Luke 8:30-34

Luke, chapter 8, I’m going to read verses 26 through 34. Our focus this morning is on verses 30 and 34. And they, meaning Jesus and his disciples, arrived at the country of the Gatterines, which is over against Galeigh. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the 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, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God, most high? I beseeched him. they torment me not, for he had 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 break the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness. Jesus asked him, saying, what is thy name? And he said legion, because many devils were entered into him. and they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep and there was there a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain and they besought him that he would offer he would suffer them to enter into them and he suffered them then then went the devils out of the man and entered into the swine the swine the swine ran violently down a steep place in into the lake and were choked. They that fed them, saw what was done, they fled and went, they told it in the city and in the country. God blessed to us the reading of the sacred and holy word this morning. Let’s have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, all things are in your hands. I pray for the strength to preach this morning that you may watch over me. lift up my health. Let me preach your word as it is necessary to preach it. Watch over me and provide for me and give me the ability this morning. And I pray that you would get the honor and glory. In Jesus’ name, we ask these things. Amen. One of the most difficult problems that we are confronted with in scripture is God, relationship with evil. Bad things happen in a world which God sovereignly governs. This cannot be denied. Now since God predestinates all things that occur in the world, according to the council of his own will, he brings it to pass. Evil must be included in that. Shall there be evil in the city? And I have not done it, God says. So when poor poor people, Job loses all his flocks and herds and his camels and asses, all his wealth, and even his children, it is a great evil. And even though Satan instigated that, as we are clearly tall, Job attributes this harsh blow to God. As he says, the Lord gave and the Lord have taken away, blessed be the name of God. of the Lord. God ultimately is the determiner of whatever evil thing occurs in life. It cannot be denied. Nothing happens without God deciding it will come to pass. Now as I was preparing to speak on this text, it struck me as another example of God’s relationship with regard to evil. What we find here in this text is an inner course or discussion between Christ and the demons that are in this man. Our text involves Christ casting out of legion, thousands of demons, or devils, from this stricken man of the country of the gatherings. This miserable man will be saved eventually here by divine grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. His condition in a spiritual sense is not unlike that of every fallen person as we studied last week. But what I wish to focus upon today is this interaction between Christ and the demons. Because I think it’s fascinating for us to ponder this. the evil event, this great loss of a herd of swine, this calamity, if you would, this drowning of a whole herd of swine, was certainly a great loss to the owner. But our text makes it clear that this event only takes place because Christ permitted the demons to enter into the swine in the first place. In other words, They couldn’t act on their authority. They acted by Christ’s permission. The question is, and this is what’s I pondered and it’s puzzling in some ways, why would Christ grant the demon’s request and allow this evil or this calamity to happen? I wonder if you ever thought about that as you read this text of scripture. So I want to talk about God and evil. Let me begin by saying, this. You should consider the evil purpose of the demons and desiring to enter the swine. You find the demons here wish to avoid being cast into the abyss. You notice it verses 31 and 32 and they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. There was there a herd of of many swine feeding on the mountainside. They besought him that he would suffer them to end up. into them. And he suffered them. The demons, since Christ commanded them to come out of a man, could not disobey that. They had to come out. The question is, where is he going to send them? What is he going to do with them? And they were fearful that he would cast him into the deep. We’ll get to that term in just a moment. Now, I’ll distance away on the mountain side. there was a flock, I shouldn’t say a flock, but a herd, really, of many swine feeding on the mountain side. Mark’s Gospel says there were about 2,000. It’s a large heart of swine. So the demons requested Christ permission to enter into the swine as a much better alternative than being cast into the deep. The deep here in verse 31 comes from a word abusos which refers in Romans 107 to the sea which seems bottomless it’s a quotation really there from Deuteronomy chapter 30 in verse 13 and the Septuagint the Greek Old Testament it uses this word in Genesis 1 2 when it says it talks about the face of the deep upon which the spirit of the Lord moved the face of the waters. It’s used in Job and Psalms to refer to the deepest parts of the sea. However, Abusos in the New Testament is used almost exclusively if you look the term out as the abyss. What Revelation calls repeatedly the bottomless pit. So this seems to be what the demons feared, that Christ would cast them into the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit was a place of confinement. A prison of some sort, which would keep the demons from roaming through the earth and occupying human beings and carrying on the way they pleased. They would be confined. from that, from time to time, according to God’s will and purpose, the door of the bottomless pit would be opened, and demons would be let out. We’ll look at that in Romans 9 in a moment. And they would be released to torment men upon the earth. So we see it’s a place of some type of confinement. Now look with me at 2 Peter Chapter 2 in verse 4. 