In the sermon 'He Who Is in You Is Greater,' Jason Dohm explores the theme of spiritual conflict between the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, emphasizing the supremacy of Jesus Christ over demonic forces. The sermon references 1 John 4:4 to highlight that Christ's presence within believers is greater than the power of the devil. Dohm reflects on a biblical account from Matthew 8, where Jesus encounters demon-possessed men, showcasing His authority over demons and the kingdom of darkness. He warns against speculating on unknowns in the biblical text and instead focuses on the clear message of Jesus' power and redemption. The sermon traces the conflict back to Genesis 3, illustrating an ongoing battle between good and evil, and stresses the importance of seeking refuge in Christ, who alone can free individuals from spiritual bondage. Dohm discusses how the demons recognize Jesus' deity and authority, and how their acknowledgment serves as a testament to Jesus' divine power. The reaction of the townspeople, who fear and ask Jesus to leave, is contrasted with the transformed lives of the formerly possessed men, who become evangelists in gratitude for their deliverance. The sermon concludes with a call to understand the spiritual battle and to trust in Christ's power to overcome any adversary, reminding believers that their security lies in Him.

Let's pray. Father, how happy we are to be together. You have made us a glad people because of the mercies poured out on us through the work of Jesus Christ. We have nothing to offer you that you need. And yet you love people from the foundations of the world.

You shed your blood so that their sins could be paid for, that they could be paid for. They are from a race in rebellion to you. And you've added us. You've added those who have trusted in Christ, adopted us. Not even that we would be your servants, although certainly we were your servants, but that we would be sons and daughters in your house.

We praise you God. And we thank you for giving us your word, sharing your mind with us on so many things. How we need it so that our thoughts can be conformed. We pray, God, that you would use this time as a mighty instrument to conform us into the image of Christ and help us to understand things we don't understand. You would bless your people today in Jesus' name.

Amen. So the title of the sermon doesn't come from the text of the sermon. It actually comes from 1 John 4, at least a piece of 1 John 4.4. He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world. We have this amazing text, but this text is so much less about the fearful state of the men that we encounter in the text.

And It is so much more about the majestic state of Jesus Christ who is our Redeemer. So easy, it would be very easy for us to look at this text and say, oh my, what a dreadful thing it is for the power and dominion of the devil to be so in control of someone that they would be reduced to what we see in the text. And there is a sense that God has given us this text so that we would think this thought and know that it is a dreadful thing to be in the kingdom of darkness. But way beyond that, this text has been given to us so that we can see the majesty and glory of Jesus Christ. The output of our time together ought to be that we would bow down before God and praise Him that He is mightier than anything that we see in this text.

It's an absolutely fascinating, fascinating passage. And if we are not careful, we will just be given over to speculation about all the things that aren't in the text, because it just raises these questions. As we look at these men who are possessed by demons, it raises all sorts of questions. We want to know the answer to these questions, and the answers aren't in the text. And in some cases, I think the answers aren't in any text of the Bible.

It's just the information is not available to us in the Bible. Things that we want to know. And so I'm hoping that just by refusing to speculate on things that aren't there, we could just all stay focused on the things that are there, because they're so powerful, they're so beautiful, they're so helpful, that we ought to just give ourselves completely to the things that are clear in the text. What we have here before us is another installment of an age old conflict. And It starts all the way at the left cover of your Bible.

It is in Genesis 3 when man rebels against God, there is Satan. There is the serpent. Luring, ensnaring, trapping, harming, seeking to destroy. It happens over and over and over and over again through the course of the Bible. And here is another installment of that.

A very frightening installment, a very specific and detailed installment. But it all starts in Genesis 3 verses 14 and 15. So the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." We keep coming back to this text, and I promise you we're going to keep coming back to it. Keep coming back to it again and again. Because I'm so thoroughly convinced that if you don't understand what happened in Genesis 3 when men threw off the good government of God to have our own way, not God's own way, that you don't understand very much about life at all. What happened in the Garden of Genesis 3 is so profound and it explains so much of what we see in the world around us. And it explains this text today.

It is ongoing conflict that we find in Matthew 8. And this is just a very detailed installment of it. Jesus has been announcing since very early verses of Matthew that his kingdom is dawning. He repents for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. But the Kingdom of Heaven isn't the only kingdom.

There is another kingdom. There is a kingdom of light, the kingdom of heaven that Jesus is announcing, but there is also a kingdom of darkness. It is presided over by the devil and those that serve the devil. In Acts 26, Paul is on trial. He is before King Agrippa.

