 Well, today we're going to continue our series in Matthew by looking at verses 28 through 34. We're looking at a portion of Scripture that deals with demon possession, especially as the Lord Jesus Christ is going to be casting out demons from two individuals. Matthew gives to us the insight that there were actually two individuals, but Mark and Luke, two companion Gospels, speak specifically of one, and that would be because they want to single out somebody who would appear to be like the spokesman. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to combine some of the verses, especially verses from Mark's Gospel and a little bit from Luke's Gospel with the account given to us through Matthew's Gospel. They're called the synoptic Gospels because they combine events and bring us insight by one adding something that perhaps the other didn't add. And so they're synoptics. And what we have an opportunity of doing is looking at Matthew, but combining Mark and combining Luke to be able to see a more full account of this particular event. And so we're looking at how Jesus cast these demons into swine. So let's begin reading at verse 28. I'll read to verse 34 and we'll get into our study, the men of the Gadarenes. Matthew writes, when he had come to the other side, to the country of the Gurgazines, there met him, two demon-possessed men, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. And suddenly they cried out saying, what have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Now a good way off from them, there was a herd of many swine feeding. So the demons begged him saying, if you cast this out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said to them, go. So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine and suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea and perished in the water. And those who kept them fled. And they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-possessed men. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to depart from their region. As we begin, we need to remember that the disciples have been working tirelessly. They have been next to Jesus as he's been performing his ministry. And at this point of the Gospel of Matthew, the disciples have gone through a storm. And as they went through that storm, it caused them great fear. Now they are physically and they are mentally exhausted. They are cold, they are wet, and they simply desire to arrive at their destination. More than likely they are looking forward to some sleep, they're looking forward to resting, but there's more to come because they're about to meet the Gathering Welcoming Committee. And there are two demonized men who are going to approach them and basically give them an opportunity to see the power and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this passage gives us insight into what has been referred to as demon possession. We're going to develop this as we establish a context and a foundation for this study. You see, in the New Testament, very often when you're reading, especially in the Gospels, you will read concerning demons. You need to know some things concerning the enemy, like Paul, when he was speaking to the Corinthians, said, I would not have you ignorant or unlearned or uninstructed. You know, sometimes when I think of that, we use the word ignorant and I just use that, that's a biblical word, ignorant simply means without knowledge. It can be used, of course, in a way to insult somebody, man, don't be so ignorant. But when the Scripture uses it, it gives to us an understanding that these are unlearned or untaught individuals, and that's why Paul would have written and said, I would not have you to be ignorant, he says, I would not have you to be uninstructed. I would not have you to be without knowledge. And so when the Lord would inspire the writing of different passages and all, it was in order that we would not be uninstructed, it would be so that we would understand certain things. And so, when you read your Bible, you'll read concerning demons, and if you read the King James, and that's what I basically cut my spiritual teeth on, I had the King James version, and that's what I used, and that's what I read, and that's what I taught from until 1983. In 1983, another version of the King James called the New King James came out, and though I'm aware of some things that were in the New King James that you have to actually really refer more to the King James for, by and large the New King James has been an adequate translation for me, and one of the things some of you may know and have noticed is that in the King James, the word devil and demon very often is used as synonyms, and the fact is, in the original language, the word demon and devil is not the same word. When you look at demons, and I want to give you a little preface here, a little background so you can understand what's going on, hopefully help us to become biblically literate and all, the demons, when you read about demons in Scripture, are not simply spirits. Demons are identified in Scripture as evil spirits, and that's a very important thing to know. They are generally recognized as fallen angels. Fallen angels, angels that voluntarily rebelled against God when Satan rebelled. There's no known number of fallen angels, but we know that the number is great. In Revelation chapter 12, verse 4, speaking of the dragon there, which most interpreters that I use, all interpreters that I use and commentators that I use will say that this is simply another name for Satan himself. In Revelation chapter 12, verse 4, speaking of his, the dragon, or Satan, it says his tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. So that gives to us an insight into his influence and the fact that a third of the angelic host rebelled along with him. And so they're called fallen angels. They were not created as demons. They were created as angels who were not fallen, but they became fallen angels and are later referred to as demons or evil spirits. The word demon and devil, as I mentioned, are actually two different Greek words. Devil is translated from the Greek word diabolos, and it speaks of a false accuser. It also