Turn back to Mark chapter 5,
title of the message, Christ Says a Demon Possessed Man. I don't know what they would
have called him at that time, but our Lord lets us know what's
going on. You know, when our Lord, and
I've thought about this, when He came into this world,
He came to manifest the Father. No man knows the Father, save
the Son. And He to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. But a lot of other things were
manifested. A lot of other things were manifested. A lot of those,
and I believe this is so, a lot of those illnesses that were
prevalent in that day, and I think the same in our day, Our Lord
rolls the curtain back and says, this is what it really is. This
man's possessed of the devil. Now, our Lord, throughout the
Gospels, but let me tell you this first. The reason there's
no bulletin, the copier died. The copier died on me this morning,
so that's why there's no bulletin. But throughout the Gospels, Christ's
power over all the elements, over nature, over all diseases,
over all devils, is demonstrated. There was nothing, absolutely
nothing, that was not under his power. When he spoke, if he said,
the demons come out. Look back in chapter 4, in verse 35, and the same day
when the evening was come, this is another demonstration of His
power. He said, Let us pass over to the other side. And when they
had sent away the multitude, they took Him, even as He was,
into the ship. And there were also with Him
other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind,
and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And
he was in the hindered part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.
They awoke him and said unto him, Master, carest thou not
that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the
wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind
ceased, and there was a great calm. Just before he saves this demon-possessed
man, He demonstrates his power over nature. The wind and the sea. I mean,
we're talking about hurricane force winds. And all he does
is with his word, and that's all he needs to do. It says,
peace, be still. And it lay down at his feet like
an old faithful dog. The scripture says, where the
word of a king is, there's what? Ecclesiastes 8.4, write that
down. Where the word of a king is,
there is power. Right, now put that on your refrigerator.
Where the word of a king is, there's power. And none can say
to him, what are you doing? Those demons didn't say, what
are you doing here? This man belongs to us. No, no. We see in this chapter
that Satan is a very real person. He's a very real person. And
his followers are very real and very powerful and very evil.
The embodiment of evil. Too powerful for us. I don't
want to deal with them. I don't want to deal with any
of it. I don't even want to go there. Now it says in verse 1,
And they came over to the other side of the sea, into the country
of the Gadarenes. Why? The same reason when he
told his disciples, I must these go through Samaria. The same
reason he went through Samaria. There was a woman at a well that
was going to be there. particular time that belonged
to him. And he's going to go there and he's going to get his
sheep. He's going to reveal himself to his sheep, just like he did
that woman at the well. And here is a man that nobody
would have guessed that belonged to God. Would you have looked
at this man in this tomb, cutting himself, running around naked? If you read the other narratives
of it in the two other Gospels, he's running around naked. His
man's cutting himself, he's screaming, he's crying. No doubt they've
probably said he's a lunatic, you know, he's crazy. No, he's
possessed. But I'm telling you this, in all his madness, in
all that was going on with him, this is God's child. This is
one of his children. Would you imagine that? Would
you have looked at someone like that and say, that's God's child? No, you'd have looked at a Pharisee,
like I would. And you'd say, that's God's child.
