Liberation

Have your Bibles with you. Turn with me, if you would, to Mark chapter 5.

We're going to start out, verses 1 through 13. He broke the shackles and chains, but he rinsed the chains apart. He broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day, among the tombs and on the mountains, he was always crying out, cutting himself of stones. When he saw Jesus from afar off, he ran, fell down before him. Crying out with a loud voice, he said, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

I adjure you by God, do not torment me. For he was saying to him, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. Jesus asked him, What is your name?

He replied, My name is Legion, for we are many. And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. A great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, Send us to the pigs, let us enter them. So he gave them permission.

The unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea. Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we pray for our sick this morning.

We have many. We pray for Ray Green, who is going to have some stents redone in his area of his heart. We pray, Father, that you would give those doctors wisdom to know exactly what to do and that they might do it correctly, that Ray might be made well. Continue to pray for Linda McCatherin, Lord, as she heals from the hip surgery that she's had.

Pray for Nicole Lowes, Lord, as she is still struggling with vertigo. Pray for the Valens, Lord, both of them, as they go this week for tests, and pray this test will will turn out good. And pray, Heavenly Father, for my brother Scott Starcher, who was able to come today.

We thank you for the healing in his leg, and pray that it will continue to get well. Heavenly Father, your Son said in his word that we would know the truth and the truth would set us free. May the truth in this passage free us to be warriors. Lord, in the passage that we are studying today, we see a man who has been utterly defeated by Satan. We see the wicked heart of our enemy, but most of all, we see the all-conquering power of Jesus. Help us today to get serious about our calling to fight, and may we learn total dependence on you as we do battle. For it is in the precious Holy Name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. In 1984, I went to a Bible conference in Kansas City, Missouri. The preaching was powerful.

The singing was inspirational. The praying was time was just extremely convicting. And during that time, I was thinking, I was praying, and the Lord just brought to my mind areas in my life that I knew that were just not honoring to God. And I felt just great conviction, and I confessed, and I repented. And it felt like a weight just dropped off of me.

It was such joy that I felt like I got saved all over again. Well, I headed back after the meeting was over to the hotel room, and we were supposed to leave on the next morning. And got back to the hotel room, and I was too pumped up to go to bed, and so I said, well, I'm just going to go for a run. So I threw on my shorts, my tennis shoes, my Clemson t-shirt, and I took off down the road.

It was at downtown Kansas City, and I started running through the streets, and I got several miles down the road, and I got to a section of Kansas City that was pretty rough. I started going. I looked down ahead of me down the road just a little bit, and there on the sidewalk there was a woman, and she was dressed kind of immodestly. And I looked at her, and she had her head down in her hands, and she was just weeping like a baby. And I got up a little closer. I said, ma'am, can I help?

And she started to run away. I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. I said, I'm a pastor. I don't want to hurt you.

I just want to help you. And she said, well, I'd just been robbed, and said they took a whole week's salary. And then we began to talk, and she shared with me this truth. She said, I can't lie to you anymore. I said, I'm not a woman.

I'm a man. And said, I work down at a gay bar down from here. And she said, I absolutely hate my life. And said, I hate the way I am, but there's nothing in the world that I can do about it.

I would change it if I could, but I was born this way, and there's nothing that I can do. She said, I'm thinking very seriously about going home, taking a whole bottle of sleeping pills, and just ending this horrible life. I said, friend, Satan has deceived you. Suicide is not the answer.

You don't have to live in bondage anymore. I said, do you want to be free? And he said, more than anything, I said, then just please let me pray for you. It's a busy road here. I mean, the car is going back and forth. We're in the sidewalk.

People are walking right with us. And I just prayed. And I said, Lord, in the precious and holy name of Jesus, and through the power of Jesus' precious blood, I'm asking you, Lord, to do a work in this man's life. And, Lord, remove the bondage from him and set this man free. And I looked up, and the guy said, my head quits spinning. And he said, I feel like a weight's just falling off of me. And I said, well, praise God for that.

I said, but I want you to know, your biggest problem is not the bondage. I said, your biggest problem is that you don't know Christ. I said, would you like to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And he said, oh man, would I.