2nd Peter 2 and verse 4. We read these words for if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. The angels of sinned, of course, were the angels that were caught up in the rebellion with Satan and were cast out of heaven. He didn’t spare them. God does not show mercy to the angels. He does not provide a way of salvation for them. He doesn’t provide a redeemer for them. There is no way then for their sins to be forgiven and for them to be reconciled with God. And he cast them down to hell, the Bible says. Now the word hell here in the King James Version is not the same word that is normally used for hell. That is the word Hades. It’s normally used. This word is Tartarus. It’s the only place in the Testament this word is used. In the Greek literature, it’s used for the underworld, where men suffer various torments. However, it seems that the word would be better translated as the bottomless pit or the abyss instead of hell. Revelation shows that the bottomless pit is different from hell. You read Revelation 20 very carefully, and you find that Satan is bound and he’s cast into the bottom’s pit. Then he’s released from the pit, goes out and deceives the world. And then, of course, when the Savior returned to the Lord Jesus Christ, he takes Satan and throws him into the lake of fire. Into hell, the Bible says. And so hell in the bottomless pit are different. Hell is a permanent place. You don’t get out of hell. Revelation 20, I quote. reveal some of these things. They’re in chains of darkness. Just like Satan was bound with a great chain and cast into the blood and spit, there’s some kind of chain here. Now, I’m not a literal chains, but some type of imprisonment, some type of confinement that would reduce their activity. They’re in darkness. And darkness here refers, I think, to the misery, and the whole of being in such a place. Waiting their permanent judgment, the day of judgment, they’re going to be cast into the lake of fire. So these demons here are pleading with Christ don’t cast us into the bottomless pit. I think that’s what they’re saying. So you find that they wish to avoid be cast into this abyss. We also see here that the demons wish to prejudice the people against Christ. In verses 32 and 33, they asked to be cast into the swine and not into the abyss. And what happens is the devil’s entered in the swine. The herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and they were choked. In verse 37, and the whole multitude of the country of the gathering, round about beside him to depart from them where they were taken with great fear and he went into the ship and returned back again. In this request, it seems that the demons had in mind to do mischief, to follow up on an evil purpose by immediately causing the herd of swine to run violently down the mountain side and go off a steep place and into the sea and drown, we find here that they planned to turn the gatherings here against Christ. The death of this large herd of swine would cause a great financial loss to the owners of the swine. The gatherings are angered by this and so they blame Christ because he’s the one that sent the demons out. of this man and into this wine. This seems to be ultimate purpose of these evil spirits. They have a bad purpose and that is to hinder the advancement of the kingdom of God. In the parable, the tears sown among the wheat, the kingdom of God is like a new field that’s sown with good seed. As Satan and his agents come along and they’re called Christ enemies, and they so tears. They are always trying to disrupt the kingdom of God. Disturb it. Cause trouble. Demas are notoriously wicked. They’re malicious toward human beings. They desire to do as much harm as they can, and they wish to keep people from the glorious light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Keep souls in spiritual darkness. Look at how Paul viewed Satan in his cohorts, in his opposition to the work. He says, Satan hindered us in 1st, Thessalonians 1A. He talks about Satan blinding the minds of them, which believe not in 2nd, 3rd, 4, 4. He talks about the thorn in his flesh as a messenger of Satan to buffet him, to hinder him, to hinder him in his work. So it’s clear that these demon had evil intentions in requesting to be sent into the swine by Jesus Christ. Let me make this observation. Since both of the demons’ purposes are evil, one, they want to avoid going into the abyss where they’re going to be confined, and two, they want to hinder the progress of the gospel. You would expect that Christ would say no to their request, wouldn’t you? Surprisingly, the Lord permits the devils and do exactly what they want to do. You might ask, why is Christ aiding the cause of evil? We enter into this whole area of God and evil. If Christ fully knows the evil that these demons are going to do, and he does, because he’s omniscient, isn’t he siding with the enemy here? Why is he doing this? Suppose there was a lifeguard that was stationed on a dangerous beach on the Atlantic Ocean. And he sees a young boy out there in the water in the breakers is soon going to be sucked out to sea by the strong undertow. And he knows full well that the powerful riftide will sweep him away beyond health. in very short order. And yet, this lifeguard simply sits on his high chair and watches he does not spring into action. He does not prevent the drowning. Now, we would say people would consider the lifeguard culpable, then, in this boy’s death. Jesus, as the sinless son of God, knowing what’s going to happen, we think he ought to thwart. that the demon’s plans here. But he doesn’t. And it’s puzzling to us. There’s a mysterious aspect of this relationship between God and evil. So you should consider here