Luke 8:26-31

Luke chapter 8, Luke chapter 8 beginning with verse 26, and we’re going to read through verse 31. And they arrived at the country of the Gatorines, which is over against Galilee, and when he went forth to land, there met him out of this city a certain man which had devils long time, and wear no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus thou son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. For he had done. commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oft times it had caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters, and he broke the bands, was driven of the devil into the wilderness, and Jesus asked him, saying, what is thy name? And he said, legion, because many devils were entered into him. And they be seen, sought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this morning. In the evening, you may be sitting in a well-lit living room reading or doing something when suddenly the power goes out. And all of a sudden you’re sitting in pitch blackness. It’s a frustrating thing when that happens. happens. Such is the case of man, though. Originally, man, being created in the image of God and in fellowship with God, walked in the light of God’s presence. But because of man’s sin and his fall in Adam, all of a sudden he was plunged into outer darkness, out of the presence of the Lord. Because of this, because of man’s sin, because of man’s separation. from God because man is exceedingly sinful, spiritual darkness engulfs him. I suppose the worst case of being in spiritual darkness would be to be demon-possessed, as we see in our text this morning about this man. It’s frightening to be demon-possessed, as we see in our text this morning about this man. It’s frightening to be a behold his wretched state and the fact that he would be possessed by thousands of these evil spirits, these fallen angels, that controlled and dominated him. And because of that, people sometimes consider an account like this not to be personally relevant. Because of that, people sometimes consider an account like this not to be personally relevant. Because they look at this. this is a wall you know i’m not demon possessed i’m not in the same bolt as this man now you may recognize the teaching here of christ’s absolute power over the demons how easily he cast them out which this text certainly teaches very richly and very clearly to us we also see in this and this is what may be missed the miserable state of every fallen man is portrayed. Now you’ll recall how we pointed out that bodily ailments in those whom Jesus healed reflected something with regard to their spiritual state as well. Because even though a person may be blind physically, Man is blind spiritually. Cannot see spiritual things. Even though a man may be deaf physically, the truth of the matter is he’s also deaf spiritually. He does not have ears to hear that we read about there in Revelation chapter 3, to hear what God has to say. If a person is lame physically and unable to walk, we talked about the first. fact that he is spiritually has inability to come to Christ. He has no power to do so. We talk about a man being leprous, this having this physical contamination because of this disease that he has. And we talked about how this reflects man’s spiritual pollution and how corrupt an evil man is. But what I think we also need to realize is, is. is, demon possession is also, in a way, a spiritual picture of man’s fallen state under the influence of Satan. And that’s the way I want to look at this text this morning, so that it has a personal application to us in the world in which we live. Because we know the demon possession seems to be much less today since Christ came and established his kingdom. He seems to have, you know, put a dent, if you would, a big dent in Satan’s power in this regard. Now, let me say by way of introduction here also, that the country of the Gatorines is the territory east of the Sea of Galilee. So it’d be east of Galilee, which is north of Judah and Jerusalem. And so we go, we’re going to the, to the sea of Galilee. the east there. And it once was occupied by the tribe of Manassah, but has long since now been occupied by heathen. Once Assyria came through, they repopulated Samaria and Galilee, but this Gatarine area. It was ruled by Herod’s brother, Philip. Just so you know we’re what we’re talking about when we talk about this particular section of land. So it’s really going out of Israelite territory here. It’s unusual, unusual that he does this. He does it for one man. He’s going to do it for this demon-possessed man. Now, you would think of all the people in this territory that the Lord is going to reach out and save. It may be through him, he will save others in this territory. But if the one man he reaches out to save here is the guy you would think the least likely would ever be saved. This demon-possessed man living among the tombs. Now, notice this as we look at this text of scripture. You’ve been under satanic control for a long time. You’ll notice verse 27. He went forth to land from the ship and there met him out of the city, a certain man, which had demons or devils here long time. This rendered the man in a quite hopeless state. Nobody could cure him. No one could help