Matthew tells us there were two of these men, but apparently only one was the center of the Lord’s attention. Who exactly were these people that the Lord visited that day? What sort of people were they, besides the fact that they were being victimized by Satan? Mark shows us that “Gergesa” had another name – “Gadara.” People much smarter than I argue about the nationality of these “Gadarenes” or “Gergasenes.” In Joshua 3:10, Israel’s commander encouraged his people saying, “Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the GIRGASHITES, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.” It is believed by many experts that these people had descended from some of the original Canaanites. But others say that they were corrupted Israelites, who were living like the heathen. And it wasn’t simply that they were raising detested hogs. They were worshiping different gods in different ways. Perhaps they had invited their demon-possession by dabbling in the occult. Probably, the Lord’s disciples had serious concerns about their visit to the dark side.
This morning I’d like us to think about some of the lessons that this scripture teaches. These aren’t lessons about the ancient past – they are lessons about today. They aren’t lessons about another people, but about the same kind of people that we are. I’d like you to notice the nature of MAN, the nature of SIN, and the nature of SALVATION.
Let’s begin with the NATURE OF SIN as illustrated by this demon-possessed man.
In today’s world most people would call him “insane” or some sort of “madman” because of his behavior. He was never hospitalized or diagnosed with any form of clinical insanity. And the Bible doesn’t call him “insane,” nor does it call him a “madman.” But based upon his behavior there is reason to give him that description. Running around naked and cutting himself apart with stones are not the actions of a sane man. It is easy for us to see that his so-called “insanity” was actually a spiritual problem – not a mental one. When the Lord Jesus dealt with his possession and possibly his heart, then his behavior changed. You might say that his madness disappeared when he was blessed with the grace of the Lord. But clearly the man behaved like the insane, because he was a sinner who was demon possessed.
I intend to come back to the demonic side of this question this evening, but I must touch on it a bit right now. It is not the preacher’s imagination which calls the effect of sin – “madness.” This is Biblical language with Biblical illustrations. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 9:3 – “Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.” Peter talks about the insanity of Balaam, trying to get his way against the express will of the Lord. And then there was the effect of sin in the heart of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar “was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles’ feathers, and his nails like birds’ claws. And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation:” It could lawfully be said that any kind of sin and rebellion against God is a kind of insanity. “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? Why do the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, Against the LORD, and against his anointed?” The answer is: “Because of the insanity of sin.”
Part of the nature of sin is it’s anti-social character. The man of the text was not fit to live even among the unbelieving Girgathites in the town of Decapolis. It may have been forced, or it may have been deliberately chosen, but he lived among the district’s tombs. Don’t picture a nice cemetery with lots of medium sized memorial stones and crosses. Don’t picture a Louisiana-style, above-ground-cemetery with lots and lots of ornate crypts. This man lived in and among the tombs of that part of the world. They were caves and grottos carved into the sides of one of the cliffs in the area. Some might have been made into adequate dwelling places, but I doubt that this man did that. Matthew tells us that these men were “exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.” This madman didn’t like anyone dropping into his neighborhood at any time of the day or night. He was malevolent, malignant and malicious. And probably, no one could stand to be around him, even if they were allowed to be around him. This is very often the nature of sin, but admittedly, not always.
And this man was also brutally self-abusive. First, he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, live in the comfort of his own home. Was this man married, but had gotten so mean with liquor and drugs that his wife kicked him out? Or was he young and out of control to the point that even his mother couldn’t endure him? Such are some of the effects of sin. So there he was, unable – or unwilling – to go home. And he had forsaken normal clothing, exposing himself to exposure as well as ridicule and shame. Sin is so destructive that it’s victims often get to the point where they can’t see the harm that they are doing to themselves. Alcohol and drugs come quickly to mind, and then there are the sexual sins. It is very, very hard to pity the average AIDS sufferer, or someone with syphilis or gonorrhea. These are very often diseases that people have brought upon themselves through their own sin. But there are so many other things, like husbands who abuse their families or who refuse to be the sustainers of their families. Gluttony, laziness, greed, envy, all produce poisons which harm in so many ways. And with this self-abuse sometimes comes guilt and melancholy – other signs and characteristics of sin. In the Lord’s Millennial Kingdom, when sin is executed and quickly destroyed, there will probably not be a single psychiatrist or psychologist. There will be no need for the drugs like Vallium or Prosac. I’m not convinced that there is much genuine need for them today.
