Jesus and Demons (Part 2)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Demons Driven Into the Pigs and the Power of Jesus

Why did they want to go into the pigs? Well, maybe anything is better than the abyss. Most likely they're thinking if we can't inhabit a body of a man, I guess a pig will do. We want to inhabit a body.

No matter what, we know their motives aren't good. Certainly did they say, please change our hearts, please forgive us, please give us new natures of demons so we can be angels now. And he said to them, verse 32, I want you to notice how fast this all happened.

There's no delay, there's no maybe, no time for an interlude, and he said to them, go. So they came out, went into the pigs, and behold, whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters.

As James Fawcett in Brown said, with majestic brevity, go. See, Jesus is powerful, he's sovereign, he's the Messiah, he's the son of man in Daniel 7, he's the son of God, the demons knew it. What about you?

You think he's just a good person? A good teacher? You've got to believe that he's God, because only God can die for sins and be raised from the dead. Only God can live a perfect life in your place that God requires you to live.

And they can't wait to destroy, and whether it's having the guy cut himself, or now into the pigs, and then with Pelmel running down as fast as they could, one pig after another the Greek shows, and I didn't know this, sheep follow, pigs are individualistic and they just go whatever way.

And here the demons have them all just herded. If there were 6 ,000 demons, legion, there are 2 ,000 pigs. How many in each one? Three? And it says they were drowned in the sea, this is an imperfect, choking word.

Just imagine, one pig after another, and the gurgles of the pigs drowning one foot, three foot underneath the water. Drowning themselves one after another. Now the liberals say something interesting. They didn't say it was this at all, because they don't believe in demons, they don't believe Jesus is God, so they believe that the wild man was so freaked out after talking to Jesus that he chased all the pigs into the water.

Yeah, but Jesus destroyed the pigs. What would PETA say? What would people for the ethical treatment of animals say? Bertrand Russell, who wrote a book called Why I'm Not a Christian, and you ought to read this book because you'll realize the fallacies of it.

He wrote in his book that one of the reasons I'm not a Christian is because Jesus hurt and killed all those pigs. Psalm 115, God does whatever he pleases. Psalm 50, Jesus owns all things and he can dispose of them as he sees fit, human or otherwise.

Why would he send the pigs into the water? Why would he kill them all? Now on the light side, somebody said not to send them to hog heaven. Okay, I kind of get that a little bit. Somebody's talking about deviled ham, that wasn't it.

Maybe it was to show that demons are bent on destruction. Now, can't you see they're bent on destruction? They're destroying. As they tried to destroy the man, now they're destroying the pigs. Certainly it was to show the power and authority of Jesus.

And I think it was a good visible lesson. Jesus, he doesn't have to touch the leper, but in Matthew chapter 8, he touches the leper. Be clean. The kind, compassionate, visual display. And what if you're a guy who's demon possessed and you've got a legion of demons in you and Jesus says, okay, they're gone.

Well, you should take his word for it. But what if he now proves that they're gone because now they're in the pigs and the pigs all run crazy down the hill and are killed. Jesus has dealt with your demons forever, young man.

Deliverance is great. I could care less about a pig. 2 ,000 pigs are one human. You know our society struggles with this today. You see people who are so kind to animals. And by the way, a righteous man does regard the life of his beast.

It is stupid to put your dog in a car and roll up all the windows when it's 95 degrees out in the sun. You should be fined. But people that stand up for that and then say, oh, 100 ,000 babies killed through abortion.

They had the same kind of thinking back in those days. One writer said, this 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.

These pigs are going to die either by having people eat them, animals kill them or just die of old pig age. They're going to die sooner or later. And for the evangelist here, Matthew, it's all about spiritual purposes.

Pigs are humans. Putting animals above image bearers. The cost of purging evil is great. 2 ,000 pigs it'll cost you. Leading to Calvary where the cost of purging evil is even more high. Invisible proof for this man.

No question about it, James Boyd said, that these demons won't trouble these two men again. And a good angel, I remember 2 Kings chapter 19, strikes 185 ,000 Assyrians in the camp all dead. And Jesus now says to a legion of demons, I don't know how many that is, but he says to a legion, if there's 6 ,000 demons in the guy for illustration, and one good angel can kill 185 ,000 people, what's 185 ,000 times 6 ,000 UWPI students right now?

