Would you turn in your Bibles
to Luke and continue in our series of messages from the book of
Luke. A couple of weeks back I mentioned that I've been compelled
to speak out against the free will doctrine
of Christ loves everybody. Scriptures just do not declare
that. You can take John 3.16 and interpret
it any way you want to. It does not say that God loved
the whole world. God so loved the world that he
also says in many other places that he loves a people. Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. I've been hammered, not from
brothers and sisters in Christ, but from outside Christians recently,
about our stance against the religion of this world. The religion
of, it's your free will, it's your decision, God loves everybody
if you'll just ectrify it. If you'll just do something smart,
and get up and do, and accept, what God has already done and
that is just not the truth of the scriptures. That doctrine of God loves everybody
puts the salvation of God in the hand of men. And I will continue this week
and next and the next to stand up against those who diminish
and demean the love of God for His people. Those who trample. And yes, I'm speaking out against
the religions that surround us in this very country, in this
very city that we live in and rescue. There's enough churches
right here who preach that very thing, that God has done all
that he can, it's now up to you. And that simply takes salvation
out of God's hand. It simply says that the blood
of God that was shed on that cross 2,000 years ago doesn't
mean anything unless you let it. It simply means the power
of God does not exist unless you allow it. Folks, so-called
Christians who stood up against me, I said, how can you just sit
there and point your fingers at ugly religion other than the
one here at Rescue? Are you guys the only ones? Are
you the ones that mom used to call me the frozen chosen? And though I point out, no, there's
folks in Marysville, Yuba City, there's folks in Utah right now
with us online, there's folks in Arizona, Kansas, there's folks
in Kentucky, there's folks down in San Diego. No matter how I
point out that there's not just Rescue, it's all How can you
folks at Rescue just think you're the only ones who are saved?
That Catholic Church down the street, they're saved too! No,
they're not. If they were, they would come
out of that false religion. And that's exactly what it is,
a false religion. I said to this person, I said,
what about all the places where God tells us to beware? You beat
me up because you think I don't preach the whole Gospel, the
whole Word of God, And then when I bring this up to you, you tell
me, oh, you're just going too far in that direction. Let me
give you some verses. And this is just some. If I spent
the rest of today talking about the bewares, you guys have missed
the football game. Matthew 7, 15, the Lord says,
with his own words, out of his own mouth, beware of false prophets. Now wait a minute, if God's saying
it, that means somebody out there is preaching a false gospel,
doesn't it? Which come to you in the sheep's
clothing. They come dressed as a sheep of God. But inwardly
they are ravening wolves. In the 16th chapter of Matthew
we read this, How is it then that you do not understand that
I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware? You know what beware means? That means you better watch out.
That means there's some stuff out there that you need to beware
of. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Beware of those who go about
trying to get you to feel like you're being saved through your
own works, through what you have done. Folks, salvation is of
the Lord and of the Lord alone. You mix in one inkling of leaven
and it ruins the entire lump of bread. You know, leaven does
it. It's something man mixes into
bread to make it to blow up, to expand, to get bigger. Interestingly, that means puffed
up. Again, in Mark, the Lord says, take heed, beware of the
leaven of the Pharisees. In Luke, it also says, beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees. It also says in Luke chapter
12, take heed and beware of covetousness, For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of things which he possesseth. And then in Philippians
chapter 3, 2, beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware
of the concision. Colossians chapter 2, 8, beware
lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. And then get this. After. The tradition of men after the
rudiments of the world and not after Christ. Those who say if you don't get
into the waters of baptism you can't be saved. If you don't
worship on a Saturday you can't be saved. They've taken what
the Corinthians did and they've mixed in the works of men. Do you know that's exactly what
Israel did. They took the grace of God from
when they were in Egypt, and they turned it into a religion
of works, where they would wear their nice fine robes, and if
you did this, and if you did that. God's done everything He
can here, but if you'll do this, then you too can be saved. That's
what religions do. If you'll exercise your free
will, if you'll make a decision, if you'll come down and pray
the prayer, to go into the box and confess your sins to a man. Beware, the Lord says, lest any
