Could we turn in God's Word, please, to Mark's Gospel, chapter 1? Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, and we'll break into the chapter at verse 14, and we'll read through to verse 28. Mark's Gospel, chapter 1, and we'll commence reading at verse 14 through to verse 28. Let us hear the word of the Lord. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the kingdom of God and saying, repent, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel. Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him. And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him. And they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority and not as his scribes. And there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, Let us alone! What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? And what new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee. Amen. We'll have a word of prayer and we'll look to the Lord to bless the preaching of His truth as we seek to give the sense of Holy Scripture. Let's pray and ask His blessing. Our Father in heaven, we thank Thee that we come to a word that is truth. We thank Thee, Father, O God, for the blessing of it. to our hearts and for the privilege that we have had of hearing it read in our ears, in our own mother tongue. Lord, we think of the many unreached people groups of this world who haven't even a verse of the Scripture, Lord, in their language. And yet, Lord, we're so blessed we have the complete and full revelation of God. And God, we pray now as we come to preaching, thy truth, Lord and Father in heaven. I ask that you would empty me of sin and self and cleanse me in the blood of the Lamb. Take from me any self-sufficiency or any confidence in the flesh. and fill me with the Holy Ghost and with power. This is a dying need of this hour, O God, that we have Holy Ghost preaching. We pray, Father, that the Spirit of the Lord would come, that He would superintend the preaching of the Word, that the divine author of Scripture would be the divine teacher and the illuminator of it, O God. We pray, O God, that He will come and open our hearts to the Word and open the Word to our hearts. O God, we pray for every heart that is gathered. Lord, I know us to need. You know Thine own children, seeking to learn, seeking to be edified, seeking to grow in grace and the knowledge of their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Feed them this morning, I pray. You know those that are cold in heart. We pray that they would know the experience of their heart burning again within them, as Christ would talk with them by the way. Remember those that are outside of Jesus Christ. We pray that you'll captivate them this morning, that you'll grab their attention, that you'll solemnize this place. Lord, take from our hearts and our minds that we're just playing church, that we're just here to fulfill a responsibility, to tick a box. Oh God, help us to realize that we are in the presence of the almighty triune God. O God, come down upon us. Solemnize this atmosphere. Give us a sense of Thy presence, we ask of Thee. For we pray this in Jesus' name and for our Savior's everlasting glory. Amen. Now the Savior having been baptized by John and anointed by the Holy Ghost, and proved impeccable by his temptations, and summed up his message with those two words, repent and believe, and then called four unknown, unlearned, untrained fishermen to follow him, the Lord Jesus Christ begins his public ministry in earnest. We read there in verse 21. He didn't come to hide his light. He didn't come to hide it under a bushel, but he got to the work straight away. There was no dilly-dallying with the Lord Jesus Christ, but he came to do the will of his Father that sent him. You look at verse 21, and there we read, And they went into Capernaum, and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. Now Capernaum became the base of the Lord Jesus Christ's ministry while he was in the region of Galilee. We learn this in Luke chapter 4 when he speaks about his own ministry and he said that no prophet is accepted in his own country. And he spoke that when he was in Capernaum. Capernaum was a little town. It was situated on the western shores of the Sea of Galilee, near its head. Though it was small, it was busy, it was thriving. It was a bustling market town, and in that town, there was produce from the surrounding farmland and vineyards, and the sea were all brought there and sold in that little village. Coming into Capernaum, the Savior, He enters into the synagogue. And the origin of the synagogue, it takes us back to the time of the Babylonian captivity. The Jews had been removed from the sacrificial system of the temple. But it didn't stop them from wanting to hear the word of the Lord and praising the Lord, and so they gathered themselves together and they started to build little meeting houses for their assemblies, that they would hear the reading of the law and they would offer prayer and praise unto God. Now when they returned, And even though the statelier institution of the temple was restored, these little houses, these little meeting houses, they remained. And they were established in villages and towns around the land of Israel. In fact, Ezra, Ezra is a man that is accredited with establishing the synagogue network system in the land of Israel. He is the one who instituted the 120 men of which he was president. It was