We're looking again today in
Mark. Mark chapter five. Mark chapter five. And we'll
read this chapter and then we'll, as the Lord enables us, maybe
make a few comments upon it. You know, it's a wondrous thing
that the Lord has given us the record in the scriptures that He has.
Because it is, to those who are given ears to hear, a most wondrous
message. And a very comforting word that we
see and hear as we think on those things that the Lord has done
when He walked among men, because in that we see a glimpse of who
He is and how He dealt with men. And it's wondrous to behold the glories
that surround Him and His condescension to show mercy. Mark 5 to 1, and they came over
unto the other side of the sea. Now you remember they were in
a ship and they were passing over to the other side. And they
came over to the other side of the sea unto the country of the
Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with
an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and
no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he
had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had
been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces,
neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
with stones. And when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshiped him, and cried with a loud voice and said,
what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high
God? I adjure thee by God that thou
torment me not. For he said unto him, come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, what is thy
name? And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are
many. And he besought him much that
he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was
there nine to the mountains, a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him
saying, send us into the swine that we may enter into them.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirits
went out and entered into the swine and the herd ran violently
down a steep place into the sea. And there were about 2,000 and
were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled
and told it in the city and in the country. And they went out
to see what was that. to see what it was that was done.
And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the
devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right
mind, and they were afraid. And they that saw it told them
how it befell him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning
the swine. And they began to pray him to
depart out of their coast. And when he was come into the
ship, he that had been possessed with the devil, prayed him that
he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not,
but saith unto him, go home to thy friends and tell them how
great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee. And he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him. And all men did marvel. And when
Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much
people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And
behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus,
by name. And when he saw him, he fell
at his feet. And he besought him greatly,
saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death. I pray
thee, come and lay hands on her, that she may be healed, and she
shall live. And Jesus went with him, and
much people followed him and thronged him. And a certain woman,
which had an issue of blood 12 years, and had suffered many
things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and
was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. When she had heard
of Jesus, she came in the press behind and touched his garment.
For she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain
of her blood was dried up. And she felt in her body that
she was healed of that plague. And Jesus immediately, knowing
in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about
in the press and said, Who touched my clones? And his disciples
said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and
sayest thou, Who touched me? And he looked round about to
see her that had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling,
knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him
and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter,
thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy
plague. While he yet spake, there came
from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy
daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, be
not afraid, only believe. And he suffered no man to follow
him save Peter and James and John, the brother of James. And
he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and seeth
the tumult and them that wept and wailed greatly. And when
he was come in, he said unto them, what make ye this ado and
weep? The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. sleepeth. And they left him to
scorn. But when he had put them all
out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel and
them that were with him, and entered in to where the damsel
was lying. And he took the damsel by the
hand, and he said unto her, Talitha Kumai, which is being interpreted,
damsel, I say unto thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose
and walked. for she was of the age of 12
years. And they were astonished with
a great astonishment. And he charged them straightly
that no man should know it and commanded that something should
be given her to eat." Now there's a lot that happens
in this chapter. And there's plenty of room here
for scoffers and scorners to dismiss these things. And such it is. We live in an
age of great wisdom and great scientific knowledge and understanding
and of course they tell us that people such as this man here
just needed some counseling. I mean, you know, he just needed
somebody to, you know, get to the root of his problem, find
out what his mama or his daddy, you know, if they abused him
when he was growing up or he grew up in some poverty situation
and he was just beset by many problems. But we understand that
according to God's purpose, This was not something that happened
outside of the realm of the ordained, predestinated will of God. This man was possessed of devils. Now, the devils came into this
man at some point in time. I don't know when it was, don't
know why it was or how it was, except to know that the Lord
sent them. Now some people might think that's
a terrible thing to say, but I'm telling you that the devil
has never taken one step in this world that was not predestined
and ordained by Almighty God. Just as surely as his destruction
is ordained and predestinated by the same Sovereign God. He's God's devil, don't ever
forget that. He doesn't do anything He can't
do anything. He goes about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour. Now this man was one in whom
he was sure that he would devour. And he went into this man according
to the purpose of God. Now what was the purpose of God
in this? I can't tell you ever purpose of God in this. But I
know one thing that these devils were in this man to manifest
the glory and power of Almighty God over the powers of darkness.
