Now in Mark chapter 5, beginning in verse number 1, the Bible reads,
And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
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.
Now this man who is possessed with devils, or demon possessed,
it gives us a lot of detail about him, because all throughout the book of Mark,
more than any other book of the Bible,
there are a lot of people that are possessed with devils.
Almost every chapter when you read through the book of Mark,
Jesus constantly casting out devils,
and there are constantly people that are possessed with an unclean spirit,
and you can really learn a lot about that subject just through reading the book of Mark.
But in chapter 5 here, there are a lot of specific things stated about this man who is possessed with devils,
and the thing that stands out the most is that at the end of verse 5 there,
it says that he was cutting himself with stones.
Now go back if you would to 1 Kings, chapter number 18.
1 Kings, chapter number 18 is where we find the story of Elijah facing off with the prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel,
and when Elijah faces off with the prophets of Baal, we see something very similar.
Let's start in verse 25 where the Bible reads,
And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal,
Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first, for ye are many,
and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under.
And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal,
from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us.
But there was no voice, nor any that answered, and they leaped upon the altar which was made.
And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud, for he is a god.
Either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth and must be awake.
And they cried aloud, watch this, and cut themselves, and then look at these next three words, after their manner.
So was this just an isolated incident of the prophets of Baal cutting themselves?
No, it says they cut themselves after their manner.
Basically it's assumed that the reader of that time period just knows that, you know, that's how they did it,
and this is a regular activity amongst the prophets of Baal,
that they had a thing where they would cut themselves.
And it says here that they cut themselves after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them.
So, we have a connection here between 1 Kings 18, where they are worshipping Baal.
They are the prophets of Baal, and we know that Baal is Satan,
because of the fact that we have the word Baal-zebub, which becomes in the New Testament Beelzebub.
And we also have Baeliel, Baal, Bel, Beelzebub.
All of these are the same person, the devil.
People who worship false gods are actually worshipping the devil.
It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, that the things which the Gentiles offer in sacrifice unto idols, they offer unto devils.
Okay, so that idol of just whatever creature is actually a devil that they're worshipping.
Hinduism has this multitude of gods, thousands of gods.
Those gods are various and diverse demons that they worship.
These are different devils with different names.
And Baal is Satan himself.
That's who they're worshipping when they're cutting themselves with stones.
Now, or cutting themselves with knives in that chapter.
In Mark chapter 5, if you want to turn back there,
we see that this man is cutting himself with stones.
Now, this is something that still exists today in 2014, cutting yourself.
Now, I know that when I was a teenager and I went to high school,
there were people at the high school who cut themselves.
It was mainly girls who did it, but there were guys who did it as well.
And it was usually the gothic type crowd that would be cutting themselves.
Now, that fits in with this story too, because look at verse 3.
It says, he had his dwelling among the tombs.
And you remember that crowd in high school that would wear all black
and the black fingernail polish, and they would never go in the sun
and try to get as pale-complected as they could and get black hair.
And then they would go and say, hey, it's Friday night, it's Saturday night.
We're going to go out for a really fun activity.
We're going to go to the graveyard in the middle of the night.
Remember those people?
And they would hang around in the tombs, and they would cut themselves.
And I remember there were even songs put out at the time
that talked about cutting yourself and kind of glorified cutting yourself.
This is a phenomenon that's very widespread even today.
And let me tell you something.
This is people being demon-possessed when they're cutting themselves.
Now, I'm sure that there are also some who just, you know,
they hear the music about cutting yourselves,
and their friends are cutting themselves.
And so maybe they might kind of try to jump on the self-mutilation,
self-cutting bandwagon.
But honestly, I think most of this is demonic.
And if you think about it, the music that they're listening to is demonic.
You know, when they're listening to Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson,
and I'm naming the stuff from when I was a teenager,
I'm sure that today, is there a Gothic equivalent today or what?
They're probably just still pulling out the same Nine Inch Nails,
the same Marilyn Manson, you know, from back then.
And, you know, they're into that music.
It's openly Satan, it's openly demonic.
And you see people cutting themselves.
It is demonic influence.
You say, well, how dare you say that these people are demonic, you know.
What are you saying about their family, and what are you saying about, you know.
But here's the thing.
All throughout the Bible, there are people who are possessed with devils.
And it would be strange to think that just all the devils and demons of this world are just all gone now.
In 2014, they're all gone.
Do you believe that?
If they were there in Jesus' day, they would be there today.
And listen to me.
There's nothing new under the sun, the Bible says.
All the things that are going on today are the same things that were going on in Jesus' day,
and they're even the same things that were going on in Elijah's day.
The self-cutting, self-mutilation.
And part of being demon-possessed seems to be a self-destructive mentality.
Because you see other people who are demon-possessed in the book of Mark and elsewhere,
who throw themselves in the fire, throw themselves into the water.
A lot of people who commit suicide, I believe, are demon-possessed.
And we see people who just mutilate themselves, destroy themselves, cut themselves, hurt themselves,
and even to the point of killing themselves.
A lot of this is demonic.
Now today, this would all be classified as mental illness.
But let me tell you something.
That is because the world that we live in and the practitioners in the medical and psychiatric community
do not believe in God or the spiritual realm.
So of course a doctor or a psychiatrist isn't going to say,
Oh, well, I'm diagnosing you as being demon-possessed.
You need to get in church and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here, go down to Walgreens and they're going to have a New Testament for you waiting in a white paper bag
for you to pick up your prescription.
And then you take it over with a little consultation.
You know, when you get your prescription, then you've got to go to the consultation.
And then the pharmacist is going to sit down with you.
Alright, turn to Romans 3.23.
And give you the gospel, alright?
Here's your prescription.
They're not going to do that.
They don't believe in Jesus.
They don't believe in God.