the precursor of the Sanhedrin. And Ezra is a man that is associated with the institution of the synagogues. Now this synagogue was of particular interest because this synagogue, it was raised, it was built at the expense of a Roman soldier, a large-hearted man. whom when they came to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked the Savior to heal this man's servant, they said of him that he loveth our nation and he hath built us a synagogue. So this was the synagogue that that Roman centurion had built. And in verse 21, we see that the Lord Jesus Christ, he entered into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. Now in the Greek there it tells us that the Savior entered in on the Sabbath day, but it really comes through more when we look at the original, for there it says, on the Sabbath days. And even though we have one particular day in focus here and one particular event, in the original it suggests to us and it conveys to us that this was the Savior's habit to attend the house of God on the Lord's day. It was His practice, it was His custom. He was a regular attender at the house of God. I wonder, can that be said of you? Are you a regular attender at the house of God? This is what the Savior did. This is the one whom you profess to follow. He regularly attended the house of God, the means of grace, where the law was read and prayer was offered. Will you be in your seat tonight? Will you be a regular attender at God's house? Is this your practice? Is this your habit? Or are you here one week, and not the next, here for two weeks and gone for a few weeks. Well, that was not the Savior. See, the Savior, He didn't come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. How many times have you and I dishonored the Lord's day, and yet here's the Savior, and He's just going about His ministry, the will of the Father, and He's fulfilling all righteousness for us. There's none of us will be able to keep the Sabbath day perfectly. at all times throughout her life, but Christ did. And He was fulfilling all righteousness for us. Well, this sets the context for what we want to consider this morning. And this morning I want to think about simply Christ in the synagogue at Capernaum. Christ in the synagogue at Capernaum, and we're going to look at three headings. We're going to look at the expounding of the doctrine. and then the exorcism of the demon, and then the effect of the deed. So the first thing we're going to consider is the expounding of doctrine. When Christ came into Capernaum, He straightway applied Himself to His work. He took the first opportunity that was afforded to Him to preach the gospel. Now mark here, He refers to Christ preaching and teaching frequently. But Mark doesn't record much of the Savior's discourses. See, Mark is really the evangelist. He is the one that records the Savior's deeds. But here he takes opportunity right at the very beginning of the Savior's ministry to speak and to record the Savior's preaching. You see, Mark wanted to emphasize, he wanted to emphasize the great difference, the great difference that would strike Christ's hearers and the hearers of others. You see, the worship in synagogues, it wasn't instituted by Moses. And it was comparatively free and conventional and sometimes a stranger would come in and men would be of note. They would look like men of importance and they would be afforded a place to speak. You could think of Paul in Acts chapter 13. There was other times that men would present themselves to speak in the synagogue and we read that the Savior does this in the synagogue at Nazareth in Luke chapter 4. The synagogue typically had no set teachers. They had a ruler which would have set out what needed to be read on a certain day, but they had no set teacher. And this gave men the opportunity to make use of a custom that was called the freedom of the synagogue. And this gave Christ an opportunity to preach, and he took it. He took the opportunity that was given to him to preach and to teach. How often do you and I let opportunities pass us by to speak for Christ? And here's the freedom of the synagogue, it's opened up, and Christ, He steps forward and He begins to teach the people. And how often do you and I let opportunities among our neighbors, among our friends, our families, our work colleagues, how often do we let little opportunities pass by? What were you doing yesterday? Well, I don't really do much on the Lord's Day. Well, how about we take the opportunity and say I was in the house of God? And the man of God was preaching on such and such, and you begin to teach and speak to those around you. No social issues arise and we stay silent. We hear people blaspheme the name of Christ and take the name of the Lord in vain and we stay silent. No, I'm not saying we stand up and hammer them and beat the desk and do whatever else, but we have an opportunity to say, excuse me, You know, that's my Lord and Savior. I wonder how many opportunities that we have let pass by us this week that has passed. And I want to ask another question, and I ask it to my own heart. I wonder how many times we have prayed for opportunities to speak a word for Jesus Christ. Christ, He took the opportunity. The hymn writer said, speak just a word for Jesus. Tell of his love for man, someone distressed may listen, willing to trust him then. See, not only did the Savior preach exerting man and woman, but he