Mark chapter 5. And we'll be
looking at verses 1 through 20 this evening. And the reason
I've chosen Mark chapter 5 instead of Matthew chapter 8 is they're
the same story, the same history here, only it's expounded more
here in the Gospel of Mark. And so if you want the parallel
passages to this message tonight, you would look in Matthew chapter
8, verse 28 through 34. Or Luke chapter 9, verse 26 through
39. So those are parallel passages
to this chapter. I don't think that's Luke 9.
I think that's Luke 8, if I'm not mistaken. I may have gotten
that one wrong. Hold on. I want to make sure
I give you the right one. Yes, it would be Luke 8, verse
26, down through verse 39, at Luke 9. So we're going to stay
here in Mark 5, verses 1-20 to 9. The title of the message is,
A Captive Set Free. A Captive Set Free. We have here in this account
the story of the demoniac of Gadara. Now last week we saw
that the Lord had crossed the sea of Tiberias and had calmed
the storm at the request of His disciples. And He has now made
it to the other side. And as soon as He lands the boat,
here comes this man running to the Lord. This madman, this devilish
man, this horrific man comes running to the Lord Jesus Christ
as though you would see him try to bowl him over or as though
he would attack him. And yet he comes and he bows
down before Jesus. And he says, what have we to
do with thee, thou son of the Most High God? What a surprise
it was to the disciples, don't you think? To see that man come
running across the beach there and come before Christ and all
of a sudden spit it out. What have we to do with thee?
Well, this man, he was no ordinary man, but he was a man possessed
of many devils. Many devils. When Jesus asked
him the name, when He asked the demon inside of this man his
name, He said, My name is Legion, for we are many. I don't know
if you know this, but a legion is anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000
men. This man had anywhere from 6,000 to 12,000 demons living
in his body. And the Lord Jesus Christ sees
this wild man and He tells the demons, He says, you come out
of him. And they said, where are you going to send us? We
want to go to the swine. Would you allow us to go to the
hogs? And there were some hogs there. And the Lord said, yes,
go. And they went to the hogs and
drowned those hogs in the sea. When the people of the city,
they found out about this, you would expect them to be happy.
There was this man who had been a curse to his land, a detriment
to his people. And Matthew, it says that he
would block the way. He would block off the road and
scare people away from that city. You'd imagine that they'd be
happy. Well, the Scripture here tells us that they weren't so
happy. Jesus cast this man out and they
come by and see this man, he's sitting clothed and in his right
mind and all of a sudden, they get mad at Jesus for casting
the devils out of this and killing their pigs. And when Jesus was about to leave,
this man said, can I go with you? And Jesus said, no, you
go home and you tell your friends what great things God has done.
This is a wonderful history, wonderful story. But I want us
tonight, I want us to see from this message, from this passage
of Scripture, the message of salvation, the salvation of a
sinner. That's what I want us to see.
This is a message of salvation. This is a message of the gospel
of Jesus Christ before us tonight. It's not just a history lesson
of exorcisms. This is a salvation of Jesus
Christ to His people. And I pray that the Holy Spirit
would let us see the wonder, the majesty of a captive set
free. A captive set free. And I want
to divide our thoughts tonight into three divisions. Very simple
divisions. I want us to see a captive man.
We're going to look at this demoniac and we're going to see what it
is to be a captive man. Then I want us to see the captives
deliver. I want us to see Christ. I want
us to see what He has done for this man and how that relates
to you and me. And then third, I want us to
see what the captive's like when he's free. You're going to see
what a captive is really like when he's set free. First of
all, a captive man, this demoniac of Gadara, is a type of every
man by nature. Every man by nature. Just as
this man was captive to the 12,000 demons that lived inside of his
body, so is every man by nature a captive of his own sin. Every man is a captive of his
own nature, of his own sin nature. These demons, they came into
this man and they possessed this man and he was subject to them. He was bound by them. He was
tormented by them day and night. He had lost his family. This
man had lost his job. This man had no clothes. He had
nothing in this world. He walked among the tombs. He
was a madman. He was an outcast from society. Well, friends, so is every child
of Adam held captive and enslaved to his lusts. Every man by nature
is captive to his passions and evil desires. Everyone that is
born is born into this condition and has no hope of escape by
their own power. Friends, this man before us tonight,
he could not cast out those demons in himself. He had no power. He had no strength. They had
possession of him. He didn't have possession of
them. And so it is with our nature.
