and pastor and family. We want to thank you also for remembering us before the throne of grace when it comes to the ministry to our ministry that God has called us for this morning. I had the privilege to share with you a snapshot was got what God is doing in the Arab world and we give all the great all the things and all the glory to our God who is blessing His Word and of course through the prayers of the saints and the prayers of the churches such as yours who are standing by us in prayer. God's work cannot proceed without the prayers of the saints. We're very thankful brethren. This morning I mentioned that we have several challenges as a ministry this year. We want to print more New Testaments to bring to Sudan. We have other projects, so pray for us, pray for energy, pray for wisdom, pray for guidance, pray for strength, pray for time. I just find myself always fighting for time, given the busy schedule we have. But our God is faithful. Our God somehow use our weakness, our shortcomings to his glory, and very thankful for that. If you have your Bibles, this morning we're gonna look at this passage that a lot of us are familiar with. It's in Luke chapter eight. Luke chapter eight, if you can open to Luke chapter eight please. And we're gonna look at this man. His name is Legion. And observe a few things from this, from his encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a radical, radical transformation that took place in this man's life. And this is a powerful story to really illustrate the power of God. To illustrate to, especially in the mission field, this story speaks a lot to people who do not know a thing about God and Christ. But when you share the story, just somehow, somehow this story ticks, they can identify, they can listen, just observe, it just takes their attention to listen, what's going on, wow, wow, this, you know, as the truth is unfolded through the story. This story is mentioned in three of the gospels. I like the story how Mark put it, but God used three different witnesses to put together this encounter that took place between the demonic man or the legion, and our Lord Jesus Christ. So let's read from verse 28, and I may go to verse 37. So bear with my accent. Then I sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when he stepped out on the land, there met him a certain man from the city, who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, what have I to do with you? Jesus, son of the most high God, I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded, he meaning Christ, commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For it had often seized him and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles. He broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. Jesus asked him saying, what is your name? And he said, Legion. because many demons had entered him. And they begged him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss. Now a herd of many swine was feeding there on the mountain. So they begged him that he would permit them to enter them. And he permitted them. Then the demons went out of the man and entered the swine and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. And when those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what had happened and came to Jesus and found that the man from whom the demons had departed sitting at the feet of Jesus, closed, and in his right mind. And they were afraid. They also had seen it told them, they also had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. Then the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from them. for they were seized with great fear, and he got into the boat and returned. I'm gonna read until verse 30, to verse 40. Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged him that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away saying, return. Return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you. And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. So it was, when Jesus returned, that the multitude welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him. Amen? And may God bless his word this morning to us as we look at this story, the story of the demon-possessed man, the legion man. In Mark chapter five, it gives us a bit more details. At least in the Arabic Bible, it refers to him as the crazy man. So we'll take a look at this man, this radical transformation. I mean, this man, we probably, I can dare to say that everyone who had encounter with the Lord has a testimony. And here before us, we have a testimony of this Man, it's a powerful testimony. It's a radical transformation. He was in this radical state that we're gonna read about and look more into. And then we see him before our Lord Jesus Christ, and then we see him after that encounter. Radical state before, radical encounter with the Lord, and radical transformation after. And we can extract from this passage three different treatments. The first treatment is the treatment of Satan to this man. The second one is the treatment of people to this man. And the third one, the treatment of our Lord Jesus Christ to this man, amen. Background, the location is Gadarenes, it's a Greek word. I'm not, I know Greek, believe me, but it refers to 10 cities. And apparently it was mostly, mostly inhabited by Gentiles. So it was a Gentile, mostly Gentile area. It's very unique that our Lord took a special trip from out of where he was to come to this area, which was heavily Gentile. And that kind of matched the story because we see this man, as we read, he was living where? In the tombs among the dead. And you know, the Jewish laws does not allow, if you touch a dead, a bone of a dead man, you become a, you are defiled. So that's a no-no according to the Jewish laws. But this man was living among the dead. And people were trying to bind him with shackles and chains. So that is not a Jewish area. It appears to be heavily Gentile. The other part of it is there was a herd of what? Swine. Pigs. And that's not acceptable