So you can once again, with the
help of God, I'd like you to turn with me to the Gospel according
to Luke chapter 8, and the text you'll find in verse 35. And
they went out to see what was done, and came to Jesus, and
found the man of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the
feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind, and they were
afraid. As you know we have been looking
through the various miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ and
having looked at already the ability of Christ to cast out
the demons from an individual and how we saw that Christ has
that authority and power and we saw that the demons knew and
always do know who the Lord Jesus Christ is. We know that the demons
are fallen angels who were cast out of heaven with Satan himself
We know that the scripture tells us that all things were created
by the Lord Jesus Christ and the angelic world, the messengers
of God are the creation of God. And so when those angels were
cast out of heaven, they were cast out by God, by the Lord
Jesus Christ. and they would very well know
who the Lord Jesus Christ is and as Christ enters into their
presence as he crosses this sea of Galilee and as he comes to
this mad Gadarene they recognise the Lord Jesus Christ and so
as we looked at that before and we've seen Christ's ability to
cast out demons I was troubled as to how I was going to bring
this before you. As you look through the miracles
of the Lord Jesus Christ, there are so many, yet they are often
the same. He was healing. He was raising the dead. He was
casting out demons. He was multiplying food. But then if you look at the context
and you look at the scenario that he is ministering in, It
has a greater detail, it has a greater teaching that can be
applied. So though the miracle may be
the same, yet the context by which that miracle is performed
in is different and therefore it has a different teaching. It has something for us. It's
not just a constant repetition of the same thing. The Lord Jesus
Christ is working specifically, using the wisdom of God to teach. and to apply truth to his people. And so here in this account of
the Lord dealing with the mad Gadarene we have something very
particular that Christ is portraying to us. If you remember that often
the Lord Jesus used these miracles as a visual sign to help the
people understand who he was. And so we know even from life
itself that children, when they learn, it's not just about laying
things before them, teaching them. It is by giving them visual
objects by which it can aid their learning. And so we have pictures,
we have toys, we have shapes and things by which we help them
to learn. And so Christ is helping us to
learn by a visual object, a visual truth, which can help us to remember
the spiritual application of what he is teaching. And so here
we have the Lord Jesus Christ after he leaves the mainland
and as we saw last week he enters into a storm and he is asleep. His disciples are afraid and
Jesus rises up and he rebukes the wind and the waves and there's
that great calm. Then he arrives now at the shore. The Gadarenes were not Jews.
They were Gentiles. So the Lord Jesus makes a specific
trip across the ocean to the Gentiles. And not just a normal Gentile. You would think if Jesus was
going to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles he would go and
find somebody who was a bit more upper class, a bit more likely
to receive the message, a bit more likely to have an influence
upon those round about him. But we see that he goes to the
lowest of the low. the outcasts of society, a man
who lived amongst the tombs, a man who had been chained, a
man who was feared which caused people to bypass him. Sometimes you find that in town
don't we? When we go for a trip to town
we find maybe there's a load of alcoholics and they're rowdy
they're abusive and you're afraid to pass by them and so you take
the long route. You're cautious. And so it was
with this mad Gadarene. In Matthew it tells us that there
was actually two of them. But Luke and Mark say that there
is one. But what we do know, though Matthew
may say there was two, we are dealing with one person specifically
that Jesus came across the sea to have dealings with. We know
that the good shepherd, doesn't lose any of his sheep, he will
forsake the ninety and nine and he will leave them in the sheepfold
and he will go and he will find that which is lost and no matter
how desperate or despairing or deprived or in the depths of
sin that person is, if they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ he is
going to go to them and he is going to find them even if they're
in their wrong mind and he is going to bring them to himself
and he is going to transform them, which is exactly what he
does with this man. He transforms him. He is found sitting at the feet
of Jesus, closed and in his right mind. A few moments ago he would
have been a wretched case. all hope of him in the minds
of those round about would have been that this man is just useless
a waste of space and no doubt the disciples as they got off
the boat with the Lord Jesus Christ were afraid of this man
but Jesus was not afraid of him Jesus must go to him to bring
salvation to his soul, to deliver him from the kingdom of darkness,
to deliver him from his bondage of satanic possession and to set him free
and to bring him to himself. And so we see in this man, a representative
of Satan, a representative of the kingdom of darkness, a representative
of all that Satan wants to do to the people who are under his
influence. What I saw was this representative,
the mad Gadarene, and the representative of the kingdom of light coming
together. We look at our society. Our society
is spiralling out of control. Our society is drifting away
from God. and going back to self-love,
self being God, going back to paganism. And as you see a society
drift away from God you see greater manifestations of Satan's influence
in that society. Satan is promoting one of his
subjects, this is what I can do to one of my people. I can make them mad. I can make
them live amongst the tombs. I can strip them of their clothing. I can fill them with violence.
