Matthew 8:28-34 - The Boundless Reach of Redemption

We study through books of the Bible here at the village chapel.

We have extra copies.

If you didn't bring one with you and you would like one to follow along, just uh raise your hand up real high there, and somebody will drop one by your row, your aisle, and uh you can follow along.

This is a great text this morning, and uh we're gonna take a look um at the last little bit of Matthew chapter eight.

Since our journey began, we've been calling this the king and his kingdom.

Jesus is the king that Matthew writes about.

The kingdom is the kingdom of the heavens or the kingdom of God.

Uh typically, Matthew, who is Jewish, will not use the title or the name Yahweh.

He won't use the name Yahweh or the title of God.

He avoids that like most Jews would, too sacred to utter.

And so he refers to it as the kingdom of heaven more often than the other uh gospel accounts do.

But we've seen here in chapters one through four the person of Christ, his unusual birth, his lineage there, uh forty-two names, I think, in that uh uh genealogy there, and it's uh it overflows with stories.

It's uh it's quite a quite a line.

The Lord working through so many different kinds of people to bring about his plan and purposes to to have Messiah uh come into the world and and to uh bring us the redemption of God.

The principles of Christ, of course, we've studied in what we call the Sermon on the Mount, most popular sermon, most well-known sermon in the world, chapters five, six, and seven of uh Matthew's gospel.

And now we're in the uh midst of the uh power of Christ as we look at chapters eight and nine.

Thankful for uh Ryan Mata, our youth director, who uh preached last week.

Everybody, he did a good job, didn't he?

Yeah, yeah.

Love that.

And uh I love the way that story actually cues us up for what we're about to study here.

That story that Ryan led us through is the story, of course, of Jesus and the disciples on the stormy sea.

And it ended with uh, if you'll just look there in Matthew chapter 8, the um as as he Jesus stood up, he basically rebuked the winds and the sea and it became perfectly calm.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

And then the men marveled, the men in the boat with Jesus marveled because their boat was going down.

The storm was just horrific.

And they said, uh, what kind of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him?

And that, of course, is the whole point, as Ryan pointed out of that story, is it's about Jesus.

It's about marveling at what kind of person he is.

And so, right in the middle of uh that question lingering in your mind that those men were asking, we're gonna get it answered, but it's gonna be answered by a pretty unusual voice here in the next few verses as we take a look at the boundless reach of redemption, verses 28 through 34.

And if you'll just turn there and I'll read this from Matthew's gospel, and I might read the parallel account from Mark's Gospel as well as see how we do on time here.

When they had come to the other side into the country of the Gathering, so remember they crossed this the Sea of Galilee, it's also called the Sea of Tiberias, it's called the Lake of Gennesaret by Luke.

Luke is a Gentile, Lucas traveled the world.

He tends to think of this body of water that's, I don't know, 15 miles from north to south, seven miles from east to west, as a sm like a as a lake.

To him it's a lake.

To the Jewish people who were, they don't like the sea.

They're afraid of, they're they're landlubbers.

They think of the sea as a pretty horrible place to be, and so they call it the sea, you know, and that and and so when they've come to the land to the other side, to the get the eastern side, this will be over in the Decapolis, two men who were demon-possessed met him as they were coming out of the tombs.

They were so exceedingly violent that no one could pass by that road.

And behold, they cried out saying, What do we have to do with you, son of God?

Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?

And evidently these are Orthodox demons.

Because they get it, and they answer the question for the men who have that on their minds.

He's the son of God.

First of all, that the demons believe in God means their theology is right in that regard.

Secondly, that they believe Jesus is the Son of God means their Christology is right.

And then add to that, this is fascinating to me.

Have you come here to torment us before the time?

Now their eschatology is right.

It's like these demons went to seminary or something, man.

I'm like, you know, what is this, right?

Um so they they've got the they've got the notion or the idea that there's some time coming when God intends to set things right and evil will be punished.

I don't know about you, but if you love justice, and there's a lot of people that say they love justice, but I'm not sure they really want evil to be punished.

I love justice.

I'm one who would say, Come on, God, be righteous and just in this world and set things right.

And the reason I love that about God and God's judgment, the reason I think of that as a good thing, not a bad thing to talk about, is that because he's the only one that really has the righteousness that can guide his meeting out of judgment.

