Jesus: Lord Over Demons - [Luke 8:26-39]

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I don't know if you've ever asked this question to yourself or maybe of someone else. How does a pastor possibly minister to so many different kinds of people experiencing so many different kinds of trouble?
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I just was talking to Nancy a moment ago, Tuesday would have been Blake's 19th birthday. Tom has recently died,
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Bruce's brother, Charlie and Cindy's father, many others.
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Some people have lost loved ones, others have no job. There are men here at the church who need a job.
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There are health issues. I just wrote down a few, Jack, Kelly, Eileen, Karen. Some of you have spouses who aren't saved.
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Some of you have children who are not saved. And think about all the other problems that exist in life.
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How can a man possibly stand up and minister to each and every person?
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Well, no man could ever do it. But I do know someone who can minister to each and every person.
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And even in this sentence, not that the sentence helps, but the person of the sentence helps.
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There is a solution to everyone's problem. And the answer is Jesus Christ is
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Lord. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's the risen King, the returning
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King. And Jesus is sovereign over everything. Jesus is Lord.
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And when you think about the Lordship of Jesus, it solves lots of problems. I love
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Maurice Roberts when he says, The thought of God should be the Christian's cure -all. It should cure all his ills at a stroke.
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And what an infinity there is in the thought of God. There's a difference between things as they are and things as we perceive them.
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It is our folly that we allow ourselves to look at life's problems as if they were somehow isolated from God.
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And if God be God, and if God be my God, then no problem of mine is without its appropriate solution.
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Isn't that good? That is the answer. And so I'd like you to take your Bibles today and open to Luke chapter 8.
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We've been in 1 Corinthians for quite a while. We're going to take a deviation to look at Jesus Christ as Lord.
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Luke chapter 8, it's one of those passages today. If I was going to use pop culture, it's like an
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Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. It is fast. It is furious. It is exciting. And it will cause you to forget about yourself and think about the
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Lord Jesus Christ. You might be praying for me, although it should be prayers of praise.
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This Thursday coming up, I fly to Greece. And I'll be there for quite a while teaching the book of 1
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Corinthians in Corinth. And so if someone had to do it, I know it's one of those things where, all right,
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I guess I have to go. And so I want to leave you, not in the middle of 1 Corinthians 5, but I want to leave you with the words coming from me.
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Jesus Christ is Lord. And you'll see that today, how He's Lord over nature.
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He's Lord over people. He's Lord over demons. He's Lord over sickness. And He's Lord over death.
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And so we will look at Christ Jesus today. Small detour from 1
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Corinthians. Now, coming to chapter 8 in Luke, we're looking at this gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ according to Luke.
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I kind of hate to even say the gospel of Luke. Because it's not the good news about Luke. It's the gospel about Jesus Christ.
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Good news about Christ Jesus through God's inspired man, Luke. And so we're going to see this morning this authority that Jesus has over especially demons.
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And so here's my purpose this morning, if I haven't been clear so far. I want you to see a good new glimpse of Jesus Christ.
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So you say to yourself, that's my Lord. I mean, if you say, well, my problems aren't really huge.
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I just have a hard time living in the daily grind. Same old, same old. Everybody's working for the weekend.
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Tomorrow's Monday. It's just kind of dull and drab. This is going to be good for you. This is going to be good for you to remember who
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Jesus is. Because when you watch him, it puts everything into perspective. If you're going through spiritual doldrums now, doldrums, then you say to yourself, instead of reading through the
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Bible chapter by chapter, which is good. Read through the
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Bible in a year. Leave Numbers 8 and skip to the Gospels and read. Here's my assignment for you.
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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And you're going to say, there's nobody like Jesus. Nobody talks like him.
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Nobody acts like him. Nobody does the things that he does. He's God incarnate. He's a king. He's my
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Savior. You're going to read this and you're going to go, I can't believe there was a man named Jesus. All right,
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I'm just going to calm down now. To establish our context, let's start in verse 22, although the sermon really today is from 26 through 39,
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Luke chapter 8. This is a chapter that talks about Christ's unique authority over nature, the supernatural, the natural, and everything else.
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Jesus calms the storm, Luke 8 .22. Let's just read that to get our context and see what he does in this storm of nature, because right after this, it's going to be the storm in human nature.
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One day he got into a boat with his disciples, Luke 8 .22, and he said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake.
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So they set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep, and a windstorm came down on the lake.
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They were filling with water and were in danger. They went and woke him, saying, Master, Master, we are perishing.
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And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased.
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There was calm. And he said to them, Where is your faith? They were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another,
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Who then is this that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?
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So they were afraid earlier when the storm was raging. They're now even more afraid because they realize the creator of that sea, of the stars, of the sky, of them, is in their boat.
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They realize, here's holy God in my boat, in our boat, and therefore we are afraid.
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It's a great miracle, too, because it's not like the wind slowly died down. We go from winds and storm and waves and sea to flat.
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And now we move to another storm, a violent storm, a horrible storm, but it's in a man, a storm in a man.
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And we move to Luke 8, verse 26. And we're going to see
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Jesus not only show his lordship over the sea, but over this man, the demon -possessed man.
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Jesus has cast out demons before, but the story hasn't been like this yet. This is one of those wild passages.
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One man said of the movie The Exorcist, which was after William Blatty's novel, they said for the movie, don't go see it unless you have a strong stomach and a weak mind.
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I remember actually when I was 13 or 14, 1973, asking my Lutheran pastor, I like scary movies, creature feature, you know, all that, could
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I go see The Exorcist? And actually my Lutheran pastor had enough sense to say, no, don't go see that movie.
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The reason why the newspaper review said strong stomachs and weak minds, because it was a gross movie.
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And if you believe in that kind of demonic possession, supernatural, if you believe in demons, you've got a weak mind, because no rational person is going to believe in demons.
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I wonder what happens in this passage. We're going to see from 1 John 3, 8, the reason the
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Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil, and that's exactly what the Lord of these demons is going to do, as we see this with Luke the doctor's vivid portrait.
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Now, at the end of verse 25, what do we have? Serenity, calmness, peace.
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You can even sing an Eagle song, I've got that peaceful, easy feeling. Tranquility.
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And now we're going to see blood -curdling shrieks. That's what we're going to see.
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I probably should say this now so I don't forget. Liberals hate this passage, because Jesus wouldn't be so superstitious to believe in some demon now, would he?
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Jesus is really stooping to the level of these Galilean hicks, these hayseeds from Galilee, and it's the language of accommodation.
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You believe in demons, I'll pretend like I do too. I think
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Jesus believed in demons for sure. It's not some mythical story. This is not some kind of Bob Larson story of demons.
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There was quite a bit of demon casting out in history, according to Josephus.
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Eleazar used to exercise demons using incantations and a ring that was associated with King Solomon.
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This is King Solomon's real ring. If we use that and say the right things, then the person who's got a demon, it'll go out of them.
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That's interesting. You could also try to pull demons out through people's noses back in the first century.
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I don't really know what instrument they would use, but it paints a good picture in your mind. Bentresh Steli contains a
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Persian account of an Egyptian exorcism, where the way you get the demon out is you give them a big feast, a big banquet, and you bribe them out, pretty pleased with sugar and a few pomegranates, and then the thing comes out.
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I don't think the Lord of Creation, the Lord of Nature, the Lord of the supernatural, is going to have to do it like that.
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How does Jesus cast out a demon? What does he do? How does he go about it to show his lordship? Let's see how it's described first, verse 26.
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I just set it up because this part is important. In verse 26, then they sail to the country of the
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Gerizim, which is opposite Galilee. Here's the big point here. This is
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Gentile area. The mission of the Messiah, although with primary focus to the house of Israel, there is a spillover effect.
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There is going to be salvation for Gentiles. Jesus did not come alone to die for Jewish people.
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He came to die for Jews, yes, his people, but also many others. And looking at this congregation, aren't we glad?
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There's a mission to the Gentiles. And so, all of humanity benefits from this eternal
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God, the eternal son of God cloaking himself with humanity and working himself towards Calvary.
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They are even going to benefit from Jesus' ministry beyond Israel. This is on the other side of the
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Sea of Galilee. You'll notice in this passage that there's not a lot of talk about the disciples, hardly any.
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I mean, if we look from 26 through 39, I think about 14 verses. What's going to go on with the disciples?
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I think this is about the only reference to the disciples. Then they sail to the country of the Gerizim. The focus is on Jesus.
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He's on the spotlight. He's the one in the middle of the three rings, as it were, with all focus on Jesus.
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He alone speaks. He alone acts. So we're in the general region of the other side of the
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Sea of Galilee. By the way, don't you wish you were going with us in February? You're going to go right over to this area.
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I don't think it's still not too late to go. Well, maybe, based on Lenita's look, it's too late.
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Now, just picture this. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had, plural, demons.
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For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs.
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And we're going to see in this passage, as the demon tries to dehumanize a person, as the demon tries to scar and damage and obliterate the image -bearing person,
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Jesus is going to make that turn right -side up. And this man didn't have one demon, not two demons.
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It says plural, but we're going to find out there are a lot of demons. And he does what demonic kind of people do, ceremonial uncleanliness, hanging out by the tombs.
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And you can just imagine the smell and the sights and the relationship that he had with other people.
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This is one deranged person. I think I'd say if I was a kid, this guy is gross.
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Mark says an unclean spirit met him. That's exactly what this demon was. He was like an unclean thing.
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Now, it's late in the day. Mark 4 says evening had come. So just imagine the shadows.
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It could be twilight. It could be a little bit darker. Kind of the eerie darkness. This is not at noon.
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Actually, Mark says the man came running up to him. Now, if you were one of the disciples, you'd get out of the boat.
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You're all like, you know, yes, high -fiving. I don't know how. They must have had some kind of handshake.
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I don't know what they did, a fist bump or what they did. But some kind of, you know, hugging each other. Yes, we made it.
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We thought we were dead. Jesus is in our boat. Here's what he's done for us. It's kind of calm and serene.
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Getting a little bit of twilight. Probably thinking about food, who knows what. And here comes this guy running up full blast to them.
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To him, but to them too. What would be going through your mind? I don't know if you've ever met a demon -possessed person.
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But if you did, you would not be running up like, my long -lost uncle. This is frightening.
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It's morally filthy. Now, there's more than one demon -possessed man, but the focus here is on one.
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If Luke said there's only one, then that would be not true. But he's focused on one. Why? Maybe he's more prominent.
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Maybe he's got more demons. Maybe he's the leader. Maybe he's the spokesperson. It doesn't matter. And here is this man from the tombs.
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Probably touching where dead bodies touched. What would a Jew think about that? This is ceremonially filthy, unclean.
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He's living in the tombs. He's strong. Mark says no one was able to bind him, even with chains.
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He's smelly. He's homeless. He's caved over in the limestone rock.
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Hewn into the side of a wall. He was just gross. And he was without clothes.
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The writer is trying to show you that this man was in trouble. He was in bad shape.
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Matthew chapter 8 says, they were so exceedingly violent, the two demon -possessed men, that no one could pass by that road.
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So give them a wide berth. Go way around. This is kind of reminiscent of Billy Gruff, right?
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You have to go around. You can't go over the bridge. And so nobody went close. I bet you, you wouldn't go close either.
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Bound with chains and shackles. Couldn't be subdued. Mark says no one could tame him.
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Used of a language where someone that's higher ranking in the species dominates and subjugates something lower.
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No one could tame this man. He was fierce. He was frenzied. And Mark 5 says he was crying out and gashing himself with stones.
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The text says day in and day out. Loud screaming. And then taking probably some kind of little flint rock and then just cutting himself.
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Kind of the original cutter. You can tell what's happening. The demons are trying to make this man no longer an image bearer.
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Night and day, the loud screaming. Shrieking. The word in Mark 5 is an inarticulate cry.
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He's hacking himself up. Slicing. Very satanic.
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In 1 Kings 18 it says, So they cried with a loud voice and cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out on them.
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Imagine the black, dried blood. One man said,
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These verses give a vivid picture of the manic stage of a manic depressive psychosis.
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Whatever you think about manic depressive psychosis, this we'll find out is not because of that.
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It's because of demons. This guy's a maniac, not a manic. I don't know about you, but how would you react with a crazy naked man running around that smelled bad, screaming and shrieking?
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Not really a common everyday occurrence, do you think? I have to just tell you my quick story. I've got a long version and a short version.
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Here is the short version. I'm in North Hollywood. Some people are already yelling.
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Some people are already laughing. They probably know what I'm going to say, or maybe that was just a shriek over there. Do we have a demon -possessed person over here somewhere shrieking?
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I remember I needed to mow my lawn. We were having Bible study or something. So I'd go to my neighbor.
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I had no mower, so I had to deal with this 80 -year -old mower. I borrow your mower. I mow your lawn, and I mow my lawn.
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And so it's starting to get dark. I've got to hurry up. The people are coming over for Bible study, and so I'm going across mowing my lawn back and forth.
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Next thing I know, there's a guy out in the middle of our street, and our yard wasn't big, so the street was close, and he's out there doing a
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Grateful Dead dance. So I can only see him when I'm mowing this way, and so when I mow this way,
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I don't know what he's doing, and so then I turn around this way, and then the next thing I know, his shirt's off. And I'm mowing back and forth, and then the next thing you know, all of his clothes are off, except one sock, and he's doing this kind of dance.
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And I'm thinking, this guy's crazy. You know, do I need to go get my gun or what? And then
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I thought, no, I've got a mower, and he's naked, so I'm okay. So I just keep mowing, wondering what's going on, and then he starts going to the neighbors' houses and knocking on the doors and everything.
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But you know, it's just not in my standard operating procedures manual what to do with naked, crazy guy in neighborhood, suburban
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North Hollywood. Sometimes I tell a story and don't tell you the end, and then you ask me afterwards, you know, what's that Greek word,
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Pastor, you use? No, you say, what's the end of the story? The end of the story is, we called the police. The police came. He ran over to a hose, turned it on, got down in military position, was spraying the police with the hose, and then the hose was kinked by said policeman, and they took him off.
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He only lived two doors down the street, so it's not a big deal. And here
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Jesus knows exactly what to do. He's not afraid.
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Let's find out what happens. Verses 28 to 31, Jesus and the demon -possessed man. When this man saw
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Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice,
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What have you to do with me? Listen to this, this is fascinating. Jesus, Son of the
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Most High God, I beg you, do not torment me. And here
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Jesus is totally calm, and the man comes running up. King James, I think, says he worshiped him, but it's not really worship.
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It's, I'm bowing down. You're the superior. I'm inferior. I recognize who you are, and I bow down to you.
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It's almost magnetic. Here's the demon -possessed man. Here's Jesus, and there's these two magnets coming together, and he just runs up, and he knows
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I'm going to have to bow down before him. I know his name. I know who he is. He's not a dead god. Here's this naked, yelling maniac saying truthful things about God.
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Remember James 2, verse 19? The demons even believe in what? Tremble. They've got great theology.
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It doesn't mean they're saved. And he's crying out, Son of the
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Most High God, I beg you, do not torment me. I'm still trying to get a picture of what the twelve must have been doing.
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Judas was probably hiding the money. That's probably what he was doing. They're dumbfounded.
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We don't know what they're saying. And this demon -possessed man, compelled as it were, as he sees the judge of the universe and bows before him in humble, if I could say that word, acknowledgement that he is the
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Son of the Most High. Very interesting. When he saw
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Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting, now we're using singular. There are lots of demons in him, but he's with one demon maybe, one spokesperson, demons acting in unity, we don't know, but singular demon speaking.
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Mark 5 says, crying out with a loud voice, he said, What do I have to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High?
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I implore you by God, do not torment me. Mark actually says he cried out before he even spoke.
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Why are you interfering with me? Maybe it's, mind your own business, but I doubt it.
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It is, I know someone is superior, and I bow down. You're not a false God, you're the Son of the real
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God, the Most High God. Don't torment me before the time. What was going to happen to the demons?
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Matthew 25, He will also say to those on His left, depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his, what?
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Angels. We know we have to go there, we just don't want to go there yet. Verse 29, look at the passage.
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For he had commanded the unclean spirit, Luke 8, 29, to come out of the man. And what
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Mark tells us earlier, Luke tells us now parenthetically, for many a time it had seized him, he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.
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The demon is strong, Luke's point is that, he's powerful, yet he is not as powerful and as strong as Jesus the
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Lord. And Jesus says, come out of the man. What do you see that's lacking here?
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I see no formula, he didn't have some formula, I smell no incense,
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I see no vestments, I see no holy water, I see no crucifixes, no props, no
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Latin spoken. What does Jesus say? Get out, that's all he says.
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Mark 5, come out of the man you unclean spirit. Verse 30,
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Jesus then asked him, what is your name? And he said,
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Legion, for many demons had entered him. My name is
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Legion, for we are many, Mark translates it. That would be bad enough to have one demon in you, don't you think?
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How about like Mary Magdalene 7? How about this guy, a Legion, now a Roman Legion could be as few as 3 ,000 soldiers or as many as 6 ,000, some say,
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A .T. Robertson, the Southern Baptist scholar, 6 ,800 demons. How would you like to have, well let's just go to the lowest number, 3 ,000.
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3 ,000 demons in a man. And what Luke is trying to show us, it's 3 ,000 to 1.
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By the way, one angel killed about how many people on one night in the Old Testament? 185 ,000, one angel.
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Here we have a fallen angel times 3 ,000 in a man. And here's Jesus. Jesus isn't asking questions because he doesn't know the answer.
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He's just getting it out in the open. 6 ,000 infantrymen in a typical
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Legion. Legions were known for efficiency, organization, strength, relentlessness.
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And here is the battle. One man said, the war is on. It is one against the many.
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Luke 8 .30, Legion, for many demons had entered him.
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This is not some minor issue. And what were they doing? Verse 31, And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
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Mark 5 says, earnestly not to send them out of the country. Demons are not all -knowing.
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Satan's not all -knowing. Don't have some kind of yin -yang theology. God is the positive force. Satan's the negative.
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God knows everything. Here with some kind of complete symmetry. Satan knows everything.
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These demons didn't know. Demons know a lot, but demons are not omniscient. Correct? He begged them not to send them out.
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We don't want to depart into the abyss. The abusos.
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The place where demons and disobedient spirits are kept like back in 2 Peter 2.
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So what's going to happen? It's fascinating. You know the story, but let's pretend like you've never heard it. Let's pretend like you were there.
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Verse 32. I stole this, but it's good for a sigh of relief right here.
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Let's find out about the deviled ham right now. Let's close in prayer.
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But you know what? I would imagine if you're actually paying attention, you have a Bible open. Probably haven't thought about the tests that you have at school, what's going on tomorrow, first appointment at 8 o 'clock, your bank account.
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Why? Because it's so engrossing. People go, oh yeah, it's a boring Bible. The Bible's not boring. Just open it up and read it with a little passion and enthusiasm and say, this is the
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God of the universe and here's a man with 5 ,000 demons. Oh yeah, it's kind of boring.
