Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3306
“And He asked him, What is your name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.” Mark 5:9.
I THINK the text suggests to us something about Satan, something about self and also something about sin and the Savior
I. Without any preface, let us at once seek to find in the text SOMETHING ABOUT SATAN.
Although an unclean spirit, Legion, like his master, Satan, is very apt to lie. There is no doubt that here, in the Presence of Christ, he spoke the truth when he said, “My name is Legion: for we are many.” So the first thought suggested by the name, “Legion,” is that there are many demons against whom we have to be on the watch in this world. There is one great master power of evil who is called, “your adversary the devil,” but there are also multitudes of demons under his control who are all, like himself, full of hatred to God and to goodness and bent upon doing as much harm as they can to the Kingdom of Christ among men. We do not know how numerous these evil spirits are, but there is reason to believe that there are very many of them, so that it will be no easy task to overcome them—and it is no wonder that there is so much evil in the world when there are so many evil spirits constantly seeking to lead men astray.
The next idea connected with the name, “Legion,” is that of organization, for a Roman legion was not merely a large band of soldiers, but it was a thoroughly organized band of several thousands of men who had taken the oath of allegiance to the Roman emperor and who yielded implicit obedience to the centurions and other officers who were placed in authority over them. In like manner we have reason to believe that the vast multitudes of evil spirits are not an undisciplined mob, but that they are organized and controlled even as they were when the devil and his angels fought against Michael and his angels. No doubt they are able to consult and conspire together, and to work unitedly for the attainment of some common end. Satan is called the Prince of the power of the air, and the name, Prince, implies followers who come and go at his command and do his bidding. We who have most to do with fighting against this demoniacal legion know that we have no easy task, and we can say, as Paul did, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the ruler of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” It would be impossible for us to be victors in this dread conflict had we not on our side One who is more mighty than all who can be against us!
But the name, “Legion,” not only suggests the idea of many who are thoroughly organized for fighting, it also conveys the idea ofunity. The unclean spirit said, “My name is Legion,” as if the legion were himself and he were the legion. It is a great art in war when a whole battalion can be made to move as one man. The Roman phalanx was so often victorious because the men composing it were compacted into one solid body—and that seems to be one of the characteristics of the powers of darkness. It is a sickening thought that while Christians frequently quarrel, we never hear of devils doing so. The Church of God is divided but the kingdom of darkness appears to be one. Whatever internal strife there may be between evil spirits, we have no hint of it here—they all seemed to act in complete unison. Whether hate is a more compacting principle than love, I will not venture to say, but certainly these haters of God and of His Truth appear to be knit together as though they were one devil rather than a multitude of evil spirits! Yet the lovers of the Lord Jesus Christ are not knit together as one man under His blessed rule. Herein lies the force of the Evil One—that his host is so united as to be called a legion, moving forward in absolute union as one great evil power! As you, Beloved, think of this great host all banded together for one purpose—and that purpose your destruction—flying like vast hordes of locusts bent on
devastating every place they visit, you must realize that you can never overcome the numerous, organized, united forces of evil by your own unaided strength!
The name, “Legion,” also suggest a great band of soldiers marshaled for war—not a company of people engaged in peaceful avocations, but an armed host marching to battle at their commander’s orders! The Roman legionnaires were protected with heavy armor and they carried short sharp swords with which they did terrible execution. When they went forth to war, it was as when a tornado sweeps away the stubble or a fire sets a forest ablaze until it is utterly consumed. They were mighty men, trained and disciplined for war from their youth up! And Satan and his myrmidons have been for these six thousand years familiar with the art of injuring and ruining men! They are expert in the use of their deadly weapons—they know what arrows in their quiver will find the joints in your harness, my Brother, and what fiery darts will be most effective against you, my Sister. While reading the 18th Psalm today, I especially noticed what David says in the 5th verse, “The sorrows (the marginal reading is “the cords”) of Hell compassed me about,” as though some infernal powers had cast ropes all around him and were drawing them ever more tightly hoping to enclose the Psalmist in bonds from which he could not escape! Then he adds, “The snares of death confronted me,” as though his enemies, whether men or devils, had laid deadly traps in which they hoped to ensnare him. This is what the evil spirits are constantly doing with regard to you, Beloved, and you wild be wise if you do what David tells us that he did—“In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His Temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears”— and then you, too, will before long be able to say with David, “He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them who hated me: for they were too strong for me.”