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Taming the Maniacs

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• All right, let's open our Bibles, if you would please, to the book of Mark, chapter 5. The book of Mark, chapter 5. And we're going to be reading the first eight verses. The book of Mark, chapter 5. And the title of the message is Taming the Maniacs. Taming the Maniacs. Notice, if you would please, beginning there with verse 1, Mark chapter 5. The Bible said, "...and they came over unto the other side of the sea, unto the country of the Gadarenes."

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• And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains, 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. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

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• 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? I adjure thee by God that thou torment me not. For he had said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. So, we'll stop there. You know the rest of this story, which we'll cover shortly.

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• But the message this morning is on the maniac of Gadara. However, I think there are many proper applications that could be made to the maniacs that we have to deal with in our nation today. We must think of the fact that we do indeed use the word maniac quite frequently. In fact, usually when we see someone who is driving furiously and carelessly and unsafely, we make a statement, he's driving like a maniac. That is someone who is crazed, someone who is insane. And, of course, if someone is fighting for his life, we would normally say he's fighting like a maniac in the sense that he's almost displaying supernatural strength because he's putting every ounce of his energy of his body to protect his life. So we use that term maniac, and usually it refers to what we would call a raving or violently insane person or a lunatic. That is what the word maniac actually means. If you look up the word lunatic, you will find that lunatic is a term referring to a person who is seen as mentally ill, dangerous, foolish, or crazy, and sometimes we have to understand it is attributed to the word lunacy.

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• That's why we call them basically a lunatic. The word luna, of course, is from the Latin, which means moon, and atic literally means one of the kind of. So a lunatic is one of the kind of who is affected by the moon. So a lot of people used to think and still think that the phases of the moon sometimes attribute and contribute to someone's mental instability. Hence, they're called a lunatic because obviously it happens at certain times of the month based upon the phase of the moon. The word is a very old word. In fact, originally, the word loon referred to someone who was a lout, someone who was an idler, a sluggard, a rogue.

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• Later on, it was extended to mean a crazy person or a simpleton. Now, the word maniac also may be used to describe a demon-possessed individual because in our text, the maniac of Gadara was possessed by a legion of demons. And I want to submit something for your consideration today. I want to submit to the fact that a lot of what you and I would call mental illness and a lot of what you and I would call maniacal dispositions stem from spiritual problems. You're going to see this in the text as well, but the point I'm trying to make is this.

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• It is impossible to violate God's law, transgress His commandments, and escape the consequences. If you'll remember, without us turning there in 1 Samuel chapter 16, there was an evil spirit that produced the depression and the mental anguish of King Saul. That's why a young man with salt, like David, who could play with his harp and soothe Saul's mental instability. And so, clearly then, here was an evil spirit that was affecting Saul's attitude, his disposition, everything about him. When you and I think about evil, unclean spirits, you have to understand this, that usually they are connected, especially with the occult, with spiritualism, with rebellion, and with wickedness.

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• And I've got news for you. I refuse to even read a horoscope. I'm not going to put myself in any position like that, and all of these stupid games, and all of these cards, occult cards, and what's the little ball that you're supposed to ask questions, some kind, all that is demonic. It's totally, absolutely demonic. And so, that is usually how evil spirits are around individuals, because they're around those things that they stay around.

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• So one does not need to be demon possessed in order to be counted as strange. There are plenty of strange people in our land, and here's a thought. Do you realize that each ethnic group, each race, and even small cliques, tend to think that everyone who is different from them happens to be strange? I mean, if you and I got around a group of Chinese people, we would think they were strange based upon their language, their conduct, but then they would think that we were strange as well. Now, you don't have to be crazy in order to be thought strange.

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• Let me show you what I'm talking about. There are many that even think that Christians are strange. So if you look in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 4. I could quote this, but I want you to see it. 1 Peter chapter 4. Look in verse 4. Look what the Bible says. Watch this carefully. 1 Peter 4 and verse 4. "Wherein they think it strange that you run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you." So, there are unsaved people that think it strange that Christians do not want to be involved in immorality, drunkenness, and rioting, or anything that's wicked and wrong. It's strange to them.

