Mark chapter 5. This evening we'll be looking
at this history concerning the demoniac of Gadara. If you remember
here, the Lord Jesus Christ being on the other side of the sea
in Galilee, after having left there, Him and His disciples
had come across the sea, and you remember the great storm,
where He was in the hinder part of the ship, and the disciples
were concerned and very fearful about this storm, and they come
to Him saying, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And
our Lord stands up at this time and rebukes the wind and the
waves simply by a word. Peace, be still. And He was calm
unto them. And then He comes to this, they
come over to this sea, to Gadara, and we read in verse 1, And they
came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country
of the Gadarenes. And when he had come out of the
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man of an
unclean spirit, who had his dwellings 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 worshipped 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. And 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
nigh unto 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 the steep place into the
sea. They were about two thousand,
and were choked in the sea. They that fed the swine fled
and told in the city and in the country and they went out to
see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus and see
Him that was possessed with the devil and had a legion. Now notice the difference. City. And clothed. And in His right
mind. They were afraid. They were afraid. Now this history that I've just
read to you concerning this demoniac of Gadara, this saving of this
man, this delivering of him from this horrible condition. Can
you imagine the horrible condition that this man suffered in his
life? And here we have the sovereign
mercy of Christ. We see how Christ had fixed His
eye on this man long before he entered into Tugadera. In fact,
it was His purpose to come across the sea so as to save this man. We see the sovereign mercy in
saving this man. But this man here is a wonderful
picture. of God's sovereign mercy and
salvation. He is a picture of how God saves
all sinners. All sinners. Now I've got this
broken down into four divisions. Four things that we can see concerning
this salvation. The salvation of this man as
it relates to the salvation of every one of God's elect. First of all, we see this. The
purpose of Christ to save him. This man was not saved or found
on accident. This man was saved on purpose. And so it is with all of God's
elect. They're saved on purpose. The
second thing is this. We see the condition that Christ
finds this man in is the same condition He finds all of His
elect. Thirdly, we see the power of
Christ in the experience of this man's salvation. power of Christ
as He says to these legions. You know, Christ didn't, He didn't
have to ask for information about these legions. He knew who they
were. He wanted you to know who they were. He wanted you to see
the greatness of His power in delivering this man from these
unclean, not just a unclean spirit, but a legion of them. And how
easily He dispatched them with a word. Go. get out of this and
they were out and the third the fourth thing is I want you to
see the result what is the result we see the result of this man
in the you can compare and contrast what he was with what he is He's clothed and he's in his
right mind. And that's exactly the result
of every believer that God purposes to save. So first of all, let's
see the purpose of Christ to save. Jesus, He set sail to Gadara
with His eyes fixed on this purpose. Our Lord always knew what He
would do. In that what John says, he said,
he was asking questions, but John says he knew what he was
doing. He knew what he was going to do before. Why? Because Christ
always knows what He's going to do. He was sent on a mission. It is the same thing that happened
with that woman by the well. Remember, He said, I must needs
go through Samaria. Why? Because there was a woman
there at the heat of the day that He must meet and save. And so it is with this man. He was on an errand of sovereign
mercy. to save this one that the Father
had given Him in a covenant of grace. And so He sailed from
Galilee, He sailed all the way through that storm on purpose, for the sake of this one object
of love. And I'll tell you this, when
He was done, you know what happens at the end of this story? They
all hate Him and they send Him back. They all hate him and they
send him back. So he goes back to the other
side where he came from. You not see that? He came all
the way across the sea for this one man and then sailed all the
way back where he came from. This was on purpose. This is
no accident he meets this man here. And behold, this whole
scene here, this whole scene is a picture of the Gospel. How Christ, on purpose determined
to save all of God's elect, He sailed across the sea into time
and suffered the storm and vengeance of God's wrath for all His people. And guess what? When He was finished,
where did He go? He went back. He went back to where He came
from. This is the whole picture of the gospel here. It's a beautiful
picture. He redeemed us. He in love set His eyes on us. Now, that's something that we
should grab. Oh, you're a believer in Christ. You should know this,
and this should grip your heart. Oh, may God grip your heart with
it. God saved you on purpose. He had His eye fixed on you,
wherever the earth was. He said to you, I have loved
you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Why has He drawn me? Why has
He saved me? Because He had loved me with
an everlasting love. An immutable love, an unchangeable
love. A love that only God alone could
possess. And in love, Christ came and
suffered the storms of God's justice. Being full of faith concerning
His victory, He said this, this is the will of Him that sent
Me, that of all He hath given Me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up again at the
last day. Even so, it is with the salvation
of all God's elect is pictured here in our text. By the salvation
of this demoniac, Jesus came to the gate to get Dara on purpose
to save this man even so the Son of God was sent of the Father
to seek and to save That which was lost religion says he's seeking
people My scripture says he's seeking and saving his people
He seeks and saves his people this past week we had services
at the retirement home. And a lady was very concerned
when I preached a matter concerning election last week. And she was
very distraught. She had never heard, never heard
of election. And this, in explaining it to
her, I always thought this was the best way. When a man said
this to Brother Ralph Garner, the woman asked him about election.
He said, I know the difference between my doctrine and yours
is this matter of election, but what does that mean, election?
And he simply said, did God save you on accident or on purpose? And she snapped back, on purpose.
Well, then you understand election. God saved you on purpose, on
purpose. He came to seek and to save His
sheep. Find His sheep. He said, I came
to lay down My life for the sheep. That sounds like a man who has
purpose. His purpose was to lay down His
life for the sheep. That's His mission. That's His
work that He was given to do. He came to do the will of God. And that was the will of God.
that he should save his people from their sins. He said, Lo, I come to do thy
will, O God. And Paul said, By the which will
you are sanctified. You're made holy by the will
of God on purpose. And look now and see he has by
his coming into this world on purpose as a representative man
of all his elect. He came into this world as our
surety and our high priest and has obtained for us the righteousness
of God and eternal redemption. That's what he came to do. He
came to obtain both righteousness, and not just any righteousness,
but the righteousness of God Himself. As a representative
man, He did for us. He worked out the righteousness
of God in His, by His own hands, by His own works, both passive
and active obedience. Christ was perfect in every way. That's why Jeremiah said, talking
about the branch, and you know who the branch is, it's Christ.
Christ is the branch he's talking of in Jeremiah chapter 23. And
he says this of the branch, His name shall be called the Lord,
Jehovah. Anybody who says Christ is not
God, that text right there just really should settle the matter. The branch shall be called who?
Jehovah, the Lord. our speaking of Israel our right
that's his name Jehovah it's been in the Lord our righteousness
and not only did he obtain it that's what Paul said he said
even the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus
this is our righteousness is married this is how righteousness is
imputed is by his righteousness. And not only that, he came to
obtain eternal redemption. How? By his blood. Without the
shedding of blood is no remission of sins. You can work and you
can work and you can work, but that will never remove sin. Only
blood removes sin. And the problem with your blood
and my blood is it's tainted with sin. It cannot pay for sin. But his blood can. His blood
did. Paul said by his blood, by his
own blood, he has obtained eternal redemption for us. And so now,
having accomplished our salvation, having come on purpose, having
accomplished our salvation, where is he now? He is now ascended
into heaven, where he was before. And he sits on the throne of
God and rules all things, all providences, all people, all
angels, all demons, and all events for one purpose, to save his
people. You get in the vein of this,
that there's one purpose, that he has one purpose, to save his
people. Matter of fact, that's what he
said in his high priestly prayer. He said father the hours come
Glorify the son as I have glorified thee Glorify thy son that he
may also glorify thee as thou has given him power over all
flesh Here's his purpose that he should give eternal life To
as many as thou has given him not see his purpose. I purpose
is to say let us look now upon the eyes of Christ and see how
they were fixed upon this man they were fixed on him this is
why he was sleeping in the ship because he knew he was going
to get there he had no trouble with this storm because he trusted
God he believed God he was asleep his disciples were afraid but
he knew this he was getting to that show there was one there
that god and he was getting and listen just as sure as he picked
his eyes on that man he picked his eyes on that one everyone
fixed he is and there was nothing stopping Before he got to us, we didn't
know anything of it. This man of Gadara was a maniac. This man was out of his mind. This man knew nothing. This man
was in turmoil. This man was in strife. This
man had no thought of God or His Son or any such life. And yet, Christ knew. and so it is even now god has
an elect people his eyes are fixed on them and i i know this
according to the very old god that he will calm and he will
say every one of them and not one will be lost i don't care
what religion he said they don't like that i had done
i do That's just the way it is. Christ
will save his sheep. He said, I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never, what? Perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hands. Why? Because we're saved on purpose.