None of us would be able to do that.

Um it's not just that we can't handle the truth, it's no, we can't handle judgment.

And so Jesus in Matthew 7 says, Do not judge lest you be judged.

And here, these demons know there's a day coming when the curtain's gonna be drawn and and it's all gonna be wrapped up.

Well, there were a distance from them a herd of many swine feeding.

Mark 5, 13 tells us approximately 2,000 pigs.

Remember, we're on the eastern side of the Sea of Galilee, we're likely in Gentile territory.

So pigs would be a commodity over there, whereas on the western side of the Sea of Galilee, where it's all Jewish, pigs would be unclean.

Pigs would not be something they would be herding and be collecting, if you will.

So they they uh uh they were at a distance from them was these pigs.

The demons began to entreat Jesus, saying, if you are going to cast us out, and I I always stop when I see a comma, I go, if this is happening, okay?

So if, what do you mean if, um if you're going to cast us out, or since you're going to cast us out, it could be translated as well, send us into the herd of swine.

And so that's just here's an odd adjuration.

We would, if you're going to make us leave the human person, may we please go into, you know, the pig or the swine.

Um they evidently didn't want to go into a rock or a tree, but they saw the pigs and thought, let's go there.

We can cause some destruction there.

We can we can not only be destructive to the pigs, but also we can be financially destructive to the region.

And it's interesting that they asked that kind of thing.

And verse 32, Jesus said to them, and this is the only thing Jesus says, by the way, here in this little account in Matthew, it's one word, begone.

Okay.

It's like that.

Oh, that's amazing to me.

They came out and they went to the swan.

Behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, and they perished in the waters.

Now, you know, I cannot resist.

We've had a morning of this already with Pastor Matt, but this is uh a few things I need to tell you.

This is the only uh and perhaps the first and only instance of deviled ham in the Bible.

Um if you if you didn't like that, you're gonna hate this.

It's also one of the few cases of a mass suicide.

Please don't throw anything.

I'm a little fragile today, so okay, we'll just keep moving.

One more?

One other pastor said, one other pastor said, I heard him say, if you don't pay the bill for your exorcist, you'll get repossessed.

That's just okay, no more devil jokes.

Yeah.

So the her uh here's what happened.

He said to them, begone, and they came out and they went into the swine, these demons did.

And behold, the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and perished in the waters.

The herdsmen fled and they went away to the city.

These are the guys that owned the pigs, okay?

They go into the city, reported everything, including the incident with the demoniacs, and behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus.

And that sounds like a good thing, but look at what happens.

And when they saw him, they entreated him to depart from their region.

Wow.

Um, turn to the right of your Bibles real quick.

Let's just take a look at the Mark.

Uh there's a couple other details that are going to be helpful for us, I think, this morning as we study this passage.

Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

Luke also has the same uh account as well, and I think it's the same account.

I'll try to make that case as we read through this Mark one here.

They came to the other side of the sea into the country of the Garasenes.

Now that's different, that's a different name than the Gadderenes, but uh I'm a Nashvillean, but I'm also a Tennessean.

What can I say?

Um there are different names for different places and different specific places or different regions back then, and uh the Sea of Galilee itself has multiple names.

Like I said, it's called the Sea of Tiberias, the Lake of Gennesaret.

So which exact exactly which spot this happened if we go to Israel, you know, will we actually be able to get right where this happened?

Probably not, uh, but um it is indeed generally on the eastern side and in the decapolis region.

When he had come out of the boat, Jesus and his disciples, immediately, that's a word that Mark uses 41 times.

He's the short attention span gospel uh writer.

He knows people need a change of scene all the time.

Immediately a man came from the tombs with an unclean spirit and met Jesus.

Now, this account and Luke's account says there's one man.

Matthew says there's two.

Some critics of the Bible would say, well, that means the Bible contradicts itself, and I say, no, it doesn't.

And you say, how, and I say, here's how.

If you happen by chance to run into Kim and I at the coffee shop tomorrow, or perhaps if you were to take us to lunch today, um, just kidding, you might leave that and the next day tell the story of some conversation that you had with Kim, who is a much better conversationalist than I am, after a Sunday of preaching.

And you might say to somebody, you know, I was talking with Kim Thomas the other day, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right?

