Bound With Fetters Part 2 - What Have I To Do With You Jesus, Son of the Most High God?

The demoniac was cut off from society, driven to live among the dead and as such represents the living dead; that is, all men who without Christ are "dead in their trespasses and sins" and cut off from not just society but from the household of God. Before we came to Christ, we ALL were in this state - DEAD, no hope and without mercy. Children of disobedience, who walked according to the lusts of our flesh and mind and by nature were the CHILDREN of WRATH, even as others, the Scripture says.

Ephes. 2:2-3
Wherein in time past ye 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: [3] Among whom also we all had our conversation 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.

Not only was the demoniac in darkness and in death, he was uncontrollable, unrestrained, untamed, wild, mad, violent tempered, and often possessing super-human strength. All human efforts to help or bind him had failed. He could not be helped, nor controlled, nor tamed by the human efforts of those around him and as such represented the uncontrollable evil and depravity of man and the utter hopelessness and helplessness of man to save or deliver himself! It also speaks of the folly of the efforts of humanistic psychology to deliver man as well. Man does not need a sofa or a counselor, he needs an altar and an encounter with the power of God through faith in the Cross of Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost declared through Titus were we sometimes "foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another," - BUT, Praise God, - BUT - THE KINDNESS and LOVE of God our Saviour toward man APPEARED. Jesus Christ can take the most hateful and make that man or woman the most loving! Jesus Christ can take the most foolish and disobedient and make that man or woman the MOST obedient! No dead man can do that! No false prophet can do that! No new age guru dressed in a suit and tie and toting a few words of scripture under his breath can do that! No charlatan and schemer seeking to manipulate men for money can do that. BUT THE LORD JESUS CHRIST CAN DO THAT! Praise God!

Titus 3:3-7
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. [4] But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, [5] Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; [6] Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; [7] That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

On top of everything else, the Bible says the demoniac literally walked "naked," stripped of all decency and all acceptable and righteous behavior. He represents the sinner who stands naked before the eyes of God in his own righteousness and who desperately needs to be clothed with the righteousness of God through Christ's shed Blood and with the garments of the new man. When we come to Christ, we no longer run around naked! We become CLOTHED and in our RIGHT MIND and are CHANGED by the power of God! True salvation brings change friend and if your salvation experience has not brought a change in your heart and life then I submit to you today that your salvation experience may NOT be a true saving encounter with Christ.

Mark 5:15
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.

2 Cor. 5:1-2 - For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. [2] For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

2 Cor. 5:21 - For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Galatians 3:27 - For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Ephs. 4:24 - And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Col. 3:10 - And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Bound with the powers of darkness beyond description, this man was a threat to himself and to others, inflicting harm upon himself. He represents the man who has become dangerous, so given over to evil that he is a threat to all. He represents the man who is totally depraved, the man who is so far gone he no longer has respect for human life. As we witnessed first hand in our nation about a week ago, when one is demon possessed, it's not just enough to inflict pain on one's self, but to kill and take other life for when Satan controls an individual there is NO RESPECT FOR LIFE.

I say this to the shame of our nation but if there is any barometer we can turn to showing us the spiritual condition of America is the shameful lack of respect for life today. Some 48 million innocent babies butchered at the hands of wicked doctors within wombs of women, most of whom have used abortion as birth-control or to hide the sin of fornication and adultery. Some may be reading and have had abortions and have come to Christ, who has graciously covered and cleansed every stain with His blood. That is not who that last comment is directed, but it's directed at a nation in danger of losing its soul! It's directed at ungodly politicians who cater and pander to the most wicked lobby in American - the feminist movement who thinks no more of the unborn than they do a dead dog on the side of the road. THAT MENTALITY IS OF SATAN AND DEMONIC AND DARKNESS. What part of that do we not understand as a nation? What part of that do we not understand as a church? What part of that do we not understand as we sit in sickening and wicked silence in the church and continue to perform our Christian act before the world each week while millions of babies perish without a voice or even a mention of the demonic nature of what is being done?? We're not doing this in the dark, but against light! Our sin is grievous to begin with but what makes it MORE grievous is we do these things in America in FULL LIGHT and FREEDOM of the gospel of Jesus Christ being proclaimed.