He said, no, you're of your father's the devil. That's what he said
to those self-righteous Pharisees. You're of your father's the devil,
and that man that was possessed with the devil, he's mine. And
I've come to get him. I've come to get him. He's after
his sheep. There was one of his sheep there,
and I imagine there was more than that, because this man went
back to Decapolis, and man, he became a flaming witness. of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And who knows? Who knows what
the Lord did with that? Because He told him, you go back
there. Now, He wouldn't have told him
to go back there if, I believe, some good wasn't going to come
out of it. There's more sheep back there in Decapolis. But
the Lord is on the trail of His sheep, and He's going to reveal
Himself to him, and He's going to save him from himself. He's cutting himself. and he
will save him from the power of Satan. That's what happens
when God saves us. He saves us from ourselves, our
sins, and from the power of Satan. He takes us out of the clutches
of Satan. Until salvation happens, we are
under the power and influence of the devil. That is manifested. Our Lord
made that clear throughout the Scriptures. There was a man one
time who brought his sons to the disciples. He was foaming
at the mouth. He threw himself in the fire
and in the water, trying to drown, trying to commit suicide. And
the man was crying. He came to the Lord with tears,
and he said, I saw your disciples. They couldn't do anything for
Him. You know what the Lord said? This is so precious. He said,
Bring Him to Me. Bring Him to Me. And he cast
that devil out of him. He cast that devil out of him. And when he was come out of the
ship, verse 2, immediately there met him out of the tombs, the
graveyard, the man running around the graveyard. This is where
he lived, up there in the graveyard. Met him out of the tombs. The
man was an unclean spirit. His problem was within. That's
our problem, isn't it? It's all inward. It all starts
inward. Unclean, unclean. This man had
an unclean spirit, a foul spirit, immoral spirit, wicked spirit. That explains the human race
by nature. I felt convicted this morning. I caught a little bit
of a program. I said, you, this world doesn't
want to hear this, especially this country. But this is the
picture the Lord gives us of what we are by nature. This is
us by nature now. Can't squirt around it, put it
under the rug, because I can tell you sooner or later it's
going to come out anyway. It's going to come out anyway. You
see that in verses 3, 4, and 5. In Genesis, when God looked down
from heaven, He saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth. It doesn't say He looked down
from heaven and saw Noah. No, it says Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Noah, by nature, wasn't any better
than the rest of that group. Not by nature. God has to save
us and give us another nature. And that's by grace. That's by
grace. But it says that when God looked
down from heaven, He saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth and that man's imagination His thoughts, it says, was evil
continually. There was no break. It was continual. Continual. This man had an unclean spirit,
a foul spirit, an immoral spirit, a wicked spirit, and he lived
in the graveyard. Lived among the dead. Now verse 345 gives us a good
picture of human religion. Let me read these together. Who
had his dwelling among the tombs, among the dead, no man could
bind him, no, not with chains. Couldn't do it. Because he had
been often bound with fetters and chains. And the chains had
been plucked asunder by him. He just broke them. Can you imagine? And the fetter had broken in
pieces. Neither could any man tame him or control him. Out
of control. And always, night and day, no
let up, he was in the mountains, in the tombs, crying, cutting
himself with stone. Well, what did the people of
that town and stuff do? They tried to bind him with chains
and fetters, and they did everything they could do to try to keep
him under control. And that's what human religion is. That's
religion without Christ. I'm telling you, it is a great
picture of religion without Christ. Like the man of his day, religion,
human religion, tries to bind men and women with many things.
Do's, don'ts, you know, they just play on your conscience. Play on your conscience. And
they do that in order to get you to behave. And of course, get out of you
what they want out of you. But that doesn't last long, does
it? It doesn't last forever. It only lasts for a while. The
true character of a person, sooner or later, comes out. Sooner or
later, it comes out. You know, you can only bind human
nature with education and so on for so long, and religion,
and sooner or later, it's got to come out. It is what it is.
It's too powerful. Says he plucked
asunder. Plucked asunder. And neither
could any man tame him. Nothing worked permanently. But
everything they did, I want you to notice this, everything they
did had to do with, and led to, bondage. Bondage. They tried to tie him up, put
him in a straitjacket. That's what they tried to do.
Bound him, it says, bound him. The gospel, Christ said that
he sets us free. The truth shall set you free. You shall know
the truth and the truth will set you free. But human religion
binds, puts us in bondage, doesn't it? It doesn't set men free.
It sets us free, puts us in bondage. And notice here the self-destruction
went on. Cutting himself with stones. I believe this man hated what
he was, but he couldn't do anything about it. I've watched a documentary
once on a serial killer. This man, he started going to
church. He got religious, and he said
he was trying everything in the world to stop, to stop what he
was doing. He said, I know it's wrong, I
didn't want to do it, but I tell you this, when sin whistles,
the dog comes. When the master whistles, that
master of sin, you're going to bow down to it if it has control
over you. Christ said, sin does not have
dominion over you. It will not have dominion over
you. He's not talking about just the guilt of it. He's talking
about the reigning power of it. The power of it. But let me point something else
out here. I want to point out the evil and cruelty of Satan. As I was reading this, I thought
there is absolutely zero mercy with Satan. As God is the embodiment
of holiness, truth, grace, love. Scripture says God is love. God
is life. Satan is the embodiment of absolutely
everything evil. Doesn't even know what mercy's
about. Doesn't even have a glimmer of
what mercy is. Doesn't know it. Evil. He's pure evil. Satan would bring
every man and woman into this state right here if he were allowed
to. He'd do it. He would do it. Thank God he's not allowed to.