I don't know. It's a lot. What's the response? Verse 33, what a sad response to the power and authority of Jesus. The herdsmen, Matthew 8, 33, fled. Going into the city, they told everything, especially what had happened to the demon-possessed men.

And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. There's no CNN. This is a big deal. Better go out there and check it out. And when they saw him, they pleaded for their sins to be forgiven. They wanted to be born again.

They wanted to be spiritually cleansed. They didn't want to be unclean anymore. They begged him to leave their region. Word spread as fast as the pigs drowned. But just as fast, these people were like, get out of here.

They're afraid. Luke says, and they were afraid. We're afraid of losing our business, swine. We're also afraid because you are the Holy Son of God. And that means we're sinful, and we just can't take it.

We've got to get rid of you. Mark 5 says, the man who had been demon-possessed was sitting down. So all the townspeople, when they come, what do they see? Who do they see? They see Jesus, the disciples, and the demon-possessed man sitting down, clothed.

One of the disciples gave the clothes to him, or a garment. And in his right mind, the very man who had the legion, and they became frightened. No longer naked, no longer cutting himself, no longer going crazy.

And you would have been afraid of the demon-possessed guy. Now you think you'd be calm, but instead it's the opposite. Now the demon-possessed guy is in his right mind, seated, clothed. And now they're really afraid.

They were more afraid now than they were when the demon-possessed man was doing the Billy Goat Gruff stuff. These people wanted to see it. Luke 8 .37, then all the people surrounding the country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart for them, for they were seized, now this is extra, with great fear.

So he got in the boat and returned. Get out of here. Does that strike you as just odd? We don't want you here. You've ruined our business. You've upset us and made us feel like we're sinful. And then Joseph Adel writes this poem.

Sadly, this represents everyone here who's not born again, everyone here who's not a Christian. Every unbeliever has this exact same response to Jesus the King, and only Savior. Rabbi, be gone. Thy powers bring loss to us and ours.

Our ways are not as thine. Thou lovest men, we lovest swine. And Jesus granted their request. Is there a more horrible answer to prayer than Jesus saying, you want to live in your sins? Go ahead. This is called judicial abandonment.

You can see it in Romans chapter 1 as well. Gripped with great fear. Verse 38 of Luke 8 is insightful. Would you turn there, please, with me? Again, we call these Gospels synoptic. They're similar. S-Y-N.

Together, they help us understand the passage, what Jesus is doing. Turn to Luke 8, please, verse 38. There is some information that's not found in Matthew that I think is insightful when you have been saved from this demon, these demons, and you've been, I think, spiritually saved as well based on these responses here.

I think we can infer that. What do you do? What do you do when Jesus saves you? What's your response? To live as you used to live? To love your sins as you used to love them? To be not concerned about anybody else?

And do they go to heaven or hell? Luke 8, 38. A man from whom the demons had gone begged him that he might be with him. Now, that's a good response, though, isn't it? Jesus, I just want to be with you.

I won't have anything to do with you. Now I just want to be with you. I want to be around you. I want to learn from you. When Jesus said to the other guys, if anyone wants to be my disciple, let him follow me.

Count the cost, follow me. And this guy says, I just want to follow you. I want to be with you. But Jesus sent him away, saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And this guy got it.

Some people don't get it. I hope you all get it. Jesus is God. And he went away, proclaiming through the whole city how much God has done for you. How much Jesus had done for him. Yes, God did it, because Jesus is God.

Look at what God has done for me. To evangelize and to go tell other people. Nobody wanted to be in this area. You've got demon-possessed folks. And you've got Jews who don't go over to want to be with the Gentiles.

Now, Jesus saves this guy from the demons. He also saves him from the demons. He also saves him from his sins. I believe it's easy to infer. And now he says, go tell everybody the good news. That's your response.

Go preach. Tell them how much the Lord has done for you. How God has mercy on you, as Mark says. God's great compassion. Sovereign mercy. Go proclaim that. I know you wanted to long for being with me, Jesus said, over family, over friends, over wife, over job.

Well, if you had all these demons in you and you were out living naked in the tombs and God saved you, gave you a right mind, gave you some clothes, gave you all these other things, I'll tell you what I personally would want to do.