man spoil you through vain philosophy. 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 17, our
Lord says, inspired the writer to write this, he said, Ye therefore,
beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye
also be led away with the error of the wicked. fall from your
own steadfastness. It also tells us in God's word,
beware of the wide path to destruction. Why is it so important for me
to stand up against that? My job, folks, is to magnify
God's grace for his people. You come here out of the world. You've been in the world all
week long. You've been surrounded by the things of the world, family
that may be attending false doctrines, false preaching, false churches. Maybe it's sin within yourself
that is troubling you. You come here for a need, don't
you? We need to hear about the grace
of our Savior. Do we not? I don't know about you, but John,
come down here and pray the prayer. That doesn't work. There's only one thing that works,
and that is a God who gave Himself for us. And that's my job. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith the Lord. Isaiah chapter 40. What? Comfort them with what? Your
warfare is accomplished. The battle that you are fighting
in your body has already been fought and won by the Lord Jesus. David said, my sins are ever
before me. Are they before you? You come
here today to hear the comfort of God's grace for His people,
not something that you've got to do. There's nothing you can
do. We want to hear about He who
has done it already. That's good news. That's words
of life. That's the words of life that
God sends to the hearts of His people, saying, I've already
done it for you. I've already taken my Father's
wrath upon me, is what the Lord says to His people. Your punishment
for what you did this week was laid upon our Savior 2,000 years
ago, and when He shed His perfect blood, God the Father said, that's
good enough. You ain't got nothing good I
can accept over here, but my Son gave me His perfect blood
for us. In the word of Malachi, chapter
1, verses 2 and 3, we read these words, I have loved you, saith
the Lord. Wherein hast thou loved us, we
say back, was not Esau Jacob's brother? Sayeth the Lord, yet
I have loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains
and his heritage to waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Why is that so important? Because it magnifies his grace
to his people. It takes everything out of our
hands. which was nothing there in the first place, and puts
it all in His Son, the Lord Jesus, His grace. Sovereign grace. The Lord says, I'll be merciful
unto whom I will be merciful. You get down and walk the aisle
and you think you're saved for that reason, then you're saying,
God's accepted what you've done. If God loves you, this is according
to Scripture. If God loves you, there is nothing,
nothing, not even yourself, not even myself, is going to stop
Him from having His way. I love to use this as an example.
You've heard it before. Don Fortner used to use it with
his daughter, Faith. Remember how he would say that?
She would run down the driveway towards the street. The first
thing he'd do, he'd say, even though I'm a big man, I'd still
bam, right out that door going after her. What makes you think
God wouldn't do that for those that he loves? He's God. All he has to do is
think. And it's so. All he has to do
is desire and it is so. Otherwise he's not God. If God
can desire anything and it not be so, then he's not God and
you and I are wasting our time. Simple. I believe he is God. And I know that if I believe
it's because he is God that I believe. Just The same as Nicodemus, you
must be born again. You know, we sing that song,
I was blind, but now I see. That blind man who got healed. Remember what he told the Pharisees
when they said, how did you get healed? He goes, man, I don't
know. They said, who is this man that healed you? He said,
I don't know. I can tell you this, I know I was blind, and
I know that now I see. That's salvation. That's God
coming to His elect and giving us eyes and a new heart. Eyes to see the truth and a new
heart to love Him. A heart that didn't love Him
before, and we know that, don't we? If I am loved of God, there
is nothing, not even myself, nor my will, can separate me
from the love of God. Is that not what Paul wrote in
Romans 8? Did he not say that? I am confident We'll get to Luke here in just
a moment. Don't worry. We've got time. What's the word he says over
there in Romans 8? He uses this word right here. He says, I am
persuaded. Are you persuaded? I'm persuaded.
God's persuaded me. Through the preaching of His
word, I see that He is God and nothing can stay His hand. If
He loves me, and this is what bothers me about those who say
He loves everybody. If He loves me, He's not going
to let me go to hell. He gave His only begotten Son
for His people, for all of His chosen people throughout all
time. Those who were chosen in the Son before the world ever
began. Those who were saved before their
names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before anything
was ever created. Christ was known as the Lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. Why? Because he
was going to save his people. He was going to save you, James.
