Verse by Verse Matt 8:23

[0:00] Thank you, John. Good songs to start the morning. Amen.

[0:13] Real good songs. It's a difference between what we're singing about and what's going on in other places or just folks that aren't getting up in the morning and getting out and getting around other believers and being able to proclaim that it's all about Him, saved by His blood, saved through His grace, nothing of ourselves, and it's a great thing to proclaim.

[0:41] So let's get into the Word of God this morning. Matthew 8 is where we stop, verse 23. Matthew 8, working our way now through a couple chapters that display the credentials of the King, of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of the Jews, after He taught them of that Kingdom and of its, what's the word I use there, its Constitution, now He's displaying how He's fulfilling those prophecies that He would heal the sick and that He would show up with power and signs from on high.

[1:24] Verse 23, a remarkable event, one that I'd have loved to have seen. Matthew 8, verse 23, when He was entered into a ship, so He's trying to duck out from this crowd of people, the great multitude, verse 18, that is about Him, and He's trying to get away from them.

[1:45] And He was entered into a ship, His disciples followed Him, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but He was asleep. And His disciples came to Him and awoke Him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish.

[2:00] And He saith unto them, Why are ye so fearful, O ye of little faith? Then He arose and rebuked the winds and sea, and there was a great calm. But the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the seas obey Him?

[2:12] So, let's pray and then let's comment and get into more of the text. God, it's with thanksgiving that we meet here this morning, thankful for the blood of Jesus Christ, for salvation through our Savior's name.

[2:24] And Lord, as we open up this holy, holy, holy book, help us to understand its teachings and to rightly divide it and to rightly apply it. And Lord, may we get clarity where we have confusion, and may nothing that I say be misleading.

[2:39] Help me to just watch my tongue. And I pray that you'll use me, that your Spirit will move within our hearts and teach us these truths, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. So, Christ is asleep, number one.

[2:51] This reveals to us His humanity. We noticed last week in verse 20 that He calls Himself the Son of Man, connecting Himself to the human race. And when you go study the divinity of Jesus Christ, or that He is God in the flesh, you'd say, well, God can't get weary.

[3:08] That's in Isaiah 40. God asks the question, will you weary me? No, God doesn't get weary, but Jesus Christ does as a man. And you'll see that throughout.

[3:18] He thirsted. He experienced emotional things as well, where He wept. And here He is asleep, but not in a likely circumstance by any means.

[3:30] When a ship is covered with waves, He was asleep. So, revealing His humanity is one thing, but also revealing that He's so far above the fears and just those petty things, and I guess waves aren't so petty when it comes to these mariners, think that they're going to die.

[3:49] But even in that situation, He was in a great calm inner, had an inner great calm before He ever rebuked the winds with an outer great calm. And these were seasoned mariners, by the way, and they were becoming desperate.

[4:02] In verse 25, Lord, save us, we perish. They're not just like little girls running away from a worm or something, like little nonsense.

[4:14] I mean, these guys are grown men that made their living, some of them, on this very water. And now they think they're going down with the ship. And they are panicking. They're absolutely panicking, thinking this is it.

[4:26] And they find Him sleeping. And He's just, if we could say, literally yawning at the situation. And He rebukes them for their fear. And He rebukes them for having little faith.

[4:38] And we've seen this before, Him speaking to them that way, when just earlier in this chapter, this man has great faith, the centurion, that believed that he could heal his servant without even showing up, just speak the word only.

[4:53] But here he is with his own hand-picked Jewish disciples and apostles and those that he's teaching and training. They've already seen him do some miraculous things, yet they still don't fully understand who he is and what manner of man he is.

[5:07] And so their fear overtook their faith because the danger was real, the scene was real, they could feel it and sense it, and they thought they were done. And it just reveals to us the human nature, the flesh that's within us.

[5:23] Those men probably could have been asleep just like Jesus Christ was. They probably could have just been right there with Him at that same peace. And it doesn't make sense to us because you'd say, well, really, seriously, well, how was He asleep?

[5:37] Was He just that tired? He was knocked out that nothing could have woken him? Was He a heavy sleeper? Or was He just at peace and had no fear of anything, even when He heard the wind?

