Are You Dwelling In The Tombs?

Introduction

• Appreciation for Brother David for managing the video.
• Gratitude for the Wednesday night message and how it spoke to Pastor Tommy on Thursday evening.
• Prayer request for the message to touch hearts.
• Acknowledging that some may assume everyone is ready, but God knows each person’s soul.
• Personal testimony of getting saved unexpectedly.
• Encouragement to obey God and trust Him as Lord and Savior.
• Reminder of the inevitability of death and the importance of being ready to meet God.
• Reference to Brother Bobby’s scripture reading.

Mark 5:1-6

• Reading of Mark 5:1-6, the story of Legion.
  • “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.”
• Prayer for the word to bring conviction and faith to unbelievers.
• Appreciation for the personal aspect of the brother’s Wednesday sermon.
• The Holy Spirit touched Pastor Tommy’s heart concerning the tombs.

Are You Dwelling in the Tombs?

• Question posed: “Are you dwelling in the tombs?”
• Even saved individuals can have a propensity to return to the tombs (dead stuff, dark places).
• There is no peace, comfort, or fellowship in the tombs.
• The world is lost in dark places.
• A tomb is a place without light.
• Born-again individuals have received the light of Jesus Christ and should not dwell among the tombs.
• Tombs are full of people bound with fetters and chains, unable to free themselves.
• True freedom comes through being born again.

Three Things About the Tombs

• No Light
  • Tombs are dark, signaling that they are not a place for God’s people.
  • Jesus crossed the sea specifically for Legion.
  • Personal testimony of Jesus showing up for Pastor Tommy and saving him.
• No Life
  • The world is full of dead places.
  • Before salvation, individuals are dead in their sins and trespasses.
  • The tombs will give up their dead (those who are dead to Christ).
  • Salvation is necessary to escape the tomb.
• No Warmth
  • Analogy of an old cave near Big Cully: turning off the flashlight reveals a coldness that sinks into the skin.
  • Spiritual places can be cold to God, lacking light and life.
  • The tombs of this world are real, and one can get stuck in them.

Coming Out of the Tombs

• Legion saw Jesus coming.
• The Holy Ghost can do what humans cannot.
• One must see Jesus coming and admit to being in the tomb, unable to break free from bondage.
• God can save individuals today, just as He saved Legion and Pastor Tommy.
• When the Holy Ghost comes, it is unmistakable.
• To be saved, one must turn from sin, darkness, deadness, and coldness.
• Legion came out of the tomb.
• Giving up worldly things is worth it when compared to what God gives.
• One can drink from God’s fountain, which is superior to anything in the tombs.

Legion’s Transformation

• Legion went to meet God.
• The devils possessing him were named Legion, inhabiting 2,000 swine.
• The devils feared Christ and knew who He was.
• Legion fell before Jesus.
• Legion’s dwelling place was among the tombs, a choice to live in darkness.
• People of God have light and life, which can make those in darkness uncomfortable.
• People live in darkness because their deeds are evil, and light exposes their evilness.
• Lost people often avoid church because the light exposes their evil.
• Believers are the light of Christ wherever they go.

Life in the Tombs

• Legion was always in the mountains and tombs, living among corpses and foul odors.
• Analogy of whitewashed sepulchers: clean on the outside but full of dead men’s bones inside.
• Legion was in misery and torment, cutting himself with stones.
• Lost people may put on a facade of happiness, but their souls are not well if they are not right with God.
• There is a propensity to navigate toward the tombs of this world, where there is no life or warmth.
• Jesus can change that.
• Legion was a patchwork of scars from self-mutilation.

Salvation and Transformation

• Pastor Tommy came out of the tombs and into the light.
• Jesus cast out the devils from Legion, who then sat clothed and in his right mind at the feet of Jesus.
• People of God do not return to the tombs.
• The things once loved are now hated.
• If one still loves the things of the tombs, they have not been born again.
• Legion likely hated the light and ventured out of the tombs at night.
• Pastor Tommy remembers crying out and seeing his sin, depravity, and lostness, recognizing the tombs as his home.
• God heard and saved him.
• If one has been born again, their love for the tombs will end.

Victory Over Death and the Tomb

• Reference to 1 Corinthians 15:55: “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
• Jesus defeated death and the tomb through His death and resurrection.
• The tomb is a place absent of the light, life, and warmth of God.
• Some may be cold and indifferent toward God, submerged in the darkness of the tombs.
• The devil seeks to keep out the light that will expose souls to truth and rescue them.
• A day is coming when darkness will consume all unbelievers.
• The tomb is a burial place, a grave, a sepulcher, referred to as Hades or hell.
• If one’s confidence is not in Christ, they may still be in the tomb.
• If Jesus has come to the shore of one’s tomb, He intends to set them free.
• The darkness experienced now is but a shadow of the darkness to come for unbelievers.
• Legion was freed from the darkness of the tomb.
• Jesus told Legion to go back to his city and tell them what He had done for him.
• When one gets out of the tombs, they tell others that they were once lost but now are found.

Call to Action

• Invitation to those who know they are not in the light of Jesus Christ to repent and be saved.
• Come out from among the tombs and be saved today.
• The things once loved are now hated, and the things once hated are now loved.
• Examine yourselves.
• Warning to those who die without God that they will perish in an awful place.
• Come out of those places, come out of the tomb.

Closing Remarks

• There is a difference when one comes into the light of Christ and is saved.
• One will not dwell in the same place as before.
• The message serves as a warning and offers the good news of the gospel.
• It is not God’s will that any perish.