Bound By Satan (6_of_12)
BOUND BY SATAN? (6 of 12)
Meet Jesus
Mark 5:1
We are looking today at Jesus, the One and Only in
this series of messages I call, "Meet Jesus." I love
it when I get on these passages and these series of
messages that focus in on our wonderful Lord Jesus
Christ. When you are preaching Jesus you are doing
good preaching. I don't care who is doing it. A lot of
people can preach Jesus better than I can, but they
can't preach a better Jesus than I can.
We are going to look at the first 20 verses of Mark 5,
but I will just read a few verses at the beginning.
Anywhere you look in the 5th chapter of Mark you have
an account of those who meet Jesus. There are three
beautiful pictures of people meeting Jesus in Mark 5.
One is about the little girl who was 12 years old and
she had died. Jesus raised her again from the dead
and the first person she saw was Jesus—she met Jesus.
Then here is the account about the woman who had an
incurable disease and she meets Jesus in this chapter.
Then there is this man who bound by Satan. All three
of these instances might be considered to be incurable
cases. The little girl was on her way to the cemetery
for burial. The woman was on her way to a home for the
terminally ill. Of course, the man was on his way to
an insane asylum. All three of these impossible cases
until they meet Jesus Christ.
When you look at this 5th chapter you will find also
that it serves as a clinic of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In every one of these instances, when they meet Jesus,
the problems, the difficulties, the tragedies going on
in their lives is resolved by an experience in which
they meet the Lord Jesus Christ.
This morning we are going to focus on this man we know
commonly as Legend. This man is bound by Satan. As you
read the verses of Scripture you will discover that he
has lost just about everything. He has lost his family
and his friends. He has lost his sanity. He has lost
his self-control. He has lost his decency. He has lost
his humanity. He is living like an animal. He is
crying out, running all over the mountainside like an
animal. He is cutting himself with stones. This man is
bound by Satan. He has lost everything and he
desperately needs to meet Jesus.
There may be some of you here today who are bound by
Satan and you need to meet Jesus. Perhaps you know
someone today and it seems as if Satan has taken
charge of their life and you and I know that they
desperately need to meet the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want us to talk about it this morning. The first
thing I want to talk about is the man. These opening
verses tell us about this man and one of the reasons
we are doing this is because the examples of these
kind of people who meet Jesus remind us of what it
means to be lost and what it means to be apart from
God and what it means for Satan to hold sway over a
life. This man is an illustration of what it means to
be lost.
I. The MAN- A Miserable Soul.
The first think you notice about this man is that he
is demented. The Bible says that he comes out of the
tomb and he is a man with an unclean spirit. Here is a
man who is insane. We know that because over in verse
15 we are told that after Jesus touched him he was in
his right mind. That means before Jesus touched him he
was out of his right mind. He is insane. The Bible
teaches us that there is a spiritual insanity as well.
The Bible tells us about the prodigal son and down in
the hog pen it says, "When he came to himself." That
means he had been away from himself.
A number of years ago I was visiting in a home and on
the wall of the home there was a picture of a very
handsome young man. As I was leaving the home, I
commented on how handsome he was and when I did I saw
the sorrow and the pain on the face of the mother. She
said, "That's our son. But he's not himself right
now." He had gone out into a hippy life—a worldly
lifestyle. Her way of putting it was—he was not
himself.
The Bible teaches there is a spiritual insanity. Here
is a man who is insane. He is a prospect for an insane
asylum. But as we read the passage of Scripture it is
very clear to us that this man is not just a maniac,
this man is a demoniac. Looking out of his wild eyes
are others beside this man himself. The Bible says he
has an unclean spirit.
You read the Bible and you will discover that in the
time of Jesus especially there were people who were
possessed with unclean spirits. Verse 18 tells us that
this man was possessed with the devil. He was a
demoniac. He was demon-possessed. He was a demonized
man. Today we would probably say that this man had
psychiatric problems. Of course, we know there are
psychiatric problems. Maybe you read in the Newsweek
Magazine two or three weeks ago, an article about
schizophrenia. We do know that one of the
characteristics of Skit... is that people hear voices.
