Turn with me back over to Mark
Chapter 1. Right here in Mark Chapter 1, our Lord has just called four
of His apostles. He walked right up to them and
He said, And I'm so glad the Lord said
the same thing to me. Follow me. And immediately he
led them into the synagogue and he preached. And I'm so glad
the Lord led me into the house of God and preached to my soul. And verse 22 says, they were
astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one that
had authority, not as described." This is not like the religion
I heard. One way. Man, you guys are dogmatic
over there. You know that? There is one way. One way. Christ alone. That's it. You know what the
Lord preached in that synagogue? Christ alone. Scriptures alone,
grace alone, Christ alone. That's what he preached. Well,
in that synagogue that our Lord was preaching in, there was a
man sitting there who was possessed. One of the members. And doesn't that seem a little
strange? A man who was under the spell, under the control of an unclean
spirit. What was he doing in church? What was he doing in church? Verse 23 says, There was in their
synagogue a man with an unclean spirit And he cried out, saying,
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. The unclean spirit said that.
Now let me show you two verses of scripture. Turn with me over
to Acts chapter 4. Man, may God open blind eyes
to see this. Acts chapter 4 verse 10 says,
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, Even by him doth this man stand
here before you whole. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved." That name is salvation. It's salvation. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isn't that right?
That name is salvation. All right, now turn to John 17. John 17 verse 3 says, And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. That's life eternal. To know
Him. That's life eternal. Alright,
now go back with me to Mark chapter 1. Verse 24 says, saying, 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. The Jews did not know that. We've
been going through John, he keeps having these run-ins with the
Jews, doesn't he? They didn't know that. The Pharisees didn't
know that. Pilate didn't know that. You know what? Pilate said, tell
us plainly, who are you? This unclean spirit was sitting
in religion. And he believed this is Jesus
of Nazareth. The holy one of God. Does that
mean God's going to have mercy on this unclean spirit? No. No. The world needs to hear this. The world needs to hear this.
You know, he said many are going to say to me, Lord, Lord. The world needs to hear this. Don't turn. Jude verse 6 says,
The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their
own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness
unto the judgment of the great day. God is going to judge every
unclean spirit. Every single one. Now what were
they doing in religion? What were they doing in religion? What were they doing in religion?
What were they doing in church? Why didn't he find them in the
bar? This is the message of warning
that I have for Kingsport. This is the message of warning
that I have for every man and woman who goes to church If a
man or woman goes to church, this message is for you. It's for you. I pray that God
will be merciful to souls. I really do. I pray God will
be merciful to souls. It's growing stronger and stronger
in me. Lord, be merciful to souls. Show
them this truth. The spirit of uncleanness, the
spirit of evil, was born in religion. It was born in religion. It's the headquarters of uncleanness. That's just the factual truth. Go with me over to John chapter
8. John 8 verse 13 says, The Pharisees
therefore said unto him. Verse 14 says, Jesus answered
and said unto them. He's talking to the preachers
in the churches. Alright, that's who he's talking
to. Verse 42 says, Jesus said unto them, If God were your father,
you would love me For I proceeded forth and came from God, neither
came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand
my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. You are of your father, the devil."
That spirit of uncleanness was born in religion. He said, you're of your father,
the devil. He's telling the pastors this, the preachers this. You're
of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will
do. He was a murderer from the beginning,
and abode not in the truth, because there's no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth,
you believe me not. Which of you convinceth me of
sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me? He
that is of God, heareth God's words. You therefore hear them
not because you're not of God. He told the preachers in the
churches that he said, you're not of God, not of God. You're all lying, unclean spirits. Over in 2 Corinthians, verse
11, it says, Therefore it is no great thing if he, the adversaries,
ministers, also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their words. He's saying all
of the ministers of uncleanness are in the leadership role of
religion. And He said, Their end shall
be according to their works. What are their works? Spreading
lies. That's their works. Spreading
lies. Lying on the Word of God. What do they say? What are the lies they tell?
Go back to Mark chapter 1. Verse 24 says, saying, let us alone, what have
we to do with thee? This is the heart of an unclean
spirit. This is the belief of an unclean
spirit. We don't need you. We don't need you. That's the heart of an unclean
spirit. We don't need you. Leave us alone. Yes, we like
Jesus just fine. He can be a part of our religion. But we're going to do this ourselves. We're going to exercise our own
free will. We don't need your will. You're not sovereign. I make my own decisions. The
choice is not up to you. I make my own choices. Let us alone what have we to
do with thee. That's an unclean spirit. Now
the scary thing is that is every man and woman by nature. You
know that? Every man and woman by nature.
