Mark 5:1 – And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

Mark 5:2 – And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

Mark 5:3 – Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

Mark 5:4 – 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.

Mark 5:5 – And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

Hello readers, today we have a new blog. I do hope you read this, and I do hope you get something out of it. In the gospels, we read the story of the man they called the “demoniac of Gadera”. This guy was crazy. He was mad. You can read about him and the day he met Jesus Christ in Matthew 8, Mark 5 and Luke 8. But rather than reading this and thinking you’re so different to him, rather than reading it like God isn’t speaking to you of your need for Jesus Christ, today we want to see if you, the reader can pass the crazy test.

Jesus came over the lake on a ship and landed in the country of the Gadarenes. This was where the tribe of Gad had settled. They’d said… this land is good enough for us Moses! They didn’t settle in the promised land. They settled for a compromise. Oh yes they were close, they could look into the land that they should have settled in, but they choose this side of Jordan. Maybe that’s your life, you’re an almost, you’re a compromiser, you take the bits of Christianity you like, you don’t go too extreme, and you take your slice of the world too. There’s going to be consequences, and much more far reaching than you think, for the decisions you make in your life. How far you want to go with God? Well they said this is far enough, we’ve had enough battles out here, we’ve killed a few kings, this land will do us fine.

Well no sooner had Jesus hopped off the boat and he was confronted with the man in question. We never know his actual name, but we are introduced to the devils that owned this man. He was caught by Satan. Maybe you think you’re free, maybe you think you’ve got liberty, maybe you think you’re in grace… but really in your life you’re caught by an unclean spirit. This guy had an unclean spirit.  He didn’t have the Holy Spirit, he had an unclean spirit. What kind of spirit do you have today? See, maybe you think you aren’t as crazy as this man, hey you’d never let things go this far… but is your life marked by holiness or uncleanness?  How clean is your heart? Your thought life? Your life? Are you full of adultery, lies, envy, bitterness, lust, unforgiveness, resentment, deceit? See that’s all unclean stuff. That spirit has caught quite a few people. What spirit do you really have? Maybe you should ask someone else… what spirit do you think I have? Is it excellent, holy, pure, is it the Spirit of truth?

Well, this man dwelt among the tombs. He surrounded himself with death. Maybe you do that as well. Oh no you’re not around human cemeteries, but your life is full of death. There’s no spiritual life in you. Maybe your life is all death. Your thought life is death, your ambitions are death, your heart is full of death… that’s all this world has to offer you is dead stuff. Jesus Christ came to give life, if you don’t have him, you have no life. You’re clinging onto dead things. Is your life empty, dry, barren, unfruitful… is it really as dead as that spirit in you? See, when you get saved, your spirit gets quickened by the Holy Spirit… quickened means to be made alive. If you aren’t saved you’re just as crazy and obsessed with dead things as this man full of devils was.

Other men had tried helping this guy. But their helping wasn’t doing much good. Rather than a fix, they tried to contain him. All this world’s fixes and your fixes to your problems in life, all they’re going to do is bind you up. No human restraints can help the problem of sin that you have. Look at how things like drugs, alcohol, sex and so on take over people’s lives, they’re slaves to it. This guy was a slave to the devils that possessed him. You live in sin, you choose rebellion, and you’re going to get devils… and he didn’t just have one or two… he had MANY. He had come under the power and dominion of the devil… is that your life? Oh no you’re not crazy like this guy, but Judas Iscariot, the esteemed apostle of Jesus Christ and above suspicion to the rest… he had a devil too. Someone who went to church had a devil just like someone who was living like a wild man in the country.

One other thing we see about this guy is that he had no rest, no peace, no joy. He was cutting himself, crying, he wasn’t happy. Is that you? You have no rest, you have no peace, you have no fulfillment… maybe you’re not so different to this man after all. You see, we all need Jesus Christ, not just the crazy demon possessed guy. Your sin can’t be tamed… stop trying to tame it. Men had tried to tame this wild man, but your sin can’t be tamed. It has to be acknowledged, confessed, and forgiven, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. There is no fix without Jesus Christ.

This man’s identity was completely consumed by his sin. You see, you choose sin in your life, you think you can take it and leave it as you choose, you think you’re in control, you may think you’re free man, you think you’re an independent thinker, you really think you’ve found the good life in a life of sin. But guess what, you’re not your own person, your life is defined and dictated to by where your lust and pride, and Satan running your life takes you, he OWNS you. No amount of restraints can help when you get to that state. That’s why religion fails, it places restraints, but it doesn’t fix the problem. If we have a sin nature, placing a whole heap of religion on top of it to try and tame it… it’ll never work, it’ll never help.  This guy had been in this state a long time the Bible says. How long will be long enough before you call on the name of the Lord? Sin will strip you naked, literally and spiritually. It’ll strip you of righteousness, it’ll strip your morality, decency, your joy, your peace, your happiness, all your potential for life… it’ll strip you and leave you with nothing.

This guy did something that was not quite so crazy. He saw Jesus Christ and ran to him. For a crazy person, that was quite a sane thing to do. He wanted freedom, he wanted to be in his right mind, he wanted to know peace and joy. Sin had taken him a lot further than he thought possible. When did the devil get in? Maybe from a very young age. In the young years Satan can quickly take over a child’s life. Jesus healed a man’s son who had been the way he was from a child. Satan doesn’t play fair, he wants children, he wants to ruin your life before it’s even started.

Maybe you think you’re not crazy. Nobody thinks they’re crazy. Nobody thinks they’re mad. In today’s society the people who get called crazy and mad are those that believe the Bible. It’s funny because Jesus Christ got accused of having a devil. This generation doesnt need help, they don’t need truth, they don’t need a Saviour. I got it sorted man. But the problem is the devil is running rampant. This world is full of devils. When Jesus asked the man his name… the devils in him answered. See, he was OWNED by them. And he said, my name is Legion, for we are many. There are many people just like this man, many have devils. You wonder why our society has gone so crazy, it’s full of devil possession. Why else do people act and think and speak like they do? It’s not normal, natural, it’s not logical, it’s not coherent… people have gone truly crazy.

So you get to this part of the blog and we’ve been talking about the crazy man of the Gadarenes.  And we’ve talked about the crazy of Gadera. But that wasn’t the crazy test. The crazy test is now reader. You see, there’s another group of people in this story, the people of that country. You see, this guy got healed, Jesus Christ got rid of this guy’s devils, he sent them out of him. And this man, it was a miracle, he went from crazy to completely in his right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus Christ. People came out to see what was going on because the devils had been sent into their pigs and the devils had possessed the pigs and they’d all run into the sea and drowned in the water. So they come out to see what’s going on. And they came and saw the man, and they heard who had healed him. What an amazing miracle, salvation had come to this madman’s life, and here he is clothed and sane and coherent and at peace and happy and full of joy… and guess what they do… after all they heard and saw… they told Jesus Christ to get lost.

That’s crazy!

See, the true craziness wasn’t this guy full of devils. He was nuts because he was possessed and caught and enslaved and couldn’t help himself and nobody could help him or fix him. He was behaving in a way because he had a big spiritual problem. But he saw Jesus Christ, and ran to him, he knew he needed forgiveness, cleansing, he knew he needed Jesus Christ to give him deliverance, to save his wretched life.  Compare that to the craziness of equally lost sinners, oh they’re more dignified, they’ve got it together… but compare that to the craziness of people who also need the Saviour, and they don’t want him! They  said get back on your boat Jesus, you’re not welcome here. They valued their pigs more than the Son of God. How could you observe someone getting saved, and come to the conclusion that this man called Jesus Christ is someone who we don’t want around? What is crazier than rejecting Jesus Christ? Do you turn Jesus Christ away in your life? Do you turn his salvation, his word, his promises, his authority away? Who was more crazy in the end… the ones who wanted Jesus to go… or the one who believed on him and got saved?