And so you repeat her story.

Somebody else who might have been around in that same coffee shop or restaurant might have said, you know, I saw Jim and Kim at the coffee shop with so-and-so and whatever.

And so it's just different perspectives, I believe, on the same story.

There's so much about it that lines up.

And does it really matter?

One of them men may have been more vocal than the other, and it would be natural for Mark, who's getting his information from Peter, and for Luke, who got his information from research, Luke not being an eyewitness himself, but Matthew being an eyewitness.

It's very natural for this kind of thing to have happened even in our own day and time.

So immediately a man came from the tombs with an unclean spirit, and he hit his dwelling was among the tombs.

So this guy's living among the tombs.

No one was able to bind him anymore, even with the chain, because he'd been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces.

No one was strong enough to subdue him.

So he's got some kind of superhuman strength to be able to literally burst his chains.

And to watch this in verse 5, constantly, night and day, among the tombs and in the mountains.

He was crying out and gashing himself with stones.

And so he's tormented, self-destructive, marginalized, driven out of the city, driven out of the towns, into the tombs.

This is a sad state for any human person to be in.

Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up.

He bowed down before him, and crying out with a loud voice, he said, What do I have to do with you?

Jesus, in this account, he uses Jesus' name.

Isn't that interesting?

How is it that the demon knows Jesus' name?

Jesus, Son of the Most High God, I implore you by God, do not torment me.

For he had been saying to him, Jesus had been saying to him, more than one word here in this account, come out of the man, you unclean spirit.

And he was asking him, What is your name?

And the idea here is that back in that day, to under to know the name of someone is to actually have power and authority to understand how to speak to them, how to address them, how to direct them if you're overcharge of them.

I don't think this is a lack of knowledge on Jesus' part.

I think this is simply him saying, I'm going to use your name if you don't get out of this guy right now.

And so what is your name?

And this is interesting.

And he said to him, My name is Legion, for we, plural, we are many.

A Roman legion with 6,000 soldiers approximately.

If there's two men, that's 3,000 apiece.

I think one is enough.

3,000 apiece.

How dark can the darkness get?

It can get really dark.

If you don't believe that, you haven't been paying attention lately.

The darkness can get really dark.

We need help.

He began to entreat him earnestly not to send him out of the country.

There was a big herd of swine feeding there on the mountains.

He entreated him saying, Send us into the swine so that we may enter them.

And I don't know if you've ever played Let's Make a Deal or try to negotiate with God.

It doesn't usually go very well, but uh I remember as a kid, I would say, God, I was, I think I weighed 95 pounds when I entered high school.

I know when you look at me right now, you couldn't possibly imagine that.

But uh but I I remember thinking, oh, if I could only become muscular, uh maybe, maybe uh I would become more popular or something.

I'd try to make deals with God, and you know, I'd I'll go to Sunday school every Sunday if you just let me gain, you know, 20 pounds or whatever.

Anyway, um, this guy's this demon is trying to make some deals uh with Jesus, and he gave him permission, Jesus did, which is interesting to me.

Coming out, the unclean spirits entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them, and they were drowned in the sea, and those who tended them ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country, and the people came to see what it was that had happened.

And this is so beautiful.

Watch this the way this ends.

Um, they came to Jesus and observed the man who had been demon-possessed, sitting down clothed.

Remember, he had been running around naked the whole time, and in his right mind, now he's in his right mind, and he was not, he was insane and in terror and horror.

And the the uh very man who had the legion.

In other words, they recognized that this is the guy.

They connected the dots.

This is the guy, okay?

And they became frightened, these people did.

Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the demon-possessed man and all about the swine.

They began to entreat him, Jesus, to depart from their region.

This is interesting.

And as he was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed was entreating Jesus that he might accompany him.

I want to go with you.

He's in his right mind now, he's got clothes on.

This guy, Jesus, the first face he's his humanity is actually connected with in who knows how long.

When the light went back on for him, it was Jesus he saw.

See, and it was Jesus who had turned on the light.

And now, of course, he wants to go and be with Jesus and to follow Jesus.

19.

And he did not let him, but he said to him, Go home to your people, report to them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he had mercy on you.

Our sins, they are many.

His mercy is more, our darkness is deep.

His light doesn't take much of it at all to dispel the darkness.

