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Donnie Bell

"With authority He commands"

Mark 1:21-27
Donnie Bell May, 7 2023 Video & Audio
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The sermon titled "With Authority He Commands," preached by Don Bell, focuses on the authority of Jesus Christ as demonstrated in His teaching and the miraculous casting out of an unclean spirit, as recorded in Mark 1:21-27. The preacher emphasizes that Christ teaches with divine authority, contrasting it with the authority of the scribes, leading listeners to marvel at His command over unclean spirits. Bell references Deuteronomy 32, pointing out that God's doctrine is eternal and unchanging, thus presenting the gospel not as a new teaching but as a timeless truth. The practical significance lies in the assurance that God's authoritative command brings about transformation and salvation without the need for human effort or decision, highlighting the Reformed doctrines of irresistible grace and the sovereignty of God in salvation.

Key Quotes

“God does not ask leave to be of nothing, and our Lord didn't either.”

“If it's new, it's not true. If it's true, it's not new.”

“When He commands something, when He commands somebody to do something, it's done.”

“The only people that disobey God is human beings... the devils do what He tells them to.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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and and and and and Yeah. Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number two. Number two in our hymnals. Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down. Fixing. thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art. Visit us with thy salvation into
every trembling heart. Breathe, oh breathe, thy loving
spirit into every troubled breast. Let us all in thee inherit Let
us find that second rest. Take away our bent to sinning. Alpha and omega be. In the faith as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty. Come almighty to deliver, let
us all thy life receive. Suddenly return and never, nevermore
thy temples leave. Thee we would be always blessing,
serve Thee as Thy hosts above, pray and praise Thee without
ceasing, glory in Thy perfect love. in thy new creation pure and
spotless let us be Let us see thy great salvation Perfectly
restored in thee Changed from glory into glory Till in heaven
we take our place Till we cast our crowns before thee, lost
in wonder, love, and praise. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
249. 249. and that Thou bidst me come to
Thee, O Lamb of God, I come, I come, just as I and waiting
on to rid my soul of bond or bond to thee whose blood can
cleanse me shall I can't, I can't, I can't I've gone, I've gone. Just as I am, poor, wretched,
blind, sight, richest, First as I am, thou wilt receive. With welcome pardon, please relieve. Let's look together in Isaiah
64 and read a portion of God's Word. I'll read down to verse 8. Oh, that thou wouldest rend the
heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might
float down at thy presence. As when the melting fire burneth,
the fire causes the waters to boil. to make thy name known
to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence. When thou didst terrible things
which we look not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down
at thy presence. For since the beginning of the
world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee what he hath prepared for
them that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways.
Behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned, those in continuance,
and we shall be saved. But we all are as an unclean
thing, and all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all do
fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. And there is none that calleth
upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. For thou hast hid thy face from
us, and thou hast consumed us because of our iniquity. But
now, O Lord, Thou art our Father, we are the clay, and Thou art
our potter, and we are the works of Thy hand. Our blessed Lord, our blessed
God, our blessed Father, Lord, none would seek you if
you didn't seek them. And we praise you that you, in
your sovereign mercy, set out to seek some out of this world
and Adam's fallen race, out of this people that's unclean, that
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And yet, Lord, you're the
potter, we're the clay, We're the work of your hand. And Lord,
you can make a vessel under honor or you can make a vessel under
dishonor. You can make a vessel of mercy or you can make a vessel
of wrath. You're the potter. You're the
potter. We just clay. And Lord, we ask
for you and your sovereign mercy today and your blessed grace
to come down and meet with us Let us have your presence. Let's
have the presence of the Holy Ghost today in our service. Lord,
this flesh is so weak. The Spirit's willing, but this
flesh is so weak. And Lord, I ask that you would
forgive us of everything that's so unlike you. Have mercy upon
the unconverted, on those that don't know you, for theirs has
never confessed their faith in you. May the gospel run well
here today. May Christ be honored and glorified.
