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.
