Oh, it is an honor to be with you all. I think the world of your pastor. He is a dear friend. I pray that the Lord blesses his trip to the dark continent. It may not be as dark as we think it is if the Lord opens up a gospel message there, but it is indeed an honor to be here, and I hope that you cherish your pastor. We've been without a pastor now for over four years, and the old saying, you don't miss the water until the well runs dry, is very true. So we're still waiting on the Lord to send us a pastor, but it is indeed good to be with you all again. Let's turn back to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. Now these verses that the brother just read, this is one of three accounts that we find in the gospel of the Lord's encounter with this demoniac. And the other two are found in Matthew 8 and Mark 5. And the verses in Matthew say that there were two men possessed of devils who came out to meet the Lord. So is there a contradiction here? You know, unbelievers like to say the Bible is just full of contradictions. I don't believe that's the case. And it may be that after casting out the demons from these men, One man departed immediately and the other stayed to sit at the feet of Christ. And this brought to mind the story in Luke 17 of the Lord Jesus healing the ten lepers, but the writer only focuses on one. And starting in verse 12 of that text, it says, speaking of the Lord Jesus, this is in Luke 17, 12. And he entered into a certain village, and as he entered into a certain village, there met him 10 men that were lepers, which stood afar off. And they lifted up their voices and said, Jesus, master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go show yourselves unto the priest. Now, Jewish law dictated that a priest was the only one that could declare a leper clean. So Christ sent them to the priest. And it came to pass that as they went, they were cleansed, all 10 of them. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God and fell down on his face at his feet, at Christ's feet, giving him thanks. And he was a Samaritan, those that the Jews had nothing to do with. And Jesus answering said, were there not 10 cleansed, but where are the nine? They are not found. that returned to give God glory, save this stranger. Now, all 10 were healed, but only one returned. And so I think it is with these two men possessed of demons mentioned in Matthew. One was a chosen vessel of God's free and sovereign grace, and the other was not. The other went his way, freed of his demons, but from all we can surmise, still left in his sins. And this is why I think Mark and Luke only write of this one man who stayed to sit at the feet of Christ. Now I want to go through these verses one by one and try to show you some parallels and similarities. between this man possessed of demons and those of us that have been redeemed by God's marvelous grace. And some hearing that may take exception and say, I have nothing to do with a demon-possessed individual. But stick around. You might be surprised at how much you do. Now, in all three of these books, this story is preceded by the account of our Lord and his disciples coming across the Sea of Galilee. And as you'll recall, a storm arose and our Lord was sleeping in the depth of the ship. And his disciples came to him and they were scared to death and said, Lord, do you not care that we're about to perish? And our Lord arose, I can't help but think he was maybe a bit aggravated with them, but he arose, and with three simple words, stilled that storm. Peace, be still. After which the disciples were astonished by what they had just witnessed, and they said this, what manner of man is this? For he commandeth even the winds and the water, and they obey him. But their astonishment level was about to be raised another few notches because they were about to see a man possessed of thousands of demons freed from his bondage. Again, freed by simply the word of God. And the word of our God is unimaginably powerful, powerful enough to speak this universe. which they have never found the edges of into being. In Genesis 1, we read, and God said, and then we read, and it was so. Psalm 33 says, let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. In Hebrews 11, 3 says, by faith we understand that the world were framed or created by the word of God. Now here in our text, verse 26, and they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee. Now probably this storm blew them off their original course and landed them in a place that they had not originally intended to land. But you can be sure that it was the place that our Lord Jesus intended to land because there was one here that he was about to make a child of God. one of his chosen sheep, which he must bring into the fold. Verse 27. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils a long time, and wear no clothes, neither a boat in any house, but in the tombs. There met him a certain man, One meaning of this word, certain, is destined, predestined, predestinated to become a vessel of God's mercy and grace. We're told that this man wore no clothes. He came to Christ just as he was, naked. And isn't that the way we come to Christ spiritually? naked and undone, with nothing to cover our sins, casting off our filthy rags of self-righteousness. We come to the Lord knowing, being taught, that only he can clothe us. And when he does clothe us, he clothes us in the robe of his perfect righteousness. Job made this statement, naked came I out of my mother's womb. We came forth both physically and spiritually naked. But natural man likes to think like our father, Adam, that we can still stitch together a robe of righteousness that God will accept, a robe that will cover our sins. But God does not regard anything that we can do. Hebrews 4.13 tells us this. Neither is there any creature that is not manifested in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to deal." Now, when our God gives us the gift of faith to believe, he does what he did with our parents, Adam and Eve. He strips us of all that we have before he gives us that perfect robe of Christ's righteousness, that robe that we read about in the story of the prodigal, it's called the best robe. The robe of the righteousness of Christ. Now, this verse also tells us that this man had no home, that he dwelt in the tombs, which was an appropriate place for him to be. The tombs are where you find the dead. And that's what the Scriptures tell us about ourselves. And you hath he quickened who were dead in sins and trespasses. He was spiritually dead. The tombs are where the dead are found. But this was to be the last day that this man dwelt in those tombs. Because he was about to be freed from all that had bound him. for years and years. Scriptures say he was this way a long time. And Mark's account tells us that no man could bind him, neither could any man tame him. Does that sound familiar? It should. It describes us before grace and mercy found us. Our mother and dad and society in general tried to bind us with rules and regulations, tried to make us conform to the norms of society. And those of us who grew up in religion know all too well how the preacher tried to bind us with the law, put shackles on us that we could not bear, but we broke them like this demoniac. We could not be tamed. But one day one came to us where we were as Christ did to this man and did what no amount of religious teaching and no amount of shame supposedly piled on us could ever do. He made us children of the living God. Verse 28. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God, most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. Now this man, when he first saw the Savior, and knew who he was, desired one thing, to be left alone, to not be tormented. And is that not how it was with you, dear saint, when the Lord first began to open your eyes and show you your sin and your depravity? Our desire was simply to be left alone. We were perfectly content to dwell where we had dwelt our entire life in sin and depravity. but our blessed Lord was not going to have it, because we as this man were chosen vessels of God's mercy. When this verse records the request of this man that the Lord torment him not, it is typical of what the awakened sinner begins to experience. When we're first taught of the Lord and shown our guilt, we realize by the grace of God that has given us that we are as guilty as guilty can be before a holy God. He teaches us that we are indeed worthy of the punishment that we're about to receive. And it is a torment, it is a terror to our mind. But as it did with this man, our torment eventually leads to our deliverance. And if what I'm describing sounds foreign to your experience of coming to Christ, you might want to examine your salvation because coming to Christ is a painful thing to the mind and the soul. And it's especially painful to religious folks, the lost man and woman who's clinging to their religion. But you are forced by God Almighty to admit that everything you have and everything you are is worthless before God Almighty for salvation. Our Lord likened this to a man who builds his house upon sand, upon the imagined good works of our self-righteousness. And our Lord described this in Matthew 7 when he spoke of the foolish man who built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the wind blew and beat on that house and it fell. And it says, great was the fall of it. Now I picture, when I read this, videos that I've seen, and you probably have too, of a house that's built on the shoreline at the ocean. And some of these houses are just magnificent. I mean, huge houses. And these folks that own them, they're very proud of them. They have a pristine view of the neighborhood. The owners are the envy of the neighborhood. The neighbors all look up to them and envy them. And they're proud of it. I mean, why shouldn't they be? Who wouldn't be? They've spent their entire life accumulating the wealth to build this house. But when that hurricane hits and takes the foundation out from under that house and it collapses into the sea, I've seen it before on videos, and it's scary to behold. And everything that they have worked for in their entire life, their house that they have built with their own work is now turned into splinters and washed away. And that's exactly what happens to spiritually to us when God comes with a tsunami of his grace and washes away our house of self-righteousness. The gospel is referred to by Paul as the power of God unto salvation, the dynamite that blows away every hope of false religion until there's nothing left for the sinner to look to but Christ and him crucified. It completely demolishes our house of cards built upon the sand. Verse 29. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oft times it had caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters. And he broke the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness." Now in the previous verse, the demons acknowledge the sovereignty of the Savior and declare that they know who he is, the Son of God, Most High. James tells us this, the devils also believe and tremble. Now this word tremble means to shake in a way that you cannot control because of overwhelming fear. Now there was no argument put forth by these demons when they first met our sovereign savior. They knew that they had no power to resist his will. And in that sense, they're not as bad as depraved lost men and women because they would insist that they have a free will and they are able, if they desire to do so, to resist the will of God. But this verse tells us also that this man was bound with chains and fetters, but that he always broke these bands that men had put upon him. And as I said before, this is a good description of us before the Lord came to us, bound by the chains of religion and society. But we cast those chains off and went our own way. Verse 30, and Jesus asked him saying, what is thy name? And he said legion, because many devils were entered into him. Now this name legion, it refers to a division of the Roman army of 6,000 men. 6,000 men. Now that's not to say that there were that many demons in these two men, but it certainly would indicate that there was more than one. In fact, we know that there were 2,000 swine, we're told in verse 13 of this chapter. So there had to be at least that many demons in these men. But when we consider, in reading the Scriptures, the damage and the harm of one demon and what they did to the people they possessed, throwing them into fire and trying to cast them off cliffs and so forth, it's astonishing the number of demons that are found in this man. And verse 31 says, And they, the demons, besought him that he would not command them to go into the deep. Now the verse clearly shows that our blessed Lord does indeed have power over demons and men. They do as he commands and are powerless to resist his will. Verse 32, And there was there an herd of swine feeding on the mountain, and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them, and he suffered them. Now, I don't know a lot about demons because not a lot about them is revealed in scriptures. But they do require a body in which to dwell before they can do harm to the one whose body they are in or to those around them. So rather than to be cast into the sea, they were content to be sent into these swine. And with their permission, or with the Lord's permission, they did so. And verse 33. It says, 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. Now, when these demons, which had dwelt in this man, were sent into the swine, this verse tells us that those swine immediately ran into the sea and were drowned. These demons accomplished with these swine what they were never able to do with this man. They drove them to kill themselves. And the account in Mark 5 tells us this man was always night and day in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones, doing self-inflicted harm to himself. And of all the times in which he cut himself with stones, you would think that he would have hit an artery and bled to death. But that was not possible. Why is that? Because he was a chosen vessel of God's sovereign love. I tried to picture what this man looked like. Said he'd been this way a long time. He didn't go to the barber and get a haircut occasionally. His hair was no doubt grown out, his beard. He was naked. He was covered with dried blood and filth and scabs and sores. He was no doubt scary to look at. But nevertheless, he was a chosen vessel of God's mercy. And is that not the reason that many of us are here today? This man was not able to kill himself, even though he cut himself with stones. And I thought about that and thought, figuratively, that pictures us. We cut ourselves with every stone that we could get our hands on. Ungodly living. And some of us in religion cut ourselves with the false doctrine of dead religion, Christless religion. But one day the Lord landed on the shore where we were and cast from us all those restrictions, all that dead religion, and drove them out as he did the demons in this man. Now, verse 34 says, And when they that fed them, fed the swine, saw what was done, they fled and went and told it in the city and in the country. Now, we're not told how many men oversaw the care of this herd of swine, but all of them, to a man, were terrified by what they had witnessed, this madman who was a danger to both himself and to all that came near, running to meet this man, but doing him no harm, but rather falling at his feet. This man that is described in Matthew 8 as being exceedingly fierce, so that no man could pass that way. Now you can just bet that in a city of this size, there were some pretty tough guys. Probably carried a sword, but it didn't matter because this man or these men, I guess, at the time were so fierce, it said that none could pass that way. People had to avoid going near this place or this man would come out and attack them like a rabid dog. And I'm guessing that those who fed that herd of swine had seen this happen before. And when they saw Christ and his disciples land and approach this area, I'm sure one of them said to the other, watch this, watch this. This guy is about to tear into these guys. But they saw something they had never seen before. This man came running, and instead of attacking Christ, fell at his feet. And they were terrified. They had never seen this before. So they left and went into the city and the countryside and told everyone they met what had happened. And it would seem that this would have taken hours and hours. So our Lord landed in the morning, and it was probably late afternoon or evening, when these people came out and saw this man sitting clothed and in his right mind at the feet of Christ, learning of