speaks of a slanderer, a devil. The word demon is from Daimonion. It has been translated a knowing one. In the New King James, when you read the word devil, it's speaking in the sense of the devil, the adversary, Satan. When you see the word demon, it is speaking of a fallen angel, an evil spirit. So as fallen angels, they work tirelessly against God. They resist what God accomplishes or would accomplish on earth. And when you see their influence, you see that they influence always away from God. Demons always are influencing people away from the Lord. Never do they attempt to bring people close to God. They are the spirits behind idolatry. They are the ones that provoke evil man, natural man, to sacrifice and service to idols. Paul says that in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 20, when he says, the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice the demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. They work to disseminate spiritual error. They especially work to seduce believers away from the truth of the gospel and the word of God. We need to remember that God's word is truth, and Christians are to know the truth because it is truth that makes us free. In Psalm 119, verse 160, the Psalmist said, the entirety of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous judgments endures forever. Jesus, when he was praying in John 17, verse 17, said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. So God's word, the word of God, is truth. But Satan works to deceive, to seduce. Jesus referred to him as a father of lies. He's the originator of lies. And his agents propagate his lies. They deceive people in general. They even attempt to deceive the naive or immature Christian. In 1 Timothy 4, 1, it says, the Spirit expressly says that in latter time, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. So there are doctrines that take you away from God that are not inspired by the Spirit of God, but rather are doctrines that are inspired by deceiving evil spirits. They're very good at deceiving people, and they very often will use counterfeit spiritual experiences. There are obvious religious cults that deny Christ, or religious cults that have changed him into something that he is not, and profess that they're teaching you the truth. We know that. You can have somebody tell you that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, or you can have somebody tell you that Jesus is the first creation of God, actually Michael the Archangel. Those are common things that are said in Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses. Those are deceptive, that is not true, that is from a cult. But there are those who will teach counterfeit spiritual experiences. For example, there are those today who believe that you can consult the spirit of your dead relative through what are called mediums. There are people on television who are presented as being able to communicate with the dead. You have the Long Island Medium, Teresa Caputo, you have John Edward, and they purport to be able to contact your dead relative. Well, in Scripture, the attempt to speak to the dead is called necromancy, and it is strictly forbidden, because it seduces people away from God. The Old Testament book of Leviticus, chapter 20, verse 6 says, if any among the people are unfaithful by consulting and following mediums or psychics, I will turn against them and cut them off from the community. God forbids this attempt to contact the spirit of the dead. We know that they're not actually speaking to the dead because there's no communication with the dead. When a father, mother, brother, sister, loved one, friend, whatever dies, there's no longer a possibility of communication with them. In the New Testament book of Luke, there's a story of, it's called The Rich Man and Lazarus. We all know that story. There's a rich man who ate well every day. There was a poor man who wanted to eat scraps from the table. They both died. One ends up in a place called Hades. The other ends up in what is called the bosom of Abraham. While they're in the bosom of Abraham receiving comfort, the rich man looking across this gulf sees him and says, Father Abraham, please send him over here. I'm in torment in this place. May he just dip the tip of his finger in water and bring it to cool me. And the response that is given in Luke 16, 26 is Abraham responds by saying, between us and you, there's a great gulf fix so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us. There's no communication. There's no interrelationship that takes place. Now, if somebody purports to have an actual communication and say that they say, but I actually did connect in some way, you know, if there was something that could actually be presented in a way that you'd have to say, that sounds like it's a real communication, then what would that be? Would it be the spirit of the dead? No, it wouldn't. It would be a deceiving spirit. It would be a demonic spirit. You see, as a seducing spirit, they deceive people into thinking that it's real when, in fact, it's not. Now, acting under Satan, demons are permitted to afflict people. As unclean spirits, they can provoke all forms of sexual perversion. They can inflict bodily harm. They encourage hopelessness in people. There's an interesting story of a young man as actually a boy who is demonized and the father brings the young boy to the apostles. Jesus isn't present at that moment. And wants them to cast the demon out of his young son. He says, my son throws himself into the fire to burn himself, and he throws himself into the water to drown him. So the evil spirit is provoking him to suicide. He says, and I brought my son to your men, but they couldn't cast the demon out. And as Jesus is speaking to him, Jesus said, if you believe all things are possible to the one who believes. And what the man says is something that I lodged in my heart when I first read it and it's never departed. He said, and this is King James. Like I said, I memorized scripture and I studied scripture in the King James originally. And he said, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. And as this man is speaking, that's the