I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Luke's Gospel, chapter 8, Luke's Gospel, chapter 8, on page 1028 in your hymnal, your Bibles that you'll find in your pew there. I'll be reading from verse 22 through 39. Please give your attention to the reading of God's Word. One day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they set out and they sailed. He fell asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filled with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him saying, Master, Master, we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, Where is your faith? And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, Who then is this that he commands even the winds and the water? And they obey him. Then they sailed to the country of the Gerardines, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on the land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High? I beg you, do not torment me, for he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. 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. Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion, for many demons have entered him, and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, And they begged him to let them enter them, to enter these. So he gave them permission that the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs. And the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. Then the people went out to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind that they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gesserines asked him to depart from them. For they were seized with great fear. For he got into the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with Jesus, with him. But Jesus sent him away saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. and he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. And thus concludes the reading of God's Word. The more I read the Bible, and particularly the Gospels, the more I have come to appreciate the fact that the material in the Gospels is not arranged in a random way. It's very intentional and there is often a larger conversation taking place whereby the different stories, the different pericopes are meant to be viewed and understood not from the sense of being ripped from their contact text and being viewed in isolation and atomizing of the text, but rather to be viewed in terms of how they contribute one, how one pericope relates to another and how they are a part of a prevailing message, a conversation that's taking part in the Gospels. And it really helps. I noticed this morning in Dr. Godfrey's Sunday school class, he alluded to this in the study through Mark's Gospel, which I didn't realize he was doing. And I feel sorry for some of you because last week you probably heard the same passage except from the Gospel of Mark. So here you are, now you're going to hear something very similar from the Gospel of Luke in terms of Jesus and the sea and the disciples, the demoniac. But nonetheless, I find a great pleasure in preaching the Gospels. The Gospels, I never get tired of the Gospels. They're just absolutely wonderful. The stories, the richness, they just captivate personally my imagination. And one of the things that's so interesting about this passage that for a long time I didn't really appreciate is the fact that Jesus is the one who instigates all this. He's the one who speaks to his disciples and says, I want to cross to the other side of the sea. So that is key because that tells you that even though he falls asleep in the boat, this whole trip and everything that transpires is intentional. Jesus has a purpose in mind. There's a reason he wants to cross the sea And everything that happens is a part of this field trip, this missions trip, this educational trip that he is going to teach his disciples something about himself and the ministry. And it's not by coincidence, it's not an accident that Jesus all of a sudden has found a comfortable place in the boat and he's laying down and he's sleeping. And it's not unexpected then the part of Jesus that the wind comes up and there's mountains that surround the Sea of Galilee and it's not long before there's white caps and the waves are flanking the boat and there's water accumulating in the boat. And the disciples are filled with fear. They panic because of the circumstances that they're in. And they fear the sea and they fear drowning and they're dismayed by the situation. And they wake up Jesus in such a way that, don't you care? Aren't you concerned that we're perishing? Which is really interesting because how can you perish when Jesus is in the boat with you? But, you know, obviously there's something going on here. And Dr. Godfrey used this technical term this morning where he referred to the disciples as bozos. And they really are. They just don't understand. They're just slow. They're dull in terms of who Jesus is. They've seen him deliver people from demons. They've seen him, obviously, he's God. God is with them in the boat. And Jesus speaks to the elements, the wind, the waves, and he comes. And now, all of a sudden, the disciples are more afraid of the man in the boat than they were the storm. Who is he? And they're filled with fear. But it's a different kind of fear now. Who is this man, a man who commands the elements of nature? And they should have, they're certainly, as Hebrews, we're familiar enough with their Bible, they're familiar with the story of Jonah. And they know that the Lord is the one who sent the storm. The Lord is the one who is teaching Jonah. And the Lord is the one who is teaching them something here about himself. But they are puzzled, and they're pondering, they're marveling over this, who is this man? They're slow to believe. And when they finally arrive at the shore, it's interesting here because of all the places Jesus could take his disciples, if he's going to take them to the Gentile world, why this place? If you're going to sign up to take some type of educational missions trip or field trip with Jesus to the land of the Gentiles, and you think of the Roman Empire and all the various things you could go and visit. You could visit Rome, you could visit the Colosseum, you could visit Antioch, you could see the world's greatest library, that would be Alexandria, excuse me. You could go to Antioch, which was the third largest city in Rome, but it was a spectacular city, it was an international city, was a gorgeous city. Along the river, it had a walkway with colonnades. It was gorgeous for 12 miles. There's so many things in terms of architecture and culture that you could go, that Jesus could take the Gentile or his disciples to in the world of the Gentiles. But instead, he takes them to a graveyard, a place of death. And who are they confronted by? they're