The Defeat Of Darkness And Sin

I was gone this last week to Prattville, Alabama to the last NANC conference. Now some of you, I say NANC, some of you here don't know what I'm talking about, but if you've been here for any number of years you know that I'm talking about the counseling organization that has had a profound influence on the ministry of this church. They changed the name this meeting. to Association of Certified...

I like the other name, but that's what they did, or that's what we did. And so now I've got to get a whole bunch of different shirts, I guess. I've got so many of those Nank shirts. But I thought I'd let you know that I was gone this last week. It looks like my arm is gone. It's because my wife is gone.

And she went to Iowa on Tuesday because of a baby on the way and take care of her mom. And the baby hasn't showed up. And so the countdown doesn't start till the baby comes. So when the baby comes, I got a week left before I see her. So if the next two weeks I seem kind of lost, you'll know why. I was with a friend, shared our room this week.

And he said, Steve Cox, some of you know Steve. He and I shared a room this week and he said, well, I know I'm going to die before Karen. I said, how do you know that? Just because God says he won't give us more than we can handle. Oh, my. Take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter eight.

Matthew chapter eight. We've been looking over this summer and in the next week or two, finishing up the gifts of the gospel. Oftentimes we think of the gospel as only giving us a ticket to heaven. And yet, as we've seen through this whole summer, as we've looked at the word of God, the gospel gives so much more than that. It's much more than just a pass to paradise.

The gospel has given us so many, many, many things that we did not have before we believed. And And again, today we want to see the gospel of Jesus and what has been accomplished by Jesus and what the gospel brings us. And before we do that let just pray and ask God to guide our thinking Father we are here today because we love you and we have been moved by your grace Your spirit has transformed our hearts so that we love to worship you.

We were once a people who were in darkness. We were once a people who had nothing to do with you, but by your marvelous sovereign grace, the light shone in our hearts and we saw the knowledge of God in the face of Christ. You built us into a temple where we sing your praises. Father, we just pray that you would open our ears and our hearts today to the wonders and the glories of Jesus and what he has accomplished for us and the good news that that brings us in the gospel.

Thank you for your word. Open our hearts today as we open your word in Jesus' name. Amen. Imagine two men living north of Leroux, just up the road. In fact, imagine them living in the cemetery. They are crazy, insane men, extraordinarily violent, and who attack anybody who walks by.

And one day you get the news that they've changed, and rushing to the cemetery, you find them calm and peaceful and talking intelligently, sitting with this man, this Jesus, who has evidently delivered them from their maniacal behavior. But it has been achieved at a great economic cost to the village. Suppose as well that you had a paralyzed friend and you find out that Jesus is in town and you get a few of your friends together and you carry him to Jesus.

And when after a lot of work he lays before Jesus, you hear Jesus pronounce that all of his sins are forgiven. And they are forgiven at no cost at all. Those are the two accounts that are before us in our text this morning. I want you to look with me at Matthew 8, verses 28 through 9, verse 8. These two, I believe, are intended to be grouped together. They are to be seen together.

That's why we're not stopping at the chapter division. because these two are a pair that tell us something about Jesus. What we find here is what Jesus has accomplished and what we have in the gospel because of his work. Matthew 8, verse 28. And when he came to the other side to the country of the Gadarenes two demon men met him coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one could pass that way And behold they cried out What have you to do with us O son of God Have you come here to torment us before the time?

Now a herd of many pigs was feeding at some distance from them. And the demons begged him, saying, If you cast us out, send us away into the herd of pigs. And he said to them, Go. so they came out and went into the pigs and behold the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the waters the herdsmen fled and going into the city they told everything especially what had happened to the demon possessed men and behold all the city came out to meet Jesus and when they saw him they begged him to leave their region and getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city and let it take heart my son your sins are forgiven and behold some of the scribes said to themselves this man is blaspheming but Jesus knowing their thoughts said why do you think evil in your hearts for which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise and walk but that you may know that the son of man has authority he then said to the paralytic rise pick up your bed and go home and he rose and went home and the crowd crowd saw it they were afraid and they glorified God who had given such authority to men here we find these two miracles in fact they're the last of a series of 10 and in these accounts you see Jesus authority over first of all the spiritual forces of darkness and his authority over sin that's the gift of the gospel to us we have a savior who has authority over the spiritual forces of darkness and who has authority over sin now you know what i love about these narratives i could say those things and explain it these stories tell us that they make it come alive for us we don't just abstractly say Jesus has authority over the spiritual forces of darkness you can see it and over sin you can see it well you see here that that Jesus has crossed the sea of Galilee and lands in the distance predominantly Gentile territory now there a herd of pigs here that would be inconceivable where the Jewish people were in the majority And he not come to minister but to get away from the press and throngs of the people.