And he is talking to the charge that Jesus gave to him at the very beginning of his ministry. Here is what Paul says. And He is actually quoting Jesus. I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. This is exactly the language that Jesus is using when he talked to Paul.

There is a kingdom of darkness and a kingdom of light. And Jesus came so that those who are in bondage, Those who are in the kingdom of darkness can be set free, can be transported into another kingdom, a better kingdom where they are free, where they are set free from all the bondage and the things that has held them, and from this adversary that has desired to destroy them in every category of life. Matthew has already been using the same language throughout the course of the book. In chapter 4 verses 16, Matthew quotes Isaiah, the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light. I'm mixing my quotes.

I'm going back. Matthew 4 verse 16. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and upon those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned. So Matthew is already using this terminology. And he is not just talking about a dawning of the sunshine.

He is talking about conflict. The dawning of the light means that Jesus Christ is on hand to make war on the kingdom of the devil and to transfer people out of that kingdom where they are in bondage into the kingdom of light. It is not just a dawn, but Jesus is declaring war and saying that he has come, that he is dawning, that he is bringing light to a people who are sitting in darkness. In Chapter 2, Herod murders all these babies in the vicinity of Bethlehem. That is a satanic attack on the promised seed of God.

That's all that is. The attack of the devil trying to wipe out. It's nothing but Genesis 3 replayed again and again and again. It's a satanic attack. In chapter 4, the attack is much more direct.

Jesus is led out into the wilderness by the Spirit and it is nose to nose confrontation between the devil and Jesus. In verse 3 the devil says, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. In verse 6 the devil says, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple. And then in the third one he abandons that tactic of wondering out loud whether Jesus really is the Son of God and just tempts them. In chapter 4, when it is face to face, Jesus and the devil, it is all about the identity of Jesus Christ.

In our passage today, that is dispensed with. We are beyond that point. And the demons themselves acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. As grudgingly as they have to do it, they have to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God. In chapter 424, right as we were coming into the Sermon on the Mount, it says that they brought to him those who were deemed and possessed and he healed them.

In chapter 8, coming right out of the Sermon on the Mount, it says they brought to him many who were deemed and possessed and he cast out the spirits with a word." And so it's not as if we're coming on this text and it's unprecedented. It's absolutely unprecedented. Matthew has been talking about it for chapters now and it is a confrontation between two kingdoms. It's a clash between darkness and light. The devil is at war with the seed of the woman, the promised seed who has come to redeem the people.

So to the text, Verse 28, when he, Jesus, had come to the other side, to the country of the Girgussins, there met him two demon-possessed men coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no one could pass that way. In verse 18 we got the preview of why he is crossing. He has been dealing with multitudes and dealing with multitudes and dealing with multitudes and he is ready to extract himself from the multitudes to be with his disciples. Here is verse 18 of this chapter. And when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave a command to depart to the other side.

And so That launched us into last week's text, which was the crossing of the Sea of Galilee, this mighty storm that rises up, and Jesus with a word calms the waves and the wind. They arrive at the other side. The other side of the Sea of Galilee is predominantly Gentile territory. It's called the Decapolis. It's actually spoken of quite frequently in the Gospels.

We're on the other side, we're in gentile territory, and we can tell that because there's herds of swine over there. Now, was this Jews who were raising swine to sell to gentiles, or was this gentiles raising swine? We don't know, but we know that this is not classic Jewish territory. When you have thousands of pigs around you have crossed over into a very different kind of territory There are two great parallel accounts for this The first is in mark 5 the first 20 verses of that chapter of Mark 5. So you've got 21 verses there.

Our text for today is just seven verses. So Mark is three times as long as Matthew in this account. We've got lots more details and we'll be pulling those in. Luke's account is Luke 8, 26 through 39, and it's 14 verses. So Luke is twice as long, Mark is three times as long, And just like we're finding over and over with Matthew, he's more concise.

Matthew is boiling down these histories to just make very concise points. And we almost always find it this way, that the parallel accounts in the other places are longer and have more detail. So we'll just be continuing to pull in from Mark, Luke, and John as they offer us more detail. So two demon-possessed men come from the tombs to meet Jesus and his disciples. Mark and Luke in the parallel accounts only mention one, but Matthew records that it was two.

