Turn to Mark chapter 1. We're going to see in these verses the power of Christ
to save. His power to save. And looking at this, my first
thought, was this, is Christ able to save, and I put from
the power of sin, and then I wrote down, is Christ able to save
me? Is he able to save me? You know, it's not hard to believe
that he's able to save you. I believe the Lord's able to
save. I believe he's able to save you. I believe he's able
to save any sinner. Do I really believe he's able
to save me from sin, from the power of Satan? And we've been
looking into the book of Job. We see how much power he can
have when he's allowed to have it. Can he save me? Is he able to save me? from the
curse of the law? That's a real curse. You know,
a voodoo curse, that's a joke. That's a joke. There's one real
curse, and that's God's law. Can he save me from the curse
of the law? Can he save me from myself? I need God to save me from me. Can He save me from this world,
from the influence of it, the draw of it, the principles of
it? Is He able to do that? Well,
we'll see here in these verses that our Lord is able. Our Lord
is able. I know that by the power of the
Holy Spirit, I can preach under His power, under his power I can preach.
But at no time, at no time can I save a sinner from anything. He can give me the power to stand
here and speak and give me liberty, give me clarity of thought, but I cannot, I absolutely cannot
save anyone. I don't have that power. That
power belongs to one person. Well, let's say three. The Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but God. It belongs to God. That's who it belongs to. And
Christ is able, he's able to save all who come to him. Hebrews
7.25, Wherefore he is able also. To save them to the uttermost,
as I heard my pastor say one time, to the guttermost. From the uttermost to the guttermost.
He's able to save them that come unto God by him. Seen he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. To be an advocate for them. Now, you'll notice as we go through
this, this man did not come to Christ. Christ came to him. Remember this. Remember this.
God is always the one who makes the first move. He's always,
always, every time the one who makes the first move and then
enables us to move or come to him. By a command, he'd say,
come to me. And if he sends that command
to you in power, effectually, you're coming. Just like that
demon, this unclean spirit, there was no arguing. He didn't like
it. He didn't like having to leave
his subject. He got comfortable in that house. You know, he was
the master of that house until the stronger man came and said,
out of here. He got an eviction notice and
he had to go. But God is always the one who
makes the first move and then enables us to come to him. This
man asked to be left alone. Leave us alone. Don't mess up
what's going on here. Leave us alone. Now it says in
verse 21, and they went into Capernaum. This became his headquarters
after he got ran out of Nazareth. And straightway, without hesitation,
did you come here straightway this morning? When you got up
this morning, is this where you wanted to go? Is this where you
wanted to be? Straightway. Straightway, we're
going to go to the worship service. We're going to go hear the gospel.
Straightway. I mean, it's like nothing else matters. Nothing
else matters. We're going to where God has
preached. We're going to gather with God's people. And straightway
on the Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue and he taught.
He did not enter there to be taught. No, he's the Lord. He's the teacher. He's the master. He did not go there to hear what
they had to say. He went there to give them what
he had to say. He went there and he taught them.
He was always about his father's business. He was always at the
place of worship. He was always where the Word
was read. I want to show you something
over in Luke chapter 4. We have this same story in Luke
4, but I want you to look over here in Luke chapter 4. Look at verse 14. And Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee. This is after the temptation
in the wilderness. And there went out a fame of him through
all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues
being glorified of all. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up and as his custom was, this is his custom. When did that start? Like these
little ones here. I assure you his parents took
him every Sabbath to that synagogue and he heard and the word was
read. He was there. It was his custom. And as his custom was, he went
into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up for to read. He stood up to read. And then
we'll look back at this in a little bit. But this is what his custom
was. And he was a preacher. He was a preacher. He went there
to deliver Not a message, the message. But there's only one. It's a message of grace. It's
like the doctrine. We call them doctrines of grace.
There's only one doctrine. You know, we talk about laws,
but there's only one law. There's only one law. And in
defending one point of the law, he said, you do what? You break
the whole law because there's only one law. Well, you say,
well, no, I broke this one. I didn't break that one. No,
you broke the whole law. That's why they're all guilt.
That's why we're all guilty. But he went there to preach the message.
He went there to teach, to instruct, to remove ignorance. And he went
there to save. He went there to save. That's
what he came to do, to seek and to save the lost. And when he taught, as he taught,
they were astonished. I wrote down here, they were
shocked out of their sleep. They were shocked. That's one
of the words, that's one of the meanings of this. They were shocked.
They were, it was like you jarred, you know, they were jarred. They
were jolted. What just happened here? Did
you ever experience something like that? What just happened?
And as he began to speak, power went forth in his words. With
the words he spoke, power went forth. And they were astonished.
They were shocked out of their sleep. Oh, man. He got their
attention. that he would get ours. Pray
he'd get ours this morning. Get our attention. And they were
astonished at his teaching. They'd never heard such a thing.
You see, they had described the clerks. How would you like to
have a clerk here this morning just reading to you? I hope that's not what happens. They'd never heard such a thing.
He taught them as one that had authority, and that's because
He did. All authority is given to me,
He said, in heaven and earth. All power and all authority has
been turned over, put into the hands of Jesus Christ. They said He taught them as one
that had authority and not as the scribes. They were astonished.
They were so astonished, they were so shocked out of their
stupor. Why? Why? Why was it? Because he spoke the truth. The
truth. The truth is so powerful. It
is so, even if a man doesn't agree with it, even if he doesn't
agree with it, he knows it's the truth. You ever look at someone,
you be telling them something, you say, you know that's the
truth. You know it's the truth. I don't care whether you believe
it or not, you know I'm telling you the truth. They knew there's something different
here. There's something going on here.
What's the difference? Here's the difference. Truth
is speaking. They're not just being told the
truth, the truth is speaking to them. And it's powerful. It's powerful. Spurgeon said
this, there is no power in falsehood. Except so far as men choose to
yield to it because it flatters them. It flatters them. But there is great force in the
truth of God. He spoke the truth of God as
truth should be spoken, unaffectedly, natural, and not as a professional. I like that. Not professionally.
He was not a professional speaker. He's the Word of God. He's the
truth of God. He's the embodiment of truth.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. And he spoke the truth. And they were affected by it.
God's not going to save anyone by a lie now. You're not going
to take half a gospel and half a lie and expect God to use it.
It's not going to happen. God saves men by the truth of
the gospel. I'll tell you another reason
it was so powerful. It came from his heart. It came from his heart. The only message that really
reaches the heart is one that comes from the heart. That's the only one. It's got
to come from the heart. The power and authority was absent, it says there, with
the scribes. He doesn't speak like the scribes.
He speaks with authority. When the scribes took the Word
of God and they read it, they read it just like reading a book. I mean,
it was just a book to them. It had no effect on them. I tell
you this, if the message does not affect me, I'm confident
it's not going to affect you either. If it doesn't touch me,
it's not going to touch you. It's not going to happen. Because
I believe that's how messages come from God. When He touches
my heart with something, He'll touch somebody's heart here too,
because it's for you. It's not just for me. It's for
you. And these scribes, they were
so cold, And I've heard that kind of preaching. Have you heard
that kind of preaching? Intellectual? It's just like sitting in a classroom.
And it's just so unaffecting. They quoted the Scriptures. But you know, there's a real
difference in quoting Scripture and in preaching the Word. Paul
did not say, Timothy, quote the Word. When you stand in the pulpit,
quote the Word. He said, Timothy, preach the
Word. Preach the Word. There's a difference. They quoted
it. They memorized it, quoted it,
read it, and it was just cold as ice. But our Lord didn't. He came from glory. And I'm telling
you, His heart's in it. And He's speaking from His heart
to them. They spent their time arguing
over things that didn't matter. And since they were so unaffected
by it, they came up with traditions. That's how traditions get started,
when the Scriptures don't mean anything to you. When the Scriptures
have no power on you, traditions will take place, because that's
what you like. You know, by nature, that's what
we like. We're traditional. We love everything about tradition.
Oh, we've done this for years. You know, that's one of the,
well, forget it. I'll leave that alone. Okay,
here, let me go on. Here we see Christ's power to
save even the worst of sinners. Even the worst. Here is one who
is totally, totally under the control. Over in Luke, it says
an evil, unclean devil. This man is totally under the
control of an unclean devil. Verse 23, and there was in their
synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, unclean devil. And he
cried out, this one whom the Lord purposed to save was held
captive by Satan. He was a captive of darkness. And it's not just a devil, but
an unclean devil, one that was vile, And I believe this is what
he talked about, immoral in every way. There was nothing this man
wouldn't do and hadn't done probably. Unclean, unclean. I know somebody's
going to say, all devils are unclean. Well, that's right.
