Turn back to Matthew chapter
8. The title of the message is, What Devils Know. What Devils
Know. Now our Lord was always about
His Father's business. He went about doing good to sinners. We see in this chapter we have
seen in it how he was able to cleanse a leper, healed a centurion's
servant, healed many that were sick and possessed with devils. He calmed the storm. And now we will see a direct confrontation with the
forces of darkness, evil. He's going to confront them head
on. He's going to save two men that
are his sheep. These are his children. These
two are his children. They've always been his children.
And for a while, when I was reading this, I thought of this. For
a while, he let the devil have his way with him. In fact, he
let about 2,000 have their way. Possessed with a legion of them,
and that's about 2,000. And these were his. And he allowed this to go on
for a time. He's going to demonstrate His
power over Satan and over demons. Now the other evangelists, as
I said earlier, speak of these two as one person. And why, I
don't know. But I thought about this yesterday
as I was going over this. If this room were filled full
this morning with nothing but lost people, no one that believed
God. I would address this whole congregation
as one person. I can address the whole congregation
as one, lost, lost, dead in trespasses and sins. But here Matthew says
there's two of them. Now let's look at what devils
know. Someone said, knowledge without
the work of grace leaves men the same. Lost. Lost. Devils know, first of all,
how weak and sinful men are. They know how weak and sinful
we are. Don't ever take pride in things
you've never done. Well, I've never done that. That's
because God has not allowed you to do it. God removed the opportunity
for it being done. Devils know where and what our
weaknesses are. They know where the chink in
the armor is. It just takes temptation. And
the Lord letting you be you and me be me. And we will fall. It just takes the temptation.
Turn over to Galatians chapter 6. In verse 1 it says, Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,
ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of
meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. That's all it takes. Lest you
also be tempted. Devils know that Jesus Christ
is truly God in human flesh. When our Lord came into flesh,
it says His own received Him not. They didn't recognize Him.
They did not recognize Him. When He came into His own, they
knew Him not. But when the devil saw Him, when
they saw Him, They said this, in verse 29, what have we to
do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God? As soon as he stepped
out of that boat, those two men, and there's one thing you recognize
if you read the other evangelist, when these men are speaking,
you don't know whether it's the devil speaking or the man speaking.
They are in confederal with each other. They are one. They've
become one with each other. You don't know which one's speaking
at times. But when they saw Him step out of that boat, they immediately
recognized this is the Son of God, Jesus, thou Son of God. They recognized Him. They know
Him. His own people didn't recognize
Him or acknowledge Him to be the Messiah, but they knew Him.
They knew Him. They recognized His deity as
soon as they saw Him. This is the Son of God. And they know that He has all
power over them. They know that. Men deny. They deny. They have Jesus Christ
waiting on them. Waiting for them to let Him do
something. But they know that He has all
power over them. They know that He has the power
to torment them. And they know that judgment's
coming. It says in verse 29, And behold,
they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus,
thou Son of God? Listen. Art thou come hither
to torment us before the time? They knew who the judge was.
And they knew that they were going to be doomed. They were
going to be tormented. They knew it was coming. They know it's
coming. They know it. They know that
there is a set time for their doom. They know that. And they know that He will be
their judge and tormentor. They know that. Have you come
here to torment us before the time? They recognize His sovereignty
over them. They said there in verse 31,
So the devil's besought him saying, if thou cast us out, suffer us
to go into the herd of swine. If you're gonna cast us out,
they knew if he said go, they had to go. They knew that if they were gonna
be cast out, they had no say so in the matter. They knew that
this One who is the Son of God is the Sovereign Lord who has
all power, all authority over them. They know that. They know that. You tell that to men, they get
mad. You can tell that to most of
the congregations that are gathered here this morning. I'm talking
about in this whole area. You can tell them that Jesus
Christ is the sovereign Lord. He saves whom He will, when He
will, and does what He will, with whom He will, and it'll
upset them. But these devils admitted, they
admitted His sovereignty over them. If you're gonna cast us
out, Would you permit us? Would you allow us to go into
that herd of swine? They knew. They knew that the
one who allowed them to possess those two men, they were allowed
to do that. They couldn't do that without
His permission. They couldn't do that without Him allowing
it. Couldn't do it. They don't just run around willy-nilly.