I can cause them to cut themselves. I can cause them to be a wild
man. But when Jesus deals with him,
we find what Christ can do. A transformation of all that
Satan had done and to bring him to the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Verse 27 it says, And he went
forth to a land, 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. verse 29 and he 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 fetters and he
break the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness. So what we are witnessing in
this man is what the Bible calls the fruit of a bad tree. the evidence that is something
deeper going on within his heart. Something deeper is manifesting
itself on the outside. There's something causing this
man to behave in such an unusual way. Sometimes or often it is with
people who have cancer. It goes unnoticed for a long
long time until symptoms begin to be seen. Somebody may have a tumor on
the brain for instance and they may not know that they have it. And it may grow and grow. Then
things will begin to be seen in their lives. They will start
suffering with headaches. They will start suffering with
nausea. They will start suffering with
problems with the eyes. They may even suffer partial
paralysis as the tumour begins to grow. And so when they go
to the doctor, they begin to explain to the doctor, I've got
a headache. I've got bad eyes. I'm feeling a bit dizzy and nauseous. And he will then send you for
a scan. And then on the scan they find
out that it's a brain tumour. And so it's the brain tumour
that has been causing all these secondary issues. And so as we
look at this mad Gadarene we see that what we are seeing is
secondary issues. Issues that are caused by something
going on deep down within his soul. That he is at enmity with
God, as the Bible says. He is outside of Christ. His heart is still heart. He is in his sin. He's still
in the kingdom of darkness. And therefore the things, the
visual things that we can see going on in his life are secondary
issues. They are the result of his relationship
with Satan. the fruit of a corrupted heart. So I read to you from the book
of Romans it tells us there that God gave them over to a reprobate
mind. as we look at our society and
we see the immorality that takes place in that society it's because
God has abandoned, he has given them a reprobate mind to do those
things which are not natural, which are not right, which are
against nature, which are which dishonour their own bodies, which
dishonour what God has created for his honour and for his glory. And so as the doctor digs deeper
to find the primary cause for the secondary issues and he finds
the tumour, he finds the cancer, So the physician of souls, the
Lord Jesus Christ, he dives down deep and finds that the man is demon-possessed. Every non-believer has the capacity
to be demon-possessed. Every believer in the Lord Jesus
Christ is possessed by the Holy Spirit of God. That's why it's
so dangerous for young people and even older people but young
people especially who involve themselves in Ouija boards and
black magic and others where they seek to contact the realm
of darkness. Satan and his demons, they are
totally real. They are spiritual beings and
they can be communicated with. Witchcraft, wizardry, pagan worship
is all seeking to contact the realm of the kingdom of darkness.
And any non-believer has a void by which Satan may enter and
possess that person. Although it may not be seen so
much in our country yet there are instances of people who are
possessed. And as I've said to you before
you only have to go and preach the gospel to reveal the manifestations
of the satanic influence that there is in the world today.
Why does preaching of Jesus Christ makes people so irate? Why does
it cause them to attack preachers? Is it not that they are infiltrated
by Satan? Is it not that they are possessed
by a spirit that hates the name of the Lord Jesus Christ? So we are to be careful. Do not
mess around with spiritual things. Seeking to contact the dead.
