Grace For The Gadarene

Q: What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

The Bible teaches that God's mercy is extended to His chosen people from eternity, as seen in Ephesians 2:4-5. Scripture shows that God's mercy is rooted in His eternal love for His elect. In Ephesians 2:4-5, we read that God, who is rich in mercy, loved us even when we were dead in our sins and made us alive with Christ. This demonstrates that God's mercy is not based on our merit but on His sovereign grace and love. God's mercy is immutable and has been directed toward His chosen ones since before the foundation of the world, ensuring that at His appointed time, they will be brought to salvation.

Q: How do we know God's grace is sufficient?

God's grace is shown to be sufficient through His powerful acts of redemption, such as the healing of the demoniac in Luke 8. In Luke 8, we witness the miraculous healing of the Gadarene demoniac, where Jesus demonstrates His omnipotent grace. This account exemplifies how God's grace can reach the most desperate of sinners, illustrating that no one is beyond His saving power. The Gadarene, who was possessed and lost, represents all humanity's condition before encountering Christ. Once Jesus intervenes, the demoniac is transformed and made whole, showing that His grace truly is sufficient to save and restore. This act serves as a reminder that God’s grace can penetrate the deepest despair and transform lives, reassuring us of its sufficiency for all who believe.

Q: Why is the concept of election important for Christians?

Election emphasizes God's sovereign choice, underscoring His grace and mercy toward certain individuals from eternity. Election is a foundational doctrine in Reformed theology, affirming that God has chosen certain individuals for salvation before the foundation of the world, as reflected in Ephesians 1:4-5. This concept is crucial because it highlights God's sovereignty in salvation—He does not save based on foreseen faith or merit but out of His free will. This brings comfort and assurance to believers, knowing that their salvation rests in God's unchanging purpose and grace. Moreover, it teaches us humility, reminding us that we are saved not by our works but by God's mercy. As seen in the account of the Gadarene demoniac, those called by God's grace are transformed and called to reflect His mercy to the world.

Q: What is the significance of Christ's mission to save sinners?

Christ's mission is significant as it fulfills God's promise to save His people from their sins, showcasing His love and mercy. The mission of Christ is central to the Christian faith, encapsulated in His title as Savior, which signifies His role in delivering His people from sin. This mission is not a mere afterthought but was planned in eternity as part of God's covenant of redemption. Christ came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10), demonstrating God's unwavering commitment to His elect. The healing of the Gadarene demoniac exemplifies this mission in action; Jesus confronts and conquers the forces of hell to rescue a man who was at his lowest. This reveals God's grace, mercy, and faithfulness to save those whom He has appointed. The significance of Christ's mission reassures believers of the effectiveness of His work on the cross and the certainty of their salvation.

Q: How does God's sovereignty relate to salvation?

God's sovereignty is essential in salvation, assuring believers that it is entirely His work from start to finish. The sovereignty of God in salvation is a comforting truth that underscores the assurance Christians have in their salvation. Scripture clearly teaches that God is sovereign over all creation and that His will cannot be thwarted. In the context of salvation, this means that God has ordained those whom He will save and has set in motion the means by which they will come to faith. This is illustrated through the healing of the Gadarene demoniac, where Jesus sovereignly intervenes to save a man whom society deemed hopeless. God operates according to His purpose, and He draws His chosen ones to Himself at the appointed time, as outlined in Romans 8:29-30. Understanding God's sovereignty enables believers to trust that their salvation is secure, rooted in His unchanging character and eternal plans.

For every chosen, redeemed sinner,
there is an appointed time when God Almighty shall save the object
of His love. Though we are born children of
wrath, even as others, God's elect are, have been, from eternity,
the objects of His immutable mercy, love, and grace. Though
we ran hell-bent to destruction, the Lord God from old eternity
said, hitherto shalt thou go and no further. We didn't know
it, but he drew a line in the sand of our lives and said, this
is where you're going and this is where I'll meet you. It's
called in the scripture the time of life and the time of love. Though Satan roared against us,
though the legions of hell sought to destroy us, though our hearts
were in league with hell itself, at God's appointed time of love,
the Lord Jesus Christ came to us and by the power of his omnipotent
grace snatched us as brands from the burning. I pray that God
will be pleased tonight to do so for you who are yet without
him. Let's turn to Luke chapter 8. Just hold your Bibles open at
verses 26 through 36. This event recorded in Luke 8,
26 through 36 is recorded also by Matthew and Mark. All three of these gospel writers
were inspired of the Holy Spirit to tell the same story. And they
told it in considerable detail. Mark gives us the most detailed
account of the three accounts concerning those things that
transpired that day in the land of the Gadarenes. But all three
hold before us a remarkable display of our Lord's sovereign power
over all things, yes, even over the demons of hell, and give
us an example of his marvelous saving mercy in the healing of
this maniac of Gadara. As the Lord Jesus vanquished
hell in the heart and life of this poor demoniac 2,000 years
ago, he still vanquishes hell in the hearts of chosen sinners
by the power of his grace. And let me show you five things
here. First, in verse 26, we see the Son of God on an errand
of mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior,
the Son of God, came into this world as Jehovah's righteous
servant. He came here to do his father's
will, to fulfill the covenant he had made with his father.
He came going about his father's business. Here we see the good
shepherd seeking and finding one of his lost sheep. He had
been coming to this place from old eternity. And now we read
in verse 26, they arrived. In their remarkable statement,
they arrived. They came right to the place
he had been coming to since before the world began, and they arrived
at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
The Lord Jesus had just come from the other side of the Sea
of Galilee with his disciples. He came deliberately to the shores
of Gadara, but you will remember that as our Lord set sail for
Gadara, he knew that he was sailing directly into the eye of a terrible
storm. Yet he set sail willingly. He
was on an errand of mercy. He was going to Gadara to save
a chosen sinner, one for whom the time of love had now come.
The Lord Jesus came through the storm, across the terrible sea,
and he did so with a willing heart, because he had gone to
Gadara to save one whom he loved. And when he finished his work,
When he had delivered the poor demoniac, he turned and sailed
back across the sea to where he had come from. That's exactly
what our Lord does for all his people. He left his lofty throne
in heaven, came across the sea of time and mortality, suffered
the horrible storm of God's wrath as our substitute to save us,
And when he had done that mighty work, when he had by the sacrifice
of himself put away our sins and delivered us from the curse
of God's holy law, the Son of God went back to glory and took
possession of the glory given him before the foundation of
the world as our mediator. He came to do his father's will,
he said, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Listen to these words
of scripture and learn our Savior's everlasting mission. Thou shalt
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He is Jesus, God's Joshua, God's
Deliverer, who has come to save his people, and save them he
will. The Son of Man came to seek and
to save that which was lost. This is a faithful saying. That
means you can take this to the bank. This is a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation.
Worthy for you to hear it and receive it. Christ Jesus came
into the world specifically for this purpose. to save sinners. He was manifested to take away
our sins. Our Lord Jesus came here to save
and he came here to the land of the Gadarenes to save the
most unlikely of the Gadarenes. He came here to find a wild maniac. One who was entirely possessed
of the devil. In fact, a legion of demons resided
in this poor man's soul. And yet, we will see as we read
on in Luke's gospel, this man, this wild, naked, beastly, madman,
this hellish man, this man who was himself in the grips of Satan,
this man who lived as it were on the very edge of hell, this
man was chosen of God to be the messenger of mercy for many men,
and by means of God's grace to him, God was gracious to many. How like our Savior that is.
Would you turn one more time to 1 Corinthians 1? Let us never forget. Let us never
forget. God's ways are not our ways.