They are under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ at all
times. There is nothing that exists
that is not under the authority of Jesus Christ. Nothing. Devils can only do as the Lord
permits them, and they know it. And they know it. And this ought to encourage all
believers as they walk through this valley of the shadow of
death. We should remember this at all
times, that nothing happens without His permission. Absolutely everything
about my life, my time on this earth, is ordained of God. Everything that comes my way,
whether I consider it to be little or big, is ordained of God. I'm not just floating through
this life and things are happening. Nothing happens by chance. I've said this several times.
You may go home this evening or after the service. You may
go home after this service and die in an accident, but it will
not be an accident that you died. Your time is up. Our times are
in His hand, is what it says. What the Word of God says, what
David said in the Psalms. And this ought to encourage us
that nothing comes our way that the Lord has not ordained and
permits. And when things come our way,
instead of complaining about it, let's just fall at His feet
about it. And try as much as we can to leave it there. To
leave it there. And notice here, he ruled over
them, not just as God, but as the God-man. A man, the God-man, but yet a
man, standing there and said, go, go. Now, it says there that they
were exceeding fierce, You know, over in the other scriptures
it says that they were tied. They said they tied their hands
with fetters and they just broke them. That's how powerful they are. But I tell you this, as fierce
as they are, they are no match for the Lord Jesus Christ. They're
no match for Him. You know, it's not like Satan's
on one side, and here's the Lord on this side, and they're battling
back and forth, seeing who's gonna win. The victory's already
done, it's over. He's already got the victory. Our Lord is just allowing things
to happen and ordaining these things to happen to bring about
His eternal purpose. That's what He's doing. They were exceeding fierce, but
no match for Christ, and they wanted nothing to do with Him.
Nothing. They wanted nothing, absolutely
nothing to do with Him. Look here in verse 29. And behold,
they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus,
thou Son of God? We want nothing to do with you. Here's what they're saying. We
will not bother you, you don't bother us. You leave us alone, we'll leave
you alone. But here's the problem. They are bothering one of his
sheep. That's the problem. Christ came to save his people,
not only from their sins, not only from the curse of the law,
but from the clutches of Satan. from the clutches of Satan. And something else you notice
here, devils never leave quietly. They never leave quietly. It
says, There was a good way off from them a herd of many swine
feeding. So the devil besought him saying,
If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into a herd of swine. And he said to them, Go. And
when they were come out, they went to that herd of swine, and
the whole herd ran violently. Violently. Down a steep place
in the sea and they perish and will drown. Look over in Mark chapter 9. Satan never gives up quietly. What he deems to be his possession,
really he possesses nothing. Let me figure out here where
I want to start reading. Let's look in verse 21. And he, that is Christ, asked
his father, how long is it ago since this came unto him? He's
talking about his child here that had been tearing himself
and foaming at the mouth and gnashing at his teeth and pining
away. And the Lord said, how long has
this been going on? And he said, of a child. And
oftentimes it's casting him into the fire and into the waters
to destroy him. I can't imagine a parent having
that going on with their child. That's going on with this man's
child. And oftentimes it's casting him into the fire, into the waters
to destroy him, but if thou canst do anything, have compassion
on him and help us, I can just hear this man's voice. I can
just hear it. Jesus said unto him, If thou
canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
And straightway the father of the child cried out and said,
With tears, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Help me to
believe. Help me to believe. When Jesus saw that the people
came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto
him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him
and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried and rent
him. So he never leaves quietly. The Spirit cried and rent Him
sore, doing as much damage as He could do on the way out. And
came out of Him, and He laid there like one that was dead.
And most of the people there thought He was dead. And the
Lord took Him by the hand and lifted Him up. And He arose. But He never comes out quietly.
He never leaves quietly. He's always got a destruction
Evil, it's just pure evil. Never any kind of mercy, never.
It's pure evil. But there's something here that
you notice that I want to point out. When the Lord came and they recognized
Him, they said, Jesus, thou Son of God, not one time did they
hint at mercy. Not one time did they hint at
forgiveness. Not one time. Not one time. They didn't hint at it or ask
for it because they didn't want it. They didn't want it. Repentance is a gift and work
of God. If you have repented, if you
believe God, God has done a mighty, a mighty work in you. A mighty
work. There has to be a work of grace
for us and in us to want grace. The Lord has to have mercy on
us for us to want mercy, to really desire mercy, to really desire
forgiveness. We naturally love darkness rather
than light. Here's their attitude, and this
is the attitude of lost men. Leave us alone and I'll leave
you alone. We'll leave you alone. Let us go somewhere else and
do our mischief. Devils and men do not naturally
want to be saved from sin. They do not naturally want to
be saved from sin. The devils didn't ask to be saved
from their rebellion. They said, have you come to torment
us before the time? It's like that rich man who lifted
up his eyes in hell. He said, go warn my brothers
about, about what? This place. He didn't say go tell them about
the Savior. Go tell them about the mercy of God in Christ. He
didn't say, go tell them about Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
He said, just warn them about this place of torment. And that's all that religion
is doing. That's all Arminianism is doing,
is warning about a place. They're so focused on a place,
they have absolutely no knowledge of Him. No knowledge of Him. Now the Lord's going to save
those two men who had their dwelling among the tombs or the graves. This is where lost men and women
lived, was among the dead. This is where they were. They
were in their element. They were in their element, among
the dead, out there in the graveyard. That's where they were staying,
out there in the tomb. They felt at home with the dead. They didn't feel at home with
the living. They didn't feel at home there. They felt uncomfortable.