the purpose of the demons desiring to enter the swan. They don’t have a good purpose. They have an evil purpose. Secondly, you should consider the good purpose of Christ and and permitting the demons to enter into this one. You find to hear clear proof of the existence of evil spirits in this particular action. The largest and the most influential religious group or sect among the Jews were the Sadducees. And they had great influence on the land involving many of the people of the land. The Sagisians. were what we call the religious liberals of the day. They denied some of the fundamental doctrines that I think the scriptures clearly teach. For the Bible tells us in Acts 238, the Sadducees says there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit. They didn’t believe in devils. They did not believe in demons because they couldn’t see them. They were not believe in demons. invisible to the naked eyes. So therefore, as far as they were concerned, they didn’t exist. Now, if Jesus had commanded these demons to go into the bottomless pit and remain there, they would be hidden. They would not be seen. The Sadducees could continue holding their view and anybody else that followed that line of thinking would think, yeah, there are no evil spirits out there. But by sending these demons into this swine, they could visibly observe the effect that these evil spirits had on this hurt as swine. The unnatural response of them running violently off of the hill, the cliffside, and then drowning into the sea to be choked to death, would be noted. Something unusual happened here and it happened when Jesus cast out these demons. This would demonstrate the deniers, the multitude, the power, and the maliciousness of these evil spirits. Now, you could deny the existence of the wind because you can’t see the wind. It’s invisible. However, it would be absurd to deny that there is wind because you can see the effects of wind. When we have a hurricane or some type of terrible storm, and we see houses flattened and we see trees and knocked down and buildings blown down and so forth. We know there’s wind. It’s the same with demons. You can visibly observe their effect here on the herd of swine. So the good purpose of Christ, at least one of them is. In permitting the demons to enter into the swine was to convict people of the error who would say there is no demonic spirits. So you’ve clear proof of the existence of evil spirits, number one. Number two. You find the times called for demons to be free to dominate apostate Israel. Christ could have cast these demons into the prison of the abyss and completely curtailed their activities. But Jesus knew the times and the seasons relating to God’s ultimate purpose. Christ would not work at cross purposes with his father. He came to do the will of his father. And it’s clear that these demons were not to be confined and kept from this most deceptive work that they were engaged in. These demons were would be used to punish and torment the particular generation of Christ that would end up crucifying him. Now I want you to look with me at Matthew Chapter 12, if you would. Matthew Chapter 12, beginning with verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. And he answered and said unto them an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. Whereas Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And the men of Nineethetheth shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it because because they repented at the preaching of Noah, and behold, a greater than Noah is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in judgment with this generation, shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest and finding none, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return unto my house from whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then he goeth, then goeth he, and taketh with him, with himself, seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of the man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be under this wicked generation. Christ’s generation, he says, is a wicked and adulterous generation. adulterous here not so much in the sense of sexual sin, but in the sense of spiritual adultery, in a sense of worshipping unfaithfully, willing to worship the beast in his image. And this is the emperor here in his statue and so forth, as the book of Revelation indicated. Jesus upbrains them for not repenting of their sins and for rejecting the gospel that is preached under them, and he warns of a much greater demonic influence that will shortly come upon that generation in verses 43 through 45. Now, if you would, look with me at Revelation chapter 9. Let me read the first six verses here. And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall. from heaven upon the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit. And he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace. And the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. and there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth, and unto them was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power, and it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree, but only those men, which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should torment five months. And their torment was the torment of a scorpion when he strike in the man. And in those days shall men seek death and shall not find it, and shall desire to die, and death shall flee. from them. The terrifying unleashing here of the demons from the bottomless pit was for the purpose of tormenting those men who do not have the seal of God, those who were not believers among the Israelites. The context of this event is that Christ is opening the seven sealed book that was handed to him by the Israelites. his father in Revelation chapter 5 upon his ascension to heaven after his resurrection. This event mirrors the vision that was given to the prophet Ezekiel, which was a judgment against wayward Israel. In Ezekiel chapter 2, verse 3 through chapter 3, verse 9, we find this. There too is a book that’s written without and within. There too is a book that has lamentations, mornings, and woe against Israel. They’re both talking here about the same thing. So these judgments which come from the opening of this seven-sealed book relate to apostate Israel. And the great demonic plague of Revelation 9 falls upon apostate Israel of Christ’s generation. As Revelation 1 says, says Christ comes, he’s going to judge those who crucified, who pierced him. So under normal circumstances, Christ may have cast these demons into the great abyss, but he works in conjunction with God’s purpose and he doesn’t imprison the demons, and here’s a good reason why he doesn’t. The third thing I suggest to you from this text is this. You find a righteous punishment for keeping uncleanism. animals in opposition to God’s law. What was the purpose of raising this herd of swine? Since swine meat is forbidden for Jews to eat, according to Loveticus 117, why do these Israelites have a herd of 2,000 swine? Now it’s possible these Jews were eating swine meat. Isaiah 65 talks about that. It’s also possible they were raising them in order to sell them the Gentiles and make profit off them. But having swine was at least a temptation to eat them, and certainly selling them was really inconsistent with the spirit of the law of God. The Jews had their own regulations regarding swine. It’s interesting, John Gill and his commentary on Matthew says this, is forbidden to bring up a hog in order to get any profit by his skin or by his lard or fat to anoint with or to light lamps with, yea, though it may fall to him fall to him by inheritance. Don’t even keep them. Now, since these Gatterines appear to be Jews. There’s a strong reason to think that they were. Whenever Christ is dealing with Gentiles, we’re usually told that. And Jesus tells us he only goes to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. The Gatorians were a country that at this point was separate from Israel. But they used to be, it used to be Israeli territory. Joshua tells us that, and so does Nehemiaheimai. and their writings. It was once occupied by the half tribe of Manasseh. And for many years, that was the case. Presently, it’s ruled by Philip, the Tetriarch. It’s possible, at this point, it’s mixed with Jews and Gentiles, but just a short distance south and east of Betheda, so it’s not very far from the from Jewish territory. It’s just right across from the Sea of Galilee, right on the shoreline there. The behavior of the Gatorian Jews here was such that they were committing habitual sin by raising the swine. Now, you begin to see that maybe why this is Christ’s way of punishing them for raising these swine. And so he has them all kill off in this man. at a considerable loss to the owners, you can imagine. If the Jews raised the swine for food, it was a just punishment for violating of God’s law. If they raised these swine to sell to others to gain filthy lucre, so to speak, it certainly was a rebuke for a great and great contempt, I think, for the law of God. at least it was a violation of the spirit of the law. So you find here a righteous punishment then, and the killing off of these swine. Let me make this observation. Now you can understand, perhaps, the mystery surrounding God and evil. Isaiah 55-9 says, whereas the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways. higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. It’s puzzling at first to see that Christ here is granting the desire of the demons. But carefully notice that the demons had an evil purpose and what they wanted. Christ has a good purpose and what he’s doing. They wanted to avoid getting cast into the abyss and they wanted to handle the gospel of Christ. Jesus, however, had a good purpose. He wanted to provide clear proof of the existence of demons. He wanted to allow these demons to be free to strike apostate Israel. And he was justly punishing the Jews for raising swan in the first place. When we think about Job, we know that Satan had an evil. purpose in inflicting Job because he wanted to curse God, he wanted Job to curse God to his face. God’s purpose in permitting Satan to tempt Job was the show that his grace could sustain Job no matter what the devil did. That his grace was more powerful. Satan’s purposes to afflict Paul with a thorn in the flesh to his devil. To his Paul’s missionary work, but Christ’s purpose in permitting Paul to be struck with this thorn in the flesh was to keep him humble so that he would not be exalted about measure. God’s purpose for decreeing this evil event is clear. Look at Joseph’s Joseph’s brothers, selling him as a slave. to the Egyptians. To get rid of their brother. The dreamer. Get rid of them. What was God’s purpose? Was it a good purpose to save many people alive? But as for you, you thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it as it this day, to save much people alive. And so you now have here, I think, the unlocking of this thorny problem of God and evil. Christ has a good purpose in what he’s doing. The demons have an evil purpose in what they’re doing. It just so happens they coincide with one another. And therefore, Christ cannot be charged with compliance with evil. in permitting these demons to go into the swine. Christ will simply use this evil purpose of the demons to accomplish his higher and greater purpose, his good purpose, and thus he brings good high evil. And thus our text provides an important truth to ponder, which has implicated. For you and I, when evil comes into our life, because sometimes we only see the negative side of it. We only see the bad part. But we should also consider that God has a good purpose and what he permits and what he brings the past. And therefore, we should not immediately think that it’s all evil. There has to be good in it, or he would not have brought it to pass. For he only works for good. for us as his people. Let’s close with a word of prayer this morning.