Turn over to Matthew chapter
8, and we will finish this chapter,
Lord willing, this morning. Let me read in verse 28 the shorter
version that Matthew gives. And when he was come to the other
side into the country Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with
devils. The other two, Mark and Luke,
speak of one, but there were actually two men, or two people.
One writer said it may have been a husband and a wife, since it's
spoken of as one in the other two narratives. But there were
two, actually two, that were possessed with devils here. Coming
out of the tombs, exceeding fierce exceeding fear, so that no man
might pass by that way. People were afraid to even go
by that place. They'd go around it. They wouldn't
go by it. And behold, they cried out, saying,
What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment
us before the time? And there was a good way off
from them, a herd of many swine feeding. So the devil besought
him, saying, Thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the
herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go. And
when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine.
And behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep
place into the sea and perished in the waters. They that kept
them fled and went their ways into the city and told everything
in what was befallen to the possessed of the devils. And behold, the
whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him, They besought
Him that He would depart out of their coast. And He did. He did. Our Lord was always about His
Father's business. He was always, always going about
doing good to sinners. Sinners in need of mercy. sinners
who needed him. All that needed healing, it says,
he healed. He always did this. Stayed busy
at it. And we could see this in this
chapter. He heals a leper. A leper comes to him and he heals
him and immediately his leprosy is cleansed. He heals a centurion's
servant. The centurion came to him and
asked him, to heal His servant. And He did. And there were many
that were sick and possessed with devils and He cast them
out. And on their way to this place, the wind and the waves
rose up. And the disciples were afraid
they were going to die and perish right there. And the Lord awoke
out of that boat and calmed the wind and the waves. Made them
all calm down. And here, now here we see a direct
confrontation with devils, many devils, over one of his elect. This is one of his elect. This
is one of his, and he's come to reclaim him. He's mine. What he does here, he does every
time he saves someone. He has to cast out. I thought
about this He's got to cast out an evil spirit. That's the reason
I read Ephesians chapter 2. Go back over in Ephesians chapter
2. In Ephesians chapter 2, it says
in verse 2, wherein in time past you walked according to the course
of this world, According, now here's how you walk. According
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh. Now where does it work? In the
children of disobedience. That's where it's at work. That's
where it is at work at. Among whom also we all had our
conversation. We were all partakers of this
in times past. in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature.
Had the same nature that the children of breath have. Every
time He saves someone, He's got to cast out that evil spirit. And now the Lord comes here on
purpose. He's not just out walking around. He's coming to this place on
purpose. He's going to heal these two
demoniacs. And the first thing I want us
to do is I want us to look at what devils know. What devils
know. I do know this. They know far
more than men know. They know far more. Those men
came out of that city and they were afraid and they said, depart
from us. Leave us alone. If they'd have known who he was,
if Paul in Acts said, if you'd have known who he was, if you'd
have known he was a prince of glory, you wouldn't have crucified
him. You wouldn't have done it. If
you'd have known. They knew. They knew who he was. One writer said this, I thought
this was so interesting. They know far more than men know
and are still devils. They're still devils. Knowledge
without the work of grace leaves men the same. Lost. Lost. A knowledge alone without
the work of grace to follow it up leaves men lost. Look what these devils knew.
We're going to see this. Well, first thing I do know this. They
know how weak and sinful men and women are. They know how
weak and sinful we are. Don't ever pride yourself in
holding out against something. I've never done that or I'd never
do that. You just let the temptation come. You just let the Lord just
remove a hedge like He did with Job. He just removed the hedge
and let them in. Let them have some of their way
with it. Although Job did not charge God
with folly, it brought a lot of things out. It brought a lot
of things out. They know just where to tempt.
They know just where to try. Devils know what to tempt us
with in order to cause us to fall if God would allow it. He said, Peter, Satan has desire
to sift you as wheat, but I pray for you. I pray for you that your faith
fell off. I pray for you. All it takes is being tempted. That's what it says over here
in Galatians chapter 6. All it takes is just being tempted.
And the Lord letting it happen. Letting, withdrawing His hand. Over here in Galatians 6, brethren,
If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore
such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou
also be what? Tempted. Lest you just be tempted. He knows. He knows how weak,
Satan knows how weak and sinful men and women are. And He knows
just where to tempt. He knows just where to shoot
to make us fall. Now then, secondly, they know
this. They know beyond the shadow of
a doubt that Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God. There's
no doubt. There was no doubt in what they
said. Jesus, thou Son of God. In Mark they call Him the Holy
One. The Holy One. As soon as they saw Him, as soon
as He stepped out of the boat, they recognized Him. They recognized
the Lord and they acknowledged Him to be the Son of God. The Scripture says, He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. Israel, who had all
the pictures and all the types, all the shadows, when He came,
they did not recognize Him. But as soon as those devils saw
Him, they recognized Him. This is the Son of God. This
is the Son of God. They recognized His deity. They
know that He has all power over them. Men like to think they're
their own person. You know, we are our own. We
have our own destiny. We create our own destiny. No. No, we create our own mess. That's
exactly what we create. Our own mess. And we wallow around
in it as we pass through this life. But they know who has the
power. They didn't call on the Prince
of Darkness to come and help them. They just submitted to
him. They know who has all power over them. They know that this
one, this Jesus, whom everybody at that time, most everybody,
except for the ones he saved, despised him. But this despised
man, this poor man, they knew he had the power to damn. They know also this, that judgment
is coming. Judgment is coming. You hear
what they said to him? Hast thou come to torment us
before the time? Hast thou come to send us to
hell before the time appointed? They know justice is coming.
Men mock at that. Men make fun of that. I had a
man to my face make fun of that. They laugh at it. But it's coming. And they know it. There is no
doubt to them. They know judgment's coming.
They are reserved in change of darkness, and they know that
torment's coming. Has thou come to torment us before
the time? And they know there's an appointed
time for them to be tormented by the wrath of God. And I thought
about this as I looked at that word, has thou come to torment
us? That's a strong word, isn't it?
To torment. When you hear somebody's been
tormented, that's a strong word. Has thou come to torment? But
you know what? That's exactly what happened to Him on the cross.
He was tormented. Christ was tormented. He took
our torment. Turn over to Isaiah 53. I caught
this when Frank was reading this over here in Isaiah 53. Look in verse 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions. Now look over in your margin.
And look at number 5. What does it say? That he was
tormented. He was tormented. He took the
same torment that He was going to deal out to them. He took
it. When God the Father tormented Him on the cross for
our transgressions, He took our hell. That's what it says. He
took our hell is what happened. And they are saying to Him, have
You come to torment us before the time? And then they recognize
His sovereignty over them. They didn't like to brag on their
free will. They didn't brag on free will,
did they? They didn't talk about their will at all. They asked
Him. They begged Him if He would permit
them to enter into the hurt of swine over there. They begged
Him. They prayed Him. They said, would
you let us go over there? Would you not cast us out of
the country? Would you not cast us into hell
at this time? Would you allow us? Here are
devils, fierce, mean, begging the Lord to send them over into
those swine. They recognize His sovereignty. They recognize things men won't
recognize. Someday they will, but it will
be too late. They had to have His permission
to go. They could not go or do anything
without Him giving them leave to do it. They couldn't do it.
They couldn't even possess those two men without His permission.
They couldn't do it. But this gives me great encouragement.
Have we walked through this valley of the shadow of death? He gives
permission to everything that comes our way. Everything we
will experience, everything that comes our way, the Lord gives
permission. He gives permission. All have
to have permission from Him. And notice this, in His humiliation,
in this flesh, that's what He's called in the Scripture, His
humiliation, in this flesh, He still ruled over all. What the
Jews saw and looked upon as a weak man. They looked upon him as
a weak, poor man with no education, with no background, no pedigree.
That's the way they saw him. But this man had power over all
things. While he walked on this earth,
he had power to forgive sins. He had power to heal diseases.
He had power to give spiritual life. He had power to cast out
devils. Not try and cast them out. Not
try to save. He did it. He did it. It says here, they were exceeding
fierce. People were afraid to pass by
that way. They tried to chain this man and it couldn't do it.
Just exceeding fierce. But they were no match for our
Lord. They were absolutely, it's hard to even say this in the
same breath, but they were no match for Him. They cowed down
to Him. They fell down when He stepped
out of that ship. When that man stepped out of
that ship, they ran and that guy fell down. Say, have you
come to torment us? Oh, they were no match for Him. They can whip us very easily.
Even Michael. The archangel, he wouldn't even
argue with the devil. He said, the Lord rebuked you.
But the Lord didn't send anybody else. He said, I'll rebuke you.
The Lord rebuked him. Oh, this is God. God stepped
on that shore. God came after that demoniac.