So the man went off, and he began to proclaim in Decapolis, that's the whole Ten City region, what great things Jesus had done for him.

And look at the response.

And everyone marveled.

Oh, that's great.

Fade to black.

That's the end of the story in Mark.

Let's jump back then, if you will, to Matthew's gospel, chapter 8, and I'll just highlight a couple of things for us as we take a look at the boundless reach of redemption.

Now, the miracles of Jesus, you'll remember, they reveal his compassion, they display his authority, they affirm his identity, they inspire faith, wonder, and worship.

These are things we were created for.

We're created for the capacity to be in relationship with God, to be filled with wonder in his presence and to fall down and worship him.

And this is, you can see this from the beginning of Genesis all the way to the end of Revelation.

This is the design purpose of the human person.

When we worship anything that is not God, which we do often, we are distorting that design.

But the miracles of Jesus are not simply bits of supernatural entertainment or sensationalism.

They really, really do reveal how much he loves people.

So he goes all the way across the Sea of Galilee, the stormy sea, all the way over there.

And I just gotta believe, based on what else I read here in the four gospels, he knew exactly what he was gonna do, just like he did at this Lazarus tomb later.

And so he goes there to find the worst of the most wretched, of the most tormented and tortured persons the planet could ever hold.

And he finds them, displays his authority, affirms his identity.

And so we're supposed to see that.

We're supposed to learn all of that.

It is indeed uh space-time history story when we look at it up here on the right of the little line that goes down from the Sea of Galilee.

You can see Sea of Galilee there.

That little line that goes down to the Dead Sea is actually the Jordan River.

And uh those of us who've been over to Israel or will go again would know this route a little bit and this layout of uh Israel, really just a nation about as big as the state of New Jersey.

And so the cities that are in black uh ink here uh are the decapolis or the ten cities as they're called.

Damascus up at the top, uh Scythopolis there, uh just below the Sea of Galilee is also a site we stop at.

It's called Bethshain.

And any of you that have been to Israel before will know that city.

But that's a general region over there.

You see, there is a town, an ancient town called Gedara there.

Um but you see it's pretty far inland, and so there's a lot of debate and questions about exactly and precisely where this happened.

I won't go into that if you would like to study some of that yourself.

Uh you certainly are encouraged to do that kind of thing.

What do we learn here?

The boundless reach of redemption.

First of all, the divine initiative of sovereign grace, I think this is so powerful.

Over and over again, we read in the Bible that God takes action.

That Jesus says, let's cross the Sea of Galilee.

Let's go to the other side.

And along the way, he's doing some amazing stuff, of course, as we studied last week.

But when he gets over there, he does some more stuff.

And it's really powerful, it's really amazing.

And later on, when he comes back over to this region again, this will have had impact.

And this one particular, at least one of these two men, uh, going out into the hills of the countryside and telling his story about how Jesus, he met Jesus and how Jesus rescued him.

Redeemed him, restored him, and recommissioned him.

This guy who was living in the tombs, didn't have a stitch of clothing, was mad as a in in total madness, as mad as a person could be, insane, isolated, alone, no meaning or purpose to his life, tortured, tormented by these demons, and evidently thousands of them.

This man has got a great story to tell, doesn't he?

And so it has impact, it really does.

But it's because of the divine initiative of sovereign grace.

Jesus came to where he was.

Now, a lot of times in our day and time, we think about bringing our lost friends or our non-believing friends to something.

And that's well and good.

I'm not against that at all.

But Jesus may already be working in their heart.

He may have already gone to them in some way.

You just got to know he's always at work.

And I think people are more ready than we realize to hear the gospel, but we're timid to share the gospel.

It's interesting to me that, you know, throughout the gospel records, when he's in Jewish territory, Jesus will heal somebody and then he'll say, Now don't tell anybody.

But here, he's in Gentile territory and he tells this guy, go tell everybody.

You know?

It's just interesting, curious to me.

Why is that?

We could speculate, but it's you got to at least notice it and be stirred up a little bit.

The divine initiative of sovereign grace on display here.

Our Christian life, Stutt says, began not with our decision to follow Christ, but with God's call to us to do so.

He took the initiative in his grace while we were still in rebellion and sin.

Darkness of the tombs.

You want to say it that way, you could.

