We turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter three and then Luke chapter eight. Let's stand together. Genesis chapter three, we'll be reminded of the fall of the first Adam, the presence and reality of the devil in history. Identified as the devil pointedly in Revelation chapter 12, actually, as it comments on this portion of scripture here coming in the form of a serpent. Hear the word of the Lord. Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it nor shall you touch it lest you die. And the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die. For God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, They knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings, and they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord among the trees of the garden. We turn to Luke chapter eight, beginning at verse 26. The context is that Jesus and his disciples, crossing the Sea of Galilee first in a storm, now in the calm, finished their journey. Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when he had stepped out on the land, there met him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles, and he broke the bonds and was Driven by the demon into the wilderness, Jesus asked him, saying, What is your name? He said, Legion, because many demons had entered him. And they begged him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss. A herd of swine was feeding there on the mountain, so they begged him that he would permit to enter them, and he permitted them. And the demons went out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the lake and drowned. When those who fed them saw what had happened, they fled, told it in the city and in the country. Then 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. And they were afraid. They also who had seen it told them by what means he who had been demon-possessed was healed. And the whole multitude of the surrounding region of the Gadarenes asked him to depart from there, for they were seized with great fear. And he got into the boat and returned. Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged him that he might be with him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you. And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. This is the word of the Lord. And again, we turn for the preaching of the word to Luke chapter eight, verses 26 through 39. And the casting out of a host of demons. Even apart from our thinking about demonic activity in the agency of the devil in history, our problem with sin is very acute. We, by nature, are rebels against the Lord. The Word tells us that our own sinful flesh would be reason enough for us to sin. That we were conceived and born in sin. We are prone to evil. that there is no health in us by nature, that we would not seek after God or do good, and that applies to all humanity. We read in the Psalms, Psalm 15, Psalm 53, Romans chapter 3, it applies to all humanity without distinction, Jew and Gentile. But the problem is compounded profoundly by a second biblical truth, and that is the principle of bondage. It's not simply that our fallen condition and the condition from which we need redemption consists of a series of punctilious acts of transgression against God that get worse as we string them together. But that by virtue of this, we ourselves are sinners and sinful in our totality of our being and another problem exists. We're in bondage to sin. There's a slavery. And there's a slave master. And like Israel had to be delivered from Pharaoh, all those who would want salvation and eternal life need to be delivered from the power of the devil. And Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. We've already seen this theme in Luke chapter 4, when Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil, and He triumphed. We'll see more of it here, as Jesus, as the triumphant conqueror, not only triumphed in Himself, but that His triumph over the devil has implications for your salvation and for mine. Sometimes as a Christian, you could say, my problems are so big and so ensnaring and the bondage so strong, how could I be relieved of that bondage? And because of that, you can get so burdened down, you might hesitate to ask for forgiveness again. The text will teach you that the saving power of Jesus Christ First, to the believer entangled in spiritual warfare is unbounded. But it'll also teach the unbeliever a lesson. That the unbeliever enslaved to sin, it's you this morning, your only hope is the saving mercy of Jesus Christ who not only can deal with the guilt of sin, the problem of your sinful flesh, but also the bondage that Satan has the world under. The whole world, those scriptures say, lies under the sway of the evil one. Jesus would say to the Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil. And that if we think about this idea of the kingdom of darkness, it's not something simply outside of ourselves, but apart from the rescuing mercy of Jesus Christ, we by nature belong to it. And you need a Savior. who is able to make raids on that kingdom of darkness and set at liberty captives. In his name is Jesus. This text presents then the saving power of Jesus Christ to the unbeliever enslaved in sin and also to the believer who might be discouraged in spiritual warfare. We'll see three things from the text. The enslaving power of this kingdom of