Everything that was created was so that you would walk into this
church the day that you did and hear his gospel preached the
way God spoke to your heart and saved you right then and there.
It's called love, all-powerful. Let me read for you from John
chapter 10. Familiar words, you know these
words. And Jesus walked in the temple of Solomon's porch. Then
came the Jews round about him and said unto him, How long dost
thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. And what did the Lord say? He
says, I told you, and ye believed not. The works that I do in My
Father's name, they bear witness of Me, but ye believe not, because
ye are not My sheep." And then he says this, this is love with
all power. This is the love of God for His
people. This is the love that gives Him glory. This is the
love that tells of His power, My sheep hear My voice. and I know them, and they follow
me. It doesn't say they might. They
follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Love
all powerful. over and over and over again. We see what lengths of mercy,
what magnitude of grace God has gone to and will go to, to bring
a chosen sinner unto Himself. What did He do? He sent one person
over and over and over again. We see examples of our Lord going
into one place and saving one person. Remember the lady at
the well? Doesn't say he saved anybody
else there. He saved her, didn't he? What about the, there was
a man with leprosy. How many lepers were in the world
at that time, but it only tells us of the one man that he saved.
That he cleansed from his leprosy. Over and over and over again.
For every chosen redeemed sinner, There is an appointed time when
he or she shall be called by God's almighty grace. And God
uses the preaching of the gospel to do that. Everywhere we go
in this book, what do you hear? We were just in Luke chapter 8 verses 19 through
23 last week, what did we talk about? We talked about the salvation
of God's elect, God's chosen people, and His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every scripture points us to
Christ and Him crucified. The Lord God Almighty in His
grace calls His people through the preaching of the gospel.
The time is called the time of life or the time of love. Though
we be born children of wrath, even as others, even God's elect
were from eternity. Though we be born children of
wrath, even as others, God's elect were from eternity the
objects of immutable mercy, immutable love, and immutable grace. Though
we ran like hell-bent towards destruction, the Lord God from
old eternity said this, Job 38.11, hitherto shalt thou go, and no
further. I was 40 years old. And God said,
that's as far as you're going to go that way. Now, you're going
to know me. And He said it through the preaching
of His gospel. Hitherto shalt thou go, no further. Here in
Luke, we have a lengthy portion of Scripture. I'll try not to
comment too much about it as we go through it, but it's a
clear example of our salvation and our salvation is of the Lord.
I pray that we each may be brought to see ourselves in this story
and take warning against those who would teach salvation through
the works of man. I want to begin with Luke chapter
8 verse 22, and now it came to pass Why do I begin with this? Because it's so important to
know God's people can be... We were talking earlier about
resting in Christ in our Bible study. There's a rest for those
who are in Christ. Well, this is our rest that God
is sovereign ruler over everything. It says, now it came to pass.
What came to pass? Exactly what God had determined
to happen. Now it came to pass on a certain
day. See there? Not only did it come
to pass, but it came to pass on a certain day. A certain particular
point in time. Why? Because God had purposed
it to happen. On that day, in that time, in
exactly how it was going to happen. He went into a ship with his
disciples and he said unto them, let's go over unto the other
side of the lake. And they launched forth. Now,
I want you to jump over to 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. Now, let's stop there. Was this
the only guy there? Was he the only man on that side
of the seashore? See how the Lord uses to talk
about His chosen people, His elect. His people for whom He's
going to save no matter what. A certain man. That's what He
called the woman at the well. A certain woman. A certain man
came into this church one day, sat down over here in that pew,
and heard God's word for the first time. A certain man and
his family came to this church one day, and they had been going
to another church for many years, and said, I can't do this anymore
with that church. You folks are whacked out. It
makes no sense. You're not saying the things
that I see in Scripture. His daughter came to him and
said, let's go over and try this church, Dad. A certain day, they
came to this church and heard the gospel preached. A certain
day, James showed up. A certain day, a group of people
were brought a pastor to hear the Word spoken for the first
time. Don't tell me God doesn't choose things that He wants.
