Turn, please, to Luke's Gospel on the chapter 8, Luke's Gospel
on the chapter 8. I want you to turn there,
please. It's good to be back with you
again here tonight and take part in this gospel mission with our
brother. And to have the preaching of the
Word, It's a great responsibility.
Of course the psalmist said, or rather the apostle said, woe is
unto me if I preach not the gospel.
He felt the necessity LED upon him.
And certainly we can respond to that and say yes, that's the
feeling that we have as well, the responsibility.
Look, chapter 8, we're going to read from the verse 26 and we're
going to read down to the verse 40.
So it's quite a a long reading, some 15 verses in all.
And of course it concerns the Saviour and the disciples who
were with Him in the ship. They have crossed over the sea.
Our Lord has calmed the Great Storm.
Look at verse 26. Looking at it, it says they
arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against
Galilee. And when He went forth the land
there met him out of the city, a certain man, which had devils a
long time, and wore 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 Lloyd voice said, What
have I to do with thee, Jesus, thy Son of God most High, I
beseech thee, torment me not. For he, that is the Saviour had
commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for often
times it had caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and
in fetters, and he braked the bands, and was driven off 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.
And there was there a 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.
And when the devils 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 roundabout 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. And it came to pass that when
Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him, for they
were all waiting for him. Amen.
May God bless the public reading of his word.
Let's seek his face. Please excuse me just for a
moment in prayer. Our Father, we are so thankful
tonight that we are found in a gospel meeting in a place where
prayer is want to be made and in a meeting house.
Lord, that was built for this very purpose, that Christ might
be preached, and all his fullness, the sinners in all
their need. I need thy power to preach
tonight, the ready Lord. The scene has been set for the
message, the hymns have been sung, the gospel pieces have
been rendered. Lord all, and which we can
endorse. But now they are has come,
having read the Scriptures, to preach this glorious gospel of
the grace of God. Fill me Lord, with the Spirit of
God, for I am very conscious tonight that without Thee I can
do nothing. But Lord, I have faith, we all
have faith in your word tonight, that I will not return void unto
Thee, but will accomplish that. Whereto thou hast said it, hear
an answer prayer in Jesus name, Amen.
It's the words there of verse 35.
Then they went out. That is, the people came in from
the countryside in the city to see what was done, and they
found the man out of whom the devils were departed.
Listen to what it says, sitting at the feet of Jesus and
clothed, and then his right mind.
By anybody's standards, this case of the madman of Ghadara,
by which he is generally known, is extreme.
I must doubt if you could find anyone who was in a worse case
than this man. We would say it was most
extreme. And the man who brings us this
report of what has happened here is well qualified to do so.
You will notice, first of all, that we read Luke's account, and
Luke was the New Testament historian.
He's the same man that wrote not only the gospel here, gave his
account of it, but he also wrote the book of Acts, the history of
the Apostolic Church. So he's a historian.
He's not trying to sell a newspaper to get money in to
keep the newspaper going. He's not a tabloid writer.
He's a serious historian. And then he's something else.
He was also a medical doctor in Luke Scott or in Colossians, I
should say, chapter 4, verse 14. He has called Luke the beloved
physician. So he had met with a lot of
different cases and he knew were off.
He was speaking. But best of all, best of all,
tonight he was writing under the inspiration of God, not merely
the influence, but the inspiration of the Spirit of God
I am putting to you. He has impeccable qualifications
to bring this story to us. There's nothing here that is
based on rumour. There's nothing here that is
based on legend or tradition. It has not been exaggerated in
any way. There has been no need to space
it up. The recipient of this letter, a
man called philosophists, has been assured that he may know
the certainty of these things in the very details as well as the
substantial story. So here then, we can say his
gospel truth. And if you look at the extremity
of this man's case, it is harrowing reading.
Sometimes we might get very familiar with it.
I've been reading our Bible for years.
We might run very quickly through this, but it's really
harrowing reading. You imagine philosophists
reading this for the first time. And if he had any feelings,
surely it would bring a tear to his eye.
You see this man, this madman at Kedara was first of all verse
27, a man who was demon possessed.
He was demon possessed. He had been for so long.
It says there verse 27 there for a long time, not only so long,
but so many. In fact, when the demon was
asked, the spokesman for the demon was asked, what is your
name? He said legion because we are
many. And if this term legion is based
on the Roman legion of the occupying army at that time, a
legion at that time had about 6000 members.
Numbers vary, but it's generally around 6000.
Now what were 6000 demons wherein this man is maybe, well,
could could a human body take 6000 demons?
But certainly you can see it is extreme.
Many demons, so many demons possess this man.