God's going to save that man. Those two men. I'll call them
two men. It could have been a man and
his wife, but I'll call them two men. He's going to save him. There he is. There he is. And these devils wanted nothing
to do with Christ. They said, What have we to do
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Here's what they're saying. Leave us alone and we'll leave
you alone. Just leave us alone. What have we to do with it? Leave
us alone and we won't bother you. But here's the problem. Here's a problem. You're bothering
one of mine. You're bothering one of my elect. And you're in trouble. You're
in trouble. I've come to save. I've come
to save this man. You're in trouble. Christ came to save His people
from their sins. This is so obvious as we go through
the gospel. It's so obvious. He goes to certain
places, saves a certain woman, a certain man, and then leaves. They weathered this storm. We're
going into this storm. He quietens this storm. They
get to the shore. He goes right up to this one
place and saves this man, these two men. He saves them. Casts
them out. Casts out those devils. And the
whole city comes out. They want him to leave. And he
will. He doesn't stay where he's not
welcome. And he leaves. But he came after them. He came
to get those two men. And to cast those devils out
of them. That's what he did. He came to save sinners. He came
to save his elect. He came to save them from their
sins. He came to save them from the
curse of the law, and He came to save them from the power of
Satan. The spirit that now works in
the children of disobedience does not have power over His
children anymore. Not when He saves them. But devils can't
leave quietly. You ever notice when the Lord
cast them out, they had to make a noise going out. In one place,
the person fell down with foam in his mouth screaming and hollering.
as the devils went out of it. Devils just, there is not a speck
of goodness in them. Not even an ounce of mercy in
them. Not at all. They're going to be destructive
even if they have to go kill a bunch of hogs. That's how destructive
they are. They've got to do something.
Do something evil. So they asked him if they could
go into a herd of swine. You notice they never hinted
at mercy? That just jumped out at me. Here's the Lord of glory. God who delights to show mercy.
And they never even hinted at mercy. Never even hinted at it. Never
even hinted at forgiveness. You know why? They don't want
it. They don't want it. Listen, there
has to be a work of grace in us in order for us to want mercy. There has to be a real work of
God the Holy Spirit in you for you to even desire mercy. For you to even desire, I mean
truly desire forgiveness. There has to be a work of grace
there. Has to be. in order for us to even desire
for will to be saved. Or else we'll just be like devils.
Just let us go somewhere else and do our mischief. Let us go somewhere else and
do it. Devils and natural men do not want to be saved from
their sins. They don't. Repentance is truly the gift
of God. I can't give it to you. You can't
give it to me. We can't give it to anyone. God
has to give it. God has to give a new heart and
a new spirit. God has to give a man a new nature
for him to really desire, for him to really crave after righteousness
and forgiveness and mercy. and grace. You have that? God's given it to you. God's
given it to you. Other than that, we just say,
leave us alone. Leave us alone. Our Lord came to save those two
men who had their dwellings, He says, among the tombs. Among
the tombs. Isn't that just a natural place
for dead men? The most natural place you can
put a dead body is in the grave, in the tomb. And that's where
they dwelt, among the dead. This is where lost men live.
They might live in a palace made of bricks and stone, but they
live among the dead. They live among the dead. They
feel at home among the dead. I'm talking about spiritually
dead. They feel at home among the spiritually dead. They do
not feel at home or comfortable around those who are born of
God. They don't feel comfortable around the living, those whom
God has given life to. This man, when God healed him,
what did he say? Let me go with you. Let me go
with you. I don't want to be with these
people no more. These people are crazy. Let me
go with you. That's what He wanted. They don't
feel comfortable. They don't feel comfortable among
the living. They only feel comfortable with their own kind among the
dead, spiritually dead. But our Lord knows where every
one of His sheep are. He knows where they are. There
are no accidental meetings with the Lord. He does not cross our
path accidentally. Everyone whom the Lord purposed to be
here this morning is here. It's here. You don't hear the
Gospel by accident. He knows where all His sheep
are, and He goes after them. Just like that woman at the well.
He said, I must need to go through Samaria. He didn't explain that
to His disciples. He didn't say, well, this is
why I need to do it. He said, I need to go through
there. Let's go. He doesn't explain to His servants
why. He said, just go. And He goes after them. Satan
and all his followers. Cannot, absolutely cannot keep
the Lord of glory out. The Lord said, the gates of hell
shall not prevail against thee. The gates of hell will not keep
the gospel out. Not when the Lord sends it. Can't
do it. He will gather His own, and He'll leave the rest alone. He'll leave them to their wills.