him and from him. And verse 35 tells us, 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. Now, this is what happens when one who's been a vile sinner or even a good church going Baptist is brought to salvation in Christ. Those around him can't figure out what brought about this radical change. And they fear because they have no idea what has happened. A previously wild man of a friend who they used to hang out with and party with and indulge in all kinds of depravity now is no longer interested in doing those things. But those that are in religion are the most terrified. There's nothing that terrifies a work monger like being told that his works are worthless. To be told that all their praying, all their tithing, all their church going, all their Bible reading, all their soul winning, their revival or their attendance at the revival tent meeting, are not only worthless, but more than that, they're damning. The doctrine of Christ and him crucified is the only hope of lost sinners, and that is a terror to the soul of the religionist, to be told that only salvation is found in Christ. And it makes them, as these folks who came out of the city, it makes them very afraid. And verse 36 says, and they also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of devils was healed. Now, when lost men witnessed the salvation of a sinner, most times they don't understand how this change took place. Not so in this case. These men were eyewitnesses of what had occurred. that how Christ had tamed this man. They couldn't deny what had happened. It was pretty evident. It was before their very eyes. This man who was short while ago was so fierce that he would attack anyone that came near. Now sitting, sitting at the feet of Christ in his right mind. Verse 37, and the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes found around about besought him to depart from them. For they were taken with great fear and he went up into the ship and returned back. This is the reaction of lost religious men and women when their belief system is threatened. They want no part of a sovereign Christ who shatters to pieces everything that they believe. And this verse tells us that those folks were taken with great fear. You would think that they would have had the opposite reaction, that they would have been rejoicing, that now this man who was a terror to them would no longer be, that they could pass by this way and not be attacked. You would have thought that they would have been rejoicing and welcomed Christ into their midst, but instead they asked him to depart, which he did. And as far as we know, this is the only time that Christ ever visited this place. They asked him to leave and he complied with their wishes. And if you had gone into this town in the countryside before the Lord came here and told the folks, the Lord Jesus is going to come to this place and he's going to save one individual. It would have been, no doubt, would have said, oh, that would have to be my mama. She's so good hearted. Or my neighbor. He just, he does all kinds of good stuff. But you can bet that not only would this man not have been last on the list, he would not have been on anybody's list. Which simply proves what the scriptures tell us. My ways are not your ways, neither are my thoughts your thoughts. God never, let me repeat that, God never thinks like we do, never. Anyone who was familiar with this man and his circumstances would have been sure that he was beyond hope. And when it came to anything that his friends or family could do, he certainly was beyond hope. And how many of us have friends or family? I have family myself that. You look at those you love. And sometimes we think. In an earthly fashion. And think I just don't know that the Lord could save him or her or not. The folks let us take heart. Because if our Lord could save this man. And indeed, if he could save us, there's nobody. Beyond his reach. If indeed those we love are chosen sheep of God. He's able to bring him to Christ. We sometimes meet men or women and we look at them and think to ourselves. He just too far gone. He just. There's no hope for him. But we need to rethink that, because if the Lord could save this man, this wild man, then He can save anyone. Now this man was no doubt someone's brother, and certainly someone's son, maybe someone's husband, someone's father. And our Lord, knowing all things, tells this man to return to his own home. Now can you imagine this homecoming? This man who was once normal like everyone else, So he was possessed to demons. Can you imagine? Him walking up to his home and apparently the Lord knew he still had a home to go to as he once did. And maybe his mother and father who are now elderly. Come out and meet him. Perhaps he had children. That were young when he left and now he returns or maybe teenagers. And they embrace. And shed tears of joy. But as I mentioned a minute ago, it is a dreadfully dangerous thing to ask the Christ of God to depart from you, to leave you alone. I remember hearing a story. Sam and I were talking last night about Ralph Barnard. And I don't know how many of you have ever heard Ralph preaching. A little bit rough sometimes, but Don told us this story a few times, and I hope I'm getting it right. I'm telling it from memory. Rolf was preaching somewhere, I don't recall where, and there was a young woman near the front of the church, and as Rolf was preaching, he noticed this young woman weeping. And near the end of the message, Ralph looked at her. I think he maybe even came down to where she was. And I think he was preaching on looking to