Meet with us, please, O God, for Christ's sake. Amen. Hymn number 258. 258. Savior to me. He guided my soul in the left
of the right. my soul in that glint of the
rock that shadows the driver's steel. ? And covers me there with His
hand ? ? And covers me there with His hand ? ? A wonderful
Savior is Jesus Christ ? ? Shall not be heard ? He giveth
me strength as my day ? He doth my soul ? In the cleft of the
rock ? That shadows a dry thirst He guideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hand, and covers me
there my soul In the depths of His love, And
colors me there with His hand. And colors me there with His
hand. in his brightness transported
I rise to meet him in clouds of the sky. His perfect salvation, his wonderful
love, I'll shout with the millions on high. Behind my soul, in the depth
of the rock, that shadows the dry, thirsty We'll all stand together as we
sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Oh, what shall we do, our Savior
to praise? So faithful and true, abounding
in grace. So strong to deliver, so good
to give. How happy the man whose heart
is set free! is to walk in the light of His
face, and sweetly to rest in His comfort and grace. Their daily delight shall be
in His name, Our savior His throne, the Prince of all
peace, who evermore saves us by shedding His blood. Now turn with me to Mark chapter
1. I've got an announcement to make. I don't know how some of
you fellas are going to react to it, but the women's just decided
the other day that we're going to fix, the men are going to
fix Mother's Day for them next Saturday, Sunday. I could, you know, I can fry
some sausage and bacon, scramble a bunch of eggs, that's the best
I can do. And I was sad, I told them I was going to get a bucket
of chicken, said it's going to be for breakfast. But, you know. Are you really? They all decided
that. Man, that's, whoo! When they called me that, I the
first thing said, oh my goodness, what's the matter? They got more
confidence in us than I got in them. Oh, I tell you what, yeah,
let's stick with the taco bar. Oh, my goodness. I stood in some of these fellows'
eyes and got them big. The only one I know around here
who cooks very much is Daryl and Houston. Houston and Albert,
yeah. That's three men. I mean, you
know, maybe they could do enough for all of us. But all right. I'm certainly glad
we're going to stay with the 21st. I am very grateful for
that. I really, really am. But I want
you to look here with me. You know, I've been going through, Mark, And I want you to start reading
with me in verse 21, and we'll read down to verse 27. And they went into Capernaum,
and straightway on the Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue
and taught. And this is what we dealt with
last week, and they were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught
them as one that had authority, not as the scribes. And while
they were in that synagogue, while they were in there, there
was a man there, a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried
out, saying, Lord, let us alone. What have we to do with Thee?
Thou Jesus of Nazareth, art Thou come to destroy us? I know thee
who thou art, the Holy One of God.' And Jesus rebuked him,
saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean
spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out
of him. And they were all amazed. insomuch that they questioned
among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine
is this? For with authority commandeth
He even the unclean spirits, and they do obey Him." With authority
He commands. That's the first thing that I
want us to understand. THAT CHRIST AND GOD DOES NOT
ASK. IF THEY ASKED A QUESTION, THEY
ONLY ASK IT FOR OUR BENEFIT, DON'T ASK IT FOR HIS. WHAT IS
THIS? WHO IS THIS? WHAT IS THIS THING?
WHAT IS THIS NEW DOCTRINE? HE ASKED FOR OUR BENEFIT. GOD
KNOWS THE ANSWER TO IT. AND I'LL TELL YOU WHAT, I'M AMAZED,
AND THAT'S WHAT THEY WERE, THEY WERE AMAZED THAT HE COMMANDED
WITH AUTHORITY. People need to understand that,
that Christ commands, God commands, He does according to His will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
that God does not ask leave to be of nothing, and our Lord didn't
either. In fact, there was a place one
time, I just thought of it, that when He was feeding 5,000, the
scripture said He COMMANDED them to sit down. He didn't say, Would
you all please like to sit down? I'd like to fix you a meal. He
commanded them to sit down. Man is such a rebel. Man is so
full of himself that Christ has to tell him to even sit down,
command him to sit down. Rest right here. I'm going to
feed you. And that's what he has to do
with us now. Sit down. I'm going to feed you. I'm going
to feed you. But we who believe and trust
the Lord Jesus Christ with our lives, and we trust Him with
our souls, and I believe if we had 10,000 souls, we could trust
Him with every single one of them. And we know, we that trust
Him and trust Him with our lives and souls, we know His power,
we know His authority. We know His power, we know His
authority. But we also, as these folks, what is this? Who is this? What new doctrine is this? Over
in Luke chapter four, it says over there that he manifested
the power, with power he commanded the unclean spirit to come out.
