The Most Striking Prayer of the Bible - the Request of 3000 Devils to Enter the... — Ian Paisley

Reading the Demoniac’s Deliverance in Mark 5

You will find an authorized version of the Holy Scriptures in front of you in the pew. If you pick it up and turn with me to the second gospel, the gospel of Mark, at the chapter 5, we are going to read some verses in the gospel of Mark, chapter 5.

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

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 said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, Saying, My name is Legion. And he besought him much, that he would not send him away out of the country.

Now there was near unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding, and all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 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. There were about two thousand, and were choked in the sea. 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.

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

And they began to pray to him to depart out of their coasts. And when he was come into 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 had 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. Ending our reading at verse twenty, and God will stamp his holy word with the seal of divine blessing and help.

The Bible as the Finished and Unsearchable Word of God

Amen and Amen. The Bible is the most amazing of books. Every verse in it needs to be carefully parsed. Every word of every sentence should be carefully noted. Every letter of every word demands the closest possible scrutiny.

Slipshod reading of the Bible is an insult to the offer of Holy Scripture, God the Holy Spirit. And the condemnation that the Bible speaks of will be unstoppable punishment for those that do not give careful care to what the Bible states and its infallible message.

The humble and teachable reader of God's holy word will be amazed at the unending vista the heavenly book opens up, both in contemplation and meditation. It is the finished word, the completed word of the Most High God.

But it is his unfinished word as far as our studies are concerned. Because we can never perfect our own understanding of this book of God. Its ways, after all our studying, are past finding out and finishing.

Biblical Prayers and the Footsteps of God Incarnate

Now the Bible contains many prayers. Prayers of children. Prayers of adults. Prayers of men. Prayers of women. Prayers of angels. And prayers of devils. Every historic recording of these prayer requests have a truth to teach and a precept to reveal.

They deserve our individual undivided attention. The Gospels of the New Testament are the entrance to the whole of the New Testament sanctuary. And they are inexhaustible. We need to approach them reverently.

Because the footmarks there are the footmarks of God incarnate in the flesh. Our Lord Jesus Christ. And if we are going to receive the benefit of his coming and his atonement, his resurrection, his intercession and his coming again, we need with calmness of heart and reverence of mind walk the way marked by the footsteps of the Son of God.

Think of it in the Gospel of Matthew with just twenty chapters. With the Gospel of Mark with sixteen chapters. With the Gospel of Luke with its twenty-four chapters. And the Gospel of John with its twenty-one chapters.

Eighty-nine short chapters in all. We have the biography of God incarnate in the flesh. The founder and foundation of the only true religion in this world and forever. Who could have conceived that in such a short space of writing, all we need to know about the Son of God's incarnate life on earth should be so briefly set forth.

A little child can read it and understand it. But those who claim great wisdom don't seem to understand the simplicity of what is set forth. As we read the Scriptures, we are amazed and we have a reverent amazement of the wonders of the book of God.

The founders of other world religions don't work like that. Their textbooks are profuse. Their rituals are profuse. And some of their writings are beyond reading. But this is not so of the Christian religion.

The prayers of Scripture are simply amazing. They show up the emptiness of the prayers of false religion. And they blaze a trail for true intercession and communion with God. They open the avenue to God's everlasting throne where no supplicant is ever thrust away.

Distinguishing the Gadarene Accounts in the Gospels

The recording of this great event that I have just read to you tonight is a recording that deserves careful consideration. In Mark's Gospel chapter 5 from verse 1 to the verse 20, we have the recording of this remarkable event.

The casting out of the devils from the body of the man in the tomb. In the 8th chapter of Luke's Gospel, the writer of the 3rd Gospel records the same event. But in the 8th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, verses 28 to 34, there is a similar record of a similar miracle.

But it is not the same miracle as is recorded in the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Mark. It is quite easy to know that because if you read it carefully, you will find that one of these miracles were in a place called Gadara.

But the other miracle that is recorded was in the Gergesen country, a different country, albeit one part of the Holy Land. God does not ask for any name of the two in the tomb experience that is recorded in Matthew's Gospel.

He does not ask them to join in witnessing to the fact of their deliverance. It is a different incident altogether. We read this scripture so quickly, we come to our decisions about this scripture so quickly, that often time we confuse ourselves by not considering carefully the exact statements of the Word of God.

I want to come tonight to consider with you what is said in Luke's Gospel and what is said in the Gospel according to Mark. If you open your Bible in Luke's Gospel, you will find that in that Gospel of Mark, we have some very interesting things said.

Five Prayers in the Account of the Demoniac

And you will discover five striking prayers that were offered in the narrative in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5, which we read together. You have, first of all, the striking prayer of the man that was possessed by the devil.

And then you have, secondly, the prayer to Christ of the evil spirits who possessed that man. Then you have the prayer to Christ of the people of the country after Christ had done this great miracle. And then last of all, you have the prayer of the man who was delivered when he prayed to Christ that he might be with him and he might stay and witness his ministry.

These are all striking prayers. The first one is a miracle because this man who ran to Christ when he saw Christ afar off should have been running away from Christ. But the strange thing is he ran to Jesus.

He covered a vast distance. And yet when he arrived in the presence of Christ, he prayed for Christ to go away and leave him alone. What a contradiction. But of course, we have the fact of the intervention of God in this man's life.

He was not a man that was seen to run to what was good and right and lawful and pure and clean. He rather ran to uncleanness and madness and wickedness and tumult and riot. But now he runs to Christ from a great distance away.

Secondly, he worships Christ. That, of course, is a miracle. This man, as the scriptures record, was possessed by a legion of devils. The legion was the number that was used in the army of Caesar. And every army of Caesar had so many legions.

And the legion was numbered at 3 ,000. So there were 3 ,000 devils tormenting this man. This man had an experience that very few ever had because of the multitude of the devil's intent to destroy his soul and damn him forever in the darkness of total punishment out of the eyes of God and out of the eyes of men in the darkness of hell forevermore.

Here is a man untimable, uncleaned, unclothable, and unstoppable. And yet he runs to worship Jesus. Here we have the triumph of the power of the blessed Son of God. But as he comes and as he worships, he cries out, Do not torment me.

Jesus does not come to torment sinners. Christ comes to save sinners, to transform sinners, to lift them from the shackles of the darkness of their sin and sinning and give them the sweet peace and pardon and liberty of the gospel.

But here is a man and he's crying that Christ should leave him. This was a prayer that Christ did not. The second striking prayer was the prayer to Christ of the evil spirits. And this is worthy of careful study.

The Demons’ Request and the Bottomless Pit

These evil spirits knew they were going to be cast out. And they cried to God that they would not be put out into the country. And if you look at the other reference I have given you in the gospel of Luke, out into the deep.

What was the deep? The word used in the Greek text for the deep is translated in other places in the New Testament. It actually occurs nine times in the Greek text. And it means the deep, bottomless pit.

What was that? That was the pit that is mentioned over in the last book of the Bible, the book of the Revelation. And in Revelation chapter 20 we read about that pit. I saw an angel come down from heaven, Revelation 20 and verse 1, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him in the prison house of Satan. And these devils prayed that they would not be put by Christ into the prison house of Satan.

Of course, the swine had no right legally under the rabbinical law to be there and be fed in order to be food. Because the swine was unclean to the Jewish people in the law of Moses. So there was a violation already of God's law here.

We notice that Christ gave them leave. And those three thousand demons, devils, left the man and went into the bellies of the swine. And the swine ran down that steep place there. I stood there when I visited Palestine and below hundreds of feet down is the waves of the Galilee Lake.

So we see that the second prayer which Christ accepted from the demons brought them to destruction. For they not only perished in the waves, but they went on to that deep pit which they wanted to escape from.

The Country’s Rejection of Christ

If you look at verses 14 to 17, you have the prayer, the striking prayer of the people of the country. They came, they saw that their business, their illegal business was finished. They saw that Christ had destroyed what they should never have been engaged in legally.

And so they decided they would ask Christ to leave. Here was Christ who had accomplished a tremendous miracle. Had shown the power of His word to cast out some three thousand devils possessing this poor man.

And yet, these people wanted rid of Christ. How dark and sad is the darkness that the devil brings forth in the heart of men and women against Christ and His. Look at this man and what do we read about him?

When they came, they saw Him. And what does it say about Him in verse 15? He was clothed, He was in His right mind, and they were afraid. And the other reference says He was found sitting at the seat of Jesus.

