I'm Pastor Jerry Johns and it's an incredible privilege to be with you for worship this morning.
I had a privilege of serving the Lord full time in pastoral ministry for 40 years until my retirement a few years ago.
What an incredible privilege to be able to stand in the pulpit to speak for our wonderful, wonderful Lord.
We're close to these 50-some years now.
I'm 78 years old. That is getting very, very old.
Please don't agree with me on that.
It's reality, isn't it? Except for the fact that knowing Jesus, knowing the promises of His Word,
knowing the reality of what He accomplished on the cross, eternal life is guaranteed to each one of us, is it not?
Amen.
So, in that perspective, I am very, very young. Isn't that true? Isn't that the way to look at it?
I would say so.
So I want to commend you as a congregation here in Ringgold.
You have opened up your pulpit this morning for a young person.
That's very commendable. I preach before you as a young person.
This message that I'm going to share this morning, I have it worked up on PowerPoint so you can follow in your scripture
or you can follow the text. We'll have them on the screen, whatever is comfortable for you.
It's my favorite message. I've shared it in a number of our area churches in the last few years,
trying to help out some of the pastors, especially those that had two churches
and needed quite frequent coverage for their sermons each week.
And it's become my favorite for a number of reasons.
I'm saying number one, it's incredibly Christ-centered.
It actually couldn't become any more Christ-centered than it is.
Because we're going to take four or five passages from the Gospels.
We're going to review them together.
And we're going to relive, even though this happened 2,000 years ago, and praise the Lord.
In His providence, He preserved the Gospels so that you and I can go there day to day, week to week.
We can review so much of what transpired in this amazing period of time when Christ walked here on earth.
And the accounts of those experiences, we can go back and relive. That's what we'll be doing this morning.
We're reliving those experiences.
And it's going to be fascinating, fascinating to watch Christ, to listen to Christ.
What did He have to say? What was He doing? Let's review it all.
So we're going to start in Matthew the 15th chapter, if you want to turn in your Bible,
if you want to follow on the screen, the 15th chapter and verse 22.
22, And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to him, saying,
Have mercy on me, O Lord, son of David. My daughter is severely demon-possessed.
Can you even imagine what it must have been like for that mother and that daughter
and the rest of the family members to go through this incredible experience?
My daughter is demon-possessed, body, mind, and soul. Devil-possessed.
And she found Jesus that day. That was going to become the best day and the best moment of her life.
Let's go on. Verse 23, But he answered her not a word, and his disciples came and urged him, saying,
Send her away, for she cries out after us.
That's not our picture of Jesus, is it? He answered her not a word.
That seems pretty cold, doesn't it, to you and to me?
He answered not a word, and then to top it off, his disciples come rushing over,
Send her away, for she cries out after us. Oh my.
And I dare say she heard those disciples telling that to the Master.
That had to cut very, very deep, did it not?
The dear disciples of Christ had a lot to learn, didn't they?
They had a lot to learn. I don't know what it was about what she was doing.
Maybe she had a loud voice. Maybe she had some kind of appearance that was less than desirable.
It appears like she wasn't a Jew. It says she comes out of that region of Canaan,
so she wasn't a Jew necessarily, but they just wanted her to be sent away.
Thank God Jesus did not do that. He did not listen to his disciples. Let's continue.
But then he answered and said, I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Then she came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help us.
So Jesus said something again that should have discouraged her.
She could have easily walked away that moment.
First of all, he doesn't speak to her in her first appeal.
Now he says he's come for the house of Israel. She's outside the house of Israel.
I'm not privileged enough. Leave.
But she stayed. And she came and it says she worshiped him.
You and I have come this morning to enter this sanctuary to worship our Heavenly Father, Heavenly.
Have you thought about the fact, because it's described here that she came crying out,
Lord, help me, with a desperate need, that that's a part of worship?
It is, isn't it? We all come here with a various and a sundry different needs,
and we all can be crying out in our hearts, Lord, help me right now.
And we are truly worshiping our God and Savior.
Let's continue.
But he answered and said, It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs.
Boy, that could have discouraged her too.
But she said, Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the master's table.
She was determined. She was not leaving. She was not going to be offended.
She was clinging to that moment. And she had a belief and a conviction that Jesus could help her.
Was that conviction right? It was very right.
And we don't know. We have no idea of any background to this story.
We have no idea how she ever heard about Jesus.
We know, have no idea how she made her way and how far she had to travel that day
to have that moment to come into the presence of Jesus and start that dialogue.
But she had heard something and whatever she had heard had brought conviction to her heart.
Jesus may be able to help me in my desperate need.
Praise the Lord for her determination.
Then Jesus answered and said to her, Oh woman, great is your faith.
Let it be to you as you desire.
And what was the result? And her daughter was healed that very hour.
Praise the Lord for that account.
Praise the Lord for that determination of that mother that day.
Praise the Lord for that daughter who is now healed.
The demons have been dispelled.
Mind, body and soul can be restored to health and peace.
Joy can come back into her experience. She can have control of her own mind.
What must it have been life for that mother to make her way back home and to find her daughter?
No longer demon possessed.
That's account number one. Let's go to account number two.
This is recorded in Mark, the first chapter, starting in verse 23.
There was a man in their synagogue with an unclean spirit.
And he cried out saying, Let us alone.
What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth?
Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.
But Jesus rebuked him saying, Be quiet and come out of him.
That's something these demons that possess the man, they wanted to dialogue with Christ.
And so they start shouting out this. And they said some things that were important, I think.
We know who you are. You're the Holy One of God.
That was correct, was it not?
It takes demons to make a correct, accurate statement.
There are many people out there in the congregation and in the group that were following this.
They had not decided in their mind or in their heart who Jesus really was.
They were intrigued. They came because they were intrigued.
They were interested.
But they hadn't necessarily come to the point where they could declare boldly,
He is the Holy One of God. He is the Messiah.
And yet the demons would shout this out for them to hear.
Jesus had a word to say, Be quiet and come out of him.
When Jesus spoke those words, those demons had no choice but to obey.
They had no choice. They couldn't argue.
They couldn't say no. They couldn't resist.
They had no option but to leave the possession of that man.
That's the power of the word of our Lord.
And that's the message that excites me so much.
And that's why this message has become my favorite.
Because it reviews for each one of us today, 2,000 years later, the power of the word.
Not my word, not your word, but the word coming out of the mouth of our Almighty God and Savior.
That's the word of power.
That's the source of power.
Is it not?
We have a lot of words being spoken by a lot of people today.
Half of them you can't believe.
We have politicians speaking all the time, raising their voices, saying this or that.
Most of it we can't trust. We can't know whether it's true. We can't know whether it's a lie.
But when Jesus speaks the word, you can know it's the truth.
You can know it's correct. You can know it's accurate.
You can live your life and you can lay down your life trusting in the word, every word coming out of the mouth of our Lord.
But not only is this power there for expelling the demons 2,000 years ago,
there was the power many thousand years before that.
The power of the word of our Creator God, which we're told was Jesus Christ himself at creation.
The power to speak life into existence.
Can you imagine the power of the word to speak life reviewing the complexity of our human physiology?
Everything that goes on, we take it for granted because we just live in these bodies and we do what we do.
And we just don't necessarily have that much time to study into it.
Doctors do and certain other people can study into the intricacies of how we're created.
But it is complex and it is amazing and now that they can go into DNA and they can go into genetics
and they can go into the tiniest cells and see what's going on, it is astonishing what Christ did by speaking the word
and bringing Adam and Eve into existence.
It's just absolutely astonishing.
That also is the power of the word.
Let's go on.
This is the rest of this account there in verse 26 and 27.
And when the unclean spirit had convulsed him, cried out with a loud voice, he came out of him.
He had no choice. He had to leave. He came out of him.
Then they were all amazed so that they questioned among themselves saying, what is this?
I would be amazed if I was standing there that day and watching this if I was part of that group.
What new doctrine is this?
For with authority he commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.
They have to obey him. They have no other choice.
And what is the answer to that question by what authority does he do this?
He's Almighty God. That's his authority.
He's Almighty God. He's the creator of the universe.
Can you get any higher? You need any higher authority?
You need anyone on earth to confirm your authority?
No, you don't.
But it's good when you do have some believers who will ultimately accept that authority
and will bow down and worship the creator God, give their life unequivocally to the creator God.
Let's move along.
Matthew 8-16. This is the passage that our young man read for our scripture this morning.
When even had come, they brought to him many, can you imagine that?
Many who were demon possessed.
And he cast out the spirits. How?
With a word.
There it is again.
We're finding something consistent in all of these.
With a word. The power of a word coming out of the mouth of our wonderful Lord and Savior.
And he healed all who were sick.
Oh, I would have loved to have been there to observe that, wouldn't you?
We can observe it by going back today because God has preserved these stories for us this morning.
But to be there and to, with your own eyes, watch this happening that evening in the presence of Christ.