darkness, the demonic realm, the unmistakable redeeming power of Jesus Christ. And then third, the response that we have to that redeeming power. We ought to have, well, the response of the revelation of that redeeming power in an unbelieving world and for the believer. There's two responses in the text actually. So the enslaving power, the redeeming power, and then the response. First, the enslaving power of the kingdom of darkness, this attendant problem. We're conceived and born in sin, but the Bible says also that there are demonic powers at work. who labor hard to keep sinners enslaved to sin." The text opens with a sailing journey. Then they sail to the country of the Gadarenes. I would remind you in verse 22 that Jesus had said to His disciples, let us cross over to the other side of the lake. Jesus, in verse 37, when He is ultimately rejected by this same journey, simply gets back into the boat and leaves. Which tells us already something about last week's narrative. That Jesus had a very particular purpose and intention in this journey. And an intention to bring his disciples through the storm. That his providence to carry them through their trial was that they might join him and see something of his glory. And that's exactly what happened. They crossed over to this land called the Gadarenes, or the Gerasenes in some of your translations. There are cities in this region called Gadara and Gesera, and it was a region that was marked by a large number of Gentiles, hence the mention of pigs or swine, unclean animals to the Jews. This is not Galilee proper, but right next to it, and perhaps part of that region that was prophesied in Isaiah chapter 9, Galilee of the Gentiles, where light would shine. A place where there was great darkness, evident by the man that we're going to be introduced to in a moment. The crossing over to the other side, verse 22, was in order that Jesus, verse 27, might step out on the land and make a very short visit. And immediately when they get to the other side and the Savior steps out of the boat, the encounter begins, this strange encounter with the enslaving power of the kingdom of darkness. When He stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. He gets out of the boat and immediately there's a confrontation. He's going to the edge of this unbelieving territory, and as he sets foot in the unbelieving territory, this happens. A man who had demons. We'll see more about that in a moment. He's a very strange man, verse 27. He's naked. He won't live in a house. He lives in tombs. He prefers the graveyard over the safety of his home. He's drawn to Jesus for some reason, yet he is terrified of Him. We'll read in a moment, verse 28. What have I to do with you? Interestingly, He knows His name, Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He knows the name given to Him by God. He knows that He is the Son of the Most High God, the eternal Son of God, and He knows that this Jesus, even as He sees Him for the first time, has the power to torment or punish Him. This man was also publicly known. If we go to verse 34, the people in the field saw what happened. We read the text a moment ago. It was released. Then many more come out to see what happened. They investigate this man, and the whole city and region is terrified of Jesus. This is important because the man who was once crazy and out of his mind is now healed, which means the man Jesus is meeting is, in a picture, a representative known to all. He is emblematic of their spiritual condition. He is known publicly. They've tried to do things to stop him. Verse 29, the spirit often seized him. The second half of the verse, he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles, and he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. This man is publicly known, a strange reputation, some sort of supernatural strength, nakedness, living out in the tombs, other gospels say, even cutting himself. He's engaged in all of these things. What explains a certain man who had demons? What does that mean? Let's go back a little bit and ask ourselves some questions. What does it mean that he had demons? Well, in verse 29, we read that these demons are also called an unclean spirit. He had demons. The Bible teaches that Well, let's take a step back. The Bible teaches that there are spiritual beings called demons, we'll get more to this in a minute, who are individual personalities that have the power of localized or personal influence at times, if granted so, under the sovereignty of God. Localized influence, you think of Daniel who speaks of the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece, and we think of the long history in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts of demon possession. And the New Testament uses this language 16 times. He or she had a demon. In other words, attached to this person. And the language is used both ways, that this person possesses the demon, the demon possesses or has the person. A demon can enter into a person according to the Scriptures, and then a demon can be cast out or come out. So this relationship of control and possession can also be broken. This demon has direct influence. Not only this strange display of power and breaking the bonds of the chains, but drives the man into the wilderness. Drives him out into the desolate places. A picture of distance and separation