They'll leave Him to their wills. They want to talk about free
will, they'll get it. They'll get the results of it too. You'll gather His own and leave
the rest alone and this is what natural men... Now listen. This
truly is what natural men want. Leave us alone. Don't mess up our family. Don't
mess up our church. We've been going here for years
and years and years. Don't mess it up. Leave us alone. The worst thing that ever happened
to you and me is for God to leave us alone. Lord, disturb us. If we need to disturb, disturb
us. We don't want to be left alone.
They said leave us alone. Depart from us. Get this gospel
out of here. It's offensive. We don't want them. Well, there
was a couple there that wanted it. After he saved them. After he put them in their right
minds. Because they didn't ask him to
come over there. Those demonics did not ask for
him at the moment. And when they came, they didn't
ask to be saved. They were so possessed of that
spirit, when the devil spoke, they spoke. When they spoke,
the devil spoke. They were one. It wasn't until
he came and cast them out that they were in their right mind.
And those devils, they asked the Lord, they said, let us go
over in those swine. And when that happened, they ran violently
down a steep place into the sea, and they drowned. Sinners outside
of Christ. Sinners outside of the Lord Jesus
Christ will meet a worse end. We cannot neglect these things
and pass over them. We have to tell the truth. There
is a judgment. One of the men wants to die,
and after this, the judgment. There is such a thing. Men who die in their sins are
going to drown. in torment. But now listen. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. He came to save sinners. Even
the worst of sinners. Religion can't save them. You
see what's over here, Mark? And I think these do represent
religion. It says, In verse 4, "...because
that he had been often bound with fetters, chains, and the
chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken
in pieces, neither could any man tame him." Religion is trying
to tame human nature. It can't be tamed. It cannot be tamed. You can put
rules and regulations and laws and ceremonies. You can do all
that. Sooner or later it's going to
break out. sooner or later, it's going to break out. Religion
can't do it, but Christ can. Christ can. Someone said to a
person, this has been some time ago, I was there, and they were,
the place they went didn't preach the gospel, and they didn't believe
the gospel, but they were religious, and they did what they called
backslide. They backslid. And this person
said to him, you need to get back in church. I said, no, you
need Christ. You don't need to get back in
church. You need to find him. You need to find the master.
You need to find the one who saves. And when he saves, you
are saved. And there's a radical change.
There's a real change made. Yes, we have that same nature,
but it doesn't rule. Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world. Oh, you need to get back in church.
No, you don't. You don't. You need Him. You need Him. That's what you need. Christ came to save sinners.
All sorts of sinners. I say to sinners, look to Him. Don't get back in church. Look
to Him. Look to Him. Pray for loved ones. You know, every demoniac, people
who were possessed, you know, not one of them came to the Lord.
Not one of them came to the Lord. Someone prayed for them. One
brought her daughter, another one. They prayed for them. Or
as in this case, the Lord came. They wasn't asking for anything.
But I tell you this, pray for your loved ones. Pray for them.
The Lord can save them. He can do that. We ought to take courage. We
ought to take courage. If He saved one, He can save
another. If He saved me, He can save anybody. If He can cast
the devil out of me, He can cast him out of anybody. But notice here, men would rather
lose their souls than lose their swine. Look at how human nature values
things. They were afraid of him, because
all of a sudden this man had his right mind. So they became
afraid of him, afraid of the Lord. And they were upset Of course,
they had lost a lot of money here. Whoever owned these hogs,
these swine, lost a lot of money. That's 2,000 of them. That's a pretty big hit in one
day. They lost them. And they were angry about this. Angry. Men love, they love gain more
than they love their own souls. They love pleasure and sin for
a season, even though it will cost them their life. They can't
let it go. Unless God does something for
them, they cannot let it go. That whole city came out to meet
the Lord and beg Him to leave. Begging to leave. But our Lord
accomplished what he came to do. Mission accomplished. Mission accomplished. And while
doing so, the nature of natural men was revealed. Leave us alone. Leave us alone. But I tell you
this, I'm sure glad he does not leave all of us alone. There
was two there he did not leave alone. The rest of that city,
at that particular time, He left them alone. But I'm so glad He doesn't leave
everybody alone. And it says back over
here in Mark, I want to read that portion to you. In Mark
5, verse 15. And they come to Jesus and see
Him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting. sitting at the feet of the Master.