him. He couldn’t help himself. And so we see that what a poor guy this guy is for a long time. He’s been demon possessed. We need to realize how long Satan has been exerting control over the lives of natural men and your life when you first came into this world. From the moment you were conceived, you were under the power of Satan. Why, behold, I was shaping an iniquity, David says, in the womb. And in sin did my mother conceive me? Psalm 515. Satan had a hold of you from the very beginning. David mentions this in that great Psalm of repentance, Psalm 51, because he’s explaining why he did what he did. This is sort of is reflecting on why did he do such a wicked thing and commit adultery and that murder. I’m a wicked man from the very beginning. The wicked are astrayed from the womb and they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies. Psalm 583. Isn’t Satan the father of lions? So therefore the wicked are born that way. As liars. Where it in time past the scripture says you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2-2. That’s the way we lived. You remember in Pilgrim’s progress when he meets Apollion, he meets the devil. And there’s this conversation before they get into their battle. There’s this conversation they have. And Satan says to Pilgrim, he says, sir, I’m going to tell me, you’re from the territory, you’re from the city of destruction you’re in. He says, I see that you’re one of my subjects. You belong to me. You’re under the kingdom of Satan. And what does Pilgrim say? He says, I was indeed born in your domain, admitted Christ. this is true, this is how I came into the world, under your influence, under your power, in your kingdom. That’s the way every man is that comes into this world. You’re born in Satan’s kingdom, and unless you were converted, all your lifetime, you are subject of bondage, as Hebrews 2 tells us. You’re not born innocent, but corrupt and sin, under the power of Satan. And so you might say, well, I’m not like this man. Yes, you are. You’re born like that. For a long time you’ve been like that. Until you’re converted, you’re like that. So you’ve been under satan in control for a long time. Notice secondly, he says, you are spiritually naked. This is what we see. And we wear no clothes. Verse 27. He didn’t wear any clothes. Do you remember what happened when man first sin? What did God do? I know he cast him out of the garden, but what did he do first? He clothed them. They saw that they were naked and God clothed them. Clothing is what God has given us. To hide the shame of our own sinfulness and the fall that we’ve had that we’ve had. But this man refused to be properly clothed. He tore off any clothing. He walked around naked. Can you imagine that? What a shameful condition to be in. Now, you may carefully clothe your body. You may make sure you’re covered so that you’re not physically naked. But you don’t realize that many people don’t see this. They’re spiritually naked. What did we read in revolution? 318 is one of the reasons I read that passage of scripture. What does it mean when he says to the church at Laodicea that you are poor, blind, and naked? You’re naked, he says. Naked? What do you mean I’m naked? What does the scripture tell us? You need to buy of me white raiment there in Revelation 3. that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. Now what does he mean when he talks about buying white raiment? Well, the scripture tells us, and to her Christ’s bride, or the church was granted, that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the right. righteousness of the saints. Or as we read in chapter 7 of Revelation, that was 198, verses 13 and 14, we read that they had washed their garments in Christ’s blood and made them white. My friends, this white raiment is not your personal righteousness, which is this filthy rags. It’s crazy. Christ’s righteousness. So that if you don’t have Christ’s righteousness, you are naked, in God’s side. In other words, unless you have come to salvation in Christ, you are spiritually naked. That’s what he tells the church there. And this is what we should see for all people. Isn’t it interesting in scripture that the Bible talks about being clothed in Isaiah 61.10? Notice how he says this. He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He have covered me with the rub of righteousness. That’s what we need. Man’s own righteousness is a filthy rag. So whoever is destitute of Christ’s righteousness is naked in God’s sight. How do you obtain this righteousness from God? The Bible says the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, to all and upon all that believe. You get the righteousness of Christ by faith in Christ. Let me ask you this morning, have you been clothed in the righteousness of Christ? Or are you spiritually naked? Because in a sense, if you’re spiritually naked, you’re really not much different than this guy. He’s just physically naked as well as spiritually naked. But here he’s physically naked. But you’re spiritually naked. The third point is this. You have your abode among the spiritually dead. Notice verse 27 here, he says here, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs. This man shunned every earthly dwelling. He didn’t live like other human beings