All right, we're going to be
in the book of Luke today, Luke chapter 4. The Gospels, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John share so much about what the Lord did
during his ministry here on the earth, and yet John writes in
the last two chapters of the book of John, he said, that these
things were written that you might believe. And then he said,
if all of the things about Christ had been written, that the world
could not contain the books. Now, that seems like it's a lot,
but that's what he said. That's what the Bible shares
with us. So there was a lot of things that went on that the
Lord didn't see fit for us to have recorded, but what we have
is the word of God and it's so important. And here in this instance,
in the book of Luke chapter four, we find that the Lord is, it
tells us there in verse 31, and came down, he's passing through
the midst of them and went on his way and he came down to Capernaum.
Now, Capernaum was a town in that area at the time. It was
on the Sea of Galilee. It was a city of Galilee. And
he taught them in the Sabbath days. And he ministered unto
them. And one of the things about his
preaching, this is so valuable, one of the things about the Lord's
preaching was that the people were astonished at his teaching. They were astonished at his doctrine.
Now, in another place, it says that they were astonished because
he spoke as one having authority and not as one of the scribes.
He believed what he was saying. That's in other words, he believed
what he was preaching. And so many people during his
day and probably ours today, they say words, but they really
don't believe them. I know when I was in religion, I would say
things about God and then go home and wonder if there really
was a God. Well, I'm thankful that the Lord revealed himself
to me and now I know there is a God and I don't have any question
about it. Well, they were astonished at
his doctrine for his word was with power. He spoke and taught
and preached and he believed every word he was saying. He
knew what he was preaching about. And then it says, and in the
synagogue, now there was a temple where there in Jerusalem, It
had been built during Solomon's time, it had been destroyed,
it had been rebuilt, and then it had been refurbished during
Herod's time, and it was there in Jerusalem. And if you didn't
have the opportunity of going to the temple, there were synagogues
through the communities, little satellite places that you can
go. And there they read the law and they taught. And it says,
in the synagogue, there was a man which had a spirit of an unclean
devil. Now, one of the things that I
noticed about this that even this man, having this condition
that he couldn't do anything about, he was religious about
it. He went to the synagogue. And
the synagogue and the people in the synagogue and the words
in the synagogue couldn't help him out. Nothing could help him
get rid of the problem that he had. Well, on this instance,
like all of the times we've been talking since we've started having
services here, we find someone crosses paths with Jesus Christ
the Lord. That's so valuable. That's so
important. We find that at this particular
time, here at this synagogue, there is somebody that can help
this man with the condition that he has. And the condition it
tells us that he has is he has a spirit of an unclean devil. And the devil cried out with
a loud voice. Now, I've never seen anything
like that, but I believe it because it's written in the word of God.
There was this man who had this condition, and he had an unclean
devil. Now, I don't know of any different
kinds of devils than an unclean devil. Now, there are angels. There were angels that kept their
first estate, and they honor and worship God, and there were
angels that lost their first estate. They fell, and they're
bound in chains of darkness at this very time. But that's not
this. This is an unclean devil, and
he cried out, and this is what he is saying. Now he's saying
it not to the man, but he's saying it to someone the man is in the
presence of. Because this unclean one says, let us alone. What
have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Now, by providence,
Jesus of Nazareth is right here in this synagogue where this
man came to. Now he didn't know who Jesus
of Nazareth is, this man, but that unclean devil knew exactly
who was here. You know, the book of James tells
us that you say you believe that there is one God. The devils
believe that and fear and tremble. So this demon, this devil had
a lot of knowledge about God, but it didn't mean that he had
any peace with God. So it says here that, Let us
alone, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee, who thou art, the
Holy One of God. Now that's not the man talking,
that's this demon talking. This demon knows more about God
than most people do. He's the Holy One of God. This
demon knew more than most people do that he's Jesus of Nazareth. And are you here to come to destroy
us? And in other places, are you coming here to destroy us
before our time? Now this man could not do anything
with the malady that he had. He, no doubt, he was, he was
pinioned by this. He was held by this. You know,
the Bible tells us in the book of Romans that in Adam all died. Now we walk around physically,
but our spirit is dead by nature and we need that revived. We
need it made new. We need the new birth. So here
he's telling us, art thou come to destroy us? I know thee whom
thou art, the Holy One of God. So he said a whole lot here.
The demon said a whole lot here in this passage of scripture
that most of the Jews in that day didn't even understand or
believe or didn't want to have any part of. In verse 35, Jesus
rebuked him, rebuked the demon. I'm thankful that God, the Lord
Jesus Christ is all powerful and he has power over everything. You know, he had the ability
and Nancy and I were on a trip up there in Norway and we were
on a ship that was about 800 feet long. There was about 900
passengers on it. There's about 600, 500 helpers
on there. and we got into some seas, the
North Sea. The wind was blowing 100 miles
an hour, and the waves were, we got a lady. The waves were
40 to 50 feet high. It was rocking that boat around.
