Lord Jesus says, we consider your word now
and as we consider the wonders, the miracles
that you have done in people's lives may
it be alive to us in a new
way today may it bring life to us
in a way that only you can bring
life so that your name will be uplifted
and glorified.
Amen.
Unfortunately, it's quite a few verses.
I don't know whether we'll read them all,
but let's start from the first verse.
We find it in Mark chapter 5.
It's an experience where the Lord had been
busy with multitudes.
He had been very busy that day.
As it is when the Lord is at
work, and if you're involved in it, it
can become very busy.
If you're very busy in the Lord's work,
it's a good sign.
It's wonderful when the Lord is at work
and that keeps you busy.
If you're just sitting around and you don't
know what to do with yourself, maybe you
should ask yourself what you're busy with.
But the Lord, when He was there on
the shores of the sea, and not just
that day, but His whole life really, and
throughout His ministry, He was very, very busy.
And so were the disciples.
It was wonderful because their business was at
the Lord's feet.
That's where they were kept busy.
Obviously, you can be busy with many other
things as well, but it's not the Lord's
business one is busy with.
Blessed is the one who's kept busy with
the Lord's business.
And then He said to those disciples, let's
go to the other side of the sea.
That's when the storm arose.
A terrible storm.
One of the greatest challenges the disciples were
to meet up with.
In fact, it's one of the times in
their lives where they thought this was going
to be the end.
And remember how they went and they woke
the Lord.
And sadly, when they woke Him, what did
they say to Him?
They said, oh Lord, don't you care that
we are perishing?
It's sad when we find ourselves in a
spot of trouble.
Instead of going to the Lord and just
seeking His help in a humble way, we
actually accuse Him and go to Him and
say, oh Lord, how could you allow me
to get into this mess?
And very often we get ourselves into that
mess, but we blame the Lord for it.
In fact, there are people that go against
the Lord, turn their backs on Him, because
they blame Him for predicaments they've got themselves
into.
And they don't realize that sometimes the Lord
even lets an experience like this happen, getting
into a storm, not because He has anything
negative, He hasn't got bad intentions, He just
wants to glorify Himself through it.
But we can know for sure that if
the Lord leads us into the storm, He'll
lead us out again, as long as we
stay close to Him.
And so they went across and they got
to the other side of the sea.
And in verse two, when He had come
out of the boat, immediately a man from
the tombs with an unclean spirit met Him.
And He had His dwelling among the tombs,
and no one was able to bind Him
anymore, even with a chain.
Because He had often been bound with shackles
and chains, and the chains had been torn
apart by Him, and the shackles broken in
pieces, and no one was strong enough to
subdue Him.
And constantly, night and day, among the tombs
and in the mountains, He was crying out
and gashing Himself with stones.
Let's stop reading here for now, we'll continue
just now, but that's perhaps the first thought.
Or should I say the first part of
the story.
The picture of a lost soul.
What a life.
What a picture of misery and hopelessness, helplessness.
The life of someone whose life is out
of control.
This man could not control it.
He was doing the most terrible things.
Things that were harming himself and even his
body.
Physically, he was suffering as a result of
this life.
A true picture of what it's like in
the life of a person who's being ridden,
if we may use that in that way,
being ridden by the devil.
These unclean spirits, these demons, the devil had
taken control of his life.
And it's just like today where there's not
just one unclean spirit, you find so many
unclean spirits.
And so one often feels sorry for, especially
young people, for children growing up in this
time when there's so many unclean things which
can defile you in body, soul and spirit.
You just have to go into town and
sometimes you don't even need to go there
and all the literature that is lying around
and the things which are seen and things
which are said and stated and insinuated, you
just find more and more how people's minds
are unclean and defiled.
You can almost go to any function which
is held out there.
And sometimes it even seems to be a
dignified occasion.
There are very few that you go to
nowadays where there's some form of defilement which
comes out of it, where one just realizes
how defiled people's minds are.
And you need to pray and we as
Christians need to pray that God will keep
us in this time.
That we won't be defiled by all this
uncleanness which is around us.