And of course, the two don't have to be in conflict at all. We speak this way all the time where we mention the most important things. So apparently, One of them was the dominant character here. And in Mark and Luke, Mark and Luke record about the spokesmen of these two demoniacs. And Matthew just dispenses, or excuse me, it's the other way around.

Matthew has the extra detail in this particular instance. So Mark says that it was as soon as they disembarked from the boat. It was immediately These two men are there with Jesus and the disciples. Here's what Luke says in his account. For it had often seized him, and he was kept under guard, bound with chains and shackles.

He broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into the wilderness. And so, so these had been part of society for as long as society could put up with them. And Society had tried to put their controls in place to control the situation that was happening here. They would bind them with chains and not even the chains could hold them. This is the Luke account, but it's the same in Mark's account.

Luke also says that the demons had had possession of these men for a long time, and they wore no clothes. So here's the image. Out from the tombs come these two crazed men, practically naked, maybe literally naked. And they've been possessed for a long time. They are completely unrestrainable.

And when society couldn't restrain them, the demons drove them out. And isn't it fitting that they would be found among the tombs? Found dead, robbed of everything, robbed of their clothes, robbed of their right minds, and living among the dead. Here's what Mark says. Here is what Mark says.

He said that, beginning in Mark 5, verse 3, who had his dwelling among the tombs. So This is where these demoniacs lived. They were dwelling among the tombs. And no one could bind him, not even with chains, because he had often been bound with shackles and chains. And the chains had been pulled apart by him, and the shackles broken in pieces.

Neither could anyone tame him. And always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying out and cutting himself with stones." Here they are. They are naked. They are crying out at night and they are cutting themselves with stones. Imagine what these men have been reduced to.

Here is what Matthew Henry says, It is an instance of the power of God over the devils that, notwithstanding the mischief they studied to do by and to these poor creatures, yet they could not keep them from meeting Jesus Christ, who ordered the matter so as to meet them. It was his overpowering hand that dragged these unclean spirits into his presence, which they dreaded more than anything else. His chains could hold them when the chains that men made for them could not." I hadn't even thought about that until I read Matthew Henry on this. Here are these men completely unrestrainable. They can't even be held with chains.

They obviously want nothing to do with the presence of Jesus Christ, but here they are meeting them immediately when they get off the boat. Why is that? Because Jesus has the power to bring them. They do his bidding, though they don't want to, though they despise the Son of God. They know who the Son of God is and they know that ultimately they must do as what he appoints them to do.

Matthew says that they were exceedingly fierce so that no one could pass that way. This is what the devil does to people. He spreads his malice. He hates all the image bearers of God. He cannot stand the image of God, which is why he is our adversary, which is why he is prowling around and wants to devour us.

Those that he has influence over find themselves the same way with malice towards their fellow man. Think of the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, and on and on. All these things that bring us together, allow us to live together in love, the devil does the exact opposite. So when the devil has full control of a man, you can't even pass by there.

You cannot even put your little toe on his territory, or you will be assailed by him. And this is exactly what we should expect to find from someone who is fully under the influence of the devil. The polar opposite of the fruits of the spirit. The fruits of the Spirit bring us together, they bind us together in love, they allow us to love, and they motivate us to love, and the devil does the exact opposite. So that these men, no one could even pass by that way without being assailed by these men.

Welcome to the unhindered service of the devil. Welcome to the unhindered service of the devil. We strive as the people of God to be filled with the Spirit of God. We are desiring that the indwelling Holy Spirit would come and make progress in us, aren't we? That he would come and do work so that we're brought to maturity.

So we're taken from all the foolishness that we came out of, all the foolish ways that we've thought in the past, all the foolish things that we've said in the past, all the foolish things that we've done in the past, we're finding ourselves being delivered from that little by little. And this is the exact opposite of that. This is not men who are simply harassed by the powers and principalities of darkness. They are not simply oppressed by the devil or attacked and harried by the devil, but they are actually possessed. It is a completely polar opposite of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that Christians have.

This is actually an indwelling of very unholy spirits to where they have complete control. In Matthew 16, we have this famous passage where Jesus says to Peter, get behind me Satan, when Peter suggests that he ought not to go to the cross. And Jesus says that you're not mindful of the things of God, but you're mindful of the things of man. And He identifies that as a work of the devil. We are talking about a completely different category here.

