I'm not boastful enough to declare that every message that
I preach is God-led, Spirit-led, God-given. I don't know whether we can ever
be totally beyond a doubt positive that God gave us what we have
to say. Brother Barnard said to me one
time, I asked him, I said, why did you preach that? He said,
well, God, the devil, or somebody told me to preach it, so who knows. But I believe, I believe
that I have the message that God would have me preach today.
If I don't, I've been deceived all week because this passage
of Scripture has been on my mind for several days. several days. Mark the 5th chapter, the first
20 verses. I've read it and re-read it.
I've looked at Matthew Poole and John Gill and Charles Spurgeon
and about everybody I know to consult on it. Most of them agree
with this. It's one of the most mysterious
miracles in the Word of God. One of the most mysterious miracles. And yet, and yet, three of the
four Gospels recorded at length. So there must be some importance
attached to it. Now here's the story. Our Lord
Jesus Christ was on the ship with his apostles, his disciples.
And they came to this community called the Land of the Gadarenes,
or the Country of the Gadarenes, a town of Gadara. And his little
ship landed. When his ship landed, a man ran
to meet him. This man was what we would call
an insane man. He was demon-possessed. And the
people had tried to chain him. They tried to bind him. He had
superhuman strength. He had broken the fetters. He
had broken the chains. in the mountains, even the graveyard,
the cemetery was in the mountains, and he lived in the mountains
and among the tombs. It said in the tombs, from out
of the tombs, among the tombs. He just lived there. Tore his
clothes off, broke the fetters and chains, lived as a wild man. He'd cry at night. They could
hear him crying at night, screaming. He cut himself with stones, tried
to destroy himself. And then he saw Christ. the Lord
when he landed with his disciples on the seashore there, and he
ran to him. Scripture says here he ran. He
saw him from a distance, afar off, and he just ran to him and
worshiped him. And that's when our Lord commanded
the demons to come out of him, for he said to the man, Come
out of him, thou unclean spirit. And our Lord commanded the demons
to come out of the man. And then the demons began to
speak. They knew that they would have to leave. They began to
speak, and they said, don't send us out of the country. Don't
send us out of the country. And the Lord asked them, what's
your name? And they said, Legion. We're many, many, many unclean
spirits. And so there was nearby a herd
of swine. There were some fellows like
shepherds. They were tending to what you call a fellow that
watched after hogs. But 2,000 of them were grazing
or eating, wherever they were out there in the mountains. And
the demon said, send us into the pigs. So our Lord Jesus gave
them leave to go and enter the pigs. And when these demons left
this man, they went into the swine. And the swine just went
crazy, and they just charged 2,000 of them down that hill,
down the mountain, across the beach there, and right into the
sea, and they were all drowned. These fellows up there were taking
care of the swine, saw them, and they ran into town. They
ran into the owners, the men who owned the swine, and the
other people in town, and they started telling how this wild
man had been tamed, and how the demons had been cast out of him,
and these demons, and something happened to their swine, and
their swine just ran headlong into the sea and were drowned.
And the folks from the country, Christ was still right there
where he was. And they started coming out of
the town, and they all crowded around, and these people started
telling them again, everybody, what had taken place. And here
the man was who was so wild and and beyond taming, and they chained
him, and everybody knew about him, and he got screamed at night,
and the wild man, the superhuman strength that broke chains and
fetters and ropes that bound him, and there he was sitting,
quietly and calmly sitting. And he had clothes on. And he
was in his right mind. And they were amazed, and they
were afraid. And they turned to Christ and
they said, what about you just leaving here and don't ever come
back? Just leave and don't come back. And so the scripture says,
our Lord Jesus Christ went down with his disciples down to the
ship. And he was getting into the ship. And this man that he
had healed, cast the demons from him, he followed him. And he
said, Lord, let me go with you. I want to go with you. I want
to be with you where you are. And the Lord turned to him and
said, No, you go home, and you tell your friends and your family
the great things God's done for you. And so he left and went
down into different places, and our Lord got into the ship and
they pushed off from land. Now, I see so many lessons here.
I'll give you five or six that I draw from this passage of Scripture.
The first one is this. It says in verse 1, his disciples
came over in this little ship deliberately on purpose. He came
over into the other side of the sea, into the country of the
Gadarenes. Our Lord came over to this place. It's a lot like our Lord going
down into Samaria. Scripture said he must needs
go into Samaria. He must go to Samaria. Our Lord
went to Samaria and there he was pleased to save the woman
at the well. And then when he went to Jericho,
and there he saves Zacchaeus. And then he went to another place,
and there he met blind Bartimaeus. And then he went to another place,
and there he called Matthew. And this is the first thing I
see. What an indescribable blessing when our Lord is pleased to visit
where we are. What an indescribable blessing.
Now, I know this. I'm sure of this. I know that
God is omnipresent. I know there's no place where
God is not. I know the eye of the Lord is
in every place beholding the evil and the good. Turn with
me to Psalm 139. This I know. I'm not unaware
of this. I'm not unaware that God is everywhere. God is omniscient. He knows everything. God is omnipotent. He's all powerful. God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. I know that. I'm convinced of
that. You know, our Lord said to Nathanael
before, or to one of them, Nathanael, what he said, before he called
you, I saw you under the tree. I saw you. My eye was there.
My eye was there. And Psalm 139, David said this
in verse 7, Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall
I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, art
there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, art there. If I take
the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts
of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right
hand shall hold me." So understand this. I know God is everywhere,
but I know that there are times and places when our Lord is pleased
to visit in a special way. I know that in so many years
of ministry. It's been my privilege to be
in some places where God was distant in grace and mercy, where
God was pleased to reveal himself. I'll tell you the first picture
I get here. Our Lord came to this place deliberately, on purpose. Our Lord came to these shores.
He came there, came there in this little ship and landed and
stepped out on this shore. Now, the disciples may think
that our Lord just, you know, just was traveling around first
one place and then the other. But he said, the works that I
do, they're my Father's works. The words that I speak, they're
my Father's words. The deeds that I do, they're
my Father's deeds. Our Lord came here for a purpose. And our Lord
visits certain places. at certain times in special revelation
of mercy and grace. I saw that this week down in
North Carolina. I really think I'll still be
there. I hated to leave. On Monday night when I got there
and preached, I preached with such liberty. God was there. I knew God was there. I knew
the Spirit of God was there. There was a young Arab man from
the 82nd Airborne, Bob Mead was his name. After I preached, he
came up to me down front and he said, I don't think I'm saved. He said, I've been in church
and I made a profession of religion, but he said, I just don't think
I'm saved. What should I do? And I told
him, I said, well, don't talk to me or people. Just sit and
listen to the Word. Seek the Lord. Call upon Christ.
That was the emphasis all week. call upon Christ. He later told
a friend, another airman that came to the service, that he
believed the Lord had saved him that week. And then, not to tell
the whole story, but the pastor's wife, a dear lady, well-respected,
well-known, you know, loved in the church and the community,
with a profession of religion, been in church all her life,
and came before the church Thursday night after we brought the message
and She came forward and told the congregation, it's just been
pretense. It's just been putting on a show. It's just been religion all these
years. And God has saved me. The Lord has revealed his gospel
to my heart. Christ has come in to dwell.
I know Christ now. Rejoice with me, you know. And
the people came forward and some of them passed by and said to
her, put their arms around her and said, pray for us. I don't
think I'm saved either. been walking the aisle, you know,
and doing these things. And that, I found out about this
earlier Thursday morning. I called a pastor. It was two
and a half hours away. Gary Shepherd. And we called
him and said, Lord's working down here. God's revealed himself
to some folks. We're having some services. He
said, I'll be right down. He said, wherever God is, I want
to be. Drove five hours round trip just to be in that service.
Thursday night went back. I'll tell you this. We're too
busy with other things. The Lord Jesus landed on this
shore. He was there. He came for that
man. I know that. He came for that
man. But I'll tell you, when He comes
for His people, I'd sure like to be around, wouldn't you? I'd
like to be around. You know, let some drops fall
on me. You get so tired of folks Being
right. Brother Barnard said we're like
a gun barrel. We're just as straight and just as empty, you know.
Being right. We're right on things. We've
got this right and that right and the other thing. Everything's
right, but he's not there. And what a blessing when he's
there. That's the first thing I see in this. When I picked
up this scripture back some time ago and read that first verse
several days ago, first thing I realized is he was there. He
was there. What difference does it make
who else is there if he's there? The Lord was there. All right,
let's see the second thing here. And the Lord was there, and a
man ran to meet Him. Now, it wasn't the ministerial
association that ran to meet Him. They don't usually. And
it wasn't the fine, moral people of the community that ran to
meet Him. You know who ran to meet Him? He saw Him. He saw
Him laying. He was up there in the tombs,
hiding behind a tombstone proper, naked, dirty. You can just imagine
what this fellow looked like. He had chain marks on him, skin
scuffed up. You wouldn't have him to dinner,
that's for sure. No way you'd have him to dinner.
He was up there in the tomb, dirty, naked, miserable, crazy,
filled with demons, demons of lust and hate and malice and
envy and jealousy and all these demons just full of them, just
writhing within him. And so miserable, he just cried
and cut himself with stones, so miserable, miserable. And
he saw somebody. Oh, the Spirit of God must have
moved his heart to know who that was. And when he saw him, he
jumped up from behind that tombstone and just ran. He just ran. The Scripture says here, in verse
6, and he saw Jesus afar off. He saw and he just ran. He just
ran and worshipped him, and worshipped
him. See something about this man.
Verse 2 tells us something about him. First, he lived among the
dead. Is that not a picture of us? When he was come out of the
ship, immediately they met him out of the tombs, out of the
tombs. In verse 3, he had his dwelling
among the tombs. And verse 4 says, or verse 5,
and always night and day he was in the mountains, in the tombs,
dead, death. Death was his habitation. Death
was his dwelling place. And brethren, ever since Adam
fell and sinned against God, that's been our habitation and
our dwelling place too. Dead in trespasses and sin. This
is the condition of every sinner out of Christ, all about him.
Out of the tombs, among the tombs, in the tombs, out of us, in us,
about us, among us, death. We have the smell of death. The
smell of death. And as soon as the spirit leaves
this body, this body is going to be so dead, so lifeless, so
cold, so dead. Another thing about him, it says
here in verse 2, not only did he live among the tombs, among
the dead, but he had an unclean spirit. Unclean. Satan's unclean, and I'll tell
you his house is unclean too. Where he dwells is unclean. Turn
to Isaiah 64.6. Listen to the prophet Isaiah
here. Sin is unclean. Satan is unclean. His dwelling
place is unclean. We're unclean. We think about this fella here,
how dirty. He must not have had a bath in
years. Scaly skin, fingernails just
coated with dirt. Filthy, just every crease in
his body must have been filthy. His hair filthy, crawling with
lice. Filthy! I tell you, if we'd have
been near him, we'd have just backed off in horror, the stench
of him, the smell of him. But that's what we are spiritually.
We stink. God says, you're a stench in
my nostril. Stinky! That's what Scripture
says about us. We need the blood of Christ to
cleanse us. The only thing, the law can't
cleanse us, the water of baptism can't cleanse us, our reformation
can't cleanse us, our little coming to the altar and shed,
our tears won't cleanse us, our shaking the preacher's hand won't
cleanse us, by nature we're dead and by nature we stink. And we're repulsive to God. Look
at verse 6 of Isaiah 64, but we are all as an unclean thing,
unclean. And even our righteousnesses,
that's the best we got, our filthy rag, dirty rags that need to
be burned. And we all do fade as a leaf,
and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. That's what
we are. I know we're not repulsive to
each other because we, well, a worm don't mind sleeping with
a worm. You know, a dirty pig, I visited
a fellow this week down in North Carolina that raised pigs. And
he has these big sows that give birth to 10 and 12 of those.