They think, oh, this spiritual stuff, it doesn't even exist.
But let me tell you something, it does exist.
And if the Bible is the word of God, which we know it is,
then you have to believe that demons exist.
So how can you just say, oh, demons don't exist.
So a lot of what's classified today as mental illness is actually people who are possessed with devils.
That's all it is.
Now, I'm not saying that every single person,
and I did a whole sermon on this where I actually went through the whole book of Mark in one sermon
where I went through all the mentions of people who are possessed in the book of Mark.
I'm not saying that everybody who has either physical or mental problems is demon possessed
because there are all kinds of people throughout the Bible
who had physical problems and other problems that were not caused by a demon.
For example, in the book of Mark and elsewhere,
there are people who are deaf because of a demon living inside.
But that doesn't mean that every deaf person.
I proved that in my sermon.
I spent a long time going over that.
Obviously, there are deaf people who are just deaf because of an injury to their ears
or some kind of a birth defect or what have you.
So I'm not saying that everybody who's classified today as having mental illness is demon possessed
just as it would be silly to say that every person who has physical ailments
is a result of being demon possessed, and that's not what the Bible teaches.
But there are still a lot of people today who are demon possessed,
and then they're just diagnosed with mental illness.
Now, the reason why they're diagnosed with mental illness anyway
is so that the pharmaceutical companies can make billions of dollars giving them drugs.
And it's ridiculous how many people today are on drugs.
I mean, I wish I could remember the percentage because I just read it.
I think it was like 25% of American women are on some kind of a psychiatric drug.
Somebody joked about it and said,
That's scary to think that the other 75% are being untreated because we know that they're all crazy.
So that's the scary thing about that statistic that only 25% and that was a joke.
But what I'm saying is that if you look at the statistics,
and even if I just think about people that I personally know,
I could list all kinds of people that I know who are taking mind-altering drugs,
who are taking antidepressants or taking other things to relax or pick them up or calm them down and what have you.
And by the way, whenever you hear about somebody committing suicide,
usually these drugs are involved.
I just heard about somebody recently who had committed suicide,
and of course, he battled depression.
And whenever they say he battled depression, you know what that means?
He's going to a psychiatrist and getting drugs.
That's what it means.
And then as you read the story and read more about it,
it turned out he was on these drugs.
He'd already attempted suicide multiple times because one of the side effects of the drugs is suicide.
On the label of the antidepressant, it says side effect depression.
It literally says, look it up, any antidepressant you want.
Possible side effects, depression, suicidal thoughts, suicidal tendencies,
you know, bursts of anger and everything.
This stuff is not the answer for people with these problems.
In no case are these psychotropic drugs the answer.
And they're being administered to children now.
Children are bratty or they act up at school and they're drugged.
And that's considered normal, but spanking them is inhumane.
Spanking them is cruel, but giving them drugs is fine.
And turning them into a walking, mindless zombie.
And if you talk to people that are on these drugs,
like especially the ones that they give to children,
it's very similar to somebody who's a pothead,
where they just kind of have no ambition, they don't care.
And it's very simple. Why?
Because they have these things in them called, well the way they work is they function as a,
and I'm going to try to sound really intelligent right now,
serotonin reuptake inhibitors is what I'm talking about tonight.
You know what I'm talking about.
Basically, we're talking about the fact that there's a chemical in your body
and I'm not pretending to be a medical expert or a scientist,
I'm just breaking this down in layman's terms.
This is my field of study, the Bible.
But let me just say this, there is a substance in your body called serotonin.
And basically it is something that makes you feel satisfied.
It makes you feel good, relaxed, satisfied, content.
But the problem is, when you're taking a drug that artificially raises your level of serotonin,
then here's what happens, you're just really content,
so guess what, you're not motivated to do anything.
Because in our bodies, there are constantly hormonal changes and chemical changes
that cause us to go through a cycle of being motivated to do something.
Desire, craving, motivation.
Then we go out and do something and then we're satisfied and content.
And that's how we're motivated to do things on a chemical level.
Well here's the thing, if you're taking a drug that just artificially raises your serotonin levels,
then you're just content all the time.
And then you're not motivated to do anything.
You know, you don't have a craving to go out and do something.
That's why you see people that are on these drugs and they've just kind of lost all emotion
and lost any will to do anything.
And they're just really mellow people.
And you know, hey, that's great, right?
Just to be a mellow person that doesn't really get excited about anything?
Well that's not how I want to be.
And so the pharmaceutical industry makes a killing off of these drugs
and really it's a bunch of just voodoo pseudoscience.
And here's the thing, the psychiatric industry has always been filled with quacks and crazy stuff.
I mean all the way back to the Middle Ages where they would drill a hole in your head.
Just to release, you got to release that pressure, right?
I mean you got too much pressure in there.
So people that were crazy, they would drill a hole in their head.
And guess what happened to a lot of them?
They died.
Because when you drill a hole in your head, you might die.
Others had holes just drilled in their heads and you know,
they lived the rest of their life with a hole in their head.
That's not good either.
And I mean look, it wasn't really that long ago that lobotomies were being performed.
And that has been proven to be a complete fraud.
And that most of the time, or a lot of the time the people died.
Most of the time you couldn't really show any improvement necessarily in what they went through.
I think it was John F. Kennedy himself.
His sister was lobotomized back when this was going on.
And I forget, what was the doctor's name that invented it?
Does anybody know?
Why would you know that?
I was reading about it.
I knew the guy's name but I forgot about it.
I know he had this vehicle that he called the lobotomobile.
And he would drive around mental institutions performing lobotomies.
Tens of thousands of lobotomies.
Thousands of people are dying.
It was just the most barbaric practice.
And yet it was, you know, that's science, that's medicine for you.
Oh but today we've got all that straight now.