Anyone outside of Christ, they have no power in themselves to
save themselves. None. I want us to see five things,
I believe five things about this man that is described in our
text that pictures every child of Adam. First, I want us to
see this. Every child of Adam has an unclean
spirit. Every captive by sin and Satan
has an unclean spirit. Look at that in verse 2. It says,
"...and when He came out of the ship," Jesus came out of the
ship, "...immediately there met Him out of the tombs, a man with
an unclean spirit." We are all born in original sin. Now that means that when Adam
our father rebelled against God, the justice of God fell on our
father Adam. And we are all children of Adam. And His sin has passed down to
every generation, every man. No one has escaped the original
sin of Adam. When He died, we all died in
Him, and when we were born, we were born dead in Adam. We were
all born with an unclean, evil spirit. Psalm 58 verse 3 says,
"...The wicked are estranged from the womb, They go astray
as soon as they're born speaking lies. Isn't it clear to see this in what we would
call the most innocent among us? Can you not see that in a
child's behavior? Can you not see sin in a child's
behavior? I see it every day. I see it
every day. Not only do I see it in adults,
myself, I also see it in my children. I didn't teach them to lie. They
knew how to lie already. And so did we. When we were young,
anything to escape punishment, if we were going to get a whipping,
we would do anything to save ourselves. We would do anything. We are all born from the womb
speaking lies. And if every man will be honest
for a moment, if you'll sit a man down and just tell him to be
honest with himself, he doesn't have to be honest with us, be
honest with himself. He must recognize he does not
have a clean, pure heart. Every man is devoid of a pure
heart. Who among us has ever been pure in our thoughts, in our words,
in our deeds, in our actions? Have we been pure? No. We have
an unclean spirit by nature. Because our hearts are unclean,
we're defiled by nature. Our conscience is defiled. And friends, God has written
His law on our hearts, hasn't He? And I know this, we know it's
wrong to lie, to steal, to cheat, to murder. We know! Every man
has that instinct inside of him, and that's the law of God written
on his heart, and he knows it's wrong, and every one of us has
defiled that conscience. We've went against the conscience
that we've been given, and we've all become guilty. Man, by nature,
is a sinner. By nature, he's a sinner by practice. And he's even a sinner by righteousness. Everything we do, both good and
bad, is mixed with sin. Everything. Isaiah 64, verse
6 says, But we are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Now that
is plain words. Man by nature has an unclean
spirit. If you are outside of Christ,
I know this, you have nothing in you that is pure. Paul said this, when we were
without Christ, we were free from righteousness. You don't
have to have anybody accuse you of being righteous. Nobody is
going to accuse you of that if you are outside of Christ. Number
two, we walk among the tombs. This shows us that we are all
unclean sinners before the law of God, and we are unclean sinners
because we are dead in trespasses and sins. This speaks to us of
the ability, the lack of ability, to free ourselves from that unclean
state. This man, when he was possessed
of the demons, he walked among the tombs. He walked among the
dead. And I'll tell you, every man
by nature, he walks among the dead. He walks among the tombs. God demands of His creatures
to be of a pure hands and a clean heart. Is that not what God says
how we are to approach God? He says, who shall approach unto
the hill of Zion? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart. That if we are to be accepted
with God, we must be as holy as God is. That's a very serious
thing, isn't it? But if we are unclean in our
spirits, unclean in our hearts, sinners by birth, sinners by
choice, sinners by bondage, how then can we free ourselves? If
we are guilty before the law of God, how can we make ourselves
righteous? The answer is simple. You can't. That's a very simple answer.
It's not one men like to hear, but it's the truth. It's the
truth. God here is showing us our inability
to free ourselves. You see, this, just as a dead
man cannot energize himself. If you have a dead corpse and
you place him down here on the floor and you tell him to get
up and you can give him all the incentive that you want. You
can give him as much money as you please, but he cannot energize
himself to get up. He's dead. And this man, this
demoniac, no matter what they offered this man, he could not
energize himself to be free from walking among the tombs. Why? He was dead spiritually. He was
in bondage, in captivity to the demons that possessed his body. Jesus makes it very plain to
us in John 6, verse 44, when He says, come unto Me, except the Father
which has sent Me draw him." This word, can, is very important
in the text. Very important in the sentence
structure. It's not may. He didn't say,
no man may come. May speaks of permission. He
said, no man can. And this word, can, speaks of
ability. He has no ability to come. Jesus
says, you cannot come to Me because you have no ability to come to
Me. Except what? Except the Father
which has sent me, draw Him. And that word is very powerful.