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People go, yeah, the worship there is kind of boring. Well, I don't really know how to help you.
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If I was allowed to say infused in a Protestant church, I'd like to infuse you with something, but I can't say that word here, so let's move on.
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For those with the inside knowledge, A32. You said, now you've got me thinking about work again.
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Back to the passage, verse 32. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside.
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And these demons, from 3 ,000 to 6 ,000, they begged him to let them enter these.
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And to Peter's chagrin, he gave them permission. One man called this a devilish request.
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Mark translates Jesus saying, send us into the swine so that we may enter them.
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I have a question for you. Why would demons want to go into pigs? There could be lots of answers.
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Some might say, well, they didn't want to go into the ultimate confining place called the abyss.
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That's very contextual. Maybe because God had called the pigs unclean back in Mosaic law,
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Deuteronomy 14 .8. So we want to continue our uncleanness. Instead of this unclean man, let's make it unclean pigs, ceremonially unclean.
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Maybe they're thinking, send us into the pigs because the pigs will die, Jesus is going to get in trouble, and then they'll try to kill
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Jesus. I know this. I know their motives are not good.
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Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown said, suffer us to continue our work of mischief in another form.
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I know what they didn't ask for. Forgiveness. Cleansing.
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Regeneration. Redemption. Give us a second opportunity. We want to be better.
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Cure our demon nature to the core. Verse 33, then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank and into the lake, and they were drowned.
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That's the kind of pace and the pitch of the verbal cues there.
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Look at how fast that happened. Let me read you Mark 5 .13. And the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about 2 ,000 of them, and they were drowned in the sea.
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Here Jesus the Lord sovereignly, because of His own purpose, says, okay, go into the pigs, and off the pigs go to be drowned.
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Matthew 8, it's very short words that Jesus said.
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He says, go. Very brief. Go. They want destruction.
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Here it comes headlong. And by the way, in Mark, the language is, it's one pig after another pig, after another pig, after another pig.
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They didn't all kind of hold hands and jump together, hold feet exact same time, you know, Red Rover, Red Rover, let's let the pigs go right over.
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That's not my notes, by the way. But it's not like it's in unison. Pigs don't travel with herd mentality like sheep do.
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You send the Judah sheep out, and everyone follows. Here, these pigs are now acting like sheep.
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They're all following. Off they go, one after another, after another, after another. Stubborn individualistic pigs, over they go.
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Herd mentality. And the text says, and they were drowning in the sea in Mark 5.
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Literally, it wasn't, the word isn't drowning, it's choking. Now, just imagine a frenzied pig, each pig containing two, maybe three demons.
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If we divide it up with simple math, hitting the water, heavy pigs, still some oxygen in their lungs, choking.
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The Greek word is, and if I could do, if I was teaching high school, junior high, or my own kids at the dinner table,
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I'd probably push my nose up a little bit, and I'd start making some snorting sounds, and I'm not going to do it this morning.
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One after another. Think about the satanic, some of you people just gave me the weirdest look. I'm telling you, welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church, where the
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Lord grows the church in spite of the pastor. Just imagine the squealing sounds, and the choking sounds.
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You have extraordinary strength, if you're demon possessed as a person. I'm sure these pigs, I'm not saying they could swim, but they have extraordinary zeal in their attempts to be rescued.
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The liberals say, there were no demons. These pigs were so freaked out at a wild man, that the wild man chased the pigs into the water.
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I think that requires more faith, by the way. It's like the Red Sea Crossing. All Pharaoh's army drowned in two inches of the sea, because the sons and daughters of Israel passed on a sandbar.
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That's a bigger miracle, because if the whole army drowned in one inch of water... Back to the passage.
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Was this okay for Jesus to do? After all, Proverbs, righteous man regards the life of his beast.
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Of course it was okay for Jesus to do. You shouldn't even ask the question, because Psalm 115 says, Our God is in the heavens.
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He does whatever He pleases. If He created them, He owns them. He can do whatever
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He wants. Bertrand Russell wrote a book called, Why I'm Not a
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Christian. And he was an atheistic philosopher. You should read that book sometime, because as good as it gets to argue against Christianity, it's pretty bad.
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But he said, I cannot be a Christian and follow Jesus for many reasons, including His horrible treatment of the pigs.
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Since my cholesterol's been a little high lately, I've been having oatmeal every morning, and I put some wheat germ on it, and some flax seeds, and some sweetener, and some blueberries.
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But this morning, I had some bacon. The toast to Bertrand Russell.
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Slaughter the pigs. We laugh, because we're around here, but there's a huge movement in Christianity that says, if you want to be godly, you've got to eat a certain kind of way.
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If you have a preference, if you want to waste your money on organic, it's your money. I mean, you can do whatever you want. But this lead article on Christianity today, would
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Jesus come to our potlucks and eat chicken tenders, because they're made with beaks, and made with, you know, toenails of the chickens, and all that stuff.