[5:47] Last night the wind blew and it blew open one of our doors that was like these double doors. It wasn't latched. And my wife woke up and saw the door open and she's like, Debbie, get up! What's going on?

[5:57] She's like, she thought we had intruders in the house. And then I looked at it, I realized right away what happened, but I couldn't just tell her, knock it off. So I had to show her, no one's here, walk through the house, nobody's here, but fear just, it just, it's so quick to come out of us.

[6:15] And I don't blame her for that. I mean, many of you would have thought the same thing if you wake up and your door is open and you'd have thought, surely your mind goes to where, and where it could be, but it's not reality.

[6:27] It never happened. So these guys show their lack of faith. They show how quickly fear overtook them. But aside of all that, this is one thing I would have loved to have experienced, to see the imminent threat, and danger, and the panic, and the turmoil, and the fear, I mean, it was real, they felt like they were going to perish, and then to see and experience and feel how quickly the thing just goes away, and the calm, and not just, I mean, these guys have seen Christ heal somebody already.

[7:01] They've seen him cast out devils. They've seen it happen to other people around them that had problems, but it wasn't ever them, and now this one's their life, and they felt that adrenaline, adrenaline coursing through their veins.

[7:13] They felt that they're so keyed up, and then just to watch the whole environment change because he spoke a few words, and then to look at Jesus Christ and that man that was sleeping a second ago who just mouthed off to him for their lack of faith, and then to see the calm, and to see the waves, and to sit down and look at each other and to wipe the sweat off their brow, and I just, I love to see that.

[7:40] I love to experience that even. What a thing. What manner of man is this? That's all they could say. Who in the world are we in a boat with? Because this is more than just casting out devils.

[7:51] This is just rebuking winds and seas, and it blew their minds. They were speechless without a doubt. What an eye-opener that was. Now after witnessing this, after experiencing it as the disciples go and witnessing this, could they ever doubt him again?

[8:12] Could they ever turn their back on him? Could they ever forsake him? After experiencing and feeling that and knowing him and seeing what manner of man, could they ever do that?

[8:25] You know what the answer is? The answer is absolutely. Just a little bit later, push comes to shove. They're out. The human nature, the flesh, the sin inside of us is so great.

[8:39] It's a shame, but it's great. It's great. And nobody in here is exempt from that. Nobody in here is better than these disciples. Nobody in here is, oh, I stand a little bit taller because I know the Lord.

[8:53] He's done great things for me in my life. Yeah. You wait till push comes to shove. You wait till somebody's got a sword out in front of you or as others have gone all the way to be tied up and to be lit up and see if you got it in you.

[9:12] The sin in us, the shame in us is greater than we can imagine. And that's just, it ought to make you appreciate even more the grace of God that allows you to be His child and says, I'll never leave you nor forsake you, even though you will leave and forsake me.

[9:29] I'll never deny you, even though you will deny me. What a blessing, though. We see that these guys were dumbfounded at their Savior and at the manner of man that He was, but it wasn't even enough to fully change them to 100%, forsake all, drop everything, to the death.

[9:52] It's later that Peter gets converted, as the word is in the Bible, and it's later that the disciples, I guess, get it together down the road and several of them become martyrs and they really do get a hold of what they needed to have a hold of back then.

[10:08] But what a thought, though, that after this, would they ever do that? Yeah, they would. It shows that our weaknesses are revealed in the trials. The weakness is what comes out and it's in there.

[10:22] Now, in verse 28, we come across a passage, we looked at this last week in Mark, and we're going to need to get to Mark, so you can get Mark 5 in one hand as well, and we'll stay in Matthew to start.

[10:34] But I think Mark gives us a little more detail to this event. Mark 5, and then let's stay in Matthew 8, verse 28.

[10:50] So in Matthew 8, 28, when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, exceeding fears so that no man might pass by that way.

[11:05] Now, Matthew says there's two. What does Mark say? Mark chapter 5, and verse number 2. When he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.

[11:19] And the whole time, he's dealing with one man. So is that a contradiction in the Word of God? Do we need to change it? Did the men make a mistake?