It's like one who takes a sword from the scabbard and pulls it
out. I'll tell you what, you can put
a sword in a scabbard and it will never pull itself out. It
must have the power to come from someone else. And as God must
come and regenerate the soul, and so a man has the ability
then to come to Christ. It's only by the power of God.
A natural man is dead and outside of Christ. If a man is outside
of Christ, He's also comfortable walking among the tombs, isn't
He? When I was outside of Christ, I was comfortable walking in
my sin. I was comfortable in this world. What made me uncomfortable
was church. What made me uncomfortable was
the Word of God. These things made me uncomfortable. We're all comfortable in our
sin if we're outside of Christ. The things of this world please
us and we're engaged in the things of this life, but we cannot endure
the things of God. Yes, a man can come to religion. He can do that. A man can come
to church. A man can do a job in the church. A man can do these things. He
can do religion, but that's not salvation. There are many religious
Dead men walking among the tombs. Friends, being religious is not
salvation and being moral is not salvation. The resurrection
of the soul, that's salvation. That's salvation. Oh, that men
might see the hopeless condition of their nature. that God might
open their eyes to see that salvation is more than a decision to follow
Jesus. It's more than playing in the
church band. It's more than doing good deeds
for the community. Salvation is not a choice, but
rather it is the power of God in the resurrection of the soul.
That's what salvation is. And any man who's not experienced
that is dead and has no ability to come to Christ. 1 Corinthians 2.14, But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned. Romans 3.11, There is none that
understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. Isn't that the ploy of modern
religion? To assume that man is seeking
God? Man is not seeking God. He wants
nothing to do with God by nature, because he's dead. And he cannot
come to God, he cannot understand these things. Friends, if your salvation rests
on your ability to come to Christ, if it rests on your free will
or your religious deeds, then you have not been born of the
Spirit of God and you are dead in your sins. If you have not
been raised from the dead, then you are like this man walking
among the tombs, dead in your sins. And this man was hopeless
to deliver himself from the tombs, and so is every child of Adam,
hopeless, helpless to deliver himself from spiritual death.
Number three, this man could not be tamed. Look at that in
verse 3. It says, "...who had his dwelling
place among the tombs." And no man could bind him, no, not with
chains, because he had been often bound with fetters and chains.
And the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters
broken into pieces, neither could any man tame him." Many people had tried to bind
this man up. They took chains and they chained
this man to a wall saying, ah, we got him now. He's not going
anywhere. And what happened? He just plucked
the chains as though they were cords. He plucked them as though
they were threads. And he mashed the iron fetters
around his wrist and broke them asunder. This man had power.
These demons were strong in this man, and he broke the chains
and the fetters. Then they tried the humanitarian
approach. They said, well, the chains didn't
work. Let's try to reason with him. Let's try to talk him down. Let's put some nice clothes on
him. Put some money in his pocket,
and surely he'll change. Then the Scripture said, no man
could tame him. No man could reason with Him.
No man could educate Him or make Him moral. He would just tear
off the clothes and throw away the money and go screaming into
the wilderness again. This is true of every child of
Adam. We by nature are chained to the
fetters and fettered to God's law. Man by nature is chained
to the law of God. When you are born into this world,
you are subject to the law of God, whether you like it or not.