The demoniac represents the man who has fallen to the depths of the pit—so deep he can fall no further. He is hopeless in an absolute sense. No one but God can save him, but God CAN and WILL save HIM! When Jesus Christ came to this Earth, He came as a man, but He was GOD and by saving man, He expressed God's eternal love to a sinful race that man can be free and no matter the hopelessness of any situation, redemption is readily available and ABLE to set the captive free!

John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. [17] For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

In journal one we saw a man hopelessly possessed; but when this same man saw Jesus afar off, his heart was stirred and THE DARKNESS and powers of darkness STOPPED! Praise God. There was so much power upon and in the Son of God that the process of bondages being broken started taking place while Jesus was still in the boat approaching the shore. That same power is setting men free today! That same power is still destroying drug addiction! That same power is still destroying alcoholism! That same power is STILL destroying the bondages of homosexuality, lust and perversion. He is STILL destroying the darkness of hatred, racism and murder; that power is REAL today no matter what self-righteous, bigoted, backslidden preachers or ministry leaders may try and claim. God help the unbelief of this wicked generation. Jesus Christ can set the captive free!!! The first thing we see happening when the captive's heart was aroused and touched by the Spirit of God in Christ, he "ran," and "worshipped," the Christ. Men MUST be aroused by the convicting power of the Holy Ghost! The problem with our modern churches today that demon possessed people sit week in and week out NEVER touched or aroused by ANYTHING but a dead, cold, formal, backslidden form of worship we call church.

Denominations love to have every gimmick available to get people to come to church. I'd rather sit in the dentist chair and have my wisdom teeth yanked out without novacaine than to sit and listen to some blow hard behind a pulpit in a dead church deny the supernatural power of God and act like the church is wonderful because there is a ton of activity going on. Demoniacs love activity without conviction, but when Jesus Christ is in the equation, the demoniacs among us will NEVER simply continue in their sin - they will be CHANGED by the power of God! When the demoniac's heart was aroused, he RAN and worshipped JESUS!

Friend, if demoniacs bound by the powers of darkness can run and worship Him, WE need to worship Him! Churches that are colder than a polar bear's nose on Sunday and so formal that if a mouse squeaked half the attendees would have heart attacks are about as worthless as a gasoline station without gasoline! The world worships their gods, their idols; their false religious systems; their icons; and their movie stars and rock music celebrities without conscience or thought and with so much energy and money words cannot describe it. When a baseball player's minimum salary is 400,000 more than what the President of the United States makes, friends we are worshipping men as "gods," and making sports an wicked idol.

Yet, we as the children of God have met someone GREATER than rock music; greater than false religion; greater than Buddha; greater than Islam; greater than Hollywood; greater than Nashville; greater than Wall Street; greater than the Republican Party and the Democratic Party; greater than all the political systems in America; greater than the powers of darkness; I'm talking about JESUS CHRIST, the SON OF THE LIVING GOD, the FIRST and the LAST, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one GREATER than the Temple, the GREATER ONE who is IN US, than the devil who is in this world!

1 John 4:4
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

This man's response to Christ speaks to the modern church of our call and duty of intercessory prayer, prophetic worship, and soul travail before Him! The souls of men are at stake and friend there is no greater power in the universe than the praises of God's people through corporate worship and PRAYER! Before we can worship the Lord corporately, we must learn to worship Him individually! To many, Christ is nothing more than a name on a bulletin or someone they hear about in their Sunday School. Many church goers have never bowed their knee to Him in repentance and faith and been born again! I can assure you of this - those who KNOW THE LORD will WORSHIP Him in Spirit and TRUTH! And if a demoniac who was full of a legion of devils can worship Him, we as His children do not need to let the devils worship Him more than we do! Glory to God. Those are shouting words friend. Those are words that make me want to run around my house about 50 times shouting the praises of God. He is WORTHY of ALL PRAISE and INHABITS the praises of His people!