His thoughts are not our thoughts. He does everything just exactly
backwards what we think it ought to be done. Always has, always
will. Verse 26, for you see your calling, brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are. And he did it for this reason,
that no flesh should glory in his presence. The Son of God
came to Gadara to dispossess Satan of one of his captives,
to bind the strong man and take his house, to spoil him of his
goods. And he didn't leave Gadara until
he had finished the work he came to do. The Son of God came into
this world as our God-man mediator, our covenant surety, to fulfill
all righteousness for us and to put away our sins. And having
loved his own, he loved them to the end and did not leave
this work until his work was done. And our Lord Jesus still
rules in heaven as the God-man mediator. And he will continue
to rule in heaven as the God-man mediator, fulfilling his covenant
until he has saved the last of his chosen, the last object of
his love, the last of his redeemed ones. Faithful, faithful, faithful. God is faithful. Nothing I admire
in God like I do His faithfulness. Nothing I admire in our Savior
like I do His faithfulness. You men and women who faithfully
worship Him, faithfully serve Him, I commend you and I commend
to you His faithfulness. He set His heart on you from
eternity and would not go back. He swore to save you from eternity
and would not go back on His word. He pledged Himself to save
you from everlasting and remains faithful to His work. He will
not give up His work until He has given His children to His
Father. It says, Lo, I and the children
which God has given me. Alright, now look at verse 27
in our text. Verse 27. We see here a sinner. in desperate,
desperate need of God's mercy. And when he went forth to land,
there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils
a long time, and wear no clothes, neither abode in any house but
in the tombs. 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 oftentimes it had caught
him. And he was kept bound with chains and in fetters. And he
broke the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, saying,
what is your name? And he said, Legion. A legion,
of course, is somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 men. He speaks here of a great multitude
of devils. He said, Legion, because many
were entered into him. Now in Matthew's account, I've
mentioned this just to give you a hint at man's folly and his
rebellion. Matthew tells us that there were
two mad, demon-possessed Gadarenes who met the master on the shores
of Gadara. And wise, brilliant men say,
there, you see, the Bible is full of contradictions. Matthew
says there were two. Mark and Luke just mention one.
Hmm. Let me see. There were two. I bet that means there were at
least one. Wouldn't you think? Since there were two, there must
have been one. And Matthew and Mark and Luke give us their accounts
by divine inspiration as they were moved of God to do so. Mark
giving the more detailed account, but Mark and Luke mention just
one of these Gadarenes and pick him out as an illustrious example
of God's grace. That doesn't give any contradiction
at all, but rather simply shows man's rebellion against God. And let me show you some things
about this particular Gadarene. First, this poor soul was totally
possessed by hellish influence. Satan, the legions of hell possessed
his heart, his mind, his body, his very soul. I cannot imagine
a more pathetic picture. Mark tells us that he was possessed
by an unclean spirit. That's the condition of us all
by nature. I know this man was possessed of the devil, but the
devil could never have possessed him had he not been unclean to
begin with. Even so, the wicked who oppose
in God oppose themselves, and are at this day taken captive
by Satan at his will. I think of that text in 2 Timothy
often. I observe men, I observe many
dear to me, And I wonder why on earth, how can you explain
men doing such things? Those who are not yielded to
the dominion of Christ are the voluntary vassals of their own
hearts, of their own lust, and they are taken captive of Satan
at his will. Isaiah declares we're all as
an unclean thing. The scripture tells us that our
hearts are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Out of our hearts, out of my
heart and yours, proceed every evil abomination ever known in
humanity. The shocking horror of our heart's
wickedness, if ever we really see it, would cause us to put
our hands over our mouths when we begin to say concerning anything,
I don't see how men could do such a thing as that. I'll be honest with you, I wish
sometimes I didn't understand how men could do such a thing,
but I do. because my heart possesses the
same evil character as every other man's heart, and yours
does too. Secondly, this poor wretch had
been in this condition for a long, long time. We're not told how
long. We're just told that he had been
in this sad shape, possessed of devils a long time. The devils
took hold of him apparently when he was just a youth. This too
is true of fallen man. We have, since the fall of our
