This sermon delves into the power of faith and authority in casting out demons, emphasizing the importance of complete dependence on God and sacrificial living. It highlights how Jesus cast out demons with just a word, showcasing the authority believers have in His name. The story of the demon-possessed men and the herd of swine illustrates the priority of spiritual deliverance over material possessions, urging believers to submit to God and resist the devil. Additionally, it explores the significance of faith, forgiveness of sins, and the attestation of Jesus' ministry through miracles.

We continue our study in all that Jesus taught. We're looking now at Matthew chapter 8. We were considering last in the last episode about these two demon-possessed people in the Gadara in Matthew chapter 8 verse 28 who nobody could control in any way and Jesus cast out the demons with a word which I emphasized is so important. We have today many people saying they scream and we see them screaming and yelling and I've even seen people pulling people's hair to cast out demons and in such a dishonorable way and sometimes praying and fasting for days on end. Now it's true Jesus said that when the disciples could not cast out a demon in Matthew chapter 17. The disciples asked when they couldn't cast out a demon from a boy. The disciples came to Jesus in Matthew 17 19 and say why couldn't we cast out that demon. You know Jesus just spoke one word and the demon came out we read in Matthew 17 18. One word and then the disciples came and said why couldn't we cast it out and some people say Jesus said because you didn't pray and fast enough. No read carefully. It was because your faith was little. When your faith is little Matthew 17 20 then you can cry and scream and pull people's hair and fast and pray and nothing will happen even days on end nothing will happen and the littleness of their faith was because verse 21 they did not pray and fast. That means there was something in their life they had not sacrificed or given up. They didn't prayer is an expression of our helpless dependence upon God. Fasting is an expression of our willingness to deny ourselves certain earthly comforts legitimate comforts for the sake of the gospel. Are these things true in your life? Are you helplessly dependent upon God which prayer symbolizes? Are you willing to give up the comforts legitimate comforts of earth for the sake of God's kingdom? Are you willing to fast and pray? You'll have faith and with that faith you will not have to speak to a demon twice. Is there a single case in scripture where Jesus had to speak to a demon twice before the demon left? We read one case where Jesus prayed for a blind man and he was healed only partially and then Jesus prayed again and he was healed fully but that was to teach us something there to teach us that when you're healed partially you don't have to confess that you're healed fully is let me show that to you so that you have no confusion on that issue because a lot of people are teaching that type of false teaching. We read about this man who was blind and he couldn't be healed he was from Bethsaida and the Lord spoke to him this is Mark chapter 8 and when he said when Jesus asked him in Mark 8 23 can you see anything after praying for him he said I'm seeing men like trees them walking about he wasn't healed completely man Jesus had spat on his eyes laid hands on him prayed for him and he was not healed fully that is amazing there was never a case where Jesus touched somebody who was not healed fully that was written that incident was specifically planned for this 20th 21st century where people are told to confess that they're healed when they're not healed thank God for this incident where one person was prayed for and he was not healed and what should he say should he say I'm healed when he's not healed no he says I can't I'm not healed properly I'm sorry Lord I know you prayed for me but I'm not healed I still confuse men and trees and what did the Lord tell him the Lord said no no no I prayed for you now just keep confessing that you're healed fully until it actually happens he never said that that would be telling a lie and that is the lie that a lot of preachers are now going around telling people to say when the person is not healed instead of the preacher confessing his own unbelief they're telling the poor man sick man to keep confessing he's healed that's tragic and so Jesus said that's fine I pray for you again that's what we should do when a person is sick you prayed for him he's not healed don't tell him to say he's healed that's a lie because he's sick don't tell him he doesn't have any pain to say he's got no pain when he's suffering with pain he must be honest and say I'm sorry preacher but I still have pain I still can't see I'm still sick okay we'll pray for you again that's what Jesus said he prayed for him again and he was healed clearly and he could see everything so Jesus never asked us to confess a lie please remember that in passing so Jesus always spoke a word whenever he cast out a demon and that was enough because particularly today after Satan has been conquered and every demon defeated on the cross is it possible that there is a single demon or Satan himself who does not tremble at the name of Jesus the Bible says resist the devil James 4 verse 7 he will flee from you but before you do that it says in that same verse submit to God submit to God and resist the devil now many people when they quote that verse they just quote the latter part of it it's not doesn't say resist the devil it says first submit to God make sure your whole life is submitted to God then resist the devil and the promise is he will not just walk away he will not run but he will flee flee is a word which means running full speed he's not going to be anywhere near you he's going to disappear that promise is true if it is not if does not happen it must be because either you didn't submit to God or you didn't resist the devil or when you resisted the devil you did it without submitting to God but if you submitted to God and you resisted the devil it is impossible for that promise in James 4 not to be fulfilled I mean I'm telling you for more than 50 years of experience I've seen that wherever I submit to God and resist the devil he flees and so when you speak to a demon who's already been conquered on Calvary's cross one word is enough there's no need to scream there's no need to yell I remember once whispering under my breath because I didn't want to disturb the whole congregation and a demon-possessed person 30-40 feet away obeyed the command I remember another time when a demon-possessed person looked