me this morning to the book of Mark, chapter 5. Mark, chapter 5. We're all familiar with this
a narrative of the demonic man who lived in the cemetery, in the
graveyard, who had demons, and he was wild. And no man could bind him, even
with chains. And he had all of this community
in fear. And of course, in the providence
of God, he passed this way. had contact with this demonic
man. You know the story, how he who was possessed of demons,
possessed of the devil, had him cast out. after they were cast out. He was clothed and in his right
mind. He was a changed man. The grace
of God had changed his heart, and the demons were cast out. continue with the Lord Jesus
in his journey, he asked the Lord in this eighteenth verse. And when he was come into the
ship, that is, the Lord Jesus, he that had been possessed with
the prayed Him. I think that word, prayed Him, or those
two words, prayed Him, does not necessarily mean that
He bowed down before Him and began to pray. It means He asked
Him. He asked Him. He prayed Him. ask the Lord Jesus
that he might be with him. I'd kind of like to be in your
company and go with you. Howbeit Jesus suffered him not. He didn't answer on the affirmative. It was a negative answer. And Jesus suffered him not, would
not permit him to go with him. But he said this to him. He said,
Go home to thy friends. Go home to thy friends. Well,
he didn't have no friends prior to his conversion because he
was crazy. He'd cut himself, jump on people, throw them down,
hurt them if he could. So he really didn't have no friends.
But he was about to have some friends when they seen that he who was unruly is tame. So he said, Go home to thy friends,
primarily your wife and your children, and tell them how great things,
great things, everything our Lord Jesus Christ does is great. So if a man would try to tell out all
that the Lord Jesus Christ done, he wouldn't have enough time
in this life to do so because everything that the Lord Jesus
Christ done was great. Every word that he spake was
great. Every act that he performed was
great. There was nothing little or insignificant
in the life of the Son of God. Great things. He came to do great
things. So he said, You're probably better
off to go back to your home and to
your friends and tell them how great things the Lord hath done
for thee and had compassion on thee. It will be better for you
and better for them and better for me that you go home and tell
your friends what great things that the Lord has done for thee. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
has done a work of grace in my heart and in your heart
and in your soul. There is absolutely no question
about what you will want others to know. Your testimony will not be how
you walked the aisle and raised your hand. That won't be your
testimony. Your testimony won't be what
you've done or how good you felt in what you've done. That won't
be your testimony, if the grace of God has entered into your
heart and soul and mind. It won't be what I've done or what I promised
to do or what I hope to do. It won't be that the invitation was given
and the offer was made and you responded. It won't be that you
walked the aisle and stood before the visible congregation and
gave your testimony of what you did, it won't be how high you
held your hand or the prayer that you prayed
or how loud. You praise God, that won't have
nothing to do with it. No, your testimony will be the
same as this demonic who was delivered from the devil and
them demons. You'll want people to know how
great things that the Lord hath done for you. You go home to
your wife and your friends and your family and tell them the
great things that the Lord hath done. Well, there's many today,
and I've seen these with my own eyes, many today that are wearing
certain paraphernalia with the initials WWJD. They wear them on their wrist.
They wear them on their t-shirts, on the front and on the back.
Some of them has it on their foreheads. WWJD. Now those initials signifies What would Jesus do? They wear them on their wrists.
What would Jesus do? Well, however true saving faith
is in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is not to be worn on the outward
person. directly from the hand of God
into your heart. And the result of it is that
God has changed you. God has changed you from going
in one direction to another direction. And that's been by the grace
of God. It's not the wearing of some
particular apparel that adorns the body that gives forth the
true state of the heart. His people, I think, are typified
in the believing wife. that was described here in 1
Peter chapter 3 and verse 3 that I previously read, which says,
Whose adorning, let it not be the outward adorning,
let it not be the W-W-J-D. What would Jesus do? But what
did Jesus do? Let it not be the outward adorning
of the plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the
putting on of apparel. but let it be the hidden man
of the heart, and that which is not corruptible, even the
ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight
of God a great price." So the message of the gospel is not
what Jesus would do. There is no place that I know
of in the Bible that the gospel is to be marketed, the gospel
is to be proclaimed, the gospel is to be told out. The gospel
is shut up and tied up and bound up in this man called Jesus. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplish when he left heaven and came to this earth? What
did he do? Not what would he do, but what
did he do? Now, these very fervent young men and women
who are caught up with outward show. To prove they love Jesus is what
motivates them to do these things, to wear certain things that would
be partially effective in letting others know how they feel and
who they love and so forth. It's not that. It's not the outward,
it's the inward. It's the grace of God that changes
a man. And he's more effective than all
the outward adornments. that a man or woman could adorn
themselves with. What did he accomplish? Well,
look here with me in the eighth chapter, I think it is,
of the book of John, or the sixth chapter of the book of John. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
come to do? And what did he do? What was
his great achievement and accomplishment after he left heaven and came
to this earth? In John chapter 6 and verse 38,
he said, For I came down from heaven Now the burden of our preaching
here this morning is to answer this question. What did the Lord do? And he told that man, Go home
and tell thy friends what great things the Lord hath done. What did he accomplish? What
did he come down here to do? Well, it says here, For I came
down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me." Well, first we could say that our Lord Jesus Christ came
down here to do the will of God. That's what He came for, to do
the will of God. Nothing apart from that was significant. It was that he fulfilled the
will of his Father. And he said, Not to do mine own
will, but the will of him that sent me. Now, here it is. Now, this is the Father's will
which sent me. that of all which he hath given
me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the
last day." He accomplished the eternal will
of God his Father in redeeming those that he had purposed to
save by his grace. That is, everyone that was purposed by God, ordained
by God, predestinated by God, chosen by God, our Lord Jesus
Christ came down to save them. That's what he came to accomplish.
And his whole life, from the time he came until the time he
left, was fulfilling the will of the Father to redeem and save
completely everyone that the Father willed and purposed to
save before time ever was. It is not what Jesus would do,
it's what Jesus did do. Now, he either did or he didn't. Did he accomplish the will of
God or was he defeated by the will of man? I don't think so. I think he fulfilled the will
of God. I think that in himself and who
he is and what he's done, in redemption, that he redeemed
everyone that the Father gave him and that the Father chose
and that the Father ordained unto eternal life. I think he
did that. If he didn't do it, then he has been defeated. And
how can you defeat God? If God be for me, who can be
against me? If Christ died for me, who can be against me? So I believe
then he accomplished the eternal will of God the Father in redeeming
those that he had purposed to save by the grace of God. And in so doing, he worked out
a righteousness for every one of his people. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, in the will of God, doing the will of God, worked out a
righteousness for every one of these people. Now, we need a
righteousness. We need that. And as I've said
here many times before, we need a sinless perfection. That's what we need. A sinless
perfection is needed to stand us in good stead with God. And
he worked out a sinless perfection. He worked out a righteousness
for his people. So we need a righteousness that
is as extensive as the requirement of God's holy law. We need this righteousness that
touches every letter of God's holy law. And he came to work
out this righteousness for us that we might be accepted by
God, clothed in the righteousness that he worked out. And it's
got to be as extensive as the requirements of God's holy law,
which requires Number one, it requires that we love God with
all of our hearts and all of our souls. That's what the law requires.
He works out a righteousness that fulfills that requirement. Now, we need a righteousness as extensive
as the demands of justice and as extensive as the sinner's
awful depths of depravity. We need that in this righteousness
that the Lord Jesus Christ left heaven and came upon this earth
to do. We need that. We must have it. And this is God's blessed salvation. It's a salvation that saves a
man from the guilt of sin, the filth of sin, the damning power
of sin, and the connected curse with
it, which is death. It is a salvation completely
from sin, and what a salvation this must
be. That is, free, absolutely free, It is a gift
from the bountiful, merciful hand of God Almighty, a salvation
that is completely from sin. So I say, what a great and glorious
salvation has the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for his people. He conquered our greatest enemy,
which is sin. Now, this must be a great salvation,
to conquer sin, because sin has conquered the whole world. But our Lord Jesus Christ came
to conquer sin. and the damning power of sin. There is not a man or woman that has not been affected by
this damning monster sin. Every soul that has been born of a woman
is contaminated with this filth and guilt and shame of sin one
way or the other. Sin is so great that it takes
God himself to conquer it. If some of you remember that back in your school days,
that you read of this great conqueror who conquered the whole known
world. Conquered the whole known world
at that time. I think it was Napoleon who conquered
the whole known world. He never conquered the hearts
and the affections of the people. But sin has done this. Sin has
conquered the hearts and the affections of the people. There's
not a man or a woman under the sun, and that's S-U-N, who has
not in some way given their hearts and their affections to this
monster, sin. They have embraced it in their
hearts and in their affections, and they love it so much that
they will not depart from it, even knowing that they'll be
eternally lost. before they part with it. It
must be a great salvation, a great and glorious salvation that the
Lord Jesus Christ accomplished if He conquered sin. Nobody else
has conquered sin, but He did. And His salvation frees us who
are the recipients of it, it frees us from all sin. The damning power of sin and
the reigning power of sin, He has delivered us from it because
He conquered it. Oh, my soul, if the Lord God
Himself had not quickened our souls, If we have not been killed
to the law and married to the Lord Jesus Christ, we are in
bad trouble. I say here this morning with
reverence to God and reverence to the Lord Jesus Christ that
the righteousness that God requires and that the Lord Jesus Christ
worked out and fulfilled that righteousness is equivalent to
a righteousness that even God himself, even God himself cannot
mend, cannot add to the righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ has
accomplished and established for his people. God himself can't
mend it. and Satan himself cannot mar
it. It is a perfect righteousness. It is a sinless perfection that
he hath worked out on our behalf. That's what he came to do. He came to work out, to establish
a righteousness that God cannot mend and Satan cannot mar. And it is as extensive as the
requirements of the law and as extensive as man's depravity,
a perfect righteousness. And a righteousness short of
this will do you no good whatsoever, won't do you any good. I've known people and have heard
of people that Other people would say of them that if there's a
good man alive on this earth at any given time, so-and-so
fits the description. He's a good person. He's a good
man, but he's not good enough. He's not good enough. He's got
to be senseless. He's got to be senseless. And
there's where he falls short. His goodness does not reach the
core of his heart. It's all on the outside. You can cover the outside of
the womb, but the core is untouched. All the efforts of nature will
leave a man to perish in his sins. Think of the multiplied
millions of people this morning that have worked out a righteousness
of their own. And they are trusting in that
righteousness to stand them in good stead with God. But that
righteousness that they've worked out will not do the job. They're going to perish in the
stream, you see. There's not enough strength.