father Adam, been under the influence of hell. Not one or two, not
a few, but all. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. There is not in man some innate
goodness waiting to pop out, but rather there is in man nothing
but corruption, hell itself, waiting to erupt. Unless God
Almighty stops it, it will erupt. I hear fellows sometimes when
they're preaching I listened, I don't much anymore, but when
I was younger I used to go and sit and listen to these theological
readings of papers and things, and the fellas in there, you
know, they like to present things just right, make sure we don't
state things wrong. I've heard fellas many times
say, now when we talk about man's depravity, we don't mean man's
as wicked as he could be. Oh, I do. We are as wicked as
we can be. That's our nature. We don't express
the wickedness of our hearts at all times or ever at any single
time. Only because God in his providence
restrains us from the corruption that's in us. But man by nature
is nothing but corruption. Nothing but corruption comes
from him. Nothing but corruption proceeds
from him. Nothing but corruption is done
by him. That's man's nature. The wicked
are estranged from the womb, estranged from God, estranged
from Christ, estranged from righteousness, and go astray as soon as they
are born, putting on a show, speaking lies. Third, this maniac
was naked. Our text tells us he wear no
clothes. Now, in preparing this message, I read a good many things. I have no doubt that it is altogether
proper to ascribe nudity and the propensity of men and women
toward nudity to influence from hell. I have no question about
that, none at all. But there's much more here than
just a warning against not wearing clothes. This man was so far
driven to madness that he made no effort to cover himself before
others. Now that's a man who's gone pretty
far. He's gone pretty far. How do I state this? I don't
know of any evil more wicked in the world than self-righteousness,
but here is a man who made no hypocritical show
of moral or religious decency. None at all. He was so full of
hell He didn't care who knew it. Now that's a rebel. He wear no clothes. He's here
I am, take it or leave it. Here I am and I'm not changing
for you or anybody else. Here I am and the world can go
to hell as far as I'm concerned. This is my world. This is me. Fourthly, this poor soul was
lost. The one thing he didn't know,
he was lost. Without a home, dwelling in the
tombs, living among the dead. Spiritually dead, he lived among
the dead. Is that the case with you? If
you're without Christ, I know it is. I know it is. It was with
me. You who live without Christ live
among the dead because you're dead. This man was not dead physically,
but he was dead spiritually. Therefore, he was most comfortable
among the dead. That's where I was when God found
me by His grace. And that's where you are by nature.
That's where our sons and daughters are. That's where our neighbors
are. That's where our family is, dead.
dwelling among the tombs. Don't forget what you are by
nature and where you were when God found you. Look often to
the pit which you're hewn, and to the rock, or the hole of the
pit from which you're digged, and to the rock from which you're
hewn. Alright, fifthly, this poor soul was wild, mad, uncontrollable. Look at verse 30. He was kept
bound with chains and in fetters, and he broke the bonds. The fetters of society, social
acceptance, peer approval, social advantage, family pressure, reputation,
concern for the opinions of others, Those are the things that make
men and women behave civilly in civilized society. That's
all. That's all. The only thing that
makes our neighborhoods any different from some barbaric tribesman's
neighborhood in New Guinea are just these social things. The
desire for acceptance, approval, social advantage helps you move
up the ladder. Pressure from the family. reputation,
the opinions of men. Those things bind most men. But
every now and then you find some fellas who just won't be bound
by moral decency. The codes of society have no
effect on them. The codes of social stigma has
no effect on them. Such as this man. I know exactly where he was.
I've been there. Like this maniac of Godera, I
knew more than anybody. I was not about to conform to
anyone's code. As far as I was concerned, the
world existed for no purpose but my pleasure. I was determined
to drink in all the gusto in huge gulps as quickly as I could
drink it in, and drink it in I did. But I found it to be a
cup not full of gusto but of death. not full of happiness
but of misery, not full of health but of poison. Social fetters
couldn't bind me, and the fetters and chains of religion were no
better. I knew something of the terror of God's law that frightened
me. The wrath of God, the terrors
of judgment, of hell, of endless death tormented my soul, sometimes
for months on end. for months on end. I'm talking
about torment. I'm talking about spending nights
after nights after nights after nights and week after week after
week and month after month after month terrified of hell. But it's amazing. It didn't change