It's all there in the Old Testament. And it still continues on even
today. This man was possessed with over
2,000 demons. If we look at Luke 11, the Lord
Jesus tells us there in verse 21, when a strong man armed keepeth
his place, his goods are in peace. But if a stronger than he should
come, upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his armor
wherein he trusted and he divided his spoils. Jesus earlier on
in the chapter is being accused of casting out demons by being
the prince of demons by being Beelzebub and Jesus says that
Satan is a strong man and he holds the fort well but when
a stronger than he comes When the Lord Jesus Christ comes,
when his Holy Spirit comes then he can cast out the strong man. But if you continue reading you
see that demons can be cast out. And that demon after he has been
cast out he roams the world in dry places seeking rest but he
finds none. You remember the demons, what
did they say? Don't just cast us out, cast us into the pigs.
We don't want to roam around. We want to abide somewhere. And so he roams around and he
finds none and he says I will return unto my place. I will
return to the place where I once aboded. And as he finds there
that person He finds no spirit of God there. He says, I will go and I will
gather more spirits, more wicked than myself. And then the last
state of that man will be worse. And so it seems to me that this
mad Gadarene, he was indwelt by the spirit. And then people
tried to help him by casting out the demons. But those demons
circulated and then came back. And they added more and more
and more demons until this man was completely possessed with
over 2,000, a legion of demons. So what's it saying? It's saying
that if you're demon-possessed and someone casts out a demon
from you, the spirit of Christ doesn't
enter into you. then you'll become far worse. Don't mess around with the kingdom
of darkness. Satan's trophy is presented to
us as a madman who's naked, who's violent, who cuts himself. But
the Lord Jesus Christ brings him to his senses. causes him
to sit down at his feet and to learn of him. The Bible is clear and it tells
us that this man had no clothes. He was naked. In our culture people who are mentally unstable are often taken
into secure units. In other parts of the world people
are left to roam the streets and often you find there unfortunate
people who are mentally afflicted and they are naked. They wear no clothes. They're
unashamed. They've lost all sense of morality
and modesty. They've lost all sense of shame
and they walk the streets naked. If you remember Adam and Eve
in their innocency They didn't have any clothes on. They were
naked. And to them, because their minds
were pure, it was no problem. But as soon as they sinned against
God, they were ashamed. They were ashamed. They did not
want to be naked anymore, and so they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. And the Bible
tells us that that was not good enough for God. God took away their fig leaves
and gave them a coat that he made of skins in order to cover
their nakedness. If we look at pagan religion,
If you look at those people who live in the Amazon rainforests
and unreached tribes, those who worship gods of stone and the
moon and the stars, what you find is they're naked. And those people who are influenced
by Satan Satan causes them to rebel against God by causing
them to remove their clothes by saying that there's nothing
wrong, there's no shame anymore. But it's God who sets the standard
by which we should dress and attire ourselves. It is God who
says that we are to wear clothes. Satan's representative here as
the mad Gadarene is naked and he's unashamed. And so as we
see our society depart from God what will we see and what do
we see? We see a greater emphasis on
nakedness. As the society becomes more satanic,
as it becomes more distant from the truth, You see a society that rejects
clothing and embraces the body. If any of you have ever been
unfortunate enough to stumble across a pride event, an event that everyone seeks
to promote as a family occasion, you will notice that the theme
of the event is nakedness and immorality. It is a satanic event
that takes place to promote the advancement of the satanic influence
upon our society that God has given this society over to a
reprobate mind. A mind that is devoid of all
sensitivity. A mind that is devoid of all
truth and shame before God and man. And so they prance naked. Don't have to go very far. Just
have to go into town even. To see how society has drifted
from God. They may not walk naked but they
might as well walk naked by the clothing that they wear. It's extremely difficult to take
your children to the beach because of what people wear naked. trying to bring your children
up in the nurture and fear of the Lord and then taking them
to places which cause them to stumble. They're surrounded by
immorality. It's very difficult. And what
you see is that as the nation departs from God so you see greater
manifestations of the influence of Satan upon society. And it's seen in nakedness. It's seen in violence. But also this man cuts himself. Self-mutilation. If you look at pagan religions, you will notice that there is an emphasis on self-harm,