I'd want to go back to the town and say, that was kind of a bad spell, but look at me. I'm normal. And I'll tell you about who did this to me. And Jesus sends him back to the Gentile area. It says in Luke that, hey, why don't you go home?

It says in Mark that he went to proclaim in Decapolis, these ten Gentile cities, what great things Jesus had done for him. And everyone, Mark says, marveled. I think this guy was saved. Yeah, go home and tell your friends and your family the good news.

And he couldn't contain himself. He goes and tells everyone. So much so that I think he's paving the way for Christ's later ministry. Mark 7, he went out from Tyre and Sidon to the Sea of Galilee within the region of Decapolis.

Demons, I grant your request. Demon-possessed man, I don't grant your request. I'm going to send you off and minister for me. So here's the question. In light of everything that God has done for you, can we get any inkling here about evangelism?

Can there be anything in our hearts that say, you know, I'm just driven now, not to go to a ministry, not to go to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, not to go off by myself, by the way. That's about the worst thing you could do.

But now, I have been saved from my sins by the only God, based on His sheer, sovereign, distinguishing mercy and grace, based on Christ's life, death, confirmed by the resurrection, with great anticipation of His soon return.

And I know the truth now, what God has done for me. You say, well, I don't want to evangelize, because what if somebody asks me about justification and sanctification and regeneration and what comes first, and do I believe in monergistic regeneration, or do I believe in the hypostatic union, am I infralapsarian, superlapsarian?

I don't know what to do. How about this, why don't you go to your friends and say, it just dawned on me as I've read the scripture. God has opened my eyes. I had all these sins. And I know I sin more than you do, but I had all these sins.

You know what, I don't have to pay for one of them, and I get to go to heaven. And you know, I've also, it's dawned on me that, according to God's word, you're going to go straight to hell if you die without your sins forgiven.

Today, if it's your last breath, you're going to go to hell, and I have some good news for you. I mean, I always remember MacArthur and Larry King. Pull them up on YouTube. They're asking, they ask, you know, Larry King asked John a question.

Well, do you think the Bible's true? You know, what do you think of this current event? You know, do you like the Lakers over the Celtics? I don't know what Larry King even asked him, but every time John just says, that's a good question, Larry, now let me tell you about the good news of Jesus Christ dying on a cross for sinners like you.

Then there's that gay guy next to him, the homosexual man, who was the star and played Jim Elliott in End of the Spear movie that was out within the last ten years. And then John swivels on his chair with kindness and compassion.

You watch John MacArthur preach, and then you see him behind the scenes, and this is John behind the scenes when he's not behind the sacred desk. You don't want to go to hell now, do you? You want your sins forgiven, don't you?

I don't want you to go to hell. That's the response. That's exactly what's happening here. We're saved so we can go evangelize, not saved so we can just be secure and we live our lives the rest of the way like we used to, like we wanted to.

Every person in your life, you should be thinking, I know the baker and the butcher and my next door neighbor and my friend. I know them because they're my neighbors, and I love my neighbors myself, and I want to preach the gospel to them.

The response to salvation is praise the Lord, hallelujah, Jesus is God, I want to worship, and one day even in heaven with those angels and around with the elders, holy, holy, holy. But now I need to tell people the good news.

When was the last time you said to someone, even though I know I'm a greater sinner, the Bible says you're sinful, and unless you repent and believe in this great good news that Jesus died on the cross, the only God and Savior, substitutionary sin bearing, if you don't believe you're going to go to hell.

But you know what? For us, we're fearful of man. I'm fearful of man. I want people to like me. And when you look at somebody in the eyes and tell them your whole life is not counted just for nothing but demerited favor, it's difficult.

The demons knew it. We know it. And other people think, you know what? The swine of money, the swine of power, the swine of career, the swine of success, the swine of family, you just pick an idol, and it's like I want swine, not the Savior.

That's the mentality. So how does God change somebody like us into somebody different? It's through the power of the gospel. That's why Paul says, I am not ashamed of the gospel. Additionally, may I say to you this morning, or I will say to you this morning, if you believe that Jesus is your Savior only and not your Lord because you want to keep your sins and you want justification, but you don't want anything to do with sanctified life.

You want to have Jesus as Savior because you don't want to go bust hell wide open, but you don't want to have him as Lord and do what he says and offer yourself a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your spiritual form of worship, and you want to have all the benefits of forgiveness, but you don't want to follow him, I assure you, you're not a Christian.