The second thing, His condition. How does God find His elect?
Knowing that He purposed to save us, knowing that He accomplished
our salvation at Calvary, knowing that He is now seated on the
throne of God and is coming and is appointed a time for every
birth of His elect. How will He find His elect in
the earth? He will find them in the Maniacs. He will find them as madmen. He'll find them exactly as he
found this man of Gadara. Look at this, back in your text.
He come out of the ship, immediately there, made him out of the tubes. What a strange place to land
on shore, isn't it? Tubes? Normally you land in a
harbor. Nope, that's not where he had
his man. He had him in the tubes. And so that's where he met him.
He comes out with an unclean spirit. Listen to the life of
this man, who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no man could
bind him, no man, 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. He was always, night and day,
he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting
himself with stones. This is a picture of how God
finds him. This is how God found me. i was in the church really
i was in i was in religion but i was really he finds his people in too what a filthy rich this man i
can't even imagine i've tried to often imagine how this man
lived and i just we have no relationship We can only picture it in our
minds, but the severity of this man, the wretchedness of this
man was so great. Gives us such a vivid picture
here. But this is a picture of the fall. This is a picture of
all men by nature. All men by nature. All men by nature are fully under
the sway of every foul spirit. We are ruled by our own depraved
heart and corrupt wills. We are surely, as the scripture
said, taken captive by Satan's will. I tell you, if it were not for
the restraining grace of God, we would all be as madmen. Trying with all our passion to
fulfill our lusts. Remember those men of Sodom and
Gomorrah? Remember when the angels came
and they had desired those angels? They wanted those men so bad,
when they blinded them, they didn't run, but they pressed
more toward the door. this is how we truly art of god
and not restrained us surely we would give in to every last
every patch therefore we by nature are easily
taken captive by every foul spirit every loo looed temptation that
comes across our eyes our minds immediately We in our hearts are corrupt
and everything that proceeds from our hearts is corrupt. And so the evil spirits surely
are welcomed by us by nature. They're welcome. And this is the reason that they
move so freely among us is because we are by nature dead to resist
them. We walk among tombs. We are living.
This man was living, yet he was living in tombs. And he was comfortable
in them. He didn't want to live in the
city. He didn't want to live with civilized people. He desired
to live with people just like Him. And so by nature being dead,
we are attracted to dead men. We are attracted to the world. Listen, are you dead in sin?
Are you dead in sin? Do you understand what that is? Do you know and experience what
depravity really is? We are physically alive but spiritually
dead. This is why we are so at home
in the world and so love the flesh and will not come to God.
And secondly, this man not only walked in the tombs, he could
not be bound. Look at that. They tried to bind him with chains
and fetters, but these demons obviously gave this man some
strength so that he should be able to break their chains and
fetters. This man could not be bound with
chains of men. He was not conformable to their
dress or their style or their society or their laws. Even so
it is spiritually with us. We could not even be bound by
the law of God. But every chain of the law we
by nature break. What is wrong with perfection? What is wrong with being perfectly
good and holy? And yet we are set against it.
