“Too Far Gone?”

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Dan Newburg

First Baptist Church of Devine

Resilient Faith • Sermon • Submitted 3 months ago • Presented 3 months ago • 40:52

Luke 8:26–39

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We are making preparations to send not one, but two mission teams this summer to eastern Kentucky. You can find details about the trips in the ChurchCenter app and if you have any questions, I encourage you to reach out to Pastor Johnny or myself. Sign-ups are open and there’s a small deposit required to reserve your spot.

God has given us a heart for the people there in Kentucky, particularly after we learned how desperate their situation is. The hub that our mission trips operate out of is a town called Lynch, which is a former coal-mining community. At its peak, Lynch had about 10,000 people living in it and though the work was hard, folks there had prosperity, a future, and hope. The mines are shut down now and along with the jobs has gone the hope, a sense of a future, and there’s no one prospering in any material sense there. I hope you’re praying about whether God is calling you to join a mission team and if he is, that you’ll sign up quickly.

The first trip we took to Kentucky, I personally toured a place known as Portal 31. The tour consists of you sitting in a mining car that takes you deep within the former coal mines. Here’s a picture from that tour. I want you to observe a few things from this photo to reinforce something of my experience in the mine. Though the picture gives a sense that the view is wide, that ceiling is not tall. The entire mine overwhelms you in a way that I can only describe as suffocating. And you don’t have to go far until the only light available is from the bulbs that hang over head. At one point during the tour, just to really raise the excitement level, the guide turns off those lights overhead. I didn’t know what pitch dark meant until right then. One of my girls was right next to me in the mining car and even though I could hear her squealing and giggling nervously, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t see her. I couldn’t even make my hand out even though I held it up in front of my face.

I found out something on that little tour at the end of our mission trip. Darkness is absolutely terrifying. I never felt more alone and cut off from light and life than I did for those few brief moments that the lights in that mining tunnel were turned off. Now I wasn’t like crying or something when the lights came back on. To this day I’m not afraid to go outside in the dark. But I’ll say that I’ve been a member of two mission teams to Kentucky since that first trip and though others will take the Portal 31 tour in their free time, I’m not interested putting myself in complete darkness again.

And I bet that many of you resonate with my experience in that mine, don’t you? You resonate with it in the sense that even though you’re not living in a mine, what I described of my experience when those lights went out is what you feel, isn’t it? The only thing you actually feel is fear because none of your other senses seem to be working. You can’t see yourself out of what you’re facing. And what feeds all of this is that you are convinced that you’re absolutely alone. Maybe you or someone you know has come to a place where they believe that you’re too far gone. And it brings us to our question of the day, that I want to approach with great sensitivity. It’s this:

Can anyone be too far gone?

This is a vital question for each of us this morning for a number of reasons. Some of us may resist faith in Jesus because though we have heard that the death of Jesus on the cross has paid the debt that sinners owe to God, we may be convinced that our actions and our decisions are unforgivable. Others of us may be deep in depression this morning, having heard about the love of God and yet struggling to accept that God’s love is available to be received. Or perhaps you’re not even sure about God, let alone seeking him today.

If I’m speaking to anybody this morning, there’s much that we can learn from Jesus’ encounter with the man that is commonly referred to as the demoniac. What our text shows us first is that

Life Without Christ is Terrible

When we considered what God’s Word was teaching us last week when Jesus led the disciples into the storm on the Sea of Galilee, we observed that life with Christ is difficult, but here we see how absolutely terrible life is when you haven’t met Jesus.

After the waves and winds were calmed in the storm on the Sea of Galilee, the journey at sea takes them to a region that was populated by people of a completely different culture and faith system. The country of Gerasenes is Gentile territory, meaning this demoniac and the community he is from do not know the One True God. They don’t respect God. They don’t fear God. And yet Jesus, captain of the ship and God Incarnate who commands the winds and waves, has set his course directly to this land of godless people.

