I'm thankful for this opportunity to once again bring the word of God to myself and to you. Let's open to our Old Testament reading, Old Covenant reading, Genesis chapter 3. And if you're able, please stand as we hear God's word from Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 7. And the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of all the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you shall not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open. and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took up its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her. And he ate, then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves Lauren cloths. Well, let's turn to our new covenant reading Luke chapter eight, verses 26. It's found on page 813 in your pew Bible. So if you do not have, did not bring the word of God with you, please feel free to avail yourself of the pew Bible because this will be our text for this morning. And I want you to have your Bibles open that we might look at this portion of scripture. Uh, together and you make sure that what I say is what the word of God says, because God's word is the final authority. Luke chapter eight, beginning with verse 26. Then they sailed to the country of the garrisons, which is opposite Galilee. When Jesus had stepped out on land, there are many of my man from the city who had demons for a long time. He had worn no clothes. and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what have you to do with me, Jesus, son of the most high God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. Jesus then asked him, what is your name? And he said, Legion. For many demons had entered him. And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now large herd of pigs were feeding there on the hillside and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they flared and told it in the city and in the country, the people went out to see what had happened. And they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his rock mine. And they were afraid. And those who had seen it told them how the demon possessed man had been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the garrisons asked him to depart from them for they were seized with great fear. So he got in the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone, bade that he might be with him. But Jesus sent him away saying, return to your home and declare how much God has done for you. And he went away proclaiming through the whole city how much Jesus had done for him. Well, here ends the reading of this portion of God's word. Let's once again go to him in prayer. Father, I am weak man and I pray for strength to preach your word. Lord, once again, I pray for strength for myself to hear your word. And for each one gathered here through live stream to hear your word and Holy Spirit that you would do a mighty, mighty work as the word goes out to save the lost, open their eyes, bring them to Christ through confession of the sin and faith in his finished work and strengthen your people. to love Jesus more dearly. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Beloved, you may notice from the bulletin that we won't have a complete examination, exposition of this text this morning. Tonight we're going to be looking at Jesus calms a wild man. And there's so much in this passage that two sermons won't cover everything that's in it, so it certainly bears for the study. This morning we want to focus mainly on our great adversary, And I hope he's your adversary too, Satan. But in doing so, I want to point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, our great savior of sinners. And I just want to begin by asking you, have you ever gone on a trip, maybe a business trip, maybe a vacation? And in that journey, things just didn't go as you expected them to. You may have had a car breakdown. You may have had one of your children to get sick and you had to make a number of extra stops before you reached your destination because of that. I thought about that in light of the journey that Jesus and the disciples made here in this passage of scripture. We go back and we look at the context. We see back in verse 22 of this chapter that Dr. Luke says one day Jesus got into a boat and took his disciples and they went to sail across the Sea of Galilee. I doubt the disciples knew where they were going or what was going to happen when they got there. But before they got there, and all of this was planned, of course, with the sovereign God, a great storm came up, scared the disciples to death. They thought they were going to die. And they called on Jesus, and he, the Lord of the waters, Lord of the weather, stilled the storm. And they wondered. Did end of this passage of scripture in verse 25, who then is this that he commands even the wind and the water and they obey him. And then they land in their destination, certainly known by Jesus of the garrisons, which is opposite Galilee. And as we read this morning, Jesus stepped out. And what met them? Well, there came a man from the city who had demons. And what a man this was, as our text points out. And we want to turn to this now, to look at this man. Number one, who was possessed by demons in God's great unfathomable wisdom. This incident in our Lord's life was so