But when they ask what new doctrine is this, there is no new doctrine. There is no new doctrine. There's
no new doctrine at all. You know how old doctrine is? It's as old as God is! It's eternal! God's Word's eternal! God's truth
is eternal! It's eternal as God Himself!
Now, you keep Mark and look with me in Deuteronomy 32. Look with
me in Deuteronomy 32. You know, that's when I first learned the
gospel. started preaching God's sovereign
grace and how God could be just and justifier. That man is lost,
born lost, and if God don't intervene in his life, don't break in on
his life, he'll perish eternally. And that's what they started,
people said, Boy, that man's come up with some new doctrine,
come up with something new. Well, I tell you what, the Scriptures
tells us that THE WAY OF TRUTH, BUT MEN WILL GET IN SUCH A STATE
THAT THE WAY OF TRUTH SHALL BE EVIL SPOKEN OF. BUT HERE I'M
TELLING YOU THERE'S NO NEW DOCTRINE, THIS IS OLD AS GOD HIMSELF. LOOK
WHAT IT SAID HERE, DEUTERONOMY 32 AND VERSE 1, THIS IS GOD SPEAKING
NOW, GIVE EAR, O HEAVENS, GOD'S TELLING THE HEAVENS TO LISTEN
TO HIM. YOU RECKON THEY WILL? AND HE SAID, I'LL SPEAK, YOU
LISTEN AND I'LL And then He said, Hear, O earth, I'm going to talk
to the earth, heaven and earth, I want them to hear what I've
got to say. The words of my mouth, and listen, this is the words
come out of His mouth for the heavens and the earth. My doctrine,
my doctrine, my teaching, my truth shall drop down just like
rain. It'll come down just like rain.
And my speech, the words that I say, they'll distill just like
as the dew and as the small rain upon the tender herb and as the
showers upon the grass. In other words, he said it's
gonna bring forth fruit. It's gonna do good. It's gonna
prosper. It's gonna be successful. And
he said, This is another thing that I'm going to say, my doctrine. I'm going to publish the name
of the Lord. Moses said, Lord, I want to see
your glory. He said, I'll cause my greatness
and my goodness to pass before you. What is it, Lord? What is
your glory? What is your goodness? I will
be merciful to whom I will be merciful. I will be compassionate
upon whom I will be compassionate. And oh, he goes on to say, I'm
gonna publish the name of the Lord. And then it's what he says
about himself. Now I'm gonna speak, and I want
my speech to be this way. Ascribe ye greatness unto our
God. And he said, he's our rock. You
see how that's capitalized? He's our rock. He's the rock upon which we stand. He set our feet upon a rock.
He's the rock that the water came out of. And listen to this,
His work is perfect, for all His ways are judgment, a God
of truth without iniquity, just and right as He. Now, He said,
Heavens you hear, Earth you hear. Do we hear? Do we hear? That's God speaking about Himself. So I'll tell you, there's no
new doctrine as old as God Himself. It's eternal. Now, there is a
way in which it IS new. Now, what do I mean by that?
It's always fresh! It's like getting a fresh a fresh
loaf of bread out of the oven. It s like getting cold water
on a hot day when you re thirsty, and that s what it is. It s new
in that it s always fresh, it s always like bread, it s always
fresh to us. It s like sometimes it s the
first time we ever heard it. And not to have written otherwise
because it comes as good news. It comes as good news. The gospel
comes as good news. You know, it's not new in respect
of time. It's not new in respect of time.
And I heard something years and years ago, and I wrote it down.
I never have forgot it. If it's new, it's not true. If
it's true, it's not new. And what they were calling new
doctrine was God's Word. God's Word. He who spoke the
world into existence. You know, His Word, He spoke
the world into existence. He said, let there be light.