In that state, we neither wanted to turn from sin to Christ, nor were we able to, but he came to us and he called us to freedom.

And that's what's on offer.

It's on offer today.

We not have the same set of circumstances that these two men, or this one man that seems more vocal, did, but we have our own darkness to wrestle with and struggle with.

And Jesus has come into the world as the light of the world to dispel the darkness, and that's great news.

He has not left us on our own to figure it out and to find our way along the dark walls of the cave to some, to discover something.

No, he breaks in and reveals something.

That's the good news of his grace and mercy on offer to you for free.

Secondly, um, I think we learn here that no one's beyond redemption through the saving power and sovereign grace of Jesus.

Demon-filled men remind us that no matter how far gone someone may be, no matter how much we or others may have marginalized them, avoided them, written them off, Jesus knows their name.

Jesus knows where they live.

Jesus has the power to save and deliver by the power of his word.

And that's why I like in Matthew's gospel where it just is, he just went, begone.

Get out, get lost.

He's got the power to do that.

I think the full, we'll get to this in a minute, but the the full teaching of Scripture about demons and devils and all that sort of thing is uh we don't have time for all of that uh today.

But here's what's happening here.

Umtice how this the the these men, probably two of the most lost individuals you could have found on the planet at that time, and certainly um as you think about it even during our own time, these people more lost than the people that you might know or that I might know.

We can all think of people that have been in the news that are as evil, uh maybe evil in different ways, but this is a great example of the fact that no one is beyond redemption by the saving power and sovereign grace of Jesus.

If Saul can be turned into Paul by Jesus, if these two men, especially the one who wanted to go with Jesus, can be set free from the horrible condition they were in, then no one is beyond uh, not only no one is beyond the need for redemption, and no one is beyond the redemption that Jesus actually offers.

We around here teach at the village chapel that no one is beyond the need for redemption.

Not you, not your loved ones, uh, not your neighbors with the noisy dog, not your coworkers with the bad breath, not your um not the worst person in this room right now, and some of you think along those kinds of categories, not the worst person watching online right now is beyond redemption by the saving power and sovereign grace of Jesus Christ.

That's what this story is reminding us of, and it's important for us to know.

Not the person who is an addict, not the fool, no criminal, think about that, is beyond redemption.

No conservative, no liberal, no moderate is beyond redemption.

No one is beyond the redemption that Jesus offers.

Not even one of the people that you think of as them, your repugnant other in your own mind.

Not beyond the redemption of Jesus.

No one is beyond the redemption of Jesus.

Everyone is a potential image-bearer of God, even these two demon-possessed men.

What did they need?

What did they need?

When the disciples are literally falling out of the boat because they're fainting from the rough night they had out on the water, and they're thinking, if I could just lay here on the beach and just catch my breath.

And then all of a sudden, from a distance, you know, come these demon-voice guys, right?

Approaching it, you know, running at Jesus.

But what happens is amazing.

They don't attack Jesus, they fall down before Jesus.

And that's pretty amazing.

Even the darkest powers must fall before Jesus.

These two fellows, what they needed was the kind of rescue redemption that Jesus offers.

They didn't need to just look inside themselves, they didn't need to get in touch with their inner child.

They didn't need to, in some way, you know, join a self-help group or read a self-help book.

Um, they didn't need to get in the support group.

Um, they didn't need to take a course in self-discovery.

These guys needed a savior.

And here comes Jesus.

Friends, that's what Jesus came to do.

Jesus is the light of the world.

He's stronger than darkness and he's mighty to save.

Yeah.

The redemption that Christ offers is greater than, deeper than, and more liberating than the vice-light grip of any demonic power or power of darkness that has ever paralyzed or tormented any human soul.

How's that for an absolute statement?

We don't just believe in God, we believe some very specific things about God.

That he came in the person work of Jesus, and that the redemption he offers is greater than and deeper than and more liberating than the vice-like grip of any demonic power or power of darkness that has ever paralyzed or tormented any human soul anywhere.

That's big claim, but that's what the Bible teaches us.

So, what do you do if you think your life has been bound up in some kind of darkness, or you know somebody that is like that and you've been praying?

What do we do?

How do we get to Jesus?

And first I would say, well, remember, he came to us first.

He took the initiative to break into our darkness.