And yet there is no rest as long as the forces of darkness oppose him. He comes to a village where there are two demon-possessed men. They live out in the hillside where the cemetery is, where there are small chambers carved into the rocky hillside. At least while they're there, they find shelter and protection from the weather in those places, those tombs.

But they are extraordinarily violent, so much so that you dare not walk by the cemetery for fear that these two guys would come screaming out of the tombs and beat the living daylights out of you. And so you take the long way around the cemetery. You don't go by the cemetery. Now Jesus comes by the cemetery and out they come, hollering, screaming, ready to do violence, and they stop, but they're still screaming.

What do you want with us, Son of God? Have you come here now to torture us before the appointed day? Now it's interesting. The demons know that this man is the Son of God. They already recognize that he is the Son of God. They recognize his deity, even if most people do not.

The demons know that he's the Son of God. And they also know that a day of judgment is yet coming. And that this, and they already know that this is the very person who will judge them. What is he doing now? The king has appeared. He's on the earth.

Why is he here now? It's not the appointed time. They say to him, if you're intent on driving us out, let us go into that herd of pigs. It's over there on the other hillside. Now, don't ask me why they wanted to go into some pigs. I have no idea.

And I think anybody who tries to tell me they have an idea, they probably don't know what they're talking about. I don't know that anybody knows why they would want to go in pigs. There's all kinds of spec... It's amazing to me how what the Bible says the least about, we speculate the most about. Do demons have to be embodied in something? I don't know.

I mean, they killed the pigs right away. What good does that do? I have no idea. The point is, Jesus delivered them. Now watch the power and authority of Jesus. He says what?

What Does he come before them, make the sign of the cross, and go into all kinds of incantations? What does he say? Go. That's it. One word. Go.

And they're gone. Isn't that amazing? He merely says it. There's no shouting. There's no screaming. There is no exorcism going on.

He just says, go. And they're off. And they're gone. now the swineherds are taking care of the pigs head for town with the news the whole town comes out to meet jesus at this point but they do not come rejoicing they do not come to worship the son of god they come to plead with him to leave they want him to leave what the demons recognize these folks would rather ignore.

Now what's going on here? It's clear that Jesus possesses power over the forces of darkness. He proves his authority over all these demonic hosts. The power over the forces of evil find its greatest expression, though, at the cross. Turn over to the Gospel of John very quickly. The Gospel of John.

Jesus can do this because of what is yet coming. The Gospel of John, chapter 12, verse 27. This is Jesus talking to his disciples. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.

But for this purpose, I've come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said an angel has spoken to him.

Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die. Now what do we see here We see that God is glorified and the death of Jesus because at the cross all the forces of evil are defeated Isn't that fascinating?

That at that point where the forces of evil think that they have defeated the Son of God, at that very point is the point of their defeat. listen Jesus at a time not too distant from this would also inhabit a tomb like these men Jesus at a time not too distant from this also would be an outcast like these men inhabiting the experience of these men would be the means of their deliverance this Jesus must also go into a tomb. This Jesus must also be an outcast in order to deliver them from what they were experiencing. Now here's a question.

How is that power expressed today? How is that power expressed today? That power is expressed today by preaching the cross, not exorcism. we don't need to call a local priest who has been well-versed in exorcism. Have you noticed all the movies about that? There's one that came out, The Exorcism of Emily Somebody, recently came out. I guess it was supposed to be a great movie.