hopelessness. That's despair. And that's what is provoked by the enemy. I have unbelief. I don't believe that your men are capable of doing that. As a matter of fact, that's the reason why I came and I said to you, if there's anything you can do, please help us. And I think that even to this day, if you were to Christianize that conversation, there are professing believers who are struggling with the sin of unbelief. We think that our problem is greater than God's power. And it never is. God's power is always greater than your problem. God is always greater than anything that you encounter. You need to remember that. Though many of us have prayed the same thing in our own language. God, I do believe, but it's the unbelief that's killing me. Help me. And what was provoking that? Well, that was a spiritual thing. He can provoke hopelessness. They can invade unbelievers. The unbelievers' mind. And they express their minds through the people. And that's what you're seeing in this passage. You're seeing the demons actually using the vocal cords of this demonized man to speak their mind to Christ. And that's what we're gonna be looking at here as Jesus deals with this particular, severely demonized man, the man of the Gadarenes. Now let's begin at verse 28 where it says, when he had come to the other side, that speaks of the southeast corner there on the eastern border of the Sea of Galilee when he came to the other side to the country of the Gurgazines. Gurgazine is another word that can be used in the general location of what is now called the Gadarenes. So the Gurgazines, there met him to demon-possessment coming out of the tombs exceedingly fierce so that no one could pass that way. And so we're introduced to this. This event, as mentioned, is recorded in Mark and Luke. Only one person is mentioned there, but that would be because they wanted to concentrate on only one of the men. What has happened is they have landed their boat, there were other boats there too, by the way, they exit onto the shore of Gadara. It was mostly gentile in population which may explain why they raised pigs there. Now, in this region were caves that were used for burial. The hills in the region descended to the shore of the Sea of Galilee to the edge of the water. And it is from this hillside of tombs that the demonized men came to meet them. Mark chapter five verse two tells us that this man had an unclean spirit. An unclean spirit speaks of a spirit possessing him that drove him to physical impurity. Luke 8, 27 reveals that it was a prolonged condition. Now, as we look at this particular passage, we can see several things that reveal how tormented they were. And in doing so, we have an opportunity to see how Satan treats those who serve him. This is how he treats the unsaved. Keep that in mind, as Christians, you need to understand that it needs to be lodged within your heart. You know, there's this old saying that came out of an evangelistic organization, God loves you and he has a wonderful plan for your life. Bill Bright's organization made that very famous with Campus Crusade for Christ. God loves you, he has a wonderful plan for your life. You need to understand Satan hates you and he wants to destroy your life. God wants to give to you his blessing. He wants to give to you his presence and the enemy wants to destroy you. So we have an opportunity here of seeing how Satan treats those who are under his sway. What is the fruit of following Satan? We know that he intends to do harm to people and we know he wants to push them to their own destruction. That's been his plan from the beginning from the Garden of Eden. He's tried to destroy the goodness that God wants to give to us. And we see that here in this particular portion of scripture. Notice as we see verse 28, there met him two demon possessed men coming out of the tombs. What are the things that you're gonna, what are the things you'll reap from following the enemy or being under his sway? What are the things that happen in your life? What's gonna happen to you? What can you see as being evidence that the enemy is working in opposition to anything God might want to do? And as an unbeliever, what is gonna happen to somebody who follows after the enemy and doesn't follow the Lord? Well one, you can end up living in a neighborhood you never thought you could live in. This is a man who is living in the tombs, an area where graves are carved out of the hill sides or the cliffs. That by itself out awakened us up. I mean you have to put this into context. Jesus was ministering all day. He had been seated in a boat. His men were with him. He finally said launch out, we're going to the other side. They made their way to the southeast corner of the Sea of Galilee. They're tired, they're wet, they endured a storm. They just had a lesson on faith. Jesus just instructed them concerning it. So he's telling them where's your faith? Why are you not believing? They're thinking about it. They climb off the boat and the welcoming committee are two demonized men who come out screaming in the blackness coming out of the cemetery. Think about that for a minute. I don't know about you. When I grew up there were a lot of stories that my uncles would tell us to scare us and they always had a cemetery in it. Cemetery, he's dead people. You know, I heard about this guy he was late at night, he was on his way home. And it was beginning to rain. So he took a shortcut going through a cemetery but didn't know that they had dug a grave. And in the dark he slipped and fell into the grave. And so he's trying to climb out of the grave. He wasn't too tall and as he was reaching trying to pull himself up to get out because the interior of the grave had been wet with rainwater. It was all muddy and slippery and there was no way he could get out. And he kept fighting for an hour trying to get out, get out. He couldn't get out. He finally said, I'm just gonna have to wait until it stops raining. Things dry up a little bit. I'll have to stay here until the morning. And so he curled up in the corner of the grave, folded his arms and just sat there waiting for the rain to stop. At the same time, a little while later, some