Hint, just because everyone is rejecting Jesus Christ, doesn’t mean you should. Only one man got saved in that country… the crazy of the tombs. Humans feel secure because of other humans living just like them, and they feel less bad than others as they compare themselves, and they follow what everyone else is doing… but that’s stupid! Jesus had arrived, he’s arrived to save you. That’s why he was born in a manger on this earth, that’s why he entered his creation, that’s why he was born of a woman, that’s why he lived a sinless life, he had a mission… to deal with your sin, so he could save you from it. We’re all crazy without Jesus Christ. At the end of this story, the crazy man was sane, and the sane guys… they were truly nuts. Funny that isn’t it? Reminds me of another story of a blind man that saw, and the seeing guys who were made blind in the book of John.

The crazy test is… are you like the men of this city? You’re pretty dignified, you’ve got your life together, you’ve got your friends, and your job, and your hobbies and sports and fun… whatever… your life is sorted… and you don’t need a trouble maker like Jesus Christ who challenges your world in your life. How many people won’t believe because they don’t want anything to do with Jesus Christ, the Bible, truth anything. They want no part of it. Leave me along God and let me have my normal, peer approved, comfortable made life. No wonder the devils didn’t want to leave that country… let us stay here Jesus! This is our kind of people! The people of that country felt more comfortable with devils in the country than the Lord Jesus Christ in their country…. who’s really mad?

I started the blog and discussed this crazy guy and how we are more alike him than we think… and we saw that we are perhaps not so different. We all need Jesus Christ. He wasn’t the only one who needed Jesus Christ in that country. It’s not crazy to be unhappy, without peace, without joy, lost, in darkness, struggling, hopeless… this man was crazy because he had been stripped off everything in his life. That’s why he acted the way he did. The true craziness is when you reject Jesus Christ, when the truth comes to you just as Jesus Christ arriving in that land… and saying get outta here. This man was just acting how any of us would act if we were possessed with thousands of devils. This man was just acting how you act when a life of sin and devil possession takes you so far into the darkness that there seems to be no way out. We live in a world that is crazy, full of true craziness because they reject the light, they reject the truth, they reject the Saviour. That’s truly crazy.

Have you turned your back on Jesus Christ and his word? You’re the one that needs your head read, you’re the one with it less together than those people you think you’re better than. Do you pass the crazy test? You do not pass it if you’re like the men of that country. Oh you’re offended by Jesus, you’re upset by him, he’s inconvenienced you, he hasn’t fit with your schedule and your thinking and your little life. God’s word exposes your life that is so fat and full on sin, that’s why you want him gone… because it’s too revealing and too inconvenient. And that makes you crazy. See, you make yourself crazy by your own choices. You make yourself crazy by your own choice in rejecting Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, the life… the Saviour of the world.

They wanted Jesus to go because he cost them some money… and Jesus is going to cost you some of your self righteous rubbish, and cost you things like admitting you’re wrong, and cost you your pride and envy and lust. He made them afraid, and your fear of man and fear of what others think and fear of getting exposed and fear of truth and fear of the life of Christ is why you reject him. It’s not his fault, it’s your fault you’re not saved. And they weren’t even happy for the guy who was finally healed. Just shows they didn’t truly care for him… they were a bunch of fakes and pretenders and hypocrites… just as all crazy, lost, unrepentant, unbelieving sinners are. Jesus has arrived in your life today, believe on him, get saved, and get clothed with his righteousness and finally… finally get in your right mind at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ… and then you’ll pass the crazy test.

Luke 8:34 – When they that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and in the country.

Luke 8:35 – Then they went out to see what was done; and came to Jesus, and found the man, out of whom the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.

Luke 8:36 – They also which saw it told them by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.

Luke 8:37 – Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.

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