Why are men set against that which is good? I tell you, because
they're maniacs. We, by nature, are insane. We're
possessed. And we break every good thing
that God would bind in His law. We break it. men by nature refused to obey
the law and acknowledge its authority or power over them. We, by nature,
in our hearts, madly say with the demoniac, I will not have
this man to rule over us. That's what man says in his heart.
I will not have Christ to tell me what's good, what's right. I will not have him to rule over
me. And they openly defy the simple
word of God. I was reading this in the news. A rabbi, some rabbi said this. Somebody thought he was wise
and they wanted to honor him. He's dead and in hell, but they
thought they'd honor him. And one of his sayings was that
all men are naturally good. God said all men are naturally
evil. You know what? That man's a liar. And everyone
who follows him is a liar. God said you're wicked. God said
you're evil. You know what? Look around and
tell me that's not so. You know it's so. Men naturally
are like this. God says this. Why do the heathen
rage? And the people imagine a vain
thing. The kings of the earth have set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel against the Lord, and against His anointed,
saying, What? Let us break their bands asunder,
and cast their court... Is that not exactly what this
demoniac pictures? He broke those chains. Even so,
we say in our hearts, let us break our bands. You know what
God does? He laughs. He has them running around as
fools, chasing the wind. That's all they're doing, chasing
the wind. But I'll tell you this, they'll reap the whirlwind. They'll reap his wrath, even
though they say we break their chains. Listen, they're not breaking
any chains from God. God still rules them, and God
will have justice on them. And not only that, he could not
be tamed. He could not He would not follow
the society. He would not follow the dress
of the body. Now listen, religion would dress
up the body in outward morality. But nothing,
no religion, no human effort could ever tame the soul. You can put a pretty dress on
a corpse, but it's just still a corpse. You can put religion
on a man that doesn't change a man. It's not taming him. It doesn't tame this with him.
He's still just as wild as he was before. And the last thing
we see about this man is that he was self-destructive. Look at this. He said night and day he was
in the mountains, verse 5, and in the tombs crying and cutting
himself with stones. himself with stones. This was
a self-destructive behavior. And listen, so is our nature
self-destructive. By nature we desire to do things
that are contrary to good sense. All the madness and rebellion
and hatred of God, friends, will never be able to deliver them
from his hand. I don't care how much you hate
God. I don't care how much you despise this word. Listen, you
are still in the hand of God. And he will have justice. He
will be satisfied. He will be satisfied. God will
not accept your works, your religion, your deeds, no matter how good
they may appear before men, because sin is mixed with all we do.
But we as believers understand this. Everything I'm saying to
you, you know what, I'm not, when I hear these things, I'm
not thinking of anybody else but me. I'm not thinking of anybody
else but me. against the god who the sky all
with and uh... mad secure and so is every of God's elect. This is how He
finds us. He finds us in this condition. He always finds us helpless and
hopeless. Jesus finds His elect in this
condition. Oh, that God would even now come
and show men their condition. Isn't that our desire as preachers
in the Gospel? Jesus Christ came to save what type of people? Only one class. Sinners. Sinners. Jesus came to be, to
save madmen. Madmen. Now thirdly, let's see
the salvation of Christ, verse 6 and 7. But when he saw Jesus
afar off, he ran and worshipped Him and cried with a loud voice.
Listen to his worship. What have I to do with thee?