We don't do anything crazy.
You know, I mean think about the electroshock therapy, the lobotomy.
I mean just, today it's just all these weird psychotropic drugs that they give you.
And I've never met somebody who said, you know what, I was depressed, I was doing bad,
I got on these drugs and now I'm just, have a new zest for life.
Everything's great now.
They don't work.
Okay?
They get people hooked on these drugs and then they have to give them another drug to
deal with the side effects of that drug.
And what people need more than anything is Jesus.
Because when this guy gets saved, he's sitting and clothed and in his right mind.
And the Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and
of a sound mind.
Now yeah, there are people who could have physical brain damage, of course, where there's
actually something physically wrong with them.
But most of the people today who are diagnosed with psychiatric illness or most of the children
today that are diagnosed with all these mythical disorders, ADD, ADHD, ODD, whatever, they
will tell you flat out there's nothing physically wrong that we can see.
There's no test.
They can't check your blood and say, ah, you just tested positive for ADD.
Or they can't do a brain scan and say, ah, it's just as I thought.
He has ADHD.
Because there is no physical component to it.
ADD means you didn't get your butt spanked.
That's what ADD means.
Okay?
And then schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, you know what, that's like this.
Look at verse 9.
It says he asked him, this is when he asked, Jesus asked the guy who's demon possessed,
he asked him, what is thy name?
And he answered saying, my name is Legion, for we are many.
So, there's your multiple personality disorder right there.
There's your schizophrenia.
Because the guy has multiple demons living inside of him, that's the different personalities
that are coming out.
You know, I've seen people walking down the street and they're talking and there's nobody
that they're talking to and this guy used to walk around Sacramento and yell at his
own reflection in a CD.
He would hold a CD and, you know, he's crazy.
He's nuts.
But a lot of these people are actually demon possessed is what they are.
And so that's what we see here.
Some of the signs of it.
Let's read through this.
Just some of the things that could be demonic.
It says in verse 3, he had his dwelling among the tombs.
We covered that.
It says, and no man could bind him.
No, not with chains.
Now, obviously, that's literally talking about people are trying to just restrain this guy
and just chain him down and nobody could bind him.
But also, you know, spiritually, I think that this also has an application of one who just
hates all authority.
No man can bind him.
You know, nobody's going to tell me what to do type of a thing.
And if you think about it, God talks about wicked people and reprobate people that basically
they just hate all authority.
They despise government.
And it's not saying that they despise, you know, wicked governments or something.
It's just saying they just hate government in general and not talking about these control
freaks that want to enslave us.
But they just don't want to be governed.
They don't want to be ruled over.
It's like the people in the story that Jesus told where they said of Jesus Christ, we will
not have this man to rule over us.
You remember that?
The citizens of the country that hated Jesus and said we will not have this man to rule
over us.
Many people just hate all authority, meaning they don't want their parents to tell them
what to do.
They don't want the boss at work to tell them what to do.
They can't stand anybody telling them what to do.
Now, in this world, there are legitimate authorities that are ordained by God and there are illegitimate
authorities.
Now, a lot of people today want to twist the Bible to just tell us just obey everybody,
you know, just obey.
I mean, if the, I guess if we were living in Nazi Germany and they would just want us
to obey that.
And if we lived in the Soviet Union, we just need to just obey everything that Stalin tells
us.
And if we're living through all these different totalitarian regimes that have existed, we're
just supposed to just obey everything we're told.
And if we're drafted into the military, whether it's for the Nazis or the Soviet Red Army
or whoever, we're supposed to just obey orders and obey authority and just shoot and kill
and take no prisoners, you know, no matter whether the war is right or wrong.
Right?
I mean, that's what a lot of people today teach, don't they?
Because what do they tell us?
You know, our government can do no wrong, obey the government no matter what, and no
matter what the police tells you to do, no matter what your government tells you to do,
no matter what the military tells you to do, you just have to obey it.
It's all of the Lord.
That's not biblical, okay?
And that's a whole other sermon in and of itself.
Because there are evil governments and there are wicked people who take power and abuse
power and so forth.
But at the same time, though, there are legitimate authorities in this world.
And God has given legitimate authority to human government.
You know, we're not anarchists.
We don't believe that there should be no government.
There should be a government.
But that government, according to the Bible, is given a limited scope of being there for
the punishment of evildoers, not a government to dictate every aspect of our lives.
I mean, when the government starts telling me how to raise my children, when the government
starts telling me what to preach, when the government starts regulating my personal life
and what I do, you know, then that's a government that's out of bounds.
Or when the government socializes everything and turns it into communism.
You know, that's not what the Bible ordained government to do.
But government is there as a legitimate authority to punish crime when it's actually a crime,
like stealing, murder, rape, things like that.
Not just, you know, your grass needs to be cut and all this kind of stupid stuff.
But what about our parents?
You know, that's an authority.
When we're children and we're growing up, you know, the parents are an authority there
that God has placed in our lives.
And the Bible says, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
You know, we go to work and God expects us to obey the boss at work and to treat him
with respect and to give honor unto our boss at work.
We're supposed to, wives are supposed to obey their husbands, the Bible teaches, and submit
themselves unto them.
Okay, so there are all kinds of authorities in our life.
But those who are ungodly, they despise authority.
And they do not want anyone to rule over them.
Nobody can bind them with chains.
Nobody can tell them what to do.
But the Bible teaches that if you live a life that has utter disregard for the commandments
of God, it says that you're the servant of sin.
So people think that by not obeying their parents, not obeying legitimate human government,
and by not obeying their husband or not obeying their boss at work, that they're going to
have freedom in their life.
But in reality, it brings slavery to sin.
It brings bondage to sin.
You know, somebody says, you know, I just want to be free so I'm never going to set
an alarm clock.