to the Jewish diet according to the Mosaic law. So the background that we see, it's this Gardarins. I don't know if I'm saying it right. Now we look at his state, the state of this man. Well, number one, his dwelling. As I mentioned in verse 27, I mean, I love, I love, I love how the story is unfolded. The Lord steps out of his boat and he is welcomed by this crazy man. It's like a, you know, it's like a video, it's like a movie you're watching. It says he stepped out, verse 27, out of the land, and there met him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes. Nor did he live in a house, but he lived in the tombs. So, you know, it's like one of those zombie movies that you watch. This man's dwelling was among the dead. You know, he was practically living among the dead, physically speaking, but also, believe it or not, he was also living among the dead, spiritually speaking. And so were we. before we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. We were even dead spiritually before God, living with people who were dead spiritually before the Lord. That's what Ephesians chapter two verse four and five tells us, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were what? Dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. The Lord even refers to people who don't know God as the dead. He said, he said, let the dead what? Bury their dead. Let the dead, spiritually speaking, bury their dead physically, their physical death. But you go and preach the kingdom of God. Do you remember what the father of prodigal son said to his older son when he came? And his older son was, complaining why all the, all this thing, all the wealth you're spending on your son who, who wasted your inheritance. His father said, for this is my son who was what? Dead. And now he's alive again. He was lost and is found. So this man, he is living among, physically among the dead, but also it shows also he was living with people who were dead spiritually. And we'll look at those people as well. Number two, we'll see that the statement, his bondage. Verse 27, it says, he had demons for how long? For a long time. It wasn't one demon, it was a legion. It was many. How many? Well, according to Bible teachers, a legion is a Roman regiment. of the Roman army. The number of soldiers in that regiment differ depending on the different times in the history. It consisted, according to Bible teachers, between 3,000 soldiers to 6,000 soldiers. So this man had at least, what, in the 2,000, if you want to be conservative, demons in him. This man was tormented. We're gonna read a passage in Mark parallel to that. It says, he was tormented day and night, crying out. So he was under bondage by Satan, by demons, these unholy spirits, the falling angels that fell with Satan, who are roaming the world and inflicting torment on people and this man took a huge hit and we see that Satan's hatred toward God to torment the image of God in people, in this person. And so we look at the treatment of Satan to this man. Number one, this man was experiencing a continuous physical, psychological, and a spiritual torment. In verse 29, sorry if we go back to the details, to read about the state of this man, in verse 29 it says, for he commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard. Let's go back to Mark, if you please go to Mark chapter five. Mark chapter five, we see the same story, similar story, but with a bit more details. Mark five and verse five. In fact, if you wanna probably read verse four to five in Mark five, it says, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, similar to what we read in Luke, and the chains had been pulled apart by him, This man had tremendous strength because of all the demons in him. And the shackles broken in pieces, neither could anyone tame him. So we have an added piece that they were trying to tame this man. In verse five it says, and always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones. See where the physical torment is? Physical torment, he was abusing his body, cutting his body with stones. Psychological torment is this man was isolated. from all people. I mean, these people, they try to guard him, they try to tame him, they try to bind him with chains and shackles, but he possessed tremendous strength. Perhaps because of all the demons in him, he would cut the chains. So they finally isolated him in the tombs. So he was isolated from his family. Sometimes I wanna say the joke that probably because of his mother-in-law, now I'm just joking here, But he was isolated from his family, from his relatives, from his, whoever, his loved ones. He was isolated into this, you know, that's the scariest part. I mean, I would never walk in a cemetery at night. I don't know, I get really freaked out. I mean, he is living there day and night in the darkness. So psychologically, he's been tormented. Spiritually, I mean, one demon can do a lot of spiritual torment to this man. 20,000, excuse me, 2,000 and more, imagine. No one can fathom what this man was going through. But somehow, somehow, somehow he had the ability to, when he saw Jesus, he ran to Jesus and he bowed down before him. Even though the demon was speaking, the demons or the demon using his ability to speak, but somehow this man was crying out to Christ. Deliver me. So in verse 27, in verse 28, it says, when he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him and with a loud voice said, this is the demon or the demons, so it appears that sometimes the demons speak through him. It appears that there's a lead demon, we don't know, speaking through him, using this man's ability to speak out. And this man said, what this demon said, what have I to do with you, Jesus? And here he confesses the deity of the Lord. See, Satan knows who Jesus Christ says. What's interesting, he used a terminology that the Jewish people don't use. It's the Gentile terminology referring to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Most High, Son of the Most High God. I beg you, do not