[0:00] Mark chapter 5. Yes. Yeah. Steve and Charlotte are not here this morning.! Steve is at the ER.
[0:12] He woke up with a really stiff neck yesterday and it's even worse today. And he can't drive or anything. He can't move it at all. So they're at the ER trying to get that checked out.
[0:23] So be praying for Steve this morning. Checking what? Because of a tick?
[0:41] Okay. So be praying. Huh? Chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. Yep. She's got it up there now.
[0:52] It is. All right. We're continuing on with our More Than a Name series.
[1:06] People whose names we do not know, but they had a major impact and taught us a lot of lessons about the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, you can see the title up there, A Shameless, Nameless Maniac.
[1:19] Mark. He was from Bangor. No. No, he wasn't from Bangor. Okay. Look at me at chapter 5, beginning at verse 1. Mark chapter 5, beginning at verse 1.
[1:31] And they came over the other side of the sea unto the country of the Gadarenes. And when he had 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.
[1:50] Because he had been offbound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the feathers broken in pieces, neither could any man tame him.
[2:01] When it says feathers, it means shackles. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones.
[2:12] But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God?
[2:23] I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. And he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many.
[2:38] And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there were nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.
[2:50] 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.
[3:03] And the swine ran violently down the steep place into the sea. There 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.
[3:17] And when they went out to see what had been done. And they came to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting, clothed, and in his right mind.
[3:34] And they were afraid. And they saw it, told them how it befell him that was possessed with the devil and also concerning the swine.
[3:47] And they began to pray him to depart from 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.
[3:59] Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, and said unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath compassion on thee.
[4:09] And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel. Let's have a word of prayer.
[4:22] Father, I pray this morning that you would help us as we begin this passage of Scripture, begin to look at this man who was possessed by demons. Lord, we would understand some things about the limit of Satan's power, and understand the omnipotence of God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[4:43] Lord, that we would understand that you are in control of all things. Lord, help us to understand that your power is greater than any other power.
[4:56] Lord, help us to understand you better as we look at this passage. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. If I say Satan to you, what do you think of?
[5:12] The devil. Okay. Evil personified. Okay. We say that, but do we really think that?
[5:27] Here's what I mean. I think we tend to think of the devil as a bother. He's a pest. He's a nuisance. He's always getting in our stuff, and we just kind of, but that's not who he is.
[5:42] We think that sometimes. Oh, he's the devil. Yeah, okay. But in John 10.10, the first part of the verse says, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
[5:56] John 10.10. What is the devil's purpose? What is he trying to do? He's trying to kill our testimony, trying to kill any evidence that Jesus is even around.
[6:09] He's trying to destroy our testimony. He's trying to destroy us. And he says, Look, the devil is not just a bother. The devil is a beast that we need to deal with, and picture him that way.
[6:21] He's not the little guy in the red suit with the horns and the pitchfork and everything. Matter of fact, the Bible describes him as a shining light, a shining angel. But, that shining, bright thing can lead us in a wrong way.
[6:37] And so we need to keep in mind that the devil, he's much more than we sometimes give him credit for. He's at work all the time. And, he's trying to destroy us.
[6:49] He's trying to take us out completely. He wants to take us out of control of our lives and make himself. Yes. Fred? Why is the first time he's mentioned here the name of Legion in the capital letter and later on it's called?
[7:08] I didn't even notice that. Because he says his name is Legion. That's why the capital letter. Where's the verse? Oh, they had the Legion.
[7:22] Okay, there they're talking about he had had these devils inside him. The first time he's saying that's his name. Legion. So, the first time is a name.
[7:32] We'd capitalize all names. Fred, Kelly, Margaret. So, we'd capitalize names. Second time he's talking about the fact that he had these devils in him and there was a bunch of them.
[7:44] Okay, that's the difference between the two. Why one's capital and one's not. Okay? All right. It's more like the second mention of Legion.
[8:00] It's more like a group. You're saying there was a group of them there. Rather than. Yep. There was a group of them there. There was a bunch of them there. Yep. That's why the name Legion started with. That's right.
[8:11] Right. That's why it was Legion to start with. Yep. Yep. We. Yep. For we are many. Yep. Yep. So, that was the name of the group.
[8:26] Yep. Okay. there's probably nobody in the Bible who shows us the destructive nature of the devil more than this guy. When the devil gets in and takes over it's bad news and we don't have a lot of control.
[8:45] Margaret? Yep. But in. With the story of Adam and Eve that he's being tempted by the devil it shows the methods that the devil uses to turn us away from God and also when he attacked Joel with all his problems and that it shows how he can put us in misery and it's up to us to be strong enough and say no Jesus is protecting us.
[9:13] Yep. Yep. So, yeah. He can he can react to us in so many different ways and these different passages that you just mentioned show us how he does that.
[9:26] But we need to remember the devil is not omnipotent like God all powerful his power is limited and in this passage the devil is about to meet his match because he's going to have a confrontation with Jesus Christ the son of God.
[9:43] You know in Psalm 62 11 it says God has spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God power belongeth unto God when you confront God you've met your match and that's what's happening here Jeremiah 32 17 Jeremiah 32 17 our Lord God behold thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretch out arm and there is nothing too hard for thee God is not limited the devil is but God is not God can handle anything that comes our way and so Satan's mission if you want to say he has a mission is try to destroy lives why did Jesus come to save to seek and to save that which is lost Luke 19 10 son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost he came to save lives to restore lives to make lives new again and so
[10:49] Jesus came for a different purpose John 10 10 again I read the first part of the verse to you it says the thief came not but for life and that they might have it more abundantly Jesus said I come to give life I come so you have an abundant!
[11:10] life you can have a life that is just so full if you follow me 2nd Corinthians 517 verse you know well probably therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature all things are passed away behold all things have become new we're going to talk start out it starts out with a demonic presence a demonic presence when we see Satan's presence in this incidence he's doing the same thing he has done his entire life since he left heaven he is trying to rebel against God he's rebelling against God he rebelled against him in heaven he rebelled in taking a third of the angels with him from heaven getting them to rebel and he's trying to exalt himself that's what the devil is always doing he's always trying to lift himself up I'm as good as God if not better and we need to be so very careful of that because that's what the devil is shooting for and he's trying to get us if he can't defeat us because we're
[12:20] Christians he's trying to at least take our testimony away so that people won't listen to us oh those Christians oh you know how they are those type of things yep yep what's that word you're saying oh they take their life they commit suicide okay right right yep he didn't they did they made a choice they made a choice he can put the thoughts and things there yes he can make things seem so different
[13:26] God allowed it yes so you think why would God allow that I don't know we'll ask him when we get there but we have to remember too God is more powerful than Satan but also the Bible says!
[13:45] Who's the prince in power of this world Satan so this world because we rejected Jesus because we rejected God Satan has power and influence here not more than God but he does have power and influence and he can put those thoughts and stuff and he can make things make you think things are so desperate I have known pastors preachers there was a pastor preacher that I am familiar with who did exactly that he wound up killing himself he had cancer he this was back a while ago before the medicines and things we have now which still don't help all that much but back at that time the pain and stuff just got to him so much he just I need to end this and he committed suicide so the devil can give you things that say look how bad it is look how terrible it is!
[14:45] you just need to and does that hurt the testimony yeah I mean here's a guy who preached Jesus Christ and stuff but he committed suicide hurt his testimony yeah testimony at the end was not as great as the testimony you can't hear me turn me up Dana I get the mic up where it usually is okay he said he had it turned out oh for Kirby okay yeah yeah and so this guy had done his work and he had done the things you know he had maybe God said okay yeah I'm gonna let you come home you know we have to remember too that all these demons that are working Ephesians 612 remember it says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rules of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places we're going against pretty powerful enemies and sometimes when those enemies get going we forget the God that we have we forget that he is capable of anything you know how many times have people face different things and they're so caught up in what's going on and we have to remind them
[16:08] God has an answer God can take care of this you need to trust him even if it means okay you wind up dying where are you going you're going to heaven God has the final say you know if you're going to you know you decide you wanted to take your life should you no that's in God's hands but if you do you have a home in heaven if you've accepted Christ as your savior so okay we can't see these spirits we can't see the things that they're doing we can't see them we don't we don't have any knowledge of them other than what the bible tells us but you see the results exactly you can see when the devil's at work you can see when his demons are at work one of the things we have cameras you know around the building and they're connected to my phone so if you come sneaking over I gotta know about it so anyway we have these cameras we need to fix one of them in particular the one I have on that corner that shoots down this side of the building covers that door if you look out there you see that tree right there it does too and the thing is so sensitive there's a breeze blowing the tree starts to move my phone probably went off 25 times yesterday because of that tree now can we see anything out there no can you see the wind no can you see the effects of the wind yep see we don't see the demons and the devil but we can see the effects we can see what happens so we need to realize that you know they are out there and their purpose is to try to wreck and ruin our lives that's what they're trying to do this man he's got these demons in him this legion and look at where we think of the devil is going to lead us into a good time he's going to help us to enjoy life and do all these different things look at the morbid residence of this guy the morbid residence of this guy look at verse 2 there in
[18:43] Mark chapter 5 and when he's come out of the ship immediately they 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 where's he dwelling among the tombs oh that's where I want to live any of you ever live next to a cemetery yep I knew she had that kind of creepy and here's this guy he's dwelling among the tombs all those dead bodies all those bones and that's where he see we have a tendency to think you know that caves in the side of the mountains and stuff and he was there there's other mountains he could have picked but he picked the ones with the caves with the tombs are in them so he's dwelling there he's dwelling among those bodies and things and you think about it when the devil is active in our life we sin what does
[20:01] God say about the sin in our lives well in Ephesians 2 1 when we're saved he says you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins here's a guy dwelling among the tombs that's the perfect place for him because he's dead and his trespasses and sins because the devil's got a hold of him the devil's got his life and the devil's in control of it he tries a lot of times we as sinners you watch people who are sinners and stuff they try to hide their sinful condition by fancy houses fancy cars fancy clothes I'm looking good on the outside but what's going on on the inside Margaret yep what a good time am I having and stuff I'll get to that in just a second
[21:02] Isaiah 1 6 says from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness Isaiah 1 6 by the way but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores they have not been closed neither bound up neither mollified with ointment he says look we are living in sin and we have all of these things because of the sin he says there's wounds there's bruises there's sores we try to cover them up with all the things that we have and stuff but it doesn't work we still have the sin there even though we try to cover it up and this man if he's full of these demons has this legion then he's in a mocking rebellion against God mocking rebellion see this man is trying to hide his condition he's trying to make it look like he's invincible
[22:05] I mean the people are afraid to go near him he can break chains he can break fetters he can do all these different things he's don't mess with this guy he's more powerful than we are Mark chapter 3 of chapter 5 verse 3 who had his dwelling among the tombs and no man could bind him no not with chains neither could any man tame him they bound him with chains and he just break them they put the shackles on him with those chains and he just grabbed ahold of those shackles and squeezed and break them in pieces wow I don't want to mess with him and neither did the people that's why they left him alone up there in the mountain with the tombs they weren't going to go he seems to be able to show us that nothing's going to bother you you want to do this sin go for it don't worry about it you want to go in this direction go for it he says you know you can do anything you want
[23:22] God says not to do this God's word says this some Christians saying you really shouldn't do don't listen to them what do! they know you're having fun doing what you're doing Proverbs 14 9 fools make a mock at sin but among the righteous there is favor fools make a mock at sin Proverbs 18 6 and 7 a fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth calleth for strokes a fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul he says they mock at everything they don't care I don't care what God says I don't care what you think I don't care I'm living my life the way I want to I'm enjoying it I like it but it winds up taking us in a different direction this man did all those things but he also had one other thing a monstrous rage monstrous rage last time last few weeks we've been talking about
[24:43] David and Bathsheba and we talked about the fact that we're free to make choices but we cannot choose the consequences David made a choice to have that relationship with Bathsheba but he couldn't choose the consequences he made a choice that get Uriah killed out there on the battlefield but he couldn't choose the consequences and God brought the consequences to David same thing happens here this man may have mocked and laughed at God previously but he had no idea the misery that was going to come following the devil always leads to misery following the devil he wants to get you in his grasp and then as I said he wants to kill and destroy Mark 5 5 and always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones how does sin advertise itself there was something about that glamour fun what subtly subtly it does it subtly but it does it to make it look like it's fun it's glamorous oh this is the best life you could possibly have and who's going to know yeah I can do whatever I want there was a vodka company they put out print ads and in three of the print ads it talked about the fact that this vodka was absolute magic another ad said it was paradise found another one said fairy tales can come true all you need to do is drink this drink you see the ads on TV for beer and alcohol and other things ah yeah this is the good life this is the fun life
[26:40] I can be on a beach in Mexico if I drink this certain thing you know I can do all these things these ads you know they put forth a mythology alcohol is magic it's a magic carpet can take you away if you want to be successful or sophisticated or sexy drink this and drink that and drink the other thing if you don't want to have a life that's dull and mediocre if you don't want to have a life that's just ordinary drink this you know everybody likes to think in happy endings but those ads don't tell the whole story why don't those ads show murder and suicide and unemployment child abuse things like that why don't they show those things because those all come with alcohol as well they used to advertising for cigarettes now counter that with people who don't care and the misery of what cancer does to them yep so there's a whole lot of negative things that go along with it why don't they show those things that's because they want to make a good impression and make you think it is fun the devil wants you to think that sin is fun so do that yeah so the bible warns against the pleasures of sin you remember in hebrews chapter 11 when it's talking about all those people of faith it talks about moses in hebrews 11 25 it says choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of god than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season one of the things we understand here in maine are seasons about every three months we've got a different season don't we right now we're in summer it's hot but don't worry fall is coming and don't worry about that because if you even don't like fall winter's coming yay and then after that we get spring mud season yes in maine we have mud season and tourist season we have these different seasons he says the joy the pleasures of sin for a season and then what comes season yep you're going to pay the piper one way or another yep devil's going to collect his his due so the brevity of those seasons three months tops and then we move on to something else and something else so the alcohol the drugs the sexual encounters the gambling all those different things they're short lived and then what happens what goes on after that the devil's going to have his way
[30:26] Isaiah 57 verse 20 and 21 but the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast out mire and dirt there is no peace saith my God to the wicked there's no peace he says they're always in constant turmoil it may be good for a few weeks months you know as they have that season but then there's going to come a crash Job 1520 says the wicked man travaileth with pain all his days and the number of years is hidden to the oppressor the wicked man travaileth with pain all his days proverbs 13 15 good understanding giveth favor but the way of transgressors is hard he says the way of sin is hard it's things that are not going to go just the way you think they should and so we need to be so very careful today's lesson has been kind of a bleak thing sin has consequences we get to make choices
[31:43] I can do whatever I want God says but he says you cannot choose the consequences of what you do so we need to be so very careful and it's going to pass so dear Heavenly Father thank you