Good morning. If you care to
open your Bibles with me, the Ephesians chapter 1. As you're turning, let me remind
you after the service today, we'll have lunch. Hope everybody
can stay and have something to eat and enjoy a time of fellowship. And at 6.30 this evening, we're
going to have a cookout at Simpson Valley. For those of you who
live here, bring your own lawn chair. So we've got plenty of
places for folks to sit. If you're not from here and you
want to follow someone or you can ask one of the Simpsons.
Isaac's giving me the address now. He asked me after the service.
You can put that in your GPS and it will work even out all
the way out there. So hope you can come out there
this evening and enjoy the time together. I have been so looking
forward to this meeting. I just can't tell you how I've
looked forward to it. And after the messages last night, even
more so, two just outstanding messages. Kevin and Chris, I
hope the Lord blesses you this morning like he did last night.
It's such a blessing, I'm looking forward to it. Our Ephesians
chapter one, we'll read the first 14 verses. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. According as
he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having
predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself. According to the good pleasure
of his will, praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will,
according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself.
That in the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven
and which are on earth, even in him. In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that you believed, you're sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchased possession under the praise of
his glory. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for our Lord Jesus Christ, How we thank you that you put
all things in him, that everything concerning salvation and righteousness,
eternal life, the forgiveness of sins is all found in one person,
in our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you that you always
work all things after the counsel of your own will, that your will
and purpose is always done. You know how we thank you It
is your purpose to save your people, the people who you love,
who you chose in electing love and put in our Lord Jesus Christ.
How we thank you. It is your purpose to redeem
those people, to ultimately glorify them to the praise of your glory. Father, we're thankful. Father,
I pray it may be your purpose this morning to reveal yourself
to your people through the preaching of your son. Father, show us
your glory, we pray. Reveal to us the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ and enable us to hear and to believe him. Father, we pray that you'd be
with Kevin and with Chris in a special way this morning. Give
them an unction from on high. Uphold them with thy spirit.
Enable them to clear and clear in simple terms, declare our
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank you for this
time and ask that you bless it according to your will and purpose
and your glory. All these things we ask in that
name which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, let's stand together as Isaac leads us in singing
a couple of hymns. Age 450. There will never be a sweeter
story, Story of the Savior's love divine, Love that brought
Him from the realms of glory, Just to save a sinful soul like
mine. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful? Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful it is to me? Boundless as the universe
around me Reaching to the farthest soul away Saving, keeping love,
it was that found me That is why my heart can truly say Isn't
the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful? Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful, wonderful it is to me? Love beyond our human comprehending,
Love of God in Christ, how can it be? This will be my theme
in never ending, Great redeeming love of Calvary. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful, wonderful. Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Page 17. Come Thou Fount of every blessing,
tune my heart to sing Thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing,
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet
sung by flaming tongues above. Raise the mount I'm fixed upon
it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither
by thy help I'm come, and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to
arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He, to rescue me from danger,
interposed His precious blood. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart, O take and seal
it, seal it for Thy courts above. Good morning. In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song This cornerstone, this
solid ground Firm through the fiercest drought and storm What
heights of love, what depths of peace, When fears are stilled,
when strivings cease. My Comforter, my All in All,
Here in the love of Christ I stand. In Christ alone, who took on
flesh, fullness of God and helpless babe. This gift of love and righteousness,
scorned by the ones he came to save. Till on that cross, as
Jesus died, The wrath of God was satisfied, for every sin
on Him was laid. Here in the death of Christ I
live. There in the ground his body
lay, Light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in
glorious day, Up from the grave he rose again. And as he stands in victory,
Since curse has lost its grip on me, For I am His, and He is
mine, Bought with the precious blood of Christ. No guilt in life, no fear in
death, this is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry
to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of
man, can ever pluck me from His hand. Till He returns or calls
me home, here in the power of Christ I'll stand. Till He returns or calls me home,
here in the power of Christ I'll stand. Well, after last night, our first
speaker needs no introduction here. Pastor Kevin Thacker of
San Diego Grace Fellowship. And we're delighted, Kevin, to
have you and you come preach the message. God's giving it
to you. Hello again. How y'all doing? I'm glad to be here and thankful.