Another result of sin is the fear and dread of righteousness. Why does the average man hate the thought of the house of God? Why does he respond to Christ so strangely? “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God?” Generally speaking, the rat and the cockroach flee when the light is turned on. Today, “the heathen may rage and imagine vain things against the Lord and against His Anointed.” But on the day of judgment, when those wicked men stand before God, they will fear and shake like the true cowards that sinners really are. Real men bow before Christ, in love and humility. Real men repent of their sin and quit their sin. Real men love righteousness and flee iniquity.
Another part of the nature of sin is the sinner’s inability to cure himself. Do you think that this tomb-dweller liked ripping apart his body with dirty, blood-covered stones? After he had driven away his family for the hundredth time with his vile and filthy screaming, did he feel good about himself? He was in a constant emotional and spiritual hang-over, detesting himself as much as anything or anybody else. But there wasn’t a thing that he could do to fix things. He was enslaved by a legion of demons – and by his own personal sin.
Not only was there nothing that he could do to help himself, there was nothing that society could do. The people of Gadara were as helpless to fix this man’s problem as he was. They had tried to “tame” him. They had tried straitjackets, manacles and chains, but he plucked these things away as if they were paper. And if they had possessed the expensive drugs we have today, I guarantee they still couldn’t help. Society has no effective answer to the problems of sin. What if they gave this man an education and some job skills? No improvement. What if they filled his chosen tomb with food and luxuries? Nothing again. What if that had brought their idolatrous priests to counsel with him every other day? Nothing. Nothing that the Gadarenes could do would have helped this man.
There was only one possible solution to this man’s problem, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. There is only one solution to the problem of your sin and mine – Jesus Christ, the Saviour.
And that brings me to my next point: THE NATURE OF SALVATION.
We see that this man was delivered from the demons that plagued him. And we’ve already noted that it was not through anything that he did – or through his neighbors. Even if we didn’t have the evidence of the text, we’d have to conclude that GOD miraculously delivered him. By the way, I don’t have clear proof that the Lord saved his eternal soul. There is some evidence to that fact, but not incontrovertible proof. But for the sake of this illustration let’s make that assumption – Christ saved his soul, giving him eternal life.
Something we need to always remember is that Jesus, despite his human nature, was still the Son of God. Let’s remember, too, that He was constantly lead of the Holy Spirit, so that there was never anything that Christ did which was not deliberate. That evening when the Lord Jesus said to His disciples, “Let us go over unto the other side of the lake,” He not only knew that there was going to be a terrific storm that would fill their boat with water and test the faith of the disciples, but He also knew that he was going to be met by a couple of madmen when they got out of the boat. Beyond that – Christ was making that trip with the specific purpose of delivering this demoniac. Jesus “must needs sail across the lake and meet the demoniac of Gadara.” For something to do this afternoon, you might compare this meeting with Jesus’ meeting of the woman at the well in John 4. They were both enslaved by sin. They were both foreigners and hated by the Jews. They both bowed before the Saviour. They were both delivered. However, the reaction of their neighbors was completely different. Jesus must needs go through Samaria to deal with that woman, and in the same fashion Christ crossed the lake with a purpose of saving this man.
Salvation from sin is by the intervening grace of God. It is never initiated by the sinner, no matter how desperate he might be. This man wasn’t seeking God any more than Saddam Hussein was seeking to meet the 104th Infantry. Christ was seeking him, not vise versa – it is never vise versa. “The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” But “there is none that seeketh after God.”
And I have to reiterate that this man’s salvation and sanity was not a matter of reform. There was a miracle here, both needed and performed. And as I said there wasn’t anything that any of the Gadarenes had done to help him. The demoniac’s salvation was a matter of expulsion rather than repression or reformation. The Lord had to deal with the demons, or there would have been no hope for this guy.
There are all kinds of churches today, giving lectures on a variety of social and personal problems. There will be thousands of “How to feel better” and “How to get better” and “How to be better” sermons preached all over this country today. I won’t tell you that they are a total waste of time, but most of them will be close to a total waste. It’s useless to try to train fish to fly, or to recite poetry or to fight military campaigns. It’s a waste of time to try to teach a dead man to dance or to sing opera. It’s a waste of time to put a band-aid on the gaping wound of a corpse. The man in our text didn’t need a lecture on social skills, he needed a new heart – after an emptied heart. He needed the demons to be driven out and replaced with the Holy Spirit of God. True salvation is the work of God whereby a spirit, dead in sin, is given new life. This man needed to be born again, just as do all the rest of the people of this world who have not yet been born again by the grace of God. “Except a man be born again (regenerated), he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
Something else about salvation is that it is more important than financial profit. There is an awful lot about this scripture which I don’t understand. And this evening I’ll prove it to you. For example – I don’t know for sure why the demons asked permission to enter the pigs. I don’t know why those demons couldn’t have been sent to the bottomless pit right then and there. In Luke 8:31 they pled that Jesus not sent them into the “deep.” The word “deep” there is “abyss” apparently referring to the bottomless pit of the Book of Revelation. And then I don’t understand why the swine threw themselves over the cliff to drown in the sea. Did the pigs have the sense enough to kill themselves, or was this the action of the demons? If it was the demons, then what was the point in entering the swine? I know that some have tried to give their explanations for these things, but they were only guesses. And tonight I will join them in their guesses. But there IS something that I think which is quite clear: Jesus knew what was going on, and ultimately gave His approval. If not a whole lot more, at the very least He gave His approval for the loss of a valuable commodity. And what do you think was the value of 2,000 head and 8,000 feet of swine? If we said $100 a head – that would be $200,000, but that might be only a third of the actual value. I think that it would be safe to say that this was a great deal of money lost to the people of Gadara.
But, the value of this one soul was far greater than a number of pigs tens times as large. Matthew 16:26 – “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” In other places Christ teaches that the value of a soul is far greater than a complete and healthy body. And what would you be willing to spend if you could guarantee the salvation of your son or daughter? Would you sacrifice your second job, your weekly golf game, or your Sunday fishing trips? Would you give up your social activities to show to your child that Jesus is greatest thing on earth? Oh, how I wish that parents could see what their sins of neglect are doing to their children. Every time you miss church, you are telling your son and your neighbor that Christ is not important. Every Sunday School class that you skip, you are telling the world that the Bible really isn’t any more important than the Koran or the Book of Mormon. I know that is hyperbole, but there is a seed of truth in it.
It is the nature of salvation to change the heart of the one whom the Lord saves. After his deliverance, this man apparently longed to become one of Jesus’ closer disciples. He immediately put on some modest apparel. He wanted to remain at the Saviour’s side, to learn more of the doctrines of grace. He wanted to help deliver other possessed souls from the demons within them. This man appears to be a new creature in Christ. We have in him, at the very least, an illustration of salvation from sin. Are these sorts of things to be found in you?
Before I close, we need also to consider the NATURE OF MEN, in general.
The people of Gadara, when they heard from the swine-herders about the loss of their investments … and when they rushed down to the sea-side, witnessing the effect of the miraculous cure, they were filled with anger and terror, and pleaded with Jesus and His disciples to leave. If they only knew the gift of God, and who it was that healed the man, “they wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given them living water.”
Christians today may approve or disapprove of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Let’s say that we will soon be 100% successful in bringing democracy to those countries. Let’s say that we drive out all the demons which possess the neighbors of those countries. I guarantee that such things are not going to make the people of Iraq or Afghanistan receptive to the gospel of Christ. It certainly hasn’t been true in our own country. There is only one thing which can prepare sinner’s hearts for the gospel of God – a miracle of God. Pray for that miracle.
One other lesson from this scripture is that the insane may be closer to the Kingdom of God than the sane. It is more difficult to get the outwardly religious person to see his need for grace than for the down-and-out. And that raises a question about all of us who are here today. We prove ourselves to be among the religious, by our presence here this morning. But we might only be the elder son, while the prodigals are out there living for themselves and for sin. Your presence in the house of God today doesn’t make you a child of God.
You must be born again. Are you clinging to the Saviour this morning for deliverance and salvation? Are you living in repentance, and is your faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ?