a demoniac delivered. Jesus said
in the Gospel of John, For as the Father raiseth up the dead,
and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will. A lot of people don't understand
this, but the Lord Jesus Christ is not the potential Savior of
anyone. He is the certain Savior of all
for whom he died. He will get what he paid for. In this fifth chapter of Mark,
this man of Gadara is possessed with an unclean spirit. He is
representative of every elect child of God that's yet in an
unregenerate state. God's children are not involved
in a religious warfare, but a spiritual warfare. There's a difference. There's a big difference. Spiritual
warfare. No man controls himself. Those
who have not been delivered and kept by the Lord Jesus Christ
are in the clutches of sin and Satan. They will believe a lie,
a religious lie, of course, and be damned. Nobody controls themselves. People say, well, I'll live my
life. I'll do as I please. Nobody does. Nobody does. You're
either been rescued by the Lord or you're still in bondage to
sin and to Satan. And unless rescued by the Lord,
you'll perish in that condition. So that's the story. There is
no middle ground. Remember, Paul said to the saints
at Ephesus, we wrestle not against flesh and blood. In other words,
this is not a physical battle. It's not even a religious battle.
but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness,
against spiritual wickedness. Religion is not the issue. The
war is spiritual. So the man is possessed, controlled
by, ruled by, it says here, an unclean spirit. Now, just as
Antichrist is a spirit. And we refer to this sometimes
to refute the popular idea of Antichrist in the world of religion.
I John 4, 3 tells us that Antichrist is not what most of us have heard,
this awful individual that's coming on the earth someday,
but no, Antichrist is a spirit. and not just one. We're also
told there in 1 John 2, 18, he said, even now are there many
antichrists, plural, that is antichrist spirits. Anti means
against. Any spirit and every spirit that's
against God and against Christ is anti-God. and Antichrist. Now in this text here in Mark
5, the Spirit surfaces in many demons
called here Legion. Verse 9, My name is Legion for
we are many. Verse number 20 tells us the
setting of this story is in the region of Decapolis. Decapolis
was a region on the southeast shore of the Sea of Galilee and
was not even a part of Israel but of Syria. Remember, Syria
was one of Israel's worst enemies in the Old Testament times. And
one of the cities in this region was Gadara. This is where Jesus
comes ashore. If you had visited this place,
Before the Lord Jesus came there, this is the last man there you'd
have wanted to switch places with. But if you'd visit Gadara after
the Lord Jesus came and did his work, this is the only man there
you'd want to switch places with. So you see, the Lord's the one
makes the difference. He sure does. So viewing the
story as a whole, we see Christ our Lord on a sovereign and successful
mission trip. This is not a vacation. It's
a mission trip. Backing up into the fourth chapter,
chapter 4 and verse 35, He had said to the twelve, let us pass
over unto the other side. meaning across the Sea of Galilee.
Let us pass over unto the other side. The little word unto means
as far as. Let us pass over as far as or
unto the other side. Now, having said that, those
words coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ I ask you,
was there any possibility they wouldn't make it to the other
side? Absolutely not. They'll make it. They'll make
it. He didn't say to them, now fellas, let's start and see what
this weather's going to do. No, he knew what the weather
was going to do. He knew they would encounter
one of the fiercest and awfulest storms his disciples would ever
experience. But he already said, we're going
to the other side. So the Lord Jesus crossed this
dark and dangerous sea, met the one man he went there
to meet, changed his life, riled up the whole countryside, was asked to leave, got back
into the boat, and crossed back over the sea from whence he came. It's a miniature version of Christ's
mission into this world. He left the glory he had with
the Father before the world was. He crossed the dark and stormy
gulf from eternity into time. And what a storm he encountered. He faced all that hell could
throw at him all the way to get here and while he was here. And
he conquered all the way. And he accomplished exactly what
he came to accomplish and all he came to accomplish. Even his
death, according to Luke 9 and 31, was an accomplishment. Not an accident, but an accomplishment. He rose again the third day,
he walked the earth for 40 days, then crossed back over the gulf,
went back into the glory that he had with the Father, before
the world was. I said it was a sovereign and
a successful mission. Now let me explain that word
sovereign. We hadn't done that in a while.
Two syllables, sovereign. I use the word a lot, as you
all know. The prefix sov, S-O-V, means highest. Not this high,
but highest. There is none higher than the
highest. And of course the suffix reign,
you know what that means, to reign, to rule. So sovereign
means highest reign, highest rule, above all others, answerable
to none, controlled by none, manipulated by none. deceived
by none, and certainly not overpowered by any. King Nebuchadnezzar of
Babylon had it right when he testified that God does His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay His hand. or saying to him, what doest
thou? No man can question God or hinder
God in his doing. Now, all the armies of heaven
and the habitats of the earth would include all demon spirits,
including the devil himself, of whom Peter said is as a roaring
lion walking about Seeking whom He may devour. Now you want to
read that real carefully. Seeking whom He may devour. That is seeking those whom God
lets Him devour. He can't devour anyone else.
He cannot overrule God. Now our Lord here in verse 2
says, it says about Him, as soon as He gets out of the ship, he
is met by this man. There met him a man. Now note
carefully the wording. It's not he met the man, but
the man met him. It's not that Jesus is joining
the man in his world But the man is joining Jesus in his world. And so it's a suffering man here
that meets the Lord. A man possessed by, controlled
by, anti-God, anti-Christ, demon spirits. That's what's wrong
with him. We don't read where he had robbed
a bank, or murdered anybody, or had a drinking problem, or
a drug problem or a gambling problem. His trouble was not
on the outside, it was on the inside. That's where all of his
trouble is. Sure is. He's messed up in his
mind and heart. He cannot cope with society. He lives out here in the rocks
and the caves in a little world all his own. This place where
Jesus came ashore, it was not a beautiful sandy beach, not
that picture at all, but it was a steep, rocky, cliff-like terrain
with caves back in the rocks where the people buried their
dead. This was the cemetery. This was the graveyard. And this
man stayed out there. He dwelt, verse 3 said, among
the tombs. Now you think about it. He'd
go in one cave, sleep one night or one day or whatever, what
little he slept, and then the next day or night he'd probably
go over here and ramble into another cave and rake a bunch
of bones out of the way and lay down there and take him a nap. Among the tombs. So going back to chapter 4, the
day is far spent. It's night time now. They've
crossed over the sea. It's dark. And the place must have felt
something like walking through a cemetery at midnight. Have
you ever done that? You ought to try it. Verse 5 says this man was always
Day and night crying. Not weeping, but crying out. Screaming. Blood-curdling screams. All hours of the day and night.
Cutting himself with stones. You say, oh, that's so pitiful.
That's so awful. Well, I'll tell you what. You
can turn back to Elijah's day, 1 Kings 18, and the false prophets
of Baal, good religious folks, supposed to be in the right mind,
are doing the same thing. Sure are. In their emotional pretense of
worship. Those days are not gone, by the
way. Well, the good town folk are afraid of this man. They'd
like to do something about it. They've tried to put him away
with ropes and chains, but they can't handle him. He runs naked
or half naked, screaming he's a disgrace to their town. He's not even on the prayer list
at the church. He's certainly not on the visitation
list. No one has felt the missionary
call to go and work with this fellow. There's no hope for him. He's crazy. And you couldn't
talk to him if you wanted to. But remember this, when the Lord
Jesus Christ gets through, this is not the man asking him to
leave town. It's those who thought they were
in the right mind that wants the Lord Jesus to leave town. It's said down here in one of
these verses, they prayed him or asked him to depart out of
their coast, to take his ministry elsewhere. They're worse off than this man
had ever been. Now what they'll do is they'll
credit the change in this man to this man. And they'll say,
oh yeah, I knew him back then. He was awful before he accepted
the Lord. He was awful before he became
a child of God. I despise that terminology. He
was a child of God before the creation of the world. He never knew it, but he was
one of God's elect. Ephesians 1-4, chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. Given to the Son by the
Father. Paid for with the blood of the
Lord Jesus. And he's as certain for an eternity
of happiness and bliss in the presence of the Lord. Certain. Certain. But now here,
he was in a condition he could do nothing about. He wasn't so different from the
rest of us, was he? Not at all. You see, not all
demons make people crazy and act like this man acted. Some demons are civilized. Some are very cultured. Some
are religious. Some are standing in the pulpit.
Some are sitting in the pews. But they're all anti-God and
anti-Christ. How did the Lord Jesus deal with
this man? How did it all take place? Well,
this passage tells us. First of all, I would say there
was no religious rule book two inches thick on board that boat
telling the Lord Jesus how to deal with a case like this. Oh,
no. The Lord Jesus never came to
play religion. He never stood with outstretched
arms while the disciples sang an invitation hymn, begging this
man to come. He never pointed up into the
rocks and said, we're going to sing one other verse. just for
you. Whoever you are, wherever you
are, would you come forward? No, none of that. None of that. The Lord never demanded a profession
out of a man. He never told him, you need to
be baptized, join the church. That's what you need, boy. No,
they wouldn't have let him in the church. He never talked to him about
the dress code. This man didn't even wear clothes.
Huh? See, it's not religion. This
didn't work too good in his situation. It didn't work too good in your
situation either. Matter of fact, the Lord Jesus
never addressed this man. He addressed the demons. They spoke first. The demons
knew exactly who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And in His sovereign
power, the Lord Jesus summons this man and he comes running
and worships the Lord. This man had always run from
men. Now he's running to one. Dead sinners run from God. Quickened sinners run to Him. Now in verse 7, He 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. These are the demons speaking
through this man. It's not him saying torment me
not. It's the demons who knew they
were no match for the Lord Jesus Christ. This man couldn't just
come on his own. God in his sovereignty had moved
these demons to bring this man running and bow at Jesus' feet. You say, would demons do that?
Do anything the Lord tells them to do. He comes worshiping, verse 6,
but they came pleading. Verse 10, besought him much that
he would not send them away out of the country. Now, remember verse 2 says, as
soon as Jesus got out of the ship, immediately this man met
him. He's there. Right place, right
time. There wasn't any billboards or
advertisements up that Jesus was coming that day, but this man's there. Immediately. I wonder why he wasn't a half
a mile up the shore in some rocks up there. Half a mile the other
way. No. He's there. God had him there. This is sovereignty. Somebody said, well, I think
if we passed out more lollipops and had more entertainment did a
little more to attract people, we could get more people interested.
Entertainment is not our business. My business is to tell you that
the only hope for the likes of you and I is in the perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not interested in you playing
religion, not interested in me playing religion. The Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect,
sinless Son of God who walked this earth, lived, died, and
rose again. He is accepted of God. Approved of God. And except you
be accepted in Him, you'll perish in your sins. That's the message. That's the whole business. Now,
let me finish this story up. I'm going to bypass the hogs. and the hogicide, they committed
hogicide. They were running over a cliff,
drowned, 2,000 of them. I will just say this, and you
may have never thought of this, the hogs were not content and
could not live possessed of demons. They killed themselves. But men are content with it. Religion's content with it. Well, the fellas keeping the
hogs, they run to town to tell what happened. People came out
to sea and verse 15 says, they came to Jesus, but they didn't
come and fall at his feet like the crazy man did. No, their demons are civilized,
religious. And they see him that was possessed,
past tense, was possessed. And they see him for the first
time they could ever remember sitting, not running, clothed,
not naked. And in his right mind, not crazy. And they were afraid. So here's the story. Well, let
me back up. Clothed, clothed. Where he got
the clothes, I don't know. But the material clothes is not
the picture. This man is now clothed in the
righteousness of Christ. And so he's in his right mind.
He's sitting at the feet of Jesus. And that's where people in their
right mind are sitting. So here's the story. The demons
Jesus came there to deal with were those possessing and plaguing
and persecuting his elect child. And the demons he never came
there to deal with were the ones left in the so-called sane people. The ones who asked him to leave. Verse 17, I believe it was. They
began to pray him to depart out of their coast. The good deacon board steps forward
and they say, Pastor, we feel your work is done here. We feel
it would be better if you depart our coast. We feel this. We feel that. Did you know Usually
when people say, I feel, it's prejudice. And when people say, I think,
it's opinion. But when people say, I know,
it's conviction. I'm not interested in what people
feel or think. What do you know? Prejudice and opinion is not
in great demand. Conviction is. So they asked him to leave, and
he did, but not before he'd accomplished exactly what he came to accomplish. He delivered the one man he came
to deliver. He delivered the one man they
wanted rid of, and he left them in their demon-possessed and
perishing condition. And so in light of all this,
I suppose the appropriate question is, which ones are crazy? And the answer is, all are until the Lord Jesus casts out
the demons. What a story. I'm telling you
it's going to be something when all the Lord's people get home
with Him. The marvels and the mysteries
of God's grace, how He chose and tracked down and rescued
and delivered ruined sinners and left a lot of good religious
folk to go to hell. I'll close with this little story.
It's been a long time since we've told it, but I thought of this
studying this chapter. In an insane asylum long ago,
in a small room where a supposed deranged man had lived for years
and then died, they found the poetic words pinned on the wall
of that room. Could we with ink the ocean fill? and were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Was that man crazy? It's going to take eternity.
Don't you worry about what we're going to do for eternity. It's
going to take eternity. We'll be forever learning and
grasping all the marvels and the mysteries of the grace of
God. which he has wrought in Christ
to deliver sinners like you and I. Bless his holy name.