In many instances it is a mental problem. It is a
brain malfunction that causes this.
I think it is clean that sometimes, in some instances,
it goes beyond the realm of mental disease. It goes
beyond the realm of schizophrenia. Here is one of
those instances given to us in the Bible. This man is
a demon-possessed man. Voices are speaking through
this man.
The Bible does present the reality of the demonic as I
have indicated. The Bible teaches that Satan is very
real. There is a real personality known as Satan. The
Bible says, "Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary
the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking
who he may devour." The devil is very real. We have
all these caricatures of the devil. I think the devil
rather enjoys people thinking that he's some guy
running around with a red union suite with horns on
his head and with a forked tail. But the Bible says
that the devil manifests himself as an angel of light.
The devil is very real. Demons are real also. Jesus
talked about demons and Jesus talked to demons and
Jesus didn't have mental problems. He wasn't talking
to something that did not exist. Jesus Christ talked
to demons and he talked about demons.
On the mission field, it has been for many years,
commonly known about the reality of the demonic. Only
more recently have in cultured America begin to
understand and to recognize the reality of the
demonic. I think, although we don't find a demon under
every bush, and I don't think we assign everything to
demons that goes wrong in the world. I think when you
look at the moral filth and when you look at the
depravity and when you look at the obscenity and the
corruption and moral slime that is going on in our day
that seems to be over the top, so to speak, you have
to say there is something to this whole realm of the
demonic.
Here is a man who is a demon-possessed man. He is
demented, but he is demonic. You will notice he is
possessed by the demons. The demons always want a
body. The devil wants a body. That's the desire. The
devil works through a body. The Lord wants to work
through a body, too. Romans 12:1 says, "I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice." The Bible
says that Christ want to dwell in your hearts by
faith. God wants to work through our bodies to His
glory and for the good of others. But Satan also wants
to occupy a body. But in this instance I want you to
notice that here is a man who is possessed by Satan
and Satan is using his body by means of the realm of
the demonic to actually destroy this man and to
terrorize people who are all around him as well.
Let me just say to you that Judas, you may recall in
John 13, that Satan put it in his mind to betray the
Lord Jesus. Then when you read on down in chapter 13,
you will find the Bible says Satan entered him. Be
very careful what you listen to. Be very careful what
you open up your mind to. Ephesians 2:2 says, "Where
in time past you walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of
the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience."
So here is a man possessed by demons. When Jesus asked
him what his name was he said, "My name is Legion, for
WE are many." That's just his way of say he has a
whole mo of demons on the inside of him. Surely this
man had seen the Roman legions marching. This word,
legend, was a reference to a contingent of Roman
soldiers over 6,000 in number. He had seen the legion
armies marching by—these armies of occupation. He had
heard the tramping and had felt the ground move as
these legions of armies had walked through the land.
Now, an army of Satan has marched into his heart and
the troops of terror have taken up occupation in his
heart and he is saying, "There's a legion of demons in
me. The troops of terror are in my soul. Satan's
emissaries have taken over in my life."
Notice something else. He was a dead man. Look at
verse 3. "Who had his dwelling among the tombs." You
say he certainly doesn't look dead, preacher. Well, he
was not dead physically, but he was dwelling in a dead
place. He was dwelling among the tombs.
The last time I was in Israel I had the opportunity to
go over on the east side of the Sea of Galilee to the
traditional sight where this took place. Along that
side of the Sea of Galilee there was any number of
rock-hewn tombs where they would bury the dead. Here
is a man who is living in a place where dead people
were buried. It surely had to have been a filthy
place. The odor must have been terrible. It's not
where normal people want to live. I don't know many
people who say I'm hoping to build my dream house in
the middle of the cemetery.
When I was a boy, one night after a Friday night
football game, I was spending the night with a buddy
of mine. Between his house and the ball field there
was a cemetery. I was probably nine or ten at the
time. That afternoon I began to think about that
cemetery between the ball field and my buddy's house.