from God. The opposite of the garden. The fallen world under the dominion of the devil's power. The same place where the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. More from the text about this man. When Jesus asked him, verse 30, saying, what is your name? He said, legion. Earlier in verse 28, we have a singular, he cried out, but then if we keep reading, They begged, the demons plural, verse 31, they begged Him that He would not command them to go out into the abyss. He was named Legion because many demons had entered Him. This is the extreme case. This is the man who is publicly emblematic of the devil who enslaves, dehumanizes, destroys, and kills. It's a plural. It's many. A legion is a Roman military unit of up to 6,000. The idea here is the overwhelming presence of the kingdom of darkness, the unstoppable control and bondage of that kingdom of darkness that Satan, the prince of the power of the air, has sent a legion of demons to possess, to enter in and to control this man's life. And that's why he was naked, living in the tombs, crying out and breaking the bonds. A severe case, a critical case, a man completely overwhelmed and controlled by demonic power without exception. Keep this in your mind. Second thing is keep in mind that Christ had an encounter just a few chapters earlier with the one who is the prince of demons, Satan, and he won. What do you think of this? What do you think of the idea of demon possession? We have deep cultural instincts that we are not immune to in the modern age, and they go like this, that unless it can be measured, physical measurements can't be true. I used to work, my former occupation, I was a mechanical engineer, and I worked in a field where we did disinfection with ultraviolet light, and my specialty was measuring things. Voltage and amperage and transmittance and flux and all sorts of things. always measuring, physical instruments in a laboratory to measure things. And what your world tells you right now, but this is crumbling, there's a certain scientism that says, if you can't do this, it's not true. The word, however, says something different about reality. The scriptures are the Christians' lens through which to see the nature of fundamental reality, and they're very clear about demons. God made angels. Some of those angels fell in a rebellion before the fall of man. Satan was the leader of that rebellion. Satan and this army of fallen angels, these are the demons. And they appear throughout the scriptures, and the scriptures are very clear about the existence of this invisible world, which has holy angels and fallen angels. They are spiritual beings of great power. They had an original glory that reflected the glory of God. 2 Peter 2, they sinned. They rebelled. They formed the command structure and power core of the kingdom of darkness. There's a mystery. We just read from Genesis 3, Satan was already a rebel when he came to Adam and Eve. Formal origin of rebellion is in that first rebellion. Satan came in order to redirect, enslave, and overpower humanity by tempting Adam and Eve. Third note. The first is that we're prone to write these things off. The scriptures secondly tell us that these things are actually true and vividly so. Let me just say something about this week. I had an unusual week preparing for this sermon. On Wednesday, a friend called me, he's a descendant of Presbyterian missionaries, all the way back, his family all the way back to the 1890s. He called me up and he said, Peter, what do you think of demon possession? Because I have this case that I'm dealing with and it's the strangest thing I've ever seen. And I said to him, friend, that's the strangest thing I've heard. I'm preparing a sermon on Luke chapter eight. And then he went to describe to me in vivid detail a troubling situation. And we thought and prayed over it. He then recommended me a book by a man named John Nevious, who was a Northern Presbyterian who greatly influenced the Southern Presbyterian Church theology and doctrine of missions. And if you're familiar with Greenville Seminary and teaching in its missions program, you've probably heard his name and read some of his work. He in turn wrote a book about his experiences in China as a missionary, and came to China skeptical that demonic power could have this kind of manifestation in the present age. When he was finished his tour as a missionary, the book is worth reading, he came back convinced that he had seen things that he could not explain. A man who had a shrine in his house, and as long as he kept that shrine and worshiped at it twice a week with his family, he had no trouble in his home. If he left it, he would go mad. Missionaries came and said, follow Christ. He tells of a voice came through the man that said, if you're going to follow Christ, I'll leave. And he said, I'm following Christ. And he left. This presence left. And Nebius, if you read the book, he's not a man prone to strange Thinking. Friday night, I was at an installation service. An old friend of mine came to me. His parents are missionaries in Brazil. He said his mother just told him a story that he'd never heard before of a young woman who was under the influence of some strange power. His dad preached a sermon at a little farm in Brazil. He actually ran into a minister who was converted by his dad's witness 50 years ago. His dad