They felt at home with the dead. But the good news is this. Christ
knows where everyone of His sheep are. He knows where they all are. You know, He was with the crowd.
And he left that multitude and got in the ship, went through
a storm to get these two men, these two sheep that are his. He didn't go over there to turn
two goats into sheep. He went over there to get his
sheep. That's what he went to do, to get his sheep. And he gonna go get every one
of them. And Satan, and the power that
these devils have cannot keep him out. They cannot shut him
out. Our Lord said this to Peter in
Matthew 16, 18. And I say unto thee, Peter, and I say unto thee,
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The gates
of hell shall not keep it out. The gates of hell, he said, are
not strong enough to keep out the gospel. And Christ is the
gospel. If the Lord is pleased to send
the gospel to the most wicked, the darkest place on this earth, It can't keep it away. It can't
shut it out. If he wants to send it to China,
he'll send it to China. If it's his will to send it to
Africa, it's going to Africa. And Satan and all the demons
that there is, and all the forces of hell cannot keep it out. Can't do it. Can't do it. And notice what devils want,
and natural men want this too. They want the Christ of this
book now, the Christ of this, not just Jesus that wants to
do something, but the Christ of this book, the Jesus Christ
of this book. They want him to leave. They want him to leave. I've had people want me to leave. I've had congregations I've preached
to. Years ago, two in particular came to mind. They wanted me
to leave after they heard the gospel. After I preached the
gospel, they wanted me to leave. If a man comes preaching the
gospel, if God sends his man preaching the gospel, and you
ask him to leave, That is the same as asking Christ to leave. You're asking Christ to leave
if you're asking His servant to leave. And here it says in
verse 34, And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus. They came out to say, who is
this man? Who is this man? And when they saw him, Now listen,
when all the people in the city came out to see who this man
was, to meet Jesus, and they saw him, they did not say, Jesus,
thou son of God. The devils immediately recognized
him. But men didn't recognize him. And they besought him that
he would depart out of their coast. Would you please leave? Would you please leave? Leave
us alone, depart from us. Depart from us. And he did. He did, he left them
alone. He went over there, got what
he went after, his two sheep, he got what he went after. Our
Lord is no failure. My servant shall not fail. Everyone
for whom He died for is going to be saved. Everyone for whom
He died, they're going to be saved now. He's going to have
His sheep. And not one of them, He said,
shall perish. Not one of them. Satan's not strong enough. He's
not strong enough to defy the Lord and keep one of His sheep. That's not going to happen. That's
not going to happen. No one can save but the Lord
Jesus Christ. But thank God He can save. He
can save. Now I want you to listen. I'm
going to read something to you out of Mark 5, 4 of this incident. Mark speaks of them as one man. Turn over to Mark 5, 4. Just
turn over there. I've got it written down here.
Just turn over there. Let me start with verse 1. And
they came over unto the other side of the sea into the country
of the Gadarenes. 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 chain, 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." You know, that's exactly what
religion tries to do. False religion is doing nothing
more than trying to tame men and women. Trying to tame them
down. And they bind them with fetters,
chains, regulations and rules. And that's how they try to control. But this one was so fierce, they
said they couldn't do it. They couldn't do it. Nothing
worked on him. Religion can't save. Christ saves. I told a man that I worked for
years ago, I said, most men are religious but lost. And he got
upset about it. He got upset with that statement.
He believed if people were religious and they were very sincere, that
they were saved, that they were fine. It didn't matter what denomination,
if they were really sincere, I said, no they're not. No they're
not. Hell is full of religion. It's
full of it. But this is all religion tries
to do is bind men, keep men alive. Only Christ can save. And Christ
can save all sorts of sinners. All sorts of them. And notice something else here.