But also thank God now for what follows. Look in verse 6. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran. Who ran? The devil? I want you to notice there the
singular. Now it goes back to singular. He ran and worshipped him. This man saw Jesus afar off has
a deeper meaning than just seeing Jesus at a distance. It does
not mean that he saw Jesus a hundred yards down, you know, down there
in the ship and getting out of the ship and he saw him afar
off. This word saw here in this verse
means perceived. He perceived who this man was.
When he saw Jesus, he perceived him to be the Son of God. He
perceived it. Christ began revealing himself
to this man when he saw him. When he saw Jesus, the Lord began
revealing himself to that man. And he saw, this is the Son of
God. This is the Son of God. He perceived
this as the Son of God. And this is when salvation happens.
This is when it happens. When you, by God's grace, by
God's power and the power and influence of the Holy Spirit,
when you see Jesus Christ, you perceive who He is. You know,
by the hearing of the ear, Job said, by the hearing of the ear,
I've heard of thee, but now mine eye seeth thee, and I want. I am for myself. When you see
him, that's when you'll see you. You will not, you absolutely
will not see yourself. Understand who and what you are
till you see him. When that man saw him, he ran
and worshipped him, and then you notice the confession that
follows. He ran and says he worshipped
him. And in verse seven, and he cried with a loud voice and
said, what have I, not we, He's possessed with allegiance. Listen
to me. You've heard people say, the
devil made me do it. He doesn't say that. He doesn't run to them
and say, I'm possessed. I don't think the man even knew
he was possessed. That's my personal feelings about it. I think the
man just was, you know, he's like, look, crazy. He didn't
know what was wrong, but he was mean. He was devilish. He was
possessed. But he didn't run to the Lord
and say, I'm possessed and the devil's making me do this. If
you'd cast him out, I'd be different. No, you wouldn't.
You'd be a devil yourself. I don't need the devil to be
a devil. I was born one. I was born unclean. I was born
lost. I don't need him to be evil.
We're born that way. The Word of God teaches us that.
We're born and dead and trespasses and sins. Ephesians chapter 2.
That's how we come into this world. So he cried with a loud voice
and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? See, he perceived who he was.
Thou Son of the Most High God, I, not we, I adjure thee by God
that thou torment me, not us, me. Hard to tell who's speaking here,
isn't it? Who's speaking? Both. That's how in league human
nature is with the devil. Both. Because both deserve torment. That man knew he deserved torment.
He knew what he was. The Lord revealed to him what
he was. Lost. Lost men, lost devil. Men are under the power and influence
of Satan until God saves them. You mark it down. It's so. It's
so. For He said unto him, verse 8,
He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. Here's the power of His Word. The Lord could just speak this
morning. He could just speak a word this
morning and a soul would live. A soul would live. Come out of the man. Leave him.
He's not yours. He's mine. He's mine. The stronger man has shown up.
He's going to take over the house. And he says to this devil, the
devils, get out of here. Get out of there. He saves this
man, and I'll tell you what, he saves him completely. He saves
him from the guilt of sin, and he saves him from the power of
sin, and he saves him from the power of Satan. Brethren, that's
salvation. That's salvation. A salvation
that does not save you from these things is no salvation at all.
You don't have it. You don't have it. And he asked him, What is thy
name? And he answered saying, My name is Legion, for we are
many. And our Lord's not asking for
information here. He knew this man. I know my sheep. He said, I know my name. I know
my sheep. But here's what he's doing. He's
making him confess who and what he is. We confess before God who and
what we are by nature. Remember that woman with the
issue of blood I talked about here a few weeks ago? Slipped into the crowd
there and got behind him and got behind him now. Touched him
in his garment and she was going to slip back out and go home.
And he stopped her and made her confess before all why she did
it and what happened. No secret disciples. He did it to make him confess
who and what he was. And he said his name was Legion.
Someone said that to about 6,000. That man was possessed of about
6,000 demons. We have, and I thought of this,
and this is just such a blessing. We have a legion of sins, don't
we? We have more than that. We have
legions. More than that. By nature, we are sin. We have
legions of sin. I thank God through Jesus Christ
that He put away all of them. When He cast those devils out,
did He leave one behind? Or was there one hiding in there
somewhere? They all went out. They all went out. And He besought him. And he,
now who's speaking? Hard to tell him. And he beside
him much, begging him much that he would not send them away out
of the country. He knew what, I tell you what, this man knew
what he deserved. The Lord made it known to him.
I think the Lord revealed to him what he deserved. And he begged
him, don't send me into torment. Don't send me into that abyss. He knew that Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, he knew he was the Son of God, and he had the power
to cast him into hell. He knew that, and he knew he
had the right to do it, and the power to do it. He said, he said, don't send me into torment. Now there was there, nigh unto
the mountains, a great herd of swine, And all the devils besought him,
saying, Send us unto the swine, that we may enter into them."
There's no end to their cruelty, is there? There's no end to their
cruelty. But here's something you need
to get a hold of. "...And forthwith Jesus gave
them leave." Permission. Who's subject to who? Every one of them, Satan himself,
the leader of all of them, is absolutely, absolutely, 1000%
in subjection to Jesus Christ. He gave them leave. He said,
go ahead. I'll let you go over there. I'll
let you go over there. And forthwith, Jesus gave them
leave and the unclean spirits went out, every last one of them.
and entered into the swine. And the herd ran violently. I tell you, this man himself
was violent, wasn't he? Cutting himself, screaming, running
around the mountains naked. And then when he cast those demons
out and those pigs, they did the same thing. They ran and
drowned themselves. He would have too. He would have
killed himself too. if the Lord had let him. But
he's mine. This one's mine. He's not going
to let him. He's not going to let him. They
ran violently down a steep place in the sea. There was about 2,000
of them. And they all drowned. They all
drowned. I wonder if that man looked over
there and saw that happen and realized that would be my end. That would be my end The Lord
had not saved me. That would be the end of it. They that fed the swine fled,
told it in the city and in the country, and they went out to
see what it was that was done. And they came to Jesus and see
him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting
and clothed and in his right mind. Boy, this is salvation. This is salvation. And they were afraid. They should have rejoiced. Somebody
finally did something about it. The only one who could do something
about it, the Lord. He saved that man and put him
in his right mind. We see here the power of Christ
is saved from the power of Satan. Boy, you better be glad of that.
I'm glad of that. Who would have thought? There's not one person in the
Capitalists that knew this man, would have even in their wildest
imagination thought that they would actually see him sitting
clothed and in his right mind. And that scared him. That scared
him. Scared the daylights out of him.
Scared him so bad they told Christ to leave. And he did. That's
sad and that's even scarier. They told him to leave and he did. Sitting and clothed in his
right mind. Christ's salvation is real. He did. Now listen to me. He did what
religion... I had a lady tell me some time
ago. A few years ago. She said, I know I need to get
back in church. I said, no, you don't. No, you don't. She had made a profession. I
said, no, you don't. You need Christ. You don't need
religion. You don't need to get back in
church. You need Him. Going to the place of worship
will take care of itself if you have Him. But our Lord did. What religion could not do. They
tried to bind him, put chains and fetters and couldn't do anything. He did what doctors couldn't
do. They probably tried to give him
some kind of medication. There are some things I'd like
to say on that situation, but I'm going to leave it alone. I'm telling you, Christ saves. He saves. He did what religion
couldn't do, what doctors couldn't do, what the parents couldn't
do. He did what education can't do. He put that man in his right
mind. What is a right mind? What is
a right mind? 99.9% of the people you ask,
everybody will say they're in their right mind. A right mind
is a mind that believes God. That is a right mind. To have
the mind of Christ is a right mind. To bow to the Lordship
of Christ is a right mind. Not to believe God? To call God
a liar? Not to bow to Christ? Well, you
be the judge. He put him in his right mind,
and he was clothed. Was he ever. He was clothed in
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as every one
of his sons and daughters are. Clothed, sitting at the feet
of Christ. And they that saw him told them
how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, And
also concerning the swine, and I'm sure they didn't like that.
