Mark 5, 1 through 20. And we'll
read some of these verses as we go along. But I would title the message,
Grace at Gadara. In verse 1, mentions a place
called the country of the Gadarenes, the people of Gadara. Gadara
was a city, a Syrian city. Not in Israelite city, but Syria,
the bitter enemies of Israel. Grace at Gadara. Years, many
years ago now, I heard this little acrostic for grace. Most of you have heard it. G-R-A-C-E. God's riches at Christ's expense. And that's what grace is. That
instead of God giving you what you deserved. He gave you what his sinless
son deserved. Has clothed us in his righteousness. And instead of giving him what
was always his and always will be his. Purity, sinlessness,
he put on him what we deserved. That's why he went to the cross
and suffered as he did. So grace at Gadara and the story
in this passage of scripture is, uh, it's, it's, it's about
a demon possessed man that the Lord came and changed his life. It's a, it's a miniature picture
of what Christ came into the world to do. In the previous chapter, chapter
4, in verse 35, he got into a ship and he said to the 12, let us
pass over to the other side. He came across to the one man
he came for, changed his life, riled up the whole countryside,
was asked to leave, got back in the boat and returned to the
other side from whence he came. He did not fail in his mission. Isaiah 42, four, he shall not
fail. He did exactly what he came to
do. Now it's easy to read this story
about this demon possessed man and think that he was in worse
shape than ordinary folks. Certainly in worse shape than
any of us. No, he is ordinary folk. He is us apart from the grace
of God. He represents every child of
God before Christ came in quickening power to where we were. The man
is absolutely helpless to save himself. So were we. He didn't know he was helpless. Neither did we. I mean, how could we? We've been
told so much. that you can do for yourself
what needs to be done. You'll hear that on the TV and
the radio and in most pulpits today. But God's word teaches
that by nature, we're just as helpless as this man was. And he'll die in this shape if
Christ don't come to him. He couldn't help himself and
no one else could help him. So I want to quickly consider
three or four things about this story. Number one, the crossing,
the crossing of the sea. I referred back to chapter four
and verse 35, where they, uh, he said, let us pass over to
the other side. They got into a ship and chapter
five opens with the fact that they came over onto the other
side of the sea. this crossing. It was an act
of sovereignty. The man didn't sin for Christ
to come. The good townsfolk didn't sin
for Christ to come. They didn't invite him to come.
And certainly he wasn't obligated to come. As old Dr. Caldwell used to say
years ago, God didn't owe this crowd anything but hell and he
could pay them off any minute. And actually he'd say that to
you and I sitting in the pews. God didn't owe us anything but
hell and he could pay off any minute. There was nothing good in this
man that summons Christ to come his way. Nothing good that got the Lord's
attention or made the Lord smile in this man. All the goodness
was in Christ himself. All the right, all the initiative
was in Christ himself. It's a sovereign mission on his
part. That word sovereign, I haven't
defined that for you in a while. I use the word a lot. Sovereign. Two syllables. The prefix Sov
means highest, above all. And the suffix reign,
you know what reign means, it means rule. So the word sovereign
means highest rule, answerable to none. And God alone is sovereign. I know over in the old country
they call some of their political position a sovereign. Oh no,
oh no, got to answer to somebody. And there's a coin they call
a sovereign, but it'll only go so far when it's spent. But the sovereign of this universe,
God, is answerable to none and never has been, never will be,
And his sovereignty does not run out. So this, this mission of Christ
was not because of anything in the people, anything in this
poor man. It was in the goodness and the
grace of Christ alone, a sovereign mission. Then a word about the
storm that they encountered on the way. He'd said, let us pass
over. to the other side. I ask you,
was there any possibility they wouldn't make it to the other
side? The Lord Jesus never said, now
boys, we're going to start and see what this weather does. No. No, he knew what the weather
was going to do. He knew exactly. He knew they were heading into
one of the fiercest storms that these disciples would ever experience
in their lifetime. Went right into the storm. And you see, this is not just
a child's story about a good man called Jesus going to help
a needy man. It's more than that. This is
the son of God confronting all the forces of hell. It's a showdown. It's a Waterloo. It's an Armageddon. Somebody's
going down, not to rise again. The Son of God confronting all
the forces of hell. Now, he will fail in this mission
if he needs help from anyone. because he's not going to get
it. So he crosses the sea in a storm. What a storm! And when we place
this alongside Christ coming into the world, what a storm
it was for God's Son to step out of eternity into time. To
leave the glory he had with the Father from eternity to come
and identify himself with the likes of you and I. What about
that? And if you can't love him today,
hell is all there is for you. That's all. He came a long, long
way from heaven. into a world that didn't want
him. He made the crossing. Not just the crossing, but now
a few words about the confrontation. Verse 2, And when he was come
out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs
a man with an unclean spirit. Now it's not He met a man, but
a man met him. He knew the man. The man didn't know him. And
the man had an unclean spirit. That's a nice way of saying he
was demon possessed. He did what the demons moved
him to do. That's all he could do day and
night. He lived in the graveyard. Verse
3 said he had his dwelling among the tombs. And this graveyard
by the seashore is not meant a beautiful sandy beach and then
a well-kept cemetery with white tombstones and the lawn neatly. No, no, no, no. This was a cliff-like setting. waters dashing
against the rocks. And it was steep. And there were
caves in the rocks. And that was the town cemetery.
And this fellow dwelt among the tombs. He may move it, go in
this cave one night, rake a pile of bones out of the way, lay
down and go to sleep. Sleep a few hours, get up after
a while, go out of there. scream and holler and rave like
the wild man he was. Go in another cave and do the
same thing. Had his dwelling among the tombs. He was unmanageable. Verse 3
said, And no man could bind him, no, not with chains. In the power of demons, He would
pop the ropes and the chains that they tried to bind him with
like it was nothing more than a sewing thread. You don't order the devil and
his demons around the way that some religious folk today claim
you do. No. They're full of demons too. Let me just throw this in. Not
all demons behave like this. Some are cultured. Some are religious. Some are standing in pulpits
this morning. Some are sitting in pews. Demons
are no joke. The forces of evil. Hell. This man, verse 5 says, and always,
day, night and day, He was in the mountains and in the tombs
crying and cutting himself with stones. Crying. That don't mean he's
weeping, but he's crying out. Blood curdling screams in the
middle of the night and all day long, always day and night. Well, boy, that's strange. No, it's not too strange. That's
what good religious folk were doing back in Elijah's time at
Mount Carmel, where there was a showdown between heaven and
hell. 1 Kings 18, they made them an altar. They were going through
their religious pretense. They jumped up and down and screamed
and prayed and cut themselves with rocks, trying to get God's
attention. They're still doing that today. But you see, the ball's not in
our court. If God don't get your attention, you'll never get his. And he's able to get your attention. According to verse two, immediately, when Christ stepped out of the
boat, here came the man, the confrontation. But when he saw
Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped Him. He had always ran from men. Now he's running to one. What do you reckon caused that?
It wasn't a what, it was a who. You reckon he just decided to turn
over a new leaf? And give Jesus a try? as we've
so often heard. No, he didn't know Jesus. He
didn't know Jesus. He couldn't give him a try, but
the demons knew him. And it's the demons that do the
talking. Verse seven, cried with a loud voice and said,
what have I to do with thee Jesus, thou son of the most high God?
I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. They knew this
was the son of the most high God. The demons knew who Jesus
was. And they address him as such. And then they plead with him
not to torment them. Verse eight. Christ says, it's not you I'm
here for. For he said unto him, come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, what is thy
name? And he answered, saying, my name is Legion, for we are
many. A legion was 6,000 Roman soldiers. You remember when Peter cut off
the ear, drew his sword in the night of Christ's arrest, passion. And the Lord healed the man's
ear and said, Hey, put up your sword. Don't you know, I could
this quick call more than 12 legions of angels, 72,000. And he besought him much that
he would not send them away out of the country. Notice there
in verse 10, both a singular and a plural pronoun. He besought him, singular, one
demon speaking, the voice of Satan himself talking to the
son of God. He besought him much that he
would not send Them, plural, thousands of them, out of the country. We don't
want to leave this place. Now there was nine to the mountain,
a great herd of swine feeding. This weren't Israel. Jews weren't
hog farmers, but these folk were. And the demons needed a body
to dwell in. And they pleaded with the Lord
Jesus. They knew they were no match
for Him. And they asked to go and enter
into the hogs. And the hogs refused to live
that way. They committed hogicide. They run over a steep cliff and
drowned. Verse 13 says, When Jesus gave them leave, the
unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the
herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were
about 2,000 and were choked in the sea. Men don't mind living demon possessed. But the hogs couldn't take it. Well, these farmers, they ran
to town to report what had happened. And townsfolk came out to see. And what they saw was this, verse
15. 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. What were
they afraid of? Hadn't they tried to change this
man? Now here he is changed. And he's in his right mind with
clothes on. What are they afraid of? Well, he's not just clothed with
clothes like they're wearing. He's now clothed with the righteousness
of Christ. This is something divine. This
is miraculous. And they knew it. And the civilized demons in them
are conscious that the demons are gone out of this man. And they're afraid. That could happen to us. And
we don't want that. And so in verse 17, they began
to pray him, that is petition him, plead with him to depart
out of their coast. We want you out of here. Take your ministry elsewhere.
We don't need it. We don't want it. Get back in
that boat. Go back to where you came from.
We don't need you. We don't want you around here.
Please leave. And he did. He did. If you don't have a heart for
the Lord this morning. That's what the demons in you
are saying to Christ constantly. We don't want you leave us alone. Most of us have listened to way
too much demonic religion that we think Jesus is at our
disposal anytime we choose. But the truth is you can't choose. You don't run your life. You're either delivered by the
Lord Jesus. and have a heart for Him and a commitment to Him
to honor Him, or you're still in the clutches
of sin and Satan and eat up with demons. And you know very well which
one it is. You say, well, I'm not sure I'm
saved, but I don't think I'm demon possessed. How would you
know? Well, I know some people it's
not saved. I've got some family members that's not saved. I work
with some people that's not saved, but they're good folks. I wouldn't
say they're demon possessed. Well, what would you say? A man in his right mind is clothed and sitting at the
feet of Jesus. clothed with the righteousness
of Christ and sitting at the feet of Jesus. This is not a game, folks. None
of us are a match for our adversary, the devil. But Christ is. Satan is as a roaring lion. going
to and fro in the earth, seeking whom he may devour. Need to read that very carefully
over there in Peter. It's seeking who he may devour. That is those whom the Lord Jesus
has not rescued for himself and keeps by his power and his grace. All else will be devoured. And are already. Well, this man in the final verses
wanted to go with him. And the Lord said, no, I'm commissioning
you a missionary. To your own people. And he obeyed. Jesus said, go home, tell thy
friends, tell them how great things the Lord hath done for
thee. and has had compassion on thee."
Now that's the testimony of a true missionary. He didn't say go around the world,
now we believe in foreign missions, but he first said go home and tell thy friends what all
we got going on over the church. We've got this program, we've
got that program, And we're handing out more lollipops than ever. And we've got this entertainment
that we got. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he
didn't say tell him anything about that. He said, tell them how great
things the Lord has done for thee. Has he done anything for
you this morning? And I've had compassion. Do you
feel like the Lord's had compassion on you? Or was he lucky to get
you? You're such a wonderful person.
You're such a prize. You're such a jewel. Such a treasure. It was the Lord's lucky day when
he got you, wasn't it? No, no. He had compassion on
you. He had compassion on you. or
you'd still be perishing in your sins. So this is the story. He did that. He went telling
it, began to publish in Decapolis. This is the whole region. How
great things Jesus had done for him. And all men did marvel. Looked cross-eyed and said, what
about that? What about that? And later in
the gospels, we find mention of many more believers at Decapolis. You reckon this old boy got him
a bus? You reckon he started throwing
parties and having all night singings and all that? No, no,
no, no. He did just what the Lord Jesus told him to do. Tell
people what the Lord's done for you. And this is what we had
in our lesson this morning. When somebody's in trouble, when
somebody's sorry, when somebody's convicted of their sin, when
somebody's at the end of the road, they're at their wit's
end. They don't need you to tell them, boy, you need to straighten
up a little bit and fly right. You need to try to get the Lord
to smile on you. No, no, no, no, no. You don't tell people
that. You tell them what great things the Lord has done for
you. And had he not, bud, I'd be in your shape or worse. That's
the missionary spirit. And that's what we need in this
church and every church. And in God's time, there wouldn't
be as many empty pews. as they are. Now that's just
how it is.