And really, Keller says it so beautifully and succinctly in this little quote: if you want God's grace, all you need is need.

All you need is nothing.

Doesn't say, hey, Keller isn't saying, if you want God's grace, all you need is become a member of the village chapel.

Or all you need is to start tithing.

Or all you need is to stop doing this, that, or the other.

Or all you need is to balance out the moral scales.

Maybe you'll be good enough for God to let you.

No.

The symbol of the Christian faith is not scales, it's a cross.

Because it's all that is necessary for my salvation and yours has been taken care of in space-time history.

I just need to believe and trust in Jesus.

Gotta hurry.

There's an enemy of your soul, number three, but he's on a tight leash.

So bad news, good news.

Bad news, there is an enemy of your soul.

Good news, he's on a tight leash.

I've had people ask me before, is it devil after you, Pastor Jim?

Because you're a pastor.

You teach the Bible, all sort of thing.

And I'm like, I my basic responses from my little bit of study of these kinds of things is I don't even think the devil knows my name.

I'm just not important enough.

Um, I think it's one of his minions, you know, millions of rows down, and you know, some fallen angel that uh somehow or another has been assigned to uh Pastor Jim, you know.

But make no mistake, even that little minion, that little imp of a devil, is personal, is powerful, and is strategic.

Just like the one he answers to, his uh his father down below, the the devil himself.

So here the demons are self-named legion.

They had possessed these men, they controlled their hosts, and they were in the process of destroying them bit by bit.

The demons spoke, uh, so they're personal.

They recognized who Jesus was, so they had knowledge.

They begged for one result versus another.

They knew that they were subject to the authority of Jesus, but they were hoping they could get Jesus, coerce Jesus, adjure Jesus to let them go into the pigs.

Um, they were fairly orthodox, as I said in their theology, their Christology, and eschatology.

And um the discussion of demon possession, I realize, in our own day and time, has, I think, uh has had two effects.

One is um it's made some of us think that the ancients were simple-minded and quaint in their superstitious belief of demons.

So some of us look down our nose, I'm not one of them, but some of us look down our nose in a passage like this and think, oh, those people are just quaint back then.

They're not as educated as we are.

And um and then the other is I think there's a whole other group of people who just flat out disbelieve in demons altogether.

If I were a demon, I'd be happy with either case.

If I were the devil, I'd be completely satisfied with the way the modern world thinks of devils and demons.

Both of those outcomes would be desirable.

Both would be precisely what I would want.

Then I could go about my business stealthily and unfettered.

Um, I like that.

Lewis writes about this.

How many of you read Screw Tape Letters?

Anybody?

Oh yeah.

If you haven't got a copy of it, go read it.

It's a great book.

He says there's two equal and opposite errors into which we can uh our race can fall about uh devils.

One is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to believe and to feel an excessive, unhealthy interest in them.

They are equally pleased by both errors, and hail a materialist, somebody that doesn't believe in them, or a magician, somebody that's looking for a demon under every rock, with the same delight.

Okay?

Um I think he's right on.

Later on, and I'm not gonna put this up on the screen, I'll just read a little bit more of uh his uh intro to screw tape here.

He says, if by the devil you mean a power opposite to God, like God, self-existent from all eternity, the answer is no, I don't believe in that.

There is no uncreated being except God.

God has no opposite.

No being could attain a perfect badness opposite to the perfect goodness of God.

For when you have taken away every kind of good thing, intelligence, will, memory, energy, existence itself, there would be none of him left.

The proper question, Lewis says, is whether I believe in devils.

I do.

That is to say, I believe in angels, and I believe that some of these, by the abuse of their free will, have become enemies to God, and as a corollary to us, these we may call devils.

They do not differ in nature from good angels, but their nature is depraved.

Devil is the opposite of angel, only as bad man is the opposite of good man.

Satan, the leader or dictator of the devils, is the opposite, not of God, but of Michael, the archangel.

This really helps.

I don't know if you've been thinking about this at all, or if you have questions about this at all, but I encourage you, if you do, feel free to grab a copy of Screwtape Letters by Lewis.

I think you'll enjoy it.

More recently, the author of one of my favorite books, the last couple years, several of us on staff have read this book, called Watchfulness.

It's about a spiritual discipline that I think we've lost sight of.

Brian Hedges says, you're absolutely helpless.