did. He was content to live among the dead. Can you imagine that? Now, the tombs of burial places at this time were like caves that were dug into the rock, where they might be true caves, but they would either dig them or they’re natural caves, and that’s where they would bury people in their rolls, you know, stones against him or something of the opening. And so he would live there. He would live in these caves among the dead bodies. Man, in his unconverted state, is said to be dead and trespasses and sins. There’s no spiritual life in him. Believers in Christ are said to be quickened or made alive, regenerated, the Bible talks about, given a spiritual resurrection. So there’s a difference between those who are saved and those who are lost. Those who are safe are made alive, those who are not safe, are dead spiritually. Now, given the choice to dwell among believers who are alive or unbelievers who are spiritually dead, whom do you choose? There are many people who are uncomfortable around Christians. They’re uncomfortable. They would rather be among the spiritually dead like themselves. So here’s a question for you to ponder. Who do you like to be around? Who do you choose? Christians? are unbelievers. Because that tells me whether you want to dwell among the dead or not. Who do you find more comfortable to associate with? Birds of a feather flock together. This reveals a lot about your spiritual state. Have you have your abode among the spiritually dead? Fourthly, I suggest to you you desire to be left alone by Christ and continue in your depraved state. Notice verse 28. and when he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God, most high, I beseech thee, torment me not. This man was constrained to fall down before Christ, before even, before whom even the devil’s tremble, though James tells us in his epistle, chapter 2, verse 19. demons don’t really want to have anything to do with Jesus Christ as the Savior. And this demon-possessed man also does not desire to have anything to do with Jesus Christ. With a loud voice, he says here, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most die? It’s hard to separate these two. The demons and the man, they’re sort of connected together here. There is a real fear of Jesus Christ found in these demons. And let me say this, as well as in man, I beseech thee torment. Demons certainly know that Christ has the power to cast them into the lake of fire. That’s why they fear him. This man here, the extreme suffering that he would suffer, the torment that he would be under, he fears all. also. What do the demons want? They want to reprieve before they’re cast into the lake of fire or the hell fire. What does this man want? He wants to reprieve, leave us alone. What does Jesus say? in Matthew 25 about hell. The hell is prepared for the devil and his angels and men get cast into that same place. The same place the demons fear, this man doesn’t want to go to either. Leave us in our miserable state. leave us alone. The man here, leave me alone. He’s content to live in this dark state in which he is in. Doesn’t this perfectly describe the unregenerate man when we think about it. You may have a healthy respect for Christ. Maybe you have some fear of him. Maybe your conscience troubles you when you’re thinking about, someday I’m going to have to give an account before Christ at the great white throne judgment of the last day. But in the meantime, leave me alone. Just let me live my life. Don’t disturb me. Reminds me of when my father was working at the Jackson Gear Company, he was a machinist all his life. And when he came to know Christ, he began to witness to the men that were there and tell them about Christ. He was pretty zealous about it. And one man in particular told my father, please stop witness me to me. Leave me alone. Let’s let me go to hell. That’s what he told my father. Just leave me alone. Stop bothering me. And this is the same attitude that we see in the ungodly. I wish this Christian would quit bogging me about my spiritual state and about hell and about eternity and about Jesus. Christ. I’m not my sin. Just leave me alone. Let me live my life. My friends, Jesus meets out judgments in this life as well as in the next and people would just like Christ, just leave me alone. They fear the wrath of the lamb falling upon them. You have no desire to come to Christ that you might have eternal life and you would prefer to keep your distance from him in this life. Boy, if that doesn’t describe it, how man is. Does this describe you? Do you wish to draw near to Christ or keep your distance from him? Do you desire to be left alone by Christ and continuing your depraved state? Fifthly, let’s look at this thought from verse 29. You are Satan’s captive. He says here for oft times it, the demon here, or the demons, had caught him. The Satanic. influence came upon him with such extreme power that it drove him forcibly to do whatever the demon or the lead demon wanted or the demons wanted. He couldn’t do anything about it. It’d be like a ship, thinking of a ship sailing, a sailing ship out on the sea, and all of a sudden this powerful wind comes up and catches the sail. And it begins to be impossible to navigate the ship. Because the wind is blowing it, wherever it wants to go. And that’s what the demons were doing. You remember when Paul was in the ship on the way to Rome? And Euroclyden, this big, powerful wind came up and caught the ship. The Bible says it caught the ship in Acts 27. And they said, we just had to let it drive. We couldn’t control the ship anymore. The wind just swept it along. That’s what happened to this man. That’s the way he was. That was his state. Now, scripture tells us this about the unconverted person. They’re taken captive by Satan at his will. And they are said to be in the snare of the devil. 