(Read Mark 5)
THREE great evils oppress man as the fruit and result of sin. They are—the devil, disease, and death; and they all three are before you in this chapter. The man was completely under the control of the devil, the woman was hopeless with disease, and the child was dead.
Christ met all the three, and today He is the same; He is unchanged. The Jesus of Luke 5 is the Jesus of whom we have to tell you, though He is now at God’s right hand. He is the mighty, living Saviour, ascended to God’s right hand, but He is unchanged, His heart is the same, His love is the same, His power is the same. I do not say that now the Lord is dealing in quite the same way with men. It is not the moment of the display of that miraculous intervention which this chapter shows, which delivers from Satan’s power a man possessed with demons. Nor is it a moment when the Lord is showing His power over disease, or the raising of the dead, as to the body. But you get the principle, He still delights to bless and deliver souls.
Now see what is the outcome of this chapter. The man who had been the slave of Satan, the woman who had been the victim of a dreadful malady, and the child that had got under the power of death, all three become witnesses of Christ’s power, and testimonies to Christ. That is exactly what the gospel does now. It lays hold of a man, who might have been what you call a raging sinner, lifts him out from underneath the burden that lay upon him, and sets him on his way a witness for Christ. To the man the Lord says, “Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee” (vs. 19). What does He say to the woman? “Go in peace” (vs. 34). He does not bid her testify, for she was not ashamed to confess Jesus, she had already done so. And what about the child? Did He tell her to witness? No, He says, “Give her meat,” take care of her. The very fact that she was walking about alive was a wonderful testimony in itself.
Let us now look at the man. In the fourth of Mark the Lord said, “Let us pass over unto the other side.” And then a storm arose, and the devil hoped the boat would go down and the blessed Lord would be drowned. The disciples were desperately afraid of it. They absolutely say to Him, “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” They thought the case was hopeless. Ah, my dear friend, do not you be frightened, the boat that Christ is in is safe in the biggest storm the devil ever raised. And therefore Satan does not drown Christ in the fourth chapter, but many of his servants are drowned in the fifth.
Here are two thousand of them tormenting this poor man, and there he was, the absolute slave of the devil. I do not say that you, my reader, have been a man of this stamp? But the point is this if the Son of God has not cast the devil out of your bosom, he is there yet. Now I want to know whether that moment has yet come in your history. This poor wretched fellow had an unclean spirit. Unsaved reader, an unclean spirit also dwells in you. It is a spirit of rebellion and disobedience, a spirit of repugnance toward God, a spirit of love of the world. It is an unclean spirit. Every unconverted man and woman is possessed with an unclean spirit. Ah, you need deliverance. Thank God there is a deliverer waiting today to emancipate you.
Well, this man meets Jesus. I grant it was a bad case. He was dwelling in the tombs. He was familiar with death. You are at home with death in that sense. And more, no man could bind him. It was a desperate case. “Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him” (vs. 4). It was indeed a desperate case. Is yours less so? The more desperate the sinner, the more delight Christ has in saving him. You are just the case the Lord likes to meet with.
I dare say you will say, “I have tried to regulate myself.” It is no good. That does not change your heart or life. You may have put on fetters and bonds to meet the claims of society. The devil has a great many chain and fetter factories, and a great many servants busy putting them on now. But the fact is, they all get broken. Nothing tames you but, Christ. You never get right till you get to Christ. The Lord’s Supper will not help you. Temperance will not save you. It is not that I say a word against temperance, but temperance is not Christ. Suppose you are a drunkard and are under the awful curse of drink still, Jesus alone can save you He alone can deliver you. But you are not too bad for Him. Sinner, let me encourage you. God tells us about the worst cases that they may encourage us. We sometimes hear of bad cases in our day. But there is no case too bad for Jesus.
The day of miracles of God’s grace is not passed by, so there is no case too bad for Jesus. This man was not too bad for Jesus. The state of the dead child was not too bad. Depend upon it, yours is just the case for Jesus. And mark, we want you saved now, not tomorrow. Oh, young man, wake up. Old man, you with gray hairs, wake up. “Oh,” you say, “you do not know my life.” Christ knows it. He knows all your sins, and can blot them out. Friend, come to Jesus, come now!
Now what do we find this poor man did? He was in a most miserable forlorn condition. “But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God?” Ah, you may feel, “What would Christ do with a wicked hell-deserving sinner like me?” He would bless you, save you, pardon you. Completely under the very power of Satan, the poor demoniac had had nothing to do with Jesus till this moment and so little knew His heart that he says.