He does choose. And when God chooses something,
who's going to stop Him? If your God is trying, then your
preacher is lying. Period. And when He went forth,
to land there met him out of the city a certain man which
had devils. Long time. Let me give you an
example of that. The Lord was walking along with
his disciples and the Lord was telling them how we're going
to go up to Jerusalem and when we go up there I'm going to be
arrested. And they're going to take me, and they're going to
drag me off, and they're going to beat me to death. And then
when they're done beating me to where I'm unrecognizable anymore,
they're going to hang me on a cross, and they're going to shed my
blood. And Peter goes, No way, dude! Uh-uh! That ain't happening! As long
as I'm alive, you're not going to be treated that way! And what
did God say to him? Remember what he said? Get thee
behind me, Satan! Get thee behind me, say, how
many devils you got in you? I can't count how many are in
me in this flesh. Every time I doubt my salvation,
it's the devil rearing up his ugly head in this flesh. Thank
God, he says to you and I, get thee behind me. Thank God, as
we take our eyes off of our Lord and Savior, we begin to sink
in the water, He reaches down and grabs us. Why? Because He
loves us. How dare you trample that love
under your feet? Let's go on. And when He went
forth to the land, there met Him in the land 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. He made his dwelling
place with the dead. Isn't that what we did? Doesn't the scriptures describe
us as those who run from the light because we don't want the
light? We don't desire the light. Why? Because it shines the faults
that are within us. We lived in the tombs, in darkness. Verse 28, And 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 you, torment me not.
For he had commanded the unclean-lipped spirit to come out of the man,
for oftentimes it had caught him, and he was kept bound with
chains and fetters, and he broke the bands and was driven of the
devil into the wilderness." Every descendant of Adam is by nature
under the full sway and influence of unclean spirits. We are all
by nature ruled by our own depravity, our own corrupt hearts, our own
wills. We are taken captive by Satan
at his will. Hold your place there for just
a moment and turn over to Romans chapter 3. Don't take my word
for it, just look and see what God's word says about it. Romans
chapter 3 verse 9 we read this question. What then? Are we better
than they? No. No. It's too easy for those who
think themselves to be righteous now because they go to church.
Righteous now because they attend services every Sunday. For them
to stand up and say, see how righteous I am. See how much
holier I am than thou. God will never leave one of his
people in that position. What then, are we better than
they? No, in no wise, for we have before proved, both Jesus
and Gentile, that they are still all under sin. As it is written,
there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher,
and their tongues they have used to seek. The poison of ass is
under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
are in their ways, and the way of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. Isaiah declares that we are all
as an unclean thing. Our hearts are deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Out of our hearts come forth
every abominable evil that exists in this world. But notice what
it says over in verses 28 and 29 of our text in Luke chapter
1. For 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, Son of God, Most High? I beseech Thee,
torment me not. And what's it say next in verse
29? For He, the Lord Jesus, had commanded the unclean spirit
to come out of the man. For God had commanded the spirit
to come out. You don't get smarter by reading
God's word and then all of a sudden you tell the spirits to come
out of you. It must be commanded of God.
He's the only one who's got that kind of power. You haven't got
that kind of power. If God left me to myself, I'd
still be out there on the Harley, riding around, doing all the
stuff I used to do 26 years ago. I love the darkness. I didn't
want to come to the light. I wouldn't come to the light.
Though the man was bound and chained by his nature, the true
and living God commanded. He commanded life where there
was nothing but death. The love of God lifted this man
from death unto life. It says in Mark chapter 5 concerning
this very event, The Lord said it, for he had said unto him,
Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. Matthew, Mark, and Luke
show us in this Gadarean a picture of a poor lost sinner coming
to Christ. I cannot pass this without pointing
out the fact that our Savior sovereignly and graciously used
the very devils who would destroy that Gadarean to bring him unto
mercy. Did you catch that? God's sovereign
over everything, folks. Including you. Or He's not God. Now look at this man, he was
a far off. That's our place by nature. He
was a far off from Christ, and the Lord Jesus was a far off
from Him. In character, He was a far off.
This man and the God-man had nothing in common. In knowledge,
he was a far-off. The demoniac knew who Christ
was, but he did not know Him personally as his personal Savior. He did not know, personally know,
the grace of God to a hell-deserving sinner. He said, what have I
to do with thee? That poor demoniac was utterly
helpless and hopeless. If you are yet without Christ,
no words can paint a picture of your desperate need. You are
so far off from God that you cannot and will not of your own
accord or by your own ability come unto Him. But notice this.
