25
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
January, 1936
BLACKBOARD LESSON
toward Christ and refuse to let the circum stances of life put doubts into our hearts. As a cure for doubts, the Lord Jesus sent word to John to look at the miracles which had been performed. Keep your eyes upon Christ and His wonderful works, and you will be kept from doubts.
person to find what direction is north, and to set the compass accordingly before the compass comes near the iron. The Bible tells us that we should be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” W e can have this steadiness only as we keep looking
FEBRUARY 23, 1936 PEOPLE BEFORE PROPERTY L uke , C hapter 8
work of the Lord; and yet, because they do not understand it, they virtually request the Lord to leave them. These people also had the testimony of eyewitnesses who had observed what had taken place (v. 36). But with hearts hard ened because of the loss of their property, they would not have Jesus remain in their country. The swine were more to them than eternal life ; the material was to them o f greater value than the spiritual; and their earthly possessions were deemed of more importance than the presence o f the Lord from heaven. Therefore, in spite of what they saw and heard, they “besought him to depart from them” (v. 37). It is a fearful thing to contemplate the seriousness of a human being’s deliberately asking the living God to depart from him. Yet this, actually, is the request of each one who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.
the people o f Gadara, who, perceiving the loss of the swine, rejected the Lord and begged Him to depart out of their country (v. 37). These friends forget that swine were prohibited in that land by God Him self. No one disputes the right o f a sov ereign state or kingdom to prohibit the entrance into the state or kingdom o f any thing considered to be contraband. More over, when such contraband is discovered, no one disputes the right of the sovereign to destroy it. But, while the objectors grant this right to human governments, they withhold the same right from the Governor o f all the earth. III. T he R ejection of the L ord (35-37). These people had the evidence of their sight (v. 35). They came and saw what had happened to the demonized man. But they did not see Jesus the Lord, but merely the Man, and they looked upon Him as a sort of curiosity which they could not ex plain. Hence they were afraid. They had less understanding than the demons had. Even today, there are people who see the
Lesson T ext: Lk. 8:26-37. Golden T ext: “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye can not serve God and mammon” (Lk. 16:13). Outline and Exposition I. T he P urpose of the L ord (26). T urning His back upon great crowds that gathered around Him to hear His words, the Lord crossed over the lake iu the face of the storm, seemingly for the express purpose o f reaching and delivering just one demonized man. After this work, He turned right around and recrossed the lake (cf. v. 37). The storm on the lake that night is generally admitted to have been one of great intensity and peculiar character; many believe it .was Satanic in origin. Perhaps Satan knew the purpose of Jesus, knew that his kingdom was to be invaded, and perhaps this knowledge gave rise to the enemy’s attempt to destroy Jesus with His disciples by means of the storm. II. T he W ork of the L ord (27-34). The Lord would deliver the demonized man from his bondage. The demons had complete control of the man (vs. 27-30), having deprived him of his reason, and having driven him forth to make his abode among the tombs (cf. v. 39). For a long time, these demons had had full mastery o f this man whom Jesus would liberate. The demons had even deprived the man of the power to express himself; the words he spoke were not his own, but were of demonic origin (v. 28). When the man saw Jesus, he probably was filled with a great longing to be free; but the demons hindered his expression o f this desire and turned it into a complaint against the Lord. Oftentimes the words used by sinners are not their own, and this circumstance should be taken into account when one is dealing with those whom Satan has bound. The demons drove this poor man until he appeared like a wild beast, needing to be bound (v. 29). They came upon him intermittently, giving him strength to break the bonds used to restrain him, and driving him into the desert places. The man was so fully under their control that he had even lost his own identity (v. 30). But the demons necessarily had to ac knowledge the person and power of the Lord (v. 28). They instinctively knew who he was and recognized His authority over them and over nature when they asked permission to enter the swine (vs. 31, 32). As soon as the permission was given, they entered into the swine, and at once the animals became as frenzied as had been the man out of whom the demons had come. Immediately, the swine ran down into the lake, where they perished (vs. 32-34). Some readers find fault with the Lord for this supposed destruction of people’s property. Such critics become like
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