There was light. He said, let's separate the light
and the darkness. He separated the light and the
darkness. He said, I want some mountains to come up. Mountains
come up. I want to separate the seas. The seas were separated.
He said, I want some birds to fly. Birds went to flying. He said, I want some fish in
the sea, and there was fish in the sea. So to think that these
fellas said, what new doctrine is this? They had a Bible, and
they had the Old Testament. They understood that God who
spake, the scriptures tells us Psalm 32, 33 said, He spake,
it was done. He commanded, and He what? Stood
fast. Oh my. God said, let there be,
and it was. And I tell you, it says, whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. And it shall, men may fear before
the Lord. That which hath been is now,
and that which hath been is now, and that which will be is always
been, already been. New doctrine, no, no, it's eternal. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. Now Christ here back over in
our text, back over here, Christ is in Capernaum. He's in Capernaum. He had just called his disciples.
If I remember right, somebody said that he'd done more miracles
and more work in Capernaum than he did any place else, any place
else. And they were in Capernaum. And
our Lord was teaching, he was teaching. Now he was bringing
a message. He brought a message to this
congregation of people in this synagogue, to these Jews that
were in there. He brought a message. And as
he was sitting there and he was preaching and teaching, and I'll
tell you one thing I know what he was doing, he was telling
the truth. Whatever our Lord said, it was true. Whatever our
Lord said, it had power. Whatever our Lord said, it was
worth listening to. Whatever our Lord said, I'd love
to have been sitting there and hear what he said. One of these
days, I'll hear His voice. I've heard His voice spiritually.
One of these days, I'll hear His voice physically. But here
He taught, and then while He was teaching, while He was teaching,
He performed a miracle. He performed a miracle. Oh, my. And it says, with authority,
with authority. What new doctrine? For with authority
He commanded. Oh, my. And when He talked about
with AUTHORITY and preaching the TRUTH, we KNOW the TRUTH,
and the TRUTH WITH IT carries AUTHORITY. That's why Christ
has such AUTHORITY. That's why people who KNOW the
TRUTH have such AUTHORITY. You know, we're not running around
here trying to convince people what the TRUTH is. We just tell
it and leave it to itself. Truth by itself has AUTHORITY
with it. We don't have to dress it up.
You know, election, that's a blessed truth. That's true, whether anybody
likes it or not, God chose the people in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He said, No, you're not, you've
not chosen me, but I've chosen you. Now, what's people going
to do with that? I know what I'm going to do with
it, I'm going to believe it. I'm going to believe it. You
know, God is God. He s not a pretender. Most places,
God s a pretender. He has to pretend to have authority.
He has to pretend to have power. He has to pretend that He s got
a will. He has to pretend that He has
to wait on people. He has to pretend that He loves
everybody. He has to pretend. You know,
God s a pretender to most people, but not to people that know Him.
God s not a pretender. He s God! And He does not wait on anybody. God, that's the truth. The truth
with it carries authority. You know, take particular redemption.
If there's one place that men despise more than anything else
is the fact that Christ only died for His people. He said,
I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep. He said, All that the Father
gives me, they're gonna come to me. You know why they're gonna
come to Him? Because God said they will. That's that command with authority.
And I'll tell you the truth, the truth is successful. When we talk about particular
redemption, you reckon Christ's blood, you reckon Christ's blood,
when He shed His blood, was it sufficient to save everyone whom
He died for? Does it have the power to cleanse
everyone that He died for from their sin? Does it have the power
that when He took it into glory Himself and put it on God's altar,
that God Almighty said, yes, yes, yes, He obtained eternal
redemption for us. Oh my, the truth is successful. You know, God said, my word,
He said, I'll send it down. And He said, I'll tell you one
thing it won't do. It won't return back to me void. Two things happen
every time God, when God preaches and the preacher preaches. And
this is, this is, this is, this is why, and it is in one way,
that's why Paul said who's sufficient for these things? Two things
happen. Either God gives life or He passes judgment. Either
God saves a man or He leaves him in his sin. Either God, you
know, it gives life, it's either life or it's either death. No
middle ground. That's why our Lord said, I come
that they might have eternal life. Now I'll tell you what,
and that's why He said, you know, when our Lord Jesus Christ, this
is the thing about Him, He's got all power in heaven and earth.