Though he was afar off, the Lord Jesus came to him and He cast
out the devils. How? He cast out the devils by
the preaching of His Word. The preaching of the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. The preaching of grace that the
Lord comes in His Word to chosen blood-bought people through the
preaching of His Gospel. You say, how? How does this Gospel
lift a poor dead sinner from death into life? I can tell you
this, there's only one Gospel that does that. There's only
one gospel that does that. Turn over to Galatians chapter
1. Mark your place in Luke. We'll
come back one more time to that. I want to turn over to Galatians
and read a couple of verses. Look at two verses with me there
in Galatians chapter 1. Paul, writing under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, writes, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from
him that called you into the grace of Christ. Did you catch
that? that were called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel. There's only one. Look what it says about that
next. It says another gospel which
is, verse 7, which is not another gospel, which is not another,
but there be some that trouble you and would pervert, would
change, would pervert, make lasciviousness out of the gospel of Christ. That's what the word lascivious
means. It means to make it wicked. To turn the power of God over
to the power of men. That's taking the gospel and
making it wicked. Making it evil. It's putting
men above God. There's only one gospel. Look
back at verses 3 and 4 of that very same chapter Grace be to
you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave Himself, here's the gospel, the one true gospel,
who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to what? According to your will? According to you getting up and
coming to the front and saying a prayer? According to you going
to church on Sunday? No, according to the will of
God our Father. That's the gospel. When God speaks
to the heart, He speaks with power. Friday night we spoke
about this very thing. What happened when the Lord passed
by those men on the seashore? He said, come, follow me. What
did they do? They got up and followed Him.
When He came to the tomb of Lazarus, what did He do? He said, Lazarus,
come forth. What did Lazarus do? He came
forth. God speaks to His people with
power, the power of God behind it, and it's effectual. And it
took that power to call this sinner out of darkness. And everyone
else that he calls as well. Go back to our text in Luke.
And let's look at the results and I'll bring this to a close.
Begin reading at verse 30 of our text there in Luke chapter
8. 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 out 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. Verse 34. When
they that had fed them saw what was done, they fled and went,
and told it in the city and in the country. 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 in his right man, and they were afraid. What are the results? When God
speaks to one of his people, they're found sitting at the
feet of Jesus. How often have you been speaking with a religious
person and you hear these words, I decided to begin following
my Lord back in 1921 or 19 or 2002 or whenever? How often? I chose to put things aside in
my life and turn away from the tattoos that I had gotten, turn
away from the crowd that I had been around, and I decided to
start following the Lord. If God left me to my decisions,
I'd be right there, still running around those tombs, acting like
a madman. But no, the power of God has
spoken to one of His people. spoken to one for whom He has
loved before the world was. And now everywhere I go, I'm
not saying I am any better than I was then as far as being a
sinner. In fact, if anything, I'm worse.
I see the truth of what sin is in this flesh. I was blind to
those little thoughts and feelings that we would have against God.
That little look over there at those folks dressed so cantily,
or the anger that was in my heart towards that man who just cut
me in half. Well, he deserved for me to be mad at him. I see it for the sin that it
is in me now. When the power of God speaks,
His love lifts His people up. You know, you've got to be brought
down to be lifted up. I've spent enough time bringing
you down to the centers that we are. I pray God has lifted
you up as He does in Ephesians. Turn over if you would. You don't
need to hold your place in Luke anymore. Turn over to Ephesians
chapter 2. You can't describe it any more
clear than this. In Ephesians chapter 2 we read
these words, But God, who is rich in mercy for His great love
were with He loved." Who? Who did He love here? Did He
love the world? Is He declaring love for everybody that walks
this earth? No, He loved us, a particular people. Even even when we were dead and sinless. Even then hath He quickened us
together with Christ by grace ye are saved, and hath raised
us up to sit together, and made us to sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. Love lifted me. Love caused me
to sit in heavenly places. Love brought me to the feet of
Jesus, my Lord and Savior. Amen.