And no sooner had the Lord Jesus set foot on the shore than he encounters a man who had demons. The demoniac personifies what is the wretchedness of human existence when life is lived without Jesus Christ in it. This man’s life is one of torment because he is not in relationship with Jesus and he is driven outside his own city. When Jesus discovers him, he’s naked, he’s bloody from self-inflicted wounds to his body, he’s stinking in body odor, he has hair that’s wild and unkept, and he’s taking shelter in the place where the dead were buried.

Someone says, “There’s no way you’re talking about me right now. I brushed my hair this morning, I smell pretty good, and I’ve got clothes on!” We’re grateful you do! But if you’re outside of Christ, you’re just as naked. There is nothing you can do to cover the guilt and shame that comes from the sin that you have in your life. Do you know what you smell like to God Almighty? Death.

Like the demoniac, we have a problem. When you have not placed your faith in Jesus Christ, you can have all sorts of problems, but they all point back to one - a spiritual problem. And what I want us to see first from this encounter is that

Spiritual Problems Demand More Than Human Solutions

If you think about this miracle in light of the one we considered last week, the life of the demoniac is much like the storm on the sea, isn’t it? It might be like your life or the life of someone you know. The winds and the waves are blowing you all over the place and you’re doing everything you can to try to get things under control. You try what you know. You try what the experts tell you.

So you try to treat the symptoms of what’s going on in life. You’re angry, bitter, selfish, lustful, you name it, and oh sure, you tell yourself in January that you need to buckle down with your resolutions and when those fail and you get frustrated, you decide to give it a-go again, but this time you’re “turning over a new leaf.” This time, maybe you’ve enrolled in a program or picked up the latest title on 12-steps to success or even better, you’re convinced of the power of positive thinking.

Or maybe you’re in the position of trying to help somebody else through their problems. That’s what the people of the city the demoniac lived in tried to do when they bound him with chains and shackles to keep him from hurting himself and to keep him around “safety.” Human solutions don’t solve spiritual problems.

There was a social worker named Margaret Sangster who told about seeing a small boy in an urban ghetto sitting on the stairs of an apartment. The boy had been hit by a car several months before, but his parents, neglected to get him proper medical attention. Although not part of her case load, she took the boy to an orthopedist and learned that through an involved series of operations, the child’s body could be made normal again. She cut through the bureaucratic red tape, raised the funds, and set the process of cure in motion.

Two years later the boy came to her office. To her astonishment, he walked in without crutches, and to show the completeness of his recovery, he turned a cartwheel for her. The two embraced and when the boy left, Margaret Sangster reported that a warm glow mantled the entire office. She said to herself, “If I never accomplish anything else in my life, at least here is one young man to whom I can point where I have made a real difference!”

At that point she paused her story and said to those listening to her, “This was all several years ago now. Where do you think that boy is today?” Caught in the emotion of that moment, several made suggestions—a school teacher, a physician, perhaps a social worker?

There was a longer pause, and with even deeper emotion Sangster said, “No, he is in the penitentiary for one of the worst crimes a human being can commit.” Then she said, “I was instrumental in teaching him how to walk again, but there was no one to teach him where to walk.”

Here’s why all our human efforts can never address our basic, spiritual problem:

If you’re not Christ’s, you belong to Satan

If we read carefully, there are two groups of people in this account that belong to Satan.

The first is what we see obviously in the person of the demoniac. He appears evil. If you were on the beach and this guy ran up to you, the hair on the back of your neck would stand up and you’d high-tail it.

The second is what we see less obviously and who we probably overlook. These people aren’t obvious, they’re camouflaged. Who am I speaking of? The people who are the herdsmen, who led their flock of pigs out, just so they could get a glimpse of how this Jewish man would deal with the problem child of their city. In comparison to the demoniac, these are the people of the city who are respectable. If the demoniac is naked, needing a shower, hurting himself, and battling demons, these people are the ones that are the “good” folk who work hard, contribute to the community, and by all accounts, have it all together. Yet, what tells us that they belonged to Satan as much as the demoniac is that first of all, evil spirits were very comfortable in their lands. The evil spirits didn’t want to receive God’s judgement that they know is coming right then and there, they wanted to be able to stick around. And secondly, no child of God would ever demand that Jesus leave their presence, but that’s exactly what all these good, upstanding, respectable people did.