2 Timothy 2.26. Think about that. Satan exert such a powerful influence upon you. and entices you to do evil. You can’t do whatever you want to do. He’s, you have to do his bidding. You have no power to do anything else. Unless God grant you repentance, you can’t even recover yourselves from the snare of the devil. It’s impossible. Man likes to talk about his free will. The scripture likes to talk about how hopeless man really is. how controlled he is by Satan. How desperate the situation is. It is the scriptures which reveal the truth. It is the scriptures that show you how important divine intervention is. Unless this man is healed by Christ and the demons are cast out, he has no hope. He’s under satanic control. And man is healed by Christ. in the same situation. You are Satan’s captive. A fifth thought, also from verse 29. You are not kept in check by the bands or restraints of God. You’ll notice here in verse 29 that he says here he was kept bound with chains and in fetters and he break the bands and was driven of the devil into the woods. On occasion, perhaps his friends, perhaps the authorities, of course, in government, maybe they tried to restrain the man. I’d try to control him in some fashion. But it was all in vain. Maybe they were trying to keep him from hurting himself or others. By the use of these chains that would bind his hands and the fetters that would bind his feet. But he broke the bands. and he escaped confinement to go about his demon-inspired ways. You remember how they tried to bind Satan in the book, or excuse me, Samson in the book of judges? They were always putting the ropes or something, you know, bind him somehow. We’ve got to tie him up. And he just snaps them off. Now, he was controlled by the power of the spirit. But here, we have the demonic power, enabling this man just sort of giving him some supernatural strength, so speak, to break these bands and fetters that are upon him. No one could bind this man. Do not unconverted people throw off all human restraints of reason, of religion, of authority to desperately pursue their sinful ways. But do they not, even more importantly, cast off divine restraints. Do you remember we sang Psalm 2 this morning? And if you read those verses over, talks about them, God’s restraints, and the Lord’s anointed, Christ, restraints, how they break the restraints of God. They cast the restraints off. They’re rebellious. we sang about that. Scripture teaches this. That’s how man is. The restraints of God’s law, which are good restraints. They’re, in a way, restrictions on man to keep him from doing the worst possible kinds of things. And yet we read that man will throw these off. He breaks them asunder. He casts these cords. way, as Psalm 2.3 tells us. Can you not see that the natural man openly and defiantly breaks God’s laws and commandments fearlessly? Look at our own society today. It is nothing to shoot a man and kill him. There’s nothing to rob a man. To burn his store down. To murder children in the womb. It’s nothing to shoot people. To beat them. To throw acid on him. Man refuses to submit to Christ’s authority as king, even though his yoke is easy and his burden is light. And in the spiritual state, a fallen man, are they not like this demon-possessed man? You’re not kept in check by the bans or restraints of God. Seventh, your life produces nothing good. The verse 27, last phrase tells us here neither abode in any house but in tombs. And then verse 29 tells us here something else and was driven by the devil into the wilderness. When he wasn’t among the tombs, when he’s powerfully influenced by Satan here, he would even go out in the desert areas. This is spiritual significance of this seems to be that living apart from God you really are left like a wilderness. The Bible speaks of that in Isaiah 27. 10. God says of sinful wayward Israel in the book of Josea, chapter 2 and verse 3, that he made her as a wilderness dry, barren, forsaken, lifeless. What good comes from the life of a barren, what good comes from a life that is as a barren wasteland, devoid of any spiritual life. The natural man has no spiritual direction. He merely wonders through life. He causes them, the scripture says, to wonder in the wilderness where there is no path. There’s no way in Psalm 107.40. They have no direction. Your life is purposeless because you have no guiding principles for it. It’s devoid of any spiritual life. What grace is in the spirit do you have as an unconverted person? None. You’re useless to God and man in that state. Does this picture your life? Because it’s an apt picture of the natural man under Satan’s dominion. So your life is good for nothing. My eighth point is this. You’re dominated by countless evil propensities. Verse 30 tells us this. Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? He said, Legion, because many devils were entered into him. Legion suggests that there were so many demons. A Legion was like a Roman unit, military unit, about 6,000 men. That’s a lot of demons. This also suggests organization. The Roman soldiers would take allegiance to the emperor to do his bidding. Man in his fallen state here is in allegiance to Satan. So all these demons were working in concert to serve Satan and influence this means. to that end that they would battle for Satan’s cause and oppose the kingdom of God. Friends, the unconfirited person has within so many lusts that he transgresses in a multitude of ways. Your sins may be rightly called legion because you can’t count them up. There are more than the hair on your head as the psalmist says in Psalm 40 verse 12. It would be astonishing for any thinking person to begin to add up all the sins. He’s committed every day. You can’t accurately count them all. They’re more than the sand of the sea. Who knows how many transgressions accompany a single act of evil in God’s sight. No need you have the thought and the initial desire of the mind. Then you have the planning to do the evil. And then you have the hand that gets involved in actually carrying out the evil. And that there’s evil that comes out of it maybe for cover-up or something of this nature. And it just multiplies. The Bible talks about the wickedness of man that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 8. You really have a vague idea of how wicked you are. How many evil propensities dominate in your life? It’s more than you can imagine. You’re dominated by countless evil propensities. Let me make two observations in closing this morning. The first is this. Let me ask you this question. Have you been freed from the tremendous control Satan has over unconverted people? Have you been freed from this control? You should realize the demon possessed you provide a vivid picture, really of the spiritual state of the natural man or woman. Don’t dismiss lightly what we’ve gone over this morning. It is a reality. And this is why it takes the almighty power of Christ to free you. Seeing all these things about the demon-possessed man are true with regard to the unregenerant, you ought to ask yourself, have I been delivered from Satan’s power. Are you still a slave to have known sin? And you’re not delivered. Are you? you most comfortable among the spiritually dead, then you’re not delivered yet. Do you chaf and fight against the bans or restraints of God’s holy law to cast them off, then you’re not delivered yet. Are you satisfied to continue in your sinful ways and you don’t want Christ to interfere or disturb you? You want to be left alone. Then you’re not delivered yet. You’re still. under Satan’s dominion, still in the snare. Do not be delivered, or do not conclude that you are delivered merely because you have felt some conviction about your sin. This demon-possessed man fell down before Christ. He feared what Christ could do to him. He trembled. There are men and women who fear hellfire. They fear. what’s going to happen. Itself is not enough. Just to fear hell is not enough. You must desire and obtain the freedom from the guilt and the power of sin in God’s appointed way, and that is through faith in Christ and His an atoning sacrifice. You must obtain a divine pardon from the Lord. You’ll be freed from Satan’s dominion. and if you’re not freed, you’re going to perish. Those only are safe who have been delivered from the power of darkness and translated in the Christ’s kingdom. Colossians 113. The second thought I’d like to leave you is this. You should rejoice in Christ’s dominion overseen. Christ’s command of the unclean spirit to come out of this man whose miserable condition we have been discussing this morning. Once he was held captive by Satan. But he’s healed. The legion of demons were compelled that come out of this man by Christ’s command. As powerful as they are, they knew they were in the presence of Almighty Christ and they trembled at that presence. And let this be a cheering thought for us. It ought uplift your heart because Christ has complete dominion over Satan. Yes, your condition is as bad as it is in this demon-possessed man, but Christ has the power to deliver you. He has the power to change you, as we’re going to see about this man. Without this knowledge, you might conclude it’s hopeless. But with this knowledge, you know, that you can go to Christ and he can help you and heal you. You know, scripture says that Jesus Christ is the stronger man who binds the strong man. He’s the stronger one. And he delivers his people. Those under Satan’s dominion that he spoils Satan’s goods. He snatches them away from Satan. My friends, Christ’s sheep are such that they are preserved by the Lord and they can never be snatched away from him. So man is enveloped in a state of spiritual darkness. He’s satanically controlled. Christ delivers sinners from Satan’s dominion. And there’s a vivid example right here in our text. See what a miserable state man is in. But then see how great the salvation. is that Christ provides. Let us close with the word of