I didn't get a thank you last night. Thank you congregation
for the support you've given to that church in San Diego. I appreciate you and appreciate
every one of you. I want to let you know that the
Lord's worked there mightily. Mightily. The last two years
have been, not that we keep track of these things, but five brethren
have professed Christ in that short period of time. He let
me watch that. I appreciate your all support.
I'm thankful for the brethren from New Jersey coming down and
it seems like wherever I go there's some familiar faces I've recently
preached to and there's so many familiar faces here so it makes
it easy for me. I'm thankful for that. I went
through my notes this morning. Normally I take a highlighter
and different colors mean different things. I draw little lines and
I got through and it looks more like a neon sign than notes.
And so I hope I'm not too long-winded for you. My text is not what
we're going to look at first. I'm going to pull a Henry today,
and we're going to get a little ways in, and then I'm going to
say now we're going to turn to our text. But I'll try my best to be brief.
If you will, open to Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. If we read these scriptures, and
we see a good moral lesson, We see practical instruction. We
go read Ephesians 5. Husbands, how are we supposed
to treat our wives? If all we get out of that is our walk in
this world, we've not seen Christ. You can get the why out of it. There's been no good news given
to us. As we're going to see this morning,
I pray. Every miracle that our Lord performed on this earth,
it's a picture of the spiritual work that he does in and for
his people. Those that were given sight,
the blind, that's the most common mirror for it. The blind that
were given sight, there was a day they closed their eyes in death,
physically. Those given the ability to walk,
think that they were lame. Oh, now they can run. You know
what they're doing now? Their body's laying still in
the grave. Those risen from the dead, physically they had to
die again. John the Baptist, he sent these
men to see if this is the Christ. He thought his time was up. He
said, I want you to know Him. I want you to follow Him. It
says there in verse 3, Matthew 11, verse 3. And he said unto
him, those men sent by John the Baptist, art thou he that should
come or do we look for another? And Jesus answered and said unto
him, go and show John, go show him again those things that you
do here and see. You tell him everything you've
heard. The thing you saw, you heard my word, you saw my miracles. It says the blind receive their
sight. Would you agree that's a miracle?
Most people walking down the street wouldn't. That's a miracle.
The lame walk. It's a miracle. The lepers are
cleansed. The deaf hear. Miracles. The
dead raised up. Miracles. And, and, goes with
it, the poor have the gospel preached to them. That's a miracle. Christ said so. And lest as he,
whosoever shall not be offended in the miracles, in the blind
sin, no, in me, in me. He's telling these men and for
them to tell John, he said, you remember what Isaiah prophesied
concerning Christ? What he's telling them? Concerning
the Messiah. What was it that Isaiah prophesied?
Let's go look there. Is that alright? Turn to Isaiah
35. I want to tell you today, Lord
willing, the same thing our Lord told these men here in Matthew
11. I want to tell you what the Lord
said. Remember what the Lord said.
Isaiah 35. Begin in verse 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. What's going to happen after
that? Look in verse five. Then. Come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be open and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall
the lame man leap as a heart and the tongue of the dumb sing,
for the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the
desert. So many children of God, the Lord's people, they worry
so often. I worry so often. Am I saved?
Am I the Lord's? Am I his? Or do I just have a
head knowledge of this? Is this logical? Is this what
mom and daddy did? And that's what I do. Am I his? We'll sin a bit, I hope, but
I cannot bind you in comfort. I can't wrap you up in comfort.
Only the Lord can. I tell you to remember what he
said. He'll have to be the one that does it. So just like Christ
pointed John the Baptist to the Word, I point you to the Word.
Do you hear the voice of the Lord? Not audibly. We know better
than that, don't we? But do you hear Him? His comforting words
when He speaks to His children. Fear not, it is I. Fear not. That's something to hear. Oh,
I wish I could hear that, don't you? Before, you only heard what
you needed to do. You've got to do something. Oh,
now I hear, fear not, it's done. Now you listen intently to what's
done. Do you see Christ now? Before, you didn't see him. He saved you and then you had
eyes to see him. Now I see him in these scriptures.