Psalm 22:3 - But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel. [4] Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. [5] They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

The church building is just a building without worshippers of Jesus within! But when we come together and WORSHIP JESUS, the church becomes a sacred place, set apart from all unhallowed and secular uses, for the worship of God. As worship is in reality, prayer, the house of God is a place set apart for worship and is no common place; it is where God dwells, where He meets with His people, and where He delights in the worship of His saints. Prayer is always in place in the house of God. As E.M. Bounds once said, "When prayer is a stranger there, then it ceases to be God's house at all."

The church today has been turned into a haven of DEMONS who influence our young people through Christian Rock concerts and other ungodly things that blind shepherds allow in. Get mad at this writer if you like but we have prostituted the house of God with the odor of Tammuz and Chemosh - the gods of erotica and child slaughter. When we bring in groups whose lyrics and antics are no different than those who practice Satanism and worship the devil and parade them in front of our children as some type of spiritual icons and heroes - neighbor we are SLAUGHTERING our children!

If the demoniac had lived today I wonder if he came into our churches would he find the presence of Jesus there to worship???? I ask that in the most serious manner. I ask that with a broken heart knowing that had he came to MOST churches today he would have come in bound with the powers of darkness and ran out bound with the powers of darkness. Of course that is assuming our high-society, snobbish, holier than thou church attenders on Sunday morning would have welcomed him at all into our stained-glass ceiling, steeple to the sky country clubs we run on Sunday! God help us.

Ask yourself this question reader. Would "my" church have welcomed someone dwelling in tombs, cutting himself with stones, running around naked, foaming at the mouth and not being able to be bound by human strength???? I can guarantee you that MOST churches, 99% of the churches in this land would NOT have welcomed him! The local authorities would have been called and he'd been found a nice warm cell to spend the night in behind bars. His answer however is not in the cells and bars of human prision! His answer is in a good old fashioned Holy Ghost filled born again, devil-chasing, sin-killing, red-hot, true-blue, in the devil's face encounter with the living God in the person of Jesus Christ!

OH! you say, "well brother McDonald our church is just so 'refined,' and on the 'cutting edge,' we don't want someone coming in who is not on the same spiritual plain as we are," as one stupid, cabbage for brains, moronic, idiotic, minister said to me just recently when responding why his church did not embrace the moving and operation of the Holy Ghost, especially the Pentecostal experience of speaking in tongues as the spirit of God gave the utterance and prophetic utterances and ministry. More refined? More cutting edge? What do those terms mean when dealing with demon powers? Do we think that our "refined," culture of church we call worship today does anything to the demon powers of hell but make them laugh?? Are we that stupid today to think that our 3-point poems we read our people on Sunday which put half to sleep and make the other half yawn in hopes of getting home in time to see Sunday afternoon football are doing anything to threaten the powers of darkness???

THERE IS ONLY ONE POWER AND ONE POWER ALONE THAT DEMON POWERS RESPECT AND IT IS THE POWER OF THE HOLY GHOST. The demoniac WORSHIPPED CHRIST and the HOLY GHOST worships CHRIST! The Holy Ghost does not come to speak of Himself but to point the church to the CROSS - the CROSS - the CROSS - the CROSS and what Jesus Christ did for us there 2,000 years ago. The Holy Ghost works with the Cross and the power of the Cross is through the power of the Holy Ghost. We cannot separate the two! We cannot take a little bit of the gospel here and a little bit there that don't offend our religious hearts and say we believe in God. The Christian experience in general is one that is fought against tooth and toenail by the same demon powers that controlled this man!

Jesus Christ our Lord put peculiar emphasis upon what the Church should be was when He cast out the buyers and sellers in the Temple, repeating the words from Isaiah, "It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer," meaning it is a house where we come to WORSHIP CHRIST! It's not a place where we come to show off our new suits, pass out our business cards, make golf buddies, or listen to the latest fads on television preached from the pulpit. GOD HELP THIS SINFUL, WICKED GENERATION that has so perverted His gospel that a mouse couldn't get saved or delivered in most churches!

They, who sidetrack prayer or seek to minify it, and give it a secondary place, pervert the Church of God, and make it something less and other than it is ordained to be. The worship of Prayer is perfectly at home in the house of God. It is no stranger, no mere guest; it belongs there. It has a peculiar affinity for the place, and has, moreover, a Divine right there, being set, therein, by Divine appointment and approval. The church is not the only place we pray and worship Christ! The inner chamber is a sacred place for personal worship; the house of God is a holy place for united worship; and the prayer-closet is for individual prayer. The house of God is for mutual prayer, concerted prayer, united prayer, which will only take place if those coming have already been in prayer and worship individually before they arrived corporately!