You know, I'm tired of the bondage of this alarm clock, you know, telling me when to
get up.
I'm going to get up when I want, I'm never going to set an alarm clock.
But then what's going to happen?
Your alarm doesn't go off, you're not going to go to work.
And then when you don't go to work, you don't have any money.
And when you don't have the money to pay for yourself, you have to rely on other people
and then you're not free anymore, right?
In order to have freedom, part of that is that you have to be able to take care of yourself
and pay for yourself.
And part of that is to have the discipline to go out and work and be wise with your money
and so forth.
So we see here that nobody can bind this guy, no, not with chains.
It says, because that he had often been 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.
So this guy seems to be endowed with a lot of strength to be able to just bust through chains
and break things.
And I've heard people talk about when people are on drugs and sometimes, you know, these
drug craze type people will get in a confrontation with the police or someone else
and they'll just say like they had superhuman strength and it'll take like four guys to try
and hold them down, right?
And they just keep coming.
You know, part of that could be demonic as well.
It says also in verse five, and always night and day he was in the mountains.
He's just living outside.
Nobody can tame him.
He's like a wild man.
And it says that he's cutting himself.
He's in the tombs.
He's crying, crying in the Bible.
He's talking about screaming and yelling, not what we would think of.
That's called weeping in the Bible.
And it says he's crying, he's yelling, cutting himself with stones.
But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped 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.
And 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, for we are many.
Now, I don't know how many demons have possessed this guy, but I know that just a little bit
later, he's going to be cast out.
The demons are going to be cast out into 2,000 pigs.
So it stands to reason that there were at least 2,000 demons in this guy.
I know a legion is 6,000.
So, you know, anywhere from 2,000 to 6,000, I mean, this guy is very demon possessed.
That's why it's such an extreme case where he's just in the wilderness all day long,
cutting himself, screaming, ripping things apart.
But other people could be possessed to a lesser extent, not to the extreme that we see here.
So, you know, I'm not saying that the teenage girl at your high school that kept cutting herself
was possessed with 2,000 demons, but remember Mary Magdalene had how many demons cast out of her?
So you see the multiple, seven demons.
You know, maybe somebody just has one or two or whatever.
And the Bible talks about when the unclean spirit cometh out of a man, he walketh through dry places,
seeking rest, and findeth none.
And then he says, I'll return unto my home from whence they came out.
And it says, when he's come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
Then goeth he that taketh with himself seven other spirits, more wicked than himself,
and they entered in and dwelled there, and the last day that man is worse than the first.
So shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
So we see that, you know, there's one demon, and then there's eight.
And here this guy has thousands.
So there are people who are demon possessed.
I've heard even preachers talk about people cutting themselves with no mention of this story,
and no mention of the prophets of Baal, and just everything was just the psycho babble of just,
oh, they have anxiety and depression and panicking and, you know, blah, blah, blah.
And whole sermons talking about how to deal with anxiety and panic attacks.
But there are so many pastors who have come under the influence of this Christian psychology,
which is just a worldly psychology.
A lot of it's from Greek philosophy.
A lot of it's from Sigmund Freud, who is a wicked, unbelieving Jew,
who also wrote a book called Moses and Monotheism, which is a very blasphemous, wicked book about religion,
just denying the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
And, you know, they listened to a godless person like Sigmund Freud.
They would listen to these Greek philosophers and just our modern psychiatric industry,
which is just fueled by big pharma, instead of listening to what the Bible says here.
You know, if I'm confronted with somebody who's cutting themselves, I'm going to say they're demon-possessed,
because that's the information that I have based on what the Bible says.
And, you know, if somebody said, hey, my child's cutting themselves, I don't know what to do,
you know, hey, I know what to do.
You know, you need to preach the word of God to them.
You need to give them the gospel.
You need to pray for them that they would be delivered from that.
And, you know, it's time to get rid of the Nine Inch Nails CDs and the Marilyn Manson and whatever else,
because that's where it's coming.
That's where a lot of this stuff is coming from.
But the Bible says in verse 10, he besought him that he would not send them away out of the country.
Now there was near there, under the mountains, I'm sorry, there was there nigh under 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 2,000, and were choked in the sea.
Now, Jesus, it appears from this story, Jesus didn't have to send these devils into the swine.
He could have caused them, you know, based on what these demons think, he could have sent them into some other country,
you know, other demons are begging him not to cast them down into hell,
but they besought him and said, send us into the swine that we may enter into them.
So here we see that even animals could be possessed with devils,
and we also see that, you know, Jesus chooses to send them into the swine,
which sends the whole herd of swine running off a cliff, and they all die.
Now, this shows right here that Jesus did not love these pigs.
He had no love for, he didn't care, because if he had any love or affection for these pigs,
then he would have said, well, no, you know, why would I do that to these nice pigs?
But he had no regard for them.
Now, this is one of many scriptures that show us that God is not one that cares about animals.
And to some people they struggle with that, you know, and they say, how can you say, go to 1 Corinthians 9,
and I'm going to spend a little time on this just because I'm sick of it.
We live in a society that is perverted today, and it is obsessed with animals and worshipping animals,
and we need to care about animals, and we need to take care of animals and all these things.
You know, it's not biblical. It did not come from the Bible.
And some of the most wicked people today are the ones just pushing so much for animal rights,
and we've got to protect animals, as they have no regard for the unborn.
They'll slaughter the unborn through abortion.
They'll slaughter people through all kinds of senseless warfare.
They don't care about people, but they just love animals, and it's their babies and everything like that.
And it is not biblical.
And people, whenever I preach about this, people get mad at me, and people email me and write to me,
and they foam at the mouth, and you know what, all it does is just makes me want to preach on it more.
Because it just tells me, wow, my message is not getting through.