The enemy will attack, temptation will come, but left to yourself, you are like a tumbleweed in a tornado, a handkerchief in a hurricane.

The lion will roar, the viper will strike, the flaming arrows of temptation will fly, and you will fall.

Apart from grace.

That's why you need God.

Beware of self-confidence.

And I think he's right there.

The scripture teaches us that the ultimate goal of the devil is to deceive us, to distract us, and to eventually defeat our faith or trust in Jesus.

Certainly doesn't want us to pray.

Um, and I'm so glad we give attention to prayer here.

The Apostle Peter, an eyewitness to some of what we just read, I'm certain of it, reminds us to be sober-minded and watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

In other words, he's like a roaring lion and he wants to eat your lunch, Christian.

Are you awake and alert to this?

Don't be the magician looking for a devil under every rock, but also don't be a materialist that just doesn't believe in these kinds of things.

If you need help sorting it out, we'll be glad to do our best.

There is uh uh no template that fits over much of this.

There is an enemy of your soul, but the good news is he's on a tight leash, as we see here.

This these demons come to Jesus and they have to ask Jesus permission to do anything.

And that's because Jesus is greater than all of them.

The last thing I want to point out today the boundless reach of redemption.

Some people want Jesus to leave, and some people want Jesus to lead.

And I take this end of the story, especially in Mark's gospel, uh, where this guy wants to go with Jesus.

Uh, he just is so grateful for being set free.

He wants to be with Jesus, right?

And Jesus says, You can be useful to me in my kingdom.

Now I'm going to recommission you and put you back out and play.

The townspeople didn't think they could afford to have Jesus around.

You know, we lost 2,000 pigs that day.

That's an awful lot of commerce.

That's a lot of bacon.

You know, and uh that's tough.

But I just want to challenge our thinking.

When we leave God out, we've got to realize there will be consequences.

You know, some of you have read Dostoevsky.

It's not a direct quote, but the idea is there that if there is no God, then everything's permissible.

Anything goes if there's no God.

There's no moral authority, so we have no moral obligation.

If you want to argue for moral obligation, that is, it's wrong to commit murder.

It's wrong to go into a school and do what was done.

It's wrong to be racist.

You want to claim those kinds of things.

You need some basis for your moral authority and for moral obligation.

And if there's no God, you don't really have a very good argument in that category, as I've said before.

It used to be that there was no consensus about whether or not truth exists.

And I used to stand up here and argue for the existence of truth, and I'd say, how many of you, you know, have ever heard the statement, I don't, there's no such thing as absolute truth, and everybody would raise their hand.

How many of you believe that statement?

A few hands would still stay up, and I'd say, Are you absolutely sure?

And some of them would still say, Yeah, you know, not getting that they're they've got a circular argument, but it's worse than that now.

It's not just truth that's on the chopping block, it's reality itself.

Do you see that in the culture in which we live?

It's not just truth, it's actual reality itself is on the chopping block.

It's being discussed.

Is it real?

Is there something we is there some reality that exists apart from my preferences?

My desires?

My wishes?

The Bible would say there is.

Is it any wonder that some of these people came to care more about lost pigs than they did lost people?

They're without God in a pagan environment.

Where are we at?

You want Jesus to leave?

Leave this part of my life alone.

You can be you can be Jesus in this part of my life and this part of my life and this part of my life.

I like the warm fuzzies of hanging out with spiritual people and all that.

And I like singing some of those songs.

And I like occasional Bible study, feel like I'm doing something religious once in a while.

But don't meddle with this category of my life or this category of my life, this category of my life.

Leave there.

Leave that alone.

What is the darkness that has you in its vice grip?

Is it anxiety, arrogance, anger, confusion, fear, food, finances, social status, social media prowess, social media approval, politics, pornography, sexuality, and all issues around that.

Did you notice the three requests in this passage here?

The demons requested permission to run into the pigs.

The townspeople wanted to run Jesus out of town.

They asked him to leave.

And the formerly demon-possessed man requested an opportunity to depart with Jesus.

Ironically, the first two requests were granted, and the third one was not.

Jesus said yes to the pit to the demons to go into the pigs.

Jesus said, Yes, you want me to leave, I'll leave.

That's fine.

And Jesus said no to the man who wanted to go with him and said, No, you need to stay here.

