Luke chapter 8 and we're reading
verse 26. This is speaking about the Lord
Jesus Christ. You might remember a couple of
weeks ago, we were speaking about the storm on the lake and how
the Lord pacified the wind and the waves. And then at the other
side of that journey, that lake journey or Sea of Galilee journey,
we read in verse 26, and they, that is the Lord and his disciples,
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 which had devil's
long time, and wear no clothes, neither abode in any house, but
in the tombs. 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 thee, torment me not, For he had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man, for oft times it had caught him,
and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he break
the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.
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. But there was there an 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. When they that fed
them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in
the city and in the country. 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
and in his right mind, and they were afraid. They also which
saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the
devils was healed. Then the whole multitude of the
country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart
from them, for they were taken with great fear, and he went
up into the ship and returned back again. Now the man out of
whom the devils were departed besought him that he might be
with him. But Jesus sent him away, saying,
Return to thine own house, and show how great things God hath
done unto thee. And he went his way, and published
throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto
him. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading also. It is always a blessing, I think. It is always a blessing to read
and study the history and the circumstances of the lives of
those favoured men and women, pursued by grace, granted mercy
and made whole, body and soul, upon meeting the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord, by his death, saved countless souls from eternal
consequences of their sin. But he also, in his earthly ministry,
delivered countless people from a life of pain and trauma and
suffering. And the study of such lives invariably
takes us beyond the mere details of their names and their locations
and the peculiar circumstances of their lives to marvel thereafter
at the wisdom and kindness of the Lord in relieving their troubles. And finally, I think as well,
if we have eyes to see, we may discover the powerful theology
that is revealed by these various encounters as well. So the lame
man, or the paralytic, or the leper, or the woman with the
issue of blood, or Mary Magdalene, or blind Bartimaeus, or Lazarus
raised from the dead, Not only do we discover intimate personal
stories behind each of the Lord's miracles, but for those who have
eyes to see, the Holy Spirit opens up to us a word of truth
and we learn spiritual truths. of great grace that further elevate
the wonderful works of our Saviour. We see the depth behind the superficial
miracles, if you like. Take, for example, the account
of this man whose name has come down to us as Legion. Not because
that was his real name, but because that was the name adopted by
the leader of the host of devils that possessed his poor soul.
Demons who had stripped him of all human dignity and robbed
him of every social comfort. The man's story itself is interesting
and we could profitably spend our time today thinking about
the history and the details of the incident and the Lord's encounter
with him. However, what I'm going to do
is think rather about the lesson behind the story because I think
that this man's experience illuminates the state of every natural, carnal
man and woman bound in sin and under the control of Satan in
their fallen state. And it reminds us that spiritual
conversion is required to liberate us from Satan's grip. And it
reminds us principally by whom alone the transformation comes
and is effected. So here's the first point that
I want to draw your attention to. Here we have this man in
complete subjection to these demons. This man is a picture
of all of us in our fallen nature. When Adam rebelled against God,
he did so not as a private individual, but federally. That means he
did not simply sin for himself personally, He did so representatively
as the head of his family. And his children who issue from
him carry the same rebellious nature, the same evil tendencies,
the same animosity against God. And this man was in bondage.
He ran naked without any shame. He hurt himself without any regret. He separated himself in the wilderness
and he lived in the tombs among the corpses and the dead bones. And so we, in our fallen nature,
are shameless in our wickedness against God. We hurt our own
souls without feeling any remorse or repentance. We deny God. We flee from his presence because
we are at enmity with him. We spend our natural existence
living among dead people. And the demons who filled and
possessed this man would not allow him to go and hear the
Lord preach. They would not allow him to study
the prophets to learn about God's grace. They would not allow him
to seriously inquire how to free himself from their chains, their
dominion. Of course they wouldn't. He belonged
to them and his will was bound to their will. This man was governed
by a principle of evil that dominated his life. His will was not free. It was not even conscious of
its true condition. He was driven by forces beyond
his understanding and all he had to look forward to in this
life was pain, misery and continuing demonic possession. and every
one of us by nature in our unconverted state is under similar bondage
of soul and will. We are possessed of an unclean
spirit. We are subject to the lusts of
the flesh and we are without hope in this world. But then something happened and
we see an example of divine intervention. The Lord Jesus came and got this
man. The journey over the sea, the
storm that resisted the passage of the boat, the weariness of
the Saviour after a gruelling day did not inhibit the Lord's
progress in any way. He was going to the land of the
Gadarenes to find an elect son. a soul in need, a member of his
own body, the church. And I note with interest that
the Lord left a curious crowd of people to go and meet a lone
individual. And this is the way of grace
because men are preoccupied with numbers. But sinners don't get
saved in crowds. They get converted secretly and
privately and in God's good time. And I don't for a moment believe
that there was any randomness about this encounter between
this man, Legion, and the Lord. Christ's spirit, as the mighty
God, had already constrained this man and his legion of devils
long before the Lord ever put foot on that coastline. Had Legion
had his way, this man would have been running deeper into the
wilderness, and not towards the Son of God. They knew exactly
with whom they were dealing and they knew Christ's power instantly
to expel and condemn them in eternal chains to hell. That's the deep abyss that they're
talking about. And yet, this was Christ's time
to come and reclaim one of God's elect, one of his beloved, one
for whom he already was preparing himself to redeem with his own
precious blood. And this is how grace works.
Men and women don't come to Christ because they desire to know God
or long to have their sins forgiven or feel a need to change their
ways. Remember, they are rebels willingly under the control of
Satan. It takes initially a powerful
work of grace to transform such a soul and it takes the coming
in power, in the day of power of God the Holy Spirit with grace
and spiritual liberty to deliver a man and woman bound and condemned
in their sin. And here we see the attitude
of the Lord. We see a manifestation of his
love. Why did the Lord Jesus come for
this man? There can be only one reason.
He wanted to. Christ desired to save this man
and he made a journey specifically to do his will. And why him? Because Christ willed it. He
wasn't a good man. He was an outcast even from the
social order of his day. And that was no lover of God.
These people loved pigs more than they loved people. They
loved money more than they loved the opportunity to spend time
in the company of the miracle working son of God. This man is an object lesson
of demon possession. But these neighbours of his,
these well-meaning, good-living, plight-speaking neighbours were
just as opposed in their souls to Christ as was this man before
Christ intervened. And why then did the Lord not
change them all? Why did he get in his boat and
sail away when these folks made it clear they wanted nothing
to do with him? Well, because he had no will
to convert them, no desire to save their souls. Christ reached
in among them and he plucked out his prize. Josiah Condor,
a hymn writer, I think it was him, he wrote this, "'Tis not
that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be. This heart
would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me. Thou from
the sin that stained me hast cleansed and set me free. Of
old thou hast ordained me that I should live to thee. T'was
sovereign mercy called me and taught my opening mind. The world
had else enthralled me to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns
none before thee. For thy rich grace I thirst,
this knowing, if I love thee. Thou must have loved me first.
And this is the effectual working of divine grace in the soul of
elect men and women according to the will of Almighty God.
It's God's will that matters. Men talk up man's free will. It's God's will that matters.
God's love that restrains His chosen ones from going down to
hell, which their sin deserves and which they desire. It is
Christ who first loved us, who gave himself for us, who died
in our place. If Christ had not loved this
man and gone to get him, he would have died alone in a cold, dark
tomb and gone straight to hell. But today he is in heaven. And this speaks to us of this
complete transformation. When the townspeople came out
to see what had happened, what all the fuss was about, they
discovered this man sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and
in his right mind. What a beautiful picture that
is. He who had been running in a
frenzy, fighting and howling and labouring pitifully under
his oppression, was sitting quietly, drinking in the words of Christ. He was clothed. Oh, how he was
clothed. He was clothed in perfect righteousness. He was at peace with God. For the first time in his life,
he was in his right mind because he understood what it was to
love and worship his Saviour and his Redeemer. and he sat
gladly at the feet of Christ. You know, I'm not sure that there
is a more beautiful picture of a peaceful, settled heart in
the whole of Scripture than this man in this moment. And it's
doubly blessed for the completeness of the transformation here effected
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think if you are a believer,
you know something of this peace. Even those who are tried and
tested and troubled can testify that there is a peace that passeth
understanding, that when it is felt and enjoyed, brings all
our anxieties into a proper perspective. But what of the neighbours? Well,
they were afraid, and well might they be, for then and there they
were in the presence of God, as the legion of demons had recently
been. They were in the presence of
the one who could cast them at once into the abyss of hell. And the only difference between
the two the Legion and the Gadarenes was that the demons who were
of the spiritual realm understood exactly with whom they were dealing. Finally, here's a last thought.
This man wanted to follow Jesus and return across the sea with
him. And it's beautiful to hear the
Lord's personal direction to him. Return to thine own house
and show how great things God hath done unto thee. And by this
statement, Jesus effectively declared himself to be God. And
he commissioned this man to serve him in his own family, in his
own land, in his own house, with his own testimony. And I think
that this is a fine description of personal witness. This man
showed what great things God and Christ had done for him,
simply by being the transformed man that he was. He loved the
Lord. He loved the Scriptures. He loved
the Gospel and he delighted to obey the Lord. He delighted to
worship him. Though far removed geographically,
he delighted to worship him in spirit and in truth. And this
dear soul went his way and published throughout the whole city how
great things Jesus had done unto him. He knew the Lord Jesus was
God, and he knew deliverance from Satan and sin, and he knew
salvation by sovereign grace. Amen.