Now I see him in these miracles. You rejoice now. Before you were
heavy laden, you were burdened with sin, always without relief. You know why? Because you bore
it. You bore the sin. You carried the sin. After Christ
saved you, He revealed Himself to you. Do you see that He bore
your sin? He carried it. There's peace
and rest in that. If you see that, you rejoice. Look in verse 7, Isaiah 35, 7.
And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty
land springs water. My soul was dry, it was parched,
it was weary, and now there's living water overflowing. Overflowing. In the habitation
of dragons, for each leg shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
This world was scary. Oh, it's dangerous sitting there. I ain't had TV in I don't know
how long. I was in the motel and I turned
the news on. I said, My blood pressure started going
up. There's dragons out there, ain't there? Dangerous things.
Before, I was worried of those things. Now, my Lord is sovereign
over all. Is there evil in the city and
the Lord hasn't brought it to pass? That's for His glory, isn't it? Calm
down. Settle down into Him. The unclean
shall not pass over. I'm sorry, verse 8. And highways
shall there be and a way, and it shall be called the way, capital
T, the way of holiness, the straight and narrow. Now I see, now I
hear. It's sitting in a road that I must walk. It's a person. The way is a person that leads
me. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for
those, the wayfaring men, though fools shall not err therein. Fool said, no, God. That's what
the fool said. I have my own way. Verse nine,
no line shall be there. nor any ravenous beast shall
go thereupon. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed, those bought, those purchased, his possession
shall walk there. And we look for the Lord's return,
don't we? Now we know him. Now we hear him. Now we see him.
And we pray for his return. Look in verse 10. And the ransom
of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads. and they shall obtain joy and
gladness and sorrow and sighing. All those things shall flee away.
That's a miracle. These miracles of giving sight,
healing the lame, raising the dead. Those are just outward
pictures of an eternal heart work the Lord does in his people. Giving a new heart for his people.
Work performed by God for his glory. That's called the miracle
of salvation. Thy salvation. Let's turn over
Mark 5 will turn to my text and I'll be brief. Mark Chapter 5. This morning I prayed Lord allow
us to see us. I want us to see us what we truly
are. And then I want us to see the
one thing need. The one who can save us here in Mark 5 will begin
in verse one. 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 chains, because
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.
and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the
tombs crying and cutting himself with stones." Now physically,
was there a man that lived in the graveyard that was crazy?
Yes. That physically happened, didn't
it? But this is every child born from Adam's womb. That's every
one of us. I hope we can see that. The Lord
has to reveal this to us. This ain't just some guy that
Christ did a work in. This is us. Spiritually, what
takes place in verse two? It says there the man had an
unclean spirit, an unclean spirit. What better word could describe
a natural man? This old man that we are, it's
nature we were born with. Unclean. How dirty is unclean? You're more unclean than I'm
unclean. Is that unclean? It's all unclean, isn't it? Every
bit of it. Being unclean doesn't have so
much to do about what it is. Being unclean has to do with
what it's not. It ain't clean. It ain't holy. It ain't right.
If I had a cup of water there, one drop of poison would kill
me. If I had one drop of poison in that cup, it's unclean. It's
deadly. If the whole cup was poison,
it's deadly. It's unclean. It used to, I don't
think it would be now. Skull and crossbones is poison
in the old carpentry equipment. If it was a little tiny bottle,
or if it was a tractor trailer full of it, deadly. Unclean. That's what we owe. The Lord's
got to reveal that to us. It says in verse 3, we dwell
in the tombs. We don't know any different.
We are dead in trespasses and sins. We are just wadded sepulchers.
Nothing but death. Death. And we have this horrible
hindrance that we breathe air, and I eat, and I sleep, and I
wake up, and I think I'm alive. I have no spiritual life. Dead.
Living in tombs. We don't know the difference.
Imagine the smell of that. Back then, they didn't have formaldehyde
and all these inventions that man has nowadays. That would
have been a rank place. What? Summertime. But you can
become nose-blind to those things, can't you? And John was talking
about that today. Sometimes we like to be nose-blind.
Years ago, I was overseas and living in a tent for an extended
period of time. And boy, that first month, everybody smelled
bad. You know what I mean? You got 30 men in a tiny tent,
and I ain't real happy with everybody just yet. Y'all offend me. And you know, after about 30,
60 days, you eat the same food every day. You drink the same
drinks every day. You do the same thing every day.
All of a sudden, nobody smelled bad. We all smelled the same. You ever walked up that street?
You ever go to work? You ever turn on the TV? Smells
the same as me, doesn't it? Believe right in it. Don't know
the difference. Job told us that man drinks iniquity
like water, don't fish don't know it's wet. Yes, we pulled
out of the water. Look here in verse three. He
said who had who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could
bind him. No, not even with chains. Chains wouldn't bind him because
he had been often bound with fetters and chains. They tried
this multiple times and the chains had been plucked asunder by him
and the fetters broken in pieces. Neither could any man tame him.
What's that? They tried to bind him and couldn't.
That's true. Spiritually, what is that to
us? Other men try to bind other men in the law. Let me put some
chains on you. You can't do that no more. What
are you thinking? Knock that off. Look what the
law says. And it was continually broken,
wasn't it? Put some laws on me, I'm going to break them. Isn't
that our instinct? Adam, you got all these wonderful
trees. Eat any tree you want. Don't
touch that tree. What's the first one to run?
Isn't that right? Every one of us. I always said don't drink,
smoke or chew or run with those that do. Fail to fail. Other men tried to comfort him.
They bound him with the law but they tried to comfort him by
binding him to an experience. Oh, this worked last time. Do
you remember? He was baptized. Pull your card out and look at
that. Do you remember what somebody said to you one time? Something
nice, somebody said. A feeling that you had on the inside when
he was warm and fuzzy. They tried to bind him in comfort.
An experience. It failed. And it says neither
could any man tame him. Or what did he tame him? He returned
to his sin. I returned to my sin. I returned to my way that
I thought was right. I returned to my defense, my
pride, and horribly, I turned to my thought that I could fix
everything. I can do this by myself. I don't need nobody. We're bound by our sin nature.
That is our will. It's bound to this flesh. We
fell in Adam and we fall continually. Others try to tame us for a little
while. Boy, I can get us walked straight and narrow for a season.
But the chains and fetters, all those are internal, aren't they?
Sin has dominion, it has rule over us. Paul asks in Romans
7, O wretched man that I am, not that I used to be, that I
am. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Nothing's working. Is the preacher
going to do it? Doctrine going to do it? Clean
living, prayers, or is my Bible reading going to do it? Ignoring
it? Put that aside. Don't pay no attention. No, it's
not going to do it. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
That's the delivery. That's the strong verse five
here says, and always not in day he was in the mountains and
in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. Oh, he was
zealous to make a change. Paul said his brethren's after
the flesh, they were zealous. They had a zeal for God, but
they didn't know him. Those prophets of Baal, Elijah and King Ahab
were down there. They were zealous. They cut themselves.
The Lord wasn't burning up their sacrifice. And they said, we
must have the wrong blood. I'm going to provide my blood. What
stone were they cutting themselves with? The stone tablet to the
law. I'm going to cut these things off with that. Trying to heal
ourselves don't work. How many times have you seen
someone just ruining their life in this world? And people beg
them. Family comes to them. What are you doing? Knock it
off. You're ruining your family. You're
hurting your children. You're hurting your wife. Hurting your
friends. Why won't they stop? Surely someone
told this man, knock it off. Quit it. Act right, didn't they? Why won't they straighten up?
Why didn't he straighten up? Why didn't I straighten up? I had an untamed
spirit in me. That was the problem. Why do
we ruin ourselves in religion? Untamed spirits. It says there
in verse 6, But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped
Him. of God sees Christ, barely, far
off, they will run to him and they will worship him. They'll
run to a person and they'll worship a person. When he saw the sovereign,
almighty, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, the Messiah of God,
that very one that was promised to Adam, to Abraham, Moses, every
one of them, every one of us. He saw the Lamb of God, just
like John the Baptist. He ran to him. He worshipped
him. That's what Isaiah saw, wasn't it? He said, In the year
the king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. That's who he saw.
Sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled
the temple. And all those angels, they cried out, Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. They saw it. This man saw the Lord. The Lord. No wonder he ran and worshipped
him. We saw him over on a worship. One sinner today, this morning,
could see him, see him and run to him and worship him. Oh, what
a blessing that would be. You know what's something important
about this too? You know how he saw Christ? He was there. The Lord was there. He comes
to his sheep and we do run As he gives us power to do so, we
worship him as he enables us. But make no mistake about it.
He comes to us first. He comes to us first. We won't see him if he's not
in our presence. Is that too simple? He has to
come to us. So many people say, well, I found
the Lord and I searched him out and I did this and I did that.
You didn't if he didn't do it for you. You haven't met him
yet. If we preach this same Jesus, we preach. If they got to preach,
we preach. If we preach the same Jesus,
he is our message. People's going to see him in
truth. They'll see him in his majesty and his glory and his
mighty and just to save sinners. They'll see him lifted up, him
glorified. That's what John 12 said. We
would see Jesus. And this is the hours come that
the son of man will be glorified. If you're going to see him, he's
going to get all the glory goes hand in hand. Romans 10 said,
how should they call on him and who they've not believed and
how should they believe on him and who they've not heard? Somebody's
going to have to tell us about it. If they hear another Jesus,
they cannot see this one. You're looking to a wrong. John
6 40 says, and this is the will of him that sent me that everyone
would see if the sun and believe it on him may have everlasting
life. That's who we need to see. No one else could help this man,
but he saw the one that could. No one else could conquer him,
but he saw the one that could. And he ran to him. Not to the disciples. An apostle
standing right there. I'd like to meet them, wouldn't
you? I'd like to hear what they'd have to tell me. Knocked him
out of the way. Ran to Jesus. Ran to the Lord. No man gave him an invitation
to come to him. Did you know that? Just walk
up here. That's all you need. Here's the words to say. Here's
a prayer. Recite this and he'll do something
for you. No, he saw the Lord. Saw his
king in front of him. He didn't wait to get clothes
on. You know that he didn't wait to clean up his act before he
come to. He didn't wait to get rid of the demons first. He ran. He came just like he is because
he saw the Lord and he ran to a person and worshiped a person.
the one who's able to save to the uttermost. Now, he ran and
worshiped the Lord, but those demons, they cried out too, didn't
they? Look here in verse seven. And cried with a loud voice and
said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the
most high God? I adjure thee by God, but thou
torment me not. In the religion of man, what
seems good to a man, all these demons and evil spirits and sinners
get along just fine. People hate God. They get along
just fine. But when they come in contact
with the true and living God, they rebel. They rebel. Even the demons believe in one
God, don't they? Even the demons know of His power
and His sovereign right to save in all things. They knew He was
the Son of God, but they will not bow to Him. They want left
alone. They want left alone. Turn to
Luke 11 real quick. Luke 11. Luke 11 and verse 20. Our Lord speaks and he says,
but if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the
kingdom of God is upon you. When a strong man who's a strong
man, that's demons, evil spirits, Satan, a proud sinner. When a
strong man armed keepeth his palace, all his goods are in
peace. He didn't have worry. He doesn't have Family dispute. There's no split apart. All they
just go to a different church. More so than that, it goes deeper.
His house is at peace. This house is at peace. There
ain't two natures warring within him. Ain't an old man and a new
man fighting. Like Paul said, wretched man
that I am. That's still with me. I'm walking this earth. But
when a stronger, a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome
him, he taketh from him all his armor wherein he trusted, and
divided his spoils. That's what we're going to see
in our text. Everything we trusted in today, Christ is going to
go away. He that is not with me is against me, and he that
gathereth not with me scattereth. When you see Christ, when you
see him high and lifted up, him preached, you're either for him
or against him. There's no straddling the fence.
If you're sitting on a fence, you're going to come down on
one side or the other. You either agree, we could agree to that,
or you don't. Black and white. It's cut and
dry. Back in our text there, this Gadarene man, he saw the
one who was not only stronger than him, but stronger than the
demons within him that no other man could deal with. Satan can
defeat any man or woman. I've met some poor people in
this world sometimes. I'm warring against Satan. Don't
cry. You're going to lose by yourself. Not the God man. He bruised his heel, he crushed
his head. That's who we need. Here in verse 8 it says, For
he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
This man saw Christ, he ran to him, he worshiped him, and those
demons wanted nothing to do with God, and they were cast out,
removed from him. We don't need to do something
for God, do we? God needs to do something for
the sinner. God needs to do something for the sinner. Now verses 9
through 14, Lord cast all in demons and pigs, didn't he? I
stole this from him. Can I leave the pigs alone? Is
that all right? I've got some light on that and
I can explain and the Lord shows us how he does this. But you
know that blind man that the Lord spit on the ground and he
gave him a sock? He went back to his neighbors
and they said, how? Not who. And that didn't suit him. And
he took them to the Pharisees. Well, you've got to go to church
now. How? How? They asked him six times. How
did you get your sock? Not once. Boy, you can see now.