It's, you know, I know it's hard work.

And I know some people won't believe you.

But when you walk into that village and they used to know you as crazy Eddie, and some of them are going, he's back, you know, and you walk into that town clothed and sane, changed, living, breathing, walking, talking testimony, the power of God's redeeming grace.

No one will be able to refute your testimony.

It's really up to you.

Do you want Jesus to leave or do you want Jesus to lead?

Lewis said it this way.

There's only two kinds of people in the end, those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says, Thy will be done.

Which are you?

So what's cool about this is the story does not end tragically.

Uh we were talking earlier, I was talking with some folks here, and they said it's like a horror movie with a good ending.

And I thought, yeah, that's right.

It is that kind of a thing.

That's perfect.

Perfect way to describe it.

Um, because this has a really good ending, because this guy goes and tells his testimony, and people begin to marvel and believe, so much so that when Jesus comes back through the region a little bit later, um, you'll see as we study ahead what happens.

Charles Thomas Studd, C.T.

Studd, uh lived in the 19th and 20th century, right as the turn of the century there.

He was a British missionary to China.

Before that, he was a somewhat famous cricketer.

And Kim and I just learned what cricketing is.

It's one of these games they play over there.

And how many of you know?

Anybody know what cricket?

Yeah, okay.

Some of you do, good, that's great.

So I just learned a little bit about it.

But uh this guy played for England, England's uh Cambridge University, and here's what he said Christ's call to save the lost, or came to save the lost, not the stiff necked.

He came not to call scoffers, but sinners to repentance.

Which are you?

You a scoffer?

I mean, you can have honest questions and not be a scoffer.

He came to save the lost, not the stiff necked.

He came not to call scoffers, but sinners to repentance.

Not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, cathedrals at home, in which to Rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers, and artistic musical performances, but to capture men from the devil's clutches and the very jaws of hell.

This can be accomplished only by a red hot, unconventional, unfettered devotion in the power of the Holy Spirit to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Somebody say amen.

So let's get some red hot going here, all right?

In terms of our unconventional, unfettered devotion in the power of the Holy Spirit to the Lord Jesus.

Remember, this isn't about you pulling up your bootstraps and getting tough and you know shouting down the devil like we see some preachers do on TV and at you know at uh different kinds of uh campaigns and things like that.

The devil shout him down.

No, he really, did you notice that Jesus didn't yell or spit?

He just said, be gone.

And so it's in his power and authority, the power of the Holy Spirit working through us.

It's not you uh being able to quote Scripture at the devil.

It's not, it's you trusting the Lord.

Uh Peter says it this way in 1 Peter 5, submit yourselves to God.

Resist.

Then he says, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

So the secret is that you be submitted to God.

And remember, it's God that will be the one that will save and rescue you.

Is your life bound up by any kind of darkness at all that has separated you from God, from others, or from your true self, who God wants you to be, not just who you want to be, but who God wants you to be.

Do you hear the Lord calling your name?

How will you respond?

Do you want him to leave that area of your life, or do you want him to lead in all areas of your life?

It's true that grace accepts you right where you're at.

Matter of fact, Jesus came all the way over there to go right to where the tombs were so those two guys could come and find Jesus, right?

He took the initiative, he moved in their direction first.

Now the question is, will you, like these guys, run to Jesus and fall down before him and trust in him?

Jesus will never, you know, he will accept you right where you're at, but he never leaves you where you're at.

Grace is great that way.

And some of you know this, probably in a deeper way than some others, but grace accepts you right where you're at, but grace never leaves you right where you're at.

He's always about changing us.

And Jesus is the one that you can turn to because Jesus is the only one that has that kind of power and authority.

We sang about it earlier, even over the forces of darkness, and trust me, many of us here can personally testify to something like that in our lives.

Jesus, he's mighty to save.

You need look no further.

He really is the one.

Let's pray, Lord.

We do turn to you.

And whether it's the darkness of the global world we live in or the darkness that we see in the mirror, when we are looking into our own eyes, the gateway to our souls, and we see what has a grip on us.

And we would like you to set us free.

Come, Lord Jesus, come to your people, remind us of who you are, how generous your amazing grace is, how powerful your sovereign grace is to save.

We pray this in your name.

Amen and amen.