Let us alone. We don't need you. Isaiah said
we are all as an unclean thing. Every one of us. Now I want to
prove that to you over in Matthew 8. Go with me over to Matthew
8. Matthew 8 verse 28 says, When
he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes,
there met him two possessed with devils coming out of the tombs,
exceeding fear, so that no man might pass by that way. And behold,
they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus,
thou Son of God? They called him the Son of God.
Art thou come hither to torment us before the time? And there
was a good way off from them, and heard of many swine feeding.
So the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us
to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, And when
they were come out, they went into the herd of swine, and behold,
the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea
and perished in the waters. And they that kept them fled
and went their ways into the city and told everything and
what was befallen to the possessed of devils." So these swine had
farmers who were keeping them. And they saw what happened, and
the swine died, and they all ran into town and told everybody,
this is what just went down. Now look at verse 34. And behold,
the whole city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw him,
they besought him that he would depart out of their coast. The whole city. let us alone,
what have we to do with thee? That was a whole city. Every
person who believes himself or herself to be a religious person,
yes, I'm in religion, religious person, every person who says
that needs to understand this. James wrote, thou believest that
there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe
and tremble. The devils believe there's one
God, and they tremble. And God is going to put them
in hell. It is not enough to believe that there is a God. We must believe God. That's the difference. We are
all as an unclean thing with a nature that says, I'm my own
God. So what makes me to differ? We're all an unclean thing. What
makes me to differ? With this unclean nature, what
hope do I have? Outside of Jesus Christ, I don't
have one. Outside of Jesus Christ, you
don't have one. The only hope that we have is if Christ will
give us a brand new nature. that's the only hope, is if he
will reach in and pull out this unclean spirit and crush it,
kill it, and then in its place put a brand new spirit in there,
a clean spirit, a new creation with a heart that cries out to
God, don't leave me alone. That's the cry of a clean spirit. Lord, don't leave me alone. Don't leave me alone. What have
we to do without thee? To whom else can we go? We cannot do anything. We cannot
worship God. We all know we can't worship
God without the Spirit of Christ. Please don't leave us alone.
We're all as an unclean thing, but God chose to have mercy on
some. To some of the unclean and ungodly,
He said, a new heart I'm going to give you. A brand new heart,
a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away that
stony heart that says, leave me alone. And I'll give you a
heart of flesh, a new heart, one that loves God, one that
loves His word, a heart that believes God's word. Not just
a heart that believes there is a God. There are people everywhere
that believe there is a God. Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus of Nazareth. Do you believe Jesus is the Christ?
I believe Jesus is the Christ. Do you believe He died on the
cross? I believe He died on the cross. Do you believe He rose
again? I believe He rose again. It's
not enough to believe there is a God. Lord, put something in
here that believes God. Put something in here that believes
God. I'm an unclean thing, but this
is what Paul said. I am crucified with Christ. This unclean thing, Christ killed
it. When he died, I died. He said,
nevertheless, I live. Not I, Christ lives in me. Christ liveth in me. A new possession
has taken place. A brand new possession. Christ
controls every one of his people. Christ reigns in his people.
Here's the only hope I have, that Christ came in here and
led captivity captive. That's it. Get out. He's mine. This is mine. Back over in Mark
chapter 1, verse 23 says, There was in their synagogue a man
with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, 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. That's what he said to every
one of us, if we belong to him. You know, in our sin and our
ignorance, All of a sudden one day he says,
hold your peace. That old man needs to come out
of there. Verse 26, 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. And immediately his fame spread
abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee. This is
what Christ has done for every single sinner with an unclean
spirit that has been brought to him in mercy by God's Holy
Spirit. Every single one with authority
He commands and everything obeys. Everything. That's the best news
I've ever heard. Everything obeys. everything. Now you and I, and every man
and woman on earth, we have one of two spirits reigning in us. There are one of two spirits
reigning in us. We either are possessed with
an unclean spirit or we have been possessed by the Holy Spirit
of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the two. How can we know which
one it is? How can I know if Christ has
taken possession in here? Go back one more time to John
chapter 8. John 8 verse 42 says, Jesus said unto them, if God
were your father, you would love me. You'd love me. There's something
deep inside you. very deep in your spirit. There's
something deep inside there. Love the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean truly love the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's something deep inside here
crying, Lord, please don't leave me. Please don't leave me. In and of myself, I'm so cold
and I'm so dead and I'm so lost. Please don't leave me. Please,
where else can I go? Thou hast the words of life. We can do nothing without Thee.