Being the big, brave boy I was, that didn't bother me
at all, but I did have it on my mind. After the ball
game it was about 10:00 and we started walking home to
his house. We weren't afraid of a cemetery. Why would
you want to be afraid of a cemetery? But somehow the
closer we got to the cemetery; the faster our little
legs began to walk. By the time we got right alongside
that cemetery we were running full blast to get to his
house. Who would be afraid of a cemetery?
You heard about a guy who stumbled through a cemetery
one night and stumbled into a freshly dug grave. It
was too deep and he couldn't get out. He was trying
his best to get out and he saw that he couldn't climb
up or get out so he just sat there waiting for the
day. As it turns out another guy came stumbling
through the cemetery that night and fell into the open
grave. He started trying to get out, too. The other
guy reached over and touched him on the shoulder and
said, "You can't get out." But he did.
Living in a dead place. But where this man is living
is a pretty good illustration of his spiritual
condition. The Bible says that if you are lost you are
spiritually dead. There are different kinds of death
in the Bible. There is physical death which is the
separation of the soul from the body. "It is appointed
unto man once to die." There is the second death
which is the separation of the soul from God forever.
Revelation 20 talks about the second death which is
the lake of fire. But there is also spiritual death.
The Bible says, "She that liveth in pleasures is dead
while she lives." The father said about the prodigal,
"My son was dead and he is alive." Ephesians 2 says,
"You were dead in trespasses and sins."
Maybe you are here today and you are dead—dead
spiritually. You may be a handsome person. You may be
a well-to-do person. You may be rich and famous
celebrity, but if you are lost in sin, you need not
reformation—you need regeneration. You need
resurrection. He's dead.
He's not only demented, not only dead, but this man is
absolutely defeated. "No man could bind him, not with
chains." They had bound him up with fetters and chains
and he was like a spiritual Samson. He just pops the
chains like they are pieces of burnt cotton. He tears
the ropes to shreds. Nobody can bind him. He is
totally unrestrained.
What a picture that is of our day. This is the day of—
if it feels good, do it. This is the day of no
restraint. People are out of control today. Be careful
in traffic. Keep your eyes straight ahead. There is so
much anger, so much road rage going on. People are
not able to control themselves. They've lost all
control. They can't be tamed.
Verse 5 says this man is up in the mountains night and
day. He has no rest. The Bible says the wicked are
like the troubled sea. He's just like a raging storm.
Like an erupting volcano. He's cutting himself with
stones. Evidently seems to take some sadistic pleasure
in inflicting pain on his own body. He's crying in the
mountains.
Think about how the little boys and girls must have
felt at night when old Legion upon the mountainside is
crying and screaming. I can almost see them now as
they run into the bedroom. "Oh, daddy, daddy, Legion
is crying. Is he coming to get us tonight, daddy?"
Daddy draws them to himself to assure their hearts.
That's what sin will do. That's what Satan will do
when you let Satan bind your life.
Do you know what this man needs? This man needs to
meet Jesus. That's what he needs.
Now, let's talk about the Master.
II. A Mighty Savior.
In verse 1 it tells that Jesus came to the other side
of the sea. They had just come through a storm on the
Sea of Galilee. In verse 6 it says that when the man
saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him. Can you
imagine what the disciples did? Here comes this crazy
man, this wild, demonic man, and running down from the
mountainside and they are a little shaky anyhow. They
have just been through a storm on the water and here
comes this wild man running down the mountainside.
I can see them now—back on that ship climbing the mast
of the ship. But Jesus doesn't run. Jesus stands
there. When Jesus looks at that man He sees his
humanity. He says in verse 8, "Come out of the man,
thou unclean spirit." He didn't look like a man. He
didn't act like a man. But Jesus saw his humanity.
Jesus saw this man not for what he was, but for what
he could become. Jesus saw this man not for what Satan
had made out of him, but for what He (Jesus) could
make out of him.
Jesus sees you not as you are, but as what you can
become by His saving grace. You have not idea what you
could become if you would put your life in the hand of
Jesus. You give Jesus your crab apple and He'll give
you back a golden delicious. You give Jesus your thorn
and He'll give you back an American Rose. You give
Jesus your Simon, shifting like the sands and He'll
give you back a Simon Peter, mighty gospel preacher.
You give him your Saul, persecuting the church and
He'll give you back a Paul, a mighty missionary for
the Lord. You give Jesus you as your and He'll give
you back you as you can be by His Grace and by His
power.
He saw a man. He saw his humanity. Notice now the
hesitancy. In verse 6 he is worshiping Him; in the
next verse he is crying out and saying, "Don't torment
me." He's vacillating between one and the other. He
wants to worship Him and yet he wants Him to get out
of the way. He comes to Him; yet he's driven from Him.
There's hesitancy.
There's a hesitancy in many, isn't there? When lost
people get in a service like this, a battle starts
going on. A tug of war starts happening when somebody
who is bound by Satan gets in the presence of Christ.
There is a hesitancy there. To some extent there's a
Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde in all of us. In one sense of
the word this man knows that he needs to be released
from the bondage of Satan. But in the other sense of
the word he wants Jesus to go away. He's a Dr. Jekyl
and a Mr. Hyde.
Sometimes in our best of moments we want to soar with
the eagles. But in our worst of moments we want to
wallow with the hogs.
Do you notice what the demons believe in verse 7? See
what they said to Jesus, "What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou son the most high God." Look what they
believe about Jesus. They call Him the son of the most
high God. Then they say, "I adjure thee by God that
thy torment me not." They knew it was all up for
them.
In one of the parallel passages in Luke's gospel, it
says they knew that their time was limited. They knew
they had a short time. They knew they were headed for
the abyss. I do want to encourage you today to know
that the Lord Jesus Christ has power over the devil.
It says, "They said torment me not." Why? Because in
verse 8 Jesus said, "Come out of the man, thou unclean
spirit." Jesus has power over the devil. That's one
of the reason I like the book of The Revelation. It
tells us about the final overthrow of the devil.
We have a Savior today who can break the bondage of
sin over your life. We have a Savior today who can
break the chains of Satan over your life. He has power
over the devil. When Christ died on the cross, the
Bible says that He destroyed him. That is, He put out
of operation him who had the power of death, even the
devil. He has power over the devil.
Jesus has power over death. Every time Jesus
encountered death in His ministry, He overcame it. You
study the account of the death of Jesus and you will
find that the two thieves on either side of Him died
before Jesus did. If they had died first Jesus would
have brought them back from the dead. Nothing stays
dead when Jesus is on the scene, ladies and gentlemen.
There are three instances where Jesus encountered the
dead. One was this little girl that is in this 5th
chapter. You know the story of the little girl who was
twelve-years-old. Christ came and said, "Young woman,
I say unto you, arise." She came back from the dead.
That tells me that Jesus can save boys and girls.
Boys and girls, if you have not accepted Jesus as your
Savior, could I encourage you to accept Jesus while
you are young. Give Jesus your life right now. Come to
Jesus while you are young. Don't put it off. If you
have any desire in your heart this morning to accept
Jesus as your Savior, do it this morning.
"Preacher, young children don't know what they are
doing. They are too young to know what they are
doing." I guess that's what they said the Sunday night
when I came forward as a nine-year old boy and gave my
heart to Jesus. They probably said, "That Vines boy
probably doesn't know what he's doing." That's going
to soon be 56 years. Maybe I didn't know all that I
was doing, but I knew as a nine-year-old boy I met
someone who changed my life and has been with me for
56 years. Come to Jesus while you are young.
The second time was this young man who had died—the
son of the widow of Naam. Jesus touched the funeral
bier and said to him, "Young man, arise." The young
man got up and that says to me that Jesus can save
young people. We want to see young people come to know
Christ as their Savior. There are young people all
around. Bring some young people and let them hear our
young people give testimonies and sing. Bring some
young people tonight who need Jesus. Young people
desperately need Christ today.