Because it's in fact got to the point
where people seem to be proud of the
fact that they can be so defiled and
it seems to be the honorable thing, in
inverted commas because it definitely is not honorable,
to be and to speak in the most
defiled way as possible.
In the world, the person that is great
is the one who can speak the biggest
lot of rubbish and the most unclean and
obscene things in public.
That person is seen as the hero nowadays.
There was a time when people, it was
ridiculous in a way, but people said, men
would say you can sway as long as
it's not in the company of ladies.
And some men would let it slip out
now and then because it's difficult to control
one's tongue and I'm still going to touch
on that later on.
But today, the men sway in front of
the ladies.
In fact, the ladies sway themselves.
And of course, they have to be equal
to the men nowadays, so that's one way
in which they can prove that they are
now equal.
And even they are starting to try and
crack wise jokes at meetings, trying to impress
the others and probably impress the men in
the first place.
So that spirit of uncleanness, which was in
this man and these demons that were riding
him, didn't die when those swine went over
the cliff that day.
Here's a picture of a life where the
person had lost control.
He was like a horse or a mule
that was wild, that needed a bit and
a bridle.
And in fact, in this man's life, it
seemed as if even that wasn't working anymore.
Because there are such people where they have
lost control and everyone else seems to have
lost control as well.
Where it's a horse or a mule that's
wild and you've got this bit and bridle,
you're trying to control the horse, but it's
not even possible anymore.
And you even read about wild mules and
wild donkeys, people that are driven also by
lust.
There are such people.
When they see the opposite sex, they just
lose control.
In fact, nowadays it's got so bad that
sometimes people don't even see the opposite sex,
even their own, and they can't control themselves.
And more and more the governments in the
world are calling these things legal.
Even in our own country.
And I wonder whether we as Christians realize
our responsibility when we elect a government.
What will God say to us one day
when we've elected a government that passes laws
which are directly against his word?
Won't
we carry
indirect responsibility?
But no matter how much these things can
be legalized and our courts can allow these
things because of the laws that have been
passed, it does not change God's standard on
these subjects.
And so people are becoming more and more
defiled in their ways and also by what
they do and say and of course also
think.
And nowadays with TV and also through the
internet, these things aren't just out there in
the world, they even come right into our
homes.
Dear friend, if you've got a TV set
in your home, what is it that you
look at?
Does it defile your mind?
Why then do you look at it as
a Christian?
Or have you perhaps also lost control like
this man has?
And maybe it's not TV, but maybe you've
got the internet.
The internet can be used for many good
things, but the devil uses it masterfully.
What is it, dear Christian, that you look
at?
And you find not even young people suffering
under this curse, but even older people.
When they look at the internet, they lose
control.
And they do it to their own detriment.
They hurt themselves just like this man was.
And he couldn't control himself.
And people started noticing it.
Because there are such people.
When it gets to girls, they can't control
themselves.
When they look at the internet, they can't
control themselves.
Or when they look at TV, with the
worldly pleasures that are around them, they can't
control themselves.
And when people started noticing it in this
man's life, they came and tried to help
him.
It seems crude the way they did it,
but they probably could see no other way
out.
They tried to tie him with shackles and
with chains.
But it's obvious that these people had become
desperate.
Like so many parents become desperate.
They see their children going down a slippery
slope.
The end of which is a bottomless pit,
which has been prepared for the devil and
his demons.
And when parents see their children sliding down
that slope, they get desperate to the point
where they start saying, What can I do
to stop my child from doing these things?
And they probably won't end up tying the
child with chains and shackles because the Human
Rights Commission would soon be on to the
case.
But how often don't you meet desperate parents
who are trying their level best to curb
their child's behavior in some way or the
other, setting limits.
If they go out to visit, be back
by a certain time.
And probably to the annoyance of an irritation
of their child.
And one obviously often sees their child being
hugely upset by these limits which are being
imposed.
But the parents do that out of love
and out of desperation because they see where
their child is heading.
The parents stop the child from going to
school.
The parents stop the child from going to
work.
The parents stop the child from going to
school.
The parents stop the child from going to
work.
