It's a joy to be here, it's a
true joy. Good to see everybody. If you
want to turn with me to my text this afternoon, you'll find it
in Mark chapter 5. Mark's gospel chapter 5. I want
to read this incident that took place when our Lord was here
among us in His humanity. And I want to begin reading in
Mark chapter 5 and verse 1. And let's read this account of
the Lord saving this Gadarean. Beginning in Mark chapter 5 and
verse 1. They came over unto the other
side of the sea unto the country of the Gadareans. And when he
was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs
a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the
tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because that he had been often
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces, neither could
any man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself
with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshipped him, and 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. And 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. And he besought him much that
he would not send them away out of the country. Now there were
there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him,
saying, sent us into the swine that we may enter unto them.
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave, and 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 they
were choked in the sea. And they that fed the swine fled
and told it in the city and in the country. And they went out
to sea, what it was that was done. And they came to Jesus
and saw him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion
sitting clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And they that saw it told them
how it befell him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning
the swine. And they began to pray him to
depart out of their coasts. And when he was coming to the
ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that
he might be with him. Albeit Jesus suffered him not,
but said unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how
great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion
on thee. And he departed, and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him,
and all men did marvel. I don't want to go verse by verse
through this, but I want us to look at this and see what we
can learn from this incident here that took place with the
casting out of these demons from this man. And I just want to
get right into it. I want to see the first thing
that we learn is how far, how far humanity has fallen from
what we were in the beginning. I don't know if any of us can
begin to comprehend what the Lord told Adam when He said,
the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. What did
that mean? I think it had something to do
with this. How far we've fallen. Bob, we're not what we used to
be. We've lost so much, haven't we? What have we lost? Oh my goodness. I can't begin
to comprehend what we were like when we came from the hand of
our Creator and from His breath. How holy we must have been. How
healthy, how wise Adam and Eve must have been. The Bible says
that God hath made man upright, but He sought out many inventions.
You know, we lost our moral nature. We lost our moral integrity. Some call it our righteousness,
our created righteousness. We lost that, didn't we? Now
there's none righteous. No, not one. We lost the ability
to walk with our Creator and to please Him and to believe
Him and to honor Him. We lost all of that. Now we walk
in darkness. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. We lost that. What all did we
lose? We lost communion. The Lord often
came to Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and talked with them,
and they were overjoyed to sup with their Creator. But you know,
they lost that. We lost that. But it's not just
what we lost, it's what we gained. I think it's what we gained that's
hurt us just as much as what we've lost. We lost the company
of God, but what did we gain? The company of devils. This man
was keeping company with the Spirit. It was like two friends
walking together. If you had fallen asleep back
in the garden when the Lord first made Adam and Eve, and they fellowshiped
with Him and walked with Him in the cool of the day, And then
4,000 years later, you woke up and you saw this man walking
with a devil. You would have thought, who is
this? Why, this is man. This is not man. I saw man walking
with his creator. This man is walking with the
devil. That's what we gained. We lost the company of God. And we gained the company of
devils. This man had a devil. We lost paradise. Milton wrote
a book, the poet, about the loss of paradise. We lost the garden. Everything in the garden was
pleasant. Even the trees were pleasant
to look upon. And what did we gain? A cemetery. This man lived in a cemetery. You know you and I are living
among the dead. You just go somewhere sometime
and start counting the cemeteries. This world is full of dead people. And not just physically dead,
but when you go to your family reunions, and you go to your
jobs, and you go visit your neighbors, we're walking among people who
are spiritually dead. The world has become a graveyard.
We traded the garden for a graveyard. This man was in the cemetery. Well, we lost all the promises
of that first covenant. God blessed Adam and Eve and
He said, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue
it. And you know, they could have
did all of that. But how things have changed. Well, instead of
subduing everything, just about the time we think we've got everything
subdued, we are subdued ourselves, aren't we? Disease comes, and
what does it do? It subdues us. Sickness comes,
accidents come, and we're subdued. Replenish now. Yeah, you ladies
know what it means to have a baby now, don't you? Replenish the
earth. You're in travail. And you bring
forth children and a lot of times they turn out to be your enemies.
And you grow old and you earn your bread by the sweat of your
brow. And you get sick and what do
we do? We die. What have we lost and
what have we gained? Oh, it's sad really, isn't it?
But I really believe that this man probably represents to us,
just about as well as anybody does, what we've fallen to and
where we've fallen to. A man said one time, well, a
lot of people don't believe there's a live devil. They say that the
devil is a representation of the evil in this world, God is
just a representation of all that's good. But boy, this chapter
sort of blows that myth up, doesn't it? Devils are real. Demons are
real. And they've come down among us.
And they've devastated us, haven't they? They're everywhere in the
air. And they've devastated humanity. We have two kinds of devils.
This man had those black kinds. Caused him to go out and live
naked in the cemetery. Immorality. There's a lot of
those black devils around. But you know, there's another
kind of devil too. That's those white devils. White ones. The Lord left this
fella, and he went back to Jerusalem. Later on, he ran into some more
fellas that had some white devils. They fasted twice a week. They
paid tithes of all that they possessed. They said, I'm not
like other men are. And the Lord Jesus said, you're
of your father the devil. But Lord, they're moral looking
people. Look how clean. Look how holy
looking they are. Yes, and they're doing the works
of the devil. See, there's white devils, isn't
there? And there's probably in our day just as many white ones
as there are black ones. I never could understand, I used
to read Paul before he was converted, he made these statements concerning
himself, and I never could understand how he could say this about himself.
He was writing to Timothy and he said, we ourselves were sometimes
foolish, deceived, disobedient, serving divers lust and pleasure. And I thought to myself, that
man was a strict Pharisee. And he said himself that he lived
the strictest of those Pharisees. He kept the law, the ceremonial
law. If you followed him around, you
thought, man, that guy is a decent, moral, outstanding person. But
he said, I was fulfilling the desires of my mind and of my
body, my flesh. How in the world could it be
said about a Pharisee? that he was fulfilling the lust
of the flesh. Well, you know what the lust
of the flesh is? Well, religiously speaking, it's this. I fast twice
a week. I pay tithes of all that I possess. And I'm not like everybody else. I'm better. I'm different. That's
vainglory. That's fulfilling the lust of
the flesh. And I tell you, those white devils
are just as deceiving as the black devils are. Paul told us about these white
devils and Satan and those preachers that he calls, and he says they're
false apostles, deceitful workers, and listen to this, transforming
themselves unto the apostles of Christ. That's Satan's ministry. They profess to be apostles of
Christ, and he said, no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great mystery
or marvel that his ministers are professing to be ministers
of righteousness. But they have white devils, you
see. I don't know what determines, I don't know what all goes is
involved in whether a man has these black devils or white devils. But that's the way, we'll come
down on one of those sides. Everybody that's lost is possessed. They got black devils or white
devils. You know what a white devil looks
like? Next time you see the pope riding his little pope mobile,
and he gets out and people start coming up and kissing his ring
and he's got all this religious garb on, that's a white devil. Next time you see a Baptist preacher
in a pulpit bragging and glorying that he has free will and he
thanks God for such a gift, that's a white devil. Some people have
black devils and it's easy to spot them, but to spot the white
ones you've got to know the gospel. And boy, when you know the gospel
and you listen to him, you say, he's got a devil. And you know
something? Men who have white devils are
just as bound as those who have the black ones. And they can
a bit more escape the clutches of the white devils than this
man could escape the clutches of the black one. Now, ain't
that so? Devils have come down among us. When we sinned in the garden,
We not only died ourselves spiritually, but we opened the door for these
demons and how they've devastated us in so many ways. One man said this, he said there's
three things demons seek after. It always has to do with destruction,
destroying Destroy. That's why the devil's called
the destroyer. He walks about seeking whom he
may devour. That's what he's about. And first
of all, they seek our souls. They seek our souls. They hate
our souls. Devils don't like anybody. They
hate us. They despise us. They despise
our Creator. And they seek to deceive us to
pull the wool over our eyes so they can destroy our precious
eternity-bound souls. That's the first thing that they're
after. And they do that by blinding our minds, don't they? If our
gospel be hid, it's hid to the lost of this world in whom the
God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe
not. You know, I believe this, brothers and sisters, that every
time the church gathers, as we are this afternoon, and a man
opens his Bible to preach the gospel, I think Satan has his
demons that he's appointed, and he sends them around. And when
the Word seeks to lodge itself in the heart, he says, snatch
it as quick as you can, lest they should hear and believe
He's out to destroy a man's soul. And if he can keep a man from
hearing the gospel and believing the gospel, he's accomplished
his task. And he's not concerned about
kingdoms. He's not concerned about the
toys and the temporal advantages of this world. He's out first
and foremost for this, to destroy men's souls. And if he can't get that, he's
out to hurt the body. He's out to destroy the body.
I tell you, it's only by the grace of God that this poor man
lived. I don't know how many years he
had these devils. But I know the devils tried to
destroy his body. You remember the woman that was
bent over for 18 years and could by no wise lift up herself. You
know what was bad with that woman? The Lord Jesus said, Satan has
bound her. these 18 years. If He can't get
our souls, He'll turn in our bodies. He'll oppress the mind
anyway to make us sick, to drive us to despair. That poor little
boy in the Gospels, his dad brought him to the Lord Jesus and he
says, he'll just run and jump in the fire. We have to keep
an eye on him. And he runs and jumps in the
lakes and tries to drown himself. And what was causing that? These
demons in him. They hate us, don't they? They
hate us. They despise us. And if they
can't get our soul, they'll seek to destroy our bodies. Satan
is doomed and all of his demons know they're doomed. They profess
this to the Lord Jesus. You come here to destroy us before
the time? He's going to destroy them, isn't
He? I tell you, He's done started it. He's done put a bruise in
Satan's head. He'll never recover from it. And He's bound them. The Lord Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth,
will be the very one, the man Christ Jesus, to destroy these
demons. And they know it. And they're
concerned about that. But knowing their doom is certain,
they take delight in bringing everybody else down with them
in destruction. And thirdly, if they can't get
the soul and they can't get the body, they'll get a man's possessions. That's what they're about. Destroying,
destroying, destroying. What happened to these swine?
Why did they want to do that? Why did they have to destroy
these swine? That's what they're about. Destruction. Bringing the world to poverty.
Bringing men to despair. You see these other countries,
we have been so blessed here. God sent the gospel among us
hundreds of years ago and He has blessed this nation in every
way. But look at some of these countries
where they don't have the gospel. They despise the gospel. Look
at the poverty. Look at the misery that's there.
I was reading an article the other day and they said Al-Qaeda,
that wicked a bunch of extreme Muslims, or whether they're extremists
or not, I doubt they're that extreme, I just think they're
Muslims. But they said they strive where there's poverty. Sure they
do. And why did they do that? The
devil always brings us to poverty. That's what he wants. Strip a
nation. Strip them of their food. Strip them of their job. Everything
they've got. And leave them with nothing,
and leave them in despair. He came up before the Lord and
the Lord said, have you considered my servant Job? He said, yeah,
and you've blessed the works of his hands. Take everything
you've blessed him. Everything you've given him,
his kids, his servants, his sheep, his camel, take all of that.
And he'll cuss you to your face. And the Lord said, it's all in
your hands, but don't you touch his life. And what did Satan
do? Killed his kids. Destroyed his servants. stole
his camels, stole his mules, stole his sheep, destroy, destroy,
destroy. That's what he's about. He wants
to make this world miserable, bring it to poverty. Somebody asked the question,
why didn't these demons want to leave this country? Don't
send us out of the country. But you know I think it's probably
about reached the time. They don't want to leave this
country right now either. I think they had everything set
up here in Gadara just like they wanted it. They said this is
where all the apostate Jews went to, the heathen went to, the
raisin swine having a big time. And I bet you if the Lord got
all the demons together and said I'm going to cast you out of
America, well they said please, we're just getting it set up.
We're just getting it like we want it. Please don't cast us
out. That's the first thing we learn,
brothers and sisters. We're not what we used to be.
My, what have we lost? What have we lost? Devils have
come down among us and look at the devastation they've brought.
Flesh is bad enough, but I'll tell you one thing. It's not
near as bad as what the devils make it to be. When they're through
with it, There's some things flesh won't
do, some things it's just against our nature to do. But when devils
get in us, we'll do anything then. It's not natural to lay
your hand on a tombstone and cut yourself. That's unnatural,
isn't it? It's not natural to live in a cemetery. It's not
natural to go naked. But Satan and his demons will
make men do that which is against nature. We can learn this from this incident
too, can't we? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, the Savior, is the only hope for this demon-possessed
world. Nobody else can save us from
such darkness and misery but the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't help you, and you can't
help me. This maniac had people who loved
him. He had family. And they tried
their best to help him. When he got into these raging
fits, they chained him and they bound him with ropes. But he
just broke them and back to the cemetery he went. Nobody could
help him. You know, I just know he tried
to help himself. I can just see him laying there
and he thought, oh my, I know this is coming on me again. He
thought, I'll just think positive. I'll just lay here and think
good thoughts. If I'll be strong mentally, I can subdue this.
I can do this. But boy, there they come. Then
he got in a rage and went out of his mind and back to the cemetery
crying and cutting himself, living in despair. Lost everything. Lost everything. Lost his friends, lost his family,
lost his mind, lost his clothes, lost everything. And there's only one that could
save him, and that's the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And brothers and sisters, I know
we've got to have some help, we've got to have some medication.
I'm on some medication, you're on some medication. Maybe a place
for the psychologist, I don't know. But nobody can save us
from the devils but Jesus Christ. Nobody can save us from His oppression
but Jesus Christ. He went about doing good and
healing all that was oppressed of the devil. I want to show you three things
quickly. I want to close with this. These three things. And if you're here tonight and
you're lost, I hope this makes you take this serious. These
three things. It was by the mercy of God that
this poor man was preserved until Jesus found him. It was only
by the mercy of a sovereign God that this man was preserved until
Jesus found him. Why didn't he do long ago what
these swine did? I'll tell you why he didn't.
These demons had the same commandment that Satan had concerning Job.
You take what he's got. You take everything he's got,
but don't you touch his life. And here was this poor man out
of his mind. And He would run up to one of
those cliffs to end it all. And there was this unseen hand,
this power of sovereign mercy that said, hitherto shall you
come, but no father. And you may be here tonight and
you may be lost. And think of the friend younger
than you, much younger than you, that have already left this life.
And as far as you know, they left without hope. They were taken from this world
by some awful disease, by some awful accident as we call it.
But here you sit. You're unsaved. You don't know
the Lord. But you've been preserved. I
wonder why. Could it be just perhaps That
the Lord has in mercy preserved you for the same cause He preserved
this poor man. That you may hear the gospel
of your salvation and be saved. Isn't that wonderful? This is
the only reason this poor man was preserved. He would have
been dead long, long ago. I was almost killed when I was
a teenager. Three times. Three times I was
almost killed. Almost drowned. A car wreck. A huge pile of snow fell on me
and almost crushed me. They got me out right at the
last minute. I'm not here because I was careful
in my life. I'm not here because I took good
care of myself and exercised and ate. I'm not here because
of some DNA in my system. I was preserved by the tender
mercy of God till Jesus Christ found me and saved me. Now I
tell you, if you're here tonight and you're lost, you ought to
go home and give some serious thought about that. Justice every
day calls for your overthrow. And for some reason or another,
and I know not why, God has preserved you just as He preserved this
man here. Aren't you glad, brothers and
sisters, that before the Lord ever called you, He kept you
and preserved you? Well, you'd have been dead long
ago. You'd have never lived till Jesus found you and called you. You'd have killed yourself, or
somebody would have killed you, or demons would have killed you. Isn't it wonderful when this
poor man thought of this after the Lord saved him? I bet he
thought of this. Now I know why they didn't destroy
me. Now I know why I couldn't end
my own life. I was preserved in Christ Jesus. We don't hear much about that
today, do we? Oh, our preachers preach it. You don't hear it much. There was something else, secondly,
I imagine, that filled this poor Gadarene with love and humility
when he found out later what the Lord Jesus endured just to
get to him. He didn't know it at this time,
but he found out, I'm sure, later. The Lord Jesus went through an
awful storm to get to me. Can you imagine how humble that
he was when he found that out? How full of love and gratitude
he was? The Lord, as He often did, He
got up early that morning and preached to a multitude of people. He comes down off of the mountain,
Matthew tells us, and He met by this leper and He healed him. And then He goes into Peter's
mother-in-law's house, and she's sick with a fever, and he heals
her. And then they bring multitudes of people with devils and diseases,
and he spends hours healing them and casting out devils. All day
long, as far as we know, he hadn't had a break. They interrupted
his meals. He could have just as easily
said, I am so tired. I think I'll wait till tomorrow
to go over to Gondara. But you know, he'd have worked
the next day just like he did this day. Our Savior was always
on the move. He never sat still. He went about
and he went about and he was going and doing for God's glory. He got him in a ship and said,
let's roll and let's sail eight miles across the Sea of Galilee
to the other side. Can you imagine that? Now you
may get in your boats today with a big motor and go eight miles
pretty quick. Can you imagine going across
the Sea of Galilee back then? And they get out somewhere in
the midst of that sea and this storm comes up. But you know,
our master was asleep. That shows how tired, how worn
out he was. The boat was filling up with
water, the winds whistling and howling, and still he slept. He was asleep. And He slept until
His disciples screamed at Him. Don't you care that we're going
to perish here? Wake up! Wake up, we're perishing! And He stands up. And He studies
Himself. Because the boat's rocking. And His clothes are soaked. His
skin is soaked. His black locks are down in His
eyes. And his skin is being blistered
by the blowing mist. And there he stands. Can you
just get a picture of him standing there? And then he speaks and says,
peace. And boy, when he said peace,
those waves settled down and you could look out over that
sea and it was like ice. There wasn't a ripple. And he
said, be still! And I'm telling you, in a flash
the wind ceased to blow and there was a great calm. And he came right on over to
where this man was and cast these demons out of him. But nothing
stopped him. Not the storms, not His tardiness,
not the unbelief of His disciples. Nothing stopped Him from finding
His sheep that was lost and delivered Him. And I bet you when this
fellow found out about that, his heart was just full of admiration
and love. What did he endear? Brothers
and sisters, what he endeared to save this man was nothing
to what he endeared to save us. All thy waves, he said, and all
thy billows have gone over me. That's what he suffered to get
to us. None of the ransomed ever knew the depths of the waters
crossed, nor how dark the night the ward passed through, or he
found his sheep that was lost. What are these blood drops along
the way that mark out the mountain tracks? Oh, you could follow
Him from the garden where He sweat drops of blood, just anticipating
our sins being put on Him and the awful wrath of God that He'd
have to endure. Follow Him to the judgment hall
where they crowned Him with thorns and beat Him and plowed upon
His back. You could follow Him there to
the cross by the blood drops along the way. And He hangs upon
the cross and nobody's there with Him. Oh, the Father had
been with him every step of the way, hadn't he? But now even
the Father forsakes him. Before angels had come and ministered
unto him, but no angels there now. I looked for comforters
and I found none. Nobody was there. Oh, one man said it would have
been different if he could have saw an eye looking at him. beaming
up at him and saying, we know why you're there. Thank you for
what you're doing for us. Thank you for suffering. But
there was no such eye. His enemies spitting at him,
accusing him. And he tread the winepress of
the wrath of God alone. And by Himself, He purged our
sins. What, brothers and sisters, has
He endured just to be able to come to us now in a just way
as well as a merciful way and deliver us from our darkness
and our sins? Oh, our hearts should always
be filled with gratitude and love for the cross. And thirdly, I love this. And I know this made this poor
man to marvel. We're told here when the Lord
Jesus came on the shore, all this man did was met Him. He
came running and probably fell down at His feet. But you know
something? As far as we know, this man never
said a word. The conversation was taking place
between the Lord Jesus and these demons that were in the man.