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Would He eat the lime jello that has the pretzel floating in it, because He knows how bad the gelatin is from the lime jello.
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I mean, it is just crazy. That's a way easier way to be godly. Just don't eat the right things.
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Don't eat the wrong things. Eat the right things. And then godliness is set. But that's not godliness.
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1 Timothy 4, by the way, says, if you say, Thank you, Lord, you eat whatever you want. If your conscience won't let you, educate your conscience with the
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Bible, and eat what you want. Why would Jesus do this?
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It was okay for Him to do it, but the next question is, why would He do it? At the risk of making this too full of levity, one commentator did say,
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I didn't say it, but he did. He did it not to send them to hog heaven. Okay?
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I think He did it because He wanted to show His power and His authority. I think
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He wanted to expose the demons to a little bit of temporal confinement, because real confinement in the abyss was going to be coming.
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And I think He was giving an object lesson to the people watching, including His disciples, including us.
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Jesus is Lord. A graphic display of His lordship.
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Don't cry for the pigs. How many people, how many pigs would be of equal value?
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We get all the pigs together, and we say, I'll exchange one human being made in the likeness and ministry of God for how many pigs?
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1 ,000, 2 ,000, 50 ,000. By the way, every one of those pigs was going to die anyway, yes?
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Every one of those pigs is dead. And many times we use animals in the Old Testament for sacrifice.
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Every time you eat an animal, you kill an animal because you're hungry. Maybe you don't kill it, but the butcher does.
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A liberal scholar even said, there is a cheap sentimentalism which will languish in grief over the pain of an animal and will never turn a hair at the wretched state of millions of God's men and women.
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Isn't that true? We even do it sometimes. You see a dog suffer versus a person suffer. Animals aren't image bearers.
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This is exactly what Jesus should do. Sovereign over demons. Well, what's the response?
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There's a couple different responses, even for you today. You see all this, and what do you say? No big deal. I don't care.
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Oh, I love Him. I praise Him. Let's see what the responses are here in the text. Luke 8, 34.
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What's the first response? Get out of here, Jesus. You're wrecking our economy. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it.
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They announced it in the city and in the country. When Jesus is in town, there's lots of talk that's going to be energized.
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Mark 5 says, the herdsmen 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.
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You've got to see this. Come follow me. And I would imagine when they went over by the cliff, what would you see there?
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Probably the bloated pigs washing up on shore dead, the carcasses strewn all over.
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Verse 35, then people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man, the man, from whom the, plural, demons had gone.
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Everything's the opposite. It's all right side up now. Crazy? Now sound mind learning. Sitting at the feet of Jesus.
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Clothed. He was naked and in his right mind. And they were afraid.
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Here's this man making all these sounds, doing all these things, naked, running around, and now he's sitting at the feet of the rabbi learning.
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And they realize this man, Jesus, is supernatural. He's the
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Lord. The man is seated at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right mind.
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Mark says he's self -controlled. Isn't that interesting? From demon -controlled to self -controlled.
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In his right mind. And just like the Sea of Galilee, which is totally calm and peaceful after Jesus was done with it, same too with this man.
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Verse 36, and those who had seen it told them how the demon -possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country and the
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Gerizim asked him for repentance, for forgiveness of sins, for restoration.
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No. Asked him to depart from them for they were seized with great fear.
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And sadly, sometimes Jesus gives the people what they ask for. And so he got into the boat and returned.
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Side note, you can see signs and wonders and healings and people raised from the dead.
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And that does not cause saving faith, just like here. Get out of here,
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Jesus! We're afraid. Maybe you're disrupting our normal routine. Maybe we're Jewish people trying to get away from Judaism and now we're over here on the other side of the
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Sea of Galilee where the Gentiles are and we're not supposed to have all these pigs but we have these pigs and now you're hurting business. Maybe they're frightened by the great display of Christ's power.
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Joseph Odell has a poem, Come, Rabbi, be gone. Thy powers bring loss to us and ours.
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Our ways are not as thine. Thou lovest men, we swine.
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Oh, get thee hence omnipotence. But there's another response to this.
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Verse 38. Here's the good response. It's the response of the man. When you see the
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Lordship of Christ, this should be your response. And the man from whom the demons had gone begged that He might be with him.
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Wherever you go, Jesus, I want to go. But Jesus sent him away saying, Return to your home.
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Declare how much God has done for you. People say, Well, Jesus never said He's God. Well, you just need to read this passage.
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Jesus is calling Himself God. Declare how much God has done for you. And He went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much
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Jesus had done for Him. He knew that Jesus was God because go tell everybody what
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God did. He goes and tells everybody what Jesus did. The other people,
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Jesus, get as far away as you can. This man says what? I want to get as close to you,
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Jesus, as I can. I want to follow you. He didn't say, did you notice what it didn't say?