a mutilation of the body in order to become more closer to their
deity. Even in Roman Catholic religion
there is that self-harm, that is the depriving of the body
to seek to gain the favour of God. If you remember when Elijah
went to with the prophets of Baal. You'll
remember that there was the altar placed there and they were told
that the God who answers by fire, he is the true God. And as those
prophets of Baal began to worship their God, they cried out, O
Baal, hear us. But there was no voice. nor any
that answered and they leapt upon the altar which was made
and Elijah he mocked them and then they cried aloud and they
cut themselves after their manner with knives and lances till the
blood gushed out upon them. If you look at the society that
we are in Self-harming has risen by something
like 30 or is 30% in young girls. 10% of the population of England
has experienced self-harming and cutting themselves. As we
looked a week or so ago, we saw that about suicide. Suicide is on the rise. Self-harming is on the rise. A nation that is meant to be
so prosperous and such a wonderful place to live yet has this underlying
spirit of darkness and sadness and depression Satan and his
influence does not bring joy and lasting joy but it brings
a self-loathing. It brings a depression. It brings a separation. Just like this man. He's naked. He's violent. And he cuts himself. When I was young, as I rode a BMX, my friends,
they delighted in piercings. They would get what they called
flesh tunnels. So they would have an earring
and then they would stretch it and stretch it and stretch it
until it became bigger and bigger and bigger. The self-mutilation of the body. And if you walk around town,
what do you see? You see people who mutilate their
bodies. Not just one piercing, but ten
piercings. Piercings in their eyebrows,
piercings in their lips, piercings in their ears, piercings all
over their bodies. Where does it come from? Does
it come from God? Or does it come from Satan? Is
it seeking to glorify God or is it seeking to associate yourself
with the kingdom of darkness? My friends also got tattoos. Not one tattoo, but they wanted
to be covered in tattoos. Because of their lifestyle that
they lived, BMX, Their music that they associated with was
punk rock. And because they're pop stars,
the punks were covered in tattoos, so they also wanted to be covered
in tattoos. And at that time, it was really
only associated with that group of people, punks and BMXers and
that type of person. Then as David Beckham began to
get tattoos up his arms and all over his body, so it went mainstream
that everybody who liked football, everybody who wanted to jump
on the bandwagon and get a tattoo, not just one tattoo, but to be
covered in tattoos. I want to ask you a question. Is that godly? Or is it satanic? My argument would be that tattoos
are self-mutilation of the body that God has given. It doesn't
come from the Jews. It doesn't come from the early
Christian church. It comes from paganism. Self-mutilation
of the body, the slashing of the body, the printing of the
body comes from the kingdom of darkness and it's slowly infiltrating
into the kingdom of light. And if you preach like I'm preaching
now they will say that you're a fundamentalist, you're a legalist. You see this man was found in
his right mind sitting at the feet of Christ. but before he
was a reprobate, cutting himself, naked, violent, a pagan, separated from God. Think of the fashion of cosmetic
surgery. People pay a vast amount of money
to have their bodies cut and shaped in a way that they believe
will make them more attractive in order to stimulate self-esteem,
in order to cause the opposite gender to be more alluring to
them. It is self-mutilation. Yes, there are times when cosmetic
surgery is necessary. My brother, my little brother
Will, he had a big mole on his chin and he was bullied at school. And so the doctor said, we will
take him and cut it off and now he doesn't have it. And used
for his benefit. And what about what we have now
going on in our day? Young people being mutilated. because they think they're a
boy or they think they're a girl and they desire to hack parts
off their body a body that God has gave them but their mind
is corrupted and thinks that they're in the wrong body It's
just like this man what it is is a manifestation of the kingdom
of darkness cutting yourself naked and violent, living amongst
the tombs. But there is hope. As the Lord
Jesus Christ set sail across this sea of Galilee, he didn't
come for the perfect man. He came for this one who was
naked, who was cutting himself, who was violent, who was living
amongst the tombs. Christ set his mark upon him
and said, I'm going to have him and he's going to be mine. I'm
going to change him. And so as Jesus went to meet
him, we see the man coming to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. Drawn
to the Lord Jesus. And Jesus didn't just deal with
the external symptoms. He went right down into the root
and he transformed the heart of that man. He cast out those
demons, put them into the pigs and the pigs run down into the
sea and then they were into the abyss where they said that they