It needs to be spoken again.
Because these people can never bring a biblical argument to bear.
They can't.
I mean, the best they can do is, a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast,
but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
Okay, that's not enough for you to worship animals and call them babies and all your animal cruelty laws.
Okay, look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 9.
It says in verse 9,
For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn.
Now, on the surface, this looks like a law that proves that God loves and cares about animals,
and that we need to have all this regard for animals, and we need to fight animal cruelty and all this stuff.
But here, he explains to us in the next breath,
Doth God take care for oxen?
He's asking the question, does God care about oxen?
Did God make this law about not muzzling the ox when he treads out the corn because he cares about oxen?
And the answer is no, because it says in verse 10,
Or saith he it all together for our sakes.
You say, well, it was for the animals and us. Nope.
All together for our sakes.
No doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope,
and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.
Now look, I'm not saying that we should go out and just hurt animals and torture animals and kill animals for no reason.
That's not what I'm saying.
But I'm saying to you that if that's your big cause in life, you live a worthless, stupid life.
If that's what your life is about, you're going to prevent cruelty to animals,
then you're living a worthless life, my friend.
Because you know what happens to animals out in the wild all day long?
They're cruel things, and you're never going to be able to stop them from happening.
Think about it.
I mean, animals in the wild are tearing each other apart right now.
As I preach this sermon, animals are being torn apart all over the globe,
dying slow and painful deaths.
And I tell you this right now.
You know, maybe KFC does have a painful de-beaking process.
I don't know.
But I will say this, though.
I will tell you that chickens that are slain out in the wild are slain in a very painful, inhumane way.
Because you see animals, I mean, they'll eat it, and it's still alive while they're eating it.
Now, I've never eaten an animal that's still alive.
Even I draw the line there.
Okay.
You say, oh, but you know, the way that they kill, it's painful.
Look, it's going to be painful no matter how you kill it.
Killing the animal to eat it is going to involve pain and suffering on the part of the animal.
Period.
That's what's going to happen when you kill an animal.
The Bible talks about wringing the necks off of birds.
The Bible commanded the Levites to take birds and wring their necks off.
And to slaughter all these beasts and to kill all these beasts.
And, you know, he wanted them to eat it without the blood.
Right?
You know how they do that?
They have to remove the blood from the animal.
And here's how they do it.
They slit its throat.
Okay.
Because I've seen a pig butchered in Hungary.
And they slit its throat.
And then it just comes out like a garden hose into this little bucket where they keep all the blood.
And then when it stops running out, the pig's laying on its side like this.
Okay.
And when the blood stops coming out of its throat, they grab its leg and start pumping it.
Like.
And it's just like.
You know, they're trying to get the blood out.
See.
Oh, it's so cruel.
And then they told us, they said, we're going to first anesthetize the pig.
I'm like, okay.
You know, I'm waiting for the hypodermic needle.
Sledgehammer.
They just slam a sledgehammer into the top of the pig's head.
And it goes.
Falls over.
That's the anesthesia.
But you know what?
They don't even.
My wife said that that's new.
When she was a kid, they would just slit its throat and it was just running around.
Isn't that what you said, Juzha?
Didn't you say you rode on the pig's back while it did it?
You sick human being.
But anyway.
My wife rode a pig, a dying pig with a knife in its throat.
Okay.
Not because my wife is just the wicked witch of the West here.
But rather because that's what everybody was doing.
Because that's what everybody's done for thousands of years.
Because people kill animals and eat them.
Because God gave us dominion over the animals.
God gave us the animals to use and to eat and so forth.
Now look.
I'm not saying, hey, let's just go out and kill animals for no reason.
Let's just torture animals.
Because obviously that's vanity.
There's no point in doing that.
You know, and obviously could a person develop cruel tendencies by going out and torturing animals?
Sure, they could develop cruel tendencies by doing that.
But here's where I draw the line.
Okay.
Obviously, and look.
When I go out and hunt scorpions at my house.
Because we have scorpions that get in our backyard and everything.
And I'll go out every few weeks and spend a few hours just killing scorpions.
And you know what?
Even I, who doesn't care about animals at all.
I don't even love my dog and my cat.
Is my confession to you.
At all.
I don't love them at all.
But let me tell you this.
Even I, when I kill the scorpions, you know, I put them out of their misery right away.
I don't just let them suffer.
And these are my mortal enemies.
But I just instantly end their lives.
Because I'm not just one who just enjoys watching suffering or something.
I'm not saying that.
And you know, you hear stories about, oh, the guy kicked the squirrel off the cliff into the Grand Canyon.
Oh, this teenage girl put the cat in the microwave and whatever.
But here's the thing about that.
I'm not saying that those people did a good thing.
I'm not saying that I would do that or that I would condone that or tell my children that.
But let me tell you my position on this.
I don't care.
I don't give a rip what they do with some squirrel or some cat or whatever it is.
It means absolutely nothing to me.
And the sick things that people say scare me.
When they said about that teenage girl who put the cat in the microwave, they said put her in the microwave.
Only a sick person would say such a thing.
Only a sick, demented, twisted person would want to put a 15-year-old girl in a microwave.
But they say, nope, but that's what she did, so that's what should happen.
No, you're an idiot if you believe that.
Okay, and I'm sick and tired of this garbage and I'm going to stand my ground on this.
I'm going to stand on the Word of God that God doesn't care about oxen.
God created the animals to be used by us, to be eaten by us, to be used as a workforce by us and not for us to worship them.
As we see all pagan wicked societies worship and serve the creature more than the creator, don't they?
And that's what we see.
In the Old Testament, they built the golden calf and bowed down to it, but today we see animal worship today in our society.
I mean, I've literally sat there and listened to people say, you know, dogs, we can learn a lot from dogs.