The parents stop the child from going to
the cinema or to the disco or whatever
parties or wherever else they want to go
because of these desperate attempts to try and
stop this child from doing what it's doing.
They stop their children from going to the
cinema but they put an internet portal into
the child's bedroom and there the child can
see probably worse things.
Have you parents ever considered what your children
are looking at?
It's frightening.
It's a spirit of uncleanliness.
These demons are more active than I've ever
known.
And then there are others whose tongue is
out of control.
And sadly it even applies to many Christians.
The Bible speaks of this tongue a lot.
Read about it.
What the Bible says about the tongue, that
fire, that evil fire which sets forests alight,
does tremendous damage.
Sometimes one would think irreparable.
That's what one person's tongue can do.
And not just grown-ups, children too.
When they talk to their friends at school
about defiled things, defiling other children's minds because
they are defiled.
The tongue that does
so much damage.
In fact the Bible says it's probably the
member of the body which does the most
damage.
One would think lust and immorality is probably
the worst but the Bible says the tongue
is the most dangerous.
But obviously it's because the tongue is also
part of that whole program of filthiness.
But maybe your tongue is more pious than
that by now.
Because one can have such pious talk and
yet it still sets forests alight.
Can you control your tongue?
The Bible says he who talks a lot
sins a lot.
How much do you sin?
How much do you use your tongue?
To further the devil's cause.
Your tongue is perhaps as uncontrollable as this
man was.
This man also lived among the tombs.
It's another point we could talk about.
That's where he felt at home.
He was spiritually dead.
And so he felt himself at home among
the tombs, among the dead.
Where do you feel yourself at home?
Last Sunday we spoke about being happy when
you go to the house of the Lord.
When they said let's go to the house
of the Lord I rejoiced.
Is that what you sing when you go
to church?
But there are many who don't feel at
home in church.
The shorter the service the better.
And if one can miss a Sunday service
it's even better.
Where do you feel at home?
Where does your heart and soul come to
rest?
Do you also sing and say oh if
I could stay in the house of the
Lord forevermore that would be the most wonderful
thing for me.
This man felt at home among the dead.
Where do you feel at home?
Is it among the worldly friends that you
have?
Those who are also spiritually dead?
Or do you have friends that are an
inspiration to you?
That bring life to your spirit?
So it was this man hurting himself.
He was a danger unto himself.
And it's interesting when you see those that
worship the devil how they self-destruct themselves.
They don't just hurt their spirit and their
soul but even their bodies suffer as a
result.
Use so many classic examples we hear about
them so often.
There's drugs, there's alcohol and smoking are included
in drugs.
Immorality, HIV, AIDS.
Where we see how the devil destructs those
that follow him.
Destroys them spiritually, emotionally and ultimately physically too.
The devil is no good taskmaster.
Like the worshipers of Baal who when they
prayed to him they were cutting themselves and
doing ridiculous things.
That's how the devil treats his own.
And so we see here this man having
lost control and no one else being able
to control him.
No matter what people tried.
The parents, the minister, the teachers.
Everyone has tried no one seems to be
able to help.
And you find a person who's in this
situation like we find in Romans chapter 7.
You can read it at home but just
a few verses in Romans 7 this miserable
state of a person and even of a
Christian who is in this lost state and
in this miserable and desperate state.
In verse 15 where he says for that
which I am doing I do not understand
for I am not practicing what I would
like to do but I'm doing the very
thing I hate.
Verse 19 for the good that I wish
I do not do but I practice the
very evil that I do not wish.
Verse 23 but I see a different law
in the members of my body waging war
against the law of my mind and making
me a prisoner of the law of sin
which is in my members.
Verse 24
wretched
man that I am who will set me
free from the body of this death?
See also someone who's in a miserable state.
This totally lost state.
He says this body of death.
He's not even among the tombs.
He himself feels as if he's in the
grave already.
He says I do what I don't want
to do.
I know what I'm doing is wrong but
I can't help myself.
But then we get to this wonderful part.
The very next verse there.
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our
Lord.
This is what makes the difference.
This is the good news when Jesus arrives
on the scene.
