Jesus
and the disciples had just crossed the lake, the Sea of Galilee, and remember,
last week, we were talking about that terrible super-storm that they had to go
through, and that almost killed them, and when you get near an experience that
almost takes your life, it leaves your heart pounding, and they saw the most
welcome sight as they were finishing their trip. Everything calmed down. The
storm stopped, and they saw the shore.
Land! And it was such a welcome sight. The boat landed and the disciples and Jesus
got out and set foot on shore. The winds
were gone. It was peaceful and quiet,
and I want you to look in Luke 8 what happened. Luke 8, and we want to begin with verse 26. "They sailed to
the region of the Gerasenes, which is across the lake from Galilee. When Jesus stepped ashore, He was met by a
demon possessed man from town. For a
long time, this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but he lived in
the tombs."
After
this man's bloodcurdling scream I can just picture the disciples hopping back
into the boat. Wouldn't you do that? “Get back in this boat quick. Let's get out of here. This is a bad place.” But they didn't do that. The man came and he was screaming, he was
foaming at the mouth, probably, he was demon possessed. He had chains dangling from his wrists where
they had tried to constrain him. What
would you do?
Well,
I will tell you this was heathen territory.
The other side of the Sea of Galilee was very different. Far different from the Jewish side of the
lake, and when you cross over to the other side of the tracks, you get in a
whole different world. No righteous
Pharisee would keep 2 thousand hogs.
The other day I got on my computer, yesterday, and I ran a program, and
it found that our computer had 1 hundred and 28 viruses. It had gotten slower and slower, and this
man had some devils in him. More than a
hundred and 28.
Well,
this land exhibited rank paganism, and you know, every neighborhood has a local
whacko. Does your neighborhood have a
local crazy person, a lunatic? Can you
think of who he is, or she? Picture
that person in your mind? I think there
were actually two demoniacs, but Luke focuses on the more demonstrative of the
two, and this homeless man lived in the cemetery. Would you like to live there?
He lived among the tombstones, or in them, the Bible says, however that
could be. And when Jesus and the
disciples landed and stepped out of their boat, this raving lunatic was
screaming and threatening them.
Look
at Mark, chapter 5. Keep your bookmark
in Luke 8, and come to Mark chapter 5, because this is found in Matthew, Mark
and Luke. Mark, chapter 5 and verse 4. "For he had
often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons
on his feet. No one was strong enough
to subdue him." Verse 5, "Night and day,"
not day and night, "among the tombs and in the
hills, he would cry out and cut himself with stones." So here he was in these tombs, in the
cemetery, crying out, crying for help probably, I don't know. And I think when Jesus was out there in that
storm and in that boat and the ship was swamped with water, I think Jesus could
hear that cry because Jesus always hears a cry for help, doesn't He? He'll hear your cry for help. And so that's why they landed, maybe, at
that precise place, because that's where Jesus knew this man needed help. See, everything has a purpose. And Jesus was there, and the wild man came
and threw himself at the feet of Jesus.
Now that's the place where he needed to be. When you are in a crisis in your life you need to be at the feet
of Jesus.
Now
sometimes, right here in Collegedale, I'm going to ask you to confirm what I'm
saying. How many of you, at night, if
you listen carefully in the stillness of the night, you have heard coyotes
howling up in the woods, up in the mountains?
Have you heard that? A lot of
you have heard that. It's here, they're
here, in Collegedale. The coyotes are
here, and I am glad that there's not a demoniac living up there in the hills,
in the darkness, in the night, in the woods.
Imagine hearing the bloodcurdling screams of maybe a couple demoniacs as
they are around here. Would you feel
comfortable at night? The locals must
have had a lot of nightmares. Can you
imagine that? The possessed man was super
strong. You can read in Acts, chapter
19, verses 14, 15, and 16, about an experience where 7 grown preacher’s kids, 7
men, were attacked by one man who was possessed by a devil and it says there
that they ran out of the house, the devil possessed man beat them up. They ran out of the house naked and
bleeding, and I will tell you that when the devil gets in you, he will always
leave you naked and destroyed and dirty, deranged, disheveled, and demolished. You need to beware of nudity. A lack of appropriate modesty is a sign of a
sick mind.