And so, we sat down on the curb, and people walking by us, and cars flying up and down, and for about 20 minutes, I went through the Gospel, sharing verse by verse with him. And I finally finished up, and he said, could I trust Christ now? And I said, well, let me ask you something. I said, do you believe that Jesus died for you personally? I said, do you believe that Jesus shed his precious blood, that your sins might be forgiven, that he was raised from the dead, that death might be broken over you? And I said, are you willing to genuinely repent of your sins and sincerely turn to Christ? And he said, yes. Before I knew what he was doing, he got down on his knees there on the sidewalk, and he prayed and cried out to the Lord to have mercy on him and to save his soul.

I looked up at him, and you could just see the peace and joy in his countenance. About that time, a car came flying up to where we were, slammed on brakes, and these two huge guys jumped out, and they came running over to me, and they said, what are you doing to her? I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. I said, I'm just sharing the gospel with this guy, and they said, guy, what are you talking about? And then the new convert began to explain and shared with them what had just happened. The two guys looked at each other, and they said, hey, we're Christians too. So we played football down at a college not far from here, and they turned around to the guy and said, where do you live?

And he told them where he lived, and they said, well, that's just about a block from our dormitory. He said, why don't you just jump in the car? We'll take you back home, and we're going to pick you up.

You're going to church with us, Sunday. And the guy said, great! And they jumped in the car, and they took off. I stood there with, I mean, my head was just spinning.

I thought, what in the world just happened? I said, I had been in the midst of spiritual warfare, and I wasn't anything but a spectator. All I did was just get out of the way so that God could move. And I tell you, I can't read Mark chapter 5 anymore without thinking about that encounter. What did it teach me? It taught me that spiritual warfare is very, very real, and it also taught me that the power in spiritual warfare is in the Holy Spirit.

It's not in me. It's in the Holy Spirit. Before I get into this passage, I want to look at something very important, a very important truth concerning spiritual warfare. If someone were to ask you, why did Jesus come to this earth?

What would you say? He said, well, Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, so Jesus came to this earth in order that He might be our substitutionary atonement, in order that He might take our sin and give us His righteousness, in order that He might appease the wrath of God against us, in order that He might reconcile us to a holy God, in order that He might redeem us out of the slave market of sin. That's why Jesus came, and you would be exactly right. But listen to what John said in 1 John chapter 3 verse 8. He said it very succinctly. He said, the Son of God appeared for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil. John MacArthur spoke very powerfully about this.

Listen to what he said. The Messiah came to vanquish Satan, the usurping prince of this world, in order to rescue sinners from spiritual bondage and usher them into the kingdom of God. As early as Genesis 3 15, in the aftermath of mankind's fall into sin, God had promised a sin to deliver, who one day would crush the serpent's head. That promise was ultimately fulfilled at the cross, where Christ simultaneously defeated Satan's sin and death. The Lord Jesus died, not as a helpless victim, but as the heroic victor, that through death He might render powerless Him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. But the cross was not the only place where Jesus demonstrated sovereign power over Satan and his demon realm. At the outset of his ministry, when he was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus decisively defeated his archenemy. The Lord subsequently went on the offensive against the powers of darkness.

His earthly ministry sparked an outburst of demonic activity unlike anything before or since, as fallen angels shrieked out in terror whenever they were in His presence. Jesus dominated them wherever He found them. They did not attack Him, He attacked them directly and forcefully, and compelled them to succumb to His commands. The power He exercised over them was absolute, so that in spite of their resistant hatred for Him, they were immediately bound to succumb to His demands. All right, six points I want to share with you today.

Point one, the seriousness of the situation. Look at verses one through five again. They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the garrisons, and when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. No one could bind Him anymore, not even with a chain, for He had often been bound with shackles and chains. But He rinsed the chains apart, and He broke the shackles in pieces.

No one had the strength to subdue Him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains, He was always crying out, cutting Himself with stones. If ever there was a picture of pathos and sorrow, it's right here.

Look at this poor man. He lives in a graveyard. The devil has made him consume himself with the subject of death.

He is in constant physical and emotional pain. The townspeople have chained him up in a graveyard, and they've chained him up in order that he might not hurt himself and that he might not hurt others. And the Scripture says he took sharp stones and he cut himself.

I want to stop here and just mention something very quickly. Over the last several years, there has been a fad in our culture here in America among young people. It's called cutting, where they take a sharp knife and they cut themselves and let themselves bleed.

Why do they do that? This cutting is seen by some as self-punishment. It is seen by others as a reliever of anxiety. It is seen by some as a precursor of suicide.

Let me tell you something, folks. It is a demonic practice. It is dangerous. It is not helpful. It is not harmless. It is not honoring to God.