And whether you ever read the law of Moses, it doesn't really
matter because God has placed His law in the heart of every
man. And so all men are without excuse
in this matter. And yet every one of us in the
strength of our sin has broken the law of God. We have plucked
away the chains of God's law and smashed His iron fetters
and said, I will not have this man to rule over me. That's what
every man by nature says in his heart. I will not have God to
rule over me. I tell you, a natural man does
not mind a God he can manipulate. He doesn't mind a God he can
control. He doesn't mind a loving God
who offers salvation to everyone, but is subject to His will. As
long as God is subject to man's will, they're pretty happy with
Him. As long as He'll do what they want Him to do, when they
want Him to do it, they're happy with God and they'll be satisfied
with Him. They love a Jesus that pities
all men, dies for all men, but cannot save any one of them. But you tell them of the God
of heaven who is sovereign. You tell them what God says about
Himself. Deuteronomy 32, 39, see now,
I even I am He, and there is no God with me. I kill and I
make alive, I wound and I heal, neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. Now that's what God says about
Himself. You tell men that God moved the
earthquake and the tsunami to kill those thousands of people,
and they'll gasp at that. You tell them that God killed
them. I don't want anything to do with
a God like that. Of course you don't. You're enslaved in your
sins. You don't know God. God is seated
on His throne and He does exactly what He determines to do when
He determines to do it and how He determines to do it. And man says, I will not have
that God and plucks himself from the hands of God. Have you ever
had your children, when you grab ahold of their arm, jerk away
from you? Oh man, nothing makes me more upset than that when
my own children do that. But that's exactly how our nature
is with God. We would take our hands away
from God and said, I'll do it myself. No change, no change
could hold this rebel nature. No chains of law could hold this
rebel nature. We all broke the chains of God's
law. In Matthew's gospel, it tells
us that there were two men. But I tell you, only God only
delivered one of them. God only delivered one of them
and let the other one continue in his madness and demonic possession. Now you tell a man that that's
God and he will have nothing to do with a God like that. And so religion, seeing that
a man is not tamed by the law of God, what does he do? He says,
well, we'll try the humanitarian approach on this. What we'll
do is we'll take God's law and we'll tweak it. We'll turn it,
we'll twist it, we'll make it so that the man can honor it,
that the man can do it. And so we take away from the
law here, and we add to the law here, and we say, okay, here's
a new law now. Just honor this one and God will
be okay with you. Religion tries to tame a man,
educate a man, reform a man. And I'll tell you, religion may
tame the outer man, He may put a new suit on him, put money
in his pocket, teach him all about theology, but that does
nothing for the soul of man. Jesus called these men painted
tombs, white on the outside and full of dead men's bones on the
inside. Most of these religious people
are in church and they're tamed in church. You see them in church
and they're sitting upright and they're doing good. They're all
about showing a good face. But as soon as they get out,
off go the church clothes and into sin they go. Why? Because the natural man
cannot be tamed. He cannot be refined. He's a wild beast. Number four,
this man was crying and cutting himself. Look at this in verse
5. He says, "...always, night and
day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and
cutting himself with stones." This man not only would do harm
to others, but he'd do harm to himself. Is that not an object
of pity? Can you not see a man abusing
himself? Is that not something that you
would be appalled at, that it would be a pitiful sight to see
a man hurt his own self? This man took rocks and he just
cuts himself and cuts himself and cuts himself. No doubt these
demons were so deceptive and so mischievous in him that they
would say, Oh, if you just cut yourself, then we would flee
from you. If you just cut yourself a little
more, then we would get out of here. I imagine the man would
cut himself and nothing happened, nothing changed. But is that not what sin does?
Is not sin deceptive to the natural man? Doesn't sin say this, if
you'll just do this, then you'll be happy? Doesn't sin say that? If you just have this thing,
you'll be happy. Oh, the joy! If you just indulge yourselves
in the pleasures of sin, you'll find peace, you'll find joy. And all the while, it's nothing
but cutting ourselves deeper and deeper. And when the joy
is not there, what is that? It's another cut. And they say,
oh, I've got to go deeper. Maybe if I just go deeper into
it, I'll find more peace. But the only thing we find is
pain. The only thing we find with sin
is hurt. Is that not madness? Some say religion's the answer. Friends, there's no end to religion. If a man starts to try to earn
his favor with God, When is enough enough? The wounds just get deeper. And
the ultimate wound will be this, when Jesus says, Depart from
Me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. Friends, I hope tonight
that I've seen, that you see the hopeless, helpless, defiled,
mad, insane nature that dwells in every one of us. This man
is an ultimate picture of us, by nature, captives. He was unable to deliver himself
from the legions and so is every man, by nature, unable to deliver
himself. Well, I've got good news for
someone like that. Because this man had a deliverer. I wanted second of all to see
the captives deliver. The captives deliver. And seeing
the captives deliver who is Jesus Christ. He is the deliverer of
the captives. He is the regenerator of the
souls of men. He is the only hope and salvation
for men. First of all, about this deliverer,
I want us to see a storm that was calmed. When Jesus set sail
from the other side of that coast, do you not know that He had that
man in mind? Do you not know why He commanded
them to get into the boat and travel across the sea at that
particular time? Because He was supposed to meet
a man on the other side of that coast who was full of demons. But what did Christ go through
to get to the other side? He had to go through a storm.