What kind of worship is that? Devil's worship. A vain worship. This demon knew who he was. And
I tell you, he came and worshipped not because he wanted to, because
he had to. He had to. Was there any way
this guy was going to escape? Was there any way that that man
was going to be carried away from Christ? No. that man that
being in was compelled to come bow down before christ he was not so much a willing
service servant as much as he hated christ and what about it
do with a i know you are the son of god god manifest in the place he
comes in fear for anything but self-preservation. Do you see
that? He's coming for self-preservation. He said, I adjure thee by God
that thou torment me not. Another place said, before the
time. There's a time set. There's a time set for their
destruction. He knew that. He said, how could you come and
destroy me before the time? He was only concerned about himself. comes in fear, and devils and
men, they make men religious, they make men appear to worship
God, but in their hearts they're saying, what have I to do with
it? Thou Son of the Most High, I'll have my way, I'll have my
way, I'll dress up the outside for self-preservation Isn't that
what most men see religion as? A fire escape out of hell? That's
all they see it as. That's devil worship. It's nothing more than unclean
spirits in a man. But look and see that God even used these devils
to bring his child to himself. It's amazing. God uses everything
everywhere and moves all things to bring that son to himself.
That devil was only thinking about himself, but God was only
thinking about the man. And move the devil to bring the
man. Move the devil to bring the man.
This man came with all Selfish motives and desires Of that unclean
spirit yet. It was God Who caused these things
to bring him by the power and grace to hear his word? It was
not that he This is is this not how we came Listen, I didn't
I didn't come to Christ willingly I didn't know what was happening
around me. I didn't know what God was doing in my life and
the circumstances and the providences. All those things that were moving
to bring me under the sound of the gospel, to hear His Word.
When I came to worship and heard His Word for the first time in
the Spirit of God, I didn't come that night to hear His Word. I came for selfish motives, for
self-realization. I didn't come to worship Him.
Yet even God used that to bring me under the sound of the gospel
so that I should hear His voice, His Word. God knows everything,
everything to bring us under the sound and listen to His Word.
He said, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. Do you need cleansing? Are you powerless to claim yourself? Are you worthless? That's a question
for this generation, isn't it? This generation is self-promoting.
They just cannot, even when somebody is good at something, they cannot
stand that that person is better than they are. And they have
to bad mouth somebody that does something better. Why? Because it's all about self. It's all about self-worth. You
know what I'm worth? Nothing. Isn't that what Paul
said? He said, I am what? Nothing.
Nothing. Are you chained to your sin and
ruled by your lust? Then I tell you this, run to
the feet of Christ as fast as you can. I adjure every one of you to
run to his feet. Because only His word can cast
out your sin. Only His word. Only His voice
can raise you from the dead. Only His voice can cleanse you
and give you eternal life. Only His voice. Not the voice of the preacher.
Not the voice of your parents. Only His voice. Only His word. This often reminds
me of the prodigal son. That prodigal son, he spent all
that he had. He was like this demoniac. He
was destitute. He had nothing. He was worthless. And yet he determined for selfish
motives to go back to the Father, didn't he? He was self-preservation.
He was going back to the Father for self-preservation. But the
Father had other plans. The father had his eye on his
son. He was watching the gate for
his son to reach. He knew his son wasn't going
to last out there. He was waiting for him to come
back. And you know what happened? Who was the one running? The
son of the father. It says the father ran and fell
on his neck. Exactly what Christ is doing
here. He ran to this man before this man ever came to him. And
he fell on his neck. And he said, you get out of my
son. And they had no choice but to do that. You know what God
says about my sin? Get out of the man. You have
no right here. Because Christ has already paid.