I haven't seen it. But it's interesting that we get sucked into that. We don't need to worry about exorcisms. You know what we need to do? You need to preach the cross. Look at 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18.

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. It is the power of God. Romans 1, verse 16. I am not ashamed of the gospel. Now listen, Paul is not saying in this verse that I'm not ashamed of the gospel. I'm going to witness to everybody.

That's not what he's saying there. In Romans 1.16, he says this, I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes He saying I have nothing to be ashamed of The gospel accomplishes phenomenal things because it is the power of God Do you know that in the New Testament that the power of God is always equated with the cross It is the power of God. John MacArthur, a pastor in California, rather famous pastor, has written several books, talks about one time early in his ministry when someone came into his office who appeared to be demon possessed.

And so he tried to do this kind of exorcism thing and things got really hairy. If I remember the story right, the guy was starting to pick up the desk or something. And at that point, MacArthur said, no, no. What he did then was that he spoke to him as a sinner who needed Christ. And he calmed down and he listened. The cross and the gospel that proclaims the cross is the power of God.

God has not called us to replicate the ministry of Jesus he's not called us to do the things that Jesus has done in that way I mean if you did you can tell your company don't worry about withholding my taxes I'll just go fishing right isn't that what Peter did in order to get his taxes Jesus said go fishing he pulled the fish out and in the mouth of that fish was the coin that he needed to pay the taxes well if we want to replicate what Jesus does then let's not worry about taxes Let's just go fishing. Do we take offerings from a benevolent fund? Or do we miraculously multiply bread?

You know, that's the question is to answer it, isn't it? Jesus hasn't called us to replicate what he did in the same way. We replicate what Jesus did by preaching the message of what Jesus accomplished. That is the power of God. Jesus defeated the forces of darkness decisively at the cross. And that great power to deliver people from Satan comes from the gospel.

And calling those, God calls those people through our proclamation of the gospel. You know what, that ought to give you confidence. That ought to give you confidence as a believer. As believers. because Satan and his forces have no power over you. He has no power over you. None.

The only power that Satan has over you is one of deception. That's it. To fool you And even that we told we can withstand that as well Do you remember Martin Luther's word in A Mighty Fortress? And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him.

His rage we can endure for low His doom is sure One little word shall fell him That is the word of the gospel This should give us confidence as heralds of the gospel You don't need classes in exorcism You just need the gospel You just need the gospel but notice as well something interesting here in verse 34 notice the power of money over people have the son of god stay they would not have freedom from evil that comes with the son why not because there was an economic cost to them many people would rather have prosperity than reconciliation with God. Many people would rather live in luxury and end up in eternity in hell. Many people would rather have their stuff than know the joy of the living Jesus Christ.

Rather than peace with God, many want prosperity. To me, this is astounding. The power of money is greater than the power of demons. Do you get it? We are so afraid. We read news stories about some crazy group that's slicing and dicing up animals, and we find the remnants and we go, who are these crazy people?

We're scared to death of them. you should be more afraid of money than of demons. This is a wake-up call. Look for it. Instead of looking for great manifestation of Satan's power in... Bizarre and violent people look for it in the greed that grips people's hearts. Here he marvelously delivered these people from these madmen who had assaulted them for years.

And they would rather have their money. Wow! Listen, only Christ has the power to save you from Satan's grasp. You can't do it yourself. You may not be running around in cemeteries half-clothed and beating people up, but you're still in Satan's grip if you don't belong to Jesus. In 1 John 5, verses 18 and 19, we know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God, referring to Jesus, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Jesus is the only one who can rescue you from darkness. And trust yourself to him. You know, Satan has deceived most people into thinking that rather than being in bondage, they are really free. and that's the worst kind of bondage, is it not? To think that you are free when you are bound.

Only Jesus has the power of the spiritual forces of darkness, and you see his authority here. Well, now Jesus goes back across the lake, and he goes back to his own town, and that town would be Capernaum. Jesus spent his adult life. That was, if you will, his base of operations. It appears from the gospel stories that he moved there as an adult and began to live in Capernaum.