“I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not” (vs. 7). Is the tale of the gospel torment to you? Is Christian talk torment to you? Oh, what a state you are in. Are you saying, “What have I to do with Thee, Jesus?” Why, He is the very One you need. He wants you at any rate.
Mark the demoniac’s action. He came to Jesus. He ran to Jesus. And now see what follows. The Lord says, “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit!” (vs. 8). What is in the heart of God to you just now? Nothing but blessing. This man says, “Do not torment me.” “Torment you?” says Christ, “I shall deliver you.” Another gospel says, “Art thou come hither to torment its before the time?” (Matt. 8:2929And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? (Matthew 8:29)). It is the unclean spirit speaking in men, just like the devil speaks in you and suggests things to you. “Put off deciding for Christ for a fortnight,” he said to me the night I was converted. Thank God I did not put it off. An out-and-out servant of the devil I had been, but Jesus in His grace met and saved me. He longs to save you and bless you too, my friend.
“Come out of the man” was the word, and Satan obeyed. I love to hear the Lord say this. What a wonderful thing it is when He reaches a poor desperate sinner like you or me, and His word comes and delivers us. So was it with this poor man. “And forthwith... the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand:) and were choked in the sea” (vs. 13). The power of the enemy was absolutely broken, and the devil’s vassal delivered. Hallelujah!
As the result of sin, man is under Satan’s power and needs deliverance. In the day of Paul’s conversion the Lord said to him, Go to the Gentiles, “to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God” (Acts 26:1616But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; (Acts 26:16)). Afterward he wrote, “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col. 1:12, 1312Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (Colossians 1:12‑13)). What does the gospel do? It brings you out of darkness into light. It takes you out of your sins, and puts you on resurrection ground in association with Christ, absolutely delivering you. Oh, it is a wonderful thing the gospel. There is nothing like it.
What is the next thing? The news spreads abroad that something has happened. “And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done” (vs. 14). “And they come to Jesus,” not for salvation, but from mere curiosity, “and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.” That man could never sit down before. What is he doing now? Sitting. He is at rest. Have you known what rest is? You never will till you sit at the feet of Jesus.
Look at this man now, as he sits “clothed, and in his right mind.” You say, “Was he a lunatic?” Well, you know, till a man is converted he is not in his right mind, because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. But when the sweet gospel of God enters your soul, and you learn that the blood of His dear Son cleanses you, and you are pardoned, and forgiven, then you will be like this dear man, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in your right mind.
Now notice the sequel. “And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him” (vs. 18). A most natural thing. He desired to be in the company of his Deliverer. That is what one always finds. A person really converted loves the company of Christ, and the company of Christ’s people. If you go on with the world, just as and where you were before, it shows that there is no change in the mind or the heart. Where there is really knowledge of Christ, there is deliverance from old habits and ways. And what does he want to do? Stay in the old associations? Not a bit, he wants to be with Jesus. That is lovely. He sought to be with Him.
But what does the Lord say? “Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends.” That is it. “Go home to thy friends.” Have you been converted? “Oh yes.” Told your friends? “Well, you know, I don’t like to speak about myself.” Oh, I see. I think you had better ask yourself whether you are converted. If you had been you would surely tell your friends, tell the people in the house, tell the folk you work with. “Go home to thy friends,” and tell them you are a converted man? No, “tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee” (vs. 19). Do not go home and talk about yourself. Go home and talk about Jesus. You go home a witness for Christ. There is nothing happier.
“Well,” you say, “we cannot all begin at once.” The sooner you begin the better. Satan will say, “Stop, you might not get on, you may yet give it all up,” and so he will try to keep you quiet. Go home and tell your friends. That is what the Lord said to this man. And you say, “Did he do it?” He did, and a revival followed. We desperately want a revival nowadays in Edinburgh, and elsewhere too. We want wakening up. The secret of a revival is usually the outcome of personal testimony. Look at this man. He was a witness for Christ. What did he do? “And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: AND ALL MEN DID MARVEL” (vs. 20).
Do you know where, Decapolis was? The word means ten cities. It was not, however, merely ten cities, it was a district, chiefly east of the Jordan, about twenty miles broad, and some eighty or one hundred long. This man’s witness, “See what Jesus has done,” evidently aroused the district, so that you will find in Mark 6 and 7 that when the Lord went back the whole countryside was waiting to see Him. Nothing tells like personal testimony. If conversion really gets into a house it will spread.
Reader, if still unconverted, let me urge you to come to Jesus now. If you have come to Him, boldly testify of His grace to you, and you too may be the means of a revival among the Lord’s people, and of the conversion of sinners to God where you live. The Lord grant it.
W. T. P. W.