Having A ‘Right Mind’

Temple Baptist Church - 5-21-2017

Mark 5:1-20; Luke 8:26-39

Introduction: 

A.  Mark, chapter 4, is noted for the stilling of the storm by our Lord. 

1.  Thus showing both His power over the natural world and His care for His Children.  A world without God is a world without a right mind! 

2.  I have no doubt that Jesus’ fame preceded Him to the land of the Gadarenes because the maniac of Gadara ran to meet Him and worshipped as soon as He stepped on shore.  How did he know who Jesus was?

B.  In verse 1 of our text, we find the introduction of God to the land of the Gadarenes!  Jesus Christ stepped on shore and immediately made a wonderful difference.  He did something that the people of Gadara had tried to do and failed in every attempt. 

1.  Verse 1.  There can be no “right mind” without the knowledge of God and who He is!  Jesus Christ stepped off the boat!  A godless world is just that, Godless.  No wonder God called the man who says in his heart that there is no God a fool. 

a.  There is a knowledge of God found in nature.  I see God all around me.  The touch of an infinite, all wise God who designed perfect, beautiful, infinite universe that declares His glory.

Romans 1:20  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

b.  There is the knowledge of God in Witness.  The maniac of Gadara knew who Jesus was as soon as he saw Him!  He had not only seen but had also heard prior to meeting Christ.

Romans 10:14  How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

2. Verses 2-5.  There was a personal confrontation with God!  The maniac met Him. There can be no right mind without recognition and confrontation! 

a.  Verses 2-3.  Without God, the maniac had no answers.  He lived among the dead.  His family, his friends were destroyed by him and could not live around him.  He continually destroyed both his life and everything around him.  His problem was “an unclean spirit.”  The “god of this world” permeated his mind.

b.  Verses 3-4.  A godless world had no solutions to its problems.  They tried to bind him but could not.  They tried to contain him but could not.  The world has tried everything from drugs to incarceration.  They have applied psychology, training, and medication to change the natural ungodliness of the flesh without success.  Our world gets worse as time goes on because the godless have no real and lasting answers. Eventually, then banned him to live among the tombs and in the mountains.

b.  Verse 5.  The maniac’s own mental and physical life were being destroyed.  No relief (day and night), not peace (crying), no true help (cutting himself).

3.  Verses 6-13. 

a.  Verse 6.  The maniac knew who Jesus was.  The maniac ran to Jesus.  The maniac fell at His feet and worshipped.

b. Verses 7-13.  The devils knew who Jesus was.  The Lord commanded the devils to leave the maniac.  The devils obeyed the Lord’s command.

c.  Jesus Christ is the only solution to the world’s sin problem!

4.  Verses 14-15.  Something wonderful happened!  The man who could not be neither tamed nor helped by self or the worldly wisdom of the man got immediate and complete help from the Lord.

a.  Verse 14.  The world fled instead of recognizing what God had done and worshipping.  The wickedness of unbelief causes a different reaction to Christ.  The maniac ran to His feet while the herdsmen fled the scene!  The world flees the Lord.  Not because they do not believe in Him but because they do not want Him to be Lord of their lives.

b.  Verse 15.  What happened to the maniac when he came to Christ that the world saw?

1)  A man clothed!  A man who was once naked and shameful was clothed.  Godliness causes a world to take off their clothes while godliness will cause the believer to put his clothes on.  The world noted a difference in the man once naked and cutting himself.

2)  A man sitting!  They found the once maniac now sitting at the feet of the Lord.  What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart.  They world cannot understand it and marvels at it.  We are here this morning because of the change that only God can make in our lives.

3)  A man in his “right mind.”  I believe the message here is that the world knows what a “right mind” is but does not want one.  A mind without Christ in a “wrong mind.”  A “right mind” makes us mindful of who and what we were before we met the Master and a knowledge of what is truly right or wrong.

5.  Verses 16-20.  The world’s reaction to a “right mind.” 

a.  Rejection!  They saw the miracle that Jesus performed on one who could not be tamed.  They should have been pleased.  They should have marveled.  They should have sought the One who performed such a miraculous feat.

b.  They “prayed” Him to depart.  They wanted nothing to do with Christ because He caused their pigs to drown!  They cared not that Christ spared both the life of the maniac and the people from having to deal with him anymore.  We who are saved are not breaking the laws, being put into the jails, filling up the mental institutions, or being generally disorderly. 

c.  We are clothed; we are in our “right mind” but the world is more interested in their pigs!