He comes for no reason that we could
explain other than because of his great love
for us.
There we were on the other side of
the sea.
He wasn't even on our side of the
sea.
He came from heaven.
He left the multitudes, that glorious fellowship that
he had, crossed the sea through the terrible
storm which the disciples thought no one would
survive.
The devil did his utmost and to this
day does his utmost to stop the Lord
Jesus getting through to us.
That's one of the greatest fears the devil
has.
And that is that the Lord Jesus gets
through to us.
That's why he builds these walls around you.
That's why you resist the message of the
gospel.
Because he doesn't want the Lord to get
through to you.
Because he knows when the Lord gets through
to you, once he's over that sea and
he's on your side and he's gotten through
to you, he's had it.
But praise God he got there.
And he left those multitudes and he came
to this one man.
He came to this one man.
Why?
For what reason?
There's no other reason but because of his
love.
He loved the world so much that he
gave his only begotten son.
And why?
What a difference it makes.
In verse 6, when this man saw Jesus
from a distance, he ran up, he bowed
down before him.
Crying out with a loud voice.
And then here we hear not this man
speaking but these demons in him, the devil
speaking, what I have to do with you
Jesus, son of the most high God.
I implore you by God, do not torment
me.
It's wonderful to see how the devil loses
control when Jesus comes onto the scene.
We so often see and get the impression
as if the devil has got his act
together.
When we see things developing in the world,
one so easily can be under the impression
he's in control.
It's as if he's winning the war.
And one can so easily get despondent.
But when Jesus comes onto the scene, he
loses control totally.
For now one far greater than himself has
arrived.
And he becomes like someone that is totally
nervous, jittery, and he does the most ridiculous
things like here.
Can you imagine?
This man comes and he falls at the
Lord's feet and he starts speaking to him.
It's the last thing he should have done.
He should have run the other way.
But you just see how God overrules in
a situation.
It's like so many people could testify and
say, you know, I was lost.
I was in the world.
I was a goner.
And I don't know how, but today the
Lord found me.
I don't know how.
I don't know what made me go there.
I don't know why I ended up at
that place or that church service where the
Lord got through to me.
But there you just see the grace of
God, how he overrules and how he gets
through to a person who is in the
greatest need.
In verse 8, for he had been saying
to him, the Lord had been saying to
him, come out of the man you unclean
spirit.
Now someone had appeared on the scene who
has the authority to drive out that unclean
spirit.
This man was helpless.
Everyone else had tried and failed.
But praise God, someone came onto the scene
who could drive out that unclean spirit.
And he was asking him, what is your
name?
And the demon answered, he said, my name
is legion for we are many.
It's interesting here that they use this term,
a legion, implying that this is a battle.
It's a military term.
These are soldiers.
Some people, they say it's 6,000, others
say up to 12,500 soldiers, like a
battalion of thousands of soldiers.
Do we realize we are
in
a spiritual battle?
We need to fight the good fight of
faith.
It's not just a bed of roses.
It's not always just going to be a
walk in the park.
So easily we as Christians think, oh now
it's going to be plain sailing and it's
going to be wonderful.
And the first problem we meet up with,
we fail because we think the Lord is
not good enough anymore.
Because we just wanted to have a life
of happiness and everything to be hunky-dory
and everything just to go smoothly.
That's what we want.
We don't want any problems.
The devil doesn't want us to know that
we are in a battle and how serious
it is, the whole matter.
He doesn't want us to realize that we
need to take a stand for our faith,
even when it's difficult and maybe we have
to stand all alone sometimes.
He doesn't want us to take it seriously.
He wants us to be under the impression
that everything must just go its way, tolerant
of everything and just don't go against the
stream.
No, the devil knows it's a battle.
He
knows
it's a battle, but he doesn't want us
to be under that impression.
But even though this was a huge battalion
of demons in this man, this one man
Jesus, who is not just a man but
God himself, the devil was no match for
him.
And suddenly these demons who were so, even
at this point, were still trying to put
on a show and say, we're a legion,
you see, we're strong, we're lots, you know,
he's just putting on a show, knowing that
he's actually defeated already.
