Mission 25 - The Best Seat, The Best Suit, The Best Sense

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

James 3 · chapter mention

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.

Psalms 73:18

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.

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

Romans 3:18

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

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

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

Ephesians 4:18

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

2 Corinthians 4:4

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.

Amen. Thank you for listening so well.