was killed in an ambush. He was going back to put up a memorial. He said there was a girl there at the same time who, when that family brought a Bible back, started to scream that there was a book in the house. And she wanted it gone. And they told her about Christ and she was converted and said, my family could never explain what was happening. Again, a strange thing that I've been thinking about these things all week. There's a mystery. And there are powers in this world that we should think and pray about, not fearfully. And the nature of Christ's reign now compared to this period that we're talking about, we'll get to that in a moment and in the coming weeks, but the principle is that the Scriptures testify to these things. And those who have been to places where Christ is not named can testify of strong evil powers. Maybe not to the degree and way that we read about it in the Scriptures, but realities. This is what we see here. The kingdom of darkness manifesting itself in ways that are powerful. How does that kingdom of darkness weigh against your life? Let me give you some things. Temptation, as Satan tempted Jesus and tempted Peter. Under Jesus' ministry, when Peter had to say, get behind me Satan. As James says, we can be tempted and even division, bitterness, and anger. Paul and James say, if you're angry and not forgiving, you're giving place to the devil. James says that if you're bitter and warring with one another, it's demonic. Temptation is one way. False teaching, the doctrines of demons, Paul speaks of in 1 Timothy 4. International politics and warfare, there's intrigue in the world. Daniel chapter 10, the prince of Greece and the prince of Persia and Gabriel fighting with them, that behind world powers are demonic activities, witchcraft and mediums. William Perkins, one of our great Puritan forebears, wrote a significant treatise on this topic. We know his discourse on preaching, but he wrote a discourse against the use of witchcraft. There's nothing entertaining about it. He had strong words about it. It's evil, and it was one of the evils in Deuteronomy 18, verses 9 to 14, that Israel had to cast out of the land. It belonged to the abomination of the peoples. And I've said it before in preaching, and I'm absolutely unashamed and uncompromising that witchcraft and all of its attendant fascinations have no place in the Christian life. The paranormal is not entertaining. It's evil. It brings afflictions. Satan can bring afflictions. Job chapter 1, another category. In Luke chapter 13, an affliction of a woman bowed down is said by our Savior to be the work of the dark kingdom. The worship of idols, Paul says, is the worship of demons, which includes, for us, anything that we would place above God in our affections. There's a connection to demonic power. This is, again, the apostles' clear teaching in 1 Corinthians 10. And then there is direct possession and control. Satan entered into Judas, the demoniac. a legion of demons in him. Here's the warning. Without Christ, knowing that he has now cast Satan from heaven and that Satan's power is different and restrained by his sovereign power than it was before the cross and the resurrection, yet without Christ's saving grace, All humanity remains under this slavery without exception, and the only hope for release is Jesus Christ. We need a recovery of theology of spiritual warfare, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. We should have a sobriety. Second, the unmistakable redeeming power of Jesus Christ. If we read the text carefully, verse 24, rather verse 28, Jesus is speaking, what have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High? Rather, the demon, when he sees Jesus is speaking, what do I have to do with Jesus, Son of the Most High? I beg you, do not torment me. If we get the order of the text right, that is the second word spoken in this narrative. Why? Verse 29, for he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. So the order of the narrative is this, that Jesus, facing this emblem of the kingdom of darkness, 6,000 strong, perhaps by at least, in the literary use of that name, legion. Jesus' feet touch the ground, he meets the man, and he commands the unclean spirit to come out of him. The response is verse 28, what do you have to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Do not torment me. In other words, Jesus went across the lake, he landed, he rebuked, he commanded. He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. The protest, verse 28, follows Christ's word. The rest of the interaction, what is your name? We go back to verse 30. Legion, the name comprehends. It's a description of power, multitude, oppression, and control. A massive concentration of evil power. But this power, when it meets Jesus, look at Verse 28 again, "...is filled with terror. I beg you, do not torment me." Verse 32, the begging continues, verse 31 rather, and they begged him that he would not command them to go out into the abyss. What is that? Revelation chapter 20 tells us there is a bottomless pit reserved for the devil and his angels, a picture of God's ultimate, eternal, final, binding judgment on them. And they met Jesus, they knew his name, they knew his eternal glory, and they were terrified that in a moment they would be judged forever for their wickedness. Mystery is instead of final judgment, verse 