Who did that? I want to leave here today, not
walking out knowing how people so concerned about. I want to
see who does it. That's why I want to see who
does it. This man was pleased. These demons were out of him.
He was content. He was calmed, wasn't he? But not everybody is happy. Something
wonderful happened. They ain't all happy. Look here
in verse 14. And they that fed the swine fled. and told it in
the city and in the country. And they went out to see what
it was that was done. Not who. They went out to see
what was done. Verse 15. And they come to Jesus
and see him that was possessed with the devil. He was possessed
with the devil. That's how they named him. I've
bumped into some folks that said, I don't want to be called a sinner.
I'm a saint now. Don't you ever call me a sinner.
2,000 years ago, there was a thief on a cross, weren't there? God
saved that thief on a cross, and he's in glory right now.
What's his name? Thief on a cross. This man is
the man with the demons, the demonic man. Who is he? The man with the demons. He's
in glory. Rahab the harlot. Rahab the harlot. Naaman the
leper, the Samaritan woman with how many husbands? That's who
she was. They're all in glory right now.
Paul reminded us always, I'm a chief of sinners. I'm a chief
of sinners. That's a horrible thing. Why
would you bring that up? Call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sins. He came to save sinners. That's
not a discouragement, that's hope. I don't want to hear that,
Kevin. Well, if you was a sinner, you
would. Whosoever. I'm the worst of the worst. Isn't
that right? Every one of us. People say,
Paul said he was the chief of sinners. And boy, I always imagined
Paul would be in charge. I just put a kind of pet on him
and say, I know you think so, buddy, but you ain't, I ain't.
Every one of you that's been had demons removed out of you
and you saw the Lord and you worshiped him. That's us, isn't
it? That's me. Don't ever run from
or deny what you were. Don't brag on it either. That can happen too, can't it?
I'll tell you how bad, I was worse than you was. Don't brag
on it, but don't run from it. But you give Christ all the glory
because he saved you from yourself. That's what it saves. Those things. Looking to see those people looking
to see what happened, how did they find this man? They want
to see what, how? How did they find him? Look here in verse 15. And they
came to see Jesus and they saw him that was possessed with the
devil and had the legion sitting and clothed in his right mind
and they were afraid. This man was sitting. He wasn't
running about. He wasn't in that physical exercise
of religion and waving his arms around and hooting and hollering.
What y'all doing? Y'all seated, right? He was sitting. He was at peace with God. That's
why he said. How are we going to get peace
with God? Christ must do it. He must do it. The person is
our peace. This man was clothed. He was
clothed. In Luke's account, he tells us
this man was naked. And last time I went to a cemetery,
there ain't a whole lot of clothes laying around a cemetery. Where'd
they get clothes to dress this man? Christ gave him his garment. He robed him. He must do that. We can't robe ourselves. We must
be robed in his righteousness. Christ is the Lord, our righteousness. And this man was in his right
mind, just like that prodigal son. He came to himself. Luke said he was sitting at the
feet of Jesus clothed in his right mind to not submit to Christ. The Lord is foolishness. If you see him to not submit
to him, not bow to his feet and worship him, it's foolishness.
You ain't in your right mind. It's insane to try to clothe
yourself, put on your own righteousness, polish up the garments that he
gave you and try to make them a little bit better. Make atonement
for yourself all alone. It's foolishness. Who's I learned
that in? You don't approach God without
a mediator. That's foolishness. Not in your right mind, but to
bow to the Lord, to trust Him for everything, for all and in
all. That's called a right mind. Now
you're in your right mind. It says at the end of verse 15,
and they were afraid. They weren't afraid of this man,
were they? He was sitting there. He was fine. They bound him before.
