack them
like a mad dog. And I'm guessing that when these
men that fed this herd of swine watched this unfold from a distance,
they saw this man running toward Christ and thought, here we go
again. And they were waiting for this
man to pounce on this man that came out of this boat and attack
him tooth and nail. But ironically, what they saw
was this man going and falling at Christ's feet. And it would seem that several
hours had passed between the time these men saw this and went
into the city and the countryside and told this tale to everyone
they met. And this story was so unbelievable that everyone
that heard it had to go and see for themselves if this was actually
true. But in those several hours that
passed, this man sat at the feet of the Savior, learning of Him
and from Him. Verse 35, Then they went out
to see what was done, and came to Jesus, and found the man out
of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus,
clothed and in His right mind. And they were afraid. Now this
is what happens when one who's been a vile sinner or even a
good church-going Baptist has shown the truth of who Christ
is and cast aside all other hopes but Christ and Him crucified. People can't figure out what
brought about this radical change. People are perplexed. And they
fear because they have no idea what has happened. A previously
wild man of a friend that they used to hang out with and party
with suddenly has no interest in those things anymore. And the good religious folks
are the ones who are most afraid. They see this one who used to
believe as they did that salvation was a joint effort between man
and God. But this man now claims that
only the work of Christ brings about salvation, and they fear
Because if this one sitting at the feet of Christ is correct
in his belief that Christ is all that dashes every hope of
salvation accomplished by religious men and women, it dashes it to
pieces. To be told that what these religious
folks do, they're praying, they're tithing, they're soul winning,
they're church attendants, they're witnessing, they're Bible reading,
they're praying at the restaurant for everybody to see. their attendance
at the local tent revival, that all of this is completely worthless. It's worse than worthless. They're
told that it's a damning to their souls. The doctrine of Christ
and Him crucified is the only hope of lost sinners. And when
the religious folks hear that, it is a terror to them. It makes them as these folks
who came out of the city to see what was done. It makes them
afraid. Verse 36, they also which saw
it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils
was healed. They described what had happened.
Now when lost men and women witness the salvation of a sinner, most
times they do not understand how this change came about. Not
so in this case. These men were eyewitnesses to
what the Lord Jesus Christ did, commanding these demons to come
forth out of this man. They could not deny what they
saw happen. This man who a short while before
was so fierce that he would attack anyone that came near, now setting
in perfect serenity at the feet of Christ. Clothed, we're told,
and in his right mind. Verse 37, And the whole multitude
of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought Him to depart
from them. For they were taken with great
fear, and He gave them their wish. And He went up into the
ship and returned back again." This is the reaction of lost
religious men and women when their belief system is threatened.
They want no part of a sovereign Christ. who shatters to pieces
everything they believe. So they desire Him to depart
from them and leave them in their unbelief. And this verse tells
us that these folks were taken with great fear. You would think
that they would have the opposite reaction of this man who they
knew was a complete vile, wild maniac. Now he's been tamed and
sitting at the feet of Christ. But there is great danger in
asking the Christ of God to depart from you, to leave you alone. We do not read any place in the
four Gospels where Christ ever returned to this place. He visited this place, as far
as we know, one time. And if you had gone through this
town and the surrounding countryside before the Lord paid a visit
to this place, And you asked folks and told them, the Lord
is about to come here and save a sinner. Who do you think it
might be? You can be 100% sure that not
a single soul would have guessed that it would be this madman
maniac dwelling in the tombs. Because in their eyes, He was
beyond any hope of salvation. He was just, as men like to say,
too far gone. But this account should serve
as a reminder of what God told us in His Word when He says,
My ways are not your ways, neither are My thoughts your thoughts.
God never, let me repeat that, God never look at things the
way we do. Never. And anyone who was familiar with
this man and his circumstances would have been sure, beyond
a reasonable doubt, that he was beyond hope. And if it came to
anything that his friends or family could do for him, he definitely
was beyond hope. But not for that one who's mighty
to save. There is not one of God's chosen
sheep who is so far gone that the grace of God and the blood
of Christ cannot redeem him. This man was someone's son, someone's
brother, maybe someone's husband or father. The Lord Jesus, who
knows all things, knew this when He told this man to return to
his own house and to tell folks what the Lord had done to him.
And this tells us that once upon a time he had a house in which
to dwell before he was driven by the devils into the wilderness.