in a scary way at me I mean try to scare me the fierce face and I was taken aback for a moment and I asked myself this question just to confirm my own faith and reaffirm it this demon that's inside this person was it one of those that escaped at Calvary or was he conquered I said he was conquered every single demon was conquered in Calvary so I spoke to that demon to get out and he left in every single case I believe the word of Jesus that you don't need to speak to any demon-possessed person more than once to cast out the demon not because of what you are but because of the authority there is in the name of Jesus Christ and because you believe that every demon in hell every demon in every demon and Satan himself were all defeated on the cross they're not in hell they're in the heavenlies were defeated on the cross and you have authority over them if your life is clean they're anointed with the Holy Spirit the devil has to listen to your word when you cast out a demon and if you seek to do that and any believer can do that who's anointed with the Holy Spirit and whose life is clean and who believes God's word and when you do that if that demon does not leave then I know what you need to then I'll tell you what you got to do you got to go and pray and fast and seek God and ask like the disciples why couldn't we cast it out and the Lord will say show you something in your life that needs to be said right maybe it's unbelief maybe it's something else but there's no need to continue there you know praying and praying for hours and hours and hours and torturing everybody else and that poor demon-possessed man while you're trying to struggle to cast the demon out this is the type of crazy thing that's going on in a lot of Christendom so I just want to clear that and say let's follow the example of Jesus he said be gone Matthew 8 32 one word like it says in Matthew 8 16 he cast out the demon the spirits with one word be gone that's it and the other question we can ask ourselves here is why did God allow these demons to go into these two thousand pigs or how many there were there into this herd of swine and all the swine went into the sea jumped over the cliff and perished in the waters what delight did the Lord get out of seeing those pigs perishing in the waters there was a reason it was to convince these two men that the demons had actually gone out of them you know when you say to somebody to the demons be gone well other people can say they didn't see the change behavior in these people but how are these people themselves to know immediately how could they know immediately the demons are gone is it by a certain calmness that came into their mind right then well they may have had occasional periods of calmness even before I've seen demon-possessed people who look perfectly normal sometimes they get all worked up sometimes I've seen after a Christian meeting or when a man with authority comes to them otherwise they are calm think of all the demon-possessed people who sat in the synagogues in Jesus time they were not creating a ruckus and confusion there when all the Pharisees were speaking the Pharisees had been speaking there for years and these demon-possessed people sat comfortably there in those synagogues but the moment Jesus came in all those demons got worked up they had been sitting there for years they got worked up because Jesus and so calmness in a person does not always indicate he's not even possessed so how would these people know that the demons had gone just a little bit of calmness well they had periods of calmness before so the Lord to help them to know that the demons had gone they heard the demons from within them asking Jesus for permission please allow us to go into the swine and the Lord gave them that permission it's almost as though he answered the prayer of these demons for the sake of these two human beings and the demons went into the swine and when the two human beings who had these people who were demon-possessed saw the pigs falling into the water they said wow they're gone I know they're gone I saw them in getting into the swine and I saw the swine falling over the water and we read here the herdsmen ran away the people were looking after the swine went into the city and reported it's very interesting to see there verse 33 how it's recorded the herdsmen that is the people who are looking after the swine ran away when they saw pigs all jumped into the sea and reported now notice read carefully exactly what they reported first of all everything and as it were in brackets including the incident of the demoniacs in other words the main thing they reported which they felt was the most important thing that happened that day was we lost the pigs and second post script one of the unimportant things that happened by the way folks is that those two demon-possessed people seem to be okay now they're sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to him now which was more important in the mind of those herdsmen clear the loss of the pig that was everything and the other the deliverance of the demoniacs was sort of a post script added at the end of the message is that how it is with us does loss of property mean more to us or people delivered from the power of Satan for many Christians if you examine your life you'll find that loss of your property disturbs you more than people who are in the grip of the devil of the devil himself that is what the Lord wants to deliver wants us to have a priority for deliverance of people Jesus did not come to protect us from loss of material things he came to deliver people from the power of Satan and it says here when the people in the city heard it their mindset was exactly the same these were you know some type of Jewish people their mindsets were exactly the same and for them also the pigs were more important than two human beings two thousand pigs Jesus said showed were not as important as two human beings and we read here in verse 34 the whole city came to meet Jesus and when they came they entreated him to depart from their region one would have thought they'd be excited hey this is wonderful these two human beings who were possessed by demons for so long are finally delivered praise God no their mindset was two thousand pigs have been lost and this man was the cause of this loss let's drive him out of here before we lose more material things we're not bothered about demon-possessed people here there could have been other demon-possessed people in the in the town in that area they were not bothered about them what a commentary on the state of affairs with many who were bible-believing people over here well whenever people told Jesus they