They ganged up on him. But they got him bound at least
enough so they could get away. They weren't afraid of him. They
were afraid of Christ, just as those demons were. They were
rebelling against him. Read on in verse 16. And they
saw it and told them how it befell him that was possessed with the
devil and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray
him to depart out of their coasts. That's insane. That's not a right
mind. They saw these things. They were
told about these things. They heard and they saw, didn't
they? But the Lord hadn't come to them in power. He hadn't revealed
himself into them. They had the proof sitting right
in front of them. And they said, why don't you just leave? Why
don't you just get out of here? Why would they want him to leave?
I preached the message not too long ago about being made whole.
You come to that man and ask him, are you going to be made
whole? There's a whole lot that goes into that, doesn't it? You
don't make yourself whole. You have to be made righteous.
You don't have a hand. Work has to be all the Lord,
doesn't it? Will they suffer with Christ and his sheep and
not chide them, not go against them? When we're made whole,
there's going to come at a cost, isn't there? The Lord said, they
hear my voice and they follow me. You can serve other people. You can serve the Lord's people
and not serve the Lord, but you can't serve the Lord and not
serve his people. It goes hand in hand. You're going to be together.
And they'd have to commit all to him, not just associate with
him, not just get some some fish and some bread out of it. You
lock, stock and barrel. You have everything. Make me
whole. If you will, you can make me
whole. Make me whole. The Lord did just as they wanted
to. They didn't want no part of that stuff. I don't want to
suffer with the Lord's people. I don't want to be be shamed
because of him. And I don't want him doing everything
for me. I can do it myself. You get out of here. And he did
just what they wanted, just what they asked. And he left. What
a horrible thing. Left them alone. Would you want
to live in that city after Christ left? With a multitude of people
that didn't want anything to do with God, anything to do with
his gospel, anything to do with his salvation and his son. That's
how it is all over this world right now. In 1 Samuel 3, it
said the word of the Lord is precious in our day. It was then,
nothing's changed. The word of the Lord is precious
now. Precious right now. That's not what this man that
God saved did, was it? He didn't say get out of here.
Look here, verse 18. 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, I want to stay with you.
I see you. I know you. I hear you. I worship
you. And I don't want to leave. Jacob,
I'm going to hold on to you. I ain't letting you go. I'm going
to stay with you. That's what Ruth said to Naomi.
Your God is my God. Your people's my people. Wherever
you eat dinner, that's where I'm eating dinner. Where you
buried at, that's where I'm going to be buried at. A woman, we're
knit together just as much as that pinky finger is to that
thumb to that ear. Knit together in that body of
Christ, ain't we? That's what he prayed. But the
Lord said in verse 19, Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith
unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things
that you did, that you cleaned up, that you professed. No, tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee. The Lord
just cleansed them. And hath had compassion on them.
Compassion on them. And he departed. He obeyed the
Lord, didn't he? He obeyed. He was sent and he
obeyed. And began to publish in Decapolis. how great things
Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. Why do people
marvel? Why do people marvel? Kevin,
I read these scriptures, and I can kind of agree with what
you said a little bit. I can see how maybe you might be reaching
a little bit. I can kind of see that. Why would someone marvel? I'll
tell you what happened to me. God loved me. How do y'all know
me? What little bit bad you know
is only part of it. God loved me. God was gracious
in coming to me, in revealing himself to me. He had mercy on
me, on me, of all people. Everybody in this room, at least
likely he'd have mercy on me. And I'm going to tell folks,
you need mercy. You need cleanse. You need a
righteousness before a holy God that you offended. He can do
it for me. He can do it for anybody. Come
to me. Come to me. We can publish what
the Lord's done for us, don't we? It ain't us. What has the Lord done for us?
He had compassion on me. He had compassion on me. And
whenever we do that, those that He's had compassion on, we won't
be with them. I like being here. I enjoy visiting
with you folks. Makes for a wonderful body of
believers, don't it? What peace there is in a person.
I hope that's a blessing. Those of you who attend here
regularly have heard me say this many times. One of my greatest
fears is God give us what we want. By nature, he gave us what,
he gave them in that city what they wanted. Thank God he had
compassion on somebody. We're going to take about a 15-minute
break. I think maybe I overreached last
night. So we're going to take about
a 15-minute break. When you hear the music, come back because
I don't want to delay too long, okay? All right.