[0:00] Mark chapter 5. Last week we started talking about the maniac of Kudera.! And the shameless, nameless maniac.
[0:17] ! I'm not going to take and read the entire passage again.! Just a reminder of what it's about.
[0:29] Jesus was on the Sea of Galilee. He and his disciples, they land in the land of the Gadarenes. And there comes a maniac out of the mountains and the tombs and meets him there.
[0:43] And Jesus has a discussion with the demons that are living within him. Throws them out. Man then wants to follow Jesus and go with him.
[0:54] But Jesus says, no, you need to stay here and go tell others what has happened to you. And he goes and he starts spreading the gospel around the area. So that's a summary of what happened in those verses, 1 through 20.
[1:09] And we talked about the fact last week that so often we consider Satan to just be a bother. He's just a nuisance. He's just someone there who kind of...
[1:19] Yeah. And we looked at John chapter 10, verse 10. The first part of the verse says, the thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy.
[1:31] That's what Satan's trying to do. He's trying to destroy us. He's trying to destroy our testimony. He wants to take it away so that we have no effect for the Lord Jesus Christ.
[1:42] He came to destroy lives. Jesus came to save lives, to restore lives, to make them new. Luke 19, 10 says, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost.
[1:55] And the rest of that verse 10 of John 10, 10. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.
[2:10] Satan wants to destroy us. Jesus wants them to make it so we can have life more abundantly. So Jesus comes to the shore of their presence. We talked about the fact, Satan, when he rebelled in heaven, he took a third of the angels with him.
[2:26] So that when we go through things here in this life, I love this verse. Ephesians 6, 12 says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
[2:38] The things that we face in this world and the things that we face in this life, he says, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood. We're wrestling against principalities, against powers, against the rules of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
[2:52] Satan is at work trying to destroy us, trying to get us testimony taken away. And we can't see these demons at work, but we know they are.
[3:06] We can feel the effects and see the effects of what they're trying to do. And this particular one, or many of them, as it turns out to be, they had control of this man.
[3:19] And we said, first of all, he lived a morbid existence or residence, morbid residence. Look at verse 2. And when he came 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.
[3:39] And we talked about the fact that he lived there. That's where he lived. Can you imagine living in the graveyard, living among the tombs and stuff? And that's what he did. And we said how natural that was for him, though.
[3:52] Because in Ephesians 2.1, it talks about, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. When Christ comes into our life, he makes us alive again.
[4:03] But in the meantime, he says, you're living in trespasses and sins. You're dead there. Then we went on and we talked about the fact that this guy was in rebellion. Verse 3 and 4.
[4:17] Who had his dwelling among the tombs? No man could bind him, no not with chains, because he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces.
[4:31] Neither could any man tame him. So they put chains on him, he could just break them. They put shackles on him, he'd just squeeze them and break them. Can you imagine having that kind of power? That came from the demons living within him.
[4:44] He could do that. And Satan's influence is strong. But when Jesus came, this guy met his match.
[4:55] And this guy, he lived in the tombs, he had this, you know, all of this taking place in his life, including with that, you think about a thousand or more demons living within you.
[5:09] He had this rage. This rage about him. He just hated everything and everybody, and people didn't want to be near him. And so he went out, says verse 5, and always day and night he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones.
[5:30] And we talked about the fact that how often, you know, everything about our world tries to make sin look good.
[5:43] I gave you the illustration of a certain vodka company and the ads that they had, and they're just trying to make it look good and everything. And, you know, all the commercials on TV about that stuff.
[5:58] Oh, yes, it's so wonderful. Oh, you get all these friends. Oh, you get to go to these places. Oh, you... They never show the downside of getting this alcohol addiction and things.
[6:11] Our world tries to make lust look good. You know, oh, if you had this woman or that woman. They never show the venereal disease.
[6:23] They never show the babies out of wedlock. They never show the families broken up. You know, they don't show those things. Hebrews, we mentioned about Moses, Hebrews 11, 25, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
[6:43] And we talked about that idea of a season. And, oh, yeah, things are great for a short time. What happens after that? What's the downside? What's the end result of all of those things?
[6:57] So, today, we're going to start talking about the fact that this man and the demons in him made a desperate plea. A desperate plea.
[7:08] And let's have a word of prayer. We'll talk about this. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray that you would just help us today as we look at these things. Lord, that this man, he has so much going against him.
[7:21] If we had met him and we had seen him, we probably would have tried to avoid him as well. He didn't want to be around him. He didn't want to be associated with him. But your son did.
[7:33] He came and he talked with him and he ministered to him and he helped him. And, Lord, may we be willing to help those around us. And, Lord, I pray that you would just help us to see through this man and through his life and through the way Jesus treated him how we should live our lives today.
[7:52] Lord, just help us today to be open-minded to the things of your word. In Jesus' name, amen. This desperate plea. Here's his own unknown man.
[8:03] Don't know his name. And he knew enough when Jesus showed up that there was something different about Jesus. He was not the same as everybody else.
[8:17] And, matter of fact, Jesus shows up and he runs to him. Now, I want you to think about that. When we get around Jesus, he draws us to himself.
[8:31] The drawing of a loving Savior. Verse 6 says, And when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him. I think this is probably the most interesting verse in this section.
[8:45] This whole 20 verses. When he saw Jesus, he ran to him and worshipped him. Now, this man is full of demons. Why would he run to Jesus?
[8:57] You would think a man full of demons is going to be running away from God. But no, he's running to him. Margaret? I think it's like the person that's full of the illness.
[9:11] They know that it's breaking them down a bit. But they also know that Jesus is the only one that can cure. Yep. Jesus is the only one.
[9:21] He had almost like a double mind. Yep. He knew that he had evil in them. But he also realized that Jesus would be only in the church. Yep.
[9:31] If you go back to those five, sometimes it's funny that sometimes, and always night and day, he was in a mountain and in the thorns crying. Yep. He's crying out for helping.
[9:43] He seems out that he's his only one to really help him because even though he was possessed, he still had himself. That's like me being possessed by now, but he still has the air in me too. Yep. Crying out for him. It's the same thing as him.
[9:53] We'll talk about that before we're done today too. Yeah. Praise the Lord. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Fred.
[10:04] It seems that Jesus was there from the very beginning of the earth's form that they're not recognizing as being who he was.
[10:17] And they're all frank or frank. They acknowledge that he was there. Yep. So here's the man. First of all, he's running to him. He's going to worship him. Like they just said, here's the demons.
[10:30] They know who he is too. They know better than anybody who he is. And they know that they cannot go against him. What did you say, Margaret?
[10:42] What was the word you used? Stand before him. They couldn't stand before him. They had to kneel and worship him. Even though they may not have wanted to, they had to because they knew who he was.
[10:54] So, we never know how God is working in the hearts of somebody. There may be people who are very defiant. But usually you find the people who are most defiant against God, God's working on them.
[11:10] They're under conviction. God's like, you know, he's working and they're like, they're putting up a battle. They're fighting against him and the demons that are in them maybe.
[11:21] So, here he is and in John chapter 6, verse 44, it says, no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him and I will raise him up at the last day.
[11:36] God's working on, you know, he knows this guy. He knows what this guy needs. God's going, Jesus, you need to go here. You need to go to this guy. And as I said, when people are very demonstrative about their hate for Jesus, God's loving on them.
[11:56] God's working on them. There's a passage in Hosea, a book we hardly ever look at. But there's a passage there and it talks about God's dealing with people.
[12:09] Excuse me. Hosea chapter 11, beginning at verse 1, 1 through 4, you can write it down, you don't have to turn there, but here's what it says. When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt.
[12:24] He's calling his people out of Egypt. Okay? He's giving them relief. After 400 years of slavery there in Egypt, they were praying to God, let us bring us out. God says, okay, you know what?
[12:36] I loved them. I drew them like a son. Verse 2, as they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed unto Balaam and burned incense to graven image.
[12:48] God led them out and what do they do? They start worshiping other gods. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them.
[13:04] He says, I took them and I physically grabbed a hold of them and led them out, but they still were not getting it. Verse 4, I drew them with cords of a man with bands of love and was to them as they that take off the yoke out of their jaws and I laid meat unto them.
[13:29] He says, in spite of all of that, he said, I drew them with bands of love. He said, I took the yoke off of them. I gave them the things that they need because he loved them.
[13:42] See, God loves us. Why did Jesus come? Because he loved us and knew that we needed a way of salvation and he came to be the way. He came to give his life that ransom for many.
[13:57] So, he loves us and this maniac who had plucked bands asunder and everything could not resist the love that Jesus was going to show him.