Yet even in the house of God, there is the element of private worship, since God's people are to worship Him and pray to Him, personally, even in public worship. AND IF A DEMONIAC CAN WORSHIP HIM, then HOW MUCH MORE SHOULD WE AS HIS CHILDREN WORSHIP HIM?!!!

I can hear the echoes of backslidden saints already, "well Brother Chris, we're just not a 'happy-clappy' church, we're just too dignified." Yea, you're dignified alright. Let some football player with an IQ of 10 run a ball 70 yards for a touchdown on Saturday or Sunday afternoon and you'd be surprised how undignified we become. Let someone bring us news of the latest American Idol contest and we go ape or the latest movie out from Hollywood. Let someone in church ask us to raise our hands and we go ape again but threatening to have them removed and stopping this "fanaticism." Neighbor, the problem with the American church is not a homosexual problem, or an abortion problem or a divorce problem - it is a HARDENED HEART PROBLEM, a religion problem, which sticks its bony finger in God's face and says "We don't want the HOLY GHOST to move here."

Look at the churches who worship Jesus Christ in Spirit and in Truth and you will find the altars filled on Sunday with sinners being saved, believers being filled, sick bodies being healed, demoniacs being delivered and captives being set free. Marriages are made whole at the altar of repentance, not the altar of Freud, man of God. Get the spirit of Rick Warren out of your church and you'll be surprised just how much your altars will fill up with hurting, seeking saints who are AROUSED and DRAWN by the power of the HOLY GHOST.

Mark 5:6-8
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.

Not only did the demoniac worship Christ, but he acknowledged Jesus to be the Son of God. As such the demon spirits begged Jesus the Christ not to torment them, that is, not to send them to the abyss or to hell (Luke 8:31).

Luke 8:31
And they (the demon spirits within this poor human) besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.

I want the reader to grasp the power of this statement from a demoniac who had not yet been delivered but yet declared CHRIST to be the Son of God. When this man saw Jesus, he FALLS down before Him and "crying out," proclaims the fact that the spirit world of darkness, with all its attendant destructive spirits, are obedient and subservient to the Lord Jesus Christ. The "demons" inside this man declared "JESUS YOU ARE THE SON OF THE MOST HIGH GOD!!" and acknowledged Him as Lord and Master.

It is amazing and yet terribly sad and scary to think that the devils instantly recognized Jesus for WHO and What He was, but the RELIGIOUS Leaders of Israel did not know! As well, this should serve as a serious warning to all of mankind, especially the modern Church in America today. It warns us that these demon spirits will not bow to the political process, no matter how well intentioned; Neither will they bow down to education or prosperity, but they bow only before the Lordship of Jesus Christ!!! He is the Son of Man, yes, but make no mistake about it - HE IS THE SON OF GOD, the LIVING CHRIST, the ALPHA and the OMEGA, the bread of Life, the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, the sin-destroying, leper-cleansing man of Galilee.

Consequently, Satan works overtime getting the church sidetracked from the worship of the Living Christ. What do I mean by that? It's a two-fold problem. First, the church world worships its own "wisdom," and "education," which the Holy Spirit calls "sensual and Devilish,” while true wisdom, or at least wisdom that can change the world, comes directly from God, and is in essence the message of the Cross of Christ!

James 3:15-17
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. [16] For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. [17] But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

In this vein, it is an abomination when the editors of the Pentecostal Evangel, the weekly voice of the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal Denomination in the world, recommend in that Magazine, 12- step programs as the answer for mankind. It is an abomination in the eyes of God, when the Leadership of the Church of God in Cleveland, Tn., the second largest Pentecostal Denomination in the world, is headed up by a practicing Psychologist, or at least was just less than 2 years ago (2005).