[11:31] Did the Holy Spirit make a mistake? Is this book just written by man? Did we find something? No, no, and no. It's a simple thought. Matthew is describing what he saw, and there were two men.

[11:46] Mark is describing what he saw or what caught his attention, and he focused in on the one man who undoubtedly was the, of the two, was the one that was the more extreme case with the legion.

[12:00] This is not an isolated thing. As a matter of fact, let's, let me see if I can, look at, we're going to come back to these two places, but look at Matthew 21, and we're going to get Mark 10.

[12:18] This happens again, and it's not a problem. Matthew 21, and verse number 30, or did I write that down wrong?

[12:34] That's 20, sorry, Matthew 20, verse 30. So Matthew 20, Mark 10. In verse number 30 of Matthew 20, it says, verse 29 says, As they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him, and behold, two blind men, sitting by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David.

[13:02] And if you read the passage, this is, this is one of those guys, got a name that we learn of. I think it's in Luke, but go to Mark 10. That's all we got to do is see it in Mark, since we're comparing Mark and Matthew.

[13:15] Oh yeah, Mark gives the name. Verse 46, it says, Where they come to Jericho, as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the wayside begging.

[13:30] When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And you know the passage. We know blind Bartimaeus, don't we? We're given his name. Matthew says there's two.

[13:41] Mark just focused in on Bartimaeus, the one that maybe stood out to him. I don't know. But it's not a discrepancy. It's not an error. It's true. There were two.

[13:52] And in Matthew 8 and Mark 5, there was two men possessed with devils when he got out of the ship. But Mark gives an account just focusing on the one.

[14:03] And that's not a surprise. I'll give you an example of this. Let's say, make up something off the top of my head. I don't know why I always talk about traffic out here.

[14:15] But say you get cut off by somebody in traffic and you could say, you might say, that kid has no business being out here on the road driving like that. And you get all mad and you say, that was a teenage boy driving crazy like, he was on his cell phone.

[14:30] And maybe someone else that was in the car with you would look at that and say, yeah, we were cut off by some kids because they saw two of them. There was two in the car.

[14:41] But the one that you're talking about is just the driver and you're just describing the one. So it's the same story, the same scene. It's just one person is describing it based on the one that they focused in on.

[14:52] It doesn't say that there weren't more than two. It could have been five. But the account given does not display an error in our Bible. That's the first thing we need to just eliminate.

[15:04] It's just focusing in on one person over the others. And I could give you a hundred examples of the same thing. When people give different accounts of an accident, people give different accounts of a crime that was committed, things like that.

[15:16] They ask all the accounts. They find out they're not lying. It's just they're giving their version from what they saw and it all comes together. And that's how you study your Bible. You take all these parallel passages, put them together, and you get all of the light that God gives.

[15:31] Specifically around areas like the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you'll see some things that seem to be not matching up. You have to lay it all out and then you'll get the entire story.

[15:42] Now back to Matthew 8, Mark 5. So there's no contradiction here. There was two, at least two.

[16:00] And I believe Mark gives us the best details of this account. In Matthew 28, verse 8, it says, There were two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs, exceeding fears so that no man might pass by that way.

[16:16] Well, thankfully, there's one man that wasn't afraid to pass by that way. And the Lord Jesus Christ comes out of that boat and he doesn't have any problem dealing with him.

[16:27] In verse 29, Behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come to hither to tomorrow night before the time? So let me flip over to Mark now and spend a little bit of time noticing some particulars about these guys or the one that Mark focuses in on specifically because he gives us a little more information about him.

[16:50] So Mark 5, verse number 2, When he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. Now, Matthew said that he had, he was coming out of the tombs exceeding fierce, no man might pass by that way.

[17:05] Mark elaborates, he says in verse 3, Who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters were broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him.

[17:21] And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him. So a little more light about these guys or the one specifically.

[17:37] They're possessed with devils. They're exceeding fierce. They're violent. People are afraid of them.

[17:50] I don't want to, I want to at least speak to what the scripture says. There's some evidences or some characteristics of somebody possessed with devils or an unclean spirit.