didn't want him he always left he didn't sort of force himself in any place it says here chapter 9 verse 1 he got into a boat and crossed over and came to his own city which is Capernaum it's a very sad thing that many people choose material blessing over spiritual blessing and if there's got to be a sacrifice of something material in order to get that spiritual blessing they say we don't want it and it amounts to driving Jesus away I'm talking about believers I'm talking about Christians who seek for material profit more than spiritual blessing that's the message here in this story these people from that city the whole area of Gadara they were more interested in their business than in the deliverance of human beings from the devil's power and lots and lots of Christians are like that deliverance of people from Satan's power ranks very low in their order of priorities making money having plenty of pigs is more important to them are these people believers are they following Jesus or they are flowing following these blind people of Gadara but Jesus won't force himself you remember that verse in revelation 320 he says I stand at the door and knock if anyone opens the door I come in what if someone doesn't open the door he doesn't come in and I'm not referring to just receiving Christ into our heart allowing him to come to areas of our life which may not be demon-possessed but where there's an influence of Satan in our life do you watch pornography that's not demon possession but this tremendous demonic influence there which is affecting your mind allowing you to make choices when you go to the computer to look at scenes that you could never sit watching if Christ was sitting beside you anything that you do which you cannot do if Jesus were sitting next to you you know there's something wrong in that there's something sinful about that however much you may justify yourself the things you do in your financial transactions the books you read the music you listen to the dvds you watch the movies you watch can you have Jesus there with you while doing that if not that is an area of your life that Satan has some control over even though you may not be demon-possessed he has some influence into that life through your flesh through the dirty desires in your heart he has influence in those areas and those areas are the areas where you'll have confusion because the Lord will not enter an area of your life which you do not permit him and when you say Lord I don't want you to interfere in what I'm watching on the computer I don't want you to stop me from watching certain movies I don't want to stop you from I don't want you to stop me from reading certain books the Lord will say fine I'm not going to stop you just go and do right what you like and he will get into a boat and depart because you don't want him in that area of your life dear brothers and sisters this is the reason why Satan can create so much confusion in the lives of many believers let me take an impression the let me take an example of an umbrella if it is raining if you completely stand under an umbrella big umbrella no part of your body will get wet but if you put only part of your body under that umbrella and the part that's outside will get wet it's like that when you give yourself to Christ Christ offers a total protection for our whole being but if I offer only part of it to him it's only that part that's protected and the other part gets affected by the devil he can bring sickness he can bring confusion he can bring all types of problems how safe it is to be completely under Christ turn in Matthew chapter 9 it says they were bringing to him a paralytic lying on a bed and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic take courage my son your sins are forgiven what can we learn from here what did Jesus teach through this what Jesus taught through this is that if you can't have faith somebody else's faith can also help you it says it doesn't say the paralytic had faith the people who brought him the very action of bringing that paralytic to Jesus was an act of faith and he said to them take courage he said to them paralytic take courage my son your sins are forgiven before he healed him he forgave his sins he said you know there's a bigger problem with you than paralyzed paralysis your sin you need to understand that even if you're paralyzed the bigger problem is sin here they bring a paralytic man to Jesus and seeing the faith of those people those people who brought this paralytic man he doesn't heal the paralytic first he says your sins are forgiven I'll do for you what is most important and some of them were thinking the bible scholars this fellow blasphemes because they think how can a man forgive sins and Jesus knowing their thoughts it's amazing when you walk with God the Lord allows you even sometimes to know what people are thinking in their mind while you're speaking while you're preaching the Lord can give you discernment and say this is what people are thinking right now what he did for Jesus he'll do for you Jesus knew their thoughts and so why are you thinking evil in your hearts which is easier to say your sins are forgiven or to say rise up and walk now you may say it's easier to say your sins are forgiven well words go that's right but it costs far more for Christ to forgive our sin than to heal our sickness he didn't have to die on the cross to heal our sickness God could speak a word from heaven and heal everybody's sickness it is more difficult to have our sin forgiven but those people didn't understand that but he said in order to prove to you that the son of man has got authority on earth to forgive sin he said to the paralytic rise up take up your bed and walk he rose up and went home there we read that Jesus action of forgiving his sin was attested by God you know many of the miracles that Jesus did were an attestation by God of his ministry and his spoken word I want to show you a verse in Acts of the Apostles in chapter 2 in the very first sermon that Jesus preached and that Peter preached sorry he said Acts chapter 2 verse 22 Jesus the Nazarene a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through him in your midst see the miracles were an attestation of Jesus ministry and that's why we read here that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins he made the person get up and walk and he went away and the multitude saw this and were filled with awe Matthew 9 verse 8 they glorified God who had given such authority to men praise the Lord there's something we can learn from every single action and word that Jesus spoke he's taught by his life and by his words we'll continue in our next episode