I’ll say it again: This demoniac did not need psychology. Psychology would have never set him free from one bondage that drove him to the state he was in when he met Jesus and saw Him from afar off. It is impossible to promote the Cross and then promote psychology, and all its attending bastard children, at the same time. One cannot serve God and mammon. I know that sounds rough to some but rough we must sound in these last days. Neighbor, we are living on the precipice of the darkest hour known to mankind, while at the same time standing on the precipice of the greatest move of God yet known to humanity through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Spirit through Paul addressed this subject by saying,“ And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people (and to be sure, humanistic psychology is an idol).” The Holy Spirit goes on and declares in no uncertain terms, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”( II Cor.6:16- 17). To be associated with that which espouses gross error, even though one may not agree with that direction, makes one a part of the sin being committed. In other words, it’s not possible for one to absolve oneself of culpability and responsibility, if one is associated in any manner with such erroneous direction. Without sounding to redundant, let me state that the denominational world i.e. the Southern Baptists, the Presbyterians, Lutherans, certain elements within the Methodist Church, have renounced the powers of the Holy Ghost altogether and turned to humanistic psychology in totality at the present time.

Without the Holy Ghost there is really no alternative. It grieves and insults the Holy Ghost deeply to see part of the Lord's Body denying and attributing the Spirit's work to that of Satan but many do just that today in these modern times. That brings us to the second issue of this two-fold problem. If the Holy Spirit is rejected, then man's wisdom is all we are left with.

Make no mistake though, "ICHABOD," or the "glory has departed," is written on many a threshold of churches who do such, and the darkness they embrace is sending millions to hell in a hand basket. No, we don't for one remote second insinuate one has to speak in tongues to be saved but what we DO say without hesitation and fear is that if a church system, leader or denomination WILLFULLY fights against ANY ministry of the Holy Ghost they are treading on dangerous grounds and if they don't repent the HOLY GHOST will leave and they will be left to their own devices - one of which the enemy has given in place of the Spirit's power and work is psychology.

However, even in some Pentecostal and Charismatic circles where the Holy Ghost is embraced and preached, the situation if possible, is even worse. Not only do they espouse, at least for the most part, the world of humanistic psychology, but many of them openly repudiate the Cross, actually referring to it as“ past miseries.” Or they say that the Cross was the greatest defeat known in human history. Such terminology shows a gross ignorance of the Word of God, which would be laughable were it not for the fact, that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of so called Christians, are following these pied pipers, and I might quickly add, following them to spiritual oblivion and in some cases worse!!!

In these same circles, we have displays of all types of manifestations, purporting to be of the Spirit, when in reality, it is of the flesh, or even of demon spirits. That means that a great segment of the Church is following demon spirits, thinking it’s the Holy Spirit. What a travesty! What a horror! We cannot separate the Cross from the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit from the Cross. THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD (i.e. the message of the Cross) agree!

WHAT DID JESUS SAY ABOUT THE LAST DAYS? Before I address myself to that question, let’s see what the modern Church is saying: It is claiming that these are the greatest days ever known by the Church. It is bigger than ever and richer than ever. More people are attending Churches today than ever before, with more money coming into the till than ever before. However, the Truth is, a 500 pound man might be big, but he’s definitely not healthy. In fact, he is sick, and so sick, that he could die at any moment. The Truth is, despite the influx of human bodies and money, and to be sure, money is the driving force of this religious engine, there are fewer people being saved today than in the last several hundreds of years. There are almost no Believers being Baptized with the Holy Spirit anywhere simply because almost no emphasis is placed on this all- important subject at this time.

Despite all the hype, almost no one is being truly healed. As well, victorious living in Christian lives is almost a thing of the past. In other words, most of professing Christendom is walking in spiritual failure and defeat. I realize those are not words that people enjoy reading; however, they are the Truth, whether we like them or not. The problem is, the modern Church anymore, little knows what is of God and what isn’t of God. It worships idols thinking it’s worshiping the Lord. It accepts manifestations which obviously are of the Devil, thinking they are of the Holy Spirit. God help us! Jesus said,“ The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.”( Mat.13:33)

Matthew 13:33
Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

Jesus is speaking of the Church in the last days.“ Leaven” is figurative of sin (I Cor.5:6- 8; Gal.5: 9); false doctrines (Mat.16:6-12; Mk.8:15- 21); and hypocrisy (Lk.12: 1). The woman as used here is figurative of wickedness, fallacy, uncleanness, and unfaithfulness (Lam.1: 17); harlotry( Ezek.16: 15, 22, 26,28- 59;23:1- 49;36: 17; Hos.1: 2;2: 2- 17;3: 1; Rev. 17); wickedness (Zech.5:5- 11; Rev.17: 5); and false religion( Rev.17).