taught instructing man and woman. He taught them. He entered into Capernaum on the Sabbath day in the synagogue. He taught the men. He gave them instruction through the Word of God. And it is the entrance of God's Word that gives men light. It's God's words that matter. They're words of pure wisdom. There's so much ignorance in the world today. There's so much foolishness in the world today. PC has gone completely mad. And a lot of their arguments are illogical. But God's Word It's a word we can trust. It's a word we can depend upon. The feature of Christ preaching that Mark, he wants to emphasize, the feature that astounded the villagers and amazed them that day was that it came with authority. They said, Mark, he doesn't record the content of what Christ taught, but he does record the reaction of the individuals because Christ taught them as one that had authority and not as the scribes. There's a great contrast with Christ's teaching and that of the scribes. They were professional but not powerful. They were intellectual but not effectual. And we need men today in the pulpit that are not just brain boxes. We need men in the pulpit today that are filled with the Holy Ghost and with power. And I prayed in the prayer meeting, and we can go to these places and other churches for funerals and weddings, whatever, and all these men have lovely constructed sermons, and they speak with this patronizing voice, and have a head full of knowledge, but their heart is cold and indifferent, and they haven't the power of God. There's a great difference here. Christ had authority because he was sent from God, and we need men that are sent from God, and you need a man in this pulpit that is not chosen by men, but is sent from God. That's what you need. See, the call. The call is the need. The need is not the call. You need a pastor. You need a minister. But that is not the call of God. You need a man that has been sent from God because he will have authority in the pulpit. And Christ, he had authority. He was a sent man. He came with a message from God. He was the message. Christ believed what he taught. And when you believe what you speak about, What you teach, it'll come across with authority to your hearers. Now, child of God, do you believe? Really believe what you profess? Are you speaking to someone in a half-felt, half-peddled truth? It'll not come with authority. Oh, we're almost apologetic today in our Christian life. In the church of Jesus Christ needs men and women and young people and individuals that know what they believe. Because then they'll have authority and weight. This was just another example of the Savior's authority. He had authority over the wild beasts in the wilderness when he was tempted. He had authority calling His four disciples from the seashore. And as we'll see in a moment, He had authority over the demons. He has authority because He's Lord. He is Lord of all. This man from Nazareth, Jesus Christ, is Lord of all. And have you submitted to Him? Have you submitted to His keenly authority? Have you bowed the knee to Him? because he cannot be your savior if he is not your Lord. The expounding of doctrine, but secondly we have the exorcism of the demon. Christ's teaching was backed up by a miracle, by the casting out of the demon. who Christ claimed He was and what He taught was backed up with signs and wonders. Why do we not have signs and wonders today? Because God has said all, all that He needs to say. The revelation of God was vindicated, was attested by miracles, signs and wonders. Verse 23 it says, And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out. As Christ taught, there was a man in the congregation and he came out with an outburst. He was under the influence of a demonic spirit. And I thought about this coming down the road this morning. There was a devil among the congregation. We came in that morning, and no one said, you're not allowed in here. This is the house of God. He deceived those around him. And he sat among them with an unclean spirit. And I wonder as I look across this congregation of people, is there an individual It is not the Holy Spirit indwelling them, but they have another spirit, and they're among the congregation of God's people. Now, there is an interesting thought which comes across in the Greek Because this man was with an unclean spirit, and this word with, it's a preposition, it means in. And this statement, a man with an unclean spirit, it's the same idiom that the apostle Paul uses when he speaks of being in Christ and in the Lord. You and I, we speak of being in love or in a fever, and we could say that this man was in the demon and this demon was in the man. It had wholly encapsulated him. It had possessed him. Christ lives in believers by the Spirit and indwells them, so too the unbeliever can be indwelt by an unclean spirit if the invitation is extended either consciously or unconsciously. And that's why it's dangerous to dabble in anything that is occultic. Spiritism, astrology, mysticism, drugs, alcohol, because it opens a door to an unclean spirit, either consciously or unconsciously, and an unclean spirit can come in. These are doors that you and I are better to leave unopened. Sinner, don't dabble in such things. You invite trouble to yourself. He tells us this man, he cried out, or rather the unclean spirit cried out because the spirit had possessed his organs and used his voice to cry out, disrupting the service. And I wonder, do you disrupt the service? Do you chat? Do you poke the person beside you? Take them away from the hearing of the law. And here was the devil at his work, distracting the law as was read and expounded, even the very Son of God as he preached. In verse 24 we have the words of the demon. He says, let us alone. What have we to do with thee? And how often sinners cry out the same cry, let us alone. Don't tell us about heaven. Don't tell us about hell. Don't tell us about our sin. Don't tell us about Jesus Christ. Just live and let live. Don't tell me about Jesus Christ. That is the spirit. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. And sinners don't know. and realize that they're under the influence and control of another. Satan is their master. Satan is their lord. Satan is their father. Those that reject the gospel, they're not at liberty. They're in bondage. The unclean spirit goes on to say, what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? And Matthew Henry, he points out here that with these comments, the unclean spirit designed to possess the minds of people with low thoughts of Christ, because no good thing came out of Nazareth. You see, the scribes would have known that the Messiah was to come out of Bethlehem. And here the unclean spirit seeks to undermine the person of Jesus Christ, seeks to portray Him as a deceiver. This man's not the Messiah, this man's not the sent of God, this man's just from Nazareth, and we all know nothing good comes out of there. That's what the cults seek to do. They undermine the person of Christ. They don't call him God. They maybe say he's some special creation of God, even the first creation of God, but that's what they do. It's a spirit of wickedness. The devil always seeks to undermine the person and work of Jesus Christ. It has to be said, a confession is drawn forth out of this spirit, this unclean spirit. For he says, I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. The demon had to admit that the temptations in the wilderness did not stain Jesus Christ. He is the impeccable one. The one who is not able to sin. The one who overcame sin. and the one who was unable to be overcome by it. He had to say, Thou art the Holy One of God. But in verse 25 we have the words of the Deliverer. Christ, he says, hold thy peace and come out of him. Christ rebuked the demon. Christ refused to receive testimony from such a one. He commanded the Spirit to be quiet. The Spirit was muzzled. Christ's authority was demonstrated. See, there were all our exorcists that worked at the time of Jesus Christ. Read of that in Matthew 12, 27 and Acts 19, 13. And they used long, fanciful rituals and elaborate superstitions and all this enchantment and ceremonies and they often failed, but Christ never failed with a word he spoke. And that's what we see in verse 26, the works of deliverance. Or the work of deliverance, and when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out. Christ delivers men from the bondage of sin and slavery of Satan with a word. He came to set men free. And although it tells us here in Mark that the unclean spirit tore him, It tells us in Luke, in the parallel account, that the Spirit did not hurt him. We tried. The demon tried to hold this man back. The demon tried to inflict pain and sorrow on this man. The Spirit had to be submissive to Jesus Christ. He had to submit to the lordship of Christ. He could do no other. And even though sinners today are unworthy to submit to the Lordship of Christ, there is coming a day that they will. And they'll bow the knee, and they will proclaim Him as Lord. The exposition of doctrine, the exorcism of the demon, but finally the effect of the deed. In verses 27 and 28 we see the effect that this miracle had upon the people. They were all amazed. It was evident what had happened. He was a man clearly possessed of the devil who lay down in the middle of them with convulsions and they had heard a loud voice crying out. And yet they had seen the authority of Christ telling the demon to depart and come out. And so the spectators, they drew the proper inference from what had happened. Here was a new power before them which implied there was a new revelation. See, miracles. Miracles, they attended God's special redemptive revelation. And as I said earlier, that's why you see all these churches that are proclaiming miracles and healings and tongues speaking and all these different supernatural signs, they're lying. Because miracles were given to attest to special revelation of God. So if that's still happening, you know what that means? God's still revealing His redemptive revelation, and that makes your Bible incomplete, and that makes Revelation 22, 18 a lie. God's Word does not lie. And God's Word is complete. These people realized there was someone profound among them, someone who had great power and authority, able to cast out unclean spirits. Only a miracle could produce this effect. These men began to think and reason for themselves. They didn't ask the scribes. They were already shown to be charlatans, pretenders. Men with no authority. But it tells us here that the people, they questioned among themselves, saying, what thing is this? What new doctrine is this? They needed answers. They needed to get to the bottom of this. They debated among themselves. They didn't go to these pretenders. They talked over what they had