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• Because we are not like they are. Now, the interesting thing is this. When you talk about the maniac of Gadara, evidently, it's an important story. Because God gives us this story three times in the Bible. He gives it to us in Matthew 8, Mark 5, and Luke 8 as well. Now, since we're in the book of Mark, I want you to look at verse 4 again, because the title of the message is taming the maniacs. Look at verse 4.

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• The Bible says, "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." Neither could any man tame him.

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• Now, the word tame is from the Greek word damazo, and it literally means to tame, to curb, and to restrain. Now, interestingly enough, this is the same exact Greek word that you find in James chapter 3 and verse 8, and let me read it to you, where God said, "But the tongue can no man tame, it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison." So the tongue cannot be bound with chains and ropes either. It is indeed an unruly evil. So the tongue, much like the demonic in Mark chapter 5, cannot be restrained by human nature and human instrumentality.

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• I will guarantee you that everyone in this room, no matter how young or how old, has often said things that they wish they had never said. So the tongue is unruly evil. Neither can he maintain it. Undoubtedly, this is why David prayed in Psalm 141 in verse 3. And he asked the Lord, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth and keep the door of my lips." So the tongue needs taming, just like the maniac of Gadara needed taming as well.

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• Now, let me show you. If you look in your Bibles to Luke chapter 8 and verse 29, here is one reason that the maniac of Gadara could not be tamed. If you look in Luke 8 and verse 29, look what the Bible says concerning him. Luke 8 verse 29, the Bible says, "For he, that is the Lord Jesus, had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for oftentimes it had caught him, and he was kept bound with chains and fetters, and he break the bands, look at this now, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness."

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• Now I want you to concentrate momentarily on the word driven. He was driven by the devil into the wilderness. The word driven in the Greek is the word elauno, which is used in the Bible to describe a ship that is being driven by the wind. When a ship is being driven by the wind, basically speaking, it is ungovernable and it cannot be controlled when the wind gets behind it. In fact, the Bible says in James chapter 3 verse 4, "Behold, the ships, which though they be so great, are driven of fierce winds." So when you think about a ship, when you think about a sailboat, and a fierce wind gets behind it, it is ungovernable, it is unstoppable, because the wind is driving it. And so the Bible says in Luke chapter 8 and verse 29, this man was being driven by the devil, being driven by the demons. So unclean spirits then drove the maniac of Gadara as easily as a fierce wind drives a ship. Now, what I want you to take note of today is this.

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• Not only looking at what you and I could see as the manifestation of demonical possession, but also the cure of that as well. I want you to understand and see this based upon how this man lived. Okay? I'm going to give you several truths. First of all, number one, he lived a life of death. He lived a life of death. Hang on with me. Look in your Bibles to Mark chapter 5, verses 2 and 3. Mark 5, verse 2. You'll understand. "And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit who had his dwelling among the tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains." So in verse 2, the Bible tells us, there met him then a man out of the tombs. Verse 3 tells us, here was the man whose dwelling was among the tombs.

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• Now when you and I hear the word tombs, we normally think of our modern day cemeteries. There are very few people who are willing to even camp out in a cemetery. But when you think about tombs, we're not talking about cemeteries. Because a tomb in Bible times usually was a big cave that had been dug through the limestone into a big hill or into a mountain. And sometimes the caves had doors, sometimes they did not. And once you went inside that cave, they would carve out of the cave walls niches.

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• Little places to lay a body. And there could be 30 or 100 bodies in that cave. Each one lying in a place. So here is this maniac of Gadara, who is living in this tomb now. If you were a rich man like Joseph of Arimathea, you could have your own individual sepulcher. But the common people who could not afford a personal private sepulcher would just lay in these tombs, in these little niches in the caves. I would challenge you when you get home, go on the internet and type in, give me pictures of tombs during Bible times. And you'll see numerous pictures of how you simply go into those tombs. Now, the maniac was living inside these tombs. If he ate, he ate inside of the tomb. If he slept, he slept inside of the tomb.

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• He was surrounded by death. This is what I mean when I said he lived a life of death. In fact, he would be dead to his own life. He would be dead to his own family. He'd be dead to his own community because no one could help him. No one could tame him. So the picture that is being presented to us is that this maniac lived among the dead. Listen, there are people that are preoccupied with death.

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• There's a man in Fitzgerald who dresses totally in black. And when you see his car, he's got a big old human skull on the dashboard. He lives with death. Now, we normally think of anyone who is totally preoccupied with death and would dress and live like that as someone who's crazy, insane, or an absolute lunatic. But what the picture's given us here is simply this. It is a picture of natural man. It's a picture of an unsaved man without Jesus Christ. Do you understand that all unsaved men and women live in death, they live with death, and among the dead, they think that they have life, but they are dead.

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• Let me show you. Look in your Bibles if you would hold Mark 5 but look in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 2. Look in Ephesians chapter 2. Galatians, Ephesians chapter 2. Begin reading there if you would please with verse 1. Watch it. Ephesians 2 and verse 1. "And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Now watch. We were dead. Every man by nature is a dead man.

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• But that does not mean that we were physically incapacitated. He said, "Wherein 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, among whom also we all had our conversation, our conduct, in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others." So he is saying that although we were dead in trespasses and sins, yet we were alive to the flesh, we were alive to wickedness, we were alive to sin, and yet we were dead to life. So like the maniac of Gadara, we live in, with, and among the dead, because the works of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the lust of the heart, and the pride of life, all of these work death. They may promise pleasure, they may promise life, but they are death.

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• Now, twice in the book of Proverbs, we're given this truth. The first time is Proverbs 14 and verse 12, where the Bible says, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." The second time it is given is Proverbs 16 in verse 25. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

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• So, God is telling us that there are people who are alive physically, but they are dead spiritually. They are dead to Him. They're dead to real, genuine life.

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• Now, the Bible in 1 Timothy 5, in verse 6, talks about an immoral woman, and God says, this woman who lives for pleasure, here's the quote, "is dead while she liveth." Is dead while she liveth. And moreover, you remember what our Lord said, I hope, in Proverbs chapter 8, verses 35 through 36. He said, "For whosoever findeth me findeth life, and obtaineth favor of the Lord." That's true. Whoever finds Jesus Christ finds life and obtains favor of the Lord. But verse 36 says this, "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul."

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• "All they that hate me love death." So here's a maniac. Here's a demon possessed man who loved death. Everything about him was dead. Here's the second thing. He not only lived the life of death, he also lived the life of darkness. If you go back to verse 2 again, look at it. Mark chapter 5 and verse 2. Look what he says. "And when he was come out of the ship immediately there met him a man out of the tombs." And then verse 3, "who had his dwelling among the tombs." So the maniac's life was not only filled with death, it was also filled with darkness.

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• There's not much light that you can get inside a tomb. About the only light that could come in would be the entrance or the doorway if there was a door there. What little light could penetrate the entrance would be all he had. The rest of it would be in darkness. You know, most of us have seen dark nights. We've seen nights when the moon just was not bright at all. And it was totally dark outside. But you know, that is really not darkness.

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• It is, but it isn't. Years ago, Alice and I were in Utah with some of our grandkids, and we went to visit Timpanogos National Cave. You had to walk a mile curving up that mountain to get to the cave. It was a very interesting walk. They even had little chairs where you could sit and rest on the way up. And when you went in the cave, you had to have a guide. And we went through this cave.

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• Let me tell you, if you're claustrophobic, there were passageways that you had to squeeze through. And we got back into this huge cavern and everything was well lit. And then the guide said you must stand absolutely still. Hold hands. Do not move. Because I'm going to turn out the lights. How far back were we? A good quarter, a half a mile back in there. And when that guy turned out the lights, you're talking about not being able to see your hand before your face. You could see nothing. Zilch. It was totally, absolutely, completely dark. Black. Here's an interesting thing. The darkness.