When used in a good sense women represent Israel( Gen.37:9- 10 with Rev.12; Ezek. 16); the two Covenants (Gal.4:21- 31); and Righteousness and Purity (II Cor.11: 2; Rev.19:7- 8). The“ meal” symbolizes the Word of God( Mat.4: 4; Jn.6:47-63). This short parable as given by Christ, illustrates how the Kingdom of Heaven, representing the Church in this age, would become corrupted by false doctrines and unscriptural programs, until the whole is corrupted, which is presently well on its way ( Lk.18: 8; I Tim.4:1- 8; II Tim.3: 5;4:3- 4; II Pet.3:3- 4).

All false teachings, religious programs, and professed Christian lives, seek to hide behind the Word of God. In other words, the“ Word” is freely used in all of this error, but to be sure, it is a corrupted word, which means the Word of God is pulled out of context, and to make it simpler to understand, it is the Word which is not based upon the Cross of Christ. If one doesn’t properly understand the Cross of Christ, then one doesn’t properly understand the Word. John said as much in the First Chapter of his Gospel(Jn.1:1, 14, 29). So, if a repudiation of the Cross is the greatest tempting of God, and it definitely is, then where does that leave the modern Church? THE GREATEST JUDGMENT OF ALL! In fact, the greatest judgment of all is about to come upon the modern Church. In a very short period of time, the Rapture is about to take place (I Thess.4:13- 18). With the True Church taken away, the horror of the Great Tribulation is going to burst upon the apostate Church. To be sure, at first it will seem as if it is the greatest moment in history. All the voices that cried out against the apostasy of this age will now be gone. The Antichrist will be acclaimed by Israel, at least at the beginning, as their Messiah. The false Church will fall in line, proclaiming the same identical thing; however, after a short period of time, the Antichrist will show his true colors, actually turning on Israel, which will be in the midst of the Great Tribulation Period. Then the Judgment of God is going to be poured out upon this world as never before, which is characterized in Revelation, Chapters 6 through 19. In fact, and as previously stated, the Church has already entered into the last great apostasy.

Part of this apostasy, if not all really, is the attack upon the DEITY of Christ, which was attributed to this man who was under the control of an evil spirit. The man had no way to know that Jesus was the Son of God, yet He proclaimed HIM TO BE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE MOST HIGH GOD. I cannot state that enough! It may sound repetitive to the reader but it's a fact getting lost on the landscape of the modern gospel message today!

The tears roll down my cheek literally hearing in my spirit the words of this demoniac, "what have we do with you JESUS, the SON of the MOST HIGH GOD?" Those words shook eternity when he said them. They shook hell because it was in those words that Satan's doom was sealed. It was in those words that mankind's deliverance and salvation was settled forever and sealed forever. FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON THAT WHOSOEVER WILL BELIEVE in Him SHALL HAVE eternal life. Not, "might have," not "maybe," but SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE!

Mark 5:6 - 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.

God has called the Church for one particular purpose and that is to HERALD His Gospel far and wide! It is ONLY the Word of God preached, testified and proclaimed in ALL of its Glory, in the MIGHTY name of Jesus, which will set the captive free! NOTHING ELSE and NO OTHER NAME will suffice! Satan never trembles of bows before politicians, educators, scientists, psychologists, or professional preachers for that matter. He only trembles and bows before someone, be they man or woman, who is full of the Holy Ghost and knows how to use the Mighty Name of Jesus.

That is why the Lord told the prophet Zechariah a long time ago, it is "not by MIGHT, or by POWER (Human power, ability) but BY MY SPIRIT, SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS!"