He's the only Savior in this world. And if you want to be
saved from your sin, want to be saved from your rebellion,
want to be saved from your self-righteousness, and your self-confidence, and
your unclear, if you want to be saved, there's only one person
that can do that. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Nobody else can do that. You can walk every aisle, You
can shed a million tears, you can pray a thousand prayers,
you can give all your money away, and it will not do you one iota
good. You've got to have a Savior.
And you know what He saves people from? Sin, sin, sin. All right. You know, the truth
doesn't need to be dressed up. We don't have to dress it up.
There's authority with the truth. When you got air, you gotta dress
it up. Gotta dress up air. Gotta make it attractive. Gotta
have flowery language. Psychological manipulation. Oh my goodness, you know, work
on people's brains. Manipulate them. Manipulate them. Appeal to the flesh. appeal to
the flesh. But I'll tell you what, the truth,
when our Lord Jesus Christ, when He was there in that synagogue
teaching with authority and astonished at it, you know what our Lord
said about His Father? He said, I and my Father are
one. He said, you think, you know, you say God's your Father?
He said, Him and I are the same person. I'm God, He's God. Being Him is the same one. We've
got the same authority. We've got the same power. We've
got the same glory. I'm not down here on an errand
by myself. I come down here to do His will
and accomplish His will and bring glory to His holy name, bring
glory to my Father. And you know what the Father
said about Him? He said, This is my beloved Son. I want you
to hear Him. I'm pleased with Him. You ever
find anybody else in the Bible where God said He is pleased
with Him? You'll never find anybody. They used to sing that old song,
I wonder if my Lord's satisfied with me. Nope, nope, nope, nope,
nope. Never has been. The only person
He's ever been satisfied with was His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Christ had so much merit in himself, so much worth in
himself, that he satisfied God on the behalf of a multitude
that no man could number. Huh? Oh my. And then what our Lord said about
himself. You know what our Lord said about himself? He said,
which of you convinces me of sin? He said, no man can come unto
the Father but by me. He said, you know, we lost the
way. He said, I'm the way. We lost
life. He said, I'm life. You don't
know the truth. If you want the truth, I'm the
truth. So if we want anything, you want
to find the way, you want to, Houston told me last week when
he was in college, Almost everybody says everybody's going different
ways. They're going different ways,
but they're all going to end up at the same place. And that's
not true. That's a lie. That's one of them
errors that has to be dressed up. That's not true. There's not two or three different
ways. If there's two or three different ways, why in the world
did Jesus Christ come into this world and die on a cross? Why
did He bear sin in His own body on the tree? Why did He put sin
away by the sacrifice of Himself? Why did He ascend and sit at
the right hand of God on the throne of glory? If there's some
other way than Jesus Christ, then Jesus Christ does not mean
nothing to anybody. He's the only way that you can
ever get to God, only way you can ever get rid of your sin,
the only way that God will have anything to do with me, you,
or anybody else, is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Is
that not right? Because old Scott used to say,
God wouldn't touch you with a ten-foot pole apart from His Son. He won't
even look in your direction apart from His Son. Now that, and then when you talk
about His salvation, oh my, talk about His salvation. He said,
you know one time He was teaching and He was preaching and He said
this, He said, you know when Elijah was in Sarepta, there
was lots and lots of widows, but Elisha was only sent to one. Boy, they look back! And then
he said, You know, when Elijah was one widow, but when it come
to Elisha, said, You know, there was lots and lots of lepers in
Israel in the time of Elijah, but he is only sent to one. And
they understood right then and there that he is saying salvation
is left up to me. There are lots of widows, but
I am going to do something for one of them. There are lots of
lepers, but I am going to clean one. You know what they said, what
they done to him then? They said they started easing
him out to this brow of the hill, started pushing him with the
crowd. They're gonna make him go off, throw him off a cliff.