These people are like the man a preacher once talked to one night after he had preached. The preacher asked the man if he was saved and the man said no, but he would like to be. The preacher asked him, “Do you realize that you are a sinner?” “Yes,” the man quickly replied, “but…you know, I’m not what you would call a bad sinner. In fact, I’d have to say I’m a rather good one.”

There are many people like that man. They are in Satan’s domain of darkness, but they’re decent folks. They’ve never committed a felony. They love their spouse and their children. They may even go to church and believe in God. But they don’t want God getting too close for comfort! If a preacher brings up sins like pride, greed, lust, envy, racial prejudice, the evil that is Christian nationalism in this country, sex outside the covenant of marriage, homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion, they get real nervous and put up their defense. “He’s too opinionated for me.” They’re just as much in Satan’s domain as the obvious sinner, but outwardly they look more respectable.

All people, apart from Christ, are in one category or the other. They’re either obviously Satan’s or an undercover child of the devil.

Paul says,

Colossians 1:13–14 (ESV)

[Jesus] has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

The “us” includes the obvious sinners and the respectable ones. Friends, life without Jesus is terrible. You run from God. You might cower in fear of the idea of church. You might think yourself like this demoniac, obviously evil, battling demons. You might think yourself so camouflaged that you cannot even recognize yourself in the mirror, but God.

Ephesians 2:4–5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses…” even when we belonged to Satan… God can change who owns us, who possesses us. God can change our citizenship from Satan’s kingdom of darkness to Christ’s glorious kingdom of light. Which brings us to the next point we should observe from this text:

Life With Christ is Transforming

I’ll start explaining this by proclaiming to you with an absolute confidence that Jesus Christ is the only answer to our spiritual problems. All the other stuff, the 12-step books and the positive thinking garbage will not deliver you from Satan. That power is limited to only Jesus Christ.

And when I use the word transforming, I don’t mean what you know of the popular Transformers movies where robots shape shift from one bodily form to another, but can revert back to their original form. No, when the Bible speaks of transformation, it is in the sense of what you know of the insect that is one day a caterpillar and the next day a beautiful butterfly. The butterfly can not change itself back to a caterpillar because it has been absolutely and irreversibly transformed into something that is far more beautiful than its existence before that transformation.

A life without Christ is terrible and is in desperate need of transformation. And a life that is in relationship with Jesus Christ will be transformed. Jesus changes everything. That’s what we see at the conclusion of the miracle that begins when Jesus steps on the shoreline and is greeted by the demon-possessed man. His life was terrible, battling not a demon, but demons. His demons isolated him from other people. He was alone. He was out among the dead. He was inflicting harm upon himself and yet, after Jesus sought him out, he was delivered from all those things. The evil spirits fled from the presence of Jesus by departing from the man and how do we find the demoniac after this? The Bible says they, “found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind…” (Luke 8:35) More than that, by the end of this event, the once demon-possessed man is begging the Lord to let him stay with him.

I’ll be straight with you, even though I’m from what was the runt of education in Medina County, I don’t need all my fingers and toes to count the number of men in this church who are itching to attend Bible studies and hoping we don’t turn off the lights and make them leave the Lord’s presence like this guy was. Some may say, “But I’ve been working all week.” Or, “I’m so busy.” And my simple answer is that if Christ has truly transferred you into his kingdom, then he’s your priority. How can Jesus be your King and be anything but first place in your life? And for as much as anyone might say “amen” when I tell you what the Bible says about gender or sexuality, the Bible’s also very clear that when we have been saved, all our allegiance and loyalty and priority is to Jesus who is our Lord and Savior.