No man could tame this one. But one did. No man could tame
it. James said no man can tame the
tongue. But one can. There's one that can tame that
tongue. There's one that can tame this man. Sitting quietly
like a dog at his Master's feet. Glad to be there. This man was
glad to be there. No more hurting himself. Isn't that what you see every
day with men and women? They're hurting themselves. You see them
go through their lives and the sin and stuff they carry on with. They're hurting themselves. This man wasn't hurting himself
no more. He was sitting with the great physician. He had the
balm of Gilead right there with him. And he was clothed. Just like you and I are clothed
in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Clothed in His
righteousness. And for the first time in His
life, in His right mind. When God saves a man or woman,
He puts them in the right mind. To call upon God for mercy, to
worship Him in spirit and truth, I'm telling you, you're in your
right mind. to walk out of here and not believe Him and not love
Him and not worship Him, you're not in your right mind. They did so. Oh, He was sitting
there closed and in His right mind. And He wanted to leave
that place. He wanted to leave those crazy
people who told Him to leave. They told the Lord of glory,
the God of heaven and earth, their own Creator, to leave. How wise is that? Only sinners clothed in the righteousness
of Christ and have the mind of Christ are truly sane. Truly. And they want to follow
Him. Is that not what you want? To
follow Him? But He said to this man, He said
to him, I want you to go home. And it says here, 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 go with you.
I can see why he would do that. He was living in the tombs and
hurting and cutting himself, and here came one who truly saved
him. Saved him from sin. Saved him
from the curse of the law. Saved him from the power of Satan.
And saved him from himself. He cut himself and hurt himself
on the rocks and stuff all the time. The Lord saved him from
himself. And he said, Lord, let me go
with you. Let me follow you. Howbeit, Jesus
suffered him not. He said, not, not. I wouldn't
doubt that he didn't say, not yet. Not yet. You will, but not yet. But he said to him, now here's
what I want you to do. I want you to go home. I want you to
leave that tomb dwelling among the dead. I want you to leave
this tomb. I want you to go home. Go back to your family. And I
want you to tell them how great things the Lord has done for
thee. You go home and you tell them what great things the Lord
has done for thee. As I said earlier, we don't have
to be theologians to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ. Just
tell what great things He's done for you. Just tell that. They asked a
blind man, they said, who healed you? He said, I don't know. I
can't tell you all about it right now, but I do know this. I was blind, but now I see. I can tell you that much. That's
all you need to know, or all you need to tell is what you
know. You don't need to... I think especially young preachers
who get into the habit of telling what all the commentaries know. I've done it. I've preached commentaries
before. I know I have. There comes a
time when you just tell what you know about Him and what He's
done for you. What God's taught you. You know, this man walked
into his home. You know, you can imagine how
his family had to be happy this guy's in his right mind. You
know, think if it was your son or daughter. And they walked
in, in their right mind. And you're going to say, what
happened to you? How did this happen? A man named Jesus. I met a man named Jesus. And
He cast all these devils out of the way. And put me in my
right mind. And gave me a suit of clothes. Notice something here about clothes. We don't argue with lost men.
You notice our Lord didn't argue with them. Notice how He handled these devils.
They asked him, have you come and told me this before our time?
He didn't say he did it. He didn't give them an answer.
So you don't debate or carry on a dialogue with terrorists.
And that's what they, they terrorized this man. They terrorized that
community. Our Lord didn't answer no word. So here's what he said. Go. We're not going to argue and
debate with other religions. We're just going to preach the
gospel. It's like I think it was last
year. I was invited to this church
to preach. I came up here on this post-landing
day. I was invited to come up here
to this and another church invited us. I said, no, that's okay.
That's okay. You don't need to be caught up
in that mess. You don't need to be caught up in it. Who you
associate with, people associate you with them. I can't even say
it. And our Lord said to this devil, he just said, go. He gave him leave to go. It says in Mark, he gave him
leave Here is, if there's ever a scripture that gives us the
absolute authority and lordship of Jesus Christ, here's one of
them. He gave them leave to go. And
they went. They went. No case is too hard for our Lord. No case. You just think about
somebody you know or yourself. But if you're already born of
God, you think of others. You have loved ones. I do. But no case is too hard. Just a word. Just a word. But I say, let's be like this
one here. and become a flaming witness of what the Lord has done for
us. In Mark 20, he departed and began
to publish in Decapolis how great a thing Jesus had done for him. And all men
did marvel. All men did marvel. The Lord
left that coast, but really, did he? Not if he left a witness
there. He left a witness. He left a
witness there. He was still merciful. They asked
him to leave. He said, okay, I'm going to leave.
I'm going to leave my witness. Who would have thought? Who would
have even remotely thought that this man possessed with all these
demons, causing all this trouble, will become a flaming witness
to the glory of God. Who would have thought? Who would
have thought you would?