Zech. 4:6
Then he answered and spoke unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

The church thinks that if a man has a Doctorate, and especially if that Doctorate is in psychology, he is certainly equipped to meet the needs of humanity. The Truth is, he is not only no equipped to meet their needs, but will actually do them harm by keeping them from the only POWER than can set them free, which is the POWER of God. Satan trembles at NOTHING but that NAME above ALL Names, the LORD JESUS CHRIST!. These spirits within this man knew exactly who Jesus was. He was not just "Jesus," the man, but "Jesus, THOU SON OF THE MOST HIGH GOD," but, as well, "Jesus, THOU Son of God Most HIGH!" Why doesn't all of mankind know exactly who Jesus is just as these demons??? They do not know because Satan has them blinded, and well, they choose to stay blind, and because they love their sins. In addition, the LIGHT of the gospel has been snuffed out by religious spirits in our churches which instead of being houses of worship, have become houses of world harlotry and idolatry. NOT BY MIGHT, NOT BY POWER, BUT BY MY SPIRIT saith, the Lord!

Mark 5:7-8
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.

The statement "I adjure thee by God, torment me not," tells us the demons inside this poor man knew and realized the power Jesus had and He could do with them whatsoever He desires. Matthew actually mentions two demoniacs, with Mark and Luke mentioning only one. In fact, there were two, with one being more prominent than the other, hence him alone being mentioned by Mark and Luke. Matthew records them asking this question:

Matthew 8:29
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?

In these Scripture passages, we see four facts about the devil and his angels (messengers, demons, evil spirits) that should always be kept in mind as we believers fight the good fight of faith against the powers of darkness:

2. They have nothing to do with Jesus; that is, their nature is entirely different from the clean spirit of Jesus. Evil and evil spirits are diametrically opposed to the purity and holiness of Jesus.

3. The Son of God has come to destroy the works of the devil. All evil and evil spirits are to be destroyed (1 John 3:8; cp. Hebrews 2:14-15).

They know that a particular "time," has already been judged by God as the "time" of their being locked away in the Lake of Fire (Rev. 20:10). As well, Jesus said of the Holy Spirit that He would "reprove the world of sin, and of Righteousness, and of Judgment: of Judgment because the PRINCE OF THIS WORLD IS JUDGED," meaning that a time has been set for the doom of Satan and ALL his followers. In effect, these spirits were requesting that they not be consigned to the Lake of Fire before that "particular time."

As we close this second sermon in this series on the fifth chapter of Mark and this extraordinary tale of deliverance through the hands of Christ, let the writer pause for a moment and let this writer ask you today, "is there a time that has been set for YOUR doom today?" If you are lost and without God friend the answer to that question is unequivocally "YES." I know most don't want to believe there is a time coming in the after life where men will spend eternity without God in utter torment in the Lake of Fire with the devil and His angels; but those who reject Christ will suffer such a fate.

Matthew 25:41
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

The church world has stopped warning men of hell's consequences and the ultimate end of all who don't believe as not to offend folks, but friend better to be offended NOW and be born again than to walk into hell thinking one's soul is in right standing with God when in fact the Holy Spirit was never given room to convict, deal and reveal Christ to that individual!

The reality of Hell and the Lake of Fire is no joke! Regardless of the state in this life one's state in the next life may be very different! As we saw in the case of the Rich man and Lazarus, poor people become rich if they are saved, otherwise, they will suffer hell just like the unsaved rich man did. Lazarus did not die and go to heaven because he was poor; neither did the rich man die and go to hell because he was rich. Lazarus died and went to heaven because he did not allow his poverty to keep him from covenant faith in God; the rich man died and went to hell because he did not allow his riches to bring him into covenant faith with God but trusted in those riches and thought himself worthy enough to enter into the next life based upon his wealth on earth.

Both fallacies were believed then and many believe them today! The rich do not suffer hell unless they are unsaved. The rich, like the poor, must make proper preparation for eternity or be lost and punished. ALL must make Christ their Lord and Saviour today - NO EXCEPTIONS! ALL must forsake sin and REPENT, and believe the Gospel of Christ, which is the message of the Cross where we are called to deny one's self, take up the Master's Cross and FOLLOW HIM! Today, not tomorrow, not next week, not next year, is the day of Salvation!