Well,
he cut himself, the Bible says. He cut
himself with sharp stones. These would be
flint-like rocks or stones, sharp as razor blades. Do you know anybody that cuts themself with razor blades? The devil likes that, when you cut
yourself. The devil will lead you to
destroy yourself. You youngsters need
to listen. Why was he cutting
himself? I think perhaps he was cutting
himself, because he thought if I cut deep enough I can release the devils out
of me. I can get at them. I can hurt them. I can destroy them, myself.
I can do this. I'm going to try
harder.
And
you know what he was trying to do? He
was trying to solve a spiritual problem in a physical method, and it doesn't
work. And we do the same thing when we
try to save ourselves by our own works.
Saving yourselves by your own works doesn't work. We think, “Well, if I try harder, I could
just deliver myself. I can overcome this
if I try harder.” What you need is
Jesus. You need to come to the feet of
Jesus, and fall down, and worship Jesus and get Jesus’ help. We need a miracle from Jesus to save us from
our sins. No matter how many demons or
problems we have, I want to tell you that Jesus is far superior to your
problems. Jesus has the answers, and
you cry to Him, and He will listen to your cry. Every time He will listen.
You come to Jesus. Sit at Jesus’
feet, and Jesus will deliver you.
Well,
Luke 8, verse 27, says he hadn’t worn clothes for a long time. Quick, you think of how many animals don't
need any clothes. How many animals need
clothing? Zero. No animal needs clothes. Human beings are the only animal, if we can
classify ourselves like that, that need clothing. It gets cold in Palestine, and this man lived among the tombs and
it rains there. And that night had just
been a terrible storm. We witnessed
that back in the last few verses. And
so many Christians run around the same way this man did. He was vulnerable to the elements. Many Christians run around naked. Spiritually naked. Unless you are completely covered by the robe of the
righteousness of Jesus Christ you are in danger spiritually. Agreed?
The
demoniac’s family must have been at their wits end on what to do with this
son. He was cute as a baby, but now he’s
a Frankenstein monster. He's
terrorizing the whole town. And
occasionally vigilante bands of men would come and manage to get hold of him
and put chains around his wrists and put iron bands around his feet. But he
would always break loose, and you know what happened? Eventually the community got used to the man. We can’t control it, so let's just accept
it. That's what happened. They became comfortable with him. The townspeople accepted this factor in
their lives, and maybe they took turns watching over him, according to verse
29. And this mad man in their midst,
they tolerated this evil.
And
I think modern society reflects this demoniac.
It was William Bennett who wrote a book called The Death of Outrage. We don't have any outrage anymore. Have we modern people become so comfortable
with wickedness and sin that it's hurting us and we don't know it. Indecent advertisements go across our TV
screen every day, every program, and we say, you know, they really shouldn't do
that, but we leave it on, and it's right there in our living room. Sin is getting too familiar. Swinish!
Repulsive! Late-night TV shows show
just about everything. There’s
promiscuity, brutality, homosexuality, obscene wickedness in every form. Satan is marching across the screen in our
living room, in our family room, in the room that we call the TV room, and we
tolerate it. Don't tolerate evil.
My
wife and I, after her ovarian cancer, went over to Europe. We decided we'd better do some things. We don't know how much longer we will
have. Fortunately, God has healed, and
we all need a miracle, don't we? Well
we saw over there in Germany, a concentration camp. So we went in, and we discovered this concentration camp, I think
it was Dachau, had a wall around it. A
big wall, lots of barbed wire around there, and on the other side of the wall
was a neighborhood. People lived there
on the other, just right on the other side of the wall. There were subdivisions. There were houses. There were cul-de-sacs.
There were kids playing in yards.
Now this was back in 1942, 43, 44, 45.
That's what was going on, and they could smell the stench of burning human
flesh, but they tolerated it. They got
used to it. They accepted it. And evil is wrong. And I think when we have no shame that that allows Adolf Hitlers
to surface. We need to not get used to
evil. We need to fight evil. Stand up against sin.
Jeremiah,
chapter 6 and verse 15. “Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?” the
Bible says. “No,
they have no shame at all. They do not
even know how to blush.” Shame
on us. And so Jeremiah concludes, “So they will fail.”
In America we have the death of outrage. We don't even blush anymore.
Imagine
living in that little town where the demoniac lived. Imagine trying to raise your kids in that little demoniac-ville. It would be tough. The town maniac is uncontrollable. He’s on the loose. Every
mother has got to be vigilant. She's
got to keep her children close by. You
never want to go to the cemetery without a large group of people, and he's out
there. Locks on the doors were
numerous. They were strong. Each evening, little children would be
afraid to go to bed by themselves, and they would say, "Mommy, can I sleep
in your bed tonight?" And the
mommy would say, "No, not tonight.
It's going to be okay." And
they could hear the far off shrill shrieks and screams of these demoniacs out
there. This naked lunatic at night
would leave the cemetery. They have to
eat, you know, and would forage in among the houses for food, and you needed to
keep your curtains pulled, and you were thankful for those bars on your
windows. You were in jail, and he was
loose.
Who
was this berserk man? Who was he? He had a mother. He had a father. He had
played in the streets with the other boys as he grew up. He grew up right there in that town, but
unfortunately for him, he grew up in a heathen town. Now if you were born in a Christian home, and a Christian
community, and a Christian country, praise the Lord. Right? But he grew up in
a heathen town. That little boy became
a monster, and how did he become a demoniac?
I
want you to come over to Romans in your Bible.
Romans, chapter 6. Here's
how
it happened. Romans, chapter 6, and
verse 15. And here the Bible makes this
statement. "Don't
you realize that whatever you choose to obey becomes your master." You can choose sin, which leads to death, or
you can choose to obey God and receive His approval. We have a choice, and I think this boy started to dabble, little
by little, with evil and eventually he got into spiritualism. Now I don't think they had Ouija boards back
then. I don't know what all he did, but
he got into spiritualism, and one small step after another, and finally he was
totally possessed by the devil.
And
you know, it bothers me that here in America we are slipping into the devil’s
stuff. We love the psychics. Have you noticed that? You see, here's a reader of tarot cards, here's
this, we’re getting into the devil’s stuff.
We kind of like dragons and dungeons and occult evil, and liberal
atheists are making satanic games for our kids to play and we purchase those
games and we let them buy those games.
What is the matter with us?
America, we need to deliver our children from these things. It's not just harmless fun. It's Satanism. America celebrates the gay lifestyle. We throw the 10 Commandments out. We consume the Harry Potter books by the millions. We read these eastern New Age books. We study horoscopes, and you know what I
see? America is becoming a modern
demoniac. Many, many people doing this.
They couldn't sell all this stuff if we
weren't buying it. We are losing our
moral sanity. We are becoming hooked on
evil, and tied to that hook is a line and on the other end of that line is a sinister
fishing pole held by no one else than the devil. And he’s wanting to reel us in.
That's his goal, and these things will draw you all the way to
perdition. Sin is always self-destructive. So beware of books, and we have all kinds of
books. Down at Barnes & Noble, at
Books A Million and all these bookstores, on Eastern religions, and they say
just relax, empty your mind, and you can buy music that’s just...
They
want you to empty yourself, empty your mind, and you know the Bible says we
ought to be full. Not empty. We ought to be full of what? Full of the Holy Spirit. That's what we need to be. If we’re empty, we can be sure that another
spirit will come in and take the place.
Matthew,
Chapter 12, verse 43. "When the evil spirit comes out of a man. It goes through arid places seeking rest and
does not find it," and verse 44, it says, "I
will return to the house I left and when it arrives it finds the house unoccupied,"
the mind is empty, "swept clean and put to
order." Verse 45, "Then it goes and takes with it 7 other spirits more
wicked than itself, and they go in and live there and the final condition of
the man is worse than the first. And
that's how it will be," says verse 45, "in
this wicked generation."