32, Christ permits them to remain in the cosmos. They enter this herd of pigs and it plunges into the sea. That power is not cast into the abyss at that moment. However, Christ unmistakably with a word dominates and destroys the enslaving power. With a word, He dominates and destroys. He conquers. And now if you look at the wind and the waves, what did He say? He rebuked the wind and the waves and there was peace. Lord over nature. He rebukes a legion of demons. And they're gone in a moment. The Lord, even over the kingdom of darkness, of every power in the cosmos, all is under Him, Jesus Christ, Lord of all. The witnesses. They saw what happened and they're terrified. They fled. There's a power here of Christ. They could live. Here's the interesting thing. They could live with this man. They were terrified of the power greater, Jesus Christ. They were humbled by that glory. They ran for the rocks and the hills to cover them. They went to the city and told the story. More came out to see Jesus. They found the man departed. The demons had departed. He was sitting in his right mind. They were afraid. They told more people. The whole region. The news spreads to everybody. And with the news, the fear spreads. Great fear. Why? The text says, because they knew by what means he had been healed, which is the word of Jesus Christ. A word. Because he commanded the unscathed spirit to come out of the man. And it happened. The man that they had bound with chains, who would run free, Jesus, with a word against legion, free. Right mind. Clothed. Sitting at the feet of Jesus. Power. It's the power so great that they were afraid and they asked him to leave. Interestingly, Jesus left. Verse 37. They said, please go and he got back into the boat and he left. Mission accomplished. Second illustration here of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. There is a kingdom of darkness. Satan is the prince. In Luke chapter 4, this is important. When Satan tempted Jesus, Jesus demonstrated his victory. Luke chapter 8 and every lower level of demon possession. Jesus demonstrates that the victory he came to accomplish was not only to vindicate his Father as the righteous and eternal Son, but to save a people for himself from bondage and slavery to sin and Satan. He sets the prisoner free by what he preached in Capernaum to give liberty to the captives. The original interloper, Satan, who tempted Adam And Adam failed, could not conquer the second Adam. But now we learn more that this man who is the graphic case of the infested with the kingdom of darkness man, unnatural, loves death, feared and loathed, is no match for the living word who with a word sets him free. What did he say? One little word shall fell him, the devil. That's all it takes from Jesus Christ. The second Adam not only stands for himself, but he conquers for his people. Some lessons. Number one. There is no spiritual bondage beyond the saving power of Jesus Christ. None. There's no sin too enslaving. There's no sin too deep that Jesus Christ cannot redeem from, rescue, set free, not only pardon and cleanse by His crosswork, but by the same crosswork in which He finishes a perfect life and destroys the devil, that you, united to Him, can be set free from the power of enslaving, repeated sin. See the miserable condition of those who over the devil reigns? He's crazy. He's naked. He's in the tombs. He loves death. You see what Jesus does with a word? He's sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind. That's a word. That's the word of Jesus Christ for salvation. That's redeeming power. He commanded the unkilling spirit. You know, sometimes when we read the epistles, we don't think about the gospels, but we should always think about them side by side. Remember what James writes about the demons? He says, even the demons believe and tremble. Where do you think he got that? Because he watched. Jesus, eternal Son of God, we are terrified with the word they were going. This is what Jesus does. No spiritual bondage is beyond His saving power. This is salvation. If you're in bondage, you know what you need to do? Jesus, Savior, rescue me with the same power. The spiritual quandary you find yourself in is connected to powers far greater than you are able to overcome on your own. But Christ has overcome them by the cross and the empty tomb. Lesson number two. The Christian is then not under the control and power of the kingdom of darkness. We've been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. If you believe in Jesus Christ, there's a great transfer. There's a redemption. There's a release. This is no longer your father the devil. This is, yes, still an enemy like a roaring lion. We'll see that in a moment. But he has no dominion or power. You're under the sovereignty of a new king, a good king, a king of righteousness, love, peace, forgiveness, power, and glory. And you're free. He came to destroy the works of the devil, to cast out Satan, and he saw him fall like lightning from heaven. He came to set the captives free, again to vindicate the glory of his Father and to give redemption and life. And that means as a Christian, you go to bed knowing there's a kingdom of darkness, but you can sleep like a baby. You can sleep knowing that there might be 10,000 on every side, but your king has rescued you and conquered that kingdom. You're not under