guy who was leaving a bar, been drinking a little while, came walking through the same cemetery and took a shortcut. So he's going through and he trips and he falls into the open grave. And he's there, he's trying to climb out and he's jumping and his feet are slipping on the side and he can't get out and he can't get out. And so he's standing there looking and thinking, what am I gonna do when the other guy who was in the same grave says to him, you'll never get out of here. But he did. Cemetery's are scary to some people. There are people who don't wanna go to them. And for whatever reason, maybe that has been drilled into us over time. It's the place of the dead and all of that. Well, this man ended up living in a cemetery and what that teaches us is that this man was completely defiled. You see, the law of Moses made it clear that Jews were not to come into contact with dead bodies. In the book of Numbers 19, verse 11, it reads, whoever touches the dead body of anyone will be unclean for seven days. So this is a man who was demonized, living in a cemetery. You will end up in a neighborhood you never thought you could live in. You will be in a place you never thought you could be in. You will wake up perhaps one morning saying, how did I get here? How'd this happen in my life? For me to wake up in this condition before I got saved, very briefly, before I got saved, that's kind of where I was. When I was a real drinker and I drank a lot for an 18 and 19 and early 20 year old and I started waking up in the backseat of my car with vomit on the floorboard. I started waking up in shacks with black widows all around me that I had passed out in the middle of, in a shack in the middle of somebody's backyard and hardly remembered even how I got there and that started happening. And eventually I started to think that. I started to think, how did I get here? How did it happen that I began to live like this? There's a spiritual influence the enemy wants to destroy. That's what he does. You see, the enemy tells you, look at it, if you enjoy what I'm telling you, you'll enjoy, your life will be great. All you have to do is watch commercials. All you have to do is watch commercials. How come all of these guys in bars have a 30 inch waist and they're handsome, full head of hair, all of their teeth and all these sexy girls are looking at them like, oh, you're so suave and this and that. How come? Why don't they have some real drunks in those bars? Guy with this big old belly and his t-shirt that doesn't cover it up, no teeth. Because he's fallen down so many times he's busted his face up. He's all messed up. Some of us know that that's what I'm saying there is it's got a humor to it and I want it to in some ways, but it's true. It's true. You've seen it and so have I. If you've been around at all, you've seen it where the guy's at the party trying to act all suave and he's tripping and falling and blooding himself up and trying to be all cool. When in fact he's a fool and he's looking like a fool and the people aren't thinking he's cool and suave. You're looking at him like, man this guy's messed up. There's something wrong with him. Well that's where I was. That you can end up that way. You can end up that way. You know these commercials never tell you, oh by the way if you do this eventually this is really what's gonna happen. You're gonna be in jail. You're gonna lose your family. You're gonna lose your kids. You're gonna lose the respect of all your friends. You're gonna lose your job. You're gonna lose your car. You're gonna lose your house. You're gonna lose everything. But no the commercial always says no, no, no. You need to drink this beer and you need to eat this crazy chicken and you'll be the best. It'll be all cool and you'll have it all. Listen that's what the enemy says and you can end up and you know that you can end up in a ghetto somewhere, a barrio somewhere where you're saying how did I get here? What happened? Because that's the fruit of following the enemy. That's where you live. That's not your ministry. There are some who voluntarily say I'm gonna live there to reach people for Jesus Christ. That's what God called me and I'll do that. But there are others who wake up one morning and when they have a moment of sobriety say, I lost everything. My wife, my children, my job, my house, my car, my dignity and look where I ended up. That's the fruit of following the enemy. A second thing is you can lose all sense of morals. Luke 8, 27 says it like this, for a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house. This man roamed about completely naked which is a picture of a shameful life. I know that there are now cable programs showing you naked dating and naked survival and this and that. It's a shameful life. It's a picture of losing all modesty. It's a picture of losing any sense of shame. Satan wants you to no longer feel embarrassment or shame. He wants you to be past shame, past feeling. He wants you to be callous towards modesty. It's been said and there's truth to this statement that this generation is losing its ability to blush. And that's true. To blush simply means to be embarrassed because something has occurred that's a bit shameful. When you no longer feel embarrassed, it reveals a hardness and a callousness and it reveals an absence of understanding, of purity and holiness. You know, even Christians have to be taught what purity is and even Christians need to be taught what it means to be modest. Years ago, we had our tape ministry and I had a young lady at that time who worked at the window at the end of services if people wanted to buy a tape, they would wait and they would buy the tape of that service or a previous service or whatever. And this lady worked in our tape ministry. This was a good 33 years ago, so I can say this now. And I remember walking into the area that she was working and when I walked in, I remember going, oh, oh. And she was an attractive young lady and she was wearing shorts that at that time, I don't even know what they call them today, but at that time they call them Daisy Dukes. So you ladies know what those are, you know, Daisy Dukes. They were not the most