The devil
uses
a lot of propaganda.
That's full of emptiness.
It's very often.
It's just a big show, a boast, and
it's like people who are bullies, who are
always just bullying others, and he's the biggest
bully of all.
And many people fall for his speech.
And we forget that we're serving an almighty
God, omnipotent, given all power in heaven and
on earth.
We're serving the one who left the multitudes,
the hosts of heaven, to come down and
to seek out one lost sheep.
We're serving the one who wasn't afraid to
go into that region where the people didn't
even want him.
Because we read later that they actually asked
him to go away.
Sadly, there are such people.
In fact, if we read the Bible, we
find out that the majority turn him away.
Many people are afraid to let Jesus come
onto the scene.
Because they realize it has very far-reaching
consequences.
These people, when they had seen what the
Lord had done, how he had set this
man free, one doesn't understand it.
But after experiencing such deliverance, seeing it firsthand,
this man who was changed radically before their
eyes, one would have thought every man in
that region would have become a Christian.
And woman and child.
It's like today, when you see the Lord
at work, you think, well, with such wonders
which the Lord is doing, things he does
before our eyes, one would think, well, there
won't be an unsafe person left anymore.
This will change everyone's life.
But like it was in this experience, so
it is to this day.
Jesus will come to them.
He'll leave everything else and come to you.
He'll give you a chance to accept him
into your life.
He'll give you a chance to make everything
new in your life.
He'll give you a chance to set you
free from all this filthiness that has ruled
your life up till now.
And after such a magnificent offer, and the
cherry on top is that he'll even promise
you and tell you he'll give you eternal
life if you accept his offer.
You'll have life in full here on earth
and eternal life thereafter.
But amazingly, there are people, and in fact
the majority, turn down the offer.
Can you imagine such a thing possible?
But these people were obviously like people today
who think about things.
They realised when the Lord made them that
offer, there was a price to pay.
And there are direct and indirect consequences, like
the owners of the pigs found out.
I'm just going over quickly now because of
time, but just some points you can think
about them at home.
You can go home and read the rest.
There's a price to pay.
This great offer, this deliverance, the Lord can
set you free, but you also have to
give up something.
But sadly, there are many people even today
who prefer to live with a swine than
to live with the Lord Jesus Christ.
They were
happy and content with the pigs around them,
but they got uncomfortable with the Lord in
their midst.
Where do we feel comfortable?
In whose company do we feel comfortable?
In the Lord's presence?
In his company?
Or in the company of pigs, of swine?
You see, when those swine, when the pigs
went over the cliff, many people on that
day, when they saw them going over there,
they didn't see the demons going down the
cliff and ending up in the sea.
They saw dollars going over the cliff.
Many people turn away the Lord today because
of dollars, rands and cents.
And it's true, when you accept the Lord,
it has an impact on your whole life.
Even on the way you direct your financial
affairs, it does have an impact.
Because with him in your life, your priorities
change.
Suddenly your ambitions in life and the way
you plan and everything, no longer are your
own plans first, but suddenly you say, Lord,
what do you want me to do?
What is on your eternal plan?
See, so it impacts on your life very,
very closely.
So when he arrives on the scene, the
Lord, in the first place it impacts on
your spiritual life.
My, what a difference it makes when he
comes into your life.
So there's a spiritual impact.
But then there's also a personal impact it
has.
As I've said, your priorities change.
So it may impact very directly on your
future plans and your new ambitions.
And so there are financial consequences as well
sometimes.
In fact, I think it will always impact
on it because he becomes the managing director
of your financial affairs.
And you're no longer the boss of what
you have.
And it has social consequences too.
It impacts on the way you interact with
other people.
So there are many things that happen when
Jesus arrives.
Wonderful things.
Things that are to your own benefit.
But many people are not prepared to pay
the price.
They say, Lord, thanks, but no thanks.
It's nice of you to have come over
to the side of the sea.
But we've seen how much things are left
to change here.
And just the few minutes that you've been
here, you've changed so many things.
We'd rather go back to where we were.
