Mark chapter 5. I left to read and to preach
from the accounts of our Lord's personal ministry and try to
point out for you some of the lessons that we can learn from
these verses. Verse 1 said, And they, that is the Lord Jesus
and his disciples, they came over unto the other side of the
sea, into the land of the Gadarenes. What a blessing it is, an indescribable
blessing, when our Lord is pleased to visit where we are. And I know immediately you'll
think of this, that he's always everywhere. He's omnipotent,
omnipresent, and omniscient. That's right. That's exactly
right. David said, Whither shall I flee
from thy presence? If I take the wings in the morning,
thou art there. If I dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, you're there. That's true. But there were times
here, when our Lord was here on the earth, and there are times
now, when and where he pleases, when the Lord is pleased to come
in grace and mercy and power. For example, when our Lord was
here on the earth, wouldn't you have liked to have been in Samaria? When he came down there, when
he sat on the well and talked to this woman, she went downtown
and said, come see a man that's told me everything I've ever
done. And they all ran out, and the Lord was pleased to reveal
Himself to them. Wouldn't you like to have been there? Well,
that wasn't going on everywhere. It was going on in Samaria. Wouldn't
you like to have been down by that river in Philippi when Paul
came and preached to those ladies? Oh, I'd love to have been a little
frog just sitting there in the river listening to what Paul
said. The Lord was there, and the Lord
opened some hearts. And I've been in a few places
when the Lord, in a special time of grace and mercy and saving
power, has been present. Not every time I preach or everywhere
I go, but once in a while. I could name several. I recall
one over in North Carolina. I was preaching in a meeting,
and the Lord was pleased to reveal himself to some folks during
that meeting. Brother Gary Shepherd was two
hours and a half from there. And he heard about it and got
in his car and drove over. And I said, well, I'm glad to
see you. This is what he said to me. He said, I hear God's
blessing over here, and I want to be where God's blessing. And
he stayed throughout the whole meeting. That's right. He visited the gatherings and
something took place. And the Lord has been pleased
to visit here. And a lot of you sitting here
know what took place. Wouldn't you like to see it go
on and on and on and on? Someone said to me the other
day, we've had eight babies born in this church in the last year
and a half. Eight? Does that count? Eight or nine?
Precious little ones have come along. I hope the Lord's pleased
to give them what he's given to us, don't you? He visited this place. He visited. May he be pleased to visit us.
He doesn't have to. I know it's said of one place,
he could do no mighty works because of their unbelief. And that's would do no mighty
works. He would do no mighty works because of their unbelief.
Well, let's see what happened, verse 2. And when he was come
out of the ship, and the ship landed and the Lord stepped out
on the shore, 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. He'd been often bound with fetters
and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him. The fetters broken in pieces,
neither could any man tame him. And all... Let's stop right there
now. Here a man ran the meeting. No ordinary man, now. No ordinary
man. This was a man out of the tombs. A man possessed with demons.
And the Lord healed him. Now, any time you read in our
Lord's ministry on this earth about him healing the sick and
casting out devils and raising the dead, healing the blind and
the deaf and making the lame to walk, you don't want to just
stop with that particular miracle. Because that miracle, those miracles
were but pictures. of what our Lord came to do.
He didn't come just to make the lame walk, because in 20 years
he'd be dead anyway, or the blind to see, and in a few years he
couldn't see anymore. That's right. These are pictures
of his mercy and grace to us spiritually. He makes the spiritually
dead to live, those possessed with demons, to be made clean. and those who cannot hear or
see so that they can hear or see. These folks here are pictures
of us in our spiritual blindness and helplessness and hopelessness
and possessed of Satan and evil spirits. Let me show you that.
Turn to Matthew 11. Our Lord makes that very clear
here in Matthew 11. Very, very clear. In Matthew 11 verse 2, now when
John had heard in prison, John was in prison, John the Baptist,
the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples. And these
disciples came to the Lord Jesus in verse 3 and they said, Are
thou he that should come? Are you the Messiah? Or do we
look for another? And the Lord answered and said,
You go show John. Again, those things which you
hear and see. Now, remind John of what you
are seeing in here. John knew these things. He had
heard all these things. How that the blinds received
their sight, and the lame walked, and the lepers were cleansed,
and the deaf heard, and the dead were raised, and the poor had
the gospel preached to them. What is the Lord saying? He is
saying, John, recall Isaiah's prophecy. concerning the Messiah. Recall Isaiah's prophecy, and
don't be faithless but believe. What was Isaiah's prophecy? Turn
to Isaiah 35. Here it is. He's talking about when your
Lord comes, when the Redeemer comes. In Isaiah 34, 35, Isaiah
35, verse 3. This is the Old Testament promise
and prophecy concerning the Messiah. This is hundreds of years before
Christ came, talking about his coming and what will take place.
Verse 3, Isaiah 35. Strengthen ye the weak hands,
confirm the feeble knees, and say to them that are fearful
heart, Be strong, fear not, behold your God, your God will come
with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, and
He'll save you. He's coming, look for Him. Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened. Just a bunch of people
that had a tough time seeing. No! Spiritually blind people
are going to see God. The whole in their eyes, the
blind will be opened. And the deaf shall hear to be
unstopped, the ears of the deaf unstopped. And the lame will
leap as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For in
the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert,
and the parched ground shall become a pool, and thirsty land
springs of water, and a habitation of dragons, where each lay shall
be grass with reeds and rushes, and a highway shall be there,
and a way that shall be called the way of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over
it, but it shall be for those, for those, the wayfaring men.
No fool shall not err therein." You can read the rest of that.
That's what the Lord says. You go back and tell John now.
Refresh his memory of the work of the Messiah, spiritual work.
Blessed is he that... And that's the reason this man
here, this man that met our Lord, Let's look at him again, verse
3. They made him a man out of the tombs. Well, that's us. Out
of the tombs. By one man's sin, by one man's
disobedience, sin and death passed upon all men for all sins. That's right. By one man's sin,
death passed upon all men because we sinned what Adam sinned. That's
right. In Adam we died. We're out of
the tombs. That's our dwelling place. You
who were dead, hath he quickened and given life. That was your
study this morning. You who were, hath he quickened
who were dead. And then notice the next thing
about this man. He had an unclean spirit. Unclean
spirit. I can't think of a better word
than this to describe this sinful nature that lives within us.
than just plain unclean. That's right, just unclean. Dead in trespasses and sin and
ruled by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. Unclean spirit. David said, Lord
purge me and I'll be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than
the snow. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. Notice another thing about this
man. Out of the tombs, with an unclean spirit, and it says in
verse 3, no man could bind him. No human being could conquer
this fellow. There wasn't any power any man
had that could control him. That unclean spirit within him. couldn't control him, couldn't
tame him, couldn't change him, couldn't help him. They tried
everything they knew. They tried all kinds of things.
If I just gave up, just left him out there roaming around
naked among the tombs. The religious world tries their
best to reform this old nature. They use a lot of different things
to try to conquer this raging demon. unclean spirit that's
born with us and lives with us and makes us the servants to
him. But you just can't do it. Oh,
they may subdue him for a while and make him walk straight for
a little while, but he'll break out. That's right, he'll break
out. Paul said, who, in Romans chapter
7, who is able to deliver me from this body of death? I thank
God, just one, our Lord Jesus Christ. No man could tame him. And look at verse 5. I skipped
this because I wanted to read it by itself. And always, night
and day, this man was in the tombs, in the mountains, possessed
with demons, with an unclean spirit within him, crying, cutting
himself with stones, destroying his soul and body. Not only his,
but everybody within reach of him. How many times have you
heard someone say to a son or daughter of Adam, don't you realize
what you're doing to yourself? But they can't do anything about
it. Don't you realize what you're doing to yourself and to others? You're not only hurting yourself,
you're hurting your wife, and you're hurting your children,
and you're hurting your parents, your mother and dad, you're hurting
your grandparents, you're hurting your friends, you're hurting
everybody around you. Why don't you straighten up? Well, why
doesn't he? Why didn't this man? Don't you
realize what you're doing? But he's possessed with an unclean
spirit. Just unclaimed. But something happened. Look
at verse 6. My, my, my. You can look at this the rest
of the day. But when he saw Jesus, when he saw Jesus afar off, he
ran to him. He literally saw Jesus Christ right there before him. Right
there, when he saw, he saw him, the sovereign, almighty, omnipotent
God. That's who that man saw. He saw
the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw God's Messiah. He saw the one promised to Adam
and Enoch and Abraham and Moses all through the world. He saw
the Lamb of God, whose blood was shed. He saw him who said,
I speak in righteousness, and I'm mighty to save thee. He saw
him whom Isaiah saw in chapter 6, when King Uzziah died, I saw
the Lord. High and lifted up. His train
filled the temple. His glory filled the universe.
And around him all the cherubims and seraphims cried, Holy, holy,
holy, holy, holy God, God of hosts, I saw him. No wonder that
man ran. He saw the Lord. He saw the Lord. And I tell you this, He saw the Lord because the Lord
was there. The Lord came upon his eyesight
and his ears, and he saw him. And our congregations and the
people to whom we preach will see this same Lord. They'll see this same Lord if
he's in our gospel. If he's in our message, if he's
what the gospel we preach and the message we preach is all
about, they'll see him in his sovereignty, in his truth, in
his power, in his majesty, in his glory, in his mighty to save. They'll see that same Lord if
we're preaching. Whosoever shall call on him shall
be saved. But how are they going to call
on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they going
to believe in him of whom they have never heard? They hear another
Jesus, but he can't save. Nobody is going to run to him. They hear another spirit, another
gospel. But he that seeth the seraph,
he that actually by God's grace sees him in his power and glory
and majesty and mighty to save, he'll be saved, but not till
he sees him. And when he saw Jesus, that's
what that said, but when he saw Jesus, nobody else could help
him, but he saw one who could. Nobody else could conquer him,
but he saw the one who could. Nobody else could meet his need,
but he saw the one who could. And he ran. Where? To the disciples? A whole bunch of them there,
but he didn't run to them. They couldn't help him. Don't
come to me, I can't help you. He didn't wait for an invitation.
Which or how are they going to get saved if you don't give an
invitation? This man didn't get any invitation.
Nobody told him to run to the Lord. Nobody told him what to
say. Nobody told him what to do. But
he saw the Lord, Frank. He saw the Lord. He didn't see
the preacher with all of his recipes and plans and what God
would like to do for you someday if you just give him a shot at
it. He saw the Lord. And you better not get in his
way. Just move out of his way now. And he ran. He didn't wait until he fixed
himself up. He didn't wait until he cleansed himself. He didn't
wait to get rid of the demons. He came just like he was because
he saw the Lord. He saw the Lord. I grew up in
a Baptist church and I don't think I ever saw this Lord in
a sermon I ever heard. Anybody please? A friend of mine out in California
wrote me several years ago, told me this story. He said there's
a friend of his was in the rest home out there. He was old and
he was about through living and wasn't ready to die, but he told
everybody to leave him alone. Don't talk to him about their
religion. He didn't want anybody coming and talking to him about
religion. Well, this friend of mine loved him very much, and
he went to see him. And he said, I know what your
request is, and I'm not going to talk to you. But I tell you
what I am going to do, and I want you to do this favor for me because
of the love we have for each other for years. I'm going to
leave a tape here, my tape player and a tape. When you get an opportunity,
I want you to listen to that man over in Ashland, Kentucky. what he has to say. That's all
I'm asking you to do. I might." Well, he was gone for a while,
and he finally came back. And the old man had listened
to the tape, and this is what he said. Now he said, that kind of God
I'll listen to. I preached the message on sovereign
mercy. That kind of God I can listen
to, and I believe I can believe Have you got some more of those
tapes? I'd like to hear some more." He saw the Lord. That's what I'm saying. When
will a man worship? When he sees the Lord. This man
saw the Lord and ran and worshiped Him. He didn't worship the church
or the cross or the candles or any of these things. He saw Him. He worshiped Him. When will a man find salvation?
Man or woman, boy or girl, when they see the Lord Jesus Christ
who is able to save. And when will they find peace?
Well, we're going to read about it right here, listen. Verse
7, And he ran and worshipped him,
and cried with a loud voice, saying, This is the demons in
him. Now, my friends, certain religions
can exist with demons. They can play with them and talk
about them and do all whatever they do with them. And demons
get along fine with some religion. But when the demons within a
man meet the Lord, they rebel. Because even demons own him to
be supreme. Even demons believe there's one
God. Even demons confess that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. Even demons know that salvation
and judgment are in his hands, not in ours. They know that.
And that's what these demons said. What have we to do with
thee? We can fool with religion because Satan himself is a minister
of righteousness and he has his ministers and they can play with
religion. And they get along pretty well with religion. And
they don't mind people having religion. But they won't have
Christ. So what have we to do with thee?
Jesus, our Son of the Most High God, our Jeremy, leave us alone! Don't torment us. I want you to turn to the book
of Luke, chapter 11, a moment. Luke, chapter 11. In Luke, chapter 11, verse 20. Now here's the Lord speaking
to those religious fellows. They accused him of casting out
devils by the power of Beelzebub. And this is what he said, Luke
11, verse 20. But if I, with the finger of
God, cast out devils, by the power of God, with the finger
of God, if I cast out devils, then no doubt the kingdom of
God is come upon you. When a strong man, armed, keeps
his palace, that's Satan. When Satan, when this unclean
spirit in this man exerts a power over him and influence over him
and controls him and nobody can conquer him, it's good, good
peace. That's the reason the devils
don't fear today's religion. No power. There's no sovereignty. There's no one mighty to save.
So when a fellow, when Satan's arm keeps his palace, his goods
are at peace. But look at verse 22. But when
a stronger, Christ said, when a stronger than he comes upon
him, the Son of the Most High God, King of kings, Lord of lords,
who has all power in heaven, earth, and hell, all power over all flesh. When
he comes upon him, he overcomes him, takes away all his armor,
all of his defenses, all of the things in which he trusted, and
spares his goods. And he that is not with me is
against me, and he that gathers not with me scatters This man here, hopeless and helpless,
there's only one that can help him, and that's one not only
stronger than him, but stronger than the unclean spirit that
controls him. That's what's got to take place.
Stronger than the unclean spirit that possesses him. We've got
to have someone undertake for us that Satan cannot defeat. And
he defeated Adam, you just keep naming everybody under any circumstance,
he defeated all of them. Not this one. Not this one. So verse 8, our
Lord said, in verse 8, Matthew Mark 5, come out of him, you
unclean spirit, come out of him. When he saw Jesus, He ran and
worshipped him. And those devils within him thought
anything to do with this man. We know who you are. One of them
said one time, we know who you are. You're the Holy One of God. Leave us alone. You come out
of him. I don't need to do something
for God. He needs to do something for me. I'm just like this man. Well, that didn't sit well with
everybody. Now I'm going to leave alone
here the pigs. Do you mind if I leave that alone?
I don't know. I wrote this down about this
particular thing. I'm under no liberty to speak
here about the Lord sending these demons into those pigs. I don't
understand that. I can't dwell on that. But I
don't want to because I don't want to leave you You leave here
talking about these pigs. I want you to leave here talking
about who did something for this man. That's what involves me. I'll learn about the other later.
I had a preacher friend in Chattanooga. He brought a message on this
and he called it 2,000 dead pigs and no hot water. Well, you know
what everybody left thinking, how they're going to set the
hair on those pigs and get it off without them. But we want
to talk about the Lord. That's what we want to talk about
here. So let's look at verse 15. Verse 14, And they that fed
the swine fled, and told in the city, and in the country. And
everybody went out to see what it was that was done. What it
was that was done. And what did they see first?
And they came to Jesus, and they saw him that was possessed with
the devils. He wasn't anymore. They saw the
man who was possessed to the demons, our Lord, and made him
whole. But you know something? I hear
people sometimes who don't like to be called sinners. They'll
have said one time, you talk about only a sinner. Say, by
grace, I'm not a sinner, I'm a saint. Well, let me tell you
something. Here we are 2,000 years later, looking at this
man's life, and how is he described to us? the one who was possessed
with demons. It'll always be that way. Rahab
the harlot, 2,000 years later, 3,000. We're talking about Rahab
the harlot. She's in glory now. But we're
talking about what she was before she met the Lord. What about
the thief on the cross? Everybody knows who he is. How
are you going to identify him? He's a believer. He's in glory. But
he's a thief on the cross. Without Christ, he's still a
thief on the cross, too. What about Mary, out of whom
he cast seven demons? Or the Samaritan woman with the
five husbands? Or Simon the leper? You just
go on and on and on. And Paul never would let anybody
forget, I'm the chief of sinners. Christ came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I'm the chief. Don't ever run from what
you wear. give him the glory that you're
not still what you were. That's right. Well, they found
him. How'd they found him? Well, they
found him sitting. They found him sitting, not ranting and
raving anymore. They found him sitting at peace
with God, at rest. The Lord had given him peace. The Lord did it. He didn't have
to buy a book on how to find peace. Christ was his peace. I'm always afraid of these how-to
books. Be careful of them now. Your peace will rest in what
you do and not in what he did. They found him just that much
longer sitting. And they found him clothed. He, whom the Lord conquered,
he clothed. He clothed him in his righteousness,
in his beauty. in his glory. They found him
in his right mind. Like the prodigal, he came to
himself. He came to himself when he came to Christ. And he that's
spiritual is in his right mind. Folks that are not in unity and
fellowship with Christ are not in their right mind. This United
States of America is not in its right mind. way out yonder in
the left field somewhere. But they're not in their right
mind. Someday, if God's pleased to do something for us, maybe
so, I don't know. Let us read on. And they were
afraid. And they were afraid. They weren't
afraid of the man. They were afraid of him before,
but not now. They had no cause to fear him. They weren't afraid
of him. I'll tell you who they were afraid
of, they were afraid of Christ. That's who they were afraid of.
I'll find that by the next few verses. Verse 16, And they that
saw it all, the ones that saw him cast the demons out of this
man, saw the demons go down into the pigs, saw them run into the
water, they told them When they that saw it told them how it
befell to him that was possessed of the demons, they told the
people what the Lord did for this man. You see him sitting
clothed in his right mind. Christ did that to him. Christ
did that. And they also told them what
he did with the pigs and with the demons. So what did they
do? Verse 17. They looked at Christ
and said, Why don't you just leave our coast? Go away. Isn't that strange? Won't you
just go away? They saw his remarkable work, power, glory. Go away. But now the man whom
he healed wanted to go with him. The man in whose heart the Lord
had done such a great and marvelous and wonderful work. He didn't
want to be separated from God. He wanted to go wherever you
go, I'll go. Like Ruth said, where you go, I'll go. Your people
are my people. I dwell where you dwell. I'll
be buried where you're buried. I won't go with you, but these
people wanted him gone. I'm going to tell you why. I said yesterday,
why did they want him to leave? Through the years, I've been
here a long time. Preached a long time here. Preached
this message a long time. Who Christ is. What Christ did,
why he did it, where he is now. The power and the glory of him
who is mighty to save. Salvation of the Lord, 1000%.
Salvation of the Lord in his planning, in his execution, in
his application, in his sustaining power, in his ultimate perfection
to God be the glory. 100%. We don't try to get people
saved or keep them saved. We preach Christ and he saves
them and keeps them saved. And I've many times had people
come from other places. Many, many times. They're disgusted
with what they're having to listen to, where they go. So they come
here and they sit down. After about one or two services,
they've had them meet me here, there, back there. They'll say,
I believe I'll join here. Wife and I like you to preach
out of the Bible. You open the Bible, read the
Bible, and preach the Bible. The Word of God, and we want
to come here, we'll join you. And they don't understand, but
I always tell them, don't join yet. Don't do that. Don't do that. You sit there for months, maybe
a year or two. You just sit there and study
this message I'm preaching. Study this Christ. the glory
of this Christ, the sovereignty of Christ. It's the truth! This
message permeates every one of the great old confessions of
faith back 500 years ago. This is the truth. This is the
truth of the word. This is the truth. Moses preached, and the
apostles preached, and Christ preached, and the reformers preached.
This is the truth. But you never heard it. So you sit and listen. Because I tell you this, my friend.
Such authority, such authority and power of Christ demands commitment,
not association. It demands commitment, not joining
up. It demands your life and your
heart and your soul and you. And you don't want to sign up
in some place where you're not going to be happy. Paul said,
I know whom I have to leave. And I'm persuaded he's able to
keep that which I've committed to him, lock, stock and barrel
forever. Such authority as these people
saw in Christ, they didn't want. And such power and salvation
demands surrender. Even your pigs, or whatever,
demands surrender. It demands submission. Whosoever
receives him, submits to him, to them he gave power to become
sons of God. It demands submission, continual
faithfulness as long as you live. And such glory demands worship
and obedience in your families, in your commitments with others. in your social life and the people
with whom you fellowship, in your business and the way that
business is run and conducted and ordered. Christ is our life. Christ is not just a faith to
practice, it's a Lord to believe. That's right. And lots of them
live. That's not what I'm looking for.
I'm just looking for a preacher to read the Bible to me on Sunday
and tell me what it means, and then I'll go on and do what I
please. But that's not it. And these people saw that. This
man now, Christ did for him what nobody could do, and he wanted to stay with him.
True faith in Christ loves him, reveres him, worships him. obeys him and works with him.
But these people, their reply was, we'll not have this man
reign over us. But that's what they said. And that's the reason they asked
him to leave. They knew it wasn't just joining up, it was a change
of But I tell you this, if I look
at verse 19, verse 18, and when he was coming to the ship, he
left! You wanted to leave? He'll leave. He got in the ship. You just
leave our coast. He did. Wouldn't you hate to
live there now? Wouldn't you hate to live with
people that refuse the gospel of Christ, the presence of Christ? The glory of Christ. Lots of
people do. They live where this Jesus is not welcome. They live
where this Jesus is not preached and is not worshipped. So he
got in his ship and he said to him, now to that man, he got
in his ship, verse 18, and he had been possessed with the devil,
prayed that he might go with him, take me with you. And he
told him, he said, suffered him not. He said, you go home to
your friends and you tell them not what you did for God. You
tell them what God did for you. That's a witness. What great
things the Lord has done for you and had compassion on you.
He had compassion on you. So he departed. And he began
to publish in Decapolis how great things the Lord Jesus Christ
had done for him. And some people marvel. Great things he's done. I can
preach this because he did that for me. Preach it with the greatest
of sincerity, honesty.