Our Lord, you know, he has this ability. He can just stop everything
that's going on, walk among them, and walk right through them,
and they don't even know he's gone. They ain't got nobody to
throw him off a cliff now, he's gone. Where'd he go? Wherever
he wants to. Oh, my. And that's why His Word
comes with power. That's why it comes with authority.
Oh, He was sinless. And when He said something, it
came with authority. The scribes and Pharisees couldn't
do that. They had no authority. You know
what they had to do? They had to hire people to lie
on Christ. They had to sneak around to do
anything against Him. But here's this man. Here's this
man, he's there in the synagogue, here's a man with an unclean
spirit. An unclean spirit, says there
in verse 23, an unclean spirit. He's demon possessed, impure,
unclean, a deviant, if you can say it that way. And he's demon
possessed, and I'll tell you what, and he was in there with
the Lord Jesus Christ and heard him speak. And the first thing
this guy said, this fella said was, let us alone. Let us alone. Don't bother us. Don't bother
us. Let us alone. I don't want you
to bother me. Let us alone. What have we to
do with you? What in the world do we have
to do with you? What do we have in common with you? What do we
have to do with you? And then look what they said,
thou Jesus of Nazareth, art thou come to destroy us? I know who
they are, the Holy One of God. Oh, who was speaking here, the
demon or the man? Both. Both of them were. Both of them were. And I'll tell
you, this man was unclean. He knew who Christ was. And every
person that's lost, the scriptures tells us they're unclean. They're
unclean. I read it to you this morning.
We're all as an unclean thing. All of our righteousnesses are
as a filthy rag. The lepers, the lepers, you know
what they had to do? They had to run around hollering
unclean, unclean, unclean, so people get away from them. Because
leprosy was catching. You get around a leper, and you
could get leprosy from him if you touched him. If you got around
him too much and touched him, it had nothing to do with him.
They had to stay off to themselves completely, entirely. There was
a king, Hezekiah. God smote him with leprosy, and
he had to go to a house and live by himself, and he's the king
because he had leprosy. And I'll tell you what, they
run around unclean, unclean, unclean. Let me show you something
about unclean. Look over, keep Mark now, look
in Matthew chapter, I believe it's chapter 12. I want you to
see this with me. In verse 43. You know, people, most of them
seem outwardly clean, you know, they think they're outwardly
clean, but it's the heart, it's the mind, it's the soul, it's
the everything, you know, and look what it said here, Matthew
11, excuse me, 12, verse 43. When the unclean spirit is gone
out of a man, He walks through dry places seeking
rest and finding none. You know, he don't know nothing
about green pastures. He don't know nothing about rest.
Where he's at is desert, dry, lifeless, nothing living. And then he goes through these
dry, then he says, I tell you what, I'm going to go home again.
I'm going to go back to my own house. I'm going to go back to
my own house that I came out of. And when he goes in, he finds
it empty, swept, and garnished. What happened here, he got religion.
What happened here, he went and got him a cross and put it on
his lapel, bought him a Bible, had his name put on it, and he
got him a suit to go to church in, got him a dress to go to
church in, and I MEAN THEY LOOK GOOD! But when they got there,
this is dry. There's no life here. It's not
enjoyable. I don't delight in this. He said,
I'm gonna go home. And when he got there, it was
swept. It was swept. It's garnished. Oh, my. Dressed it up. And then he, look
what he does. He said, well, I'm gonna go home.
and he takes with him seven other spirits. That's what happens
to folks who's just got a profession of religion, who's just got a
false profession. And he takes with himself seven
other spirits, more wicked than himself, worse than himself,
and the last state of that man is worse than the first, even
so it shall be in this wicked generation. All right, back over in our text,
I got to hurry. You know, this man wanted nothing
to do with Christ. He said, What have we to do with
thee? He didn't want anything to do
with Christ. He didn't want a thing in the world to do with Christ.