a thing. It didn't change a thing. Not
a thing. All it did make me meaner. All
it did make me determined to have my way all the more. Oh,
I'd go to bed at night and pretend to pray. I'd go to bed at night
and do the best I knew how to do to pray. I'd try to drive
a bargain with God. I'd try to convince Him if He'll do something
for me, I'd do something for Him. And get up in the morning
with my fist shoved square in His face again. You see, the
fear of hell has never changed a human heart. Judgment never
makes men better. Judgment never causes men, never
causes men to turn from their wicked ways, only outwardly and
only for a time. All right, here's the sixth thing. In a word, this poor wretch of
Gadara, in the totality of his miserable existence, was driven
of the devil into the wilderness. He dwelt among the tombs, had
no home, and he's driven. Driven. Driven like a wild beast. Driven. Sheep are led. Wild beasts are driven. The only
way to handle them is to drive them or kill them. He's driven.
Constantly driven by his madness. Constantly driven by the devils
within. Constantly driven further, further,
further away from God into the wilderness of his depravity and
corruption. No man could tame him. When society sees that chains
and fetters can't bind a man, when they see that those things
can't make him any better, they try by refinement and education,
reward and gentle persuasion to tame him. Make him to become
morally respectable. And if that doesn't work these
days, they change the morals. So that the man stays the same,
they say, now he's a nice fellow. The Lord Jesus didn't bind and
He didn't tame. You see, society tames men and
religion binds men. The Son of God breaks them. He breaks them. I recall years
ago when Brother Bob Lips was living here, when he was still
living, I was visiting with him one time and he was telling me
about gentling his horses. These show horses, they don't,
you know I used to watch those westerns, they'd throw a saddle
on a horse and just ride and ride and ride and ride, get thrown
off and ride and ride and ride and ride, get thrown off and
ride and ride, until they broke him, because they wanted him
broke. Not these show horses. These racehorses, oh no, they
don't want those animals broke. They want them just as wild as
they can be. Just gentle them a little. Just so you can control
them a little. And so they gentle them until
they can put a bridle on them, put a saddle on them and control
them a little. And that's what religion does
with man. And that's what society does with man. The Son of God
comes to the wild ass's coat and throws his saddle on him
and rides him until he's broke. I promise you he's gonna break
you. He's gonna break you. When the
Lord Jesus came on the scene, he found this man hell-bent on
destruction. Mark tells us something that
Matthew and Luke both omit. He was always night and day in
the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with
stone. And I don't know about you, when
I read scripture I try to picture the scenes before me. Can you
imagine the terror this man wreaked on others? Can you imagine having
this fellow for your next door neighbor? As folks pass by this
place, especially at night, can you imagine yourself living close
to such a man? You'd put bars on all your windows
and bars on all your doors and you'd sleep with a gun under
your pillow. Whenever you saw him coming down the street you'd
kind of nod, make sure you didn't cross in the wrong way and you'd
cross over on the other side of the street and get away as
politely and quickly as possible. But can you imagine what misery such a man is in? Oh, I know his misery is his
own doing. I know his wickedness is inexcusable, but I know the
misery of his soul. I've been there among the tombs,
moaning and groaning and crying and cutting myself, always playing
with death and yet always terrified of dying. Despising loneliness
and isolation, yet always doing that which of necessity brought
me into greater loneliness and greater isolation. Such was the
case with this man. It was just then, as it were in the nick of time,
the Son of God stepped in and saved him by his almighty grace.
And so it has been with each of us who've experienced his
grace. If you want to turn there, you
can turn and read with me in Ephesians chapter 2. I'm sure
you can recite it if you want to just listen. You hath he quickened
who were dead, dead. Common condition of all men,
dead. in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world. Every one of us walked
in the same course. According to the prince of the
power of the air under the demon influence of hell. The spirit
that now works in the children of disobedience The spirit that
you now read about in your newspaper every day. The spirit you see
in your rebel sons and daughters. The spirit you see in your neighbors.
The spirit of disobedience. Among whom also, look at it now,
we all had our conversation. Our manner of life. In time past. According to the lust of the
flesh. Every one of us lived according
to the lust of our flesh. Some walking the high road of
religion and moral respectability, some the low road of debauchery,
crime, and every form of evil. But all according to the lust
of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just exactly like everybody
else. Now look at verse 4. Clap your
hands and rejoice. But God, who is rich in mercy,
For His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace
ye are saved. All right, now back in our text.
Verse 28. Here are three facts well known in
hell. People on this earth don't know
them, but everybody in hell does. Men and women in society don't
know them, but every demon of hell knows them. When he saw Jesus, he cried out
and fell down before him 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. Verse 31. And they besought him,
and he would not command them to go into the deep. Here's the
first fact. This man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is God the Son Most High. He who is God is God Most High. He who is our Savior is God Most
High. He is God above all and over
all, who rules all exactly as he will. Here's the second fact. This one who is God is the man,
Christ our Savior, real man, God in human flesh. Third fact,
there is a day appointed when all the Lord's enemies shall
be cast into the bottomless pit, shut up forever in hell where
they can do no more harm. Matthew tells us that these demon
spirits cried, Art thou come toward me at us before the time?
They cried, torment us not. These demons cried, cast us not
into the deep. And the word deep here in Luke
8.31 is the very same word translated throughout the book of Revelation,
bottomless pit. These demons recognized that
he who is God most high, God in human flesh, would soon prevail
over his enemies and cast them into the deep at the appointed
day of judgment. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Here's a savior with omnipotent grace, verse 29. For he had commanded, commanded,
I love the language of scripture, commanded the devil, commanded
the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it
had caught him. And he was kept bound with chains
and in fetters, and he broke the bands and was driven of the
devil into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, saying,
What is your name? And he said, Legion. Can you picture these
legions of hell towering before him? Legion. That's about it. Legion. Because
many devils were entered into him. And they besought Him, they
begged Him. Like cowering curves they begged
Him. That He would not command them
to go out into the deep. Verse 32, And there was there
a herd of swine, many swine, feeding on the mountain. And
they begged Him, they besought Him, they pleaded with Him. That
He would not suffer them to enter in, that He would suffer them
to enter into them. And He suffered them. He gave
His permission. He kind of waved his hand and
said, go ahead. And 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. He who is our Savior
is God omnipotent. He has power over all flesh.
And he has power over all heads. that he might give eternal life
to as many as God has given him. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
absolute monarch of the universe. I read this and I thought, well,
why did the Lord grant these demons their prayer? I'll give you a hint of what
I'm working on for next Sunday evening, Lord willing. In these
verses and following, we have demons praying and their prayer
were answered. We have reprobate men praying and God gave them
what they requested. And you'll see this demoniac
who was healed praying and the Lord said no. Why did the Lord
grant to these demons what they wanted? Let's go into this herd
of swine so that we'll not be cast into the deep. I think there
was a good reason. Very good reason. One is he wanted
to show this man to whom he was gracious, his sovereign dominion,
even over the demons of hell. And two, he wanted this poor
Gadarene to know and to remember vividly and clearly that what
these demons of hell would have done to him is what they did
to these wine. They destroy them. Let's never
imagine that Satan and the demons of hell are rivals to our God. They're not. Never imagine that
Satan and the legions of hell are out of control. They are
not. Our Lord Jesus Christ commanded and Satan and the fallen angels
were cast out of heaven like that. At His cross, our Lord
Jesus bound Satan. We read of Him as a great angel
in Revelation 20, who came down from heaven and with a mighty
chain has bound Napoleon, the dragon, the demon of hell, Satan,
the accuser. And our Lord Jesus Christ, at
the command of His word, will cast the fiend of hell out of
the hearts of men, overthrow his dominion in a man's life,
and set up his own throne in that place where Satan once ruled
supreme. Oh yes, Satan's a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. But children of God, all he can
do is roar. I love the picture drawn by John
Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress. He's going on his way to the
celestial city, and he's going through the dark, dark valley.
And as he goes, there's an abyss on either side, but go through
it, he must. And as he approaches, he hears
the roar of a lion, and he trembles. But on he goes, because this