And so, you know, we see the Lord came over to the other side
of the sea. Now, he was on the east side
of the Sea of Galilee, or on the west side of the Sea of Galilee,
and he traveled across the sea to the land of the Gergesenes. Now, there was, it's interesting
to see that on this other side of the sea, there was swine herders. Now I don't know where they were
selling these swine, but they were selling them somewhere.
Now the Jews supposedly didn't eat pork. They weren't supposed
to. But I suspect that from time to time, you know, there was
a little ham brought to the table. But otherwise, it seems odd that
there would be in a region that was primarily inhabited by Jews,
there would be somebody with a swine herd of 2,000 head. Now, I've known back when I was
a kid, I've known of a lot of people that had a lot of hogs.
But I've never known of anybody that had 2,000 hogs. I mean,
that's a pretty good group of any kind of animal. And I can't
imagine tending, can you imagine the smell of being around 2,000
hogs? I don't know if you've been around
hogs very much, but that's a smell you can't hardly get away from.
And them old guys that was tending these, Hogs, I guarantee you,
they smelled just like hogs. And you could smell them when
they were coming. And you was glad when they went. But nonetheless,
they went. He went into this land of the
Gadarenes. And he had a purpose for going
there, did he not? Because he had some sheep in
that place. As we see. As he not only cast
the devils out of this man, but he healed Jairus' daughter and
a woman who touched him. Was that inadvertent? Did it
just happen? Did he just happen to go by the
way where she was? No, it was on purpose, as all
things are that the Lord does. And when he was come out of the
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with
an unclean spirit. Now we read in the scriptures
that the devils believe and tremble. And we see this illustrated for
us in this passage of scripture. You see, while the Pharisees
and the religious men of the world knew not who this man was
that walked among them, the devils knew who he was. And he was met with a man with
an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs. You
know, the devil is preoccupied with
death. And it is amazing to me that
the preoccupation with death that is found in much of the
contemporary music and movies and all sorts of things. Now, not death in a good way,
but death in a macabre and demonic sort of thing. It's sort of a
demonic attraction. to well, to death. I mean you
got all these movies where people get cut up with chainsaws and
all kinds of ridiculous stuff going on and people so the devil
is preoccupied with death. He goes about seeking whom he
may devour. He does not go about seeking
whom he may help but he seeks going about whom he may kill
and uh... He would kill every one of God's
people if he was able. But he's not able. And for that
we should be thankful. Because as is illustrated here,
we would have no power against him if he were able. Because it says here, this man
who has a dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him. No, not with
chains. Now, evidently, at some point
in time, because this guy, he had become known, and he was
a crazy man, basically. And they had, from time to time,
gone out there, a group of them perhaps, and said, you know,
we're gonna get this guy under control and take him down to
the psychiatrist and see if we can help him out. And they bound
him up with chains. He broke the chains. Dear brethren,
you have no power whatsoever over the powers of darkness.
Apart from the power of Jesus Christ in his people, they have
no power. And of course, you know, this
is illustrated quite clearly for us in the book of Acts with
the seven sons of Sceva who thought that they would cast out devils. They saw this going on and they
said, well, yeah, we'll try that out. And so they went down to
cast out the devils out of this man, and the devils came out,
and the scripture says it tore them. I don't know what exactly,
I can imagine what tearing would be, and that's what the devil
did to them. He tore them, the scripture says. Because they
were not of the Lord. They didn't have the power. and
neither does any man have any power over devils. Now I've met
a few men down through the years that claim to be demon flingers.
I mean they were those that could cast out devils. Now I've never
personally seen it I've seen what they called it, but I never
saw that it was the real deal. And I'm not saying that there
are not men whom the Lord has given this strength and power
to, but I know that if any man has this power and he does carry
it out, it will be unto the glory of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ
will be the only one who receives glory. It will not be the man
who's got his name up on the poster who's advertising that
he can do these things, or he's claiming to do these things,
or he's asking you to come down and see him do these things.
Because those who are sent by God are sent to magnify the name
of Jesus Christ. and Christ's name was magnified
in this instance and he will always be magnified in any instance
when a devil is cast out in his name. Now I don't claim to to
be experienced in that, nor do I desire to be. Apart from if
the Lord should send me to do it, I would go in fear and trembling
to do it. I certainly wouldn't go with
any boasting ability to do it, because if the Lord doesn't send
a man to cast out the devil out of somebody, That man's a fool
to go. I'm telling you that. I mean,
because he has no power. And this devil had this great
power, strength over the ways of men. Now this one who was
always in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting
himself with stones. Now, Brother Tom has shared with
us, you know how, or with me at least, in conversation about
some of these people who are in jail and they self-mutilate
themselves, they cut themselves. Now, brethren, that's not a psychological
problem. I mean, it may manifest itself
in a psychological problem, but it is a demonic problem. Because
men, I mean, it is outside the realm of normal consideration
for a man to harm himself, is it not? Just like suicide is
a demonic power. You know, because that's outside
the realm of the normal capacity and thought process of men. These
people that go into these schools and shoot places up and just
randomly kill people. This is not because they were
raised in a bad environment. It's because the devil has indwelt
them and sent them into these things. Now listen to this. Having
said that, let me say this. That if the devil died tomorrow,
if he wasn't in the picture, Men still have wickedness in
their heart. They don't need the devil to
cause them to do wicked things. So I'm not saying that all the
wicked things that men do is because the devil made me do
it like Flip Wilson said. You know, but it is, we do see
it in stark demonstration, the Lord shows us these things from
time to time and things that are so outside the realm of human
consideration that men could do such things, I do believe,
are prompted by demonic activity. Now, Like I say, a man doesn't
need demonic activity to cause him to do the most heinous of
things. Because it's born in the heart of man to do such things
by nature. But the devil does take advantage
of that. And he does by, according to
the purpose of God, does indwell certain people. And this is a
sad situation. But this man, when he saw Jesus,
Afar off he ran and worshiped him. Now isn't that amazing? I mean the devils hate God, but
they're like a dog. You know, there's dogs that if
they could, they would bite your leg off. But you can cower them
down. Their master can cower them down.
Now they may be vicious dogs, but their master has power over
them. And that's just exactly how it
is with these devils. He didn't come worship at the
feet of the Lord because he loved the Lord. But he came and he
fell down there because that's all he could do because he was
in the presence of one whom he knew was greater and more powerful
than anything he could understand. And so he came there and he worshipped.
And he cried with a loud voice and he said, what have I to do
with thee, Jesus? He said, I don't want to be around
you. He says, go on out of here. Go
away because I feel the power of God coming to destroy me. See, the devils believe. They
believe that their destruction is nigh. They know the Word of God is
true. They don't like it. They'd overturn it if they could,
but they know that it's true. What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? This devil, he could see something
that these Pharisees and these other people, they had no eyes
to see that at all, but he could see it. He knew who he was. I adjure thee, I beg you, by
God, that you don't torment me. Now the Lord Jesus Christ has
all power in heaven, earth, and hell. And they understood that. And they knew that he had the
power to destroy both soul and body in hell, which he will,
in fact, do to the devil and all those whose names are not
written in the Lamb's book of life. That's what the scripture
says. They knew it. Torment me not. For he had said
unto him, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. Now, he
didn't have any choice, did he? And of course, as we find out,
it was more than one devil. This was a legion of devils.
This was a number of demons. And he asked him, what is thy
name? Now, did he ask him that because he didn't know? No, of
course not. He knew who he was and he knew
every one of them. He knew the name of every one of them. I
mean, I guess they have names. I mean, I don't know, but he
knew who they were. He said, what is our name? Because
he wanted the confession of this thing to be out in the open.
So men might know that this is not just some little old pipsqueak, weak demon, but this is a multitude
of devils. And he asked him, what is our
name? And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are
many. There's just a multitude of us. Now, Roman Legion, I believe,
had a thousand men, I think. I'm not sure if that, you know,
has a literal bearing on how many of these devils there were,
but there was 2,000 hogs, and all of the hogs went into the
sea. Now, I don't know if some of
the hogs went into the sea because the hog next to them went into
the sea, or if there was 2,000 devils, that went into these
two thousand hogs. I don't know, but I know there
was enough hogs there to take all the devils. Because God ordained
it. What if he'd had, you know, one
to say, well, I don't have anywhere to go. You know, all the hogs
is taken up, and here I am, I don't have a hog to get into. What
am I going to do? No. The Lord, you see, the Lord
can match up the number of hogs and the number of devils without
any problem whatsoever. And that's what he did. Come
out of the man, the unclean spirit. And he besought him much, and
he would not send him away out of the country. Now, this is
kind of humorous to me, and as much, when I read this, I kind
of get the same thought process going on as I get when I read
about Balaam's ass speaking to him.
You know, this is kind of a totally un, it's just outside the realm
of our capability to really grasp and comprehend this. But these
devils said, well, they reasoned with the Lord. And they said,
well, don't send us just off out into the air. Maybe they
were like a virus. They had to have some host in
which to attach itself to. But they said, don't send us
out. They besought him much, he will not send in. Now there
was there near unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding,
and the devils besought him saying, send us into the swine. Now stop
and think about that for a minute. See, the devils were just as
happy to be in a hog as they were in a man. Now, does that tell you anything
about men? I mean, see, they were just as
happy to be there. And they said, send us, because
they thought, well, you know, if we can get in these hogs,
why, we'll, you know, stay around here for a while, maybe we can
jump off and get into a man somewhere. Or whatever, I don't know what
they thought, but in any event, The devil asked him, send us
into the swine. And forthwith, Jesus gave them
leave. He said, go ahead. And they figured
probably they was just gonna stand around. Well, when they
got in the hogs, look at how the hogs reacted. They'd rather
died than have these devils living in them. And he ran down the
herd and they went into the sea. And they ran violently, the scripture
says, down a steep place into the sea. And there were about
2,000 of them were choked in the sea. 2,000 hogs. And they that fed
the swine fled. That would have been quite a
sight, I would imagine. To be out there tending the hogs,
and then all of a sudden, I don't know if they heard what was going
on or if they were right there where the man was, probably not
because they probably wouldn't have been anywhere around him.
So they were probably removed and all of a sudden these swine
just go running off down the hill into the sea. And they were
quite upset, I'm sure. And they that fed the swine fled,
told him in the city, in the country, and they went out to
see what it was that was to be done. And they came to Jesus
and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion,
sitting and clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. They were afraid because they
were in the presence of one who demonstrated his power over something
that they had no power at all. They tried to corral this man
on more than one occasion probably. They couldn't do it. And they
that saw it told them, befell to them that was possessed with
the devil and also concerning the swine. And they began to
beg him to depart out of their coast. Go away from us, we're
afraid. we don't know what to do with
this power when he was coming to the ship now had they been
awakened by the spirit of god would be not have been saying
oh come and dwell with us was a man can't be you men came by
nature desire the presence of the lord they're not going to
and even though the lord demonstrate his great mighty power over the
this uh... demonic power they don't want
anything to do with the law They say, get out of here, we don't
want you around here. And that's so the way it is.