[18:07] And this, without a doubt, is an extreme case. This is not, I wouldn't say this is the norm by any means. But in this extreme case, there are some things that come to light that could help us maybe even wrap our minds around why culture and society and people and teens and normal people turn into this.

[18:30] And you're going to say, oh, you're saying everybody's possessed with devils? Well, I'm not going to say things too crazy that would make you think I'm crazy, but there's something going on.

[18:41] I'll just leave it kind of vague. Look at this. Here's a few things. Verse number, verse number three of Mark five says when he, who had his dwelling among the tombs.

[18:56] Now, people are typically afraid of graveyards. And they're all spooked out about graveyards, right? Why? I remember as a teen, I spent the night at a friend's house and where their house was situated up on a hill, there was a graveyard that sat behind them on a hill.

[19:15] And to get to the town where we wanted to go do foolish teen stuff at night, we snuck out and cut through the graveyard. And I remember as a kid going through there in the daytime, didn't even think twice about it, just walking on the path, it's green grass, flowers, tombstone, nothing.

[19:33] But at night, all of a sudden, it's like, there's something going to go on here. You know, it's almost like you don't want to step in. But I remember, thankfully, just having the good grounding in church and the word of God and being born again and knowing it.

[19:47] And I wasn't walking in the spirit, but I just knew there's nothing going on here. I have nothing to fear. And I just went right through and it was kind of just this still being out at night in a place that could have been spooky.

[20:00] But I just brushed it off because it wasn't anything to me. But the world certainly has a way of portraying things in the spooky realm. There's an infatuation with this stuff.

[20:14] And there's an infatuation with death, with people wearing black, with wearing skulls or putting skulls, tattooing them on their skin.

[20:27] What is so attractive about a skull? How in the world does that make anyone look better? I mean, think closely on what that is.

[20:37] It represents a dead human being. And their remains. Their bones. Why would you want to put that on your skin? Why would you want to wear a t-shirt with that? Why would that decorate your album cover if you're a band?

[20:52] What is the infatuation with that? Death. There's something weird about it. There's something unclean about it. Zombies. Zombies is quite a popular thing with movies or even certain TV shows.

[21:05] The world's got a taste for that and a love for this paranormal, awkward, dead stuff that's coming out and coming to get you and wreak havoc.

[21:16] There's some infatuation with things like vampires and television promotes it quite strongly and uses pretty girls to do it so that it just makes it all better.

[21:27] It really blends that whole scene very well. But there's something devilish and satanic about this infatuation with death and that comes out of these guys being in the tombs, dwelling among the tombs.

[21:40] Of all the places they could dwell, this is where they found their home. And it says, no man could bind him, no, not with chains. There's something else that's interesting about devil possession here is that there's supernatural strength.

[21:55] Now Samson had supernatural strength when the Spirit of the Lord came upon him. These guys have supernatural strength and it's not the Spirit of the Lord. It's satanic.

[22:06] And what they're able to do, it says in verse number 4, that they've been often bound with fetters and chains. So somehow they've been bound or they were calm and they've locked them up.

[22:18] Perhaps they, who knows, I don't even want to speculate. But when they're bound with these fetters, which are the clamps, I guess, and the chains, it says the chains had been plucked asunder by him.

[22:31] He just snaps the chain off and the fetters broken in pieces. He just rips them right off of his skin or his legs and off he goes.

[22:43] Supernatural strength. And again, this is an extreme case here, but there's satanic involvement here when this is not normal. This is paranormal. There's another thing here.

[22:54] It says that no man could tame him. He's untamed. He's wild. Wild. Not wild like a rage of anger. Just, just, not, not like a loose cannon, I don't think, but rather just like a beast.

[23:11] Like, can't tame him because he can't be domesticated. He is cut off emotionally and the human connection is just not there. They're distant. They're removed.

[23:23] And that's something you see in society. And there's, to me, there's something going on there. There's no doubt about it. And again, I got to remember, this is an extreme thing, a legion with who knows what going on.

[23:36] But it just teaches us a little bit about being, about devils and about what they're doing. The removal from society, the isolation, the infatuation with death.