Look at verse 27, we discover there that he wear no clothes,
he's running around naked, he is homeless, he has nowhere to
live. And the Bible says he lives in
the tombs. And whilst there might be the
idea there of shelter obviously from the storms and the winds
and the all the elements, I think there is a hellish angle
to this also as well. This is not natural.
Nobody lives among the tombs. Somebody might bury a loved one
that may go regularly to the grave, maybe every week and so
on. That's natural.
But to live among the tombs, to run naked among the tombs, to be
possessed with so many devils, it gets worse there.
Look what it says in the verse 29 there.
Listen to what it says. The devil had caught him.
He was kept bound with chains and in fetters.
Man can't even control him because it says there that he
break the bans. Man can't even control him,
never mind change him. This is one of the saddest cases
you will ever read of in the scriptures or indeed anywhere
else. And then it says there at the
last verse 29, he was driven off the devil, his demon possessed,
hell controls him, and the devil drives him out into the howling
wilderness. This is an extreme key
assessment, extreme in the extreme.
And I'm putting to you tonight as a gospel preacher, that of
Christ can change and save this man, which he did.
Then it must be, as the Bible calls it, salvation to the
uttermost, salvation to the uttermost, salvation to the
extremes. And if he can change this man,
and he did, then he can change you.
We can argue here from the greater to the lesser.
Remember tonight, dear friends, that God, the Bible says he is
rich in mercy. The Bible says he delights in
mercy. So we're standing tonight on
good ground. The details of how Christ saved
this man are given there, and you may just read it over
quickly. Run your eye over it there in
verses 28 to 34 and you can see the comings and the goings that
was there between Christ and the demons that possessed this man.
Don't just note in passing, for we're still in the introduction.
You notice here that Jesus is stronger even than a whole
legion of demons. They have come to him and they
are begging him for a further postponement of judgement.
They're not denying judgements there.
They say to him, have you come the tormentus before the time?
And they recognise him for who he really is.
They call him the Son of God, the Son of God most high.
In other words, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and He is also
God the Son. In this they are speaking the
truth because they have been compelled to speak the truth.
They are totally under Christ's control.
They can only beseech. They are answerable to Him.
He speaks to them. Verse 29 there or over verse 30,
Jesus asked him to say, What is thy name?
They are compelled to answer to the Saviour because they are
answerable to Him. And then the Lord organises
their evacuation. He gives them leave.
He gives them permission. They go into a herd of swine
that are on the mountainside, and when they go and they
inhabit those swine, the swine run down the steep hill and they
go down and end of the water. Or what splashing there would
be, what squealing there would be, and there's all those
carcasses of the pigs in the water.
It's all in the hands of the Saviour, isn't it?
He's Jesus Christ and mighty to save.
He is mighty deceive. Now we want to look at this text
in verse 35. It's really in the aftermath of
what happens. The word of thus gets out to the
people. They come and they witness this
and what do they see? This man?
What about him? Well, there he is now.
He's sitting at the feet of Jesus.
He's clothed and he's in his right mind again.
The case at hand is extreme. Again.
If Christ can save this man and change his life so completely,
he can do it for you tonight. The text that our brother
preached on the other night is as if any man be in Christ.
He is a new creature. The old things are passed away.
Behold, all things become new. Notice first of all what it
says. He was sitting at the feet of
Jesus. That's the answer to the
restlessness of sin. The restlessness of sin.
Oh, what a contrast with what had gone before.
When we first meet this man, he's running between the tombs.
You imagine going with your little bunch of flowers, or
whichever way I think the Jews take the little stones, don't
then put it on the tombs or so on.
But there you're going with your family to visit Granny's grave
or whatever, and then there's a roar out of this man, and he
appears naked and he's roaring at you.
He's restless. But what a difference there is
now. He was being driven then by the
devil. The word driven there is used
elsewhere in the New Testament. So it's good to look up the
verbs or these words. It is used in James chapter 3
concerning the ships, the sailing ships that are driven in
the fierce winds propelled forward.
It's used again of the Weller of the wind in The Tempest or
storm. There was no rest in this man's
life. There was only agitation.
The Bible is so clear in this matter tonight doesn't know what
it says in Isaiah 57 says about the wicket.
They are like a troubled sea that cannot find rest.
His waters cast up Marin dirt. There is no rest, saith my God,
to the wicket in Psalm 73, verse 18.
God has set the feet of the wicket in slippery places.
And the reason for that is that there is absolutely no
satisfaction in sin. Yes, we confess, we admit that
there is momentary pleasure, for we enjoyed it ourselves when we
were in sin. But there's no satisfaction, and
there's no satisfaction for one good reason.