My son Isaac was at the hospital many years ago and this lady came in and said, you know, she wanted him to come see these dogs or whatever.
So okay, we go downstairs, we see the dogs.
It turns out it was called the blessing of the dogs ceremony.
And this woman minister comes in, this female minister, and she comes in and she's going to perform a blessing on all these dogs.
And she gets up and says, you know, it's no coincidence that dog is God spelled backwards.
And she said, you know, we have a long ways to go before we can attain unto the righteousness of these dogs.
She said, we, the dogs are greater than, we need to learn from them how to be more like these dogs.
Now, I mean, it was weird, but I hear weird stuff like that all the time.
That wasn't the only time I've heard stuff like that.
I mean, literally, people worship animals and think that they're so wonderful.
And if we could just be more like the dolphins, then the world would just be rainbows and unicorns.
It would be so wonderful.
But, you know, and this blessing of the dogs ceremony.
And then my son Isaac, you know, you can't always trust what kids tell you.
He swears to me to this day that he heard the lady whisper into one of the dogs ears, I baptize you in the name of the father, the son, and the Holy Ghost.
Isaac, are you standing by your story?
Alright, you know, I don't know, I can't, you know how kids are, so I can't verify that that's really what was said.
But it was weird enough with or without that.
Okay, but I'm tired of it.
This thing, oh, kick that guy off the cliff.
Throw him off the, if he kicked a squirrel off the cliff, throw that guy off the cliff.
I mean, good night.
You know what, let me tell you what a normal person thinks when they hear the story about the guy who kicked the squirrel off the edge of the Grand Canyon.
A normal person thinks to themselves, man, I hope that guy's okay, because if you run toward the edge of the Grand Canyon and kick, you're probably going to fall off the edge.
Because the Grand Canyon's really dangerous.
People fall in the Grand Canyon every year.
We just went camping at the Muggy on Rim two years ago, and a guy fell off the cliff while we were there.
We didn't know about it, but we read it on the news later.
I mean, if you're going to run up to the edge of a cliff and kick something off of it, my first thought was, man, you know what, I'm just being honest.
My first thought was, man, I hope that guy's okay.
Oh, that sick human being, I hope he went over the edge.
That's wicked, my friend.
You should not be so into animals to where you want to see people die.
This girl that put the cat in the microwave, they gave her 80 hours of community service.
And they said, is that enough? And everybody's like, no, no.
They said, give her 80 years, they said.
80 years of community service.
They wanted her to be forced to work at the animal shelter for the next 80 years.
And they're serious.
It's like, what in the world?
I thought 80 hours of community service, the girl just needs a spanking and to go on with her life.
Mom and dad, give her a spanking, get rid of your microwave anyway.
It's better to cook on the stove, right?
You know, microwave's not healthy anyway.
Get rid of the microwave, spank your 15-year-old, and life goes on.
Forget the community service.
But I'm telling you, we live in a weird society.
Now, I had some people make the argument about this story and they said,
well, you know, the reason that Jesus just sent these pigs off the edge of the cliff
is because, you know, he just hates pigs because of the fact that they're unclean beasts.
But the Bible says, you know, what God has cleansed, that call not thou common or unclean.
And just, what, a few years later, he's going to open the door wide for all kinds of animals to be.
And he's going to be telling Peter to kill and eat these animals, you know.
And some of these pigs could have still been alive for that barbecue.
So it just doesn't make any sense.
But just say, oh, it's just because they were pigs, that's why.
No, because he doesn't care about oxen either.
We just turned there in 1 Corinthians 9.
Just like he doesn't care about pigs, doesn't care about oxen.
Look, God created animals.
We should enjoy their beauty.
We should enjoy their taste and everything like that.
But we need to keep it within the realms of sanity and within biblical realms
of regarding the life of our beast because it does something for us.
I mean, I care about my dog because if it dies, then I'm going to have to go buy a new one.
That's why I care about it, because I need it for home.
I'm just being honest.
That's how much I care about.
But you know who I care about?
People.
Isn't that awful?
We have babies too, but they're actually human.
And we have one every couple of years for a long time now.
So anyway, I just wanted to kind of park in on that because I feel really strongly about this subject,
and it makes me mad.
And we live in a society that just doesn't care about people,
doesn't care about the unborn children,
doesn't care about civilians being massacred in these so-called wars,
even though our country's never declared war on anyone since we declared war on Germany and Japan.
But nobody cares about any of that.
But oh, a squirrel opened an FBI investigation to figure out who kicked that squirrel off the cliff.
And then everybody's afraid to admit that they've kicked stuff, that they've kicked animals.
I mean, look, who has walked up and kicked an animal really far before?
Yeah, hands all over the building.
Bless you, I see that hand.
I mean, who has ever just seen a little animal perching and tweeting and whatever
and just took a rock and just threw a rock at it?
I've been there.
Look, this is like Alcoholics Anonymous.
This is like animal abuser anonymous.
My name's Steven Anderson, and I've killed an innocent animal for absolutely no reason before.
I mean, who's ever been a kid who just went out with your BB gun and just shot something in the head?
We're all sick human beings.
We all deserve the death penalty, according to these people.
But anyway, let me hurry up and finish here.
Actually, I'm not going to finish because I got a little bit carried away on that point.
But as we go down this story, the guy is found seated, clothed, in his right mind.
All the pigs go off the cliff.
Nobody cares.
And it says in verse 14, when they that fed the swine fled,
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 in his right mind, and they were afraid.
And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed with the devil,
and also concerning the swine, and they began to pray him to depart out of their coast.
Now, what kind of people are telling Jesus to leave?
They're like, Jesus, we want you to leave.
We don't want you here because they cared more about those pigs
than what they cared about the man that was saved.