immediately confronted by a demoniac, a man who we are told came from the city, which means that this was not how his life always had been. He grew up in a regular Gentile family. He had participated in school and family life, but he was no longer living in the city. He was not raised by wolves. But now he lives among the dead. He lives in the tombs, and he's naked, naked. And they have tried to shackle him with metal shackles. They've tried to subdue him with human strength. And regardless of what they have tried to do to control this man, they have found out that they could not do that. He could break the metal shackles. and this man then lived in isolation. Incredible bondage, but the bondage here is not a bondage of a physical prison. It's a bondage spiritually of the man's soul. It's so interesting, earlier as I was reading, I was reminded of Mary Magdalene, who had, prior to meeting Jesus, She was demon-possessed, too. And seven demons lived within Mary Magdalene, which is the biblical number of completion, perfection. So how many demons does it take to dominate a person? How many demons does it take to destroy your life? Probably only one. In Mary's case, seven, an idea of totality here. But here we have a military term used, legion, which, depending on what you read, could be, in terms of the Roman army, 4,000 foot soldiers with 200 cavalry, massive amount of demons. And what you have here, then, is a military component to this whole thing. Jesus is taking his disciples. This is battle. This is war. All the powers of the kingdom of darkness have gathered together, concentrated in this one man who represents alienation, isolation, destruction, his identity taken over by demons. And that's where Jesus chooses to take his disciples because he wants them to know this is the world that I'm going to send you into. This is the ministry that you're going to have. It's going to be, this is the world of the Gentiles. It's not going to be, don't become distracted by the architecture. Don't become distracted by the libraries and the music and all the cultural components. I'm going to rip apart. I'm going to pull back the veil of culture and show you what's behind all this. Demon possession. Spiritual oppression. Bondage. Death. Death. all the resources of the country, all the resources of the city, they could not help this man. Death. You know, I continue to marvel at this because the best profession of faith in this passage comes from the demons. No trust, it's not faith. But intellectually, a recognition of who Jesus Christ is. And it's immediate. It's not coerced. They know who he is. Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And they recognize his authority. And I find it fascinating that with this military component to this, and this confrontation between one man, the Son of God, the light of God, that now penetrates and exposes the kingdom of darkness, and shows that ultimately in the face of Jesus Christ, it's powerless. There's no swords that are drawn. There's no actual conflict. There's an actual immediate recognition of the authority of Jesus Christ. And basically, a whimpering, a begging, please, it's not the time to send us into the abyss. How about pigs? That's perfect because, you know, Jews understood the pigs are unclean. No spare ribs, no pork chops in Jerusalem. No good sausage, it had to be turkey. So Jesus gives the demons permission to go into the pigs. And how do we know that the demons go into the pigs? Because we see the effect of the demons upon the pigs. And you see what Satan and the enemies of Christ would like to do to you and to your children and to your grandchildren. One agenda, kill, steal, and destroy. Destruction. The very host they go into, they destroy them. That's the agenda, that's the character, that's the nature of the kingdom of darkness. It's all about death, death, destruction. Jesus Christ came not just to defeat sin. That's certainly a part of it and necessary. But Jesus Christ came to destroy death. Jesus Christ came to destroy death. And therefore, regardless of anybody you meet in the street or your workplace or wherever they might be or what the religious views are, You have a point of contact with every other human being because every human being in their heart fears death apart from the grace of God. And you in your conversation can just ask somebody, have you thought about death? Are you afraid of dying? My mother has Alzheimer's. I took her out for a drive the other day and I got her some type of pastry and a coffee and she turned to me and she said, well, how are your parents doing? I said, well, my dad died a couple years ago. My mother's not doing so well. You're my mom. I am. But you know what? Even though she lives in a fantasy world, She still is afraid of death. And something happens to her. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I said, do you want to be with Jesus, though, right? Oh, yeah, I do want to be with Jesus. And then the fear of death goes away. Even in that diminished state where she can't tell you who I am, there's the fear of death, but there's still the knowledge of Christ. My dad was never a believer until maybe the end of his life, but that was one of the points of contact I had with him. He said, Dad, you afraid of dying? Yeah, I am. Well, it doesn't have to be that way, Dad. I believe at the end of his life, that changed. What's going on in this passage? Jesus is showing his disciples that Babylon, Egypt, this present evil age, ultimately is a place of death. It's ruled by sin. You know, we don't read a lot about demons in the Old Testament, do we? Or the Pauline epistles, we don't read a lot about demons. Or the pastoral epistles, we don't read about demons. But we get to the Gospels, and all of a sudden, demons are very prominent. Why is that? I think Dr. Godfrey has the right answer here. It's because Jesus is present powerfully. And he's exposing his present evil age for what it is. He's exposing Babylon, and what really drives this? It's demonic. It's spiritual. Your greatest battles are not financial. They're spiritual. The greatest bondage is spiritual bondage. Spiritual bonding. And you are powerless to deliver yourself from it. Absolutely powerless. Deliverance can only come through Christ. And this demoniac is delivered and as the swine, as the pigs go and they run into the sea and they are drowned and they die. And the swine herders or whatever you call them, what do you call people who watch pigs? Terrible job. They see this, and they watch this, and they go back and report to the folks in the country and the folks in the city, and they come out from here. All the folks come out from everywhere, the city, the country. They have to hear and validate. They've got to see this. And what do they see? They don't just see dead pigs, but they see a man who was clothed and in his right mind. They have never seen this man prior to his demon possession, prior to Satan taking over his life and sin and death in this manner. They've never seen him like this, and they've tried to help him. They've tried to control him, and all of a sudden now he's clothed, and he's in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus. You know, this is where Josh McDowell many years ago wrote a book, and it's been other editions, you know, evidence that a man's averted. Well, the problem with that is that the relationship between faith and your will, your will is in bondage, like Luther wrote, to your heart. In the scriptures, the soul and the spirit are basically interchangeable. They're basically the same thing. Well, the heart is, too, with a different emphasis. The heart, though, typically there's going to be a greater emphasis upon your affections, the emotional part of a man. But the will, the conscience, these things all belong to the heart. And as these people look upon this man who had been in such bondage and living a life of death, living in the tombs, among the tombs, if they have any sense of objectivity, they should have said, Jesus, they should have acknowledged his authority. They should have acknowledged that life, freedom, liberty came from Jesus Christ. And this shows you that the fundamental problem here in terms of faith is a heart problem. It's a problem that fundamentally affects your affections, your emotions, your will, your conscience, all of it. It's a heart that is in bondage, a heart that is dead, a heart that is controlled by sin and death. And even though they're faced with the reality that Jesus Christ is the one who clothed this man, who gave him his right mind, who gave him purpose, who gave him a new identity, an identity that's no longer defined by sin and demons, bondage and spiritual bondage, the tyranny of Satan, and addiction, and all this stuff. But now, a new idea. They should have ran to him. They should have fallen before him. They should have recognized his authority. But instead, they fear him because they recognize we couldn't control this man. He delivered him by speaking to him. We'll never control Jesus. If he enters into our town, they view him as a threat. They ask him to leave. So who was in bondage? at the end of the story who's in bondage not the demoniac he's the freest he is sitting in the presence of jesus christ and he has one desire to be with jesus to hear from jesus to follow jesus to seek jesus to serve jesus he wants so bad to be with jesus he's the first missionary in Luke's gospel, Jesus sends him back. He sends him back with a calling, go and tell what God, whoa, go tell what the man, he's God. Go tell what God did for you. I am God's salvation. I am God. Go confront him with the ministry of the truth, the ministry of the word. I'm God. Sent as a missionary. And the disciples are watching all this. And they're asking the question. They're wondering, who is he? Who is he? He is God incarnate. He is God's salvation. And he alone can deliver your will from the bondage of your heart. He alone can create life where previously there was only death. He can liberate your heart and your will and your affections and your conscience and everything that's involved with your heart. He alone, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, working through the means of the word, the gospel, brings life where there was death and liberates the heart, resulting in faith. A faith that turns away from you and your resources. A faith that runs to Christ, clings to Christ, trusts in Christ. This evening, I presume that most of you have been raised in a church and you probably have a long heritage in the church in terms of your family. What's your relationship to Christ this evening? Do you desire to sit at his feet? Is there a sense of understanding that human resources, there's no answer in terms of the bondage of the heart? spiritual bondage death the world has no answer for death the world has no answer for sin the world has no answer for spiritual bondage zero liberty life freedom spiritually only come from God's grace God's salvation the person of Jesus Christ you know when i was much younger and i remember being a young man and a child a teenager and sitting in church and listening and interacting with christian people you know you you think that your life is going to look a certain way when you get older and i always thought when i got to be like i like the point of some of you but my age of that person which now you know i'm there i thought by the time i get to that point in life i'm going to be a lot more spiritual than I am now. I'm going to be a lot more sanctified. I'm going to have this figured out. I'm very disappointed. I'm not nearly as spiritual as I thought I would be. I'm not even close. In fact, it's quite the opposite. I am more aware of my sin the older I get. I'm more sensitive to my sin. I have a greater understanding of how just absolutely desperate Mark Stromberg is. It's the grace of God. Utterly dependent. Utterly dependent upon the grace of God. And his saving grace is not enough. I need his preserving grace. I need his keeping grace. I need the grace whereby every day when I get up and I'm tempted to seek my life someplace other than Christ, that Christ, by his word, continues to bring me back, confront me. Continues to bring me to a place where I seek Christ and I hear from him. And I feast upon the manna from heaven. And I'm nourished. And I'm nourished. Who can this be? He's the one in whom we find life. Deliverance. Let us pray. Father in heaven, help us this evening as we have heard the reading of your word and we have heard an exposition upon this. and we have been confronted with the futility of human resources and we have been confronted Lord with the reality of the human heart apart from the grace of God and how we can be confronted with the objective reality and draw the wrong conclusions and run away and flee from Christ. Lord, we ask that you would continue to subdue us by your word and your spirit. And may you continue to create within us and nurture within us a faith. A faith that recognizes our spiritual poverty, a faith that recognizes realistic, as honest about who we are and our need, but a faith that looks ultimately to Christ, that clings to him, that runs to him, and that in him finds satisfaction, truly trusts in him. May you strip us from our self-reliance and the tendency and the desire to become something other than a child, to get to the point where we can depend upon our own resources. Lord, may you continue to create within us an awareness that the only resources we can rely upon are found in Christ. Continue to sanctify us and perfect our faith. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.