What difference man from all the other mammals and all the other
creatures that are in this earth?
It says that man has a soul. He has a soul, and man cannot
live by bread alone, said the Saviour.
But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God, he has a soul that will yearn and ache for God, and only
God can grant peace to the soul, and he will not do so as long as
that soul is at war with God. There's no peace in the Bible
for rebels. Now maybe somebody with a little
knowledge of the Bible makes an objection here, because he has
read his Bible and he says, well, did Job not complain about
a wicked man? 21 verse 33, and says of the
wicked man, the man, he has no thought of God, he has no
godliness about him, he has no piety, he has no religion.
Did he not say of him he dies in his full strength, being wholly
at ease and quiet? Well, of course, yes, he did.
I know he did. That's why I put it under the
message. And when he bringing up the
objection here, they answer it. Devils advocate as opposed.
In a little way, yes, But the peace that he had was the peace
of the graveyard. It was a lull in the storm.
Lull in the storm before he was launched out into eternity.
And what happens when the wicket goes out into eternity?
To go out into a place? Bible calls it hell where the
worm dieth, not where the fire is on quench.
That's not the place of peace. The wrath of God, the Bible
says, obeys. It remains upon the wicked, both
in this life and especially in the life that is to come.
The rich man in hell looks 16. He lived his life without God.
He had to say that the old peep that we get into hell.
He said I am tormented. I am tormented in this name.
There's an oral objection here. And maybe somebody says, well,
that's OK what you're saying, I'll run with that.
But are these things not only, not so only about those, this
restlessness, about those who get into deep sins, these sins
that that really mess them up, the drunkards.
We've been warned tonight about the drinking.
And anybody can look on and see the drunkard who is addicted to
the bottle and he can't be at peace.
He's craving for more. Or maybe the man that's on the
drugs, the man who's shaking because he can't get his fix.
Or maybe somebody says, yes, even those who dabble into the
devil worship, is it not Speaking of those people?
But somebody says, how could it ever be said as someone like me,
I'm respectable. Somebody says I, I'm even
religious. I have my church attendance.
I put my envelope into the little box.
I pay in. I, I sponsor missionaries, I
sponsor children and orphanages and I do all those things.
How could it ever be said of me? I'm put into you a composite of
you, If you're still on converted, because by your own
admission you do not possess that new heart, or in the words
of the Saviour, you're not born again of the Spirit of God.
And if that's the case, then you still possess and you still
operate according to the principles of the old heart.
It's not what the Bible says. As a man thinks in his heart, so
as he, the heart is the driving force, and the heart of man,
when it is still unconverted, when it is still unregenerate.
The heart of man is deceitful above all things, desperately
wicked. Who can know it?
Sin is a problem, you see. It's guilt, it's pollution, it's
bondage. The Bible says concerning our
Lord Jesus, He made peace by the blood of His cross.
He bore our sins, He put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
For this cause was the Son of God manifested that he might
destroy the works of the devil. You're saying it in action in
this passage and what you need to do, if all you can say is
that well, I'm sort of good living type of fellow, I'm clean
living and so on. You need to come in repentance
and in faith to Jesus Christ. You need to receive his
salvation. He says come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Just like this man here he's rest, he's sitting this man that
roamed this man that was so out of control.
He's setting out the feet of the saviour.
O takers yoke upon you tonight. Refusal to do so say well, it's
not really for me. Well leave your soul restless
strong evidence that respect respectable other ways you're
still held. Listen to the language of
Scripture held captive by the devil at his will.
And the only difference between you and your own converted state
in this mad manicadara when he was still unsaved is only one of
degree. It's not of kind.
And then we notice here, secondly, and we're moving on.
Not only was he sitting at the feet of Jesus, but it says he
was sitting clothed. He was sitting clothed and
that's the answer to the nakedness of sin.
The answer to the nakedness of sin.
Previously he wear no clothes. He's running naked among the
tombs now sitting clothed. Know how significant you see
sin? Sin strips us, strips us first
of all of our original righteousnesses, original
righteousness. That's what we had as a human
race in our fower. Adam, he was created sinless,
yes, with the capacity to sin because he sinned.
But he was created with original righteousness and then he lost
it, and we lost it in him by one man.
Sin has entered into the world, death by sin.
Sin has passed upon all men because we've all sinned.
The strips is of our respectability.
We're all excellent at the cover up as far as this world is
concerned. You know, we're all decent, but
only by by mutual consent. It's getting easier to be less
decent, isn't it? We're now tolerating.
Oh, we're under the month of June.
Sometimes the wish June was over because we're now tolerating.