Christ. And he said, young lady, you look like you need to look. And Ralph said, this young lady almost screamed at him, for Christ's sake, preacher, leave me alone. And Ralph replied, for Christ's sake, I will leave you alone. And if I recall the story right, that young lady left that meeting and died in a car wreck shortly thereafter. No doubt, with the words of Ralph Barnard ringing in her ears for eternity, it is a dangerous thing indeed to ask Christ to depart from you. Verse 38. Now the man out of whom the devils were departed besought him, besought Christ, that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away. Now when we're first given faith in Christ and the Spirit speaks peace to our troubled hearts, All we want to do is hear more of Christ, this one who has bled and died for our sins, this one who stood in our place and suffered the wrath of God on our behalf. We want to be with his people. We want to sing his praises. We want to read his word. We want to be near him constantly. We're so taken up with Christ that we can think of little else, but we live in a life in a world that requires us to make a living and to care for our families. So often, these responsibilities take away from the worship of our Savior. But we're not to be as those who live in a monastery, lest they be polluted by the sins of the world. We're living in this world, but it does not mean we have to live for this world. So we find in this last verse of our text instructions given to this man out of whom the Lord had cast his deckles. The Savior tells him this in verse 39. 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. Now, our Lord would not have us to remain silent about what he's done for us, what he's done in us, for us, and to us. And these verses or this verse would suggest that the telling of God's goodness and grace would begin at our own household, those of our own flesh and blood, and then proceed from there to whomever the Lord brings us into contact with and gives us opportunity to witness to. But notice the wording here. It says, Christ tells this man to tell others how great things God hath done unto thee. Then the last words of this verse say that this man published throughout the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him. This man understood that the one who had healed him and cast these demons out was indeed God in human flesh. And Christ never made it a secret that he was God come in the flesh. This was the main sticking point with the religious crowd of his day. We were talking about this too last night. how that a prophet is not accepted in his own country. They looked at Christ who said, I came down from above. And they say, we've known this kid since he was born. This is Joseph's son talking about him in disdain. This is the carpenter's son. Who does he think he is saying he's come down from above? And many of those people witnessed with their own eyes miracles that the Lord performed. Yet they remain blind to the truth of who he was, God in human flesh. Now, if we're to learn nothing else from this story, it should be clear that it is impossible. It is impossible to believe on Christ, no matter what you see and no matter what you hear, unless God gives you the gift of faith. Turn with me to Matthew 13, please. Matthew 13. I'll wrap this up in a moment. Matthew 13, we'll begin reading in verse 10 and read through verse 17. And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables, because they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in him is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, by hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive. For this people's heart is wax gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see, that's an astonishing thought, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them. Now here our Lord explains to his disciples that the ability to know the truth of God, to see the truth of God, to hear the truth of God is a gift. that is given to some, but withheld from many. And this truth is hated, intensely hated by religionists, because it takes away all their bragging rights. But it is indeed the truth of God. Paul made this plain in the ninth chapter of Romans, when he wrote in verse 21, hath not the powder power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under honor, and another unto dishonor. So for those of us sitting here today and have been made vessels of honor, how much we have to be thankful for. Because as Christ came to where this demoniac was and set him free from all that had plagued him for years, So he did with us. He came to where we were, made us whole, needing nothing to stand perfect in the sight of an all-seeing God. I find it astonishing. You think about this. This man who was once possessed with perhaps thousands of devils, You know where he is now? He's standing before the throne of God, looking at the face of and singing the praises of him who set him free. So folks, let us, who have loved ones who do not know the Savior, never despair. Because if Christ could make this man whole, and indeed if he could make us whole, we should despair of none. And if you do, you perhaps don't know yourself as well as you think you do. Because if Christ could do for us what he has done, considering the lives that many of us lived, both the lives of debauchery and even more, the lives of being a good church-going Baptist. There's no one beyond his reach. Let us never despair of those we love, but let us look to Christ and beseech him for mercy. I hope the Lord will bless that to your heart. Cody, come lead us in a song, please.