That was not Peter possessed by the devil. That was Peter influenced by the devil. Something had been whispered into his ear that he then said and he is rebuked for it. But these are men that are completely given over to Satan. Christians are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

Demons cannot go there. Demons are not possessed by the devil. In fact, when Jesus comes in contact with these demons, he sends them packing. And so it's not possible that those indwelt by the Holy Spirit would then be possessed by something that's so much less powerful than the Spirit of God. In Mark and Luke, there is actually another interchange that we don't get in Matthew, where Jesus asks, what is your name?

The spokes demon, I don't know what you call this, says, Legion, for we are many, and Legion is a thousand soldiers. So I don't know if that means there were exactly a thousand demons in there. We think there were, based on the account in Mark, there were 2000 pigs. They say, can we go into the pigs? So there were lots and lots and lots of demons in dwelling this man.

Our adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. If you have ever wondered what the end point looks like when someone is devoured by the devil, This is it. They are completely under the power of the devil. They are destroying themselves. They are not in their right mind.

They are walking around naked because they have been stripped of everything that would resemble the goodness and kindness of God. They have been completely debased. This speaks to the devil's malice against the image bearers of God. The devil hates us and all of his Servants hate us because they hate God. It is rooted in their hatred of God.

Anything that would bear the image of God will have their malice till the very end. Matthew 6, Jesus says, no one can serve two masters. No one can serve two masters. And then he proceeds to give us this picture of God as a master. And what picture does he paint of God?

He paints him as a father who is predisposed to do us as good. He paints him as a father who provides so faithfully day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out. He's a God who is kind and who provides. Well, here's the picture of the other master. Here's the alternative to a kind father who always provides.

It is a wicked father, a terrible father who will take away everything so that you are left with no clothes, so that you are left not in your right mind. So you will actually cry out and cut yourself in the watches of the night. This is what the devil desires to do to people because they bear the image of God. How can we read this text and not flee to Christ for refuge? Knowing that we have such an adversary, such a host of adversaries, a legion of adversaries, How can we not read this text and flee to the cross of Christ for refuge?

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. He who is in the world is great. We find out from this passage that if you are left to His pleasure, everything will be stripped away from you. You will be completely debased if you are abandoned to Him, if you are left to Him. He will overpower you and yet there is one greater still and we should flee to Him with all that we are.

Verse 29, And suddenly they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?" They want nothing to do with Jesus and yet here they are at His disposal. And they are freely acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God. In Mark 5 verse 6 it says, when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshiped him. He is actually talking about this declaration that Jesus is the Son of God.

Mark says that this man was actually brought, these demons were actually brought to Jesus and that they worshiped him through this declaration that he is the Son of God. This is exactly what James teaches. Even the demons believe and tremble. If you doubt that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Look at Matthew 8.

Look at this passage. Even the demons will be brought to bow and to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess. If you have ever thought that there ever can be a person who will not be brought to bow and to confess that Jesus is Lord, consider the legion. Consider the legion of demons who have been brought before Him against their own will, and yet here they are declaring Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

Though they assailed many who passed that way, no one could even pass by. They can't lay a finger on Jesus, though he's right there in front of them. Isn't this amazing? This is such a beautiful passage, and a terrifying passage, but the power of God is at the center of it. How many people, had they assailed, the text doesn't say it, it just says no one could pass that way.

People had probably stopped trying. Now if this is happening, if naked men are living in the tombs, crying out at night, cutting themselves. Everyone knows that the chains can't bind them. You know that everyone in the Decapolis knows about these men, about these tombs, about what happens there at night. And here comes Jesus and his disciples, and he enters where no one has entered maybe for a long time.

These men are used to assailing People who put their toes on their turf and yet they are quieted before Jesus Christ and left to just acknowledge that He is the Son of God. In verse 27, Just two verses before, just two verses ago, the disciples say, who can this be that even the winds and the waves obey him? And now, in what has to be some of the greatest irony in the Bible. Jesus brings the answer from demoniacs. He brings witnesses that he is the son of God from the most unlikely place.

The disciples have just seen a great demonstration. The winds quieted, the waves stilled, and they say, who Can this be who would do this? And Jesus brings forth his witnesses. And unwilling witnesses, and yet they are brought there by God. They have no other choice but to come and acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God.