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• Was in that which the maniac lived. Let's go in our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4. I want you to see this. Ephesians chapter 4. Let's begin reading there with verse 17. Look at what God says. We're talking about darkness. Here's a picture of unsaved men. They not only live in death, they live in darkness. The Bible says in verse 17, Paul is writing these Ephesian Christians.

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• "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that you henceforth walk not as other Gentiles or the unsaved walk in the vanity of their mind, that is in the uselessness and the fruitlessness of their mind. It's totally vain. Watch, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over into lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness."

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• You want to know why ungodly people are so ungodly and so wicked and so wrong? Because they live in darkness. They have no idea who God is. They have no idea of Biblical principles. They have no idea of that which is right and holy. No. Maniacs love darkness. They love death. Without Jesus Christ, all is darkness. You remember in John chapter 3, our Lord said this, "And this is their condemnation, listen, that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Neither cometh they into the light, lest their deeds be reproved. But he that doeth right cometh unto the light, that his deeds may be made manifest." What did he say? Men love darkness rather than light. And that is why Jude speaks of this in the judgment of the ungodly.

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• He said in verse 13 that they were raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, listen, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. The blackness of darkness. If you think it was dark in Timpanogos National Cave, you have not seen the darkness that God can create. They will wander in the blackness of darkness forever. Our Lord has delivered us from the kingdom of darkness. He that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is not in the dark, but in the light. The Bible tells you in the book of Colossians chapter one in verse 13, "Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." Wow. He's delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, then in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 5, the Word of God says "you are all the children of light and the children of the day."

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• We are not of the night nor darkness. Maniacs love death and they love darkness because their deeds are evil and they're wicked. So not only did he live in death and darkness, here's the third thing. He lived in defilement. If you look back at Mark 5, two and three again, think about this. He was not only coming out of the tombs, his dwelling was among the tombs. Think about this fact that he was constantly defiled by the dead. He was living with putrefying bodies, deadly gases, maggots, bugs, rotting flesh, and any and everything that attends death. There were people put in those tombs that were in different stages of deterioration. He was defiled.

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• Our Lord said it like this in Matthew 23 and verse 27. He said, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are likened to whited sepulchres, that is, beautiful white tombs on the outside or graven stones on the outside, but," he says, "which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness." Think about your life. Do you realize the opposite of a defiled life is a pure life? Those of us who are in the light are to live a pure life. Those who are living among the dead in darkness, they live a defiled life. Ever stop to think about 1 Timothy chapter 1 in verse 10? In 1 Timothy 1 and verse 10, the Apostle Paul is talking about the law of God and the proper use of that law, and he says this, that the law was made for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other

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• thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. Note, he said, "for them that defile themselves." There is a defilement. You cannot sin and not be defiled. And Jude 1 in verse 8, he said, "Likewise, also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion and speak evil of dignities." No, they defile the flesh. So here's this maniac. He lived with death, he lived with darkness, he lived with defilement.

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• He was basically an unclean person all the way around. Here's the fourth thing. He lived a life of delusion. Look, if you would please, at verse 5. Mark 5, verse 5. You're talking about delusion? "And always, night and day, he was in the mountains and in the tombs crying and cutting himself with stones."

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• Now, the word crying does not necessarily mean to shed tears. It means screaming. He was a banshee. He was hollering. He was screaming. We were laughing about this little incident this week. Because one of the men saw a panther on our property. Very quickly, he just ran across the road. And it brought back a memory I hadn't thought of in years. When I was 12 years old, my bedroom was closest to the branch, about 100 yards or so away.

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• Of course, it was summertime. Keep the windows open. And I woke up at midnight with a woman screaming. For help, not saying help, but just a woman screaming. So I jumped up, put on my blue jeans, barefooted, no shirt, grabbed my single shot 22 rifle and was heading out the door. And my dad stopped me, said, "Boy, where are you going?" I said, "Daddy, there's a woman down there screaming, she's in trouble, I'm going to help her." He said, "Son, that's not a woman. That's a panther."