Those people who were in dreadful conditions, whether it's a physical illness or a demon possession,
there were many with demon possession, it said.
One by one, he speaks the word and immediately, immediately, they are 100% made whole.
The power of the word.
What rejoicing must take place in those sessions with family members present.
What rejoicing. Celebration sessions.
The miracle worker has arrived. We were able to find him.
We were somehow able to track him down.
And now, we're whole.
We're whole again.
Demon possession is probably not so frequent in our day and age.
It sounds like back in Christ's day, it was pretty prevalent.
I guess in more societies that are not as sophisticated, we have more examples of demons possession.
I only have one account in my whole ministry of these many, many years where I actually witnessed it
and experienced it firsthand.
I was down in Chicago.
Dr. Vetrano was leading out in an evangelistic series.
I was down there as a seminary student to participate.
And he was coming toward the end of his series, and that particular night,
he was going to have a strong appeal and altar call.
There had been a family that was coming,
and the daughter, I would guess she might have been in her 20s or so.
And they brought her to these meetings.
And they sat in a back alcove area where the PA could be brought into the room,
but they didn't want to be out with the full congregation, not knowing what might happen.
But I know at the end of that service, he made the call for those who wanted to give their life to the Lord,
to come down the aisle, physically come down and come to the front.
Well, I saw I was sitting up in the balcony, so I could look down on all of it happening below me.
And this family, somehow the daughter must have wanted to go forward
and somehow indicated it to the family.
And so with their assistance, they came out and started, and they got about halfway down the aisle.
And her body was suddenly taken up into the air and thrown to the hard floor.
And then they were able to pick her up somehow,
and then they whisked out as quickly as they could,
not wanting to cause a total commotion to the entire service.
That's the only thing that I have witnessed, but it has to be a horrible thing.
And I don't have the rest of the story.
I wish I had the rest of the story to tell,
because I know the evangelists and the pastors met with the family and met with the daughter after the service,
and I'm not totally positive with the long-term outcome of that experience.
But today in our sophisticated society, Satan would choose to work in more subtle, deceptive ways.
Because if he comes with open possession like that, that might drive the person,
that might drive the family members to the Lord, and he doesn't want that to happen.
So I think he would rather work in more subtle, deceptive ways to get us to fall into temptation,
where we're still under his control, but we may not even realize it.
And so I think he's choosing to use those kind of methods to get people to fall into his clutches.
Let's continue.
Luke, this account is found in Luke, the ninth chapter, starting in verse 49.
Now John answered and said,
Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we forbade him, because he does not follow with us.
But Jesus said to him, Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.
Oh, our disciples had so much to learn, didn't they?
I can just picture it.
I think they came rushing to Jesus at that moment,
and I think they fully expected to get patted on the back in his combination.
But all of a sudden, he's not agreeing with them at all.
He's, in effect, rebuking them.
Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.
Even if their name isn't necessarily Seventh-day Adventist,
does that mean they can't be a Christian, that they can't be working for the Lord?
Sometimes we get that little bit of exclusive feeling, don't we, sometimes.
But I think this passage and this story helps us not to go down that road.
God has his children all across the face of the earth in all sorts of different backgrounds.
Let's be careful about categorizing.
We could make some big mistakes.
I'm glad that account was recorded in Luke's Gospel.
Now let's move to a longer one.
This is found in Matthew the eighth chapter.
We're going to start in verse 28.
This has a lot of interesting twists and turns.
This is an amazing story.
When he came to the other side in country of the Gergazines,
there met him two demon-possessed men coming out of the tombs,
exceedingly fierce so that no one could pass that way.
And suddenly they cried out, saying,
What have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of God?
Have you come here to torment us before our time?
I can picture that, can't you, in your mind's eye.
They just came across.
They'd had quite an eventful night.
They came across in the boat.
They just land.
They land somewhere near the tombs.
And immediately they're accosted by these two men.
And the sight was something to behold.
It's a photographic description from the volume Desire of Ages
to depict these men, terrible shape they were in,
expression on their faces, chains hanging and dangling from their arms.
They've had to be ostracized from their family.
They could no longer remain with their family, no longer with their friends.
They were put out of the town, and they're dwelling, can you imagine, in the tombs.
I can just picture the disciples.
They just got out of the boat and get coming.
I can picture them kind of backing up and getting back in the boat.
But Christ was unafraid.
He stood his ground.
And now we have the interaction.
They too had something to say.
Isn't it interesting?
These demons want to shout out,
What have we to do with you, Jesus, you son of God?
They had it down, didn't they?
They knew who he was.
Even if some of the people around at that time had no idea.
Continuing.
Now a good way off from there was a herd of 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.
One word from the lips of Christ, two little letters, go.
And they had to go.
There was no choice.
They couldn't challenge Christ.
They couldn't fight back.
They couldn't put up any resistance.
When that word is spoken, that word will be fulfilled no matter what.
And so they had to 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.
You can picture that scene too, can't you?
That would have been something.
And that was a pretty large herd of swine plunging to their death.
And the word went into the town, and there was an immediate reaction.
And we're going to read about that now.
Verse 33 and 34.
Then those who kept them fled, so the keepers of the swine fled into town.
They went away into the city, told everything,
including what had happened to the demon-possessed men.
So they told everything, not just the horrible results for the swine,
losing those hundreds of swine, but what happened to the two men
who were now healed of their demon possession.
And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus.
Can you picture that?
The whole city.
Immediately the word spread like wildfire.
The whole city came out.
And what was their attitude?
And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from the region.
Can you imagine?
Jesus had just arrived.
Cities and towns where He had already passed through
were told that many times there was not a moan of sickness left
in any of those cities or towns.
They had that available to them.
Jesus started with the two men who confronted Him.
They were healed.
Their demons were thrown out.
And yet the whole city was a little more concerned
about the fate of the swine than the fate of those two men.
Can you imagine their priorities?
And they are begging.
It says they begged Jesus.
They didn't have to beg, by the way.
But they were begging Him to turn around and depart.
And Jesus did it.
Because Jesus is not going to go anywhere where He is not invited
nor where He is welcome.
Talk about the worst possible decision they could ever make
in their entire life.
It was that decision, that moment, that day,
to send Jesus away.
And the two men begged that they could stay with Jesus.
But Jesus said, no, you return to your home.
You return to your family.
Return to your city.
You are now my representatives to share what has happened to you
and to you.
You are my commissioned ministers to go back.
And that's the good news of this story.
This is the saddest.
This, by the way, is one of the saddest verses or scriptures
in all of scripture.
But it has a happy ending, praise the Lord.
Jesus returned later in His ministry to that region and to that city.
And He was welcomed.
He was welcomed.
The two men did their duty.
They witnessed everywhere they went.
Here's what my life was like before I met Jesus.
Here's what my life is like now after I met Him.
And look at the contrast.
There's nothing more powerful than a personal testimony.
And that's what you and I are given as a privilege as we try our humble
best to be a true witness for our Lord Jesus today.
The most powerful thing we can share is our own personal testimony.
This is where I was before I met Jesus.
This is where I am now after meeting Him.
The same experience can happen to you because it's happened to me.
Praise the Lord.
Okay.
I want to include one more text here because this kind of wraps it up.
This is in James chapter 1, verse 7 and 8.
And this is very helpful because we're going to try now to draw this to a conclusion.
We're going to try now to bring it ahead 2,000 years.
These accounts happened 2,000 years ago.
What application do they have for me and for you right now today in this 20th century?
That's what we want to do.
We want to take all of it, put it together in a package, and say,
here's the exciting good news of application for your experience, for my experience now.
Here's a formula in the little book of James.
Therefore, submit to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
There's a formula.
And it all fits in exactly with the accounts that we've just reviewed together.
But it's four part.
And let me suggest this morning the order of the four are very important.
Don't try to flip the order around because it may not work.
What's number one?
Submit.
That's the hardest one because we're human beings.
And we're born with a sinful nature.
And because of the fact we're born with a sinful nature, we have a hard time.
We want to live our own life.
We want to live it our own way.
We want to make our own decisions.
We want to do it our way.
So it's very, very tough to submit.
But what we're needing to do in spiritual experience is to get to know God so well,
get to know Jesus so well that we say, hey, this is the most wonderful being in the whole universe,
the most loving, the most merciful, the most kind, the most powerful, the most everything.
Why?
Why would I be so stupid to resist submitting to him?
He's my creator also.
He created me.
Come on.
Now he redeemed me through Christ.
He's recreated me because of Calvary's cross, the power of Christ.
I'm not worthy.
I'm not deserving of any of that.
But he stepped in to this sinful mess.
And he's now made it possible for me to be recreated into his image, his divine likeness.
So let's not be a fool.
Let's not keep fighting submission.
Let's just do it quickly and willingly and eagerly.
And oh, my, it opens the floodgates for all heaven to be poured into our heart and into our experience.
Submit.
Resist.
Resist the devil, number two.
Don't resist the devil, number one.
That's a mistake.
You got to submit first because God is the one that has to be called to speak the word.
If you or I try to take on the devil and his demons and all his powerful temptations,
if you and I try by our own strength, we are destined for failure.
I think most of you here this morning already have learned that.
But if not, learn it right now very emphatically.
Do not try to take on that battle in your own strength.
You are too weak.
I'm too weak.
We're all too weak.
Whether we want to admit it or not, we're all way too weak.
And he's too powerful.
He's too clever.
He's too smart.
He's going to take us all down.
But in the story we read, all these stories, call on Jesus.
Call on the Holy Spirit immediately.
Whenever that overpowering temptation comes or whatever,
when we're being accosted by the evil one, and have him take care of it,
have him speak the word, go.
The victory is over.
It's all done.
It's immediately done.
We have enough defeats in life from other areas of living.
Spiritually, we don't need more defeats,
and it can become very discouraging in the Christian walk
if we're being defeated time and again, time and again, time and again.
No, none of us.
Let's learn the lesson.
Let's learn it this morning, if never before.
Call on Christ.
Call on the Holy Spirit.
Have them speak the word because their power is all powerful, and it's over.
Victory is ours immediately.
Not because anything I've done or anything I've said or anything that's good about me,
or that I'm clever or that I'm smart or I'm using some sort of great strategy.
No, no, none of it.
I just called on Jesus.
I just called on the Holy Spirit.
That's what I did.
And that guaranteed my victory.
Praise the Lord.
Submit to God.
Number two, resist the devil.
He will flee from you.
He has no option.
As long as Christ is doing it, as long as the Holy Spirit is doing it,
he has no other option but to flee.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Ah, that special communion, that special relationship, the excitement, the joy of that experience.
That's what you're learning.
That's what I'm learning.
As we walk with the Lord day to day, moment to moment,
that is the most special communion in all the world.
Nothing is more important than that communion.
I want to close now with two quotations from the Spirit of Prophecy.
This first one comes from Desire of Ages, page 493.
Here's what we're told.
There are Christians who think and speak altogether too much about the power of Satan.
They think about their adversary, they pray about him,
and he looms up greater and greater in their imagination.
It is true that Satan is a powerful being.
But thank God we have a mighty Savior who cast out the evil one from heaven.
Satan is pleased when we magnify his power.
Why not talk about Jesus?
Why not magnify his power and love?
That's good, isn't it?
That's good.
Why not talk about Jesus?
Why not magnify his power because that's the source of the power we need.
Sure, the adversary is a powerful foe, but he's been defeated.
He's a defeated foe.
Now let's focus on Jesus.
That's the secret of our success.
One more.
We'll close with this.
First of all, in Testimonies 341, man is naturally inclined to follow Satan's suggestions,
and he cannot successfully resist so terrible a foe unless Christ dwells in him.
There's a secret.
God alone can limit the power of Satan.
You and I cannot.
Let's not try because we're attempting an impossibility.
Let's not even try.
Let's connect with Jesus.
Let's make sure he's the one that's invited in to take care of the battle.
Satan knows better than God's people the power that they can have over him when their strength is in Christ.
The weakest believer, and that's me and you,
the weakest believer relying firmly upon Christ can successfully repulse Satan and all his hosts.
Good news, my friends.
There it is.
Good news this morning.
You can leave with good news.
There it is.
The weakest believer relying firmly upon Christ can successfully repulse Satan and all his hosts.
I need to be captive under the power of the enemy.
I can be freed because of Jesus.
I can enjoy that wonderful, marvelous freedom.
I do not have to be under bondage one more moment.
Even walking here in this very sinful world, this planet is under sin.
It is a terrible situation.
It has been from the beginning, and it's only getting worse in these last days.
But I can live above it because of Jesus.
Praise the Lord.
Loving Lord, we thank you.
We thank you for bringing us here this morning.
We thank you for this chance to review these accounts from so many centuries ago.
We're uplifted. We're encouraged. We're inspired.
Help us now to apply what we have learned.
Give us great success, not in trusting in ourself or our own strength, but give us great success trusting in you and your power,
the gift of your Holy Spirit and the principles of your Holy Word that give us direction.
Thank you for all of these. We treasure them.
Go with us as we dismiss from your presence.
Walk with us and take us right into your heavenly kingdom in that glorious day.
We believe you're coming soon.
Prophecies are being fulfilled all around us so rapidly right now.
Your coming is so very soon.
May that day be soon. May we be ready in your loving name. Amen.