But even our forefollowers, even if they were godless, we'd have
totally abominated sin. He knows not defined by societal
tastes. It's not the folks in the hill
tell us what sin is. It's not the folks in the side
of the Thames or in Europe or in the White House or wherever tell
us what sin is. The issue is that's not what we
are. By mutual consent and societal
agreement. How do we stand before God?
That's the dividing and the deciding issue today.
If God threw open the wickedness of our hearts and He was to have
a big projector and He was to put it on the wall there one by
one our heads will go down and we would burn all with shame
because of our sins. You know, many people try and
concoct arguments to justify their sins and and they are not
the one at the fend of the shame I'm putting to you.
There's none of these excuses work.
After Adam and Eve sinned, they discovered their nakedness.
They were ashamed. First mansion of nakedness in
the Bible, the first mansion of shame.
They go together and you know what they did?
They tried to cover themselves with the fig leaves.
Soon those fig leaves weren't covering them really at all.
They fell apart. They were insufficient, you
know, No excuse whatever. Fobe, God of Hebrews 12/29 says
our God is a consuming fire. Revelation 114 John said of the
risen Christ when he met him afresh after 60 years on the
Isle of Patmos. His eyes, his eyes were as a
flame of fire through all the excuses that we're hiding
behind. Nobody can reason for their
sins. Yes, there's plenty excuses.
Again, none of them work. Old Billy, somebody said an
excuse is just the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.
And in that real coming day of judgement that God has already
appointed, it's already in his diary.
He's not thinking about it. It's not out for public
consultation. It's in the decree of God.
It will surely come to pass. He has appointed a day in which
he will judge the world. The whole world will stand
guilty before God, and every mouth will be stopped, and the
morally naked wicked in that day will be sent away.
They will hear these words. Depart.
Depart from me, ye wicked ye, curse it because I never knew
you. But it will not be so for those
you're sitting clothed at the feet of Jesus.
Because we are clothed today not in our own righteousnesses,
which we renounce because God denounces our righteousnesses as
filthy rights. This man wasn't sitting in
filthy rights. This man sitting clothed and
spiritually speaking, he's clothed, clothed in the imputed
righteousness of Christ, You say.
What does that mean? It means that the spotless,
sinless, peerless Saviour, who kept the law, who not only kept
it, but magnified it and made it honourable, all his
righteousness is, is imputed, put into the account of all who
sit at his feet, the sea of the earth, Jehovah's Sikenu, the
Lord, our righteousness, my Saviour must be.
The Bible says in Romans 1314, Put, put ye on.
In other words, be clothed, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that means to believe in him, that means to trust him, that
means to flee to him as Lord and Saviour.
Listen to what he says in Romans 3, verse 18, He says to a
backslidden church, but in effect to every Sinner, he says,
I counsel thee. That's one of his titles, isn't
it? The counsellor, the mighty God,
I counsel thee. I advise thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire, that's pure gold, that thy may us be rich
and white raiment, that thy may us be clothed, and the shame of
thy nakedness not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyes
of that thy mayest sea. And as such the sea of the
birth, to quote the old hymn writer there, the sea of the
earth. He will Gower over on that
overshore. We Gower there because we are
accepted in the Beloved. And you will hear him saying
that day, what a day that's going to be come wonderful.
The Lord says come, come ye blessed of my flower.
That's where you want to be. You want to be on the right hand
side of God, accepted in the beloved, the ungodly or not.
So it'll be like the wind, the chaff as the wind driveth away.
But the Bible says of the Lord, he knoweth the way of the
righteous. Thirdly, here it says not only
was he sitting at the feet of Jesus, not only was he clothed,
but listen there to what it says.
He was in his right mind. That's the gospel answer to the
folly of sin. Sin has a poisonous effect upon
the mind of man. It is specifically mentioned
three times in the Bible. You have it in Colossians
chapter 1 and you who were sometimely speaking to God's
people, that word sometime means in the past.
There was a time when you were alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works. Ephesians 4 verse 18 having the
understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God
through ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of
the heart. Who causes this blindness?
Second Corinthians 4 verse 4, the God of this world, that's
the devil there, not the Genesis one verse one God, the God, the
chosen God, the chosen deity of this world.
The devil has blinded the minds of them not believe not.
That's no position you know to be in or determined to remain in
the soundness of mind which is true wisdom is found in Jesus
Christ alone, the one who said I am the truth.
It's the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom.
Do you remember the words of that repentant thief on the
cross? We sing about him, don't we the
the the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day.
There may I though Vilas he wash all my sins away.
Do you remember his words that led to his conversion?