torment me. It's interesting that this demons, these demons saying don't torment us because they know their end, but yet they're doing the same thing, tormenting this man spiritually. So this man been tormented not by one or two or five demons or seven demons, but a lot of demons in him. And Satan recognized Christ, that's amazing. He recognized him, he saw Christ and he knew right away who he is and he fell before, he was pleading, why did you come, oh son of the most high God? I beg you do not torment me because he knows what God's gonna do to Satan and all the fallen angels, the demons that followed him. And the scriptures give us a snapshot of what took place and how this Satan, this creature, this being, how he fell from the glorious place he had before God. There are two passages that the Holy Spirit gives us a snapshot, gives us like a what took place. How this being, this archangel, this cherubim, how he fell from the grace of God. Passage Isaiah 14, but I'm gonna read Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28 gives us a really good description what took place with this Satan, this creature. And because what took place, I believe he knew Christ. Of course, Christ is God. So if you turn with me to Ezekiel 28. Ezekiel 28, we have, I'll be reading from verse 11. Now, give you a background. This is a prophecy against the city Tyre. Tyre is in Lebanon. not too far from where my wife is from, from Sidon. Sidon, and then if you go south more is Tyre. Tyre used to be a very powerful city, very rich city. It was a kingdom ruled by the Canaanites at one time, then the Phoenicians before. So God is executing judgment through his prophet Ezekiel. And somehow that prophecy that's going to the King of Tyre, somehow by God's infinite wisdom, just took us to what took place in the heavenly places was Satan. In verse 11, it says, Ezekiel 28, I hope I'm in the right place. Excuse me. Yes, in verse 11, verse 14, jump with me to verse 14. It says, you are the anointed sherub, I'm saying in Arabic, who covers I established you. Remember how there were two angelic beings at the Ark of the Covenant, and they were covering. It's symbolizing, you know, bowing down before the holiness of God, somehow, you know, protecting or keeping that purity around the presence of God. I established you, in verse 14 says, you were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect. This is not King of Tyre. Now the prophecy is going toward this creature, this cherubim, this archangel. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until equity was found in you. Something took place and that something took place. We'll see it in Isaiah, but verse 17 tells us your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. This archangel was beautiful creature. who was leading the worship in the mountain of God and the holiness of God. He was, he was, you know, I mean, we cannot imagine how he was, but he was full of beauty. Because of that, he was corrupted. You corrupted your wisdom, it says in verse 17, for the sake of your splendor. I cast you to the ground. I laid you before kings that they may gaze at you. So here we see the casting out of Satan out of the presence of God. And so Satan know who God is, of course know who God is, because he was in the presence, but also he recognized Christ. And Satan, if we read through the Old Testament, we see him opposing the work of God, trying to cut the seed of the woman that we see when God executed judgment. So I'm going a bit more details here. On the serpent, he says, I will put enmity between your seed and the woman's seed. And that woman's seed is whom? Jesus Christ. And Satan tried hard to destroy that seed, that the lineage, if you may, through God's people of old, through the Israel, all the way until Jesus was born. If you remember, even he tried by killing all the babies. Remember that? Harold commanded all the babies two years old and below to be butchered, so to get rid of Jesus Christ. Satan was trying behind it to stop God's plan. to stop the birth of the Messiah, to stop the final judgment of God on Satan himself. And then on the cross, Satan thought, I got him. And on the cross, you know what happened to Satan? You will read that in Colossians 2.15. He disarmed, it says, having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them. Christ, through his death, burial, and resurrection, he disarmed. He stripped Satan from all authorities. Let me tell you this, maybe demons can enter non-believers, can possess non-believers, and I hope your pastor agrees with me, but he cannot touch you, or possess you, or demons that will enter you. I know I came from a charismatic background. We were taught that way, that demons can possess believers. That cannot be because of that verse. Demons and Satan has no authority over believers, plus we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Satan can influence, Satan can, he is in 1 Peter 5, verse 8, it says, It says, he is what? He walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. He is around, you know, he is waiting for that moment to your weakness, maybe influencing you to slip. That's what Satan does, like a roaring lion, trying to scare us, trying to fear us, trying to oppose God's work through evil man, but he cannot lay one single finger on you. And that's why in 1 Peter 5, it says, be sober, be vigilant, be in prayer, because Satan, our adversary, is. And he is opposing God's work, he's opposing God's church, he's opposing God's word, he's opposing God's ministry. So Satan, this creature, who was inflicting this man, recognized these spirits, recognized who Jesus is, and I am at awe when they knew his authority because in verse, if you look with me to verse 31, let's go back to Luke chapter eight. Luke chapter eight, verse 31. This legion, you know, he's speaking now and says, And they, now we see all the demons, begged Jesus that he would not, listen to this, command them, they recognized his authority, command them to go out into the abyss. These