I mean, they should have been rejoicing.
Wow, this is great. This is amazing.
I mean, here this guy's been saved, and he's sitting, he's clothed in his right mind.
What power of God. What a blessing.
And yet, they're just, all they can see is the pigs.
That's all they're thinking about.
We need to get our heart on people and not on animals.
And we need to get our heart on spiritual things and physical things.
Well, but they lost all that money.
But you know what? That guy's soul was worth more than all the money in the world.
And thank God for this man that was saved.
And you know, this is a really touching story.
It's a really moving story when you read the end of it here.
Because it says in verse 17, they began to pray him to depart out of their coast,
and when he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil
prayed that he might be with him.
I mean, this guy, not only is this guy clothed in his right mind,
this guy just longs to just follow Christ.
He wants to go with Jesus.
I mean, he understands the magnitude of what has happened and his salvation.
He wants to go and, you know, be with Jesus.
But it says in verse 19, albeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith 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 I love how it says this.
Jesus says, go tell them the great things the Lord has done for you,
and he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for them,
and all men did.
I mean, this guy knows that Jesus is the Lord.
When somebody tells him, go tell them what the Lord did, he tells them what Jesus did.
You know, it seems like even Christians today sometimes forget that Jesus is the Lord.
You know, they talk about God and the Lord all the time.
You know, I want to hear the word Jesus.
You know, I get tired of it when people just talk all about God, God, God, God, the Lord, the Lord,
and then they won't say the name of Jesus.
And a lot of public figures are like this.
Chaplains are told, hey, don't use Jesus, just say God and the Lord.
Hey, there's a name that's above all other names.
There's a name that at every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
There's none other name given under heaven whereby we must be saved.
And it's funny, whenever you read Christian articles that are really super positive about Israel and the Jews,
they don't mention Jesus.
Because it would be so stupid talking about, oh, our brothers, our Jewish brothers over there,
oh, the Lord's fighting.
I mean, what if they switched it out for Jesus and said, you know what?
Jesus is really fighting for the Israeli army over there.
Wouldn't it sound stupid?
Like, oh, man, Jesus is really giving them the victory over there in Israel.
I mean, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu is really being helped by Jesus right now.
Jesus Christ is helping them against their enemies, the Arabs.
You know, it would sound stupid because they don't believe in Jesus.
They don't pray to Jesus.
They reject and hate Jesus.
And in fact, I was just reading about a law that they had enacted over there in Israel
that could give you up to a five-year prison sentence for giving a Jew a New Testament in Israel.
Yeah, I was just reading up on that law that was passed.
But it's funny how everybody, when they get all Zionist and start getting all pro-Israel,
it's like they just stop using the word Jesus just for a little while.
Just talk about God, the Lord, you know, sound all Old Testament.
You know, I like that name Jesus.
That's what we ought to always be having on our tongues.
I mean, God is great. The Lord is great.
Those are great names, but, you know, Jesus is the name that's above all names.
And that name, if you write an article and it doesn't make sense if you insert Jesus,
something's wrong with what you're writing.
Something's wrong with your doctrine.
You know, Jesus is the name that this guy used when he went around telling people,
he said, you know, I'm not just going to tell you what the Lord did.
I'm going to tell you what Jesus did because Jesus is the Lord.
So I really like that part of the story, how he goes out and publishes in Decapolis
how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel.
You say, all that for just one guy to get saved, 20 verses?
Yeah, but one guy didn't get saved.
This guy went out and got a bunch of other people saved.
So when we get one soul saved, we don't really know how many we're saving
because when we get one saved, who knows how many God's going to use him to get saved going forward.
But let's just go through a couple things quickly here.
It says in verse 21, when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side,
much people gathered unto him, and he was nigh unto the sea.
And behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name.
And when he saw him, he fell at his feet and besought him greatly, saying,
My little daughter lieth at the point of death.
I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed, and she shall live.
Now one thing I want to quickly point out is that often the Jews were saying,
Hey, none of the chief priests and rulers have believed on him.
Now I'm not saying this guy was one of the chief rulers, but this guy was the ruler of the synagogue,
and this guy had faith in Jesus.
Plus, there were other Pharisees and rulers who believed on Jesus,
but it was secretly for fear of the Jews.
But they still believed on him, but they just didn't want to confess it publicly.
This guy is the ruler of the synagogue, and his daughter is at the point of death.
He comes to Jesus.
Now while Jesus is on the way to go heal this guy's daughter,
it says in verse 25, a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
and had, watch this, suffered many things of many physicians.
So who's making this woman suffer?
The doctor.
It says she suffered many things of many physicians,
and it spent all that she had.
Now do you believe that?
It's easy to spend all that you have on physicians.
It's so expensive.
I mean, your money will just be gone so fast.
And was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse.
Now we can see right here that it is possible for the doctor to make you worse.
Take all your money, make you worse.
Now I'm not one that's just totally against doctors,
because the Bible says they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick.
So they that are sick sometimes need a physician.
You know, Luke was the beloved physician and whatever.
So I'm not against doctors, and I've known good doctors and nice doctors,
but let me say this though.
A lot of doctors are quacks and charlatans,
and most doctors are atheists,
because they go to this atheistic institution for so many years,
and even if they're a Christian,
they get taught all this atheistic philosophy about the human body, about medicine.
It's not based on God's word.
It's not based on the Bible.
And so what I believe the wise Christian would do
is that number one, they would not go to the doctor
unless they are sick, unless there's a problem.
If you're well, no need to go to a doctor, okay?
And then secondly, I would say this.
When you go to the doctor,
don't just go there and just mindlessly just believe
and follow everything that they tell you.