He had to go through a storm. Just as Jesus had an appointed
time, you think about that Samaritan woman, the Scripture says, he
must needs go through Samaria. Why? He had to meet a woman.
He had an appointment. He had an appointment with a
woman. And he must know through the storm, and he must sail in
the midst of the sea, and calm the sea, so that he might deliver
this man from his captivity. must have come into this world,
friends, to calm the storm of God's wrath. Jesus, before time began, purposed
to save the elect of God, didn't He? He purposed. He purposed to redeem them as
a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. He must
needs accomplish what God has purposed in order to save his
people from their sins. Jesus Christ, who being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. But when
he was found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, didn't he?
He humbled himself and became obedient to God. And Jesus took
upon himself the nature of man and emptied himself of all but
love and bled and died for Adam's helpless race. Friends, he took upon himself
all the sin. of all God's elect and bore the
storm of God's fierce anger alone. He took them as He would take
those demons mad. I can imagine as though His mighty
Word reached in and pulled their throats out and grabbed them
and put them where He wills. God Himself took all of our sin,
all of our evil nature, and He put it on His Son, and God meted
out His fierce anger on Christ, and He paid the utmost farthing
for our sins. He endured that storm, and when
it was accomplished, He said, It is finished! It's finished. It's finished. Peace be still. And you know what? God's wrath
was still God's wrath was calm. He accomplished it. He finished
it. And this is the message of the gospel salvation accomplished,
salvation finished by the life and death of Christ alone. And
He is the only one who has ever done this, who has ever made
peace with God. It's like chalk, you know, stretching
nails on a chalkboard to me when someone says, he made his peace
with God. I'll tell you, if he made his
peace with God, he's in hell. That's exactly where He is. If
a man makes his own peace with God, he's in hell. He's not with
God. The only one who's ever made
peace with God is Jesus Christ. Scripture says, He by the blood
of His cross has made peace with God for us. He endured the storm. Number two, the Deliverer shall
come to every chosen vessel of mercy. Just as Jesus had His
heart on this man, as He crossed that sea and calmed the sea,
and as He landed on board that shore, His mind was set, His
heart was set on this man. This man. Have you ever thought
of why the demons didn't run away? Have you ever thought why
the demons ran toward Him instead of running away from Him? Why?
Because Christ had His eyes set on this man. And they could do
nothing else. Oh, the omnipotent power of Christ
that these demons had to come! They didn't want to come! They
didn't want to bow down! But they had to. They had to. Why? He told them to. He made
them come. Because He had His eye of affection
on this man. And they would torment him no
longer. Believer in Christ, we were chosen
in Christ. We were given to Christ before
there was ever sin. Before there was ever Satan or
demons, we were given to Christ. Even so, through all of time,
He has had His eye on us. He had His eye on accomplishing
the work of redemption for us. And even now, that He's accomplished
our salvation, He is seeking and saving those that are lost. That's what He's doing right
now. He is seeking out His children and He will save them. He will
save them. This message of the gospel of
Jesus Christ is going out by the preaching of the gospel and
God's people hear it and they rejoice. They rejoice. But there are some who don't.
To some, this message is not a savor of life, but a savor
of death. And notice this man's reaction.