modest, I'll put it that way. And she had a blouse on that was, she had tied up tightly so her entire, we sold so many tapes that day. All these men were standing with, but when I walked in, when I walked in to the room and I saw her, I go, oh no, you know, I said, oh no, this isn't good at all. And I went and I spoke to one of the ladies, Marie wasn't there at the moment, so I found one of the other ladies and I said, listen, you're gonna need to go and speak to so-and-so. She's gonna stumble every man in the church and some of the wives are gonna be pretty mad too, so you're gonna need to let her know. You don't dress like that. Now see, I understand that. I didn't come in condemn or I didn't, you know, tire to a post and a whipper for that, you know. I just said, you know, this is stumbling. And you have to, you have to instruct, you know. And the interesting thing is, as my daughters, as they were growing from girls to women, I would say boys are not the same as girls. And their generation, oh, they're all the same. No, they're not. You get rid of Bruce Jenner and talk about boys. No, they're not. A woman walks into this church and she's wearing a bikini and women will say, oh, that's probably not nice that she's doing that. Or that color doesn't go with her hair. I guarantee you men aren't thinking that. We think different things. Men are eyes. We see and it imparts and the lust comes up. That's how it works. Adam saw his wife and he said, it's part of our nature. That's how it is. And we need to understand that. And sometimes Christian gals don't. It's hot outside and they come in dressed and you have to understand that. There's a need for modesty. Listen, our society doesn't see the need. We have to be careful that we're not molded into society's image. We have to be careful. We are not to be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And part of that is simply out of love because we don't want to stumble either male or female in the way that we're dressed and all. In Ephesians chapter four, verses 17 through 20, Paul said it like this. He said, with the Lord's authority, let me say this, live no longer as the ungodly do for they are hopelessly confused. Their closed minds are full of darkness. They are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They don't care anymore about right and wrong. They have given themselves over to immoral ways. Their lives are filled with all kinds of impurity and greed. But that isn't what you were taught when you learned about Christ. And so we need to be aware of those things. But we live in a society that doesn't have shame. Would your grandmother and your grandfather, would your grandmother and grandfather, would they say that gay pride parades are good? Would their generation have said they ought to have them? No, the average grandmother and grandfather, my grandmother, my grandfather, my mother, my dad, were greatly stumbled by that. And they would say they have no shame, which is true. They have no shame. And they parade in open which shouldn't even be spoken of in private. And so that's what happens when the enemy is influencing. You see, modesty is to be held in high regard because it reveals an understanding that we are created in the image of God. The way we appear on the outside very often can reveal what our hearts are like. So loving others helps us to understand how to dress and how to behave. Romans 14 verse one says, therefore let us not judge one another anymore. And a lot of people like to stop right there. See, don't judge, Pastor, you're just an old man just because you got lust in your heart. Well, he says, let us not judge one another anymore but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. So I may have liberty, but my liberty is always going to be tempered by love. And what somebody may feel free to be like is always tempered by how it affects other people. So God uses nakedness as a picture of shame and humiliation in scripture. Isaiah 47 verse three says it like this, your nakedness shall be uncovered. Yes, your shame will be seen. Revelation 16 verse 15, behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And so you can lose all sense of morals. He goes on in verse 28 and says they were exceedingly fierce so that no one could pass that way. And third thing is Satan encourages angry hatred towards others. He does not encourage compassion. He does not encourage love for others. This is someone who was tormented. He was so tormented, he was violent to other people. The demonic influence provoked him. So we have a murderous gunman up in Oregon just this week and he speaks to, according to reports that I've read and you've heard also, he speaks to the students and he says to them, Christian stand up, are you a Christian? And when they say yes, he says good, you're gonna see God in a second and he shoots him and kills them. If you're not a Christian, you get shot in the leg. Where did that come from? Why are you singling out believers? Why are you singling out Christians? That is so under the demonic influence. There's just no doubt about that. And this demonic influence provokes. It provoked this man to guard his territory. He would attack those who are passing by. That reminds me of some neighborhoods that are very violent. I don't know if you were reading or I've read this but up to September 29th of last month there were some 372 murders in Chicago with 58 occurring in September alone. Violence, murderous violence. What do you think pushes people to act so violently with no remorse? The demonic influence besides the other things that could be called factors. There's a spiritual influence, a demonic one. Now Mark tells us in chapter five versus three and four that he had his dwelling among the tombs. No one could bind him, not even with chains because he had often been bound with shackles and chains had been pulled apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces. Neither could anyone tame him. He had a supernatural strength and there was nobody that could actually tame him. Well because of the evil within him people avoided him and they tried to control him. They had no solution for a spiritual condition. They were