You should do your own research
and get a second opinion and talk to people
and listen to other advice and other opinions
and read books and don't just take what they say as gospel
or you might end up like this woman that just suffers at their hands,
because they will sometimes make you worse,
and a lot of times, it's all in the name of money
because they're getting kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies,
and the more they prescribe that drug, the more bonuses they get,
and they're brought in as a guest speaker by that pharmaceutical company,
and paid $6,000 to make a 30-minute speech,
and so there's a lot of corruption.
If you read up on it, you'll find out that what I'm saying is true.
So be careful with doctors.
They're dangerous, okay?
Now, they can help you sometimes.
Now, they're great for certain things.
You know, if you get in a car accident
and you're gushing blood and everything,
I mean, they're good at fixing you up and putting you back together quickly.
When you actually have an acute problem
or some kind of a trauma or some kind of a thing happen,
you know, they're good at sewing you up and stabilizing you and things like that,
but when it comes to chronic issues,
that's usually where they just take advantage of you and abuse you,
and even if they're good people and their heart's in the right place,
you know, sometimes they're just a tool of the pharmaceutical company
who only cares about making money.
That's all they care about.
They don't care how many people get sick and die and so forth.
So be careful with that.
That's what the Bible's warning us about there.
Of course, she comes behind Jesus.
She touches the hem of his garment,
and that's enough for her to be healed and so on and so forth.
Then it says in verse 35,
While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said,
Thy daughter's dead.
Why troublest thou the master any further?
As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken,
he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue,
Be not afraid, only believe.
And he suffered no man to follow him,
save Peter and James and John the brother of James.
And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue,
and seeth the tumult, and then that wept and wailed greatly.
And when he was come in, he saith unto them,
Why maketh this ado and weep?
The damsel's not dead, but sleepeth.
And they laughed him to scorn.
But when he had put them all out,
he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel,
and them that were with him,
and he entered in where the damsel was lying,
and he took the damsel by the hand and said unto her,
Talithia kumai, which is Aramaic language,
for some reason the Greek New Testament here
decides to just throw in these two Aramaic words
just to give exactly what Jesus said.
Just basically, perhaps because Jesus was not always speaking Aramaic,
or perhaps just for some reason
God wanted to give us the exact wording here.
You know, there's a lot of question and debate
about what language Jesus spoke and everything.
Most people think that Jesus spoke Aramaic
and a lot of it is based upon statements like this
where it gives his exact wording in Aramaic.
But of course, you know,
there is a chance that he was also speaking Greek,
even though that freaks people out when you say that.
Aramaic, Greek, those are the languages that were spoken
in that part of the world at that time, mainly.
But, you know, it's probably Aramaic,
but either way, these words are in Aramaic for your information.
And it says, which is being interpreted,
damsel, I say unto thee, arise,
and straightway the damsel arose and walked,
for she was of the age of twelve years,
and they were astonished with a great astonishment,
and he charged them straightly that no man should know it,
and commanded that something should be given her to eat.
So just a couple quick things to point out about that last story.
First of all, this is one of Jesus' greatest miracles,
because obviously he healed a lot of people,
but raising somebody from the dead is on an even higher level.
And, you know, he did this a few times.
Remember the funeral procession,
where he touches the casket and the boys raise.
Here he raises this girl. There's the raising of Lazarus.
These are major miracles,
where people really have to pay attention to this,
because, remember, they're laughing at him
when he says she's not dead.
They know she's dead.
And she was, by all human definition, dead.
He said, oh, she sleepeth,
because he knows he's going to go to awake her.
But this major miracle, everybody didn't get to see it.
Only Peter, James, and John.
You know, one of the things that we can learn from that
is that if we really want to see God do great things
and really want to see the great miracles,
you've got to be close to God.
You know, you've got to be close.
And here's the thing.
The 12 were already close,
but there were the three that were even closer,
because there were great multitudes that followed Jesus,
thousands of people.
But Jesus didn't bring thousands of people and say,
all right, you're going to see a great miracle now,
thousands of people.
Only the three got to go ahead, Peter, James, and John.
So we don't want to be one of the thousands.
We want to be one of the 12.
And we don't just want to be one of the 12.
We want to be one of the three.
And we don't even want to just be one of the three.
We want to be like John,
who was the one that leaned on Jesus' breast
at the Last Supper, the disciple whom Jesus loved.
You know, the closer we are to Jesus,
the more we're going to see.
These three were the same ones who saw the transfiguration.
And so that shows us that there are great rewards
and benefits and amazing things
for those who will get close to Jesus
and get close to Him
and be a part of that inner circle, spiritually speaking.
And He raises the girl from the dead, of course,
picturing salvation of the Spirit being raised from the dead.
Every single time a person is saved,
their body's not raised,
but their spirit is resurrected from the dead.
And that's what that symbolizes as well.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for this chapter in the Bible, Lord,
and just the great salvation that we see
in the first of the man who's demon-possessed,
then we see the woman who had the issue of blood for 12 years
and had been a victim of medical malpractice, Lord,
and then we see also the young girl
that was the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue
who's brought back from the dead.
And we know that you have the same power today, Lord,
and help us to go out and preach the Word of God
that the power of the Gospel might resurrect people spiritually, Lord,
and help us to use Your wisdom through Your Word
to understand that the psychiatric industry,
the pharmaceutical industry, the medical industry,
a lot of times are failing
as a result of just not regarding Your Word
and operating from an atheistic viewpoint, Lord.
So help us not to just take everything that they say as gospel, Lord,
but help us rather to stay away from psychotropic drugs
and mind-altering drugs
and to trust You for spiritual healing, Lord, and mental healing.
And also, Lord, when it comes to physical ailments,
help us first always to turn to You in prayer
before we ever turn to the doctor.
And then when we go to the doctor,
help us to bring the wisdom of Your Word with us.
In Jesus' name we pray.