saw. Christianity is a thinking man's religion. It's not some archaic philosophy. It's not some sort of ancient brainwashing where men don't think for themselves and bury themselves in the sand. But Christianity, true Christianity, yea true repentance, is when men begin to think for themselves, begin to reason for themselves, begin to question what things are all about. But people don't want to do that today. They don't want to think for themselves. They're the ones that are brainwashed. They swallow hook, line, and sinker the big bang. And yet a quick reasoning, a quick questioning of that false theory would soon make it crumble to the ground. How can life spontaneously proceed from non-life? It cannot happen. Life can never come from non-life. But God is life. And so it's natural and reasonable for us to understand that life comes from Him who is life. But they had liked to think that everything just came from nothing. Now it must be noted that even though these people were amazed, we don't read of anyone being converted. You read that here. To be confounded is not to be converted. And this again shows us that men and women are converted alone by sovereign grace, not by signs and wonders. These people were content to let their excitement die out with any change of life. They had no devotion to the new teacher that was before them and his doctrine. They were willing to just get up and go out from the synagogue with no real change. Oh, but they went and they talked. Their tongues were not silent. They went out and spread around the synagogue about what had just happened. In verse 28, we read the word immediately. And this rumor spread with swift speed around the district. The fame of Christ was spread abroad. countryside was talking about Christ. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be great if the countryside was talking about Jesus Christ? But I must confess that we want people to be talking about Christ. We want people to be interested in Jesus Christ. We want people to be interested in the things of God. And yet, how little we speak about Christ ourselves. How can we expect others to show an interest in Jesus Christ if we ourselves do not talk freely and openly and lovingly about Him? The hymn writer said, break our tongues, such guilty silence. How often we're quiet and we don't speak. for the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ in the synagogue at Capernaum. He thought about his expounding of doctrine, his exposition. And never a man spake like this man, and grace was poured into his lips, and from his lips comes forth these gracious words. That he came to set men at liberty, whom the Son sets free. They are free indeed. He thought about the exorcism of the demon, Jesus' name high over all on earth, in hell or sky, angels and men before him fall, and devils fear and fly." Have you thought about the effect of this deed? Men started to think for themselves. The fame of Christ was spread abroad, and we'll see in God's will later on tonight the effect of that. the outworking of that. As Christ's name gets put out into the community and His person and His work is spread abroad, we see the effect of that in the following verses. But I wonder, I wonder is there a devil among us this morning? I wonder is there someone that is deceiving those around You have not the Spirit of Christ. No man can say that Jesus is Lord but by the Spirit. And He's not Lord of your life. He doesn't lead your life. You're not subjected to Him in life. You don't make decisions based on His Word. If that's not you, you have not the Spirit of Christ. You are of another spirit. And I wonder, is there someone among us this morning like that? Christ has come. Christ has come in his power over every unclean spirit, unclean thought, unclean deed. Jesus Christ and his blood can forgive, and he can set you at liberty this morning. I wonder, is there an individual that is willing to submit to Christ and to call upon Him while He is near. Let's bow for a word of prayer and commit the preaching of God's Word to our hearts. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy truth. We thank Thee for our Savior who took every opportunity to preach the Gospel. We thank Thee that He Himself is the Gospel and the message of salvation. God, we live in dark days. We must confess with the words In Ephesians, that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places. Lord, we wrestle against these things. And yet, Lord, we thank Thee that we can say greater is He. that is in us than he that is in the world. We thank you that there is one that is greater than Satan. We thank you that Satan to Jesus must bow. We thank thee with the word spoken, with that word of authority, that the unclean spirit can be cast out. O God, that men and women can be made vessels, Lord, that can be filled with the Holy Ghost and with power. And we pray, Lord, for such in the meeting this morning that are under the bondage of sin and Satan, who are saying unto Christ, let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? We pray, Father, that men and women and young people and boys and girls, God, will submit to Christ. God, help us as your children to take every opportunity. Help us to speak a word for Christ. and help us to believe what we really speak and not peddle some half-felt, half-known truth. O God, bless us as we sing our closing hymn. We ask this in Jesus' name and for His sake. Amen.