left to use natural means and his hostility only resulted in a response of fear and an attempt to control. Not only did he attack others but he also attacked himself. He was self-destructive. Mark again in chapter five versus five tells us night and day he was in the mountain and in the tombs crying out and cutting himself with stones. He was cutting, he was a cutter is what he was doing. He was cutting himself with stones. There was a constant torment. No breaks, no time to rest. He was constantly crying out, constantly cutting himself. Keep this in mind again. The demons intend harm and they push towards self-destruction. I mentioned earlier the Mark Gospel account of the young boy and the father and the young boy is demonized and the father says he has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. Why would he want to destroy him? Because if he can get him to kill himself he is lost forever and that's what the enemy wants to do. So this one was driven by an incredible amount of torment. He wanted to destroy himself. His existence is unbearable. He's trying to end it all. The people attempt to control him, they can't set him free. You see demons cannot destroy God but they want to destroy man, man who was created in his image. They want to undermine God's love and God's mercy and they want to attack God as they attack those whom God loves. Now, what does he do when he sees Jesus? Well it says here in verse 29 they cried out saying what have we to do with you Jesus you son of God have you come here to torment us before our time? In fact what had happened is he came running up to Jesus and he fell on his knees before him as Mark chapter five, six lets us know. And they begin to cry out what have we to do with you Jesus you son of God? Well the answer is nothing because demons have nothing in common with Jesus Christ but they do recognize him for who he is and as James 2 19 tells us and they fear and they tremble and the question is asked in verse 29 have you come here to torment us before the time? Have you come here to torment us before the day of judgment? The demons are trying to soften their inevitable end. They know that eternal judgment awaits them. That word torment when it says in verse 29 have you come here to torment us? The word torment speaks of torturing defects with grievous pain. You see Matthew 25 41 says you will say to those on the left hand depart from me you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So are you gonna be bringing judgment to us now? Have you come to, but they say before the time perhaps that's a way to try and get him to do something like that so that he might violate God's timetable is and there could be an accusation against Christ. There are some we think that's a possibility. Well Mark chapter 6 verse 9 tells us that Jesus spoke to him and asked him what is your name? And he answered Legion for we are many. A Roman Legion consisted of around 6,000 soldiers 3,000 cavalry and cavalry rather and 3,000 foot soldiers. And so this is to give us an insight in the amount of demonic presence in that man. When he's talking to Jesus when the demon speaking to Jesus he's saying I'm not alone. I have an army with me. 2,000. This room here seats around 2,500 just to give you an idea. We have this many people. This many demons. We are thoroughly, thoroughly plaguing this man. He's just not one demon alone. It's a whole group of us and then so you have to picture it that way where if you had in your mind's eye a picture of Christ you see Jesus standing there and it seems like he's alone, he's obviously not but in front of him is an army of demons. Not a single, you're looking at an army of demons who are ferocious. We have many. Now as this is happening it says to us verse 30 a good way off from them was a herd of many swine feeding. We're told again by Mark that there were 2,000. So the demons begged him saying if you cast us out permit us to go away into the herd of swine and he said to them go. So when they had come out they went into the herd of swine and suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea and perished in the water. Now there's no reason given for his allowing this to take place. He simply did. You see by being cast out they're being limited from entering other people that cannot do harm any longer. So they wanna go into the swine. And there are those who say I wonder why he allowed them to go into the swine. Maybe if they cannot enter others any longer because they're malicious and they still wanna do evil. Maybe they're looking for a place to inhabit that evil can still be present. Swine were unclean spirits. These spirits were unclean. They delight in the impure. And so since they can't harm people any longer they wanna harm their goods. Perhaps they hope that when the pigs were lost that the city would reject Jesus. They knew that people care more about their material comforts than spiritual things. The Lord gave him permission to go. Said go. And the whole according to verse 32 the whole herd of swine violently down the steep place into the sea. Now I usually say at this point that was the original Bay of Pigs but I won't say it at this point. Others say that this was deviled ham. I won't say that either. What happens? Let's get to an application here. Verse 33 and 34. Those who kept them fled. They went away into the city and told everything including what had happened to the demon possessed man and behold the whole city came out to meet Jesus. If you stop there that would be great but notice what they said when they saw him they begged him to depart from the region. Now Luke tells us they went out to see what happened and came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had departed sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind. They were afraid. They saw him sitting clothed and in his right mind at peace resting in comfort. Jesus permitted them to go into the pigs because there's two basic reasons given because one Jews were not to have anything to do with swine they're unclean according to Jewish law and it could have been the Lord dealing with that. Or two the Gentiles. The Gentiles though they were able to raise pigs