to Jesus coming. Look at that in verse 6, And
he saw Jesus afar off, and ran and worshipped Him, and cried
with a loud voice, saying, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus,
Thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee by God that Thou
come to torment me not. These demons did not want to
come, they didn't desire to come, But when the Lord Jesus set out
to deliver this man, they could do nothing else. And so it is
with every one of us when we came to Christ. We came the same
way this demoniac came. We came, we don't know why. We came, we didn't love it, we
didn't want it, and it came anyway. We came anyway. We may have said
in our heart, I will have nothing to do with thee. What have I
to do with thee? Are you tormenting me? Why are
you tormenting me? Isn't that what we thought when
our sins came available to us? When our sins were exposed to
us? Was it not torment to our souls that we stood before God
naked? Yes. And I'll tell you this,
our natural man hated it. Our natural man hated it. But praise God, salvation is
not by our will, but in the fact that He made us willing in the
day of His power. Psalm 110, verse 3, Thy people
shall be willing in the day of Thy power. When the captain of
the host of the Lord's army comes in the might of His power, the
will of man is made subject to the will of Christ. What a glorious
day. Oh, what a glorious day when
a sinner is brought to that place. When a sinner hears the message
of mercy and grace, the natural man does not want it. But when
Christ comes in power of the Holy Spirit, that man's will
and hatred is arrested by the grace of God and brought under
submission. to Christ, and he bows down and
worships." You remember when those sons
of Sekhvah came and they tried to take out that one demon? He
said, by Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, we tell you to
come out. And that demon looked at him
and said, we know Christ and we know Paul, but who the heck
are you? And they got out and they went into that man. Here
was the master. Came and 12,000 demons were at
his disposal and he cast them all out at a word. What power! And that's exactly the power
he uses to come and rescue the captive sinner. That's the power
of salvation. Salvation is not something that
we can do. It's something that must be done
for us. Friends, only Jesus can deliver
the sinner from this captive state. Only the Lord Jesus can make
the sinner righteous and blameless before God, and only Jesus by
His power can translate us from the kingdom of darkness. Only
He can spoil the enemy and deliver us from the chains of our sins.
And praise God He's done that for me. What a mighty deliverer! What a wonderful Savior! What
a great and powerful Lord to deliver me from my captive state
that I could not deliver myself. And lastly, let's look at the
captive set free. Look at the captive set free.
Go to... Down to... Hold on just a second, I lost
my place. Excuse me. There it is, verse 15. And they
came. When He cast them out into the
hogs, those hogs ran down the hill, the people heard about
it, they come out, and they see this man. And what do they see?
Do they see the demoniac? Do they see the man running madly
naked in the wilderness and among the tombs, crying and screaming
and cutting himself? No. You see something totally
different. Look at this in verse 15. 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. Now, they weren't afraid of this
man before, but now they're afraid. They're afraid. This man is sitting,
he's clothed and in his right mind. Friends, everyone for whom
Christ died, everyone for whom Christ comes and saves, they
shall be saved. This man was delivered and there
was nothing anyone could say about it. This man was different. This man was changed. This man
was free. Oh, what a cruel Christ the wicked
have set up. The wicked religious world has
set up a cruel Christ. If Jesus came to this man who's
helpless to save himself and called him over to his feet and
left salvation up to this man, what a cruel Christ that would
be. If Jesus said, well, demoniac,
I'm here to save you. But you got to do the rest. What a cruel, evil, wicked Christ
that would be. But that's not what he did, did
he? He came to this man and He cast them out. He saved this
man. And whomsoever Christ saves,
they will be saved. And everyone that is saved, everyone
that is delivered of the demons of the natural man, you will
find them clothed in the righteousness of God. You will find them clothed
in the righteousness of God. Man by nature is naked and exposed
and tries to cover himself with the fig leaves of his works and
religion. But a man who is delivered of
Christ, he is fully clothed in the righteousness of God made
by the hands of Christ Himself. Isaiah 61.10 says, I will greatly
rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my
God. Why? For He hath clothed me with
the garments of His salvation. He hath covered me with the robe
of righteousness. This righteousness is imputed
and imparted to everyone who believes on Christ. Once this
man cut himself with sin and shame and was not to be chained
or tamed, and now he loves the Word of God, he's there at Christ's
feet clothed in the righteousness of Christ, holy and just before
God. This man is in his right mind. This man once was crazy, wasn't
he? You could look at this man, this
man is insane. So were we. Insane to think we
could please God by our actions. And yet when God delivered us,
we were in our right mind to see that only Christ could deliver
us. Only Christ can sustain us. Only
Christ can hold us and keep us in the faith. And number three,
he was sitting at the feet of Jesus. You know what? I love
the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love to hear it. I love to
preach it. I love to read it. I love to study it. Why? It's
my hope. It's my joy. This man was sitting
at the feet of Christ. And that's what every true child
of God who's been delivered, he'll be in his right mind, he'll
be clothed with the righteousness of Christ, and he'll be at the
feet of the Lord Jesus Christ at every opportunity. We like that song we just sang,
Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Write on my heart every word. Tell me the story most precious,
sweetest that ever was heard." That story is a story of a captive
set free. That's his story for me. And if that's his story for you,
I know you identify with this man. I do. I pray that God bless
this to our hearts. This stand will be dismissed
in prayer.