We're more comfortable with the pigs.
We're uncomfortable when you're around.
Suddenly we're not in control anymore.
And it's too uncertain for us.
We've seen what Christianity costs, and we're too
scared about what the future holds.
In this uncertainty, we'd rather take control of
our own affairs.
And that's why the gate is so narrow.
That's why you only find few people walking
the narrow way.
Because it's only those who are prepared to
surrender unconditionally to the Lord that actually make
it.
Dear friend, if you haven't put everything on
the altar, you're not going to make it.
If there's one aspect of your life that
you withhold, that you want to keep control
of, you're not going to make it.
You'll end up being like these people who
say, Lord, please, just rather go back.
But praise God for this man who had
this personal experience with the Lord.
Everything was changed.
Suddenly someone could set him free from this
misery that he had been in.
Suddenly that Roman seven-man experiences that deliverance,
and he says, as we read in that
portion at the end, praise be to God.
After he had said, who can set me
free?
I'm helpless.
Someone has to set me free.
And here comes Jesus, and praise God for
him, that he can set free to this
day.
This morning I asked someone to tell me
what the words of that song are.
I think Bev Shea sings it, and I
wish I had the proper words.
But the chorus goes something like this.
When Jesus comes, the tempter's power is broken.
This is how I've got them in my
memory.
I hope I haven't got something wrong.
When Jesus comes, the night is turned to
day.
He takes the gloom and fills your life
with glory.
All is changed when Jesus comes to stay.
Do we know this Lord that changes everything
and fills our life with glory?
The night is changed to day.
Wonderful.
May we all experience it, and may we
never look back, but become like this man
who had experienced the Lord and said, Lord,
now let me go with you.
I want to be with you now.
But like it is with many disciples, if
you choose to serve the Lord, it doesn't
go the way you think, because now you're
a disciple, and you follow him, and you
do what he tells you.
The Lord said to him, now don't go
with me.
You stay here, because they sent the Lord
away.
The Lord said, well, you stay here, and
you do the job for me.
Where can you find another Lord like our
Lord?
He should have said, they don't want me?
Okay, you've chosen your way.
You'll have to suffer the consequences.
No, he left this man there in the
hope that maybe they'd listen to him.
And so the Lord is, he follows the
sinner right to the grave.
So if you don't want the Lord, you
send him away.
When he comes to you and says, my
child, don't you want to follow me?
Then you say to him, no, I don't
want to.
I want to tell you something.
You're not going to shake the Lord off.
He's going to follow you, he's going to
talk to you, he's going to ask you
again and again, and he'll send other people
to you if he can, in the hope
that maybe someone else will get through to
you on his behalf.
Remember, the devil isn't ultimately in control, not
even in your life.
Neither are you in control of your life.
The Lord's going to have the last say
in your life too, like he did in
this experience.
So if you take nothing else along out
of this service, then if you want to
shake him off, turn him away, and you
want to stay with your pigs, don't worry,
the Lord's still going to speak to you
again and again and again.
And may, by his grace, your heart get
soft.
But for the others who have chosen the
Lord, who have experienced his power in their
lives, may it be an unconditional, a total
surrender in every aspect of our lives.
And then let's make ourselves available for the
Lord to use us.
Let's be his representatives, that he can say,
well, my child, I'll need you there now
because you need to get through to those
people on my behalf.
Sorry I've kept you so long.
I hope you won't regret it.
I hope you can take something along.
But I think maybe you realize my heart
was full of this, what the Lord shared
with me, and I thought I'd like to
share it with you too.
Let us pray.
Thank you, Lord, that you were prepared to
cross the sea to come to me personally.
What grace, Lord, what love.
Lord, may we return that favor and that
love by an unconditional surrender to you.
Thank you, Lord, that we serve a living
God, one who changes everything.
He who changes the night to day.
Lord, may we all experience that changing power.
And may we be renewed daily, experiencing this
power that changes us, that transforms us and
renews us from day to day.
Lord, we haven't deserved it.
But we pray and ask you for it
because you're the only one who can do
it.
And because we want you to do it
in our lives.
Amen.