A great miracle had taken place. But they did not like this miracle. And so they would not consent that Christ should continue His ministry of emancipation among similar people like this poor man. If you examine the scriptures, you will find that this man had six characteristics.

Deadness, uncleanness, lawlessness, nakedness, restlessness, and madness. Those are the characteristics of this man. Deadness. Of course, sin is a deadening thing. The soul that sinneth, it shall die, and die it will, and die it must.

Sin’s Six Effects and Christ’s Deliverance

There is no life where sin rules. Deadness. Uncleanness. In fact, the first thing that is said about this man, he had an unclean spirit. There is nothing clean about anti-Christianity and those who reject the Son of God.

Rejection of the Son of God is departure from Christ who can make clean. And when Christ departs, there is no hope of cleansing. For He is the only person that can cleanse the soul from its sin. Lawlessness.

They could not tie this man down. They tried to imprison him with a rope from the jail. They tried to put the handcuffs on him. And he pulled so hard that he broke the irons. He was lawless. Sin is lawlessness.

It is rebellion against the law of God. And he was naked. He had no cover. He stood exposed in his filth to the madness that ruled and reigned in his heart. And he was restless. There is no rest except in Jesus Christ for the human soul.

You can try the broken cisterns of the world. You can try all the niceties of the world's temptations and sports. Try them all. There will be restlessness because there is no rest but in God. And if we have not the rest of Christ, then we will be tormented with an awakened conscience in time, in death, and in eternity, and in hell forever.

There is a day when your conscience will awaken. There is a day when all the past will be resurrected. There is a day coming when every sin that you have ever committed will point its finger at you and say you are guilty.

How sad the soul when the conscience awakes and there is no hope for it. For the tide has gone out. The time has run out. And there is nothing but judgment ahead. After this, the judgment. And then madness.

This poor mad man. But Christ came. And he was changed. He was clothed. He was in his right mind. He was at the feet of Jesus. And he said, Lord, I have a prayer to make. Please let me stay with you. Please let me see you doing these miracles.

I will be a follower every day. I don't want to leave you. But the Lord said to him, no. You have a job to be, to do. How be it Jesus suffered him not but said unto him, go home. The Lord believes in the authority of the home.

And believes that Christianity should be practiced in the home. Go home and tell your friends. Let them know what has happened to you. They had the tears. They had the anguish. They had the bitterness.

You were possessed of devils and left them to live in the tombs. And be a mad man. But now you are cured. You are in your right mind. Go home and show yourself. And tell them how great things the Lord has done for you.

And have had compassion on thee. And he departed. And began to publish how great things the Lord had done for him. And the whole neighborhood marveled that the man possessed with three thousand devils was now a new man.

The New Birth and Salvation by Faith in Christ

All things had passed away. And behold all things had become new. It was Christ that did the miracle. It was Christ that saved his soul. It was Christ that gave him freedom. It was Christ that gave him peace and life everlasting.

And among the glorified spirits in the heaven of heaven there is a bright glowing spirit. The spirit of this man delivered from the wrath of God and the filth of the demons. And made a new creature in Christ.

No wonder Christ said to the most religious man in the city of Jerusalem, Nicodemus. He said, Nicodemus ye must be born again. Whether you are irreligious or religious. Whether you are an agnostic, an infidel or profess some sort of faith in some sort of religion.

It matters not. You need to have a new birth. You need to be born again. Marvel not the Lord said, that I say unto you, ye must be born again. The church will not take you to heaven. The sacraments of the church will not take you to heaven.

The profession of religious belief will not take you to heaven. Only Christ can save you. And I would press upon you tonight the necessity of coming to Christ. Confessing your sins and seeking Christ for pardon and peace everlasting.

Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be. And all you have to do is call upon him. And he will save you. Hallelujah. He will save you now. Let us bow our heads in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank thee for thy solemn word.

And for the truthfulness of the sacred page we give thee thanks. Let us know our hearts. Man looks in the outward appearance. Thy does look in the heart. May no man or woman leave this meeting until they are born again.

And are sure that they are saved by simple faith in the blessed Son of God. Write thy word in every heart. For Jesus Christ's great name's sake. And everybody say, Amen.