He loved darkness rather than light. He didn't want to come
out of the darkness. And then he said, You come to
destroy us. He understood that Christ could save him or destroy
him. He understood that. If you're going to destroy me,
come destroy us. And He said, I know who you are. We know who you are. Huh? This is kind of a frightening
thing right here when you think about it. The devils know who
Christ is. The devils know Christ and they
tremble. And their knowledge absolutely
of knowing who Christ was did them no good. Did them no good
whatsoever. Oh, the devils knew who Christ
was. Look what it says down there in verse 34, in the last part
of the verse, it says, that Christ suffered, not the devils to speak,
because they knew Him. They knew Him. He said, We know
you, and we knew Him. They knew Him. How did they know
Him? Oh my, what have we to do with
you? What do we have in common with
you? Nothing, nothing. I love sin, you hate it. You're
holy, I'm unholy. You're light, I'm in darkness.
You're good, I'm bad. We have nothing in common. That's
what this demon's saying, that's what he said. Have you come to
destroy us? You know, he didn't expect mercy,
he didn't suspect mercy, he didn't think Christ would have anything
to do with him at all, and he didn't. And this is a hopeless,
hopeless case. And then look what it says there
in verse 25. Jesus rebuked him. Rebuked him. Rebuked him. And he said, shut
up, hold your peace. Hold your peace. He wouldn't
even let a demon speak. He'd tell a demon not to keep
your mouth shut, and he kept his mouth shut. You know why
he said that? He said, if a man knows me, he's gonna have to
know me by revelation. These folks knew him because
of his holiness and because he's God and he's got all power. And
then Jesus rebuked him, hold thy peace and come out of him.
Oh my. And then Jesus, and when the unclean spirit had
torn him and came out with a loud voice, he came out, he came out. Now, I don't know what this man
did, I don't know how it hurt him, but it threw him down, and
when he come out, he cried with a loud voice. He commanded him. My Lord commanded, He rebuked
him and commanded him to come out, and they were all amazed. And you know what this is? When
He commanded him to come out, this is effectual call. This
is effectual call. This is irresistible call. This
is invincible grace. That fella, he didn't let that
fella make a decision. He said, oh my, you want me to
save you from this demon? You want me to save you from
this devil? Make up a decision, make a decision real quick, hurry
up. No, there's no decision on his part. There was no resisting
on his part. Christ commanded him and it happens. Then he came out. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, when He commands something, when He commands somebody
to do something, it's done. Lazarus, come forth. Zacchaeus,
come down. It's irresistible, powerful grace. In the day of His power, His
people, His people are made willing. And I tell you what, and they
were all amazed. They were all amazed. Nobody
had ever seen anything like this. They were all amazed. And they
began to ask questions. They questioned among themselves.
What in the world is this that's going on? What new doctor with
authority commandeth? Commandeth he even the unclean
spirits? And you know what? They obeyed.
You know the only person that disobeys God, disobeys Christ,
Human beings, human beings, the devils do what he tells them
to. But the only people that rebel against him and disobey
him is people in, oh, human beings. That's the only one. Adam disobeyed
him. The only people that disobey
God is human beings. The devils don't do it because
they do what he tells them. Our Father, our great, glorious,
blessed God in heaven, I'm so thankful that you're God.
I'm so thankful that you got the power, you got the authority,
you got the rights. And Lord, I'm so thankful that
we're in your hand, that one day you commanded us to come
out of our tree of self-righteousness and high-mindedness, brought
us down and brought salvation to us as you did Zacchaeus. We thank you that you called
us out of the death of our sin, called us out of the grave and
the death of our sin by your precious power and commanded
us to come out of the grave, commanded grave clothes to be
taken off. Oh, Lord, thank you that you're
God. May this gospel run well here today. May it bring forth
fruit to your glory. May you do with it what you will.
I know you will. You work with this message. You
do with it what you will. Lord, we will have everything
in your hands, knowing you'll do just exactly what's right
with everyone here And everyone else in this world, you're just
and you're true. And you're the God of all the
earth and you got to do right. We thank you. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing his praise. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. See you tonight, six o'clock,
God willing.
Donnie Bell
About Donnie Bell
Donnie Bell is the current pastor of Lantana Grace Church in Crossville, TN.
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