Arabia Baptist Church
5.26.24 - Sunday Evening - "He Healed Them All" - Part Four
So I'd like to go to the book of Luke once again, chapter 8, and we had a few weeks ago talking about, where it said there was those that followed Jesus, says, and he healed them all. So we studied that and realized it wasn't the all-every-one. It says all that followed him. And then it's wonderful to ask that question who followed him. And you should always keep tracing. The honor and glory should never stop with us. So who followed him? Well, John 10 says, "My sheep hear my voice, I know, and they follow me." So his sheep follow him. Well, how did he get to be his sheep? The father gave them to him. So the honor and glory goes to the Lord. So all that the father gave to him the sheep, they will follow him and he will heal all of them. So we're studying on that and then we're studying about this man living among the tombs. And we talked about that. I'd like to talk about that again this morning that he healed. And as we look at this, this man living among the tombs, living among the dead, this is a picture of the Lord's sheep and the Lord bringing them out of that. This is not talking about the impartation of life because he was alive, but he was living among the dead. So there's many things in this and there's all more things and some things about the tension, about the position of this one. And so I'd like to look at this. So I say it's a picture of the Lord's sheep being called out. But let me say it this way. It's a picture view where you were that he called out and there's a different walk when we're called out. So there's a repentance, there's a change in the walk. So anyway, let's read this with this in mind that it's a picture of God calling you, God calling his sheep out of this and there is a different walk. There's healing as many, many things in it. So Luke chapter 8, and I'm going to read several verses here verses 26 through 40. I hope it's not boring. I think it's very interesting. And I want you to constantly look, well, how does this, yeah, I can see myself in this. Okay, 26. And they arrived at the country of the Gerosenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city, a certain man who had demons or devils for a long time and wore no clothes, neither bowed in any house but in the tomb. When he sold Jesus, he cried out and failed them before him. And with a loud voice said, "What have I do with thee, Jesus, thou son of God, most high? I beseech thee, torment me not." For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For often it had caught him and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters and he broke the bonds and was driven of demon or 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 besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep. And there was very heard of many swine feeding on the mountain. And they besought him that he would allow or suffer them to enter into them and he suffered them or permitted them. Then went the devils out of the man and entered into the swine and the herd ran vitally down the steep place into the lake and were choked. And they that fed them saw what was done, they fled and went and told in the city and in the country. Then they went out to see what was done and came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the demons or devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed. And in his right mind, and they were afraid. They also saw it, told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed. Then the whole multitude of the country of the gursines round about, besought him to depart from them, for they were taken with great fear and he went up into the boat and returned. Now the man out of whom the devils were departed, besought him that he might be with him. But Jesus sent him away saying, return to thine own house and show what great things God had done unto thee. And he went his way and published throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done unto him. And it came to pass that when Jesus was returned, the people gladly received him, for they were all waiting for him. So again, a wonderful example of the Lord calling one of his sheep out. And again, I hope you can see yourself in this. We could ask questions. Where would this man been if the Lord hadn't caught him out? Still been out there among the dead, bringing fruit unto death. So in verse, so let's go back and we'll try to glean a little bit from this and there's still so much more in this. 26 and they arrived at the country of the Gursines, which is of Saint Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city, a certain man who had devils for a long time and wore no clothing, neither boat in any house been in the tombs. So this man had devil or demons. And I'd like to demystify it just a little bit maybe. And again, I certainly there's more in here that I certainly don't see at this time. But that's for devils. What do we think it was like? I know in times past, you know, where I would think of it. But what is possessed with devils? What, you know, what was this? What was this like? What do you think? I'll be coming back to this, but if you have a page mark you might put it there. I'm going to go to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. As we think of demons and devils, again they have horns and a red suit and a tail that's with a barbed in on and a pitchfork in their hand. Is that the way we view demons? So here in verse 2 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse 13. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. Now there are not apostles of Christ, but they transform themselves. They appear that way. So these are false apostles. They don't appear that way too many, but that's what they are. Verse 14, "And no marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." So how is Satan viewed by most all an angel of light? Verse 15, "Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed into the ministers of righteousness, whose in shall be according to the works." So here's some that would appear as ministers of righteousness, but they're ministers of Satan. Demons, devils, if you will. So these false apostles, false witnesses, ministers of Satan, now they're going to appear as ministers of Christ. You can turn on your television by any time you want to and you can see them. They look like respectable people and so forth and on earthly planes they may very well be. But the message of Satan. I don't know what reason you get the message of Satan, but that's what it is. They appear as ministers of Christ. So it talks about them. So it said they're false apostles, deceitful workers. Chapter 10 of this second Corinthians, and let's go. We'll learn a little more about them back in verse 12. So these false apostles, deceitful workers, mess news of Satan, 10 and 12, for we dare not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some that command themselves. But they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves. So we don't want to keep company with them. Don't be unequally yoked with them. So they command themselves. Well, how do they command themselves? Certainly heard won't tell these this morning. I'll try not to go into it, but commanding himself. It says, but they, these false apostles, these ministers of Satan, yes, they command themselves. They'll tell you all about themselves, how good they are, how they took the first step, so forth and so on. But says they command themselves says, but they measure themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. So they command themselves. How do they, how would you commend yourself? Well, so and so, you know, all these good things about them, maybe. But as we look at it, these false apostles, ministers of Satan, command themselves, but how do they do that? What scale do they use to command themselves? They compare themselves among themselves. Well, I don't know. I'm not perfect, but I'll make it if he makes it. So is that, is that the way we look at it? That's the way we compare ourselves. Is that the way we see if we should commend ourselves or not? Verse 13, but we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule with God has stripped to us a measure to reach even to you. And I don't want to listen to not my lesson, but let me mention this. We don't compare ourselves among themselves. Well, I'm better than this one. I'm better than that one. So I guess I'm okay. I'll commend myself. But says we measure ourselves of the rule which God has stripped to us. So if we had yards thick or something, we can, we can measure. But this says the measure of the rule which God has distributed among us. What? What is God distributed among us? Is it a yardstick? Is it a 100 foot tape measure or 300 foot? What has he given a measure of the rule which God has distributed to us? It's his work. And we can spend a lot of time we won't. But what does this rule say about us? Heart is deceitful by all things, desperately wicked. From the top of the heads of the souls of the weak wounds, bruises, and putifying sores. All of our righteousness are filthy rags. That's what you compare yourself with. And then do you commend yourself? Oh, no, no. No, we don't commend ourselves then. We see ourselves. But this is what the false apostles, the ministers of Satan, which is a devil. And then in the 11th chapter there, well, we already read that and we'll go through it again. But anyway, so this, no, 11th chapter and verse three. So again, we're looking at those false apostles that appear to be apostles of Christ, but yet they are messengers of devil. So verse three and 11, "But I fear, lest by any means, as a serpent begowed Eve through his craftiness, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Simplicity is in Christ, and it is. People ask me, well, how do how do murders get to heaven? How would homosexuals get to heaven? How would babies get to heaven? How would this and to me just in places of Christ? If Christ died on the cross for the sins, they're being glory. If he didn't, they won't. That's the simplicity which is in Christ. Now, they want to separate you from that. You should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So they want to, in their ignorance, corrupt you from that. It's, Paul said, "I determined nothing to know anything among you." Say, "Jesus Christ and him crucified." That's the simplicity that is in Christ. But what does the world say? Well, you do this and you'll get saved. I heard recently someone who I got saved. Well, typically that's praying a certain prayer or believing or different things like that. But I remember I said something to some people one time. I couldn't have backed it up at that time. But I was in the eighth grade and it was on a Monday and it was after school was talking to some and they said, "Well, so-and-so got saved last night." And I said, "Well, that's wonderful." I said, "But first they got saved before the foundation of the world not last night." But David, I couldn't have backed it up with scripture at that time, but I've heard and believed at that time. So we don't want to be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Verse 4 says, "For he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached. If we preach another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, you might well bear with him." So they preach another Jesus. They preach a Jesus that's a cheerleader. He wants everybody to be saved. But is everybody going to be saved? Well, no. So then what? He's a failure. But these are the ones that are false apostles appear as ministers of Christ, but they are ministers of the devil, ministers of Satan. So in our text, this one had certain man who had demons or devils for a long time. And we'll read a little later this morning, if we get there, about this one, there was many. His name was Legion, for there was many. So this one says he was possessed with demons for a long time, and there's many of them. Again, I'd like to demystify that just a little bit. I knew a lady once, and I've known others since. It's been several years ago, and she was a shut in. She had this really, really bad arthritis. She just was a shut in. She couldn't do anything except watch television. And her watching television consisted of all these religious channels, or what is many then. But she believed what every one of them was saying. So when one said, Jesus once everybody saved, she believed it. When they would say it's, you get to have them by your accepting by your taking the first step. So one, Mr. Satan would say, Jesus once everybody saved. Another, Mr. Satan, I would say, well, you're a free, more agent. It's up to you to get to have them. Another might say, well, you take the first step. Another message to Satan might say, well, you keep the mosaic law. Then another might say, well, we know you can't keep the law, but if you do the best you can, all these demons, ministers of Satan on television, radio, different tracks that you pick up. So this man had demons for a long time. I had demons. I didn't understand. Certainly from hearing mess news of Satan, possess those demons. But again, this is a picture of the Lord's sheep. This is a picture of you, and the Lord casting the demons out. Now, it can be instantaneous. It can be a process. So some of those demons want to hang on. Well, I still think you got to do the best you can do. So there are demons still want to hang on. Or the one man that I really think back and how precious our fellowship was, he said, you know, you'd like to think we have something to do with it. There's a demon still clicking there, still possessed with the demon. So this man was possessed with many demons. And then it says, "And wore no clothes." So we talked about that over the last time, but I'd like to talk about a little more. He wore no clothes, had no covering. What is our covering? What is our garment? It's the blood of Jesus Christ. But this man didn't have that, not this time. Had no covering, had no raiment. You remember we talked about the parable, the good Samaritan, the man, and the thieves. And they took his garments, didn't talk about taking his goldwater, silver, and shoes. They took his garments. And that's what the religious world would do. Jesus Christ and his simplicity is in Christ. And the thieves will steal that away. They don't understand, but that's exactly what they're doing. You're going to get to heaven on the basis of what you do. They're taking away the covering of Jesus Christ. And he said, "Blood, there's no importance on it." Job said, "If I wash myself with snow and make my hands never so clean, yet thou shall plunge me into this, and my own clothes shall pour me." Well, why is that in there? "My own clothes shall pour me." Why is that thrown in that mixture there? Okay. Of course, Job understood, but he's teaching us of there. "If I wash myself with snow, if I wash my hands, make them never so clean, if I do these things," said, "then my own clothes would pour me." Garment, covering. If it's something I think that I do, then see, that's my covering, and that will pour me. Isaiah 64, we're all an unclean thing, and all of our righteousness are as filthy rags. We need to understand that's our covering. All of our righteousness are filthy rags. So that is no covering. That doesn't cover us. There's no covering for our sin. And we'll talk maybe a little more about that a little later if Lord wills, and we get that far. But so our righteousness, that's no covering. The best we can do, that's no covering. We have one covering. And as we talked about before, we're under the law of Moses, they were not to wear a garment mixed, blended with different materials. Jesus Christ is our covering, and don't mix it with anything. Your righteousness, you're taking the first step. "If I wash myself," that's the mixed garment. Okay, so let's try to move in just a little bit farther here, maybe. Verse 29, and we'll probably maybe talk a little more about clothing and nakedness a little later as we get down in there, because we see him later with clothing, with garments. So in verse 27, it says, "Neither boat in any house," we'll see later he sends him back to his house, but this time wasn't a boat in any house, but said, "But in tune," he was living, but he's living among the dead. He wasn't dead. He had a demon, which the Lord's going to cast out, but he was living among the dead. Do you think there's any fruit unto God there? No fruit unto God there. Something had read for a long time. Proverbs 21, I'm just going to read one verse there, Proverbs 21, and I think it was verse 16, "The man that wondereth out of the way," now what's the way? Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the way, but Proverbs 21, 16, the man that wondereth out of the way of understanding shall remain in the congregation of the dead. So if we wonder out of the way, out of the simplicity of Christ and start looking at other things, we're bringing forth fruit unto dead. So this one here, he wasn't dead, wasn't bringing forth fruit unto God, but he wasn't dead, but he was living among the dead. Let me maybe I'll get ahead of myself. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 5. As I said, this is a picture of the Lord's sheep, this is a picture of you who were alive but yet living among the dead. And this is a beautiful picture of this, and I'm getting ahead of myself by reading this, I want to break the point out now so I won't forget. Ephesians chapter 5, and well, go back to verse 6, "Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things come with the wrath of God upon the signs of disobedience. Be not ye therefore protectors with them. Don't be uniggly yoked with those that has these vain words. For you were once darkness, you were once out there living among the dead without light, you were once darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Walkers showed me the light, no longer walk in that being corrupted from that simplicity is in Christ that you be deceived from that. Walkers' children of the light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Those who would say, "It's up to you to get yourself saved." Now, it's not saying that we don't try to witness to them, it's not saying that, but don't be partakers of that, don't eat that food, don't swallow that food. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. Now, this man in our text, darkness among the dead, living among the tombs. Unfruitful works of darkness, we've read in Romans chapter 6 and 7, that they wasn't bringing forth fruit unto God, but fruit unto death. It says, "What fruit had you then, those things which are now saved?" But it talks about the difference between bringing fruit unto God and fruit unto death. But now it says, "Don't have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." And later, this man will not go get this morning, but he certainly did reprove it later. For it is a shame. Even to speak of those things, which are done to them in secret or in darkness. Boy, it really is. They'll tell you things again, like Jesus wants everybody to be saved. Then that's a shame because they're making him a failure. I mean, what a shame. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light for whatever death make manifest is light. Now in verse 14, 15 is what I wanted to get to. Wherefore he says, "Awake thou the sleepest and a rise from the dead." And Christ shall give thee light. So the one or less, and that's exactly what he's doing. He's living among the dead. Christ is going to be calling him out of that. And we see it right before our eyes, the different layers and levels of which he calls him out of that. And the before and the after, the fruit into death and then the fruit into life. He says, "The wake thou the sleepest wasn't dead, but no fruit is asleep." Living among the dead. It says, "Arise from the dead." And that's exactly what he did, this man living among the tombs. And in verse 15, see then that you walk circumspectively, not as fools, but as wise. There's a different walk. I know the world, they look at a different walk. Well, you don't catch any more. You don't smoke any more. You don't steal any more. You don't, what if he didn't do that, start with? Like Saul Tarsus. Did he repent? Yes, he repented, but not from all that stuff, because he said, touching righteous with his in law was blameless. But there is a different walk. Getting ahead, but in our text, well, we read the whole thing. Was there a different walk in this man's life? Yes, there's a different walk. Was he bringing forth fruit in the God at the end? Yes, bringing forth fruit in the God. Absolutely. In fact, it's wonderful what we see there. So this one was living among the dead, living among the tombs. And no fruit in the God. And I'm not going to get as far as I wanted on this. So we see him in this condition. And let me read those first couple verses again. And they arrived at the country of the Gursines, which is the Obsonate Galilee. And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city, a certain man who had devils for a long time. Devil's plural, as I look at today. And wore no clothing. Neither bowed in any house, but in the tomb among the dead. And we're not, we're going to stop there. But let me, let me just go ahead and read the after verse 35. We see the difference. Then they went out to see what was done and came to Jesus and found the man out of whom the demons were departed. Now he's sitting. And brother David mentioned that last Sunday. We had really good fellowship last Sunday. But he was sitting, he was resting. That word's not put in there just to feel space. Sitting at the feet of Jesus, place of worship. Now he's clothed. Do you think it's mixed garments? Oh no, no. In these right mind. And they were afraid. So that's kind of the before and after. And I think we may just bring it up again tonight. So we see this one again. I hope you can see, maybe you'll read this today. We'll try to look at it again tonight. I hope you can see this is a picture of you. Where you were and where the Lord has brought you. May the Lord bless the speaking of his word. We're dismissed. Very strong. [BLANK_AUDIO]