It is a demonic practice. And if you know young people that are into this, that are doing this, let them know that it is extremely dangerous. In our society today, there are a plethora of addictions. People hooked on drugs, people hooked on alcohol, people hooked on pornography, people so sick of hopelessness in this life that they are in constant depression and thoughts of suicide permeate their minds.

So what? That's the life they chose. Let them wallow in it and die if that's what they want to do.

Just tell them to stay away from me. You know, that's the attitude that the men of Gadara had toward this poor man. They didn't care about him. They said, just let him go.

Let him do what he wants to. We'll chain him up in the graveyard. If he dies, he dies.

Then we won't have to worry about him anymore. Well, praise God, Jesus didn't have that attitude. Jesus looked past the dirty clothes. He looked past the cuts and the bruises. He looked past the drooling saliva out of this guy's mouth. He looked past the bleeding where he had cut himself with stones, and he looked at his heart. When he looked at his heart, he saw emptiness, he saw hopelessness, and he saw need. This guy was a man. He wasn't an animal. He was a human being that was created in the image of God, and he desperately, desperately needed help. All right, point two.

The weapons of our warfare. Look at verse four. For he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he he rinsed the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.

Some of the people in the town tried to help out. They chained him up, and they tried to tie him up, but he broke the shackles in pieces like they were nothing, and the weapons that they used to try to help him were just flimsy, and they were absolutely powerless. Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses three through six, Paul gives us a formula about how we're to do spiritual warfare. Listen to what he says. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Several years ago, I read a definition of what a stronghold is, and it's the best definition I've ever seen.

I want you to listen to this carefully. A stronghold is a mindset that is impregnated with hopelessness that causes me to accept as unchangeable something that I know is contrary to the will of God. Once I believe there is no hope for me to change, I have only two choices. Either I give myself over to the sin and live out my life in bondage, or I give up and try to take my life.

What did Paul mean in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 4? He meant that the humanistic methodology that we use to try to fight against spiritual problems is not strong enough, and it just won't work. This is why a secular psychiatrist can only do so much. He can help a person to maybe understand why he has depression, or maybe understand why he has this addiction, or maybe understand why he's suicidal, that except for maybe giving him some drugs to numb himself a little bit, he can't do much more than that. But Jesus Christ has the power to break the bondage of that addiction, or that depression, or that suicidal tendency, and absolutely set him free.

There's some people in this room right now that if I were to ask you right now to stand up and give a testimony, you could do it. And you would stand up and you'd say, well, there was a time when I was addicted to alcohol, or drugs, or pornography, and I went to therapy centers, and I went to doctors, and I tried this, and I tried that, and nothing worked. But I cried out to Jesus, and he reached down in my heart, and he broke the shackles, and he absolutely set me free. Listen, folks, that's not just a broken habit. That's a freed heart, and it didn't come from a program, and it didn't come from a formula, what did it come from?

It came from the hand of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Maybe you're feeling proud because you've never had those kind of addictions. You've never had an addiction to alcohol, or drugs, or pornography.

Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever had a problem with self-righteousness? You ever had a problem with jealousy? You ever had a problem with lust in the mind?

You ever had a problem with the fear of man? Well, let me tell you, those things are just as addicting, they can be just as powerful, and they can bring great destruction into your life. What's that tell us? It tells us that every one of us needs Jesus.

All right, point three, the one and only answer. Look at verse six. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. You think you got problems?

Look at this guy. He was suicidal. He was purposely torturing his own body. He was forced out of society.

He lived in a graveyard. He was so tormented emotionally that he just wept all the time. Perhaps you can relate to that man. Perhaps you have dealt with deep, dark depression. Maybe you've tried drugs, therapy, doctors.

You've gone, done this, you've done that, you've tried everything for help, and nothing's much worked. I'm not belittling you, and I'm not saying that you haven't been to God for help, but I'm asking you this. Have you absolutely cried out in desperation to God for help, where you're not trusting anything else but the Lord Jesus? The Lord Jesus to help.

That's exactly what this man did. The Scripture says that he went to Jesus, he fell down before him, he bowed before him. If you read that in the King James Version, it says that he worshiped Jesus. He got to the point where he says, nothing else is helping me.

Nothing else is going to work. And he comes to Jesus and bows down and worships him and says, Lord, you're my only hope. Is your cry to God being that desperate? In my former church, we had a member who had been horribly addicted to cocaine, and he shared his testimony with me one day, and he just opened his Bible up. He said, this is my testimony. He went to Psalm 34 and he read verses 4 through 7. It says, I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried out and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them.