But they don't all operate that way. Remember that. They don't all operate in an
unclean manner outwardly. Turn over to 2 Corinthians. I'll
show these to you out of the Word of God. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, look
at verse 13. Not all of them operate in an
unclean, immoral, despicable way. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, and no marvel. For Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light, therefore it is no great thing if his ministers
also be transformed as what? The ministers of righteousness.
Sometimes they come in that form, whose end shall be according
to their works. But this one was an unclean devil,
immoral devil, and he was in their synagogue. Remember in Job when the sons
of God came before God? There was a day when the sons
of God came before God and what? Satan came with them. Satan came
with them. Here was one of the trademarks
of Satan and all those that are lost. Here's a trademark. No fear of God. Satan was not afraid. And in
the book of Job, when the sons of God came before God, Satan
was not afraid to appear. This one is not afraid to speak
up and disturb the service and try to shut it down. Try to shut
that thing down. No fear of God. The fear of God
is, the scripture says, the beginning of wisdom. But you see here,
there's no fear of God in this unclean spirit. And the first
thing he does, he disturbs the worship service. You know, God
is a God of order. You cannot, you just cannot come
into this, we cannot come here together and have this order
and call it worship. You can't have, you know, a lot
of stuff going on and call it worship. We've come here together
to sit and to listen, to sing his praises. Well, we've come
here to sit and speak, Lord. Not me, not you. I have to speak
because I'm a preacher right now, but I'm really not me, really,
honestly. Not me, Lord. You speak. You
move the people. I don't have the power to touch
your heart. Frank says, you know, he can make you feel bad. You
know, he can have Dickie. I can make you do that. But he only has the power to
reach into your heart and bring you down. He only can do that. So this man, this possessed,
and I tell you what, it's like they're one. You can't tell. You know, when the people, they
saw this man, they just, they saw this immoral, this awful
man. Well, this man's possessed. But
he's still a fallen man. If the devil left him, he's still
lost. He's still lost until the Lord saves him. Until a man is
saved by Christ, until he's brought to faith in Christ, until he's
born of God, he's still lost. I don't care how he straightens
up. I don't care. It doesn't matter. You can straighten up
and fly right. You're still lost. Still lost. For he disturbs the
service. Satan will not be quiet long. I'm often asked, often asked.
This probably comes up once a week when I'm talking to somebody.
How's things going at church? I say right now everything's
going fine. Right now. Right now everything's quiet.
But I know this. Satan will not be quiet long
when God is getting the glory. He couldn't stand it. Here's
this man, here's this evil spirit sitting there and Christ is speaking
in power and is giving glory to God. He's giving glory to
the one to whom it's due and this devil's sitting there and
he can't stand it. So what does he do? He interrupts
the service. He interrupts it. There's nothing more uncomfortable.
For the devil and all who are lost, when God is getting the
glory, there's nothing more uncomfortable. When truth is being preached,
there's nothing more uncomfortable for Satan and all those fallen
when truth is being preached. See, he likes it when a lie Well,
a liar's being preached. You see, he's said to be the
father of lies. He's a liar and a father of them.
But when truth is set forth, when it goes forth in power,
he's going to disturb. If he's allowed to, he's going
to disturb. He's going to make a disturbance. And here's what
he says. Listen here in verse 24. I mean,
these people are astonished. They're amazed at his doctrine.
He taught them as one who had authority and not like the scribe.
He's not just standing there reading. And he says to them,
this man cries out, let us alone. What have we to do with thee? Thou Jesus of, and this is a
shot at him. This is taking a low shot of
Nazareth. Anything good ever come out of
that place? Jesus of Nazareth. He's taking a shot at him there.
He's letting the people know there, this man's from Nazareth. But then he acknowledges some
truth here. He acknowledges some truth. Thou
art come to destroy us, I know thee who thou art, the Holy One
of God. Now, the first thing he cries
out is this, let us alone. Don't break up what we have going
on here. Don't mess up what we have going
on here. Satan had that place. He's got
it. And it's like, don't come in
here and mess this up. Don't do that. Don't preach the
gospel of grace here. Don't give God the glory here. Don't speak of God's sovereignty
here in this synagogue. Leave us alone. Look over in
Luke chapter four again. You know, our Lord here in Luke
chapter four, there in verse I think fourteen. Down through
37 is where this kind of takes place, but I'm not going to read
all that. But in verse 17, it was delivered unto him a book
of the prophet Isaiah, and when he opened the book, he found
the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he's anointed me to preach the gospel. He's a
preacher to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering a sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord." He closed the book and he sat
down and gave it to the minister, and the eyes of all of them in
the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to say to them,
this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears. Then he goes on to preach. I
want to go on down here. He says in verse 25, Well, verse
24, and he said, Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted
in his own country. See, this is the message he preached
before he got ran out of town and he went to Capernaum. Here's
the message he preached. I tell you of a truth. Many widows
were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heavens were
shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout
all the land, but until none of them was Elias sent, save
unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow,
and many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet,
and none of them was clean save Naaman the Syrian, and all they
in the synagogue. And when they heard these things,
they were what? Happy that God saved the Syrian? No. Filled with wrath when they
heard. He stood in that synagogue. And
he told them, here's what he told them. God is sovereign in
salvation. God saves whom he will. And it
made him mad. And they rose up and thrust him
out of the city and led him into the brow of the hill and they
were going to throw him off. They were going to throw him off that
hill. And they might cast him down headlong. But he passed
him through the midst of them. Isn't that amazing? This is just
amazing. You don't get a sight of him
fighting his way through the crowd. They are going to throw
him off the brow of the hill. They are so mad and so angry.
And he just turns around and walks right through the crowd.
And they don't even recognize him. Oh, the power of God. And that's how, listen, that's
how blind we are. That's how blind we are. I'll tell you how blind and dead
men are. The devil recognized him, but nobody else did in that
crowd. Nobody else in that synagogue recognized him but one, and that
was the devil. So how blind and dead must we
be? Let us alone. No devil wants
to be saved, no more than any lost man or woman wants to be
saved. You know, the lost, as we were born by them, nobody
wants to be saved. Oh, now, let me take that back. Everybody wants to be saved from
hell. I know that. Nobody wants to go to that place.
Anyone with a right mind does not want to go to that place.
And that's basically what false religion builds on. You don't
want to go to that place. You want to go to heaven when
you die? That's what you have to do. But to find someone that wants
to be saved from their sins is different. to save me from myself. That's what I was talking about.
Save me from me, from what I am, and what I love by nature, which
is vile, corrupt. Let be. Just let things be. This is what he's saying. Just
let be. Just go on your way. Just slip
on out of here, and we'll go back to what we were doing. Let
be. What have we to do with thee?
What do we have to do with you? You know, the scripture says,
what does light and darkness have? What fellowship do they
have? They don't have any. And he said, what do we have to do with you?
You just go on your way, you do your thing, we'll do ours.
That's what he's saying. Now, Jesus said, now, he disowned
He disowned all connection to Christ. What have we to do with
you? I have nothing to do with you,
and you have nothing to do with me. We're not friends. He resented. He absolutely resented
the Lord's presence. Isn't that amazing? He resented. He's in the synagogue, and he
resented the presence of God being there. I would mess up
some places. I'd mess up a lot of places if
God shows up. I don't want you. That's why
He said, I don't want you. I don't want you. This man and
this demon had become one. If we did not have God's Word
on it, we wouldn't know that a devil was talking. So, in league with one another.
So in league. But as I said, this devil knew
who the Lord was. He recognized Him. Thou Jesus
of Nazareth, art thou come to destroy us? Have you come to
put an end to it? I think he may be saying this.
Have you come to put an end to all this now? You know, Satan's
time is short. He knows that. Scripture teaches
that. He knows his time is short. That unclean spirit knows His
time is short. He knows His end is coming. You
know, this world, the human race goes on like it's not going to
end. He knows it's coming to an end. Have you come to, have
you come to destroy us? Isn't that amazing? He doesn't
say, this shows you how the Lord has to give a new heart, a new
birth. Because here stands the Lord
of glory. Instead of saying, save me, save
me from this destruction that's coming. Not one hint of it. Not one hint
of repentance. Not one hint of interest. Is
this the end? Is today the end? Have you come to destroy us now? a short time. I'll tell you something else
he knew here. He knew that Christ had the power to do it. The power,
the right, the authority to destroy him right there. He knew that
all power is in the hands of this man. He knew it. For thou art the Holy One of
God. that the stronger man of the
house had just shown up, just walked in. He knew it. But how blessed is this next
verse? And Jesus rebuked, and that word means sternly. He sternly rebuked him. He didn't
just say be quiet. He sternly rebuked him saying,
hold thy peace and come out of him. The devil had his say. And now it's time for the Lord
to speak. And when he says, hold thy peace, that word means be
muzzled. That's what it means. You put a muzzle on a dog, he
says, be muzzled. Shut up. And I'll tell you why. He didn't
say another word. He couldn't. He was commanded not to. And
he couldn't say another word. Leave that man. Come out of him. He's mine. He's mine. You know, everyone whom God saves,
he saves from the clutches of Satan. He saves from the clutches
of Satan. Leave this one alone. He or she
is mine. Mine. I'm so glad that neither
we nor devils can thwart the Lord's purpose to save. I'm glad,
oh, because every last one of us would say, leave us alone. Every last one of us would. If
he left us to ourselves, we'd say, let it be. Just let it be. When the Word goes forth in power,
the enemy of our souls must retreat. He must give way to the Lord's
command. And this still happens today.
It would thrill my soul if it would happen again this morning,
if he would set a captive free. Wouldn't that be something? He
can do it. It happened when God saved me.
It happened when God saved you. He said, leave him. Leave him. We all have an unclean spirit
about us. Now listen, I don't know anything
about demon possession. I don't know it and I don't want
to know it. I don't want to know it. But I know this, every lost
person has an unclean spirit about them, possessed or not.
I was born with one. Lost. Lost. Unclean is our nature. It's our nature. And when the
unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came
out of it. Satan never leaves willingly. He always has to show an act
of rebellion. But you know, over in Luke, over
here in Luke chapter 4, it says that, I'm already over here,
He says, let me find the verse here. In verse 35, And Jesus rebuked
him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when
the devil had thrown him in the mist, he came out of him. What's
that say? And hurt him not. He received
no hurt from that. Satan would have tore him in
half. if he could have. But he came out of him and there
was some screaming going on. There was. There was some screaming
and some wallowing on the ground. There was some convulsion. That's
what some of the writers said. Convulsion. He fell on the floor
in a convulsion. But when all was said and done,
he wasn't hurt. The Lord saved him. The Lord saved him. He wasn't
hurt. The devil didn't like giving
up his home, but the Lord gave him his eviction notice, and
he had to go. He had to go. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned
among themselves, saying, what did we just witness? What did we just witness? What
new doctrine is this? They'd never heard of this before.
They'd just had the whiplash of the law all the time. The
most scribes and most Pharisees, that's how they try to keep everybody
in line. Rules and regulations, dues and
dollars, that's how you keep them in line. Boy, I'm sure the
Lord spoke to them about the gospel, the liberty, Forgiveness
and pardon and grace. They said, well, we've never
heard this before. It's just like a breath of fresh air. It was like eating
out of a fresh garden. Well, I know you have. Vegetables
fresh out of the garden. Oh, man, they're good, aren't
they? Boy, this was fresh from heaven. And they were like, wow. That ought to be the way we'd
leave here every week. I would to God that we could. That we
could leave here every week amazed. Amazing grace ought to be amazing
every week. It ought to be amazing every
day, shouldn't it? Amazing grace should be something that's fresh
and real and amazing every day. What new doctrine is this? But
with authority, he didn't invite the devil to leave. There was
no bantering going on back and forth here. He just said, shut
up and leave. And he did. Now, he did some
screaming on the way out. He didn't have any more to say.
But he, you know, he did some screaming on the way out. But
he had to shut up and leave. For with authority commandeth
he even unclean spirits And they obey Him. That never happened
before. No scribe ever cast any unclean
spirit out. Christ is able to save from the
guilt of sin, and He's able to save, and I want you to get this,
from the reigning power of sin. He's able to break the power
of cancelled sin. In Daniel 6.20, a king comes
up to the den and he's cried with a lamentable voice unto
Daniel. And the king spake and said to
Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom
thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?
Yes. Is Christ able to deliver me,
save me from my sin, Satan, curse of the law, myself and the world?
Absolutely. Absolutely. By His blood, by
His righteousness, He's able to save. By His power and authority,
He's able to save. He's able. And immediately, His
fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
And I pray, I pray His fame will spread abroad from this place.
I do.