I saw them in a different state. I went in the sow, he called
it his pig palace. But I went in there and he had
about 20 stalls and every one of them was a dirty old scaly
sow. with about 10 or 12 little old
pigs getting their dinner, you know, and it smelled good. The preacher sat there and said,
before you go in there, take a deep breath of air. So I breathed
and I tried to hold my breath, you know, but it was stinking
in there. Oh, my goodness. But they didn't
seem to mind it. Those pigs didn't mind it. They
just waddled around on each other, you know, and they liked it.
They loved it. I didn't love it. I enjoyed watching
what he was doing, you know, but I was sure glad. When that
door opened, you know, and that sunshine and blue sky, I took
a deep breath. And when I started to get in
the car, the preacher said, roll the windows down. You smell like
a pig. I did. You've been around them,
I smell like them. Went home and bathed, you know. But this
man, oh, how wretched. And that's what we are. We're
dead, and by nature, we might not mind being together. But
God minds being with us. He can't. He can't stand the
smell. He can't stand the odor. He can't stand the sight. Even our righteousness is a rags
in God's sight. And not only that, but listen
to this. Nobody could tame Him. It says that. Oh, it just keeps
emphasizing that. Look at verse 3. It said no man
could bind Him, not even with chains. They tried. They put chains on Him and He'd
pop them loose. with that superhuman strength,
those demons, you know, I can't understand what I know about
that, but he'd break those chains. And it says in verse 4, he'd
been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had
been plucked asunder by him and broken in pieces, and no man
could tame him. Let me tell you this, this is
what the church is trying to do. Here's this man possessed
with demons, dirty, wicked, rotten, And those fellas got a committee
and they said, now we'll get some chains and put on him and
bind him and we'll help everybody. And that's what we do. We get
folks and get them down the aisle and make a profession of faith.
We bind them with Sabbath keeping and bind them with not eating
meat on a certain day and bind them with church membership and
bind them with rules and regulations and we bind them and all this
thing. But we don't tame them. We don't tame them. We may subdue
them for a little while, but the problem is not on the outside,
it's on the inside. And that problem on the inside
breaks those fetters after a while, breaks those chains. That's the
reason children go on up in your home. And you say you can't go
to the movies, and you can't go to the dance, and you can't
smoke, and you can't do all these things, and they mind you, and
you go to church or else, and you go or else, and you do this
or else, and all these things. We bind them. We've got our parental
authority, and our pastoral authority, and our church standards, and
all these things. We bind them. But, oh boy, when they get loose,
pow, they hit the graveyard. You see what I'm talking about?
You can't chain them. I'm not saying you're not supposed
to try. I'm not going to say that at all. I'm just saying
that no man could tame Him. And there's no man, there's no
man, there's no human power, there's no human denomination,
there's no human prophet, preacher, evangelist, there's no human
system, there's no human standard that can tame a devil. And that's
what we are by birth in nature. But we've got raging in here,
raging. And you can subdue it for a while,
you can put him out by himself and you can chain him with all
these rules and regulations and you can do all this. But he's
still a devil inside. He's still moaning and groaning
and night and day he cried and he cut himself and he punished
himself, no peace, nothing but fear and depression. It's just
like that dear pastor's wife the other night. and different
ones I've seen the last few years is, boy, to look on them on the
outside, look like St. Peter or Paul or somebody, but
they knew on the inside there was a raging, raging, tormenting
tumult just pressed down like a pressure
cooker. boiling, and Darcy puts that
pressure cooker on. I look over at that thing sometimes,
and I think, it's going to blow up, sure as it were. It's just
shaking like this, you know, and making noise. But it's all
right. It's sealed in there with all
that strong aluminum, you know, or steel, or whatever it is.
But give it long enough, it'll bust down. It'll bust down. Well, here's the glorious thing
down here, verse 6, but he saw Christ. Oh, I tell you what a
sight. He saw Christ. He saw the sovereign,
almighty Redeemer. He saw the compassionate Christ.
He saw in the eyes of Christ what he had never seen in the
eyes of those men that had tried to bind him. He saw Him, His
whole appearance, His eyes, the way He walked. He saw something
that someone told him. The Spirit of God evidently spoke. He saw down there the Lamb of
God. And I'll tell you this, we see
our religion, we see our doctrines, we say, that seems reasonable,
you know. Yeah, that's reasonable. That makes sense. I believe that. Preacher got that out of the
Bible. We see the Bible's fine, but the Bible's given to reveal
Christ. It's all these things, the preaching,
the Bible, the law, everything, it's just to turn your attention
to Him. And this man saw Him. He saw
Christ. He ran from everybody else, but
he ran to Christ. This is what we're missing. This
is what the whole shooting match is missing. This is what all
the religious world is missing. They've got the rules and regulations
and standards and doctrines and all these, they write baptism
and all this, but they haven't seen what this man saw. He saw
Christ. Yes, sir, he did. And when he
saw Christ, it says, he that seeth the sun, he that seeth
the sun, he left the tombs. He left the tomb. He left the
chains and fetters. He left his habitation. He came
just like he was. He ran to Christ just like he
was. Dirty, naked, filthy, all these
things. He ran. But now, not without
resistance. These devils in him resisted.
They cried out in the presence of the Lord. You know something? These devils had never been in
danger before. I just imagine that this fellow
here, psychologists had worked on him, philosophers had worked
on him, church people had worked on him, the Pharisees had worked
on him. I'll bet you he was a project
of a lot of people. They tried to tame him. It says
no man could, evidently somebody tried. No man could. It says because he had often
been bound, often, somebody tried often. But these demons had never
been in any danger. They had never been in any danger.
And I'll tell you this now, don't you get to thinking that demons
and devils and the presence of Satan always acts in the same
way. It doesn't. Now, don't you be
misguided. The average person thinks if
a demon's present, you're going to have yelling and screaming.
You might have singing hymns. Some of our people think if a
demon's present, you're going to have somebody cursing and
blaspheming. Oh, no, he may be preaching. He may be preaching because he
changes his messengers, Charlie, into what? Angels of righteousness,
ministers of righteousness. See, the devil takes different
turns. He's always opposed to Christ.
He's always opposed to Christ's righteousness. He's always opposed
to the glory of God. Understand what I'm saying? He's
always opposed to the glory of God. He doesn't love the glory
of God. He's always opposed to God getting
all the glory. He's always opposed to love,
true love, not self-love, true love. Always opposed. But the devil is a tricky, subtle,
crafty character. He knows more about human nature
than anybody but God. He's been in the deceiving business
6,000 years. He's worked with folks a lot
more difficult than you or me. He knows just exactly how to
operate. Peter, Satan hath desired you. Nobody's immune. The chief
apostle, the chief spokesman, that's right, Peter, and he's
going to shift you too. You're going to be the object
of his wrath. And this man, the devils, you
see, are never in any danger from us. They're going to hit
this town with a big crusade out yonder pretty soon, but the
devil ain't in no danger. None at all. That's right, Jerry.
He ain't no danger. He's only in danger when Christ
comes on the scene. When the sovereign, almighty,
eternal Christ, in his redemptive glory, Satan's in trouble. And
he knows it. He knows it. He began to cry
out. He began to resist. They had stayed in there all
these years, but now they were confronted with Christ. They
were confronted with the person. They were confronted with the
sovereign majesty, the redeeming Christ. And they said, don't
send us out of the country. We know we're leaving this place.
That place was earmarked for his habitation. That place was
earmarked for Christ's dwelling. I may preach Tuesday night, I
don't have time this morning, from Luke 11. It talks about
the devil will leave a place, and he'll leave it empty, swept,
and garnished, nice and neat, as clean as a pen, but he'll
be back. He'll be back. The only way Satan
ever leaves permanently is when one stronger than him comes upon
him, drives him out, and inhabits his land, and runs up the flag
of King Jesus, and he ain't coming back. He's not coming back. But this man, possessed with
demons, ran and worshiped Christ, and these demons cried out, and
Christ sent them into the pits. Sent them into the pits, and
this fellow was free. Oh, Christ set him free. Christ
set him free. I don't know a whole lot about
what takes place between verse 9 and verse 15, and I'm not going
to fool much with it. And if I was you, I wouldn't
either. I've got this warning for myself and you too. Don't
deny demons, but don't court them. In other words, don't cast
it off as being something that's not true, but don't you begin
to look for them. You'll find them. There was a
preacher, Mike, that Kemp told me about. I don't know his name,
wouldn't call it the Newick. But he got interested in demons,
awful interested. He bought every book on demons
he could find. He found every theological book
he could find on demons. He took the scripture, the native
topical Bible, everything that studied demons, demons, demons,
and sitting in his study one day, he felt somebody's presence. There wasn't anybody in there.
And every time then after that he'd go to his study, there was
somebody in there besides him, and strange things started happening,
and they had to take him away. So let me tell you this, I say
this, and I've tried to do this in my own ministry, don't investigate
demonology. That's a warning. Don't get too
interested in demons. You just, you know what, let
me tell you, you do what, who was it, Michael, Cecil, the archangel,
Gabriel, which one of those that confronted over Moses' body? Michael, what? And he said Satan,
he confronted Satan, and you know what he said? He said, the
Lord will deal with you, Satan. I'm not going to fool with you.
I'm not going to mess with you. You see, this is the thing. Satan,
you're no match for Satan. I know you listen to the preachers
on TV and they get the whooping up and say, tell the devil to
go back to hell where he lay out. You do that sometimes. You do that sometimes. But you're
not near as smart as the angel who said, God will take care
of you. I'm no match for you. Job was no match for him, Richard,
was he? Job was no match for him. And
you're not either. And I don't know a great deal
about what goes on in these verses. I'm going to leave it where it
is. That's one pill I'm just going to swallow by faith and
digest it, you know, just let her go. But this I do know. Watch
this in verse 16, in verse 15. And they come to Jesus, these
people from the town, finally came out there, and they saw
him that was possessed with the devil. Christ had cast him out. And they saw him, listen, they
saw him sitting at rest, at peace, at the feet of Christ. No longer
ranting and raving, no longer running about in the tomb, but
sitting. One of the hymn writers wrote
about this, he breaks the power of counsel sin, he sets the prisoner
free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. Clean. Oh, David said, purge
me and I'll be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than
the snow. His blood availed for me. Jesus,
the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease.
Music. Music in the sinner's ear. Life
and health and peace. They found him sitting. Oh boy,
like Mary at Jesus' feet, found Him sitting. And they found Him
clothed, no longer shamed, no longer naked, they found Him
clothed. When the people find you after
you meet Christ, they'll find you clothed, too, in his righteousness,
in his holiness, in his spotless beauty. Not clothed with your
own beauty. You still don't have any. You
will someday when you're made like him. But they found him
clothed, and they found him like the prodigal son. He'd come to
himself. They found him in his right mind.
They found him with understanding. I'll tell you this. In a matter
of moments, he came to an understanding even they didn't have. It says
the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding. Back
prior to this moment, he didn't even know who he was. Now he
knew who Christ was. I bet you he didn't even know
who his mother and father were. He just was insane. He didn't
know anybody. That blank look on his face and
in his eyes. But here he is, he knows Christ. He knows who God is. He knows
the Father and the Son. And these people, look here,
and they were afraid. Let me tell you this, and I'll
warn you about something else. If you ever come to really know
Christ, Don't be surprised if your family and friends don't
get scared of you. It scares them. They don't care
if you get religion. It don't bother them a bit in
the world. They don't care if you join the church. They don't
care if you start tithing. They don't care if you go to
church on Sunday. They don't care if you join the
local church baseball league or basketball league. But you
come to know Christ and you start talking grace. And you start
talking the miracle of redemption. You start talking about Him who
is King and Lord and Sovereign. You start talking about His sovereign,
free mercy and grace. They don't understand that. Too
critical, too much of a crisis, too strange, too different. They
don't know what you're talking about, and they get scared. They
don't understand. They don't wish to be involved
in such drastic, such drastic happenings. And so this is what
they say. Why don't you just leave here?
Why don't you just leave? You're not welcome. You're not
welcome. And my friend, how sad, how sad
for them. Verse 17, they ask him to leave.
And so our Lord Jesus Christ, he got what he came for. He accomplished
what he came to do. He came to get one of his sheep.
He got him. He came to save one of his own.
He came there to that seashore for one that the Father had given
him for whom he died, and he got him. But oh, how sad it is
for everybody else. How sad it is. Well, I don't
want to get mixed up in that emotionalism. No, no, you don't
do that. You wouldn't want to do that.
Well, I just, you know, I'm a Christian. Well, that's fine. That's all
well and good. Don't get, no, you don't want to get into those
doctrines of grace. You don't want to get into any
fanaticism, any radicalism. You don't want to be identified
with those people. No, you just, Lord, you just
leave now and let us go back to the days of peace and tranquility
and just leave." And he got back in the boat. But one other thing,
and I'll quit. This man said, Lord, take me
home with you. Take me with you. Paul said,
I have a desire to depart and be with Christ. Let me encourage
you a little. This fellow said, don't leave me with this bunch
of pagans. Don't leave me with these heathens. Take me with
you. I want to be in the land of peace and tranquility. I want
to be with you, protected. The Lord said, you go home. And you tell them that you've
made a decision for Jesus. You tell them you've accepted
Jesus as your personal Savior. No. He said, you go home, verse
19, and tell your friends what God did. You go tell them what
the Lord did. That's what you go tell them.
You didn't do anything. You're just an empty bucket.
He filled it. Like that black fellow said, I did the running,
he did the catching. I did the sinning, he did the
saving. You just go tell them what God did. And that's all
you're responsible to tell them. Don't try to cast any demons
out. Just tell them what God did. Maybe Christ will be pleased
to land on that shore. And I'll tell you if he does,
if somebody gives an indication that The Lord just might have
done something for him. You might be wise if you kind
of get up close to him. Might be wise, because some of
it may rub off. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. While the drops are falling,
Lord, let thy mercy fall on me. Our Father, for your Word, for
every promise in the book, we give thee thanks. Oh, for a manifestation
of your presence, of the power of Christ, for a visit, Lord,
for a visit on these shores. We know you're here. Whither
shall we flee from thy presence? But oh, for the power of God,
for the presence of Christ in redeeming mercy. in his manifested
grace, an actual manifestation of your grace, making the word
effectual, making it go home with power, casting out demons
and devils, and Lord conquering and invading the territory, invading
the territory that hasn't been touched, invading the territory
where we are powerless, powerless. May it please thee. We know Satan
is powerful, we know that the forces of evil and principalities
and powers, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. It's
not just changing men's habits, it's changing hearts, it's conquering
hearts, it's Lord invading where we can't even approach. May it
please you by your word and power and by your spirit, we give thee
the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ we pray, amen.