This fellow's name was Joe. Joe said to me, I took Psalm 34 and I took it literally. And he said, I cried out to the Lord for help and God set me free. He said, I want you to look at verse 7 one more time, and so we did.

It says, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. He said, that's what God did for me. Joe said, before I got desperate and cried out to God, I'd go to a therapy session or I'd go to get some help from a doctor and said, I'd come back home.

I think everything's okay. And then he said, my old cocaine buddies would show up at my house and they'd bring cocaine. The temptation was so great, he said, I'd give in every time. He said, but after I cried out to God, he said, something very strange happened. He said, I cried out to God and all of a sudden my old friends didn't want anything to do with me anymore. He said, I'd call them and they'd hang up. He said, I'd see them on the street and they'd look down at their feet and walk the other way. Now, I'm going to say something here.

It's going to sound kind of wacky, but I want you to listen very carefully. I'm going to share a couple of verses with you first. Hebrews 1 14, the angels of God are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who will inherit salvation. Hebrews 13 2, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels and were not even aware of it.

Did that only happen in the Old Testament? Like with Elijah in 2 Kings chapter 6, when Elijah and his servant are there on a battlefield and there's the army of Aram that's all the way around them and looks like certain death for them, and all of a sudden the Lord opened Elijah's eyes and Elijah could see all of these angels there with their swords drawn and he knew they were protected, that nothing was going to happen to them. The servant's eyes were not open yet.

Let me read you what happened. Elijah said to his servant, do not be afraid for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elijah prayed and said, oh Lord, please open his eyes that he may see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw.

Behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elijah. Why would we think that the angel ministry was limited to the Old Testament and just the New Testament church? What happened?

Angels get lazy after the first century? They say, we're not doing that anymore? Is that what happened?

I don't think so. Joe didn't think so either. Finally, Joe caught up with one of his old cocaine buddies and he said, I want to ask you something. He said, why have you been avoiding me? And his buddy said, because that man's always with you. And he said, what man?

He said, that big man. He said, he looks like a narc or a policeman. And Joe said, look, there's no man with me.

I've not been around anybody. I don't know what you're talking about. And he said, you're lying to me, Joe. He said, that man's with you every time I see you. And he said, he's going to turn me into the law.

I'm going to get arrested. And he said, I don't want anything to do with you. And he turned around and he walked away. Joe is absolutely convinced that the man that his drug Christian friend saw was an angel. Joe said, I'm free and I'm saved. And God did it. And he said, if God has to send an angel to set you free, then bless God, God will do it.

Point four, the high cost of freedom. Look at verses 11 through 13. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside and they begged him, saying, send us to the pigs, let us enter them. So he gave them permission.

And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs and the herd, numbering about 2,000, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. This man was not psychotic. He was not retarded.

He was not insane. He was demon possessed. And the men of the city were absolutely scared to death of him. The women would not go to the marketplace anymore because they were scared they'd come in contact with him. The children could not go out and play because of this man. And the man himself was more miserable than anybody else.

This man had a problem that no counselor could talk him out of. This was a demonic bondage. What did Jesus do? Jesus went to him.

He cast the demons out of this man. They went into a herd of pigs and the pigs went crazy. They went running as fast as they could. They ran over a cliff and they were all drowned in the sea. Now that was an expensive venture, wasn't it? Because there was a farmer there who owned all that livestock and it had all just been killed.

It had been gone. All of his pigs, 2,000 of them, had just met their death. But you know that's always the case. When Jesus becomes Lord of someone's life, the secular world feels it, doesn't it? When a drug addict quits taking drugs, then the drug pusher loses out financially. When an alcoholic quits drinking, then the owner of the bar loses money. When an immoral man gets saved, then the pornography industry takes a hit.

Over in Acts chapter 19, we read the story of Paul going to Ephesus and Paul goes to Ephesus and when he gets there, he begins to preach the gospel. Revival breaks out. People getting saved right and left. And these people that were saved, they get excited and they take their idols and they take them out in the street and they throw them down and they break these idols. They say, we'll never do this again.

We'll never buy another idol. There's a guy named Demetrius who was a silversmith. Boy, when that happened, he got mad and he said, this is not right. Started a riot and said, let's go kill Paul right now because he's turning our society away from the Greek goddess Diana.