He rebuked the our thief on the our side of the Saviour who
cursed the Saviour and the the dying.
He says to him, do you not fear God?
I, I like hear about Joseph going away back into the Old
Testament when he was in the skies.
His brothers have come looking food.
Of course they've sold him. You know the whole story and of
bondage and of slavery. Now he's risen to be the Prime
Minister. He recognises them.
They don't recognise him. He's changed over all those
years. He's indifferent garb.
They think he's dead, he's gone, he's not even in their mind and
and they're disturbed because their conscience is at work and
he was able to calm to some degree their heart.
For these words I fear God. Not many civil servants would
say that, but that in record. I fear God.
True wisdom is found setting at the feet of Jesus.
We debate another person who sat at the feet of Jesus, we girl
called Mary, sister of Martha, sister of Lazarus.
Mary, I don't think had gone in the far end of the sins that
this man had ever done. Probably a pious young girl,
saved by the grace of God. Jesus said leave her alone, she
hath chosen the good part, the better part, when she sat at the
feet of the Saviour and heard his word.
And that's where wisdom is found.
That's where wisdom is found. It's found in the Bible.
It's found in God's word that the word of Christ well in you
richly because it makes us wise on the salvation.
And then as an added bonus, a necessity, not only did he give
us a book, but he gave us a teacher.
He sends the Spirit of God, whose work it is to guide us in
the old truth. It's the work of the Saviour to
open the eyes of the blind. That's why Paul was able to say,
consider what I say, and the Lord give you understanding of
all things. I'm going to bring the message
to a close now and I must ask a question.
What response? What response do you propose to
give to thee things? Because the call for a response,
you cannot remain indifferent. You don't only on hear thee
things, you can't remain indifferent.
Can't just shrug the shoulders and say, oh, very good.
You can preach a wee bit. You're obviously a wee bit of a
talent there. You've held my attention.
But now I'm going to have a wee bit of supper.
I'm just going to go straight home and I'm just going to go
back to the way that I was before I come into this meeting.
That's not the answer that I'm looking for tonight.
You see, it's folly, it's foolishness, the fool says in
his heart. There is no God.
Or as a comprander. As a comprander, the fool says
in his heart, no to God or a calm be rendered.
The fool says in his heart, no God for me.
That's folly, that's dangerous folly.
It's folly to ignore, reject nor neglect this matter.
Tonight you can set at the feet of the Saviour, clothed in his
righteousness, Divine, at peace with God, but you need to come,
come as a law Sinner, ask him to be your Saviour, Say Lord, what
you did, what you did for this man, will you not do it for me?
And Jesus said, heaven not cometh to me.
I will in no ways cast out. I think it's very interesting
there. The way the passage finishes the
paragraph marking in my Bible takes us to verse 41 and really
it finishes at 1st 39. But our well, the people that
put the wee paragraph that's in their put in under verse
fournaye because at the end of that passage, people come to see
what was done and they were afraid.
Why were they afraid? Why were they afraid?
What, what, what was there that impacted them?
This man getting his life so changed and they sent him away,
chased him out and he got back under the boat.
The industry chased the Saviour away.
But look what it says in verse. For me it came to pass because
it's still part of the story. There's a contrast here.
When Jesus was returned, the people gladly received Him, for
they were all waiting for Him, to as many as received them,
till they may give the power, the authority to become the sons
of God. They were waiting for Him.
I waited for the Lord. My God patiently did bear at
length to me. He did incline my voice, my cry,
to hear where you're sitting in your seat.
You just lift up your heart to God, Say Lord, save me, save me,
bring me to yourself, wash away all my sins in the blood of the
Lamb. Or if you want to speak with us
afterwards, we'll be around. We're in no big hurry away.
We'll side into one of the little rooms, a minister's room
or wherever. And if you want, they asked any
further questions, we'll be happy as much as we can to help
you. But we're preaching for souls.
We want you to get to Christ. We want you to be saved.
That's by our heads just in prayer.
Bring the meeting now to an end. We give thanks for the food.
Father in heaven, we thank you for the word of God.
What a story Lord. This is what an account and some
of the other gospels as well. It's so dramatic.
It's so instructive, but praying Lord it'll come with power to
each and every heart. Those of us that are see have,
let us rejoice Lord and what you see of this from there, but for
the grace of God go I and remember any among us that are
still unconverted, Lord, draw them to Christ.
Don't let them go ahead into the darkness of the night, still
children of the devil, still in bondage.
Lord, draw them to yourself with those great cords of love.
Lord, thank you for the food that I have supplied.
Let us eat and drink to your glory and then take us to our
homes and safety in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you for listening so well.