and all to the Gentiles it would reveal how the evil spirit intends to harm and destroy but how that Jesus is Lord over the spirits and he has a right to give as well as to take away. As this is taking place and all of this and it's so much drama and so much tension taking they're being part of right now it's hard for us to really grasp this and how exciting to see this herd of swine falling and drowning and all the noise and the man the demons are no longer in him and the people come and there's this guy seated there quietly at the feet of Christ and then they see that and they're amazed by that but their first response is please leave us. This reveals how the Lord does things in a person's life. He can reveal himself to you and remove your torment. He can produce a radical transformation. If any man be in Christ he's in new creation and old things are passed away. Behold all things have become new. Revelation 21 5 says behold I make all things new. You see as this is taking place it's a testimony. Mark tells us in verses 16 and 17 of chapter 5 those who saw it told them how it happened to him we had been demon possessed about and about the swine they began to plead with him to depart. They saw it yet they didn't even give Jesus the respect that the demons did they asked him to depart. They cared more about their money than they did their eternity. It says when he got into the boat in Mark 5 18 and 19 when he got into the boat he who had been demon possessed begged him that he might be with him. However Jesus did not permit him but said to him go home to your friends tell them what great things the Lord has done for you and how he had compassion on you and he departed and began to proclaim into capitalist all that Jesus had done for him and all marveled. You have not been delivered to simply enjoy a better life you have been delivered to be a living and verbal witness of how great God is. That's what he's saying. Go tell people. Go tell people. You have a testimony. Some people in this room have an amazingly radical life that you were living before Christ and people knew that about you and you have something to say. They may have been afraid of you. You may have been violent. You may have been the kind of person that people didn't want to be around because you were impure. But now you're seated at the feet of Christ and you're desiring to be with him. You have something to say. God changes lives. Let me give you a moment of personal story. I was around five, four or five. My mother has an epileptic seizure. I begin to be afraid that my mom's going to die. She's hospitalized a few times, several times actually as a little boy. One day I'm in my room. My mother's in the hospital again and I'm crying myself to sleep. I was only five or six and my dad walks in and sits next to me on the bed. He goes, what are you crying about? My father didn't like the idea that I would show emotion. He was not one who liked that at all. So he said, what are you crying about? And I said, I'm crying because mama's not here. Mama's in the hospital. I miss her. I was five, six years old. My dad looks at me and he says, if you're a good boy, your mother will get well. So I tried. I tried, I really did. I mean, if it's my behavior that is making her sick, then I'll be the best kid you've ever seen. And I was, I got straight A's. I was, you know, that was a time when in school you had 40 or different subjects and at least 40 subjects you were great on. It wasn't like eight subjects or 10. There was at least 40 subjects and I got 39 A's and a B plus. I became an honor type student. I did, I worked hard. So my mom would be well. And guess what? At the age of 15 she was still sick and at the age of 15 I started drinking and I started doing drugs and I started running around. By the time I was 18 I was being arrested. By the time I was 19 I was using a lot of drugs. By the time I was 20 I almost died of drug overdoses stealing, living a crazy life. And in the back of my mind thinking, I'm nothing, I'm stupid, that's what I thought. I can't keep a relationship with the girl going. I'm just not worth it. Nobody remembers my name everywhere I go. People will remember my friends but they never even know who I am. I'm that, I'm the hey you guy. That's how I was. Nobody knew me, nobody knew my name and I felt lonely. I felt lost. I felt left out. I was crazy. I was trying to get attention. You know I was beginning at that time mentioned earlier waking up places I didn't remember how I got there. Bomb it all over me. Just a crazy life. Crazy, starting and going worse and becoming worse and becoming worse. And then I finally began to tell myself, you're stupid, you're just stupid. That's what you are. I graduated high school with a D minus average. I didn't read books. The only book I would read for the longest time was comic books. That was it. I didn't read any real books. I mean literature of any sort. I just didn't really care. Even though at the age five my mom told me I taught myself how to read when I was five years old. But I told myself I was stupid and I was telling myself that for a long time. Jesus asked the question what is your name and the demon answered legion for we are many. Rabbis during the time of Christ may speak in that way in an exorcism because it demonstrates authority. I will make you respond by giving to me your name. You will tell me who you are because the one who gives the order for the name is the one with the authority. Jesus says what is your name? He's demonstrating I have authority over you and I'm telling you to tell me your name. Listen, if you're driving home today and a police officer pulls you over and he walks up to you, you're not gonna say to him show me your license. Better not. He's gonna say show me your license and show me your registration and proof of insurance. He has authority, you don't. He asks what your name is, you don't. Jesus says to the demon what is your name? I have authority over you. You won't tell me what I'm asking. Now that's one aspect of it and I believe that that's what's going on here. Jesus has authority. At the same time, what is your name could also be something that we can practically apply because in a sense I think the Lord could say that to us even to this day. What is your name? What is your name? Who are you? Who are you? Me? When I was 19 and 20? Me? I'm a drunk. What is my name? I'm a doper. What is my name? I'm a thief. What is my name? I'm a liar. I have a very bad temper on top of it. I'm all of those things. Hateful and hate-filled. What's my name? That's what I am. There's a time when the Lord may speak to your heart and say to you, what's your name? And a woman may say I'm an adulteress or I'm a whatever it may be that she may say, the man may say I'm convict. No. Listen, if you become a believer, you can be seated at the feet of Christ in your right mind. When I got saved, I went, I hope you don't mind me saying this. It sounds so self-serving. I'm just trying to illustrate. Forgive me if it sounds to anybody here self-serving. I don't mean it to be. I'm trying to illustrate. I went into the military three months old and the Lord I still was telling myself how stupid I am. You have to take a battery of tests. My drill sergeant approaches me, sergeant bulky. Rosalis, as you took your battery of tests, you have passed this particular test that reveals that you have the capacity to learn foreign languages. We want to send you to the Monterey School of Linguistics. Language studies, that you might become a translator serving here in the Army. You have a capacity to do that. And I say, no, I don't want to do that. I just want to spend my time in the military and go home. A couple of days later he comes up to me and he says Rosalis, you passed the qualifications to be appointed to West Point. We want to send you to become a military officer, to send you to West Point, so that you might become a lieutenant and within 10 years you'll be a captain, at least in the military. You have the capacity. We want to send you to the school for free. Some of you, if you know anything about West Point, it's one of the finest academies in the United States. And I said, no, I just want to spend my two years and go home. You know, if I'd have gone to West Point, I'd have never met Marine. I wouldn't be standing here right now. God had other plans for my life. But let me tell you, why did I tell you that? So I could brag, no, because I was seated at the feet of Jesus in my right mind, my right mind. I get emotional, forgive me. I want to become tough like Rawl, I can't. It's just, it's my heart. He can do that for you. He can do that for you. Why can't he? He can do that for you. Listen, yeah, some of us grew up having people say you'll never amount to anything. You're a loser. You're stupid. You're ugly. You know, I had all that said to me. Nobody'd ever want to be with you. But Jesus makes all things new. And he makes you aware of how great and powerful our God really is. And how he can take and transform. My uncle Louis, I loved him very much. He was a Southern man. He was from Columbus, Georgia. And for some reason he loved me. And I wanted a Schwinn bicycle for Christmas. I was about nine. And I would leave these little notes. Gee, I like my Schwinn bike. And I would put it in my dad's lunch. So when he opened it up, he'd see a picture of a bicycle. I want this bike. It was red and white. He had streamers coming from the little grips and a bell in the whole nine yards. So it's Christmas. And I go into the backyard. Cause my dad says, uncle Louis here, he brought you something. Now my uncle Louis, after he had been injured, was what today people see this often now. He was a man who would, he was a diver, a dumpster diver type man. He would take his little pickup truck and he would pull up in the people in his neighborhood. And he would pillage their trash. And then he would take their trash and he'd take it to a shop. And then he would try and sell it to make money cause he couldn't work any longer. He'd been injured and he was an alcoholic and he and my aunt Tilly would drink there at the table and I would come over and they always had this wine and they were living a terrible life. But he for some reason loved me. Both of them got saved by the way, but at that time they weren't saved. And he was a dumpster diver. And so my dad says, well, uncle Louis has something for you. And I went into the backyard cause I knew it was my Schwinn bike. And he had found a bike and he had hand painted it with red and white in it. He never even sanded the rust off and had all the bubbles and it was the most gross. I was mad. I was so mad. This is a piece of junk. I'll never drive this. I'm right to the left of me. My dad was all mad. Go in your room. You should never ever, my dad, never ever hurt uncle Louis. He loves you. He loves you. I didn't appreciate that. I didn't. I was nine years old, little spoiled brat. I didn't appreciate that as a fact. As I grew older, I did. Then one day as a young adult, I saw his love for me in a way I never saw before. And then the Lord reminded me of something. You were trash. You were in it, you know. Trash can on the side of the road. Throwing away after the enemy just tore you up and left you for dead. But Jesus in his little pickup truck came down the street and he rolled over and he says, I can do something with this. And he pulled you out and he made you new. And I, the reason I get teary is I'm honest with you with my feelings about deeply I appreciate what Jesus has done. In my life, I love him. Forgive me, forgive me for the emotion I show every Sunday. I've been asking the Lord, is there something wrong with me? Is there a medication I should take? Why am? It's because he's doing a fresh work in me. He's bringing me to where he wants me. And that's where I want to be. I always want to tear up when I tell you how loving he is, how good he is, how he forgives and how you can be at his feet learning from him and telling others. There are some who want him and there are others who will say, I want nothing to do with this. The question really is, which one are you? Which one are you? Are you the one who wants him? Or like it says, when they saw him, they begged him to depart from the region. Which one? I want to be the one at his feet and I don't want him to depart from me.