You see, the men of the world, they will listen to the gospel. And they might see some good
that's done by it, but they don't want any part of it. They say,
get away from us with that. You're disturbing our way. And perhaps, you know, they were
afraid that he would destroy the rest of their hogs, because
maybe they had a guilty conscience about growing hogs. Because maybe
they, we don't know who they actually were, if these hogs
belonged to some wayward Jews, or if they were some of the heathen
tribes around. We don't know who they belonged
to. But perhaps it may have belonged to some Jews that had a guilty
conscience about growing hogs. And they said, you know, go out
here. Don't tell anybody. Get on out
of here. We don't want anything to do. Isn't it funny how that
men think they can hide their sins from the Lord? I mean, you
know, of course, I'm in the store down there, and from time to
time, I'll have people come in, and they'll use some curse word,
carry on with something, and then they say, oh, oh, I'm sorry,
I shouldn't have said that. And what it is, somebody might
say to them, well, you know, he's a preacher. As if that makes any, I mean,
you know, how foolish can people be? You know, why should you
care in whose presence you are going to do something when you
stop to consider, you know, the Lord is the one whom you should
be concerned about, not the ways of men and who men are or what
they do. And they desired him to leave,
and when he was come into the ship, He that had been possessed
with the devil asked him that he might be with him. He wanted
to go with the Lord. Isn't that the way that the Lord
works in his people? To cause them to want to be with
him? And so that was the way that the Lord had worked in this
man. But Jesus suffered him not. Now the Lord wasn't rejecting
the man, but he was not ordained unto the purpose for which he
was asking the Lord to let him go with him. Now, the Lord doesn't
send everybody to do the same task in the world. He gives some
men one gift, and He gives some men another gift. One's not greater
than the other, but it's just according to the purpose of God
as He sees fit to give those gifts. And so it wasn't given
unto this man to be with the Lord, even as it was His disciples
whom He chose, picked out, and said, come and follow Me. And
this man, he desired that, but the Lord said, no, you go do
this. And I will say this, as an evidence of the Lord's work
in the man, that he did exactly what the Lord told him to do,
did he not? He said, go home to thy friends and tell them
how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion
on thee. And he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis. how great things Jesus had done
for him. And all men did marvel. Now when
I was growing up, it used to be a big thing about surrendering
to go to the mission field or to become a preacher or something
like that. And so you know that was the
sign of somebody really following the Lord, if they surrendered
to the full-time Christian service. And they was gonna go to the
farm fields. And I always wondered, I was
a little kid, and I'd hear them talk about the farm fields, and
of course, growing up on a farm, and we had fields, I had views
in my mind about, you know, going to these fields over here somewhere. But the Lord sends his people
to declare his word wherever they are. In other words, he
sends them where they are. You don't have to be worrying
about, well, should I go over here? No, tell the people where
you are, because that's where the Lord has put you. Now, he
may put you somewhere else, but you see, you don't have to go
somewhere else. to do what the Lord has said
for you to do. And so he told this man to go
tell the people, and he did that. And all the men did marvel, because
you see, when the Lord sends a man with the message of God,
it will bring about the results that God purposes to do. And
that was the purpose that he had. And when Jesus was passed
over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto
him, and he was nigh unto the sea. And that's where we're gonna
stop. When he was passed over again. Now, he went over this,
the sea, for a purpose. And he got back
in the ship and he went back over the sea for a purpose, as
we see here in a moment. So the Lord goes exactly where
his purpose is to go. And I was in a meeting yesterday
And one of the gentlemen that, or another gentleman that preached,
he preached on a passage and Jesus passed by. And what a glorious
thing that is. You know, what a wondrous thing.
What a wondrous thing it is to be where Jesus passes by. Because
when Jesus passes by, we know that he's come for a reason.
Just like we're going to find out with this woman with the
issue of blood. He passed by exactly where she
was at. What if he'd have passed by on
the other side of the road? How would she have touched the
hem of his garment? See, he was right where she needed to be. He was right where she needed
for him to be. He was there. And He always will
be exactly where His people need Him to be. Oh, what a glorious
God He is. What a gracious Savior that He
seeks and saves that which is lost. Just like this man. There
was no hope for this man. None. I mean, this man was done
for, was he not? I mean, bound with these devils
and just wandering among the tombs, already in the graveyard. All he had looked forward to
was the graveyard. But the Lord, in mercy, sought
him out and delivered him. What a glorious thing.