The third time was Lazarus. Lazarus had been dead for
4 days. He was already in the tomb. His body was
already decomposing like some old sinners today. Some
old sinner sitting here today and you've been in sin
so long that every time you open your mouth, it's like
a decomposed body. Everything about you smells. Every
thing about you is rotten. Jesus stood there and said,
"Take away the stone." They said, "Oh, but Lord, he's
been dead for 4 days, there is an odor."
Listen, dear one, when Jesus was on the scene it
didn't matter if he had been dead 4 days or 4 years.
He said, "Lazarus, come forth." Lazarus got up and
came walking out of that tomb. That's what Jesus can
do for dead people.
So, here is a man who is dead. Jesus can conquer
death. Here is a man who is demoniac. Jesus has power
over the devil. Here is a man who is absolutely
unrestrained—no peace in his heart. If you will meet
Jesus this morning, he can give peace to your heart.
That's the man, that's the master. Now look at the
miracle.
III. A Miraculous SALVATION.
Jesus said, "Come out of him." The Bible says in
verse 11 that nearby the mountain there was a great
herd of swine feeding. The King Jerry Version for
that is—there were a bunch of hogs around. In fact,
there were a whole lot of hogs around. Down in verse
13 it said there were 2,000 of them. That's a lot of
sausage and ham and chitlings, isn't it? If you don't
know what chitlings are, just ask somebody around you
after the service.
The demons said, "Send us into the hogs." By the way,
young people, the devil prefers you, but his second
choice is a hog. If he can, the devil will use you,
but he'll take a hog. You or a hog, either way. The
devil occupied two animals in the Bible. He occupied
the serpent in Genesis 3 which tells us of the
character of the devil. Now, he operates in the hogs
which tells us of the corruption of the devil. The
devil wants to turn you into a hog. That's what he
wants to do with you. So Jesus says to him, "Come out
of him, thou unclean spirit."
A miracle occurs. Look at verse 15. It says that when
the people came, the folks who had hogs went running
into town to tell them what happened. So when they
come out they find this man and there he is sitting
and clothed and in his right mind. Sitting. He's under
control now.
Some of you would like to do better than you do, but
you don't have any power. You have no control. Christ
can give you control. Christ can control that temper
of yours. Christ can control that tendency to
dishonesty. Christ can control that gossip. Sitting.
Clothed. He's not only controlled, he's changed. He
has his clothes on now.
Then, notice. "And in his right mind." When Christ
comes in, He puts you in your right mind.
Verse 18 says that this man who had been possessed
with the demons that Jesus has changed and controlled,
it says now that he prayed him. That is he prayed
Jesus that he (the man) might be with Him (Jesus).
In verse 19 Jesus suffered him not. He didn't answer
his prayer. Isn't that an amazing thing? The demons
prayed to Jesus to send them into the hogs and He
answered their prayer. Now, this man says, "Lord, I
want to join your evangelistic team and go with you
and Jesus says, "No." Whenever Jesus tells us no, it
means that He has something better for us to do.
He said in verse 19, "Go home to your friends, tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and
have had compassion on thee." Look at verse 20. "And
he departed and began to publish in Decapolis." That
means the ten cities. "How great things Jesus had done
for him and all men did marvel."
I have liked to imagine how it was when Legion came
home. Maybe the children were out playing in the
village streets. One of them said, "Legion is coming!"
Everybody headed for their houses and closed the doors
and pulled down the windows. In a moment, one of the
little fellows says, "Mama, that's daddy. But he's
different. He has on his clothes. He has his hair
combed. There's a smile on his face."
I can almost see the children and the people as the
ease out of their homes and get a cautious distance
away from Legion. In a moment, one little boy goes and
grabs him by the knee and says, "Daddy, what has
happened to you? You're different. Daddy, you didn't
come in and slap mama around like you used to. Daddy,
you didn't come in and beat us up like you used to.
Daddy, you're different. What has happened to you?"
The people get a little closer and say, "What has
happened to you, Legion, you're different?" I can
almost see as he says, "Aw folks, I was everything you
said and more. Just a few days ago, I met a man named
Jesus and he has changed my life."
Dear one, that's what happens when you meet Jesus.
I want us to bow our heads in prayer.
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