demons recognized Christ, they recognized his deity, his divinity, they recognized his authority. And now we see how the people treated this man. Number one, it's interesting if you go back to verse 29, it says, for it had often seized him, but at the end of verse 29, it says, but he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles, and he broke the bonds, and he was driven by demons into the wilderness. So they tried to bind him with chains and shackles, and in Mark chapter five, verse four, we read it, they tried to tame him. And that's the treatment of men to this, of people to this man. And this is the solution of the world to this awful thing called sin. The solution is binding people with man's philosophies and man's religion and man-made sacraments, man-made pillars like in Islam, bind them with all these chains and shackles, tame them with all these different philosophies and all the junk that's been pushed on us at this present age, and you probably know that. And I truly pray, God, this is, please come, because where we are ending, man's philosophies, and this is their answer to treat this problem called the fallen nature of man, the sin that's in us. It ends up binding and chaining people. And of course, Satan is at work. It says, whose minds the god of this age, Satan, has blinded He is blinded, those who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. And the world cannot resolve the issue of sin. We know that. And I think John the Baptist put it beautifully in this one verse that I always love to use with Muslims. One verse in John 3.31. It states the following. He who comes from above is above all. But he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. All man's solutions and all what man is trying, all man's religion, man-made religion and man-made philosophies, they are earthly. But the one who comes from above is above all. He who comes from heaven is above all. God gave us the solution. God sent his only son. God showed his love. It was manifested on the cross. It's a heavenly solution. It's above all. Period. Amen? The treatment of people to this man. That's how they treated him. They could not contain him, so they tamed him. They could not, so they isolated him. into the tombs. And now we have that beautiful encounter with Jesus, the treatment of Jesus Christ to this man. And look with me to verse 35. And I love the way to see this radical change in this man and what people witnessed. In verse 35, it says, Then they went out to see what had happened and came to Jesus and found this man, this demonic man, this legion man, found the man from whom the demons had departed. Now watch three things. Beautiful things took place. He was sitting where? At the feet of Jesus, closed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. It's interesting. They were not afraid of this demonic man before. Now that he is in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Christ, they became afraid. It shows you the hatred of this world to our Lord. Let's look at those three things. Three things took place. Sitting at the feet of Christ, closed, and is his right mind. Let me start with the first, the word closed. Do you remember how this man was when he welcomed Christ? Do you remember the verse we read? He had no clothes. He was naked. And here we see him closed. Does that remind you of a story of old? That story is our forefathers, Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, when they fell in sin, it says their eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they tried to solve their shame, to solve the sin that fell, that sin they entered in sin. They tried to solve it by covering. It says they sewed thick leaves together and made themselves coverings. They tried to cover their sin by their own self-work, own self-righteousness. But you know the story. God came, and God took action. Of course, he's dealing with sin. And God dealt with sin with a snake when he also executed judgment on Adam. And then Eve, we know the story, then came to, and if you come to verse 21, we find this critical verse that tells us something about God's plan for salvation. In Genesis chapter three, verse 21, it says, also for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made, what, tunics of skin and clothed them. And here is the first sacrifice that took place. In order to get tunics of skin, of animal skin, you have to have a sacrifice. And this is the first institution of the sacrifice to cover man's fall, man's sin. And this is all foreshadowing, foretelling the ultimate sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that. You've heard it, I'm sure, from teachings by pastor, probably reading. But I want you to, in that verse, there are two words we always skipped. God closed them. God closed them. It's interesting that this man, this maniac man, this legion, this demonic man, he was naked, then he had this radical transformation, then we find him closed. And I don't want to read too much into the scriptures, but somehow I say, you know, the God of Jehovah who closed Adam and Eve is the Jesus Christ who closed this man. Not only he closed him physically, but this man experienced salvation. Galatians 3, 26 and 27, it says, for you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you has been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, meaning you were closed with Christ. It's like you put the dress of, you put on Christ. You put on the righteousness of Christ. You became righteous because of the work of Christ. This man was closed with the righteousness of Christ. He was closed physically, but he also experienced this radical encounter, and he's saved. Not only he's closed, but also it says he was in his right mind. Remember, he was crazy. He could not control himself. He had the control of demons over his mind, but now it says he was in his right mind. This is exactly what took place with the prodigal son. If you remember the story, he was reflecting on what took place and how he left his father, how he