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But I haven't seen my family for all these years since I've been demon possessed. I'd like to go back and say hello to my wife, my kids, my mom, my dad.
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How do you just go back and tell them goodbye? He says, I'm following you. And Jesus said, no, go return to your home.
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Remember sometimes Jesus would say like to the lepers who had been healed, don't tell anybody about what I've done for you because they were in Israel and it wasn't time for all the authorities to gang up on Jesus and crucify
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Him because that was ordained to be a later time. Here He's in the Gentile area. There's no threat of Jewish leadership trying to crucify
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Jesus. So He says, go tell everybody. Be a missionary. Mark 5 says this, and He went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis, ten cities, the
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Gentile cities, what great things Jesus had done for Him and everyone marveled.
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They were astonished. One man said,
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Jesus had only told Him to go to His friends and tell them what God had done for Him but He was not content to stop there.
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He set out for ten Greek cities and told them the good news. He says yes to the demons and He agrees with their request.
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He says no to the man and disagrees with his request. Well, any takeaways?
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Let me give you several. One, you must believe that Jesus is Lord. And if you believe
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Jesus is Lord, you will believe in submission. Gospel submission. Recognize what the
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Lord says about your own sin, your own depravity, your own wickedness. Recognize what the Lord Jesus said about the only way you can have forgiveness and that is looking to the sin -bearing
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Savior, Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead. Why was He raised from the dead?
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Because He was powerful over death. He actually paid for the sins of all those who would look to Him.
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Just imagine if you were in Jerusalem that Friday night and Jesus is in the tomb. You might be saying to yourself if you're
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Peter or James or John, I wonder if God the Father accepted the payment of Jesus the
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Son. I wonder if what He said was really true. We believe it but we're not really sure. Saturday goes by.
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I wonder if Jesus actually paid the sin debt for our sins like He said. If He's dead, that means
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He only paid for His own sins. The wages of sin is death. He was a sinner. He died. But if He paid for other people's sins,
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He's surely going to rise up from the grave to show everyone God the Father accepted the sacrifice. And on the third day, what happened?
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He was raised from the dead. If you believe Jesus is Lord, that means He owns you.
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This is not, you know, I'll get my degree and I'll go do this and I'll go do that and at 60 when I'm older,
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I'll dedicate my life to Christ. I'll take
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Him as my Savior now but my Lord later. That is a horrible, tragic mistake that you can commit.
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Luke 6, Jesus said, Why call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things that I say? Lord, grant me a heart of submission and obedience to the
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Lord Jesus Christ. Takeaway number two, not all men are demon -possessed but all unbelievers are ruled by Satan.
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Not every person you meet is going to be demon -possessed. Actually, there were lots of people demon -possessed when
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Jesus was on the earth because the demons were specially trying to attack Jesus. I think people still can be demon -possessed today but I don't think there's as many possessions as the news might say.
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All men are not demon -possessed but by nature unbelievers are ruled by Satan.
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And you are going to need the gospel that makes men new. Preach to these people to have them saved because you are not stronger than the devil.
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Number three, don't waste any time worrying about Satan or demons. Don't waste any time worrying about Satan or demons.
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Romans 16, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. I never say, well, what if demons get me?
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What if they can oppress me? What if they can possess me? What if they get somebody else? Archon Hughes said that there was a brother and sister fighting and the mom said, why do you let the devil put into your heart to pull your brother's hair and kick him in the shins?
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Well, maybe the devil put it in my head to pull my brother's hair but kicking his shins was my own idea.
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She was half right. We have a Savior that's conquered
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Satan and Satan can only do what God ordains him to do. Actually, God uses
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Satan for his program and he's the hardest working servant in all the universe, Satan, because God has him do what he sovereignly wills
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Satan to do. Number four, number four, yes, number four, whatever you do, don't rebuke
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Satan and demons. Whatever you do, don't fall for the immature lie that says what's described in the
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Bible is prescribed for me. Jesus cast out demons. WWJD, I cast out demons.
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Apostles cast out demons. Therefore, I cast out demons. Friends, that is a horrible hermeneutical interpretational mistake.
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Where in the New Testament are you ever supposed to cast out demons as a New Testament church person? You can't find it.
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Why don't I have in the pastoral epistles written to pastors and elders,
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Pastor, when someone comes in your office and they're demon possessed and they start throwing around the monitor in your office, this is what you do.
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A, do this. B, do that. C, do that. Why don't I have any of that? Because we're not to have some kind of magic formulas.
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I'm not Jesus. I'm not an apostle. But it's flashy. I cast out demons. I bind him.
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I double bind them. I tie up the demon of Boylston who's going to get involved in the city selectmen there who are not going to let us get the town and they're going to overdo that and I cast them all the way out to the place where you always cast demons if you're a charismatic
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Fitchburg. I cast them out there. I mean, where are you going to cast them to your neighbors?
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They're going to go somewhere. I say Jesus is Lord over demons.
