Dwelling in the place of death.

Mark 5:1-20 (KJV)

1And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit

3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4 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.

5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.

14 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.

15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

16 And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil, and also concerning the swine.

17 And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts.

18 And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.

19 Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

20 And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel.

When Jesus climbed out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out from a cemetery to meet him.

Many hold the virtue of Christ in admiration, and yet they will not lose even the least thing they have in order to redeem it.

Literally, "in an unclean spirit"; now they are said to be in the spirit because the spirit holds them tightly locked up, and as it were bound.

The helplessness of men to stop the sway of sin. Stop and consider the efforts that are daily being put forth to save the lost of this world.

Think not that the world does not try to save the world. Of course it does. Every hospital, every rescue home, every temperance society, every reform movement, every court house, and every jail is an effort to save men from their ills, and from the ravages of their sins.

The Gadarenes had bound the demoniac time and again; however, the man, in his seemingly superhuman lunacy, had broken every chain. Poor fellow, what were ropes and chains to him?

 Just so many good, but useless and easily broken strands. No man could bind the man of Gadara, and no man can bind the sinner.

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Dwelling in the place of death.

The Gadarene in the mountains and tombs suggests to us that the men of sin are shorn of comfort and peace.

The place of tombs, the graveyards, is no place for the living to dwell.

They speak only of sin and its wages, death.

They may be beautiful without with fern and flower, but within they are filled with dead men's bones.

Yet this world is itself only a great graveyard.

Men are walking constantly in the shadows of foreboding death.

Everything around us says, "It is appointed unto men once to die."

We dare not sit in judgment against the people of Gadara, for the children of this age are as corrupt as they.

The ungodly hug to their hearts the things which make for their undoing.

Men do not want to retain God in their knowledge, because men are filled with unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, maliciousness. They are even haters of God.

Once again we need but to look around us to see the very same thing being done in our generation.

Multitudes of people will not accept Christ to rule over them.

Plainly stated men and women in sin, want to be left alone.

They will welcome no hand that seeks to rescue them.

The masses are saying, "I know not the Lord, neither will I let my sins go."

 Yet the man who wants to be set free comes to a point that Jesus is the only answer and they know him

The request of the man of Gadara.

He prayed the Lord that he might be with Him. This was a perfectly natural and honorable request.

Where is he who, being saved from so great a death, by so great a Saviour, does not want to be with Him!

The Lord's command. The man wanted to go with Christ.

Christ suffered him not, but said, "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee."

Perhaps we, too, can hear a similar word. 

Here it is:

 "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel."

Every creature must hear.

We must go and tell. We must go to the end of the earth, until earth's last man has heard the Blessed assurance.