They lost their pigs, their income. They didn't like that. You know, people can handle it
until you touch their pocketbook. And they began to pray Him. We
prayed this morning. I prayed this morning. Stand
here. They all prayed this morning. We did pray Him. We begged Him
to be with us and to bless us He gives the Spirit of worship
and the sinfulness of His Word and power. We prayed Him this
morning. They did too. So leave. Don't show back up
here. And you know what? He answered their prayer. He
got in the ship and left. Be careful what you pray for.
You'll get it. You might get it. They did. He got in the ship and left. He got in the ship and he left.
They began to pray him to depart out of their coast. They liked
it better the other way. Isn't that something? I tell you, people want to see
you get saved. Religion wants to see you get saved. Until God
actually really saves you, then they don't like it. Really, when
I heard the gospel, when I heard the gospel, I was going to a
place. I was going to, I don't know any other word to call it,
but I was going to a church. And when I heard the gospel and
I told him the gospel that I heard, I had to leave. They prayed me to leave. I tell
you what, you pray God's messenger to leave, you pray God to leave.
And he would. I thought, honestly, and I can
remember this just as plain as day. I found out something new. I mean, I thought I found it
out and I wanted them to know about it. I wanted to tell it.
And I honestly thought they'd be happy. They was not happy. He didn't leave. He didn't leave. He saved this man, this man sitting
there in his right mind, his clothes, he's not screaming,
yelling, running around naked. And they were so afraid they
told the Lord to leave. Don't do that around here. Don't do that. And when he was coming to the
ship, that possessed man, that man that was running around naked
in the graveyard cutting himself, he said, don't leave me here. This is the heart of every child
of God. I want to follow you. I want
to follow you. There's nothing here. There's
nothing here for me. He wanted to follow Christ, but
Christ knows best, doesn't he? He puts every one of his sheep
where it's best for them, the kingdom of God and his glory.
Exactly where you are. Exactly where you are. Howbeit Jesus suffer him not. No, you're not going to get in
this ship today. When it's time to take you home,
I'll come and get you, but not today. You're not going to get
in this ship today. You can go home. Jesus suffered
him not, but said to him, Go home to thy friends, and tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath
had compassion on them. Go home to your friends and tell
them how great things the Lord has done for you. What mercy
the Lord had on him, And what mercy the Lord had on his family.
You know he tore that home up. He said, now you go back and
tell them what's happened. You go back and you tell them. You could imagine his parents
and the friends and all the people that knew him, the relatives
and the family. Is this the same person? Not no. No, he's a new one. He's a new
one. A new creation in Christ Jesus. He said, you go home and tell
your family and friends. I thought about this. Have you
and I really told our family and friends what great things
the Lord has done for us? Have you? Have I? He did. And he departed, and he began
to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him.
And all men did marvel. They knew who he was. They knew him. He did just what he was
told to do. He became a flaming witness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't go home when I close with
this. Don't go home and try to convince
your family that the Bible teaches elections. Don't go home and
try to teach a lost person Bible doctrine. It ain't going to sink
in. No matter what the Scriptures
teach, all that the Scriptures teach, the lost man is not going
to get it. Go home. And here's, I mean,
the advice, the command he's given here, the advice, let's
listen. Go home and just tell them what
great things the Lord has done for you. Don't sit there and
debate over election or not election. I mean, you'd have to be a fool
to read the Bible for Genesis and Revelations and then say,
the Bible doesn't teach that. It does. It's so clear, so plain. Just go home and tell about what
great things He's done for you. Doctrine will take care of itself.
It'll take care of itself. If a man ever believes God, he'll
never have trouble with election, predestination. Everybody here,
everybody in this world is predestined. They don't know it. You use house
plans to build your house? You ever build a house? You use
house plans? You know what that's called? That's predetermining
what the house you're going to live in, what it's going to look
like. We are predestinarians by nature,
and yet we don't like God predestinating, predetermining anything. Is anyone
more infinitely wise? Anyone more qualified than God? We predetermine a lot of things
in our mind, what we want things to be like, and we'll draw up
the same plans. Then man will shoot God for predestinating.
The scripture says He determined the end from the beginning. Well, let's go home and tell
what great things the Lord has done for you.