[14:12] So, Jesus is going to show this man love but this man has a whole bunch of demons in him who need to be dealt with and they had some ideas about how he should do that.
[14:25] So, the demands of the legion, the demands of the legion. Look at verse 7. And cried with a loud voice and said, what have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the most high God?
[14:36] I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. Remember, this is the demon talking, not the man. For he said unto him, come out of the man thou unclean spirit.
[14:47] 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.
[15:00] And there came, 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.
[15:16] Don't send us out of the country. What they were afraid of, that God was going to, Jesus was going to say, you know what? Get out of the man and go to the abyss.
[15:27] Go to hell. And they didn't want that. So they say, send us into the sheep, into the swine. There were 2,000 pigs out there.
[15:41] And he says, okay, go. So, you think about 2,000 pigs wind up dying because of these demons and stuff.
[15:52] So this may have 2,000 demons. 2,000 demons was no match for Jesus Christ. Take that in as a Christian.
[16:06] You know, the devil may tempt you. The devil may do things. The devil may be coming against you. He wants to kill and destroy and stuff. But 2,000 demons is no match for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he lives within us.
[16:19] You know, what a comfort that should be to us as Christians to know that Jesus living within us is the devil can't match him.
[16:31] We get so afraid of the devil at times and we get so taken out. We need to be weary of him because he's a trickster. He knows how to manipulate things. He knows how to do things.
[16:43] But just remember, he is no match for Jesus Christ. And that's the reason that the Jews are not supposed to be forced to get raised and get back.
[16:56] They were not allowed? Well, it actually goes back to the Old Testament because of the laws that God put in place for the Jews and that was one of the things they weren't supposed to eat. I'm not entirely sure why, but they weren't.
[17:11] Yes? Yeah, there were different regulations and stuff and that's why the pigs were one of the things they weren't supposed to eat.
[17:23] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And pigs do not. yes. Pigs do not. So, yes. That is part of it. Yeah. Yeah.
[17:43] And that was a serious disease. Yeah, that was a serious disease. yeah. But back to what I was about to say. People ask me at times, can Christians be possessed by the devil?
[18:00] Let me say this. If you're truly saved, where's Jesus? In you.
[18:12] 1 John 4, verse 4. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.
[18:25] Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. He says, look, you have Jesus Christ and his spirit living within you. You really think the devil's going to take up residence, try to take up residence?
[18:35] He's not getting in. 2,000 demons couldn't go against Jesus here with this man. He's not coming in. I do not believe a Christian can be possessed.
[18:47] James chapter 4, verses 7 and 8. It says, submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
[19:01] Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you devil-minded. Submit yourself unto God, be saved, have Jesus come within you, resist the devil, and he'll flee from you.
[19:14] He may try to tempt you, he may try to get you off course, he may try to, but he's not possessing you, because Jesus has already taken up residence there. If you're truly saved, he's taken up residence.
[19:25] He can mess terribly with your mind, and he can lead you to a place where you believe lies, but yet he can't have a place. Yep. So, he can do all kinds of things to tempt you.
[19:38] He can set up circumstances and things so that you think certain things are happening and certain things are going certain ways and stuff. He says, nope, just resist him, remember that Jesus is in you, and go from there.
[19:51] third thing, the divine power, the divine power. As we see Christ's power over these demons, we also have to remember that power is available to us.
[20:13] We have the power of God on our lives. We have Jesus Christ living within us. So we have that power, and that power is an absolute power, an absolute power.
[20:26] Look at verse 13. Forthwith, Jesus gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down the steep place into the sea, and there were about 2,000 and were choked in the sea.
[20:44] See, Satan's a defeated foe. He knows it. He knows he's not going to win, but he's trying to take as many people with him as he can. And so here he is.
[20:56] Jesus died on the cross. Jesus is going to claim the victory, and Satan has no chance. Hebrews 2.14. Hebrews 2.14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
[21:19] He says Jesus had power over the devil. He's going to destroy the devil. He took away the power of death that the devil had. 1 John 3.8.
[21:31] 1 John 3.8. He that committeth sin is of the devil. For the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God is manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
[21:48] Devil is no match for Jesus. Doesn't even come close. So take heart. The devil's, like I said, he's going to tempt you.
[21:59] He's going to try to lead you astray. He's going to try to destroy you. Keep walking with Jesus. Keep looking unto Jesus. Keep your faith where...
[22:11] You're going to hear some more of this this morning. Fred? We decided that he cast the spirits into the pig. Mm-hmm. But then again, he had the option to send them back to hell and why do?
[22:27] I mean, is this because he wanted the temptation to be left in the world? Well, I have a theory about that. I can't prove it from scripture, but I have a theory about it.
[22:41] I think he was trying to show mercy. Jesus does that. He shows mercy. So he said, okay, you can go in the pigs. But then the pigs run off the cliff and drown in the sea.
[22:55] What happened to those demons then? Yeah. So I'm thinking, okay, you don't want me to send you there? Go into the pigs. Pigs die.
[23:06] Oh, guess what? You're going there anyway. So, that's my theory. But I, I can't prove that from scripture. But, yeah, they go into these pigs, but then the pigs die.
[23:20] What happened to them then? Where did they go? But even that was used by God to draw the people who own the pigs to come and see.
[23:30] And bring other people. Yeah. Yeah. Because they lost their life in there. Yeah. And we're going to get there. Actually, right now. And astonished people. And astonished people.
[23:44] Jesus showed his power over the demons. And we marvel at the power that Jesus has. And so did those people. He has power over everything and everybody.
[23:57] Matthew, chapter 8, verse 26 and 27. Matthew 8, 26 and 27. Then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea and there was a great calm and the men marveled saying, What manner of man is this that the winds and the sea obey him?
[24:15] His disciples got to see his power. These people here in Gadarene got to see his power. They're amazed as they look on and they see the things that are taking place.
[24:27] Verse 14, there in Mark. 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.
[24:40] They went out to check it out. They went back into the, you remember the shepherds on the night that Jesus was born? They went in and told everybody and they saw this baby and then when they left they told everybody.
[24:52] These guys did the same thing. You're not going to believe what just happened. There's this guy out there and he cast the demons out of that crazy guy up there in the mountains and they went into our pigs and our pigs jumped up the cliff.
[25:07] What? You're making that up. No, come, look. I think they all came and looked and there's Jesus and the man. We're going to see that in a few minutes.
[25:18] Maybe next week. We're going to see that and I think they looked over the cliff and they were like all these pigs are just floating in the water. Oh, wait a minute. Hmm. Interesting.
[25:29] What happened here? You know, we should be more amazed at the power of God and what God can do.
[25:41] When God takes care of you, when God's working, trust him. Let him do his work in you and through you.
[25:52] Luke chapter 10, verse 20, it says this, Luke 10, 20. Notwithstanding in this, rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you.
[26:04] I rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Remember the disciples? He sent the disciples out two by two to go do ministry and they came back and they're like, we were able to do this and we were able to do this and we were able to tell the spirits to go away and do all this.
[26:19] Wow! And Jesus says, yeah, that's all good, isn't it? And he says, don't rejoice in the fact that you can tell the spirits what to do. Rejoice in the fact that your name is written in heaven.
[26:33] Your name is written in the book of life of heaven. You are going to spend eternity in heaven. You want to talk about power? Yes, you're going to die someday.
[26:44] But when you die, you know what? You have a home in heaven with me. Most of you probably heard of George Beverly Shea, used to sing with the Billy Graham Crusades and stuff.
[26:58] We got to see him and he was in his 80s, 90s and still singing and it was a fabulous thing.
[27:09] You know, so many concerts and things today and people all this fancy stuff and it. George Beverly Shea stood up and sang. And one of the songs he sang was one that he wrote and it goes like this.
[27:25] You've probably heard it. There's a wonder of sunset at evening, the wonder of sunrise I see, but the wonder of wonders that thrills my soul is the wonder that God loves me.
[27:40] Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think that God loves me. Oh, the wonder of it all, the wonder of it all, just to think that God loves me.
[27:56] You ever just stop and think about that? You ever just stop, maybe you're having your devotions and you read something about God's love and God's power and you read and he loves me.
[28:08] I know me, you know you. God loves me. That just amazes me. That God can love me like that.
[28:21] As you go throughout this week, stop and contemplate that. The wonder of it all, just to think that God loves me.
[28:32] Can you imagine this man? We're going to talk about him next week one more time. and the amazement that he had of what Jesus had done for him.
[28:45] Do you wonder at the amazement of what Jesus has done for you? We're going to have communion this morning at the end of the service. Just to think that God loves me that much.
[29:01] Wow. Let's have a word prayer. Father, Let's put it in