And they say, have you come here to torment us before the time? The demons know the end of the story. That they have a time but there is a time limit. And at the end of that time that they will be tormented. In Matthew 25, the parable of the sheep and the goats, in verse 41 it says, then he, Jesus, will also say to those on the left hand, depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

These demons that are nose to nose with Jesus know that this is their appointed end. That there is an everlasting fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels. That's why they say, have you come here to torment us before the time? I got the notes from Men's Bible study on Tuesday morning. One of the comments was, this passage speaks to the hellishness of hell.

This passage speaks to the hellishness of hell. The demons themselves know that that will be a time of unending torment. Listen to Revelation 20 verse 10. The devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are, And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. Those who imagine hell as anything else, be warned.

Those who have imagined that it's just separation from God. And that's fine with them anyway because they never cared for God. And they never cared for Jesus Christ. So they're just as happy to be separated from Him. And they'll just be able to do whatever they want for eternity.

And it won't be that bad. In fact, they're kind of looking forward to it. Be warned. The demons themselves know that there is an everlasting lake of fire prepared for them and there will be torment day and night forever. Am I preaching hellfire and brimstone?

Yes, because Jesus preaches hellfire and brimstone. Jesus preaches a heaven that is more glorious than anything that we can imagine. And a hell that is more terrible than anything that we can imagine. And it must be one or the other. There will be no other places.

There will only be two at the end. A heaven with the lights that our minds can't even conceive, or a hell that will be everlasting torment day and night. This is the teaching of the Bible. No matter what any other preacher preaches, this is the God of the Bible, the heaven of the Bible, the hell of the Bible. And if the Bible is true, then this must be true.

And we will find ourselves at one of these places or the other. We should walk as wise. We should consider our latter end. Verses 30 through 32. Now a good way off from them there was a herd of many swine feeding.

So the demons begged him saying, If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of swine." And he said to them, go. So when they had come out, they went into the herd of swine. And Suddenly the whole herd of swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea and perished in the water." Again Mark records that this was about 2, 000 swine. That's a direct quote from the Mark passage. About 2, 000 swine.

This is not just a few pigs running around. It says that there are many. There are thousands of swine on this hillside. By the way, the John MacArthur Study Bible notes that there is a village across the Sea of Galilee from Capernaum. It's a little village.

It's complete with ancient tombs and it has a steep shoreline that runs right into the ocean. It fits this perfectly. It's probably exactly where Jesus was. We could probably go there and see these ancient tombs that these demoniacs came out of, complete with the steep shoreline. I would love to see that site, minus the demoniacs.

Minus the demonic acts. So the demons ask permission to enter the swine. Don't miss that. The demons ask permission to enter the swine. They're not even at liberty to move into pigs without the say-so of the Son of God, without the permission of Jesus Christ.

So here we have another sign that the Messiah is here. We have sicknesses that are healed and earlier in the chapter we find out Jesus doesn't have to be there. The sick person could just be in another place and he can just say it and they are healed. He doesn't have to touch them, he doesn't have to see them, he doesn't require their faith he can just say they are healed and they are in another location and they are healed. And he has the power over the wind and the waves and now we find that he has the power over darkness.

This is when demons begin to be ordered around like this, it means that the kingdom has come, that the Messiah is here. He's on the ground and he's making war on the works of the devil. So why the swine? A lot is made in the commentaries about uncleanness of animals. So I'm not sure.

I don't fully understand why the swine. God hasn't revealed it, at least not in this text, or either that, or I just don't get it. The Expositors Bible Commentary offers what I think are three reasonable options. So I'll just tell, I am gonna land on one of them, but I'll tell you all three. Expositor's Bible commentary offers these reasons why the demons may have pled to be sent into the herd of pigs.

Number one, desire for a bodily home. Number two, hatred of God's creatures. Number three, desire to stir up animosity against Jesus. And really, I think any of the three of these are plausible. For sure, demons desire a bodily home.

In Matthew 12 verse 43, a text that we'll come to in just a couple of weeks, Jesus says, When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. I'll read that again. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none." I'll read that again. When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places seeking rest and finds none. How come?

Why? Why is this a problem for demons? I don't know. The text doesn't tell us. But apparently demons like to have a host.

They like to have a bodily home. And so this was a way, if they were cast out of these men to have a bodily home. Second, hatred of God's creatures. Clearly, the devil is at war with the seed of the woman and vice versa. Possible desire to stir up animosity against Jesus.

That's what ends up happening. When the people hear what has happened, they come out and they don't want Jesus to be there anymore. So is it possible that the demons were stirring up trouble? It's possible, but even so, that would be under the providence of God. I tend to think that it's them wanting to have a host.

Is this the intended consequences of the demons? I mean, the herd rushing down into the water and immediately dying. Is that what the demons had in mind? I tend to think, I tend to think not. The commentators tend to think yes.

I tend to think no. The text doesn't say. My guess is that this tells us something about the torment of being indwelt by a power and principality of darkness. That it would make these men cry out and cut themselves at night when such an entity, when such a force enters into a farm animal, to me it looks like they lost their mind and they went and just plunged themselves into the sea. Because while a person is tormented at a terrible level, when the host is something else, they lose their mind and even become suicidal.

There was a link, There was a man in Washington state who just went walking down the street. This happened yesterday. Walking down the street, shooting at people. And the SWAT team showed up and killed them. So, I mean, that's suicidal behavior.

That is very similar to what we see here in this text. And that brings us to the next question. Where are they? I mean, let's just talk about the demons in this text. Where are those demons?

Are those thousand demons? Are those however many demons? Where are they? What happened to them after the pigs? Well the text doesn't say, but here's a passage I'd like for us to consider and it's from Acts 8, Acts 8, 5 through 8.

Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed, and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed, and there was great joy in that city." Here's an account. It's after the cross. It's after the resurrection.

It's after Pentecost. It's not an apostle. It's not a disciple. It's a deacon in the church. So I guess maybe the point of this is we are handing off demon possession to the deacons.

Jim and James and Jorge, you are now on duty on the authority of Acts 8, 5-8. But what that tells me is there is nothing that happened at the cross, at the resurrection, at Pentecost, or that was just confined to the ministry of the disciples and the apostles that would cause us to think that they are not still present today. What would the biblical case be for that? Here is this instance that looks very like what we have in Matthew 8, and yet there are still demons that are crying out, that are being cast out of people. I would conclude from that, they are here.

Those demons that were in those pigs are probably still in that region of the world making war against the works of God. And we've created a new vocabulary to deal with this in our society and it's bipolar and chemical imbalances and I'm not saying that there's no legitimacy to chemical imbalances, and that there's no such thing as bipolar. I'm just suggesting that we ought to be very careful not to presume that we know the relationships between different things, that we really have no authority to know. How are these things related? I don't know.

I just know that I don't know of a scriptural case to say, well, things are really different now. Things have really changed now. And I do know that if you listen to missionary stories out on the field that you hear of things that sound much more like classical demon possession according to Matthew 8, according to Acts 8 than what we hear around here. And I think maybe we put them behind closed doors, the ones that we can. And they may very well be in a sane asylum.

And they may very well be homeless people who go around and they walk around naked and they do just the things that we're seeing here. What we do know is this, bizarre things happen all the time. And often they have the fingerprints of the works of the devil. And so we shouldn't presume that none of that happens today. It's only happened in Bible times, but there's nothing to contend with now.

That's probably a very unsatisfying answer, because it doesn't unpack everything. I just don't know everything about it. I'm more educated than I was last week. And I hope I'll learn more and be able to teach more at another time. But for now, I think we're at least covering what's in the text.

Verses 33 and 34. Then those who kept them fled. The them is the pigs. Those who kept the swine fled. And they went away into the city and told everything, including what had happened to the demon possessed man.

And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus and when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart their region. I have not had an emotional response to that phrase until just now. These people would beg Jesus to depart from their region. Apart from their region. It's so sad.

In Mark and Luke, these people who come to Jesus, Mark and Luke both recorded almost exactly the same words. They find this famous man, this famous man who wouldn't even let people come onto his turf, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right mind. When was the last time these men were clothed? When was the last time these men were in their right mind? And yet, here they are, completely different.

In an instant, they've been set free. In an instant, having been plundered of everything, their right mind, their clothes, their health, living among the tombs, they are restored. They are clothed. They are in their right mind at the feet of Jesus. Oh, the mercy of God through Jesus Christ.

Oh, the mercy of God for these men. Oh, the power of God in Jesus Christ that he would just command a thousand demons to go, and they would go. Most commentators go straight to these people loving material things and preferring their pigs to Jesus Christ and the liberty that he offers. And I think they get it wrong. I think the commentators are wrong on this point.

When you look at the parallel passages in Mark and Luke, here's what Mark says in Mark 5.15, they were afraid. They don't have any framework to understand what has happened here. And as terrifying as the sight of these naked men who cut themselves were, the fact that Jesus would be able to undo all that in an instant and that this herd of pigs would all go down the slope and be killed, Made them afraid. Here's what Luke says in Luke 837. For they were seized with great fear.

I don't think it's that they were annoyed that they lost their assets. I think that the power of God showed up. The glory of God was displayed and it made them afraid. Isn't this what we see in the Bible when God shows up in a mighty way to display His glory? Here's Deuteronomy 5 verses 23 through 26.

The law of God has just been given. So it was when you heard the voice from the midst of the darkness while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes and your elders, and you said, Surely the Lord our God has shown us His glory and His greatness, and we have heard His voice from the midst of the fire. We have seen this day that God speaks with man, yet He still lives. Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us if we hear the voice of the Lord our God any more than we shall die.

For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking from the midst of the fire as we have and live. When the law of God was given, the people of God had this recognition that the glory of the Lord was on display and They were afraid that they would die. In Luke 5 we have an account of Peter. They've been fishing all night. They've caught nothing.

Jesus tells them where to cast out their net. They're overloaded with fish. And you would think Peter will be overjoyed at this. Well, here's the account. Luke 5, verses 8 and 9.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus's knees, saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, for he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish which they had taken." We should think rightly about what it was like to be there with Jesus when he was displaying his glory. And not think, oh, isn't this just a time of rejoicing? Well, it's a time of rejoicing for now, where we can just read the account. But his glory was on display.

What must it have been like to be in the presence of these naked demoniacs who had never been able to be restrained and then see Jesus? Overthrow it in an instant. It made them afraid. And They had nothing to hang it on, no context for it, and it made them just want to be rid of Jesus. One thing that we get in both Mark and Luke that we don't see at all in Matthew is the response of these demon possessed men.

Here is Mark 5, 18-20. And when he got into the boat, he who had been demon possessed begged him that he might be with him. However, Jesus did not permit him but said to him, Go home to your friends and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how he has had compassion on you. And he departed and began to proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him, and all marveled. So Jesus has been preaching the gospel in Galilee.

And in Galilee, it's this district, it's this region, and there's 200 towns and cities and probably 3 million people in that region. Well, if you look across the Sea of Galilee, The capital is about the size of Galilee. I don't know how many towns and cities they have, but on one side of the lake you have Jesus preaching and on the other side you have these demon possessed men who have been set free from the works of the devil. They are not being quiet. They are doing what Jesus had told them again.

It is this amazing picture of the grace of God being poured out. That resulting in such thankfulness in his heart. They begged Jesus that they could go with them. They wanted to be with Jesus. And they were willing to be bold evangelists because of the mercy that they had received.

Those who have been forgiven much love much. These men were born again. They were born again. They became evangelists for the Kingdom of Heaven. It's fearful to consider the state of these two men.

And When we look at the text, there are so many interesting things here. We learn so much about our spiritual adversaries. Here's what the Nelson Study Bible says. We learn several things about demons in this passage. Number one, they recognize the deity of Christ.

Number two, they are limited in their knowledge. They had to ask Jesus, why are you here? Are you here to torment us before the appointed time? They did not know the answer. Number three, They know they will ultimately be judged by Christ.

Number four, they cannot act without permission of a higher authority, Christ. So there are all these things to know about our spiritual adversaries in this text. But this passage is fundamentally about something different from that. It is true that it's fearful to consider the state of these men. It is true that we learn all sorts of things about the adversary in this text.

And the passage contains those things, but it's not about those things. Hebrews 2 tells us what this passage is about. Hebrews 2 verses 14 through 16. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same. That through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to bondage.

For indeed he does not give aid to angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham." Jesus has set us before us a case study of the worst possible case. If any sinner wonders, can I be set free? They should go to Matthew 8. And the answer is here in full display. Yes, sinner, you can be set free.

As bad as any sinner may be, as much has been taken away from them. As much as the sowing and reaping has taken place, so that you are all the way down to naked and living among the tombs and crying out at night and cutting yourself, Jesus is able in an instant to overthrow it all and destroy the works of the devil and bring the liberty of the gospel Praise the Lord. Let's pray. Oh Father you are mighty and you are so kind. I thank you that you have captured this account so that we might know it and know that though we do have an adversary that hates us, that desires to destroy us, it can take away so many things from us at your permission that you are able to overthrow all that in an instant and bring liberty and bring freedom in Jesus Christ.

We thank you. In His name, Amen. Thanks for watching!