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Why do I care what demons do? Because Jesus has conquered sin and Satan and death and hell and they can't do anything to me.
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If you're a Christian, no one can possess you. The Spirit of God is not going to say, well, you know, let's kind of have a renter here for a while,
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Satan. It is the sole prerogative of Jesus to cast out demons. Show me someone who casts out demons and I'll show you someone either ignorant of the faith or immature or satanic themselves.
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Listen. How do you spot a false prophet? 2 Peter 2. Especially those who indulge in the flesh and its corrupt desires and despise authority.
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Daring, these false prophets are self -willed. They do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties.
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Whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the
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Lord. Show me someone that casts out demons and I'll show you someone who, again, is either ignorant or they're a false prophet.
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False prophets do that. We don't do that. Jude 10. These men revile the things which they do not understand.
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The things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals. But by these things they are destroyed.
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Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment.
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He said, the Lord rebuked you. You say, see, there it is. The Lord rebuked you. Well, I'm not an angel either.
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So I never run around. If you come to me and say you're demon -possessed, what do I do? I think people can be demon -possessed today.
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If you meet a demon -possessed person, what do you do? You don't have to call the pastors. You don't have to get the incense. You don't have to get the oil.
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You don't have to get the formula. You don't have to get the lectionary. You don't have to get the vestments. You don't have to get anything. What do you do? How do demons go out of people?
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Well, you preach the gospel to them and if you're a saved person, you're 10 years old and saved, you know the gospel to preach to them.
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And if God uses the power of the gospel, the spirit of God then dwells in them, where does the demon go? Gone. But friends, it's so much easier if you say, well,
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I've got the demon of pornography. I've got the demon of, as MacArthur says, post -nasal drip. I've got the demon of addiction.
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I've got the demon of drunkenness. I've got the demon of swearing. I've got the demon of the real demon possession, Boston Red Sox worship.
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I've got all these problems. If you're going to worship something, you might as well worship something that gives you good dividends every year.
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But when we blame what James says, each one is carried away by his own what?
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Personal demon. No, his own flesh. His own lusts. I learned in 1966 with Philip Wilson, the devil did not make me do it.
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The devil doesn't make you do anything. He can entice. He can lay snares. He can try to egg on. But we make ourselves do things.
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Nobody else. Don't bind demons. Don't cast out Satan. Submit and trust to the
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One who's Lord over all these supernatural beings. It's so much easier.
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Implication number five. Two more and we're done. Implication five. If you're really saved from all your sins and have forgiveness, shouldn't you be prepared to go anywhere or do anything for Jesus the
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Lord? That's what happened to that man, didn't he? Didn't it? I'll go anywhere.
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I'll do anything. I don't want you all to leave because then we don't need the new building. Right? But I want you to be missionaries where you are.
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You say, I'll do anything. I'll go anywhere. You've been bought with a price.
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Therefore, 1 Corinthians 6, glorify God in your body. And lastly, number six, show compassion to image bearers.
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Show compassion to image bearers. It's okay to like pets. It's okay to ascribe to them anthropomorphic and anthropopathic things.
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But they reason not. They're brute beasts. They live by instinct.
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And they don't bear God's image. And when they die, they're dead. But there are people around you lost and dying.
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And every person you know, every person that's ever been born, and the 70 ,000 people who die every day across this world are all going straight to hell without the gospel.
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And the problem is, Jonathan Edwards is right. Almost every natural man that hears of hell flatters himself that he shall escape it.
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He depends upon himself for his own security. He flatters himself in what he has done and what he is now doing, what he intends to do.
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Everyone lays out matters in his own mind how he should avoid damnation. And flatters himself that he contrives well for himself and that his schemes will not fail.
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Your scheme better include, be perfect for your Heavenly Father's perfect. Your scheme better figure out a way to have your sins forgiven.
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But you can't forgive your own sins because you're sinful. So look to the one who is the sin bearer, who forgives sins.
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When he says, look to me, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Lord, help me not to look to myself, my own works, my own righteousness.
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Help me to look to you. Help me to say like the tax gatherer, Lord, have mercy upon me, what?
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A sinner. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.
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But Jesus said, I came that they might have life and have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd.
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The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jesus is Lord. And I'm glad.
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Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for this day. Thank you that we can look to your word and just be consumed by it, caught up in it, marveling at Christ, being impressed by Christ.
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Father, increase Jesus Christ's fame in our hearts.
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Lord, make it contagious. Give us joy. Give us happiness, knowing that we're adopted by you because of the work of the
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King. Lord, if you can, through Jesus Christ, call mercy, cast demons out of a man, you can certainly grant those today in the congregation who struggle with sin as Christians, you can grant them victory.
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Father, you can also grant saving faith to the people who are here today who don't know you, who pay lip service to your lordship.
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Father, do a mighty work in the hearts of Bethlehem Bible Church today. For Jesus, the