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• "And if you go down there, you're not coming back. That's all there is to it." And he was right, it was a panther, but it sounds just like a woman screaming. So here's this maniac just screaming, and he's not only screaming, he's cutting himself with stones. Why in the world is he out in the middle of the night screaming and cutting himself with stones? Because he's delusional. He doesn't understand reality. What was he thinking? Did he think by cutting himself, hurting himself, that he was hurting the demons? Did he think somehow that cutting himself, he would get relief?

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• I've read of people who purposely and premeditatedly hurt themselves. They cut themselves oftentimes with knives. They're delusional. People who mutilate their bodies who hurt themselves and harm their bodies are delusional. We see the same practice today among the transgenders. I don't know if you heard. Mark Robinson, who is a black man and Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina. He was speaking in the church and here's what he said.

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• I'm going to quote him. Listen, he said, and I watched him and you can watch him on the Internet, say it. He said, and I'm quoting, "Ain't but two genders, male and female, two. There are two genders, male and female." And of course, he got a standing ovation. Now, listen carefully. He said, "I don't care how much you cut yourself up, drug yourself up, and dress yourself up, you're still either one of the two things. You're either a man or a woman. You might be a cut up, dressed up, drugged up, ugly man or woman, but you're still a man or woman, and I don't care who doesn't like it." Isn't that true? Do you realize this man has been attacked on every hand just because he said something that was biblical and true? I told Alice this morning, I just I did not listen to all of it.

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• But I listened for a few minutes. Australia now has a law that if you say that a man cannot breastfeed a baby, it's against the law. You know, you're talking about delusion. When you begin to think and you try to say that a man can become a woman or a woman become a man, you are indeed delusional. I don't care who you are. I don't care what kind of degrees you have. Moreover, you're flying in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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• Because he said in Matthew 19 in verse 4, "And he answered them and said, Have you never read that he which made them in the beginning made them male and female?" And that's it. It's kind of like one sentence that I read said God only created two genders, the Democrats created the rest. And that's about the truth. But there are only two genders, male and female. Anyone that thinks self-mutilation is healthy, aesthetic, desirable, is delusional.

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• Think about the monks who oftentimes would beat themselves and cut themselves to drive sin out of their bodies. They thought their body was sinful in and of itself. When sin was in their mind, it was in their heart. And yet they would mutilate themselves and cut themselves, thinking they're going to be more spiritual. That's a delusion. I saw a picture of one man. You know how these earlobes, now they're making big holes in them? I saw one man who had such holes in his earlobes for earrings.

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• He was wearing beer cans. He had a beer can stuck in each side of his earlobe. That's delusion, folks. That is not only delusion, that is stupidity. And you look at these people who've got tattoos all over their head, all over their face, some of their eyeballs, their tongues. That's pure delusion. And here's this man living in death, living in darkness, living in defilement, living in delusion.

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• I want to tell you something. With the political situation the way it is today, with the social situation the way it is today, with the economic situation the way it is today, with the religious situation the way it is today, I can assure you shortly, pretty soon, there's going to be a separation of the chaff from the wheat. We're going to find out who's real and who's not real. We're going to find out who is a true believer and who's not a true believer. There will be a culling, I can assure you. And if you're delusional and think that somehow you're going to live and prosper without the Lord Jesus Christ, you are insane. You're a lunatic.

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• Here's the next thing, number five, he lived a life of defeat. Look in your Bibles to verse four, Mark five and verse four. He lived a life of defeat, the Bible says, "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." He could not help himself, and neither could others help him.

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• He evidently had what you and I would call supernatural strength. I mean, most men cannot break a chain. Most men cannot break ropes that bind them, and yet this man could burst the bonds. He could break the chains. He was exceedingly strong, but he could not help himself. Isn't that amazing? With all the strength, he could not help himself. Do you understand that self-reformation is useless?

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• Look in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 11. Look at what our Lord says. Luke 11, beginning there with verse 24. Luke 11, verse 24. Look at this. Luke 11, verse 24. Our Lord says, "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, that is, the man has self-reformed. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places seeking rest, and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out."

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• "And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first." So here's the man that reforms himself. Well, I used to be a drunkard, but I don't drink anymore. I did this and I did that. And guess what?

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• He's not filled with pride. He's not filled with arrogance. Used to be a drunkard. But he reformed himself. And now he is a proud, haughty, arrogant individual, and he is worse off now than when he was before. Let me tell you something, folks. Satan cannot cast out Satan. He will not cast out himself. Will not and cannot cast out flesh. Man is totally depraved, which means man is totally helpless. Man is totally depraved, which means he has inability. He has no ability in and of himself. He cannot help himself. If you look back in your Bibles to Mark chapter 5, when our Lord asked this man in verse 9 what his name was, look at it. Mark 5 in verse 9, "And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are many." Now, wait a minute. My name is Legion. A Roman legion had 6,826 men in it. So evidently there was around 6,000 demons in this man.

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• My name is Legion. No wonder he couldn't help himself. No wonder he had such strength to destroy. No wonder he wanted to live in death. No wonder he wanted to live in darkness. No wonder he wanted to live in defilement. No wonder he wanted to live in defeat. And he could not help himself because he was bound with the Legion of Unclean Spirits. Wow. What is the only answer? What is the help?

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• For a maniac, how can a maniac like this ever, ever be tamed? And the answer is, listen carefully. He lived a life of deliverance. After he met the Lord Jesus Christ, look at it. In Mark 5 verse 6, "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?"

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• "Thou Son of the Most High God, I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not." Now, I'm going to point some things out just momentarily, but I want you to understand this, that Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone is the Deliverer. He has already defeated Satan and his host. He is the sovereign, and he commands with absolute authority, and no one may resist him when he commands. That is why when this man saw Jesus Christ, he ran and worshipped him and cried with a loud voice, "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."

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• Do you realize what is happening here? Satan is compelled to acknowledge the sovereignty, supremacy, and the absolute authority of Jesus Christ. The demonic, the maniac, ran straight to Jesus Christ and worshiped him. I love, I love the reality of this situation. I want you to look at the word worship. We've gone over this before. But Satan is here compelled to worship Jesus Christ. The Greek word for worship is the word proskuneo. It's one of the main words used in the Bible for worship.

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• Pros is a preposition which means to or toward. Kuneo is the verb, kuon is the noun, and kuon means dog. Kuneo means to act like a dog, it means to kiss the hand, it means to lick the hand. Satan and his host were forced to run to Jesus Christ and kneel and acknowledge him as the absolute sovereign and superior and lick his hand like a dog. Wow. It's Jesus Christ alone who can deliver the maniac, those who are darkened, those who are defiled, those who are delusional, those who are defeated. It's only Jesus Christ who can tame the untameable. It's only Jesus Christ who can tame a maniac. That is for sure. Now, look at it.

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• The Bible said in verse six, "But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him." Oh, yes. He ran to him, and then in verse 7, he cried, "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." Do you understand something? They, Satan and his minions, know their end. They have no relationship with Jesus Christ in the sense of the word.

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• He is not their Savior. He did not provide salvation for any of the fallen angels, not one. But the relation he has to them, he is their judge and he is their executioner, and that is why he came and said, "Torment me not." Other times in Scripture, they would ask, "Art thou come hither to torment us before the time?" They know they're going to be tormented. They know they're going to be judged. But here he is forced to come and acknowledge this.

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• You'll find that in Matthew 8 in verse 29. Let me just go ahead and read it, where he says, "And 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?" They know their end. I want to point something out. Salvation is far more than an intellectual knowledge. Skip down if you would please to verse 15 of Mark chapter 5. Watch this carefully. "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." Wow. Do you understand that when a man is right with God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, his illusions are ended, his nakedness is covered, and he learns to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and in his right mind. By the way, the phrase right mind is translated from one Greek word, and it means to be of a sound mind. It means one who is able to exercise self-control.