in an angel to save a sinner. In fact, if all the angels in
heaven were to unite themselves together to save one sinner,
that sinner that they united to be saved would be eternally
lost because he must have a righteousness which none but the Lord Jesus
Christ can give and work out. He must have His righteousness. And none but Him, none but the
Lord Jesus Christ can make it known. Not only none but Him
can work it out, but none but Him can make it known to the
poor sinner's heart. As a matter of fact, His name they said in the book
of Isaiah. They said, His name is the Lord,
our righteousness. So if you're never brought, those of us here this morning,
if there's any of us here that's never been brought to see and
to feel the need of such a salvation that I'm talking about here this
morning, then your religion is what you've got, and that's all
you have. It's not worth a thank you, that
kind of religion. You've got to have the religion
of the Lord Jesus, and it's all rolled up. in his righteousness,
which is the fulfillment of the law. Well, what did Jesus do? Well, his salvation, this great
salvation, name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. His salvation takes a poor man
from the dust and a beggar from the dunghill, the Bible says. And he raises up the poor from
the dust and he lifts up the beggar from the dunghill and
sets him among princes, his salvation, and makes the man inherit the
throne of glory, this beggar, this poor man, he raises him
up, makes him to inherit eternal glory. I say that is a great
thing that God has done. He takes him from the lowest
state of his degradation and exalts him far beyond angels. are high in the estimate
of God to follow. They follow God's ever look,
interested always in God, the angels are. But they're still angels. And that's all they'll ever be
is angels. He does 10,000 times more for
the sinner than he does for the angels. For the sinner he saves, but the angels he does not save. He didn't die for angels. when the wise men at the birth
of the Lord Jesus were there. As eyewitnesses, the angel came
down and said unto the wise men, said unto you, A child is born, not unto us. He didn't say unto us a child
is born or a son given. But unto you, angels, know nothing about the
salvation of God. Here a poor sinner, a beggar,
a pauper, a lawbreaker, a God-dishonoring sinner, a hell-deserving sinner, is redeemed by God's Son, the
Lord Jesus, quickened by God's Holy Spirit, and raised from
his degrading state, raised from his guilt and from his filth
and from his shame, to the highest state of the declarative glory
of God Almighty. God cannot possibly raise up
a sinner higher than he has raised him from the dunghill to the
throne. That's a great salvation, isn't
it? That's what Jesus Christ has done. What would he do in
a certain situation? It is what he hath done. Go tell your friends what great
things the Lord hath done for you. And that's what I'm trying
to do this morning. I'm trying to tell you what great
things that the Lord hath done for us. What has he done? Well, he's worked out this righteousness
for the believer and worked this righteousness in his soul by
his spirit. And when you trust the Lord Jesus
Christ, you don't look to what he would do, you look to what
he has done. Our blessed Redeemer. What has
he done? Well, he's taken all that which
is against us, our sins. And he has taken these sins unto
himself. And he has paid what my sins
owe. Paid the debt against the law
of God in full. Payment in full. Death's been
paid. The guilt has been canceled.
It's all over. That's what he's done. He provides
a full and complete atonement for our sins. He provides a righteousness
which meets all the demands of God's holy law. and satisfies
his holy justice and bears in his own body the penalty that
was due us. That's what he's done. That's
what he's done. It's not what he will do, what
could he do. It's what he's done. Not what
you do. You don't have nothing to do
with it. The only thing you do is furnish
the sin. The only part you've got in it
is that you're the sinner and he's the Savior. and He's done
it all, and He deserves all the glory. If you bring this self-made
righteousness of yours, or try to, into His presence, you dishonor
Him. You dishonor Him. God help us
to see what He means when He said, your friends at home the great
things that God's done for you. Great things. And you can think
of a lot more great things that God's done for you. He's done
a lot for me. The greatest thing He's ever
done for me is saved my soul. Saved me from my sins and saved
me in my sins. Enclosed me with His righteousness
and made me acceptable. And He's my Father, and I'm His
Son. And when I die, I'll die in Him. Just go to sleep, and that'll
be all there is to it. And when I wake, I'll awake in
His righteousness.