Men would rather lose their souls than lose their swine, their
sins. They would rather lose their
souls than lose their sins. They were so upset over all those
pigs, there was about 2,000 pigs or so, there's a bunch of them.
They were so upset over losing all them. That was money. That
was a profit. They just watched their profit
drown. The world loves gain more than
it loves its soul. The world loves pleasure and
sin for a season, even though it means eternal death. Even though it means eternal
death. That whole city went out to meet
the Lord and ask Him to leave. Spiritual stupidity cannot be
measured. To ask the Lord of glory to leave. But our Lord accomplished what
He came to do. He came to get His sheep, And He did. It says in Mark 5,
if you're still in Mark 5, look in verse 15 through 19. And they come to Jesus and see Him
that was possessed with the devil. and had the legion sitting and
clothed in his right mind, and they were afraid. And they that
saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with
the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to
pray him to depart out of their coast. And when he was coming
to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed
him that he might be with him. Let me go with you. I think he
said, don't leave me with these crazy people. I had no doubt
that when he came to his right mind, he realized, I don't want
to stay here. I don't want to stay here. And
Lord, I want to go with you. Isn't that amazing? Here is one
who was so fierce. Nobody could be around him. Nobody
would even pass by that way. They couldn't bind him. And now
here he is. Here he is in his right mind. He's in His right mind sitting
and clothed, and in His right mind, He got dressed. Or He'd been running around naked.
He put some clothes on Him. That's the righteousness of Christ.
Oh, we're dressed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
sit at His feet, and for the first time, now listen, for the
first time, We're in our right mind. When you believe God, you're
in your right mind. You walk out of here in unbelief,
in defiance of Him, you're crazy. You're crazy. Like those devils
say, you come to torment us before the time, there's a time for
torment. There's a time for it. And notice what our Lord said
to this man. And when he was coming to the
ship, he that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him that
he might be with him. Lord, let me be with you. Let
me follow you. What a change. I've said this
from this pulpit probably several times. You'll never be the same
if the Lord saves you. You'll never be the same again.
He had been possessed with the devil, prayed, Lord, let me go
with you. However, how be it Jesus suffered
him not, he said, no, no, listen. But he said to him, go home.
Go home. He couldn't do that before. He
couldn't do that before. He said, you go home to your
friends and tell them how great things
the Lord has done for me. You go home and you become a
flaming witness of me. You tell them how great things
I've done for you and had compassion on thee. No, you say, I don't want to
go to work. You don't want to go to work tomorrow with that group of people. You
know, there was a place I worked at one time years ago, and when
I first went to work there, rottenest bunch of guys I ever worked with
in my life. I wanted to cry, I kid you not. There was a few
times I sat out in my car, I wanted to cry, because I didn't want
to, I just felt so out of place, I felt like a fish out of water.
Not that I was self-righteous, I'm not, well maybe I was, but
I'm sure there was some of that in there. But I just felt so
uncomfortable with the conversation and things that were going on,
but the Lord left me there for nearly five years. He said, no, you go home. You
go back to work. You go where I've placed you.
And you tell them, when you get an opportunity, God opens the
door, you tell them what great things the Lord's done for you
and has had compassion on you. You tell them that. The best
preachers are sinners saved by grace. Not the ones that come
out of the seminaries. It's the ones who've lived and
experienced the grace of God. We don't have to be theologians
to be a good witness for Christ. Just tell what great things He's
done for you. And notice how our Lord handled
these devils. He didn't argue with them. He just said, go. He just said, go. They said, let us go into the
swine. He said, and that's a command. That's a command, not a suggestion. He said to them, go. And that
whole legion of devils that had control of these two men left. Went over to those swine, and
those swine went crazy. Went down the hill and drowned. You didn't argue with them. One
thing I've learned as I got older, I did when I was younger, but
I'm not going to argue with people over the gospel. I'm not going
to argue about it. If you're right, you don't have
to argue. Really. If you're right, I ain't going
to argue with you. If you're right, you just argue about it
if you're wrong. Our Lord never argued. He never
one time argued about anything. He told them the truth. And he
left it alone. Left it alone. He didn't argue
with those devils. There was no argument going on.
He just said, all right, go. And they went. And he got his
sheep. And he said, you go back home and you become a flaming
witness to me. He got back in the boat and he
went to the next one. And that's exactly what he's doing today.
He's going, he still has some sheep here. If he didn't have
any sheep here, the gospel would not be here. It wouldn't be here.