is the path to the city. And he's got to go through this
dark forest. He's got to go through this dark
valley. Lion or no lion, this is the only road. And he gets
closer and he sees the lion on either side of the path roaring
against him. And he's terrified. But he's
got to go on. This is the path to the city.
And so he goes on. And he got a little closer, began
to sigh with relief, comfort, and joy. He saw that the lion
had a collar around his neck, and a chain on the collar, and
it didn't have any fangs, and it didn't have any claws, all
it could do was roar. That's exactly the way it is
with Satan. He's God's devil, and when God
gets done with him, he'll cast him into hell, but he can do
no harm to God's people, to God's kingdom, or to God's cause. All
right, let me quickly give you this one last thing. Here is
a sinner saved by God's almighty grace. Verse 34. When they that
fed them saw what was done, they fled. Isn't that strange? They'd
been keeping swine over here next door to this fellow for
a long time. And now all of a sudden he puts clothes on, he quit screaming,
quit cutting himself, quit scaring everybody to death, sat down,
and 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. What a change! A change everyone
in town could see. This terror of a man was born
again. He was a new creature. He was
a different fellow. This man who had been possessed
of the devil was now possessed of the Son of God. He who was
before uncontrollably wild and wicked is sitting before his
master. He who once roamed about naked
was clothed. By nature I was naked before
God. Now I'm clothed. How about you? Clothed in the garments of salvation,
robed with the righteousness of God's darling Son, made To
wear? No, that's not a right term.
Made to possess a beauty which God himself looks upon and declares
to be beauty. And he said, the beauty which
I gave you is my own beauty. Clothed. Here's this man. This madman now is in his right
mind. Someone accurately said every
man is out of his mind until he has the mind of Christ. Those who saw what happened but
had not experienced it were afraid. Explain that preacher. That I
can't explain. When God saves a sinner Now you
mark it down, when God saves a sinner, others who thought
they were alright are terrified by it. Especially if the fellow
saved was one of them. These poor souls were terrified
in the presence of almighty mercy, omnipotent love and saving grace.
Why? Because they didn't know anything
about it. And that which folks don't know,
that which folks don't understand, scares the liver out of them.
They didn't understand it, so they're terrified. They still
lived in bondage. The only difference between them
and the demoniac was that they were held by the fetters and
chains and tamed by society. They mistook their fetters for
righteousness and their tameness for goodness. And we read that
he that was possessed of the devils was healed. Oh, what tender language God
uses with regard to his people. I think I told you this a while
back when James was preaching his conference with me recently.
Where were we preaching together? I can't remember, but he made
mention of the fact that he said, the Lord Jesus has so thoroughly
purged our sins that God Almighty looks upon his children not as
sinners demanding punishment, but as sick children needing
healing. The Lord God Almighty looks upon
our greatest woes as the needs that only a father with his tender
hand can supply. Now, you take your children. They go out and do something
horrible. At best you want to correct them,
and so you take your rod out and you work on them. At worst,
you're frustrated and angry, so you take your rod out and
vent your frustrations on them. But whoever heard of a father
upset with a child because he was sick, vomiting, diarrhea,
cramping, crying, hurting, Oh, no. Oh, no, Father. He says,
what can I do, baby? What can I do for you? Just tell
me, what can I do for you? The Son of God came to our sin-sick
souls in our desperate need when we didn't even know how to tell
Him what to do for us and did for us what only He could do with the touch of His hand. Healed
us by His omnipotent grace. This poor wild man, this man
who had no home, but dwelt among the dead, is now found at home
with the Son of God, sitting at the feet of Jesus. He'd been sitting there a long
time now. and sit there he will forever. May God give you grace to join
him. Amen. All right, Lindsey.

Grace For The Gadarene

What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient?

Why is the concept of election important for Christians?

What is the significance of Christ's mission to save sinners?

How does God's sovereignty relate to salvation?

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Grace For The Gadarene

What does the Bible say about God's mercy?

How do we know God's grace is sufficient?

Why is the concept of election important for Christians?

What is the significance of Christ's mission to save sinners?

How does God's sovereignty relate to salvation?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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