Now can you imagine, try to imagine in your mind this homecoming. Perhaps this man had children who he left when they were very
young. And he was here for years and years and now he returns
home and his children and his wife look upon him and are astounded. Or maybe his mother and father,
or his brothers and sisters. But we are told that this man
had a home that he could return to. And as I mentioned a minute
ago, it's a dreadful thing to ask the Christ of God to depart
from you, to leave you to your own ways, I remember a story
of an experience that Ralph Barnard had many years ago. Don told
us his story, I think, a few times. I hope I get it right.
I'm doing it from memory. But he told of Ralph preaching
in a place. I don't remember where it was.
And as he preached, there was a young lady near the front of
the church. And Ralph could tell she was
affected by what he had to say. And as the service neared the
end, Ralph went to that young girl and said, young lady, you
seem like you need to look. And Ralph tells a story that
this young woman more or less screamed at him and said, for
Christ's sake, preacher, leave me alone. And Ralph replied, for Christ's
sake, I will leave you alone. And if I remember the story right,
that young lady left that meeting and died in a car wreck shortly
thereafter. With I'm sure the words of Ralph's
sermon ringing in her ears for eternity. It's a dangerous thing
to ask the Christ of God to leave you alone. Verse 38, Now the
man out of whom the devils were departed besought Him that he
might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away. And
when we're first given faith in Christ and God's Spirit speaks
peace to our troubled hearts, that heart that was before that
was struck with terror, We just want to hear of Christ. We want
to be sitting under the preaching of the Gospel. We want to be
near His people. We want to hear the preacher
declaring the love and grace of Christ. We're so taken up
with Christ that we can scarcely think of anything else. But we
live lives that require us to make a living and to care for
our families. And so often, those responsibilities distract us
from worshiping our Savior as we would desire But we're not
to be as those that shut themselves away in a monastery somewhere,
lest we be polluted by the world. We must live in this world, but
we do not have to live for this world. So we find in this last
verse of our text, instruction given to this man, out of whom
the Lord had cast these devils, the Savior tells him in verse
39, Return to thy house, return to thy own house, and show how
great things God hath done unto thee." And he went his way and
published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had
done unto him. Now, our Lord would not have
us to remain silent about what we have experienced, the grace
of God and love of God that we've experienced. And this verse would
suggest that the witnessing of that experience would begin in
our own house with those of our immediate family. And then from
there, whoever our Lord providentially has us run into and gives us
the ability to witness to. And notice the wording here.
Christ tells this man to tell others how great things God hath
done unto thee. And then the last words of this
verse says this, that this man published throughout the whole
city how great things Jesus had done unto him. Now this man understood
that this One who had healed him was indeed God in human flesh. Christ never made it a secret
that He was God come in the flesh. This was the biggest sticking
point with the religious crowd of His day that this lowly carpenter's
son dared declare himself to be equal with God. They not only
considered this the height of presumption, they considered
it worthy of death. And many of them witnessed with
their own eyes miracles which the Lord performed, yet they
remained blind to the truth of who He was, God in human flesh. Now if we learn nothing else
from this story, it should be clear that it is impossible to
believe on Christ no matter what you see, no matter what you hear,
unless God gives you the gift of faith. Turn with me to Matthew 13. I'm
going to read just a little bit and then I'll close. Matthew
13. We'll begin reading in verse
10. And the disciples came and said
unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered
and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath to him shall
be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath
not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore
speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not,
and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them
is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing
ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall
see, and not perceive, for this people's heart is wax gross,
and their ears of duller hearing, and their eyes they have closed,
lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should
be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes,
for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say
unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired
to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them,
and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them."
Here our Lord explains to His disciples that the ability to
know the truth of God, to hear the truth of God, to see the
truth of God, are a gift given to some and withheld from others. And that truth, that very truth
is hated by religionists because it takes away all of their bragging
rights. But it is indeed the truth of
God, despite how much they may hate it. Paul made this plain
in the 9th chapter of Romans when he said in verse 21, Hath
not the powder power over the clay to make of the same lump One vessel unto honor, and another
unto dishonor. So those of us who sit here tonight,
who've been made vessels of honor, we have much to be thankful for,
because Christ came to where we were, like He did this demoniac. And He set him free of the plague
which kept him. And so He came to us, where we
were. Some in debauchery, some in religion.
But He came to us and made us whole, needing nothing more to
stand righteous before an all-seeing God. And when I think about it, I'm
astonished to think that this man, this
wild man, possessed of thousands of devils, Do you know where He is now? He's standing with that throne,
around the throne, singing the praises of this One
who set Him free. So let us, who have loved ones,
who do not know the Savior, not despair because of the Lord could do
what He did for this demoniac, and indeed if He could do what
He did for us, then we need not despair of any, no matter how
far gone we may think they are. I pray that the Lord would bless
that to your heart, Lord willing.