He came running and fell at his feet, but then demons just took
over his mouth and started speaking. And it's almost like he was just
sitting there listening to the conversation. The Lord Jesus pleaded His cause
for him, didn't He? He couldn't even plead his own
cause. He didn't have an opportunity. What could he have said? He just
listened while Jesus Christ took up his cause and pleaded it for
him. Come out of the man. Oh, please
don't send us out. I said come out of the man. And
here that poor man is thinking to himself, who's going to win
this battle? All I'm doing is slaying your
passive. Is this Jesus of Nazareth going
to win? Or are these demons going to
win? He says come out. They don't want to come out.
Who's going to win this battle? Oh, my salvation is dependent
upon it. And I can't affect a thing. You
know the whole problem with lost people. You know what a lost
man's problem is. He won't come to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
his whole problem. And if he does profess to come,
he just comes jabbering and jabbering and jabbering and jabbering,
promising, telling the Lord how he will reform his life, how
he'll do better. That's no good, brother and sister. I tell you the best thing a man
can do, and I can't understand this and I sure can't explain
it, just come to the Lord Jesus Christ Cast yourself down before
Him and shut your mouth. All your promises and all your
reformation means nothing. If you say anything, say what
David did. Lord, plead my cause. And if
He takes up your cause and pleads it, you'll be saved. You'll be
delivered. I love Zechariah chapter 3. Remember
Joshua the high priest? I don't know what happened to
him. I don't know what all sins he'd fallen into. But the Bible
says he stood before the Lord with filthy garments. And Satan
was standing at his right hand to resist him. And here you had
the Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man, standing
there. And you had Satan standing there.
And all through that ordeal, Joshua never spake a word. What
could he say? I'm sorry. If I had it to do
over, I'd do better. If you'll give me another chance,
what could he say? He couldn't say anything. His
mouth was shut. And the Lord looked at Satan
and said, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. This is a brand plucked
out of the burning, and I plucked him out myself. Lord Jesus Christ by Himself, there at the right hand of God,
can save a man. Well, that man doing nothing. Just come to Him. That's what
I tell sinners. Just come to Him. That's your whole problem.
You won't come. Come and shut your mouth and
ask Him to plead your cause. And boy, He'll win the day. And what a revelation this was. Luke tells us that the Lord Jesus
said, go tell them what great things God has done for you. And Mark here says he went and
told how great things Jesus had done for him. Is Jesus God? He is, ain't he? This poor man. knew more about Jesus of Nazareth
than the whole bunch of Mormons and Jehovah Witness put together.
He knew Jesus was God. My Lord and my God! What a revelation! When the Lord Jesus saves a man,
it's just automatic. You know who He is. He's God,
your Savior. It's been such a blessing to
be with you folks. Such a blessing to preach to you, son, and to
see you. And I'm going over to Diane's
house. We're going to eat a steak and
some potatoes. Lindsay, why aren't you smiling?
We ain't going to eat a steak. If I ate a steak this late, I
wouldn't sleep at all. But I'm looking forward to spending
some time with Lindsay and Diane. It's good to see you. Good to
see you. The Lord bless you. Some of you
are getting older, aren't you? Am I looking older, Bob? Am I?
Not right now. But when I get out of here, I'll
be looking older. Well, we're getting older, aren't we? We
are. We're getting older. And someday, someday, it's our
hope. The Lord is going to receive
us to glory. We'll lay these old bodies down in the ground
and we'll wait to the resurrection and the Lord Jesus will come
and receive us to himself and our souls and our bodies will
be united and we'll be with him forever. Wouldn't your heart
break if you didn't have that kind of hope? My heart would break. It's good
to see you. Lindsay, the Lord bless you.
The Lord bless you.