[23:52] death. The next thing is that they're, in verse 5, always night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying. So, no normal schedule, no normal sleep cycle, which is healthy for your body to maintain, and they're just not a normal person in society.

[24:11] They're up all night, day and night, in the mountains, just a wild routine or no routine at all, just completely abnormal, I'd say. And you know enough to know that you function best and right when you get the proper amount of sleep and if your body gets on a schedule, that's where you want to be.

[24:30] It's not always possible for everybody at all the times, I get that. But this guy purposely is just driven away from that. And then, last thing, the fifth thing we notice about him is that he's cutting himself with stones.

[24:43] You want to talk about something that's devilish, is cutting yourself. And it's self-mutilation. Look at Matthew 17. Self-mutilation and cutting is something that has come around and I'm sure it's still going on particularly with the youth.

[25:08] I read some studies that it was the most vulnerable were young women and teenage women, teenage girls that are the most vulnerable for this and they cut themselves.

[25:20] Why? Matthew 17, verse 15 says, I'll start in 14 when they were coming to the multitude, there came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son for he's a lunatic and sore vexed and oft times he falleth in the fire, falleth into the fire and oft into the water and he couldn't cure him and it ends up that verse 18, Jesus rebukes the devil and he parted from him.

[25:46] His kid's possessed and he's tossing himself into flames. It's not a normal thing. Come back to 1 Kings chapter 18 and see something else here. Something satanic.

[25:58] 1 Kings chapter 18. 1 Kings chapter 18.

[26:15] So here's the prophet Elijah and he's with these prophets of Baal and in verse number 28, it's their turn to try to call fire down from heaven and they're calling on Baal to hear them and Elijah mocks them and so they take it a step further.

[26:39] Verse 28, it says, they cried aloud and cut themselves, notice the next three words, after their manner. They cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them.

[26:56] These guys are all, where's it at? Verse 26 says that they leaped upon the altar which was made. If they believed that their God was going to send fire down, why are they on top of that altar?

[27:10] Because they're offering themselves. They're getting up on top of that altar and saying, Baal! This is satanic stuff. Cutting themselves in the Old Testament shows a devilish ritual and a religious ceremony of cutting yourselves to appease or to attract their God and display their devotion to Him.

[27:36] This stuff is, it's unclean and it is not in the human psyche to do that. I believe it's a spirit wholeheartedly. Today when it's happening, I believe it's a seducing spirit that preys on the innocent, the vulnerable, and moves them to mutilate their bodies and they don't even know why they're doing it.

[28:00] And if you want to dig a little further with it, it's often promoted. There's music that they listen to. It's cutting music. There's things that they, that it's all spiritual.

[28:10] There's no doubt about it. There's a spirit in that whole thing. And here in the scripture we get a little light about somebody who's cutting himself. Well, he's got a devil in him.

[28:21] Now, I don't go so far as to try to say everybody that does this, they've got devils in them. They need to be cast out in the name of Jesus and exercise it. I'm just telling you that the spiritual world's real and it's very real.

[28:36] And we're vulnerable if we don't have the sword of the spirit and we're not walking in the spirit and very easily deceived if we just walk in the flesh. Very easily deceived.

[28:48] So, that's all I'll say about that. But back to Matthew chapter 8. These guys are possessed with devils. They're in the tombs.

[28:58] They're seeding fear so that no man might pass by that way. In verse number 29, it says, Behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?

[29:08] Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? So, there's a time. The time. That they're going to be tormented. They prophetically know this.

[29:19] What have we to do with thee? Leave us alone. It's not time yet. That's interesting that the devils understand some things. Anyway, they're worried.

[29:32] They know the Lord Jesus. They recognize him without a doubt. And it's something I've kind of connected this to. It might be a little off target, but it makes me think.

[29:45] I used to listen to some music that was worldly and nothing to do with God or anything right. And it just, this stuff comes back to me when I think on these things of how many artists, worldly lost artists, recognize Jesus Christ and their music.

[30:03] Now, you could just say, oh, it's just because it's a popular thing and they're fighting, you know, revolting against religion or anything like that or government and so that's just one thing they tend to kick. You could say that, but some of the lyrics, some of the lyrics describe salvation and his sacrifice on the cross.

[30:21] And I'm not talking about the black death heavy metal satanic. No, no. I'm talking about just mainstream stuff that gets played on the airwaves even or just a popular artist but on that album somewhere is a song that mentions the Lord Jesus Christ.

[30:37] There's one artist I can't even think of how it goes but I just remember him saying, I believe I can't be saved and he just said it over and over, I cannot be saved, I cannot be saved, I cannot be, what are you talking about?

[30:48] You cannot be saved. And the phrase before that he mentions Jesus Christ. Right after Jesus, I still believe I can't be saved. Something like that.

[30:58] Like, it just, those things come back to me when I think these devils recognize Jesus Christ and they knew who he was, the most, the son of the most high God.

[31:09] And I just realized that, I just think there's something else that these, I'm not saying everybody's sold their soul to the devil, any artist, people say that, you read that on the internet about those guys, I don't buy that but I do believe that they're being seduced and that there's spiritual involvement, they don't even realize it to get a hold on the world and to take them straight to hell and the devil's just in there mocking Jesus Christ but even recognizing him along the way.

[31:38] So be careful what you put in your ears. That's all I can say about that. I bet you, if you consider Satan's involvement, Lucifer, he's often been called the heaven's choir director and you read about him in Ezekiel, how he was created with pipes in him and instruments and vials and tabrets and realized that he was created a musical creature, a being that could produce probably a full orchestra that would blow our minds away and to think that he doesn't know how to use music to his advantage or to deceive kids and adults, you better wake up, realize who your adversary is and not be ignorant of his devices because he knows what he's doing and that music's just one little thing.

[32:25] That's just one avenue that he knows how to get people and take them away from righteousness. So these guys are recognizing the Lord Jesus Christ and there's no doubt in my mind that the world is influenced by devils.

[32:42] I'm not saying men are possessed with devils the way that we see it in the scriptures. I don't have anything to say. You'll think I'm nuts so I'll just stay away from that. But I do see the mark from what we read in scripture to what we see in the world and how it goes going that direction.

[33:01] And you know in Ephesians chapter 2 look at this verse let's just look at it. Ephesians chapter 2 what the Bible says about a lost man it's actually talking about saved people and it's describing them before they were saved and so there's no doubt it applies to anybody lost.

[33:24] Verse number 1 Ephesians 2 verse 1 you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air.

[33:40] So first thing is a lost man is just following the world but the world is following the prince of the power of the air and verse the end of the verse says the spirit that look now worketh in not on or against but it worketh in the children of disobedience.

[34:00] it's a spirit and it's identified as singular the prince of the power of the air who is running the world and he's working from the inside of the lost and it says in verse 3 among whom the evidence there is that also we had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others.

[34:28] So we'll stop with that thought there and move back to Matthew and finish this chapter but the evidence is around us quite clearly.

[34:43] Verse 30 it says there was a good way off from them and heard of many swine feeding so the devils besought him saying if thou cast us out suffer us to go away into the herd of swine.

[34:55] Isn't that a really peculiar thing to you? It is to me that the devils and we read from Mark that the I didn't read it today but it says there were about 2,000 what Mark gives that detail of the swine and you're just up left to speculate how many devils there were but what a peculiar thought that they know he's casting us out we're done this is over our ride is finished and then they actually ask Christ not I mean we don't see that anywhere else do you?

[35:28] The devil's beseeching him you know asking the Lord something and him granting it can we go over to them swine of course as a Jew swine is what?

[35:40] It's totally unclean like what do I care? You know and why is there so many swine there? And so maybe it was like yeah get them things out of here I don't know but he said go in verse 32 he said unto them go and when they were come out they went into the herd of swine and behold the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea and perished in the waters and they that kept them fled and went their ways into the city and told everything and what was befallen to the possess of the devils and behold the whole city came out to meet Jesus and when they saw him they fell at his feet and worshipped him and praised him no no when they saw him they besought him that they said get out please get lost don't come back what a thing that's the worst thing they could have done because in the next chapter he entered into a ship he's gone now Mark tells us that the one that was possessed with the devil gives us a little bit more light says he was sitting and clothed and in his right mind but the people of the town they weren't rejoicing they weren't worshipping they were scared of what just took place and they seemed like they were even happier to have the devils and this crazy man that nobody could tame cutting himself crying aloud in the night they seemed like well we'll just deal with that rather than see what Jesus Christ could do for them they want him out of there and Christ knows when he's not welcome you know what he'll do he'll just leave he'll just walk right out the door and hop in the ship and go to where he's wanted and go to where he can work and where his father can be glorified what a thought here these folks are afraid and others other times he heals somebody and they react with praise but these folks didn't react like that at all they wanted him out

[37:41] I'm not going to turn we're going to quit here but another instance here is in Acts 16 if you want to look it up Acts 16 verse 16 to 19 you'll see that the love of money is the root of all evil because Paul's casting devils out of this girl and the people realized that the hopes of their gain was gone and they had a problem with Paul and they stirred up a big thing because he got rid of this one who was a soothsayer somebody had a familiar spirit said and so there's the money perhaps it was that he messed up their economy a little bit dealing with these unclean beasts so the thing I want to take out of that is not all this devil talk but the thought that what's in man earlier we see that there are fears in him and even when he does these wonderful wonderful things they're still the same guys that turn their backs on him later on and then not only that these folks here didn't want anything to do with him and we better be careful that we stay humble that we stay in love with the Lord Jesus Christ and that we stay realizing what he's done for us and who we are so a little bit later tonight we're going to remember what he's done for us and take that Lord's Supper tonight and maybe it's something that we all need to do is get our hearts and our minds and our whole being back to who we are and where we came from and why we even exist and are not cast into hell and why we're not the children of wrath even as others and it's strictly because the Lord Jesus Christ hopped on a ship and came down here and took on flesh and lived a life that he lived and he cared about us and he didn't leave us to ourselves being forsaken and destroyed by the prince of the power of the air and he called us unto himself and he showed us his love for us and he bled and shed his blood to save us from our sins and I'm stirred about that even now

[39:47] I'm going to be stirred about it all day praise the Lord that he so to speak got the devil out of this kid and he didn't have to but he saved me by his superior grace washed me of my sins and I'm just trying to close here but I can't help but say it I think on Christ I think in this week on this thought it always catches me that he never sinned once and that he went to the cross as an innocent man I just I can't fathom it I can't relate to it I mean you've heard of people getting imprisoned unjustly and how frustrating they are fighting and fighting and nobody hears them and they can't get off but Christ willingly went but the whole time the fact that I get to walk away for the things that I've done on purpose and I knew I did them and Christ took it took it took it took it upon himself the Bible says he bare our sins in his own body on the tree those are my sins he bore my sins and it's still not old and I'm thankful for that

[40:59] I want to sing about that some more I want to lift him up some more I want to remember that I was that devil possessed guy with no hope just a wild idiot just letting Satan destroy my life because I was following him and being led by that spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ cared enough to come and get me and to do something for me and you know what though we didn't read it but the guy gets in his right mind thank the Lord and now he wants to be with Christ and the Lord didn't allow him to he said no you stay here and tell your friends and your family go home and tell them what great things the Lord has done for thee and then Jesus takes off so Christ took off he's in glory and we've got a commission to go home and to tell our friends and our families what great things Christ has done for us let's pray Father we're grateful that we can study the word of God and to see what you've done in the years that you were here on earth the power that you displayed it just it makes us thankful to know you it causes us to marvel and to wonder and to be glad that you're our savior that as much as you could be our judge that casts us into hell that you know our thoughts you know our sin to think that you loved us and gave yourself and gave yourself for us

[42:25] Lord I pray that we'd never turn into that side of society that just tells you to leave and asks you to get out but Lord I pray that we'd consistently come to you worship you be right with you and despise our sin and love that you shed your blood for us and that you care for us and help us to live for you help us to show others what you've done for us and help us not to be like these greedy fools and their love for money and how they wanted to do something with themselves and not even consider what you had to do with them what you wanted to do for them God help us to surrender and submit to you and be used of you for your glory so that you could be glorified we pray this in Jesus name Amen you're dismissed and we'll get back in Amen