Or is something deep inside here saying, you've got to make your
choice? If it's crying out to the Lord
Jesus Christ for mercy, that is the new spirit in you. That is His Holy Spirit in you. Verse 47 says, He that is of
God heareth God's words. If you find yourself loving the
Lord Jesus Christ as He has revealed Himself to be in this word, not
as He has been portrayed through lies, through religion. As He
is in truth, if you love Him for who He is, God Almighty,
the God Almighty, then you have been possessed. God has moved. He's moved in. He said, I'll
never leave. Never. We just looked at six stubborn
statements. All right. 1 John said, Try the
spirits. That means the preachers. And
I'm going to ask you this morning, try the spirit that's in you.
You have one of two inside you. There are one of two in there.
Try the spirit that is in you. Answer this in your heart. Is
God sovereign or not? If you immediately said yes,
That's the new spirit talking. That is not you. I promise. That is not you. That's God's Holy Spirit. All
right? Is man in this natural flesh dead or not? If God leaves
me, is there any life that's going to be here or not? And Adam will all die. Did God do all the choosing or
not? If I walked over to Church Circle,
and I'm not picking on Church Circle, I can go anywhere, and
ask the question to the average person, did God do all the choosing
in salvation? I don't believe I'd get the same
answer that's in here. Not according to the flesh, it
takes God's mercy by putting a brand new spirit in there.
One that says, salvation is of the Lord. Yes, if God did not
choose me, amen. You know that? What if God didn't
choose you? What if He didn't choose me? He said many are going to say,
Lord, Lord, we've prophesied in thy name. That means preacher.
There's a bunch of preachers that won't make it. What if God
didn't choose me? It takes the Holy Spirit of God
Almighty to say, even so, amen. But you know, that's the comfort
to a sinner is that God has put a spirit in there that says,
even so, amen. When Christ died on that cross,
ask yourself this question in your own heart. When Christ died
on that cross, did He redeem us? Done. Did His blood pay it
all? Or is there something left that
needs to be done? Do you have to be baptized? Do you have to
take the Lord's table? Do you have to say something,
or do something, or wear something, or be something? Or did the blood of Jesus Christ
pay it all? Done. If your heart says, I'm
looking to Jesus Christ alone, that's God's Holy Spirit talking.
That's not you. I got my mind, I've been growing
and learning for years, I read a lot of books and I'm coming
to, it's not you. I promise, if it was just you,
you would say, no, the blood of Christ alone is not enough. But if it is, if the blood of
Christ is all you need, that's God's Spirit talking. The fifth one we looked at this
morning was, does God's Holy Spirit do all the quickening?
Can you come to Christ on your own? No. If we believe, like most
people do, if I take the first step, he will take the second.
That's not God's Holy Spirit talking. God's spirit says, you hath he
quickened. Are all of God's people going
to make it or not? I'm telling you, we're looking
to Christ. I was driving over here this
morning thinking I got all these notes for this morning. I had
10 pages of notes in the Bible study and 11 pages of notes for
the message. I got 21 pages of notes. And I was thinking, Lord, if
you don't work, I got 21 pages of nothing, nothing. I'm looking to you. I'm trusting
you. I'm going to say what you told me to say, and then I'm
out. I'm going to leave it in your
hands. You will apply it as you see fit. You will do everything
you've purposed to do because you are in control. And I can tell you this, when
it comes to every single thing in this life, all the way to
making it to glory, if we get to the end of this thing and
it's finally said, yes, you told people the truth. And yes, the
people you preach to believe the truth. And yes, Christ did
a work in you. And yes, Christ redeemed you.
And yes, Christ has kept you, brought you. If we can say that
and hear that, it is all going to be by the work and grace of
Jesus Christ. I've never preached one person
into heaven. Never. Christ shall lose nothing. That's God's spirit. That's God's spirit. Come Holy
Spirit, heavenly dove, with all thy quickening power, kindle
a flame of sacred love inside these cold, dead, stony, worthless,
hard hearts of ours. Quicken us. Let's sing that,
all right? Let's all stand together.