didn't want to go. Christ dealt with them. And the man is found sitting
at the feet of the Lord Jesus. When the Bible tells us that
someone is sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus, what does
it mean? It means they've become a disciple
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They want to learn of him. They're
sitting there in humility, waiting to be taught, waiting for guidance
and direction, wanting to learn more about the Lord Jesus. Remember what Jesus said, come
unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek
and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Look at the contrast. What Satan had him in. darkness
and death, cutting and nakedness. Yet Jesus says, come to me, take
my yoke upon you and learn of me for my yoke is easy and my
burden is light. Sitting at the feet of Jesus,
what a blessed place. Well not only was he sitting
there, he was clothed You see the contrast that Christ is giving
to us. If you want Satan, have him,
and all those things that go with him. But if you're going
to sit at my feet, then you're going to be clothed in a right
clothing. But not only clothing, you're
going to be clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
garment, that beautiful garment that Christ gives to his people,
that robe of righteousness he gives to them. And he was sitting
and he was in his right mind. Before he was a reprobate, before
he had been abandoned by God, but now he is in his right mind,
sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, I
want to be with you, Lord Jesus. Is that what you say? Do you say, I want to be with
you, Lord Jesus? But Jesus says to him, not yet. I want you to do something. Go home and tell your friends
how great things the Lord has done for you. Maybe you've done the first part.
You've come and you've sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Have you done the second? Have you gone home to your friends
and told them all that Christ has done for
you? You see, sometimes obedience
isn't always easy. He wanted to continue back with
the Lord Jesus Christ. But Jesus says to him, no. Go
and testify of the goodness of the Lord. And he had something
to tell. And he had the scars to prove
it. The things that we do in our
unconverted state, we can't change. This man had the scars to prove
that he was the mad Gadarene. Though his friends may not have
recognised him, but he was able to show them, it is me. And he would have told them all
that the Lord Jesus Christ had done, how that he saved him from
that miserable state and brought him to sit at the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Other people were afraid of what
took place. So dramatic was it. Yet they had no need to be afraid
of the Lord Jesus. And the man went and published
everywhere, throughout the whole city, all that the Lord Jesus
Christ had done for him. Our obedience is not always what
we want, but it is what Jesus wants. And if Christ has brought
you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, your
life may not have been so atrocious or so desperate as this mad gathering,
yet the work of Christ is still manifest in your life. Christ
still died to redeem you from this pathway of destruction and
has brought you into the kingdom of light. Go home to your friends
and tell them how great things God has done unto you. In Luke
it says, return now unto thine own house. and show how great
things God has done to you. And he went his way and published
throughout the whole city how great things Jesus has done unto
you. And so as we look at these two
characters, a representation of the kingdom of darkness, representation
of the kingdom of light, Jesus himself, look at all that is
said about this man and then notice all that is taking place
in our society and you will see Satan's hand, Satan's fingerprints
upon all that is taking place at this moment in time. Death,
self-harming, nakedness and a rejection of
God. Well may the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Just a reminder, Sunday school
starts again at two o'clock and the afternoon service will be
at three p.m. Our closing hymn is hymn number
74 from Hymns of Worship. I know that my Redeemer lives.
What joy the blessed assurance gives. He lives, he lives, who
once was dead. He lives, my everlasting head.
Hymn number 74 from Hymns of Worship, the tune 868. At my death, in my death, what
joy the best assurance gets. It is in heaven, who once was
dead, He makes my effort last and last. He lives to sell his people's
fears. He lives to walk by my side. He lives to comfort the whole
town. He lives a blessing. He is triumphant from the grave. He lives eternally to save. He lives, O glorious, in the
skies. He lives to bless me with His
blood, and still He pleads for me above. He lives to raise me from the
grave, He lives, my kind, wise, constant
friend, who still will keep me to the end. He lives, and while he lives,
I'll say, He is my mansion to prepare,
and he will bring me safely home. He gives all glory to his name,
Jesus unchangeably the same. Now may the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with the fellowship
and communion of the Holy Spirit, do rest and abide with us now
and for evermore. Amen.