spent his inheritance. And in verse 17 of Luke 15, it says, but when he came to himself, when he came back to his right mind, and then he decided to go and repent and ask his father for forgiveness. The parable of the foolish man and the wise man. Matthew chapter 7, put it beautifully by our Lord. It says, therefore whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and did not fall, for it was founded on a rock." A wise man, a man who is in his right mind. Guess what? When we accepted Christ, we got our proper bearing as far as now we have the mind of Christ. And I pray that we get more into the Word of God to really grasp the mind of Christ. He was in his right mind. They saw him closed in his right mind. Let me just give you one more reference to that. If you remember in Abu Khaz Nasser, I don't know how you say it in English, but go back to Daniel, Daniel chapter five, this man, Abu Khaz Nasser, this king who took glory about he is God and God punished him and he went into the wilderness as a wild beast. It says in verse 37, it says, at the end of the days of Ayah of Nebuchadnezzar, I lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me. He came back to his right mind. That's what this legion, this demonic man experienced. And finally it says, he was sitting at the feet of Jesus. If you read two more chapters, Go back, if you go to Chapter 10, Luke, you'll see the story of three siblings. You probably know who I'm referring to, to Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. In Luke Chapter 10, we see Middle Eastern culture in action. That's how we do this in our DNA. If you have a host at your family, You're hustling and bustling to really cook and present food. This is how we, you know, hospitality is a big thing. And so we see Martha here, the sister of Mary. She was working and hard working trying to cook and prepare meals for her host, our Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps other his disciples. And of course, Martha, Mary, her sister, who was supposed to be in the kitchen cooking. That's why I love my Middle Eastern culture. My wife cooks, I just sit in fellowship with my host and then we eat. And she cooks and she cleans the dishes, see? Okay, I confess that's what we do. All right, so Martha came and she had, she came and asked, complained to the Lord, said, Lord, Lord, can't you see that I am doing all the work and Martha is sitting? You know what the Lord says in verse Luke chapter 10 verse 40 if you have the time read it Jesus said Answer and said to her Martha Martha. You are worried and Troubled about many things, but the one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part Which will not be taken away from her. She was sitting at the feet of Christ listening to the words of life coming out of his mouth and Martha, excuse me, Mary, has chosen that good part. And unfortunately, Martha, just like me, just like perhaps many of you, she was worried, concerned, and troubled by many things. And that's a reminder for us. We all are busy. We have so many things going on in our lives. I know probably your work has a lot of pressure for your work. and you're troubled by many things at work, perhaps your family with children, grandchildren, we all have, you know, life troubles, perhaps ministry, I can speak for myself, a pastor can identify, there's a lot of things you have, are troubled and worried about, and our attention is all over the place, but Christ is reminding us this morning, there's one thing that's important, to spend that sweet fellowship at the feet of Christ. David expressed it beautifully. King David in Psalm 27. Verse four, it says, one thing I have, one thing I have desired of the Lord, that I will seek him, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord. Why? So it says, to behold the beauty of the Lord. Sweet fellowship with the Lord. One thing that's needed, all of us, to continue with our sweet fellowship, with that precious time, with that quality time with our God. And Mary found it, and the Lord says to Martha, and he said, that good thing is not going to be taken from her. So this man was at the feet of Christ, he was closed, and he was in his right mind. Radical transformation. from where he was before, driven by many demons. He was tormented physically. He was tormented psychologically and spiritually. He was tormenting other people. And yet, with the encounter of Christ, we see radical transformation that took place. And to top it off, look with me in verse 38. I love the end of the story. It has a beautiful end. Verse 38, now this man from whom the demons had departed, he begged him, he begged Christ. Why? That he might be with him. I love that. But Christ had a different commission for him, had a different plan for him. He said, no, you've experienced the power of what took place, how you were transformed, how you've been delivered. Now I have a commission to you, now I have work for you, and this is for all of us as believers. We've encountered Christ, and Christ left us this commission. Return to your own people, return to your own house, return to your own city, return to where you're from, and tell what great things God has done for you. Amen? Two things this morning you wanna take from this passage. One thing that's needed to be at the feet of Christ and a reminder that we ought to go return and tell people what great things God has done in your life, in your family's life, in your church life overall, amen? Let's pray. And Father, this morning we thank you for your precious word. We thank you for your love and action with this man, the Legion, how you saved him from this torment that he was experiencing and how you showed his love to this man to see him closed and in his right mind and sitting at your feet. Thank you for the Lord, the challenge which you've taken from your word. We pray that you bless it to our hearts and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Brother Mike. The Lord's challenged my heart, as I know He's challenged your heart.