That's what Spurgeon would say. Assure them that if you want Jesus for justification, but you don't want to live a holy life in a dim reflection of a pure moral life that reflects the pure moral lighthouse life of holiness holiness that Jesus lives, if you have no desire to be holy, I'm not talking about perfection, I'm not talking about we sin and we regret it and we confess it and we're sorrowful over it, we're ashamed of it, we ask God for forgiveness, I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about I was you. If you say, I want Jesus as Savior, but I don't want him as Lord, that God would keep me alive, I'm so thankful for that. That's why that guy sitting on Sunset Boulevard in the car, we're driving home from church, and I told him I was a Christian, and he looked at me and he goes, you're a Christian?

It was easy for him to see. Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say? I think it would be better for you if you're not going to repent and you want Jesus as Savior, but not as Lord, and you don't want to have anything to do with the Lord, it's better.

Just don't call yourself a Christian. And make sure at night time you don't have any other prayer except, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. That's better. What did Bunyan say? At the porthole of heaven there's a gate to hell.

It's one thing to go, I know with all my buddies, with Metallica, Metal Death, Mega Death people, I'm going to go bust hell wide open with Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan and stuff like that. It's one thing to know you're going.

But to think you're going to heaven and then there's a door to hell at heaven, as Bunyan would paint, I think we can see here. Lordship for this man implied obedience. You're not saved through obedience, only through Christ obedience.

But the response to salvation is belief, repentance, trust, following, obey. That's the response. Lord, you own me. Isn't that Lordship? Lord, I'm willing to serve you. Isn't that Lordship? Lord, I want to obey.

Isn't that Lordship? Jesus, you can be Lord over the nature and over the sea and over lepers and over death and over demons, but don't you tell me what to do. Lord, demons believe and shudder, but I don't.

Therefore, let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. To this end Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

For today in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. That's why with 2 Corinthians 4 we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord. If Jesus isn't Lord, he's nothing to you.

Do not be deceived. Fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the King of God. But such as were some of you, you were washed and sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Do Not Blame Satan for the Flesh

Just a couple other takeaways and we're done. Don't spend time worrying about Satan or demons, Christian. If you're a Christian, don't spend a lot of time worrying about Satan and demons. Romans 16 says the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

And especially don't do this. You know, I have a problem with drunkenness, so I've got the demon of drunkenness. Someone says, I've got the problem of lust. I've got the demon of lust. I've got the demon of pornography.

I've got the demon of overeating. I've got the demon of post-nasal drip. I mean, whatever you have. James 1. Each one is tempted when he is carried away by his own lust. We don't blame Satan. By the way, I don't think Satan really cares for most of us because he's over the LDS and the JWs and other places like that working with those doctrines of demons through hypocritical lie speakers, 1 Timothy 4 because he knows our flesh will take care of ourselves.

And by the way, Christians can't be demon-possessed. R. Ken Hughes has kind of a funny story. There's a brother and sister fighting, so the mom said, why did you let the devil into your heart to pull your brother's hair and kick him in the shins?

The girl said, maybe the devil put it into my head to pull my brother's hair. But kicking his shins was my own idea. Well, she was only half right. The devil doesn't do all that. That's why when you look at Scripture, why doesn't it say in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, here's how pastors should rebuke Satan and cast demons to Fitchburg and other places like that.

Undesirable. Does anybody here live in Fitchburg? Demons always find their way to Fitchburg in my mind. I don't know why. Why do we cast them out and we're going to send them here and do this? That's the sole prerogative of Christ Jesus.

Michael, the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Jesus, did not dare to pronounce against him a railing judgment. Plus, I don't want to cast Satan to any city if God.

Almighty has said, Job, go get.

Him, Satan. And I am so powerful and so sovereign that I can take a man who is assaulted by Satan including the death of his whole family except his wife, and I'm going to make this into something good.

And I'm going to use Satan as my puppet master, my ape, my monkey, to go do what I want him to do for the sake of my name and for the sake of the good of Job. Why would I cast Satan away if God is going to use him in my life?

I don't have to worry about him because I throw myself back on Jesus, the Messiah, who has the credentials of the Son of Man and the Son of God, and if God be my God then I don't care about anything else in terms of adversaries.

We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.