If you will turn in your Bibles
with me today to Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. And they came over onto the other
side of the sea into the country of the Gadarenes. 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 worshiped 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. For he said unto him, come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, what is thy
name? And he answered, saying, my name
is Legion, for we are many. And he besought him much that
he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was
there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
And all the devils besought him, saying, send us into the swine,
that we may enter into 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 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 see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus and see
him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting
and clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And
they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed
with the devil and also concerning the swine. And they began to
pray him to depart out of their coast. 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 saith unto him, go home to thy friends and tell them how
great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion
upon thee. And he departed and began to
publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him. and all did marvel. And looking
at this passage of scripture this past week, I could not help
but think of all the many needs, the many sicknesses, diseases,
the many needs that the Lord Jesus Christ performed miracles
to heal. The blind had their eyes open,
the lame were made to walk, lepers were cleansed, Many, many miracles,
and even the three deaths, the Lord Jesus Christ restored men
to life again. The young man, the young woman,
and Lazarus. And all of these miracles testify
to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the purpose
of these miracles. They all have the same message.
That is, this man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, this man is more
than just a man. He is the God-man. He is the
eternal Son of God. The man who experienced the miracle
in this passage presents an awful scene. If you just take the time
to think about how he is described here, he is tormented by the
devil. Actually, we say possessed by
a legion of demons. He was separated from society. If he had a family, he did not
live with them. He did not live in a city. He lived out among the tombs,
he did not wear any clothes, he did harm to his own body,
cutting himself, and he was so strong that when men tried to
bind him with chains, he broke the chains. There's as much difference,
I want you to think about this, there's as much difference between
This man described in verses 3 and 5 and verse 15 as there
is between darkness and light. Who made the difference? Who
made the difference? If you read in verse 3, 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, always, night and day, he was in the mountains
and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. And then
look at him in verse 15. And they come to Jesus and see
him, this same man, this same man as described there in those
texts, this same man, who had been possessed with the devil,
and now he is clothed and in his right mind. And they were
afraid. Who made the difference? The
Lord Jesus Christ. The same one who in the beginning,
in Genesis chapter 1, where we read, the darkness was upon the
face of the deep. And then he, as the eternal son
of God, the creator of all things, he said, let there be light. And there was light. Who made
the difference? The miracle that this man experienced. I'm sure we've all heard the
story of the old violin. The old violin. The violin was
old and dusty, and the auctioneer held it up for bid, and he couldn't
hardly get Men to bid $3 on it. But then someone in the back
of the room, an old man, stepped forward and took the violin and
turned the strings just a little bit and began to play it. And
now the auctioneer was offered $1,000, $2,000, $3,000. Someone
said, what's the difference? Who made the difference? And
of course, in that story, it is the touch of the master's
hand. And in this, it's not a story,
it's a true historical fact. Who made the difference? The
master. You know that term master? We
don't hear that much anymore. We don't hear men speaking about
the Lord Jesus Christ as the master. When I was a young child,
that was very common that believers that Those who profess faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ referred to Him as the Master, because
truly He is the Master of all things. The Lord Jesus Christ,
He made the difference. And He's the difference, when
you think about it, He's the difference between condemnation
and justification. He's the difference between alienation,
that is alienated from God, and reconciliation, being reconciled
unto God. He's the difference between eternal
death and eternal life. And He's the difference between
eternal damnation and eternal bliss in heaven. He is the difference. Now as we look at this today,
I'm going to call our attention to four things. First of all,
the condition of the man possessed of the devil. The condition of
the man possessed of the devil. If you had to describe this man
with one word, what would that word be? What would that one
word be that you would choose to describe this man? that met the Lord Jesus Christ
and his disciples when they stepped off of that ship in which they
had crossed the sea that night, just I assume early in the morning,
and the first thing that met them was this man. What word
would you choose? I thought about the word hopeless,
hopeless. How better could he be described
than by that one word, hopeless? When we combine Luke's account
with this that is recorded here in Mark, we learn that this had
been his condition for a long time. This didn't just happen
the night before. This had been his life for a
long time. This was the way he lived. This was his life, living among
the tombs, among the dead, not wearing clothes and not being
chained or held back from hurting himself. That was his life. That was his existence, if you
want to use that word. And I would describe him as hopeless. Hopeless. Men had tried to help
him. Oh, yeah. I'm sure he had family
and maybe some friends and some neighbors and they had tried
to help him. They had done the best they could
for him. They found some chains and chained
him up. But this man had an unclean spirit. And we realize as we read that
this one spirit was not one spirit, but a legion of unclean spirits. He had the power because he was
possessed of Satan to break these chains. So that's the first thing,
the condition of this man. I believe it is best described
by that one word, hopeless. Hopeless. Have you ever felt
hopeless in this world? Has God the Holy Spirit ever
so convinced you of your sin and your unworthiness before
a holy God, and your deserving of eternal
wrath and eternal damnation, that the only thing you felt
was hopelessness, a hopeless condition. And that is all men,
apart from the grace of God and apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. point I want to make, the conduct
of the man possessed of the devil. Now the devil acted through this
man and that explains his actions, the actions of this man. He was
possessed of the devil and so the devil acted through him. Does any man have the strength
to break chain, a chain? Of course not. That's beyond
human strength. But he had that power because
he was possessed of Satan. And it also explains why he didn't
wear any clothes. You know, the Apostle Paul speaks
to us as covering the uncomely parts of our body. Man by nature,
nature just tells man to put on some clothes. Satan. is the one who influences
people, the world, to take off clothes and show as much flesh
as you dare show. This man being possessed of the
devil wore no clothes and living among the tombs, he felt at home
there among the dead. And the devil feels at home among
the tombs because you see the devil, our Lord said, is a murderer. He was a murderer from the beginning. That is, in the beginning, Adam
and Eve, he was a murderer. He came to tempt, to bring about
death. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to destroy the works of the devil. Now it was clearly the devil
in this man who cries out. And he cries out and said, what
have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the Most High? I
adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. Consider these
three things that we see here. First of all, at the temptation. And we know the Lord Jesus Christ
was driven, the scripture says, driven by the Holy Spirit out
into the wilderness to be tempted. And when we read about that temptation,
it was the devil who said to the Lord, if, if thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread. But now, now, He confesses, Jesus,
thou Son of God. It was the devil before who said,
all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and
worship me. But now it is the devil in this
man who has fallen down before the Lord Jesus Christ. A second thing, the devil's question. What have I to do with thee? What have I to do with thee? And the answer, of course, is
nothing, nothing. He had nothing to do with Jesus. The name Jesus means Jehovah
Savior. He had nothing to do with Jesus. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He did not come,
He was not made flesh to be the Savior of angels, but of men. Remember in Hebrews chapter 2,
the writer points this out to us. For verily, truly, He, that
is the eternal Son of God, took not upon Him the nature of angels,
but He took upon Him the seed of Abraham to fulfill that covenant
promise that God made with Abraham, in thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. The devil is a fallen angel,
and all the demons with him are fallen angels, and for them God
provided no savior. Now we read of elect angels,
chosen angels, and they are angels which are constituted holy, because
Christ has made their head. And this is where we learn, as
well as anywhere, the difference between grace and mercy. You
ever wonder about that? What's the difference between
grace and mercy? Here's where we learn the difference. The elect angels, the holy angels,
they received grace, unmerited favor. They did not fall, they
cannot fall, but they never needed mercy. Mercy is for the fallen. But you see, men, you and I,
God's children, we receive both grace and mercy through the Lord
Jesus Christ. unmerited favor, that he who
is the eternal son of God, that he would come into this world
as a man, that he might be our Redeemer, that he might be our
Savior, that is the Savior of men and women, boys and girls. What have I to do with thee?
Nothing. The only thing the devil has
to do with the Lord Jesus is that the Lord Jesus is the judge,
not only of all men, but also of all fallen angels. Scripture
says all judgment is committed unto the Son. And notice Mark
tells us that the devil said, torment me not. Torment me not. But in Matthew's account, It
is there art thou come hither to torment us before the time. The devils know that there is
a time when they shall be especially tormented. Both the Apostle Peter
and the Apostle Jude tell us that when the angels sinned,
every angel that sinned, who fell, every angel, was delivered
into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. Now, they're reserved, they're
in chains of darkness now. They'll never be released from
those chains, chains of darkness. There was no savior. God provided
no savior for the fallen angels. But being mindful of us, you
see the grace of God that though he was rich, yet for our sakes
he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. Why have you come hither to torment
us before the time? There is a time coming. We read
about it in Revelation chapter 20 and verse 10. The scripture
there says, and the devil that deceived them was cast into the
lake of fire and brimstone with where the beast and the false
prophet are and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. All false religion along with
Satan and all his hosts shall be cast into a lake of fire and
brimstone. That judgment is yet before us,
isn't it? It is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this, the judgment, there is a judgment coming. Men
may deny it, men may not like to hear about it, but it doesn't
change the fact that there's a judgment coming. And all will
be there. And those who are in Christ,
the justified shall enter into the joys of their Lord, the kingdom
which God has prepared for them before the foundation of the
world. But all the law shall go away
into everlasting destruction. Here's the third thing. I want
us to say the control that the Lord Jesus exercised over the
devil. And notice these two things in
this case, which show the power the power of Jesus, the Son of
God, in overcoming the strong man. You will remember in the
Gospels, he said that to release an individual from the power
of the strong man, and that strong man there is Satan, but to free
someone who is in captivity to the strong man, one must overcome
him who is more powerful. The Lord is that one. And he
commanded the devil to come out of this man, in verse 8. For
he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. He crossed the lake on purpose. He wasn't out on a joy ride.
He crossed this lake on purpose. You know, we saw that last week
how they took him, as he was, into the ship. And they crossed
the sea, and even the disciples of the Lord, they probably had
no clue why they were crossing the sea that night, why it was
in their heart. Let's cross the sea! In the providence
of God, fixed from all eternity, The Lord Jesus Christ was going
to deliver this man from Satan's captivity. There's no accident
that he came there. There's no accident that this
man came out to meet the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the reason
that he came into this world. He came into this world to free
the devil's captives. And all men by nature are in
captivity to Satan. For this purpose, the Apostle
John said, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that
he might destroy the works of the devil. The Lord Jesus Christ
came into this world on purpose. And it was God's purpose. God's
purpose for him to come to save those people that he had chosen
and given unto him in that everlasting covenant of grace. He came on
purpose to destroy the works of the devil. And number two,
the Lord commanded the devil to give his name, verse 30. Now, if the Lord had not done
this, if the Lord had not commanded this demon, what's your name? You and I, we would have assumed
there was only one demon in this man, right? We would have never
known. because he speaks in the singular. He said, I, I beseech thee, torment
me not. He spoke as one, but then when
he is commanded to give his name, his name is legion. Why? Because
there was more than one. Now a legion in the Roman army
is believed to have been 1,000. 1,000 soldiers made up a legion. And it is believed that this
man somehow was possessed with 1,000 demons. And we may learn
from that name that while there's only one devil, there's only
one devil, but he has a host of demons that have fallen with
him. And they all make up one army. And their objective is all the
same. The objective of Satan, the objective
of all the demon spirits, it's all the same. You say, what is
their objective? Their objective is to rob God
of His glory. That's always been Satan's objective. To rob God of His glory. And the scriptures declare unto
us, this is one thing God said, I will not share with another.
is my glory. He will have all the glory. To rob God of His glory, the
demons, of course, hope to ruin as many as possible in hell. And you see that here. When they
asked the Lord to send them into this herd of swine, and He allowed them Commanded
them to go into the herd of swine and immediately the swine destroy
themselves Why did they do that the demons the demons in them
and they had a reason for that? They had a reason for wanting
to destroy all of these hogs And what was it? Well, you see
when the people heard about it and came out there they were
filled with fear That was their objective. Not
reverential fear, not the fear which is the beginning of wisdom,
the fear which every child of God has that accompanies faith,
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every child of God has a reverential
fear of God. This is one of the great differences
I believe you can see between people who are just religionist
and those who are truly God's children, a reverential fear
of God. We respect his name. We respect
his word. We respect his salvation. Why? Because we have a fear,
a reverential fear. We don't have a slavish fear
of God like these people did. They came out and they saw what
had happened and they have a fear of God and what is their reaction?
Go away! Leave us alone! Leave us! We don't want anything to do
with thee. Jesus thou son of David. No, God's people have
a reverential fear that produces in us a desire near, near, near
my God unto thee. And here's the fourth and last
thing. Notice the commission the Lord gave to this man in
verse 19. This man, when the Lord Jesus
Christ accommodated the Gadarenes and he was leaving their shores
as they had prayed him, He stepped into the ship, and so here comes
this man, I'm going with you. I'm going with you. I'm going
to follow you. God's people follow him, don't
they? His disciples, that's what it means to be a disciple of
Christ, a follower of Christ. The Lord said, howbeit Jesus
suffered him not, but saith unto him, go home to thy friends.
Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and
hath had compassion on thee. Someone said this, and I believe
it so. If you want to know a person,
ask those who live in the same house with him. If you want to
know a person, ask those who live in the house with that person.
This man was sent to his house. Go home. Go home and show by
your life. Show by your life as a husband,
as a father, as a son, as a neighbor. Show by your life. Not just by
your words, yes, those are important to confess with our mouth, but
show by your life what great things the Lord hath done for
thee. Be a missionary at home before
you strike out to some foreign field. And here are two lessons in closing
for us this morning. Only Christ has the power to
set a captive of the devil free. Only Christ. You know, people
use the law and try to bind men and men take the law and believe
they're going to make themselves over and they're going to become
a new creature, a new person by observing this, that, and
whatever. Only Christ has the power to
free Satan's captives. free us from Satan's power, and
free us from tradition. You know, so many people, religious
people, are caught up in tradition, in ritualism. And I tell you,
ritualism, I mean, you look at some of these things you see
on television, especially around this time of year, and boy, that's
got everything to please the, The sight, the ear, the smell,
everything. The beautiful, beautiful palaces
like temples and the choirs that are singing and the incense that's
being burned and the robes the priests are wearing. And someone
told me years ago, well, if I was going to be anything, that's
what I'd be. That's the way the natural man
thinks, isn't it? But no, the scripture, our Lord
said, they that worship God must worship Him in spirit and in
truth. It's not in form and ceremony
and all of these things that men have manufactured, no. It's in coming to God in Christ
alone, trusting in Him alone, His blood, His righteousness
for all our salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ at the
cross, he spoiled principalities and powers and made a show of
them openly. That is Satan and all of his
demon forces, triumphing over them. As he delivered you, then
show what great things he hath done for thee. Show what great
things he hath done unto thee. The devil is not a figure to
be joked at. I've never liked to hear people
tell jokes about the devil. He's a real being. He's a powerful
being. He's not all powerful, and he's
not all present everywhere. I know that. But there are many
demons, my friends. And it behooves all of us to
heed the word of God, to take up the weapons that God has given
us to protect ourselves and keep ourselves from Satan. He cannot
possess a believer, understand that, but he can tempt. He can
tempt, my friends, and he can harass a believer. And God has
given us weapons that we are to use against him. We have the
word of God, which is the spirit of the sword of the spirit, the
word of God, and we have prayer. And we have Christian fellowship.
And we have the preaching of the word of God. All of these
things God has given us for our good to help us to overcome and
not be defeated by the forces of evil. Well, I trust the Lord
will bless this word to each one of us here today. And I want
us to sing this hymn, Rock of Ages. Rock of Ages, cleft for
me.