That's how it is. Fight
evil. Stand up against wrong, and stand
for what is right.
I think America is sweeping
God out, and we need to be careful what's replacing it. I think our only safety is to keep our hearts
full of Jesus. Fill up every day on the
Bible. It’s cheaper than filling up
your gas tank, you know, 60, 70, 80, a hundred dollars to fill up your
car. Fill up your mind. It's free.
There is a real battle going
on today here in America, here in the world; and we call that battle the great
controversy between Christ and Satan.
That's what we call it. And
we're in the middle of it. And our soul
is what's at stake.
Luke, chapter 8, verse 30. “Jesus asked the man,
‘What is your name?’, and he said, ‘Legion.’, because many demons had gone into
him.” How many soldiers were
there, by the way, in a Roman legion?
There were 6 thousand. Now I
don't know if there were 6 thousand demons in this man but he needed to run
several programs to clean out the infections in his computer. That's a lot of demons.
Verse 32. “A large herd of
hogs was feeding there on the hillside.
The Demons begged Jesus to let them go into them, and He gave them
permission." Now who were
these demons? Well, they were former
angels from heaven, weren't they? Isn't
that who demons are? They used to live
in heaven. They used to live where it
was perfect, and then they followed the devil and they sinned and they were
cast out of heaven, and now they have to beg for permission to go and inhabit a
dirty, stinking, filthy hog. They've
come a long way down, haven't they?
Used to live in heaven, and now they're living in hogs. The devil will always lead you down. Luke, chapter 8, verse 33. “When the demons
came out of the man they went into the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep
bank into the lake and was drowned."
Now the devil makes normal pigs
into crazy, berserk, psycho pigs. If
you were standing there... And I want you
to place yourself in this picture.
Here's 2 thousand pigs jumping into the lake, and you're standing
there. What would you be watching? Would you be focused on 2 thousand dead,
floating hogs, bobbing up and down in the Sea of Galilee or would you be
focused on the delivered demoniac? Now
honestly. Especially if you were a swinesman,
or a swineherder, or whatever you call somebody that takes care of these
beasts. What would you be
watching? Would you be bemoaning the
fact that your livelihood was taken away?
“Now I'm jobless. I don't have a
job anymore. Look at what just happened
to me.” Would you be blaming your loss
on Jesus? Would you be willing to lose
your hogs to convert one soul? Or two?
Actually, you know what,
those pigs were smart. They were
intelligent. They preferred suicide to
demon possession. When the devil gets
into you he’s soon going to lead you to a path that will destroy you, and you
need to avoid that at all costs. Stick
close to Jesus. Fill your life with
Jesus.
I toyed with a different
sermon title. You can see all these
sermon titles on the back of your bulletin.
This bulletin is different than yours.
You see how short it is? When I
put a regular bulletin into my pocket it sticks out, but this one is short
enough. I cut the ends off of it. But I toyed with a different sermon title,
and I thought of instead of calling this The Disrobed Demoniac and the Crazy Pigs,
I thought of calling this sermon, Deviled Ham.
You like that? You know, we
pastors, we think of all these titles, and we go through all this stuff trying
to think of a title that will be something of interest where you will come and
where we can preach the Bible to you and so that's the title I chose. But I almost chose Deviled Ham.
I grew up a vegetarian. I've never eaten pork. And whenever we used to drive by and go out
on a ride, we used to take a ride on Sabbath afternoon. Did you ever do that? We don't do that today. Can't afford it. Well we used to take a ride, and occasionally we were out in the
country and we’d go by a hog farm, and there’d be 20 or 30 hogs out there by
the barn, and they’d be wallowing in the mud and grunting and groaning or whatever
the sounds are that they make, and many is the time when I’ve driven by and
those hogs were out there and the stench is so bad, it's real bad, it's even
worse than that, and imagine how 2 thousand pigs would smell. Just imagine that.