Someone else says, “Asking for a friend here… I’m a long way from what you’re talking about. You don’t know what I’m into and how bad I’ve screwed up. How realistic is this change for me?” Absolutely realistic! Look at who it is who is encountering the demoniac who needs transformation! Jesus asks for the name of the spirits indwelling the man and the spirits say, “Legion.” We might read this and think that this was a one-on-one tango, but the significance of that name Legion is to represent the numerous evil spirits in the man. If we are to take that name literally, a legion of an army could number hundreds or thousands. Who would pick against the thousands when all they have standing against them is one? Well, we’d always say we’d pick the bigger number, right? Of course, the odds always favor the bigger army. But you’ve got to ask yourself, “Who is the One standing against the thousands?” Luke 8:25 “Who then is this?” was the question the disciples asked after he stilled the waters and the winds on the sea. This is Jesus the Christ, who, I tell you in love, you’d have to be stupid to pick against. He’s God wrapped in flesh!

This is Jesus the Christ, who strikes fear in all of Satan’s army. Do you think there’s something too great for you to be freed from? He’s defeated sin. He’s put death on hospice care. Look at this demoniac. He’s not made respectable, he’s made alive. He’s not made upstanding, he’s filled with the Holy Spirit. He’s not the frontrunner for the most improved person in the country of the Gerasenes, he’s made a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.

And this is where our theology of Jesus has got to be spot on. If your version of Jesus is just a cute, cuddly, 8 lb 6 oz baby Jesus that you snuggle up to, he’s too safe. He’s not the Jesus of the Bible. There’s a wonderful series of Christian-themed books that have been made into movies called the “Chronicles of Narnia.” If the name is familiar to you, I bet it’s because you’ve seen the movies. If you’ve ever seen the first movie, one of the human characters asks the character known as Mr. Beaver about Aslan. Aslan is the great lion of Narnia who represents Christ in the stories. The human asks, “Is Aslan safe?” This is what Mr. Beaver says about Aslan:

‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.

This is Jesus, the One who all things have been created by and for. He’s the Lion of the Tribe of Judah! Creation is subject to his authority, hence the winds and the waves do as he wishes. The supernatural is subject to him, hence the demons fear his torment and wrath and they run in fear into pigs. And the demons you battle? You think them too much for Jesus?

The Bible says that at the end of time, when Jesus returns to earth to rule here for eternity,

Philippians 2:10–11 (ESV)

…at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Every soul. Every spirit. Creation. Everything will bend the knee in submission and surrender to the King of the Cosmos, Jesus the Christ. There’s no escaping this. The demons in this man know this! He will separate the wicked from those clothed in his righteousness. And my friends, in his goodness, Jesus has given us through at least today to bend the knee and surrender to him of our own will. Confessing with our mouths that he is Lord. Believing in our hearts that he’s been raised from the dead. That in that glorious resurrection, the fact that he rules over all is revealed. And in our surrender, we experience his transformation, his change, for his glory.

Church, there’s one more thing that we need to see from this passage. For those of us who are being transformed, being changed by Christ, we need to recognize one final thing:

Changed Lives Come at a Cost

For as much as I am pleading with the souls in this room right now to surrender to Christ, church family, I cannot be alone in this effort. But the question is whether we’re individually and collectively going to tighten our belts to sacrifice and suffer for the advancement of the gospel.

For each of us who have met Jesus and surrendered our lives to him, the command to the demoniac is the same to us, and that’s to Luke 8:39 “declare how much God has done for you.” We are commanded to proclaim the goodness of a terrible cross that the sinless Savior died upon. His resurrection commands us to declare his Lordship over all things, even death itself. Jesus has the final say in every last way, but taking that message to our homes and to the streets of Devine comes at a cost. Investing so that this church will continue to be a light for generations to come will come at a cost. Financial cost. Time cost. The cost of your preferences. Even reputation cost.

So far, for as challenging as this message has been, some of you may be just floating along and vibing with this message about Jesus and his ability to save any life and change any life. It’s been OK to listen to because you want to see people change. I mean, you care for other people. Here’s the thing, those camouflaged children of the devil who saw this man’s transformation cared about him, too. They were the good, respectable people who were concerned for the general welfare of others. It’s fair to say that they wanted better for this guy than he even wanted for himself. That’s why they tried to keep him under guard and tried to chain him up. But what they couldn’t tolerate in seeing this man’s life actually change was when the cost became personal to them. Do you see how?

Remember, who were these onlookers to the transformation of the demoniac? Herdsmen. What was their herd? Swine. Where did the demons possessing the man go? Into their herd and over the cliff. It scared them. What was it that scared them? Seeing a bunch of good bacon and pork chops go over the cliff? No. They all saw what it would cost for real change to happen and what did they do? They Luke 8:37 “…asked [Jesus] to depart from them…” What am I getting at? They said that when the price for changed lives hit them in their own wallets, they wanted nothing to do with it.

You know, earlier I suggested that your idea of Jesus may be too safe if you don’t hold his humanity in tension with the fact of the awesome wonder that he is holy, holy, holy God. And I’ll add that your faith is too safe if you don’t understand that we are at war. Yes, I said war. A war that rages between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Christ. A war where we know who wins in the end, and yet, the enemy wins the battle for souls every day. Church, are we willing to pay the cost to change any of that? Christ hasn’t saved us so we can be comfortable consumers of religious services, deciding if we’ll associate with that church or this church based on the color scheme or the style of music that’s played. He’s saved us to play a part in the gospel being declared as soldiers in heaven’s army.

Did you know that 158,000 people die a day without Christ? 158,000 people are like this demoniac and these herdsmen, in need of Christ’s transformation. Do you want to know the math on that? Every two seconds, hell gains a new resident. Let me put skin and bones on this. This morning, approximately 30 children under the age of five will be cared for in our pre-school department. Each of those 30 children are born apart from Christ and one day will be accountable for their sin. 30 precious souls who need to be sung to about the love of God as they’re rocked. 30 babies who need to be prayed over as they nap. Is the cost too high to serve there an hour every two or three weeks? Can you be counted on? That’s just one example of a place that we need help.

You’ve heard me tell you that we feel God’s leading to prepare these buildings to continue the ministry of this church for the next generations. Here’s South Texas talk - how many cattle are we willing to sell from the herd to see someone come to Christ? Are you someone sold out to the kingdom, willing to carry your part of the cost? Or are we each like this herdsmen saying to ourselves, “If this is the cost to see a life changed, I’m out.”

Well, my time is gone. In answering our question at the outset, the miracle of Christ’s deliverance of this demoniac should convince us that no one is ever too far gone. Friends, I don’t know what you’re battling today, but you are not too far gone. That’s the wonder of God’s grace. We don’t deserve the shower of love and mercy, yet God has chosen to intervene in our world and extend to us an olive branch of peace. I don’t know the demons you’re battling today, but I do know that if you’re living without Jesus, life for you is absolutely terrible. I can personally testify to you that a life surrendered to Jesus changes everything.

No matter where you are, it’s one step back to Jesus. Turn to Christ.

You may not have been looking for God, but God’s pursuing you. Turn your life over to him. You don’t need to remain in the terrifying darkness. Jesus is inviting you to bank on him to deliver you to his light, to his safety, and to his peace.

And church family, let’s remember who it is that we’re serving here. We serve the living God. Don’t have a narrow outlook, Jesus wouldn’t let us do that. Remember, he commands the winds and the waves. Hell trembles at the sound of his name. We can’t tell ourselves, “We’re just people in Devine who are struggling to get by. What do we have to offer?” Remember we serve the same Jesus who took a meager number of bread and fish and multiplied it.