The reality and destructive power of Satan and demons are illustrated through the account of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5:1-10. This man exhibited characteristics mirroring the work of Satan in society: living in isolation, violence, incorrigibility, superhuman strength, nudity, restlessness, and self-destructiveness. Jesus' encounter with this man demonstrates His authority to deliver from demonic bondage, restoring the man to sanity, wholeness, and a desire for fellowship with Christ. The sermon concludes by contrasting the Gadarenes' rejection of Jesus with the profound transformation of the possessed man, emphasizing that true freedom and peace are found in submitting to Christ, who can restore even the most shattered lives.
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You hear a song like that, it's great to be a sheeper right instead of a sheep astray and to be able to say, the Lord is my shepherd. Tonight we would like to share with you from Mark chapter five, verses one through twenty, in the case of the man possessed with a legion of demons. And this is a passage that of course one would be tempted to be very sensational about with emphasis upon the occult and Satanism and demonism. in our culture today and I trust I won't fall into that trap but at the same time I think there's some very heavy things that need to be set along this line in terms of the influence of Satan and demons right here in our own country.
The question is sometimes asked as it was to Billy Sunday the great evangelist in the early nineteen hundred is Satan for real? Billy Sunday said yes he is because the Bible says he is for real And number two, I've done business with him. And if you've been around on this earth very long, you know what it is to do business with Satan. He was so real to Martin Luther that Luther took an ink well and threw it at him. Of course, he missed him because he threw a physical object of a spiritual being. And so it did no harm to Satan. And in a survey taken several years ago, it was found that many more people now believe in a personal devil than further years back.
And one of the reasons is not because we've done such a good job of disseminating the Word of God, but because it's kind of come in through the back door, through the tremendous emphasis upon Spiritism and occultism. People have been pushed to this belief simply because of the number of books in this area and the experiential evidence for the reality of Satan. Now, as far as those who are believers are concerned, we have to recognize that while Satan cannot take away our salvation, He's out to do as much damage to us as possible. Everything from an untimely phone call to interrupt our devotion, all the way to wiping out our very physical life as he tried to do to Christ on several occasions.
And while Satan is real, even more real to us should be the work of the Son of God. For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And Christ was speaking of his wonderful work on the cross. The victory has been provided. The sentence has been pronounced, but the judgment has not been executed. And until that judgment is executed and we're glorified and made like Jesus Christ, we must put on the whole armor. Paul said we're not ignorant of his devices lest he get an advantage of us. And there is a way of victory. and it involves coming to the Lord Jesus as we are, whether the person be unsaved and needing to trust in Christ for that initial deliverance from the dominion of Satan and from sin, or whether it be a believer in a daily battle, we must come to the Lord Jesus as we are and bowed before him as this man was, find that when we're under the authority of Christ, we can stay on top of the devil.
Now let's look at the case of this man, this demon-possessed man, that Christ encountered. Verses one and two of Mark five says, and they came over unto the other side of the sea and to the country of the Gadarene. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. And I want to look at eight characteristics of this man, and they're remarkably parallel to the work of Satan that we see in our society today. There are people who go to extremes almost to saying that every unsaved person is demon-possessed, and that, of course, is not true, and it's a much overstatement and can be easily misunderstood.
It is true from Ephesians chapter two and verse two that the spirit of Satan now worketh in the sons of disobedience, just as the spirit of God worketh in the lives of the obedience, the believers. And when we look at this situation, what we actually see is the case of a man who was demon possessed and who shows characteristics remarkably parallel to many of the characteristics we're seeing in our culture. There's no question, at least in Southern California, that Satan has a greater foothold than he's ever had before. And this gives him launching bases, so to speak, to attack Christians and to make the battles much more severe.
And the first thing we note about him is the simple fact from verse two that he had an unclean spirit. Later on this is described as a demon spirit or actually a legion of them. The second thing was where this fellow lived. He lived among the tombs. The graveyard was his home. Of course he could say he had a quiet place to stay and free rent. I'm sure nobody bothered him or tried to collect rent. So he had that going for him in any case. And in a sense, a grave far bed and a tombstone for a pillow, but living in the place of death, knowing nothing of the abundant, eternal spiritual life that Jesus Christ could bring into his life.
The third thing, and this we find in Matthew's account, Matthew that he would attack people who came that way. No one could pass through his territory. He was violent. He would attack them as we see violence in our society today. We have had more multiple murders in our society probably in the last twenty or thirty years than maybe the last couple of centuries in this country. And many of the people who are involved in these, one of the first things they will say, like the Son of Sam, possessed by demons, others will claim like... not Tex Manson, but the other fellow trying to think of his name. Charles Manson will mention that he is the devil.
Well, of course, he is not literally the devil, but you can certainly see the work of Satan and demons behind the violence. And as you look at this passage, I become convinced that there's almost a dual purpose here, but working in opposite directions. This man in and of himself seems to have sincerely sought the Lord Jesus to come to him for deliverance. At the same time, it is possible that the legion of demons had control of him and were seeking to do violence to Christ and his disciples. And this may have been very frightening to the disciples to land on shore. And the first thing you see is this violent, demon-possessed man coming at them.
and eventually coming to a skidding hall probably right at the feet of the Lord Jesus submitted to him. He likes being on a dark alley at night and all of a sudden the alley lights up with headlights coming at you at a hundred miles an hour and all you hear is screeching brakes and it stops inches in front of your feet. You can imagine how petrified and fearful you would have been in that situation. He was violent. The fourth thing about him was he was incorrigible. Verse three says, he had his dwelling among the tombs. No man could bind him not with chains. And the Gadarenes believed in law and order. They tried to control this individual. And I believe in law and order.
It's what God uses to help control crime in society. But law and order in society can't save you. He wasn't saved. As a matter of fact, he was not only incorrigible, but this man showed, fifthly, superhuman strength. Most of us have seen elephants at some of the county fairs tied by chains and held in place. This fellow just snapped them like they were sewing thread cards. Superhuman strength here. Couldn't control them. Seventhly, this man, excuse me, sixthly, he was naked. This comes from Luke, eight, verse twenty-seven. And you'll notice when the Lord had delivered him, He was fully clothed.
He practiced nudity. He was a streaker, as they would say, in Southern California. Now, seriously, when people come along and say, why should we wear clothes or dress modestly? Because, after all, we shouldn't be ashamed of this body which the Lord has given us. Do you realize it was the Lord who put the coats of skin on Adam and Eve? God did not intend for Adam and Eve to be in a nudist colony or to streak. He meant for them to be covered and the Lord falls in. There's nothing wrong with the body that the Lord has made. No problem with the Lord. The problem is with us handling it because of a lustful sin nature. And this means to the ladies, Scripture clearly says to dress modestly as women professing godliness.
And of course we can come back and say, well, the men are the problem. But ladies, we wouldn't want to be. the occasion of an offense or a cause to incite a man to look and lust. And men, on the other hand, we need to be sure that we have sanctified eyesight. This is where the problem comes in for men. And Christ points this out in Matthew five. He doesn't mention a woman. He says if a man looks at a woman to lust after her, he has committed adultery already with her in his heart. And regardless of how the woman is dressed, we still need sanctified eyesight. Job says in Job thirty-one one, I've made a covenant with mine eyes.
Why then should I look upon a maiden? Job had the victory. He had sanctified eyesight. And Jesus Christ talked about looking at a woman to lust after her. You say, oh, it's not looking. All you do, you look, just don't touch. You ever heard people in the world say that? Jesus Christ says, don't look with lust. That's not the first look of recognition. It's that second look of lust that God says, no, no. David looked. And if he looked at Bathsheba, that look must have lingered, don't you think? He looked long enough for the look to get in the heart. And who knows but what Bathsheba may have been careless, bathing where she could be seen, you see, not careful to be clothed in the sight of those that might be looking upon her.
David's look lingered, and then he lusted in his heart, then he lay with her with his body. God intends for the women to dress modestly. God intends for the men to have sanctified eyesight. And young men and young women, as well as those of us who are older men, we need to commit our eyesight to the Lord. And say like Paul told Timothy, relate ourselves to the younger women with all purity and with older women treating them in holiness. as with mothers and the young women as sisters in all purity. Commit your eyesight to the Lord to give you a twenty-twenty sanctified vision before the Lord, that we look not in lust, and the sisters see that she dressed carefully, that there be no cause of offense or stumbling to a brother.
This fellow, well, he would have gone well with the nudist colony. And I have no question in saying that to Saul Springs, and is supported by Satan and encouraged by him. The seventh thing we notice about him is he was restless. In verse five it says, and always night and day he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones. Twenty-four hours fasting. I'm sure some of these people tried to slip him some Samanek, but he was still going twenty-four hours. They tried tranquilizers. but he was still twenty-four hours fasted. Really pitiful, in a sense.
Satan had just about complete control of this man's life. And the Bible teaches he was suicidal, self-destruct. Satan's not only the father of lies, John eight forty-four says he's a manslayer, literally. And if you think he's a pretty good guy, stop and consider this. He killed our first two parents. He lied to them and he murdered them. And that's precisely what Christ has in mind when he gives John chapter eight and forty-four. He's a liar and he's a murderer. And he doesn't care how he gets you to the grave just so he gets you there before you can trust Christ, the Savior. He doesn't care if you OD and get there before you trust Christ as Savior.
He doesn't care if you end up with sclerosis or the liver and get there. He doesn't care if you get some type of social disease and wipe out early or commit suicide and self-destruct. He knows that he can get you to the grave before you trust Christ, that he's got you for eternity in hell. And that's his business to hustle as many to hell as soon as possible. And you look at the case of this man, a very pitiful situation. Human health was just no age. They were totally frustrated with this individual, a social outcast. But what a difference it makes. Verse six, when he saw Jesus, ah, the solution comes on the scene here.
He saw Jesus afar off, and he ran, worshiped him, bowed down in a prostrate, submissive position. cried with a loud voice and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou son of the Most High God? I jur thee by God, that thou torment me not. He's in a position of submission. And this is where every person must come before the Lord Jesus to honestly admit that we sin and to humble ourselves in faith before him. And it's there that he delivers us from the domain and darkness of Satan. and transfers into his kingdom of light.
And in this position of submission, the Christian has victory over Satan. We pointed out earlier the James four, seven and eight, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. The word submit literally means to put yourself under the authority of another, under God's authority. And when we do that, when we're thoroughly submitted, facing Satan is like facing a man with a BB gun when you're in a Sherman tank. But without submission to God, as our brother pointed out, the flesh cannot overcome him. You can't defeat Satan by beating over the heads the loaf of bread.
Paul says the warfare is not carnal or fleshly. but it's mighty through God to the tearing down of strongholds. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. If there were poisonous gas, you couldn't catch it with a fish net. You'd have to have on that mass that our brother was talking about, you see. So it's utterly fruitless to try to fight Satan in the flesh. That's his game. And Satan has never lost the game of the flesh. The only time he loses is when we're submitted to God. and we have put on the whole armor of God. Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
This man is submitted. He's in a worshipful position at the feet of the Lord Jesus, and is acknowledging him as Lord. You see, it's the Lord whom he's in submission to. And here it's a bit confusing. This man's lips were being used, and possibly this is his own human confession here. At the same time, other scriptures teach us that the demons know who Jesus Christ is. They call him the Holy One. They know that he is Lord. They know that their doom and damnation is sure. And where they ask him not to send them into the pit, they know they're going there.
They're just asking for him not to do a sin. They're asking for time off, you see. So demons do not deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There are no atheistic demons. James, the demons know that there is one God with fear and trembling. There are no demons that deny the deity of Christ. There are no liberal demons. There are no liberal demons. They do not deny the deity of Jesus Christ. The demons do not deny the eternal punishment that Jesus Christ is going to bring upon them and upon the lost. They understand those doctrines. And you can believe those doctrines and say the apostle creed backwards and be just as lost as the demon is.
Think about it. It's true. But you can come to Jesus Christ in humble submission and accept him as your Savior and be just as delivered and saved and experienced just as great a salvation as this man is. But you say, I'm better than this man. No one's so good but what they need to be born again. You say, but you don't know all the bad things I've done. I've probably got a worse track record than this guy. The Bible says whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There's none too bad but what he died for your sin. There's none too good but what you need to be born again. All is sin, but all can be saved through Jesus Christ. Now in this conversation, the reason he implores him in verse seven, at the end of verse seven, I dearly by God that thou torment me not, for Christ was saying to him, Come out of the man thou unclean spirit.
And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered and said, My name is Legion, for we are many. In a Roman legion, there were six thousand eight hundred and twenty-six men. Now, I don't know if that's the exact number of demons in this man, but I'll tell you there were enough to cause two thousand pigs to self-destruct. There was a goodly number here without question. Verse ten, and he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. And it was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. Verse twelve, And all the demons 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. There were about two thousand, and they were choked or drowned in the sea. If demons cannot possess a human body, they'd at least rather be embodied in an animal than to be free-floating. Going through dry places, as it says in Matthew twelve, verses thirty-three and following. And here they choose, note, a ceremonially unclean animal because your unclean spirit, the pigs. Now, these were probably renegade Jews who were breaking their ceremonial law by even being in swine herding.
And don't misunderstand me, I am not against raising pigs. We raised them on our farm. My grandfather had a big herd of hemp, and my father-in-law has hemp and birks mixed. So I'm totally familiar with pig raising, and I've been involved with it. So we're not speaking against that. Don't misunderstand. But the Jewish people, because of ceremonial reasons, were not to be involved in this. And people might say, well, why would Christ cause this to happen? He didn't cause it to happen. He gave them permission, and the demons self-destructed the pigs. Listen, you ought to know, pigs can swim. And the demons destroyed them. You know, it's not too much to expend two thousand pigs.
If you could have convinced one of these people of the self-destructiveness of the demons, and convinced them of the great salvation of Jesus Christ that had been wrought in the life of this man here. Believe me, it was worth it. Now, when this happens in verse fourteen, those 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. They came to Jesus and they saw the man who had been possessed with the demons, sitting down, clothed and in his right mind, The very man who had the legion and they became frightened. They probably came to see the situation of the destruction of the pigs.
But what they saw was much more dramatic. They saw this man who no human being could help. And four things about him. He had been demon possessed. Now he was spiritually delivered. He had been spastic, now he's sitting down, he's emotionally healed. He was just as calm now as a little kitten full of milk and had been totally spastic. He was clothed, he was socially healed. The Lord had delivered him. He headed right down the store and got him some Levi's and a t-shirt here showing that he even had a fish sticker on there. No, that's not in here.
And in his right mind, He was mentally healed. I mean, the Lord did a thorough overhaul job on this man. And see, when the spiritual gets right, it begins to affect the person socially, physically, emotionally, mentally. It affects you all over. And it was done by the Lord Jesus. And you would think these people having seen this situation would have said... Look, we're not demon-possessed. We admit that. We're not in the same shape this fellow is in. We're not social outcasts. We're socially acceptable people. But we still need you, Lord. And we know that we belong to Satan. And we're under the bondage of sin.
And we want to trust you even as he has done. And as a matter of fact, we want to trust you and we want to start an annual Gadarene conference here on this hill. where these pigs dove off in commemoration of the great deliverance that the coming of the Lord Jesus to our country is bought. You know what they said in essence? Get out. We don't want you here. He came into his own, probably a lot of Jewish people in this particular crowd. He came into his own, and his own received him not. We will not have this man to rule over us. That's not the whole story, though. John, but as many individuals as did receive him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.
And friends, you know, the attitude of this crowd has a real application to those of us who are believers. We're Christ's receivers who believe him instead of Christ's rejectors. But I'd like to remind us that these people cared more for their possessions than they did for people. They cared more for pigs than they did for people. That's not a very good set of values, is it? They cared more for the material than for the spiritual. They did not have time or place for the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we somewhere in that range as Christians in terms of our own value judgment, what God really cares for? We live in a society that says, use love things and use people. The Lord Jesus used things and loved people to reach people.
And having Christ as Savior not only makes a dramatic difference in your life, as we pointed out to these four areas in this man's life, his spiritual life, his emotional life, his mental life, and his social life. But there are some terrific results here that happens in every case where a person has made a new creation in Christ. Here they are. I noticed that he had a great desire to fellowship with Jesus Christ. He wasn't telling Christ leave He was telling Christ, I want to go with you. Verse eighteen. And when he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.
I want to go with you. I want to be with the Savior that I've come to know and to love. And when you really trust Christ as your Savior, you just can't hear enough of it. You can't spend enough time with him. You love him. And that relationship of fellowship grows closer. If you have no desire for fellowship with the person of Christ or to remember him, either one or two things, either you're unsaved or you're carnal Christian, one or the other. And if you're unsaved, you need to put faith in him before you can have fellowship with him. And if you're carnal Christian, you need to confess that lack of love and fellowship, say, Lord, I've left my first love and I'm returning. We don't lose our first love for the Lord.
If we lost it, We might not be able to find it. See, when we leave our first love, it's intentional, it's willful, it is not accidental. But because it is intentional and willful, it means that we can also willfully return to it just like it was our relationship before. I mean, people don't intentionally and willfully lose their keys. At least I never have tried to do that. Have you said, well, I worked real hard to lose my keys and finally got them lost? It's accidental. We accidentally lose our keys. We don't accidentally lose our first love. We intentionally and willfully leave it. And that's why the Bible tells us to repent. Return to that first love. And when we return to that first love, we'll return to that first fellowship.
We'll return to that first warm remembrance of the Lord as he's going to give us privilege to do in the morning as he'd be not to come. And we'll have a love for the fellowship of the saints. He wanted fellowship with the Lord. Second thing about him. is he had peace sitting calmly at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Can you imagine this thing the first night that he had slept good? Who knows in how many years. I don't know where he slept, but this brother must have really slept good for the first time. You know, he could put his head down on a pillow and say, if I were to check out a life tonight, and stand before God.
I know the Lord Jesus would be ready just like he did for Stephen. Welcome into heaven, child of mine. If you were to die, check out of life tonight. You had to stand before God. Where would you go? The point on a man wants to die, and after this judgment, would you hear him say, Depart from me, ye who work in the midst? I never knew you. Or why, this is one of my sheep. I certainly do know you. In a right end to the green pastures here and all of your heavenly privileges. He had peace with God. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He had fellowship with this person. He had his peace. And thirdly, he obeyed the Lord as a witness. If you're not a Christian, you don't have anything to witness about.
He had something to talk about. Verses nineteen and twenty. How be it Jesus suffered him not but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee. and has had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel. Lord, what I want to do most is go with you. Let's get those roars pumping. And I want to be with you and fellowship with you in the ship. The Lord said, I don't want you to go with me. I want you to go back there to your hometown and tell them what great things he's done to you. In spite of his own desires, he obeys the Lord Jesus.
The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Well, that might have been that fellow's life's verse, don't you think? Psalm, a hundred and seven, verse two. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. And what a testimony he must have had as he went back among those people to speak of Jesus Christ. Is Satan for real? Yes, the Bible says so. and all of us in one way or another have done business with Him. But the salvation in Jesus Christ is for real and it's powerful and it works.
And sometimes you almost believe that people think it's so little salvation instead of so great salvation. If all that's happened is we got our shoes in a mud puddle and we had to clean them off for Sunday, then I grant it so little salvation and so should you. But if He has delivered us from bondage to Satan and from sin and from eternal punishment, then I don't think the Bible is exaggerating when it says so great salvation. And you know, you don't realize you're in bondage to Satan and sin until you've been set free. kind of like when you're in your car and you're going up a steep mountain and you can feel it pulling and you dare not take your eyes off of those hairpin turns so you'll stay on the road and you go for a while and finally you come to that place where you have a safe pull off and you swing out and as you look over the edge you just gasp it's so far down you don't realize how far you've come or what the Lord has done for you till you've let him deliver you.
And you're blind to the bondage Satan has you in and the sin you're in till you're set free from it. The Bible says whoever commits sin is the bond slave of sin. But if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And you'll love him. You want to have fellowship with him. You'll have a hunger for his word. You'll have a love for his people. And you'll want to remember the Lord in true worship. All this happened at the feet of the Lord Jesus. This man, in a sense, had to honestly admit, I need the Lord. He acknowledged him as Lord, and he had to humbly submit to him, trusting in him. And that's where the Lord puts together broken things, humble before his feet.
There are three miracles in Mark chapter five. In every case, the persons involved are at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Jairus bows at his feet. And when he goes into that house to raise his door, he tells him, Keep on believing. When the woman with the hemorrhage of the blood comes, she is bowed at his feet. Thy faith has saved thee. Three cases, all in this chapter. Broken things at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Bound by sin and Satan. bound by this physical disease, in the case of this woman, bound by death. But the Lord Jesus delivers all kinds of cases. No cases too hard.
Now let's really talk business tonight. Are you here tonight and feel like your life is shattered into so many pieces? A lot of people, I've heard them say it, my life is broken into so many pieces, is there anyone who can put them back together again? Well, we've heard about the nursery rhyme. Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horsemen, all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. I've always felt sorry for that broken egg. But Adam and Eve were created, and Adam and Eve had a great fall, but God could put them back together again. All the broken pieces. And some of you are here tonight with lives that are shattered by sin, and you know it.
may not be what people term heavy sin, but it only takes one sin to pop the balloon of life and make your sinner before God. And you say, I want the Lord to put the broken pieces of my life back together again. It'll happen, but it'll only happen as you honestly say, Lord, I acknowledge you are Lord. And I honestly admit that I have sinned. And I humbly and simply trust your blood. as the payment for my sin. And you as resurrected Lord is the giver of eternal, abundant, spiritual life. And he will make you a new creation in Jesus Christ.
Broken things are put together at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Come and let him save your soul. Shall we bow our heads? A moment of prayer. As our heads are bowed in our eyes,