your old master. Number three, you're watchful against the continuing acts of the kingdom of darkness. You're not a fool. The reality of spiritual warfare is true. You think about Jesus Christ, who at the cross has broken the power of that kingdom. He breaks the power of reigning sin. He sets the prisoner free. You know that Satan's power to deceive the nations, as he did of old, was curtailed by Jesus Christ. And he has limited power, more limited than he did before the coming of Christ. Chained for a time, Revelation 20. But you also know that a chained lion is a dangerous lion, as Peter said, and so you watch for his temptations and influences in this world, and you run from them. You give, to use Paul's language in Ephesians 4, no place to the devil. Not the slightest opening. One of the ways you give him an opening is if you remain unreconciled in anger. Ephesians 4. Another way is to underestimate the power of idolatry. Your thoughts, your entertainments, everything that you do, spiritual warfare is on your mind. Resist the devil, Peter says, and he will flee from you as you trust Christ. But one more lesson we need to return to the text. The response. There's two responses in the text. There's a contrast in the text between those two responses, and if you go back to the end, you see that we've already described that there's these two groups at the end. The whole region is distinct from the one man. The whole multitude of the region is seized with great fear, the text says. They begged that Jesus would leave. Interestingly, they're begging like the demons begged. They recognize that this King If they're not for him, he's against them. They can't live with him. The other man, the one man, begged as well. The man from whom the demons had departed had a different urgent request. Lord Jesus, I want to stay with you. I want to stay with you. You just took me out of the storm of nakedness, crazy rebellion. And you redeemed me. And I'm sitting at your feet. And I never, ever could repay the rescuing and redeeming love that I've been given. And I don't ever want to leave you. I want to be with you. I will never let you go. He begged. What does Jesus do? He changes people. And when He converts you, you love Him. When He rescues you, you love Him. You love Him as a person. We were discussing John Owen yesterday in the Men's Fellowship. And this idea of love for Christ is a sign of true conversion. This man doesn't want to let his Savior go. That's the response. The second response is Jesus gives him a command. Return to your own house and tell what great things God has done for you. He sends him away. Jesus will one day take this man to himself. He has. As a matter of fact, do you remember what he said to his disciples? I go to prepare a place for you that you may be with me where I am. He did grant the request. But between here and there, Jesus said, go. I have a mission for you. Look at the text carefully. Go tell what great things God has done for you. What did the man do? Look at the text again. And he went and he told the world what great things Jesus had done for him. Because Jesus is God. And he recognized that the power that redeemed him from his slavery to the devil was nothing less than the power of the eternal Son of God in the flesh. And he told the world about Jesus. And he had been ushered into the kingdom of light as a soldier of the cross to tell the world to be on the forefront of the new thing. As a matter of fact, in chapter 9 and verse 1, if you read ahead, you see that Jesus then gives His disciples authority over demons. And then in chapter 10, He sees Satan fall like lightning from heaven as the 70 are sent out. And this expanding power that belongs to Jesus is given to the church. And Paul will write of it in Romans 16, the God of thieves will crush Satan under your feet shortly. See, this man is swept up with love for Jesus. service to Jesus, and then to be in the kingdom of light and glory that will crush the kingdom of darkness forever. And he takes up his calling, and others are set free. See, the witness of the church has this aim, not only that we would be redeemed, but that we would tell the world about that redemption, that we'd witness to Christ. Have you ever said to somebody, come and let me tell you about the Christ who set me free? I was a captive, and now I have liberty. I know you don't have it, but I know where you can find it. I know a man who came to me and with a word changed my life. He put me in my right mind. He clothed me in his righteousness. I sit at his feet. I long for him to come again between here and there. Let me tell you. about a Savior, the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord our God, we thank you for redeeming love. And we thank you that it involves the rescue from the kingdom of darkness that we so desperately need. And we pray, oh God, that if there are any here still under the control and influence of that kingdom, that there would be a running to the only one who can rescue and deliver. And Lord, for all your church, as we gather in your name a new joyful confidence in your victory and saving power. Lord, give us grace to resist the devil that he might flee from us. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, before then, receive the blessing of the triune God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, amen.