2 Cor. 6:2
(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

Luke 9:23-24
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. [24] For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

The evil spirits were trembling before the Son of God as through this man they cried out, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of...God?" He was stricken with the purity and the holiness of Jesus as we must be stricken with the purity and holiness of Jesus today! The powers of darkness were forced to bow in reverence and to beg Jesus not to doom him—not yet, but in doing so signifying the evil spirits knew that Jesus had come to destroy their power over fallen humanity. They knew that Jesus was going to cast him out and free the man, despite the man’s utter, hopeless depravity. And the devil knows today that those who truly come to Christ can be set free from the enemy's deception and demonic bondage.

And no matter how hopeless, how depraved, how wicked your situation is friend - YOU CAN BE FREE TODAY THROUGH THE BLOOD STAIN HANDS OF JESUS CHRIST. You've tried witchcraft; Satanism; false religion; drugs; alcohol; lust; sex; music; homosexuality; violence; and a myriad of 10 million other things to fill the void in your soul and NOTHING has satisfied. You, like this demoniac have wandered amongst the tombs of sin, in darkness, cutting yourself with stones; drug addict each time you plunge that needle in your vein, you are doing no less than this demon possessed man did!

I ask you today with tears flowing down my cheeks at 2 AM as I write this journal, has sin taken its toil on your heart and soul to where you're like this Gadarene maniac? Are you living among the tombs? are you cut off from society, which can mean being cut off from your family? Sin will do that to you sir or madam. It will drive you to places you'd never dream of going. It will cause you to lose husbands, wives, children, parents and all family ties. It will destroy marriages in 2 seconds. Are you uncontrollable, unrestrained, untamed, wild, mad, violent tempered? Do you feel shame as if you were wandering around naked, as this demoniac from Gadara? Are you inflicting wounds upon yourself, cutting yourself with stones, crying day in and day out; neighbor, millions if not billions are crying in the night with no end to just have someone to reach out and tell someone loves them. God sees the tears friend; He sees the hurt; He sees the darkness, the travail of soul that no one else can see. That is why you're reading this right now.

Friend, THIS journal is God's love letter to you today. It's His arm extended to a hurting heart and soul torn asunder by the powers of darkness to let you know He is not angry at you, but wants to see you come to Him before the appointed "time" when all men will give an account for their souls in eternity.

Yes God loves you as you are sinner man or sinner woman, but His love refuses to allow us to remain in our sinful condition because of the great provision HE HAS MADE and PROVIDED for our deliverance and freedom from sin through HIS ONLY SON, JESUS CHRIST and what He did at the CROSS!!!! I hear the old gospel song, "when the heart of mercy craves; sing it triumphed over the TOMBS, JESUS SAVES, JESUS SAVES!" There has not been ONE demoniac YET that HE DID NOT SET FREE. There has not been one drug addict YET who met Jesus that left a drug addict! Oh, there have been several checking into rehab centers and coming out bound with the same sin; but there has NEVER been one single SINNER YET who met Jesus and did not come away a changed man. Jesus Christ can set you free. You say, "well you use Jesus Christ and God in the same sentence as if they were the same." YES THEY ARE! YES THEY ARE! YES THEY ARE! Jesus CHRIST IS GOD and make no mistake when we embrace and love HIM, then we are loving the FATHER and seeing the full revelation of God's mercy and grace to fallen man.

In journal one we saw a man hopelessly bound and possessed by the powers of darkness; this journal we saw the ^demoniacdesperately aroused by the pull of the Holy Ghost which drove him to worship a living Christ, being touched in his heart by the precious presence of the Son of God, even before He stepped out of the boat. In journal three we will look closer at just how gloriously changed and cleansed by the power of God this demoniac became. His delivered state is the state of ALL who come to Christ in saving faith by trusting in what HE did at the Cross 2,000 years ago for our redemption. It's not of works lest any man should boast, but by GRACE through FAITH we are saved! Only Jesus can satisfy the souls of men today and only CHRIST can satisfy the longing of YOUR heart soul today friend. He came not for the righteous, but for the demoniacs of this world, just like perhaps, YOU, reading this today. I pray you meet this Christ today in Jesus name. Praise God.