Let me tell you something, he wasn't concerned about Diana. He was concerned because he was losing money. And I want you to know the same thing happens today. The world does not want you to be sold out to Christ because if you're sold out to Christ, the world knows it can't manipulate you anymore. In Acts 17 6, one of my favorite verses, Paul and his team were going into Thessalonica. The men of Thessalonica said, oh no, those men who have turned the world upside down have come here also. And I know Christians who said, oh yeah, that's right.

That's what we're supposed to do. So let's get our guns and let's get our our knives and let's get angry and get in their face and let's show them who the boss is. What? That's not God's weapons. What was Paul's weapon? His weapon was the gospel. He went out and he preached the gospel and what happened to these people? These people came to know Christ and they started living morally and ethically and honestly and it turned the world upside down. Or maybe better said, turned the world right side up again.

Point five. The ministry misunderstood. Look at verse 15 through 17. The herdsman fled and told it to the city and in the country and people came to see what it what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion sitting there, clothed in his right mind, they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs, and they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. For months the townspeople had complained because this demoniac was a nuisance and he was a danger. He was a threat to everybody.

Men were scared of him, the women wouldn't go to market, the children wouldn't come out and play, and the people from other towns wouldn't come into their village to buy stuff from their markets and their businesses. It was a terrible, horrible situation, but Jesus set him free. No longer is he screaming and yelling and cursing and crying. No longer is he bleeding. No longer is he drooling saliva out of his mouth. Now he's sitting there with his hair combed, he's got clean clothes on, he's got a big smile on his face, and all the children are drawn to him.

It's a picture of a beautiful peace and tranquility, and it would seem like that village would have been so happy that they would have been ecstatic that this demoniac has been set free. That's not what happened. They came to Jesus and said, please leave.

We don't want you around here anymore. These were religious people that did that. Most of the people in Gedera were Gentiles and they had worshiped the false gods of Rome. They were religious people, just the wrong religion.

And then there was the Jews who went to the synagogue, but I think most of them were probably just playing church. But when they saw the supernatural power of Jesus, they got scared. It baffled them. It confused them. It made them feel guilty and it made them feel convicted. Folks, don't expect the unsaved to rejoice when you really come to know Christ as your Lord and Savior.

It scares them to death. All right, point six, the ministry that God honors. Verse 18 through 20. As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with them. And he did not permit him but said to him, go home to your friends, tell them how much the Lord has done for you and has had mercy on you. And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him and everyone marveled. The former demoniac went to Jesus and you can almost feel his heart.

It's almost like a little kid. He went to Jesus and said, I want to be with you all the time. I want to eat with you and I want you to teach me and I want to see you every day. I want to be able to worship you face to face. I just want to stay with you.

I don't want to leave you. And Jesus said, well you can't do that. He said, I want you to go back home, go to your family, go to your friends, and tell them what God's done in your life. Go back to your family. Go back to your sphere of influence and you tell them, tell them about the peace and the joy that God's given you. You go back and tell them that Jesus Christ is Lord.

And guess what? He did it. He did it.

He went right back. He went to his family, his friends, and his sphere of influence and he began to share with them. Every time God opened the door, he walked through that door and the Scripture says that people marveled. I wonder how many people came to know Christ through that man's testimony. Folks, what we have here in this story is not just history, it's also didactic.

It's also teaching. Well, what we're seeing here is that every single one of us has a calling. If God saved you, he saved you for a reason. Every single one of us has a different sphere of influence, different family members, different friends, different people that we can have an effect on if we will be the witness that God intended us to be. My encouragement to you is this. Be what God has intended you to be. Be a witness.

Open your mouth. Live godly before this nasty world and let them see that Jesus Christ is Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we studied a passage of Scripture today that pulls back the curtain and forces us to deal with the unseen world. When we think of godly angels and filthy demons, our minds begin to whir.

It's hard to deal with things that we can't see with the eye or feel with the hand, but you've assured us that this unseen world is real and we need to be aware of it. You've called us to spiritual warfare. We need to use the weapons of prayer and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Help us to trust you with things we don't understand. Help us to remember your greatness, your grandeur, and your power. Help us to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

We love you and we trust you. May we glorify you through spiritual warfare. Lord, we're getting ready now to enter into our time of the Lord's Supper. We pray, Father, that you would show up here in a very powerful way.

You said that you'd be with us. You said that we would experience your presence in the breaking of the bread, and we pray, Father, that that might happen in this church on this day in just a few moments. Lord, guide and direct us in it now. May Jesus be glorified through it. And it's in your precious, holy name we pray. Amen.