the dead and my sin. So with His power He cast them
out and so Christ now sets up rule inside of our hearts. And
notice this power was effectual, wasn't it? Was there one unclean
spirit left? Was there one? Not one. is there one price for them all
if the sun now then lastly the result look at this After they had gone out and he
cast him into the swine, look what they, these men come running
back and they find this man totally different than what he was. Totally
opposite of what he had been before. He was running around
like a madman and then they find him what? Verse 15. They find him, the devil's gone
and he's sitting. At another place, I believe it's
in Luke's Gospel, it says they found him sitting at the feet
of Jesus. whereas before he was running
he's running from everybody running from everyone now he is sitting
at the feet of his savior this is always the result of the new
birth everyone who believes who is saved by Jesus Christ sits
at his feet tonight, what are you doing? you're not sitting
at my feet sitting at his feet. We come to sit at his feet. Isn't
that what Mary desired? Martha was busy. Anybody busy? You get busy? What for? Remember where Mary was. She
was at his feet. And Jesus said, one thing is
meaningful. And Mary has chosen that one
thing. And it shall not be taken from
us. Listen, to sit at His feet is the chief pleasure of God's
saints. Is that your chief pleasure?
Is that what you desire the most, to be with Him? This man, he
desired the most to be with Christ. Later on, he's going to try to
get on the ship. And Jesus ain't going to let him get on. Oh, that must have tore his heart. because a believer desires nothing
more or less than to sit at the feet of Christ. Give me the hymn
of His garment and I'll be satisfied. If I could sit at His feet, talk
all you want about holding me at His breast, I don't know if
I can go that high. I just want to see His feet.
I just want to hang on to His feet. I'd like to take my place like
that woman the prostitute who came behind him and wept at his
feet. That's where I desire to be.
Is that where you would desire to be? If you are, that's because
you've been cleansed. The second thing is this. He
was clothed. Clothed in what? What are we clothed in? We're
clothed in righteousness. Once we were running around in
the fig leaves of our religion thinking ourselves to be we were
the emperor with no clothes that's what we were but now we have real clothes
the very righteousness of God without spot without blemish
fully clothed fully clothed and listen he was in his right mind
what's a right mind? A right mind knows this. Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all my salvation. Christ
is all my joy. Christ is all my peace. Christ
is all my righteousness, sanctification, wisdom, redemption. Christ is
all. Now that is a sound mind. Anything other than that is insanity.
add your work price is utter and the last thing I want you
to notice is this that Christ is given everyone he's a look at this in verse twenty
they all wanted him to leave everybody they saw this they
were afraid Those who don't want Christ want Him to leave. They
don't want any part of what we're doing here. They don't want any
part of Him, or His Word, or anything. But, He's getting ready
to go back, and He says to this man, look at verse 20, and he
departed. I'm sorry, verse 18. And when he was coming to the
ship, he that had been possessed of the devil prayed him that
he might be with him, albeit Jesus suffered him not. But sayeth
unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things
the Lord hath done for thee, and hath compassion on thee. Friends, we have a mission, we
have a purpose in this world, and it's not to please the flesh,
it's not to raise a family, those are fine things. Those are fine
things. There's nothing wrong with a
family. There's nothing wrong with friends. There's nothing
wrong with enjoying what God has given you. That's not our
purpose here. Our purpose is to testify of
what great things God has done. And believer then is being sent,
being separated. We are right now separated from
our Lord. We are. We're not yet in the full presence
of Christ. He is sitting on the throne.
Now He does come, and He does abide with us, and we do feel
His presence at times, but right now, we are not in the full presence
of Christ. We will be. We will be. But not yet. And until that time,
we have one thing to do. Tell what good things, what great
things God has done. We should be looking for every
opportunity. every opportunity that avails
itself, we should testify of the greatness of Christ, the
goodness of Christ. This is our purpose. And you
know what he did? He departed and published it. He did exactly
what God told him to do. And so does everyone who understands
who has been a maniac, who has been delivered. Have you been
saved on purpose? Christ came on purpose to save
us on purpose. Has he come to you and revealed your nature? Has he spoken the word and cleansed
you of your sins? Then go. I remember with this
man. In England, during Spurgeon's
time, said he wanted to go to a foreign land to be a missionary. And Spurgeon said, why go to
the Hottentot? We've got plenty of heathen here
in London. Oh, friends, may God give us
grace to witness of what great things He's done for us. I pray the Lord. Let's stand
and be dismissed.