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• And one who is able to curb one's passions. I like this thought. He said he was in his right mind. Do you realize the only ones who are saved by Jesus Christ are in their right minds? That's true. Because all the other minds are darkened. And they're alienated from God through the ignorance that is in them. Now, once you have your right mind, I want to show you what happens. Look in verse 18.

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• "And when he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but said unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath compassion on thee. And he departed, and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel." Anyone in their right mind will only find themselves sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they'll want to be with Him. And they will be willing to tell others what great things that he has done for them. I want to tell you something. I have a great fear and a great concern for professing Christians who never want to read their Bible, who never want to study, who never want to pray unless they're in trouble, who never want to hear the word of God preached and taught. I'm just saying.

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• When this man was delivered, he not only was sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed and in his right mind, he wanted to be with him and he was willing to serve him. Only Jesus Christ can tame the maniacs.

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• Now let me make a couple of applications. I want you to listen. The first one is this. Like the maniac of Gadara, if we wish to be delivered, we must see Jesus. What did the Bible say? The Bible said, "But when he saw him afar off, he ran to him." The truth of the matter, everyone is really going to see Jesus Christ. We'll either see him in salvation or condemnation, but we're going to see him.

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• Because he's King of kings, Lord of lords, God of gods, and he is the judge of all. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 2 in verse 9, "But we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man." In other words, to see Jesus Christ does not mean to see him physically. It means to see him by faith, to see his work, to see his person, to see what he's accomplished, to see his so great salvation. When Jesus Christ was asked by His enemies in Mark 14 and verse 62, whether or not He was the Son of God, here's what He said. "And Jesus said, I am. And you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power coming in clouds of glory." You want to know whether or not I'm the Son of God? I am. And you're going to see me. You'll see me coming on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of glory.

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• What does that mean? It means they're going to see him in judgment. Listen, if you would, to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 7 through 10. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 7 through 10. "And you are troubled. Rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired by all them that believe."

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• "Because our testimony among you was believed in that day." So he's going to come back, and everybody's going to see him. Either in salvation or condemnation, but all are going to see him. It would be wise to seek to see him in salvation. Do not content yourself. Here's the second one. Do not content yourself with an intellectual knowledge. No matter how smart you are. No matter how intellectual, how brave you are, no matter how much you think that you know the Bible.

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• Unless you have been delivered from sin and trusted savingly in Jesus Christ, you are not saved.

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• Now it is true that we are sinners. It's true that we are not perfect, but thank God we are not what we used to be. And we want to be holy and we want to be godly. We are different. And it's the grace of God that has made us different. In fact, that is the question that was asked in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verse 7. "For who maketh thee to differ one from another?"

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• "And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? If thou didst receive it, why dost thou boast as thou had not received it?" Who maketh thee to differ? I got news for you. If you are a child of God, you are different. And the world may count you as strange. You're not strange. You're just different. Because you've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. One thing you've got to remember. The demons also believe and tremble. James 2 verse 19. What does James write? "Thou believest in one God? Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble." They only believe. They know. But they're not saved. So many people profess to know God. But they never tremble at His holiness. They never tremble at His justice. They never tremble at His mercy and His grace.

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• Unhappily, a lot of professing Christians are not as good as the devil. Because at least he believes and trembles. An intellectual knowledge will not save us. It has to be a real, genuine salvation. Trusting only in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the center of all things. He is the only one who can tame a maniac. He's the only one that can get us out of death and darkness and defilement and deceit and delusion and give us real, genuine life. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee. We thank you, Father, that you are able to tame the untameable. You are able, Lord, to bring sinners to thyself in repentance and faith. You're able to save from the uttermost. You're able to save, as one said, from the guttermost to the uttermost. Thank you, Father, for your so great salvation. And Lord, the demoniacs of our time, the maniacs and the lunatics of our time, need thee, and need to see thee, as thou art God incarnate, salvation alone.

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• And we pray for your mercy and grace in their lives. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T14:01:35Z