And you know what, if your
life stinks, the devil is happy. That's
what he wants. If your life wallows in
the mud, the devil is happy. He's got
you right where he wants you. He wants
to finish destroying you, but Jesus wants to clean you up. Jesus wants to give you a right mind. To save you and put your feet on a path that
will lead you to life and not destruction.
These swineherders rushed
into town with news. “Guess what. Jesus came and destroyed our whole
livelihood. We have no industry anymore.
We’re all bankrupt.” So the whole town came running out to see
what's going on.
Come to Luke eight verse 35
here. “The
people went out to see what happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found
the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at Jesus feet, clothed.” Where did they get those clothes? Didn't have a Penneys or a Wal-Mart or a
Samaritan Center. Where did they get
the clothes? I think the disciples
shared. And this man was dressed and he
was in his right mind. He had been
totally converted, and actually we are that man. We're living in darkness.
Hopelessness. We’re naked. Each of us needs Jesus. Each of us
needs a robe put on top of us to cover us. The last line of verse 35 is strange. “They saw this man sitting there in his
right mind, clothed, and they were” what? “Afraid.”
Now they weren’t afraid of
the town terror when he was loose. When
he was in the devil’s mind. When the devil
had him they weren't afraid, but now they're afraid. Isn't that strange?
That's strange. When he’s in his
right mind. When he’s at the feet of
Jesus. They begged for Jesus to
leave. So Jesus and His disciples, in
verse 37, they got into the boat and they left. Jesus won't stay where He's not wanted. They asked the world's greatest miracle worker to leave. Jesus was their only hope, and they asked Him
to leave.
I think Jesus, I don’t know
if He ever came back that way again.
Maybe this was the only chance for some of them. They foolishly asked Him to go. The pig owners were more concerned about
their money than they were about Jesus’ miracles. They needed a miracle in their land, in their hearts, and in
their homes, and they were more concerned about pig money. They chose swine over salvation. Now I’m glad we’re not that stupid. We choose booze over the Bible. We choose drugs over deliverance. We choose lust over love. We choose pleasure over prayer. Maybe we are the same. Or similar.
They feared the cost of Jesus’ presence when what they should have
feared was the cost of Jesus’ absence.
There's a high price to the absence of Jesus in your life. You don't want to pay that price.
Luke 8 verse 38. “The man from whom
the demons had gone out begged to go with them.” He wanted to become a disciple. He begged to go. “Can I please go with you?”
And what did Jesus say? Jesus
sent him away saying, “Return home and tell how much
God has done for you.” Where should
you begin your witness? Return
home. Go home. You start in your own home, and then spread
out. And so the man did. He went back, and that was hard. When people looked at him, they saw him as
the cause of their bankruptcy. Their
financial loss. They remember Jesus as
the one who ruined their food supply.
He ruined their whole business.
He made them bankrupt, and so when this former demoniac went out to tell
everybody about Jesus, it was not a welcome message. But he did it. And in the
last part of verse 39, “The man went away and told all
over town how much Jesus had done for him.” His personal testimony.
And people believed the man.
They could see that he's different.
He's normal. Maybe he even had a
little bit of a real nice personality that came out after the devil left, and
when Jesus comes into your heart you're nicer.
You pretty good.
And I think later in Mark 7,
verse 37, the same people said of Jesus, “He has done
everything well.” So I think
this former madman's testimony worked.
I think the people were
converted. And this means that the
man's witnessing efforts were successful.
He couldn't keep silent. He told
everybody about Jesus, and when you’ve been redeemed you want to tell everybody
about it. And I want to urge you. You've been redeemed. You go out there and you witness to your
neighbors. Witness to your family. Witness to people. And let's speak out about the outrages of this life, and let's
speak up about Jesus.
Next week we're going to be
speaking about raising your kids from the dead. How to do it. So if you
want to come we’ll look forward to that, and let's sing our closing hymn. Number 337.
Redeemed How I Love To Proclaim It.
Hymn of Praise: #17 Lord of All Being, Throned Afar Scripture: Romans 5:16-18 Hymn of Response: #337 Redeemed!
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 8/6/08