And that's where he goes. It's his hometown. Of course, the crowds gather again. Now, some friends get together and bring to him their paralyzed friend. now Matthew doesn tell us all the details and I hesitate to add them because Matthew left them out for a reason but this is the paralytic whose four friends ripped up the ceiling above the house and lowered him down in front of jesus okay this is the same these are the same guys and all this energy all that energy and Bringing a friend to Jesus is an expression of faith.

On their part, on the part of the paralytic. He knows that Jesus is the answer. What you see in these miraculous healings are people who are saying and thinking this. I've got nowhere else to go. Jesus is my only hope. I am putting everything on him.

Right? It's a whole hearted thing. It is not, well, let's see what Jesus can do. It is someone who's saying, he is my only hope. There is nowhere else to go. And then Jesus says something absolutely astounding.

Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven. Why? That implies that there are two problems. sin and sickness and that sin is the most basic problem now those around no doubt thought that this man was sick because god was punishing him the pharisees often attributed someone's suffering to his own sickness in fact in john chapter 9 you remember jesus and the disciples were walking along they met a blind man And the disciples said to Jesus, Jesus, who sinned, this man or his parents?

It was a common way of thinking. People still think that way, don't they? Since the day of Job, people think that. Why are you sick? I must have done something wrong. Right?

But then what we have to realize is all sickness is the result of sin. All sickness is the result of sin. The curse of sin. You may not have sinned. There may not be a one-to-one correspondence between a sin and this sickness, but we do know this. Sickness is a universal declaration that God has cursed this world because of sin.

Look at this congregation. I probably visited all of you in the hospital at one time or another Some aren here because of sickness or some kind of structural problem That's because of sin. It's a universal declaration of sin's universal destructiveness. Now some of the teachers of the law, they start murmuring to one another, did you hear what he said?

He just forgave his sins. He can't forgive sins. This guy is a blasphemer. because only God can forgive sins. Because don't the scriptures say, for example, in Isaiah 43, I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake. And I will not remember your sins. That's God talking.

And if Jesus could forgive, he'd done it freely. The man simply believed. he didn't do anything to earn it like they had you can't you can't just forgive sins like that just willy-nilly you just can't do that what has this guy done he's only believed that the man and Jesus responds because he detects their evil thoughts and so he says well what's easier to forgive sins or to heal somebody so he says get up go home and the man jumps up off his mat rolls it up and off he goes probably waits for his friends to get off the roof and they go home the crowd was afraid but their fear brought praise they did not see jesus though as the god man but we do we see in this emmanuel the reign of God amongst us. Now, why did Matthew record this for you?

So that you would know that the forgiveness of your sins can only come through Christ, who is the one who mediates God's forgiveness. There's the story. Now we could put it up here. God, Christ, forgiveness through Jesus, draw the chart, do the whole thing. But here it is in living color. God is the only one who can forgive sins.

What does that say about Jesus? He's the only one that mediates the forgiveness of God to his people. What is sin What is sin Well I just wait I just wait and say okay somebody find for me a definition for sin in the Bible We talk so much about it but do you know your Bible well enough to know where to find it Okay, let's look at 1 John, okay? He's saying, Pastor, this is like school.

I don't like it. 1 John chapter 3. verse 4 everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness sin is lawlessness it is sin is operating without the law of god whatever god says whatever god says you should do and you don't do that's a sin whatever god says you shouldn't do and you do that is sin Look back at Leviticus for a moment. Leviticus chapter 26.

Verse 27. but if in spite of this you will not listen to me in spite of his chastisement for their disobedience but in spite of this but if in spite of this you will not listen to me but walk contrary to me then I will walk contrary to you in fury and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins you shall eat the flesh of your sons and you shall eat the flesh of your daughters and I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols and my soul will abhor you and I will lay your cities waste and will make your sanctuaries desolate and I will not smell your pleasing aromas and I myself will devastate the lands that your enemies who settle in it shall be appalled at it and I will scatter you among the nations, and I will unsheathe the sword after you, and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste. That's God's attitude towards sin. Now we may think that's horrible, and that's awful.

That's what the law demanded. That's the covenant they entered into. But you know what? That's only a picture. That's only a shadow of what it means. sin against God. For if you look at Revelation chapter 20, you read these words, Then I saw a great white throne, and him who was seated on it, from his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead and who were in it death and hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done then death and hades were thrown into the lake of fire this is the second death the lake of fire if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire now again we've talked about this i don't know if that lake of fire is literal or not but it does communicate it's a place of horrendous torment and i would say if it's not fire it's something worse that is the ultimate penalty we incur we incur the debt of punishment that God must exact if he's going to remain righteous.

God cannot wink at sin. I think I mentioned this last week. One of our translators in Albania was Lenzi. Lenzi was a Muslim, or used to be a Muslim. In fact, he was sold out to Islam. He was an imam when he was only like 16 years old.

He was known as one of their best preachers. Here's what moved him away from Islam. he said Allah requires perfection absolute perfection but I know that when I prayed my five times a day my mind would wander in my prayers and I thought I was doomed but Islam also teaches that sometimes God puts your sins behind his back and he said I couldn get over that God Allah then wasn holy He was preferential. Some people, he put their sins behind their back.

Others, he would not. So he wasn't holy. He was treating some people with favoritism. And he couldn't get over that. now you see our god cannot overlook sin if he did all right if he did overlook sin with only some people what what would that say about him what would you say about a judge who said well you're guilty of murder and you're guilty of murder but i like you we'll get you out on parole you electric chair what would you think of that kind of judge Right?

And yet, we look at God and say, Oh no, there's a lot worse people than me, so God will be okay with me. Right? What does that say about this unerringly holy and righteous God? He cannot overlook your sin. We have all incurred this incredible debt. Right?

We've incurred this incredible debt. I think it was Greg Field, who when he was preaching here one time said, If you only gave me a penny for every time I sinned and thought word or deed, there's no bank in the world that could hold all that money. And that's what I owe God. We incur this debt. He must punish us. What's the answer?

It has to be canceled. Somehow it must be remitted. And that's what Jesus does. Colossians chapter 2. this is my favorite forgiveness passage Colossians chapter 2 verse 13 and you who are dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh God made alive together with him having forgiven us all our trespasses how can he forgive us all our trespasses if we've incurred this debt and he must because of his holiness and righteousness punish how can he remit that debt Read on By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands There is this rift that says you owe God and he can cancel it unless this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Jesus paid that debt. And that's why God can forgive you and not be preferential. Do you know what? You see this paralytic man? Jesus had to become just like him. He had to become weak so that he was nailed to a cross and carried away.

So that he could forgive this man's sin and your sin as well. He paid the penalty that God demanded and so he can freely forgive when you ask in faith because he has paid the debt. That is why God can forgive and still remain righteous and holy. because of Jesus because of Jesus you're forgiven you can take heart you can be courageous because there's nothing more to be afraid of see Jesus doesn't merely heal diseases he does something better he forgives sin he forgives sin What are the gifts of the gospel here?

Just this. Satan's power has been destroyed. Every one of us at one time or another, or may still be, in the darkness of Satan's prison. And that is where you remain unless Jesus rescues you. You cannot escape. look to him in faith believing he can rescue you and he will set you free Jesus has the authority to forgive do not think that on that day God just going to wink at your sin he not he will not he cannot but there is no sin on the record books If you trusted in Jesus and it all blotted out That whole, it's not even going to be at the judgment day because that writ of indebtedness was nailed to the cross.

You see? so listen believers you're not a captive you're a conqueror you've been redeemed at the cross and all the forces of evil cannot prevail against you they cannot they've been disarmed you're forgiven and you still find forgiveness through jesus these are the gifts of the gospel do you know do you know what it's like to be free from the darkness do you know what it's like to have all your sins wiped out if you don't then you need to come to Christ and just trust him Father thank you for your word which is so clear demonstrated that what he would accomplish at the cross was real. We thank you for the fact of an outcast. And he became weak, like us, so that he could deliver us.

We thank you for the gospel and its gifts. Help us, Lord, to rejoice in them and to live as free, forgiven people. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.