And it was a big boat to me. I'm glad I wasn't in a dinghy.
But here we are, rocking around in this big boat, and we go to
bed, and we played some rock and roll, I'll tell you. But
anyway, that kind of sea is what we find the Lord mentioned in
the New Testament when he said, peace, be still, and instantaneously
it was brought to calm. Brought to calm. Now that's the
power. We have the creator. He created the heavens and the
earth. By him, all things were made. By him, he could calm the
sea. By him, he could calm the waves.
By him, he could heal the sick. By him, he could raise the dead.
By him, he could do all things because he is God. And here he
is, there at the right place at the right time. Now, it's
by no mistake that this man showed up at the synagogue at this time. He has been drawn there by a
holy God. And this man has a problem that
he can't deal with us on his own. He can't get rid of the
problem that he has. Just like by nature, we can't
get rid of the sin problem that we have. We need help out of
it. We can't deal with it. It's stuck on us. We need someone
to take it. Well, Jesus rebuked him saying,
hold thy peace and come out of him. And when the devil had thrown
him in the midst, he came out of him and hurt him not. And this is the response by people
that were around him. Now they've already had a response
about his words, what powerful words he brought. He believed
what he was saying. He believed about the words of
God. He believed the Bible. He presented
and gave the Bible and he believed it. He didn't dance around the
things. He always was head-on going into
the scriptures and he said things that made other people very upset
because it didn't agree with their feelings. He talked about,
all that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and he that
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. People had a fit over
that. And he would talk about his way of saving people, salvations
of the Lord, and he made people upset. That doesn't make any
difference. That is the truth. Well, this demon, this devil
came out of him and it says, they were all amazed and spoke
among themselves saying. Now, if that had happened here,
you know what we do? We turn around to our neighbor
and say, did you see that? Did you just see what happened?
Did you just see that man do that with that demon? We'd all
be in conversation about it. It'd be amazing. Well, it still
gives us the privilege of being amazed. We still talk about the
things that come out of the scripture and say, my goodness, did you
see what God can do? Did you see that he was able
to deal with that problem that man had? Without any problem,
he was able to go in, take care of the problem. And it goes on
and says, they were amazed and spoke among themselves saying,
what a word is this? For with authority and power,
he commanded the unclean spirits and they came out. They'd never
seen anything like this. You know, the same thing could
be true or said about the Lord walking up to a tomb. Inside
was a man that had been dead for four days. His name was Lazarus.
And when he brought that man out of the tomb, I can imagine
people saying, what in the world? Did you see that? That man that
was dead four days is now walking around and conversing with people.
What an amazing thing. Well, that's what they said here.
With power, you know, all Jesus had to do here was command this
demon to come out and that demon had no other issued than to come
out. He was commanded by the Son of
God to come out. So let me get back to where I was. I may have to. The electronics. It works good
when it works. All right. And they were amazed and spoke
among themselves saying, what a word this is. For with authority and power,
he commanded the unclean spirits and they came out. And the report
about him went out in every place in surrounding region. You know,
That report about what just took place is still being reported
on. We're still talking about it.
It's been talked about through the ages of the work and ministry
of the Lord Jesus Christ. and his great ability to save
people from their sins. It's still being talked about.
It's still words of amazement that God would deal with people
and take care of their problems. Now, he took care of the food
problem for people, but that's not going to take care of the
eternal problems. He helped people that were sick. That's not going
to take care of the eternal problem. He helped people who were all
bent over, had issues that They were blind, they were deaf, they
couldn't speak, all kinds of miracles. And every one of them
is a picture and a type of a shadow of what he does for us spiritually.
No, we're born blind, spiritually blind, he gives us sight. We're
born spiritually deaf, he gives us hearing. We're born that we
can't say a positive thing about the salvation that God provides,
and he gives us a mouth to say about it. He gives us feet to
serve him, hands to serve him, all of these things, a mind.
Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus. That's
what he does. He takes the impossible and gives
it possibility. You know, the disciple said one
time when he was discussing and teaching on, it says, he said,
how hardly shall a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven?
I don't believe he's talking about having gold and silver. I think he's talking about us
having riches in our own self and righteousness in our own
self. But he said, how hardly can they enter the kingdom of
heaven? And then he goes on to say, it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than it is for that person to
go into the kingdom of heaven. And they looked at themselves
and he says, who then can be saved? And he said, with man,
it's impossible. But with God, it is possible. So we depend on that. With man,
it's impossible. With God, it is possible. All
things are possible with God. So as he was in the right place,
again, at the right time, again, and a man came in, Religious,
spending his time in the synagogue, hearing the law, and Jesus walks
up and that demon cries out and says, are you gonna get rid of
us? And he commanded him out and that man went home healed. Healed of a problem he could
not take care of himself. And that's where we are. We have
a problem we can't take care of ourself, it takes God Almighty
to do it.