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TEXT: Mark 5:1-20
SUBJECT: Can Christ change your life?
It needs to be changed, doesn't it? You have bad habits: a short temper; a sassy mouth; a sexual lust; a love of money; maybe you just shoot off your mouth too much. Whatever the habit is, though, it is bad, and mighty hard to break!
Or, on the opposite side, maybe you lack something crucial to your growth in grace: your Bible-reading is inconsistent; your prayer-life is up and down; you don't go to church as often as you should. You have tried to discipline yourself--and do well for a day or two--but then, it's "back to the same old thing".
These things hurt you and dishonor God. But try as you may, you are helpless under their power. Hence the question becomes more than hypothetical: Can Christ change your life?
The example before us would--I think--offer hope. For here was a man at least as bad off as you are--and probably worse. Yet Christ did change his life...and so may change yours, too.
We don't know the man's name, age, or family status. But we do know this: he was a vile sinner. For it seems that devils only possessed those people who gave themselves over to gross sin. Yet he was occupied by a legion. Hence, he must have been a very bad man.
His bad character was inexcusable, for he was obviously a Jew, and thus exposed to the Law of God and the way of salvation. Yet, at some point in his life, he quit the Lord and surrendered to some monstrous sin. Maybe, he turned to the bottle; maybe he gave himself over to sodomy; maybe he bowed before idols; who knows? maybe he got involved with the occult. But whatever he did, it must have been chronic and repulsive.
But he was more than a sinner, or even "the chief of sinners". He was possessed, under the direct control of evil spirits. How wretched he must have been! King Saul was nearly driven mad by the harassment of even one! How much worse-off was this poor man who was occupied by a legion of them! To give you an idea of how many this is, note: a Roman legion consisted of 6,000 troops. And so the demoniac was occupied by an army of fallen angels.
And they did their level best to make his life miserable.
1. They stripped him of all modesty, leaving him to roam about naked.
2.They produced in him a ghoulish affection for dead, decaying human flesh. Thus, he made his home among the tombs.
3.They gave him a uncontrollable spirit. Chains could not hold him; no one could tame him.
4.They worked within him a restlessness that no one can fully appreciate: "always, night and day, he was...crying out". He may have lived without sleep.
5.They gave him a despair that courted suicide. For what was he doing, "cutting himself with stones" but trying to end his unhappy existence?
And so this man was at least as bad-off as you are. And nothing could change his life. Not outward restraints; chains and shackles were like threads to him. Not concerned friends; some had tried to tame him, but without success. Not he himself. For he was under the control of malignant spirits. And surely, not the devils, for his misery was the very source of their pleasure.
His case seems hopeless...till he meets Jesus. And then, "old things pass away, and all things become new".
The devils drive the man to Christ with a hellish fury. "What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?" he rages. Have you come--he wonders--to add to my "torment"?
The Lord rebukes the legion, sends them into a herd of swine, who immediately rush down into the sea and drown themselves, preferring death to demon possession.
And suddenly the man--the man who had given himself over to sin--who had long suffered diabolical oppression--"is sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind".
He soon shows his right-mindedness by longing to remain with the Savior--and that refused--"Blazing it abroad, what great things the Lord had done for him".
Christ, therefore, changed his life. But, the question lingers...Can Christ change your life? To answer this question, I pose three more:
1.Are your internal oppositions to Christ greater than his? I know what you suffer, "the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life". And these temptations are strong, nearly invincible...but not quite. But in the life of the Gadarene, they were changed. Thus, the things in you that war against Christ are not greater than those in him.
2.Is Christ now weaker than He was then? No. Just the opposite, much stronger. Then, he marched to a cross; now He sits on a throne. Then, He was dependent on angels and even men; now He is their object of worship; then He grew tired and weak; but now "He that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep". No, Christ is not weaker now, than he was then.
3.Is Christ now less compassionate than He was then? Let the author of Hebrews answer that for you: "We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses". He is "touched with the feeling of our infirmities". Thus, Jesus is no less compassionate today than he was that day on the banks of Galilee.
Let's put the three questions together and draw a conclusion. If your problems are no greater than the demoniac's; and if Christ is more powerful and equally compassionate today; then it follows that He can change your life!
On this point, there can be no doubt among those who believe the Bible. "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" asked Abraham of old. Jesus answered it centuries later, "With God, all things are possible".
He can! No question about that. But will He?
"The LORD will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly".
"You shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all of your heart".
"Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". Oh, the blessedness of that word: ALL! Not "some" who come to Christ will find rest; not "many"; not "most". For these allow for exceptions, and as long as they do, we would be left in murderous doubt. But Christ permits no exceptions. "Taste and see that the LORD is good".
But how does Christ change our lives? By His sovereign grace. But humanly speaking, we can say this much: Christ changes our lives only insofar as we "come" to Him, as the demoniac did.
But you've already "come" to Him--and yet your life is still wretchedly unhappy. What next? Frankly, there is no "next"! There is only one thing: "keep on coming to Him".
1.Come to Him to clear your conscience. A bad conscience is not only the result of sin, but also one of its main causes. But come to Him, loaded down with guilt and find, "the blood of Christ, which was offered through the eternal spirit, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the Living God".
2.Come to Him to confess your sins. He knows about them already. And He is more willing to forgive your sins than you are to even admit them. Come to Him, fessing up to your guilt and you will find Him, "faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness".
3.Come to Him pleading for life-changing grace. Come, and you will find Him "Able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think".
4.And this is the key: When all of these this fails...do it again...and again...and again. For the promises of God are given, not to the one-time asker, or the two-time asker, or the hundred-time asker...but only to those who "keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking".
And so, Christ can change your life. Go to Him, plead with Him, and He will. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not next year. Maybe not even in this life! But change it, He will.
"Wait on the LORD; be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the LORD".
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