important that it's recorded in three of the gospels, Matthew eight 28 and following Matthew. I'm sorry, Mark five, the first 20 verses. And then here in our text this morning. And we want to look, bring in all three of these texts into our sermon this morning because each one under the inspiration of the Lord looks at things a little bit differently. Not that they contradict one another. We may think they do contradict one another because Matthew points out there were two demon possessed men. But I believe here while Luke only mentions one, he focuses on the one that was a spokesman for the group. And so that's why the emphasis here is on just the one individual. Matthew tells us in Matthew 8, 28 that this man or Matthew's account, both the men were so fierce that no one could pass that way. Let's look at the description that Mark gives of the person. He lived among the tombs, Mark says in Mark 5. No one could bind him anymore. Civil authorities had tried. This man was such a problem in society. that authorities had tried to bind him, to calm him down, to keep him from being a threat to anyone else. But no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. He'd often been bound with shackles, but he wrenched the chains apart. And he broke the shackles in pieces. No one, no one, no man had the power to subdue him. And night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. How would you like to go on a trip and reach your destination and this person comes out to meet you. Parents, think of trying to put your children to bed each night and in the distance you could hear the cries and the moans of this wretched man among the tombs. Mom, what is that? Oh, child, we can't do anything about it. We can only pray God will give you rest in the midst of it. And scripture says he cried night and day. Parents with infants just think you try to lay your children down for an afternoon nap. And there in the distance, Every so often would be the moans and the cries of that man reaching the infant's ears so your baby take a nap in a very restless condition. I wonder if real estate prices at that time in the Gaterina area dropped some because of its proximity to this situation. You wouldn't want to go near that cemetery. You'd take many long trips around to where you wanted to go just to avoid that whole area. Such must have been the reality, at least to some extent, of people who lived in God's providence in that area. And there was nothing to be done about it because this man was demon-possessed. And what was the effect of the demons on this man? I want to look just briefly at some of the effects. Notice number one, he caused self-harm to himself. Mark 5 says he was cutting himself with stones, bringing forth blood for whatever reason. Number two, He had no shame on Ted's tells us in Luke eight 27 that for a long time, he had worn no clothes going around naked. It would seem to say here, no shame. And this was not a time of short duration. You notice what Inspired Luke says here? It was for a long time. This man, powered by the demons, had in himself great Luke tells us that he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demons into the desert. As we mentioned earlier, Mark 5, 5 says that night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out and cutting himself. He had no rest. Our God gives us rest on the Lord's day, offers us rest in him, but Satan gave this man no rest. This man was homeless. Again, turning to our text in verse 27, he neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. He had a house at one time, but no more. Homeless. I want to stop and just apply this briefly to your life and mine before we look at this passage further. And I just want to point out, first of all, Brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus, you cannot be demon possessed. First John 4.4 says, greater is he that is within you than he that is in the world. And we praise God for this great protection in this fact. Secondly, I want to point out that not everyone that is lost And that is a follower of Satan is demon possessed. This man was. And this man here reminds us that Satan and the demons are real. I want to emphasize that. Because we live in a culture that can make fun of Satan. We live in a culture that wants us to laugh at the things of the devil, things of Satan, and they'll do whatever they can through comical depictions, through characters in movies and other media to make us want to laugh at that which is diabolical, that which is evil, that whose origin is Satan. And I'm here this morning to say that Satan and the demons are real. Notice what Jesus said. of some of the followers of Satan in, in, um, the religious leaders, scribes and Pharisees in John chapter eight, verse 44, you are your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. In scripture, we see Satan called by different names. You see him called as the devil. The word devil means accuser. Satan itself, the word means adversary or enemy. And revelation nine, chapter 11 is referred to as a bad or Apollyon. And that word means destroyer. There's no good adjectives to describe. Satan. Tonight we want to look at begin to look at some of the wiles that our adversary will use against us as Christians. We have to be on guard against. But I want to point out just one at this juncture in our sermon. We have to guard ourselves against. I remember here in Sinclair Ferguson some time ago says that what Satan, one of the greatest temptations Satan will put before you, Christian brother or sister, is to go after your second love to tempt you to turn from your first love. So I ask you to think just for a minute What is your second love? If you're a Christian, Jesus Christ is your first love. What's your second love? If you're married, I hope it's your spouse. If you're not married, maybe it's your parents. I don't know what it is, but search your heart. What's your second love? Be on guard because Satan His demons may well try to tempt you to fall. Now that means through your second love. That's exactly the way Adam and Eve fell in the Garden of Eden as we saw this morning in our text in Genesis chapter 3. How did Satan get to Adam, our federal head? Tempt him to sin. It was through his second love. It was through Eve. And so there on the early pages of scripture, we see the wiles of Satan. He approached Eve and Eve sinned. She gave the fruit to Adam after she ate. And the result was all mankind failed and to sin. We have to guard ourselves. I have to guard myself every day. I love my wife, but I have to love Jesus even more. We have to love our first love always, even if it means at the expense of our second love at that particular time in our lives. So may we be on guard against this particular wild method of Satan. Satan works in two ways. Very often, he's either going to transform himself into an angel of light, as we read in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 14. If that doesn't work, then he's going to prowl about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may. devours. First Peter 5, 8 says Satan hates God and Satan wants you to hate God. Scripture doesn't tell us what the reaction of the disciples were because that's not the focus in this passage of scripture. But I wonder what that, what the reaction of those disciples were. What would be your reaction if you'd have been among the disciples, landed, and you would have seen a man in this condition? Well, let's look. Let's look. What does Satan know about God? Satan wants you to question everything the Bible says about God. That's how you began with Eve, wasn't it? Hath God said? to bring this portion or that portion of the very word of God into question and get you to doubt it. That's what our culture wants you to do as well in movies. Through having some who are ordained as preachers and noted authorities, we might say, on the Word of God, misquote and misuse Scripture so that the perversions and the sins of our culture of today may seem completely in line with Scripture. In movies and even from behind some pulpits, thankfully not in this church, praise God, from some pulpits, maybe even this morning, scripture will be misquoted and be made to say that which is a lie. And they won't be asking you, have God said this or that, but that's what you must ask if you hear this false teaching, this false interpretation. of God's word, we must always ask ourselves, what does God's word say? Did God really say that about that perversion that I heard in the classroom or that I heard online? We must flee always to search the scripture to see If these things be so, because from this passage of scripture, I want us to note in reality, some of what Satan knows about God. Isn't it interesting that we left off the passage about Jesus calming the storm when I made reference to that earlier this morning. And in verse 25, we left off with the disciples asking among themselves, who then is this that commands even winds and water, they obey him. We left off with no answer right there to that very important question. But you know where the answer comes from? Go down and notice what we read in verse 28 of our test. When the man saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, what have you to do with me? Jesus son of the most high God. Who was it that stilled the waters? Who was it that calmed the storm? Jesus, the son of the most high God. There was the answer to the disciples' question. And it came through the answer, through the confession, I should say, the demons made. Not a confession, a bowing before the Lord God. and worship, but a confession that he had to make in hatred of God. Because he was before the living God and he had to speak the truth. Mark tells us in another encounter with the demons that Jesus had in Mark 124, The demons there confessed that God is holy. Demons know that God is holy. There in Mark 124, the demon confesses, I know who you are, the holy one of God. God's holy. And they know that there's a final day of judgment. Matthew 8, 29, parallel passage to this. Matthew records a part of the conversation that this man had, that the demons had through this man with Jesus on that day was, have you come to torment us before the time? Then finally we see they know that Christ has power over them. They bade him. In verse 28, don't torment me. And later they bade them not to send him into the abyss. There was no half God said here because they were before the living God. And even the demons then take seriously who God is. And they know that what God says is the truth is the knowledge of the demons. regarding God, but our time hastens on, I just want to point out what the demons know regarding hell. Do you notice in our text the demons don't want to go to hell? Note verse 31 here in our text. They begged him not to command them to go into the abyss. Hell's a serious place. Don't throw hell around in your conversation as it's just a throwaway word. It's a serious place. The demons themselves do not want to go there. Do you? If you're unsaved this morning, God's brought you into the hearing of this text. Are you treating hell lightly? Do you think hell will be a party place where you can party with your friends? for the rest of your life, the rest of eternity, I should say. It's not that way. That's a lie from Satan. That's what Satan wants you to believe. What do the demons say? Don't send me. Don't send me. Don't send us. into that place. They don't want to go into the abyss. They don't want to go, as Revelation says, into the bottomless pit. Well, how do we apply this to our own lives? First, we want to point out there's no salvation for Satan or any of the demons. Jesus came to save humans. He did not come to save demons. He did not come to save Satan. their salvation for us through Christ alone. We're entering now in our calendar a time when leads up to the celebration of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know we don't have to celebrate Christmas. It's not a holy day. It's not a day that's marked by scripture for us to keep holy. We don't even know what day Christ was born. But this time in our own cycles of the season, Leads up to the day set apart when we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he came into this world, as I said, to defeat Satan. Not to declare a ceasefire with Satan. but to defeat Satan on the cross of Calvary. For his people will see tonight how he did that in this passage of scripture. And we see that the very power that the Lord Jesus exercises over these many demons Remember, their name was Legion. That's what they called themselves here in this passage of scripture. The very power which he exercised over all of those demons is but a picture of that greater exercise of power on the cross. For there, Satan was defeated. That's why Jesus came into this world, to save sinners, to save me, to save you. Oh, brother and sister in the Lord, Christ came for that reason. Oh, wonder of wonders, he became, as we're saying, just a few minutes in worship, a man of sorrows that we might be made into a people of joy to rejoice in him and serve him the rest of our earthly days from the time of our salvation. And then even more, with even more greater joy in worship throughout eternity, Because Jesus came, was incarnated, took on an earthly body, the eternal son of God, to save sinners because the power of Satan was so great. No man can save himself otherwise. Your salvation through Christ alone. Such was the compassion of Jesus for this man that he was willing to bring his disciples through a storm to test them and to strengthen their faith. and to point out to them who he was. But in order to get to the area of the Gadarenes, to deal with this demon-possessed man, that's Christ's compassion. And his compassion for all who will put their trust in him is that he was willing to come from heaven to this earth and live among sinners. Keep the law we cannot keep. Pay for our sins on the cross of Calvary that we might have new life in Him and in Him alone. If you're unsaved, I want to point you to this Savior, the only Savior of sinners, that you will flee to Him. Satan's a terrible taskmaster. Outside of Christ, you are a follower of Satan. Not necessarily demon-possessed, but you're following the same bad master. And the only wages he can pay is death. And that's not even minimum wage. The wages of sin is death. Your only hope is in Christ Jesus. And he says, come unto me. All ye that are weak and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And if you are heavy, heavy laden this morning with your sins, and you've not confessed them to Christ, pray that he will draw you to himself. And you'll know him as your Lord and savior. As you look to him in God given faith. As we close this morning, we want to point out that since the cross, Satan can only do limited damage now. And we praise God for that. Satan is bound. He can do limited damage. And we continue to hope and see the gospel advance throughout the world. And Christian brother and sister, we need to pray for that gospel to advance and to see society change in every area of life. May God continue his work for his glory in the advancement of the kingdom, even drawing you, if you do not know Jesus this day, to himself. That you would join in the praise of God and be part of that gospel advance. Let's pray. Father, One done without the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the wretchedness of those who follow Satan. Lord, deliver any here this morning, any who are in the earshot of my voice, from following Satan to following the glorious Lamb of God. Lord, thank you. Thank you, Lord Jesus. You came, and you were willing to come to save sinners, save someone like me, save someone like each redeemed sinner here. All glory be to you. Continue your work in our midst, Father. All for your glory. And give this word the fruit you want it to have in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen.