Turn with me to the book of Luke
chapter 20 or chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. Let's begin reading there at
verse 28. Well, let's begin at verse 26. And they arrived at the country
of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee, that is, our
Lord and his disciples. And he went forth to the land
And there met him out of the city a certain man which had
devils a long time. And he wear no clothes, neither
a boat in any house, but in the tombs in the graveyard. And he
saw Jesus, now this is our text, I'll read it. When he saw Jesus,
he cried out, this man did, and fell down before him with a loud
voice. and said, What have I to do with
thee? That's our text right there.
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. For he had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man, for oft times it had caught him,
and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters. And he broke
the bands and was driven of the devil into the wilderness. And
Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion,
because many devils were entered into him. And they besought him
that he would not command them to go out into the deep, that
is, the devils, the demons. And there was a herd of many
swine feeding on the mountain. And they besought him that he
would suffer them to enter into them, and he suffered them, or
permitted them. Then went the devils out of the
man. and entered into the swine, and
the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and they
were choked. They drowned. When they that
fed them saw what was done, these that took care of these swine, they fled, they ran, and went
and were toted in the city and in the country. when they went
out to see what was done. That is, the people that got
the news. Kind of hard on the economy here. A fellow came into
their neighborhood and killed all the hogs. We can't have that
fellow around. But they went out to see what
was done. And they came to Jesus. And this is what they found.
They found the man out of whom The devils were departed, sitting
at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and in his right mind, and they
were afraid. Now let me say this in regard
to that verse in passing lest I forget it. They found a man. These people came to Jesus that
heard about this miracle that took place and heard about their
hogs all drowning in that lake. They came out, and they came
to Jesus, and they found this man that was possessed with these
many devils, and they found the man out of whom the devils were
departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right
mind. And they were afraid. Never,
this is what I see here in this verse, never is a man in his
right mind until he is converted. A man is just not in his right
mind until God converts him. A fellow got real upset with
me one time because I said that men outside of Christ are fools. I made a statement like that
and he evidently misunderstood, you know, my intent and he got
upset about it. But nevertheless, that is true. A man is never in his right mind
until he is converted. He really is a fool. Clyde was
reading the other day some passages in the Scripture in regard to
where the Bible says that we are not to call any man a fool. That is rashly. We are not to
do that. But our Lord called men fools
that was outside of Christ. He said to the rich man who had
tore down his barns and built new ones, and he said, I've gotten
a great harvest here, and these old barns are not able to hold
my harvest, so I've got to tear the old ones down and build new
ones. But our Lord said, Thou fool! This night shall thy soul
be required of thee." And then, who's going to take all that?
Then the psalmist said, over there in one of the psalms it
says this, the fool hath said in his heart, no God for me. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. That's what the fool said. But
actually what he means is this, the fool has said in his heart,
no God for me. So, that's what I see in this.
No man is in his right mind until he's converted. Neither is any
man in his right place until he sits by faith at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Or is any man in his right mind
until he's rightly clothed, and that is when he puts on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what happened here. You
see, this man was sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed, and
in his right mind. And these people were scared
to death, and they said, he's crazy now for sure. He'd been
converted. He's been converted. He's a fanatic.
He's a fanatic. All he wants to talk about is
Jesus now. He wants to give up everything
now and follow Jesus. The fellow's crazy. He just spanks
Jesus now. That's the way people ought to.
Listen, let me ask this question in light of this verse. What
does it mean to you to live? I ask myself that question. What
does living mean to me? I'll answer it by taking from
a statement from the Apostle Paul. This, certainly, this model
Christian. He said, for me to live is what? Is Christ. That's what He said.
For me to live is Christ. What is it for you to live? What
is it for me to live? Personal ambition? Personal recognition? Satisfactions? Satisfactions
through the pleasure of the flesh? Paul said, for me to live is
Christ. Whether I'm on the road, or whether
I'm out in the ocean, or whether I'm on a missionary journey,
or whether I'm making tents, or whether I'm here, or whether
I'm there, or whether I'm in jail, or whether I'm free, for
me to live is Christ. Everything else is secondary.
I'm separated to the gospel of God. That's all I'm concerned
about, is Christ. I'm a debtor to all men. Get
this gospel to them. I live by it. All right. It says, Then the whole multitude
of the country of the Gadarenes round about them besought him
to depart from them. Isn't that terrible? This is
the most terrible thing that I ever heard tell of. What is
manifest here in these three words. That they besought. Jesus Christ to leave them, depart
from them. The Son of God in whose hands
are the hands of mercy, who delights in mercy, whose glory is in dispensing
mercy to helpless, hopeless people. These people They sought Him. They prayed Him. They said, Depart
from us! We don't want you in this country.
We don't want you in our town. We don't want you. That will
haunt them, won't it? That will haunt them one day
at judgment time. That will be as vivid before
their minds. They will say, Well, we remember
when He came to our town, when He cast devils out of the maniac
out there in the graveyard. And that man was in his right
mind, and he was clothed, and he was sitting at his feet worshiping
Him. And we come, we come, all of us, with one voice. We came
to this man who is seated upon a throne, whom the angels devote
their entire course to, singing, worthy is the Lamb. This man,
we begged Him, We prayed Him. We besaw Him. Depart from Me. Depart from us. One day, you
see, at the judgment, the judgment of our God, many will come in
His name and say, We have done this in Thy name. We have preached
in Your name. We have performed miracles in
Your name. We have done this. We have done that. And they will
parade their good words before God and He will use these words.
He will say, Depart from Me, for I never knew you. All right, the whole multitude
of the country of the Gadarenes round about, the whole multitude
of them, but sought him to depart from them, for they were taken
with great fear. And he went up into the ship
and returned back again. He answered their prayer and
he left them. He left them alone. That's terrible, isn't it, when
God leaves a man alone? old fella sat on the tape there
not too long ago. He said that he was preaching
one time, and he said every service there was a young lady that sat
about middle ways back in the auditorium, said she was very
pretty, very pretty young lady. And she sat there, and she seemed
to manifest an interest by the look on her face. And he said
he was just, seemed like the Lord wanted him to say something
to her. So he said about the end of the week, he said when
he got through preaching, when he walked down, just walked down
to the aisle, he said he never did that before, but he said
it seemed like the Spirit of God was leading him. He just
walked down there to that seat where that girl was and said
there's kind of tears in her eyes, And he said, young lady,
can I be of any help to you? And she said this, she said,
for Christ's sake, leave me alone. And this fellow said, he said,
I am mean, but he said, I'll do anything for Christ's sake.
And so he said, I left her alone. And he said, about two days later,
she had a little sports car and she was coming from one side
of the city to the other. Another car came up a side street,
plowed right into her in that sports car, and she died and
went out to meet him, who she said, for Christ's sake, leave
me alone. Leave me alone. That's terrible,
isn't it? For Christ's sake, leave me alone. Don't deal with
me. Don't bother me. I ain't going
to change. I ain't going to change my lifestyle
for you or anybody else. For Christ's sake, I wish you'd
leave me alone. Don't torment me, don't torment
me. For Christ's sake, leave me alone."
And it wasn't long, she went out into eternity to face Him
who she said, For Christ's sake, leave me alone. Now the man,
verse 38, Now the man, out of whom the devils were departed,
besought Him, that is, he begged Him, he prayed Him, He besought
him that he might be with him. He said, I won't be with him. See the difference between a
man that's converted, a man that's got his right mind, a man that's
in the right place, sitting at the feet of Jesus, and got the
right clothes on. See the difference? These, they
were scared to death, and they besought him that he depart from
them. But this fellow, Now the man out of whom the devils were
departed besought him that he might be with him. I want to
be with him. That's the desire and the cry
of every heart that's been converted, really, truly, genuinely converted. He wants to be with him. He wants
to be with him. Not necessarily is he talking
about, or am I talking about, be with him in eternity. Certainly
that's true, but be with him now. I want his presence. I don't
want to walk an inch. I don't want to make one step
unless God directs and leads that step. I want to be with
Him. That's why He's saying it. He
might be with him. And Jesus sent him away saying, Jesus said,
this is what you need to do. Return to your own house. You
remember this. Now, our Lord said that a man's
greatest enemies, a man's greatest foes, a man's greatest opposition
is where? In his own household. Now that's
what he said. He said a prophet is not without
honor, save in his own country. In his own country, among his
own people, a prophet receives no honor. But out of his hometown,
out of his residence, his country, in county and city, he receives
honor. But not in his home. A man's
greatest enemies and foes are those of his own household. His
opposition comes from his own household. But here he says,
return to your own house, this is what I want you to do, and
show how great things God has done unto thee. You can only tell of the Lord
Jesus Christ that which you've experienced yourself. You can't
come back from somewhere that you haven't been. You can't do
it. And that's the reason they've got so many phony preachers today,
phony Christians. They're trying to be Christians
without Christ. They've got Christ on their lips,
but they haven't got Him in their hearts. They're telling you a
whole lot on the television, these programs, the radio and
so forth, and in these charismatic movements and all that, they're
making a big to-do, whoop-dee-doo about Jesus. Everybody's talking
about Jesus, but it's only on their lips. You can only tell
of Jesus as much as you've experienced Jesus. Jesus who? What Jesus
are you talking about? Are you talking about the Jesus
of the Bible or the Jesus of the 20th century? What Jesus
are you talking about? There's a difference. What gospel
are you talking about? The gospel of God or another
gospel? A gospel which pretends to be
a gospel which is no gospel. Return to thine own house. and
show how great things God hath done unto thee." You tell them
what God's done for you. They say, well, I can't preach.
Well, he didn't say for you to be a theologian. He didn't say
that you ought to be a theologian, but he didn't say that you have
to know all the intricacies of the great doctrines of the Bible
and go beyond what was written. He said, just tell what's been
revealed to you. Just tell what's been revealed.
You can't tell what's not been revealed. What's been revealed
to your heart? Tell it. Don't hold it back.
Tell it. Tell it. Show how great things
God hath done to thee. And he went his way. He didn't say, well, that's a
good idea. That's what I think I'll do. And then he'd go home
and sit down and forget about it. He didn't do that. This fellow
genuinely converted. He was genuinely converted. He
was rescued from the miry pit. And he was taken from the mire
pit, and his feet were placed upon the solid rock. And he went
his way, and this is what he did, and he published throughout
the whole city how great things Jesus had done unto him. Huh? That's what he did. All
right, let me get on to this text here, verse 28. And when
he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him with
a loud voice, and he said this, What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not. Before I say anything else, let
me just mention here, point out to you something that you already
know. I beseech thee, torment me not. There's a lot of people
who don't believe in punishment, eternal punishment. But I'll
tell you this, these demons believed in it. These little old peanut-headed
so-called Christian people and theologians and preachers of
our day, they deny it. They say God's too good to send
anybody to hell. He's not going to send anybody
to hell. We'll make out alright. Everybody's going to be alright.
I tell you, these demons, they believed in eternal punishment,
and they believed that God was going to torment them. I heard
a fellow say today on the radio, as I was coming to church this
morning, I believe it was, I heard a fellow say on the radio, he
said, why, God won't send you to hell. He said, you'll send
yourself to hell. Oh no, you don't send yourself
to hell. I told you the other night, there's
never been a man born. Never been, never will be. that
will stand on that edge of that bottomless pit and willfully,
through his free will and volition, jump off into hell. He won't do it. He won't do it.
God will put him there. He won't do it willingly. You
think when God says, Depart from me ye that work iniquity and
take your place, you think that they are just going to turn and
walk out like that? No siree! He's going to call his elect
angels and he's going to say, bind them! Bind their hands and
bind their feet and cast them out where they should be weeping
and wailing and gnashing their teeth. Oh, this old, these demons
here, these demons here, they said, I beseech thee, torment
me not! Don't torment us. We know we
got it coming. We know that's our ultimate end,
but don't do it now! See? What have I to do with thee?
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, the Son of God Most High? Well, I'll tell you this. This
is one thing that I learned from that verse there, from that text.
And you might learn it too. Maybe it will be of help to you.
It's a help to me. We may learn that a man may know a whole lot
about true religion and yet be a total stranger to it. He may
have a whole lot of religious tidbits anchored in his mind,
in his brain, in his intelligence, and yet be a total stranger to
the religion of the Bible. Might be. He may know. He may know. Now listen to me.
He may know that Jesus is the Son of God Most High, and yet
at the same time be possessed of a demon. That's what it was
here. This fellow said, What have I
to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God Most High? He knew
who Jesus Christ was. He knew that he was the Son of
God, the Son of God Most High. And yet, in his heart, he was
a total stranger to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is eternal
life. What's eternal life? That they
might know Thee. They might know Thee intimately
from the heart as their sacrifice, as their Savior, as their Lord,
as their substitute, as their surety, as their shield, as their
high tower, as their rock of ages, as their place of safety. A man may know that Jesus is
the Son of God Most High, and yet be possessed of a devil.
Or, as in the case right here, he may be a den for a whole legion
of devils. This fellow had a great many
of them, maybe as many as fifty devils. Whatever the word legion
means, maybe it's either a hundred, fifty, or three hundred. Listen. Number two. This is another thing you can
learn from this verse. Mere knowledge, just knowledge,
does nothing for us but puff us up. We may know and know and
know and know and so increase our responsibility without bringing
us at all into a state of hope and a state of grace. Beware
of resting in a mere head knowledge. Beware in resting in a mere orthodoxy. Beware in resting or depending
upon or trusting to a doctrine. Beware in resting upon a ceremony,
a ritual, or a religion, or anything external that has to do with
religion. Beware, beware, beware. Oh, beware. Mere knowledge, mere
knowledge. I've read the Bible through.
I've heard people say, I wish you'd go talk to so and so. Well,
he's read the Bible seven times. I was over at the funeral home
here not so long ago to see some of the relatives of some folks
here. And as soon as I got there, a fellow walked up to me just
as proud as a peacock with his head reared back and his chest
out and walked up to me. He said, well, is your name Richard? And I said, you the preacher?
And I said, well, yes, I'm a preacher. He said, well boy, I'll tell
you, I can quote so many books of the Bible. I can quote maybe
five or six books of the Bible, chapter after chapter, chapter
after chapter, verse after verse, I can quote them all. He said,
I think what I'll do is, he said, do you think this would be the
thing to do? He said, with a talent like I've got, he said, I think
I ought to rent the armory over here in Fairmont and invite people
to come here in and hear me recite the Bible. Yet at the same time,
that man, I could tell by his smell, I could tell by his looks,
was as lost as a goose. He is a stranger to the grace
of God in Christ Jesus. Oh, I'll tell you this. If you've
got any talent, and if I've got any talent, that makes me sick. This makes me sick to hear people
say, oh, what a talent you have. Ma, why don't you turn your talent
over to God? That makes me sick. That makes
me sick. If you've got any talent, and
if I've got any talent, It is because, or gifts, it is because
God give them to us sovereignly. The Holy Spirit give them to
us sovereignly as He wills. And if I've got any talent, and
if you've got any talent, and it's ever to be of any earthly
good in the spiritual service of the Lord Jesus Christ, God
will have to kill that talent in you before He can use it.
He'll have to rework that in you before He can use it. It'll
never be by the grace of God, Daryl, I'll tell you that. He's
got to rework it. Haven't you heard people talk
like that? Oh, how wonderful you can sing. I wish you'd turn
that over to God. God never saved any man, I don't
care who he is, for his talent. If God saved a man for his talent,
then I'm telling you what he's doing, that's not the grace of
God. That's not the grace of God. It can't be the grace of
God. If God saves you or He saves me for something to send me,
If there's anything that's in me that's beneficial to the spiritual
service of God in Christ, God will have to kill it. He'll have
to kill it and rework it. Why? In order that He might get
the glory out of it. You see all these quartets on
the television and these individual singers on the 700 Club and the
John Baker Club and those clubs on the television. You see them
up there just as proud as a peacock, and people bragging on them,
patting them on the back, and talking like that they've added
something to, some certain flavor to. And everybody just so proud.
Oh, they pat one another on the back. So glad that you turned
your talents over to God, as if God saved them because of
some gift that they had. That's not grace, brethren. That's
not grace. No, that's not grace. Beware! Beware! A mere knowledge does
nothing for us but puff us up. That's all it does. Now, I'm
going to tell you about the Pharisees. Pharisees knew the doctrines.
They knew the doctrines. They knew the Bible from kibber
to kibber. That's right. They knew the doctrines. They knew the Jehovah Yahweh
God of the Old Testament. They knew the law. There's experts
in it. As a matter of fact, they knew
it so good, they added some to it. Yeah, they added some to
it. They knew it so well, they said, well, we know it so well,
we'll just add a little more to it and kind of help God out.
A mere knowledge, you see, a mere knowledge of doctrine will only
puff us up. That's all it'll do. And I see
that in here. Beware of trusting depending
upon a mere knowledge because it will just puff you up. That's
all. The Pharisee said, I thank God. That's what he said. He
said, I thank God that I'm not like him. That's what he said. He looked at that poor fellow
over there, that sinner. Poor sinner. He wasn't doing right. I could see that. He wasn't doing
right. Poor publican. Steal money off people. He wasn't
doing right. That Pharisee had all this religion,
he had this knowledge, he had this stuff in his head, you know.
He didn't have anything in his heart. He drew near to God with
his lips, but he was far from Him with his heart. He looked
over at him and he said, I thank God I'm not like he is. Oh, I'm
sorry, I thank God I'm not like that guy. That guy. I'll tell you, that guy, he went
away from that place just fine. He went away from the temple,
standing out on the outer edge of the temple, he smote his breast,
and he said, God, be merciful, be propitiatory towards me, that
is, be merciful to me on the basis of the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He went down to his house justified.
Alright, listen. I'm telling you now, what I see
here, beware in resting in a head knowledge, beware in relying
or depending upon orthodoxy, on ceremonies, on ritual. Now it's well, it's good to be
sound in the faith, and we ought to be sound in the faith. We
ought to know the Scriptures, we ought to know the doctrine.
It's well to be sound in the faith, but the soundness must
be in the heart as well as the head. That's where it's got to
be. If there's soundness in the heart, the head will take care
of itself. You remember the Bible says that
devils believe and tremble. Yet, yet, these same devils that
believe, these same demons that believe that there is a God and
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Most High. They
believe this and they tremble, but their conduct, their external,
outward conduct is not affected by what they believe. Did you
ever notice that? The Pharisees believed. The devils
believed. Religious people believe in Jesus
and fight you to the death for their belief in Jesus. But their
conduct is not altered one iota by what they believe. Why? I'll tell you why. Turn with
me here to Matthew chapter 15. Chapter 15 for just a few minutes. Chapter 15 of the book of Matthew,
verse 19, I believe. 15 and 19. Look at this now. I'm
going to tell you why. Because the soundness was in
their head and not in their heart, and that's where all this, that's
where our problem is. It's our heart. We've got a heart.
We need a heart transplant. That's what we need. We need
a new heart. We need a new heart. The law can't give us a new heart.
The law can just curse us and condemn us. We need a new heart.
We want the doctor out there to say, well, what's my problem,
doctor? Well, I know your problem. Your
problem is you need a new heart. Well, how am I going to get that
new heart? Religion give it to me? No, religion won't. Well,
I didn't think it would because I've been religious for 50 years
and I haven't got no new heart out of that. Can the law give
me? No, law can't give me a new heart. What can give me a new
heart? God. He's the only one that can
give you a new heart. New nature, new desires, new
appetites, new attitudes. Need a heart transplant. Alright,
look here. In Matthew 15 and 19 it says,
for out of the heart precede evil thoughts, and murders, and
adulteries, and fornications, and thefts, and false witnesses,
and blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, out of the heart, out of the heart. Well, some say,
in interpreting this scripture in particular, or several verses
herein, Matthew 15 plus Mark chapter 7 verses 20 to 23. Their interpretation of this
is this. They say that they are mistakes
of judgment. That is, evil thoughts, murders,
adulteries, fornication, theft, false witness, and blasphemies.
They say, well, we trace the reason for these back to a mistaken
judgment on the individual that committed them. But that's not
what our Lord says. Our Lord traces these offenses
not to the head, not to the hand, not to the foot, or not even
to mistaken judgments, but He traces these back to the heart
and its unholy affections. That's where He traces them to,
to the heart. It comes not in the first place
from the quick hand. That's not where it comes from,
because you can draw quick. That's not where it comes from,
the quick hand. But it comes from the wild, ungovernable
heart, you see, because you taught it in your heart. You taught
it in your heart. And what you taught in your heart
is overthrown That word lay by putting that gun in your hand,
or that knife, or that axe. I seen the paper there this morning
where a fella down there in Charleston cut another man's head off with
an axe, a broad axe. You see? You see, it wasn't... When you trace that back, when
you trace that back, the judge and jury and all that, they'll
trace it back to the man's hand. But if the Lord was tracing that
back, He'd trace it back to His heart. And He'd say, His hand
was filled with a double-bidded ax or a broad ax. That was the
outflow of His heart, you see? Because, for out of the heart
perceived evil thoughts and murders, see? That's where it comes from,
out of the heart. Bad heart. All men got bad hearts
until they've been given a new one by God in His graciousness
and in His mercy. He says, our Lord here says,
that theft is not the mere result of a quick temptation, but it's
the outflow of a covetousness desire. He saw Achan, saw that
wedge of gold in that Babylonish garment there, in Jacob. You
remember that God said to Joshua? He said, Joshua, you tell the
people, after they've encompassed those walls so many times, seven
times, whatever it was, after the people make a great shout
and hit the ground, whatever they did, I forget right now,
he said, you tell them, after the walls collapse and fall in,
run in there and kill all those people, man, woman, and child,
kill them all. And he said, don't take none
of their spoils. Don't take anything. They're contaminated and they're
a curse. Don't take them. Well, they went
on out of there, done what God told them to do. So finally,
they came up to a little town by the name of A.I. A.I. Little old town, just a speck,
wide place in the road. Wasn't nothing at all. And the
people got real brave, got real proud. They thought that they'd
accomplished this through their ingenuity. Jericho, they began
to get proud, overcome the world. Bunch of them super-duper Christians. You've heard of them super-duper
Christians? Brethren, I'm sick of super-duper Christians. Super-duper
Christians that cause more problems, cause me more problems, more
heartache than anybody I know of. Super-duper Christians. Christians
that, that, that, oh, I don't wear no lipstick, I don't do
this, I don't do that, and I don't do something else. I've overcome
the world, but they never overcome the flesh yet. and overcome the
world. They said, but they ain't overcome
the flesh. And bless God, you and me and them put together
is never going to overcome the flesh until we get out of this
world. That's when we're going to overcome
the flesh. But anyhow, anyhow, he told them. He told them, he
said, don't you touch anything up in Jericho. Well, they said,
They said, we'll take Ai. They come back and told Joshua.
They said, well, it's just a little old town. It's a wide place and
a road trip. There's no problem. He said, don't send all the warriors
up there. Don't send four or five thousand
people up there. Just send a thousand or so soldiers
up there. They'll take it. They'll take
it. It's nothing. It's nothing. Well, old Joshua
listened to them. And they run up there, and them
men from A.I. run out there and killed 37 of
them, and run them back as fast as they could go. They never
stopped until they got back to camp. Joshua said, what's the
matter? They said, we don't know. He
said, we went up to take them, and said, they come out of there
like fierce warriors, and they began to throw them spears and
cut a swath with those swords and pull us over with. They killed
37 of us. What are we going to do? Oh! God said to them, said,
listen Joshua, He said, you got some problems there. I said,
well, what's that, Lord? He said, well, there's somebody
among the children of Israel that stole a wedge of gold and
a Babylonian garment. And he said, I told them when
you took Jericho not to touch any of the accursed things in
that town. I told them not to touch that. He said, so I'm not
going with you. When you go to battle now, I'm
not going with you. Everywhere you go, you're going
to be whipped and killed. This thing is taken care of.
We ought to take care of this first. Let's find out who this
fellow is. The whole of Israel is guilty
until we find out. We've got to find out. So boy,
old Joshua, he fell down on his face and he was there all day
just moaning and weeping. He carried on and took his clothes
off and throwed them in the dust and was sweaty and, ah, was just
in bad shape. And he began to cry unto God
and God finally told him, said, Get up off of your feet! Get
up, he said, and quit moaning and quit complaining and quit
weeping before me! Get up! He said, There's something
to do here. He said, you can weep and moan
all you want to, but that's not going to get the job done. He
said, there's sin there in this camp. He said, someone violated
my law. Old Joshua, he got up out in
the dirt. He quit that whimpering and moaning
and complaining before God, and he got every family. He got all
the tribes of Israel. I didn't mean to go into this.
I just thought of this as I was preaching. I was going to take
too much time, but I have to finish now. He took all the tribes and he
took them family by family out of those tribes and paraded them
there before God. And finally there was a family,
I forget now where, I believe that Achan came from the family
or the house of Judah. And anyhow, here come Achan and
his family. Joshua looked at him, and God fired him out, and
God just laid it on his heart, just made it known to Achan,
made it known to Joshua. And old Joshua said, Achan, you
better tell me the truth, tell me the whole truth. And he said,
well, he said, I stole it. I seen that goodly Babylonian
garment there, and I stole it, and I seen that wedge of gold,
and I stole it, and I hid it up there. I hid it. Well, what he didn't know was
that them people down in Jericho, they was infested with syphilis.
They had syphilis. Terrible, terrible disease. God
knew that. He said, don't fool with anything
down that town. That's an ungodly bunch. I'm going to kill them
all. Don't fool with them. But old Aiken thought he knew
better. But God said, and you know what
God said? He said, all right, find out who that fellow is.
Oh, Achan said, Lord, it's me. He said, I'm sorry. I confess,
I'm sorry. Well, I don't get the job done,
Joshua said. God said to kill you and then
burn your body. Kill you! So they took him out
there, and the elders of the camp, and they all got stones
up, and they stoned him to death. Not only Achan, but his wife
and all of his children. Just killed every one of them.
And then they gathered them up in a heap and I suppose poured
gasoline on them. If they had any gasoline, they'd
throw them out there and they'd burn them up. And that's all she wrote
for old Aitken. I'm talking about evil
thoughts. I'm talking about theft. Theft is not the mere result
of a quick temptation. Old Aitken saw. He saw all that
wedge of gold there in that goodly Babylonian. He saw it. He thought
it in his heart. He saw it in his eyes and his
heart was together in this matter. He saw it and he said, I've got
to have it. I've got to have it. It won't do no harm. I'll
hide it. I'll hide it under the floor of my tent and it will
never be found out. But it was found out. You see, a theft is
not the mere result of a quick temptation, but our Lord said
it's the outflow of a covetousness desire. The heart is the true
man. That's the true man, the heart.
It's the fountain, it's the reservoir of manhood. And our Lord Jesus
Christ, here in Matthew 15, He puts His finger on the real trouble. He lays His hand upon the back
core of human nature, and He said, Here's the disease, right
here in the heart. For out of the heart, there's
the disease. Out of the heart! You can reform
and change, and you can purpose and you can make good promises
and have intentions, I'm going to do better, turn over a new
leaf, I'm going to quit this, I'm going to quit that, and that
ain't going to help a bit as far as your relationship to God,
because in the heart, Glenn, God's got to do something in
your heart, transplant, give you a new heart, new nature,
new attitude, new attitude. You see, the leprosy of sin does
not find its source or its seat in the head, nor the hand, nor
the foot, but in the heart. The poison is in the center,
and in consequence of the poison being in the center, which is
a man's heart, all the outlying members of that individual share
in that poison. See, everything he touches. is
contaminated. That's the reason you can't do
anything acceptable unto God in His unregenerate state. He
can't do anything, can't do any good works, although his good
works outwardly may accomplish exactly what the outward works
that you perform, Pat McGinnis, may accomplish the same thing. You may go over here and write
a check out for a fellow for a thousand dollars. And you give
it to that fellow and say, well, I give it to you. I give it to
you out of my heart. I give it to you because you
need it. And I give it to you for the glory of God. Here comes
another fellow along and he gives a thousand. I said, I give you
a thousand dollars. This fellow is not saved and
I give you a thousand dollars. That fellow that gives a thousand
dollars, you see, cannot, will not be accepted
or blessed by God because the outflow of his poisonous heart
has contaminated everything that he touches. And his motive is
wrong. He hasn't got the right motive.
He's not actuated right. See what I'm talking about? Might
do the same work, but won't be blessed by God. Because you did
it for different motives. And you did it because The hand
is contaminated, the foot is contaminated, the lips is contaminated. Woe is me, Isaiah said, for I
dwell, he said, I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the
people in our same way. You see what I am talking about?
You remember this verse of Scripture in the Bible that says, Every
imagination of the heart of man is evil from his youth. Every
imagination of his heart is evil. Not one, Fred, you live for 30
years until you're saved. Surely there must have been one
time in that 30 years that you could isolate a thought, just
a thought that was good and acceptable unto God. No, not even one thought,
Fred. Not even one thought. Because it came from here. You've
got to have a good heart, a sinful heart. You see, every imagination
of the heart of man is evil. You read this Scripture in the
Bible. It's found in Isaiah chapter
1. It says this, the whole head is sick and the whole heart is
faint. Then he speaks of evil thoughts.
Evil thoughts. What kind of thoughts? Evil thoughts,
he said. They proceed from the heart evil
thoughts, tail-bearing, tail-bearing. You know what tail-bearing is?
Tail-bearing has to do with an evil heart. And when you bear
evil tales about your brethren and about others, you know what
happens? You hurt three people. There
are three parties involved in tail-bearing. First, you hurt
yourself. Secondly, you hurt the man or
woman that you're talking about. And thirdly, you hurt the man
you're talking to. See, there's three parties that
are not indirectly, but directly involved in this, evil thoughts.
Evil thoughts in the heart of about another and begin to tear
him down, tear him up, I'll tear him up. I'll destroy him in your
presence, in your eyes, in your estimation, I'll tear him down.
What is that? It comes from here. Evil thoughts come from here.
Evil thoughts. I told you a little bit ago,
the fool said in his heart, no God. Evil thoughts of God. Man doesn't have one good thought
about God. Evil thoughts. Evil thoughts.
which God never existed. I wish I wasn't confronted with
God. That rumor that I heard coming
out of Atlanta, Georgia here about 8 or 10 years ago, they
said God was dead. I wish that was true. I wish
that was true and then I just wouldn't have no fear. I'd just
be like everybody else. I'd be like an animal, be like
a beast. I could do what I wanted to if I wanted to live morally,
if I wanted to live immorally, if I wanted to do evil, if I
wanted to be kind. I could do whatever I wanted to Because
I'd never be held in account to anybody! Huh? Evil thoughts about God. Listen. Many a man, many of them,
has never dared to curse God with his lips. Wouldn't do it.
But that same man has cursed God 10,000 times right here,
Bob, in his heart. He wouldn't dare do it with his
lips. He wouldn't dare because he's afraid of what people say.
People say he's irreligious. People say, well, my gracious,
you must be an atheist. You oughtn't to talk that way.
But he's a little braver than these people. These people that
won't do it, These people that won't do it and criticize others
that do do it, their religion won't permit them to do it. They
got religion. Their religion. They overcome the world, but
they never overcome what's in there. It's a den of iniquity. Evil thoughts are a sign of what's
in our heart. If an ox or a cow drinks water,
it's because the ox or the cow is thirsty. Now if a man goes
after vice, and open sin in this world, it's because his soul
longs for it. That's a reason for it. His heart
longs for it. You say, well, you're talking
about evil thoughts. One thing about it, we'll not
be hanged for our thoughts. I've mentioned this before. We'll
not be hanged for our thoughts, will we? Well, I'll tell you
this, unless you repent, Or unless God intervenes, it'll be far
worse than that. You won't be hanged for your
thoughts, but you'll be damned for your thoughts. Won't be hanged.
God will not hang you for your thoughts. But it's going to be
worse than that. It's going to damn you for your thoughts. Well,
that's a problem. See, that's a problem. Why will men say then, in light
of the goodness and the mercy of God, why will men say, what
have I to do with thee? What have I to do with thee,
Jesus, Son of God Most High? What have I to do with you? Well,
most people make statements like this. They say, well, if I had
to do with thee, I'd have to give up my pleasures. What have
I to do with thee, Jesus? Why? What? If I come to grips,
come to terms with you, I got to give up my pleasures. I say,
what pleasures? What pleasures you got to give
up? Listen to me closely now. The pleasures of the family,
the pleasures of seeing your children grow up into manhood,
you have to give that up. The pleasure of doing good, the
pleasure of discharging your duties in the sight of God, you
have to give that up. No. Pleasures of a good conscience? Pleasures of being able to look
your fellow man and look God in the eye? Huh? Pleasure of
having a good hope as to the hereafter? Pleasure of having
a good friend to whom you can tell all your troubles? Pleasures
of going to your Heavenly Father with all your griefs and all
your sorrows? Ah, listen, none of these will
Jesus take away. Oh, no. But I know what you're
talking about. I know what you're talking about.
I cannot conceive, my dear friends here this evening, in my heart,
I can't conceive of any pleasure that is worth calling a pleasure
which a man will lose if he becomes a Christian. Don't know of any.
But I know what you mean. I know what a fellow's trying
to tell me when he says, but I'll have to give up my... Not
many people will tell you that, but that's what they're thinking
when you're talking to them about the Lord Jesus Christ. They're saying,
well, my lifestyle's got to change, and I don't want to change my
lifestyle. I'm satisfied with doing what
I'm doing, and I don't want to change. You see, what have I
to do with with thee, Jesus, Son of God, Most High." I'll
tell you what they mean when they say, I've got to give up
my pleasures. Listen, it means that they'll not be able to go
after their sin and sins. That's what they're saying. Very
subtle about it. I've got to give up my pleasures.
But I said, well, I know what you mean. Why didn't you say
that before? Why weren't you honest with me?
Why didn't you call a spade a spade? Why didn't you say that? Why
didn't you be honest enough before God, before your fellow man,
and say, well, I'll never be a Christian because that interferes
with my lifestyle. It won't let me go out after
the things that my heart desires and craves as the ox. Drinks
water because he's thirsty. I seek after these things because
I long for them in my very heart. You see? Well, another fellow
says, I'll have to give up my liberty. I say, in what respect? In what respect? Your liberty
to be honest and to be upright? Your liberty to love your neighbor,
your liberty to do good, your liberty to search, to judge,
to find out, to know for yourself. Is that the liberty you're talking
about? Listen, you don't have to give up none of these to become
a Christian. A man who's in Christ, who bows
to Christ, is the freest man on the topside of God's green
earth. He is the Lord's free man. You see, Jesus gives a man
such an independent spirit, a free spirit, that he fears no one. But he does what is right, actuated,
motivated by the spirit of righteousness within him. He's the Lord's free
man. But I know what you mean when
you say, well, I've got to give up my pleasure and I don't want
to do that. I've got to give up my liberty. I know what you
mean when you say that. You mean liberty to sin. That's
what you're saying. You mean liberty to sin. You
mean liberty to ruin yourself. You mean liberty to commit suicide. That's what you want. Helen Mitchell,
she's got a dear brother up there in Weston, laying up there, just
helpless, just helpless, just like a baby. I've known him practically
all my life. Known him. He went to church. Made a profession of faith one
time and I baptized him. But he went away of all flesh
apart from the Spirit of God. I don't know what happened. I
don't know if he was influenced by fellows he worked with or
associated with or what. But he fell on hard times. He
fell on hard times, and his wife left him, and his children left
him. And he just went out then and
took his fill. Took his fill of what his heart
desired. And he began to drink and drink
until he finally wound up in a rest home, and he's only 55
or 56 years old in Helen. 55, 56. Fell in a rest home. Now he's down in the Veterans
Hospital at Clarksburg, down there. But he's not beyond reach. He's
not beyond hope. God's still on the throne. God
can still speak to him. He can still be a trophy of God's
grace. But I'm only telling you, brethren, when people talk about
liberty, I have to give up my liberty. What they're saying
is this. Liberty. Liberty. I have to give up my
liberty. Liberty to ruin myself. Liberty
to spend my life in debauchery. Liberty to lose my self-respect. liberty to lose the love of my
friends and my family. Get to the place where my family...
I said, did your family come to see you, George? Your wife?
No. I said, well, surely your children? No. No, they never
come to see me. It's been years since they've come to see me.
I'll tell you. I'll tell you, sin's a terrible
thing, boy. It's like a cancer. It's like a cancer. It'll start
out little and it'll eat your very heart out. You dabble with
it, it'll get you. He'll get you. That's what people
are saying. You mean liberty to sin? That's
what they're saying. You see the swine? You see a
hog in the muck, in the mire, in the mud? You see that hog
over there? Listen. What, with this supposition,
what if a miracle transformed that hog into an angel? If that took place, we're just
saying, what if it happened? A hog in the mud. And a miracle
changed that hog into an angel. Now, this is the question. Has
not that angel, that farmer was a hog, that was changed from
a hog to an angel, has not that angel liberty and freedom to
go and to wallow in the same filth as it did before? Yeah. He's got that same freedom. He's
got that freedom, but does he ever use it? Does he ever use
it? No. Why doesn't he use it? Because
it is contrary to his angelic nature! And so will it be with
you if you come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, it will be contrary
to your nature, because He'll give you a new nature. You won't
get over there in the mud. If you get in the mud, you'll
get out. You won't stay there. You won't stay there. Why? Because
it's not your nature to be in the mud. You'll get out of it.
You may be there for a while, but you'll get up out of it.
That hog will stay right there. It'll stay right there and wallow
in that mud until you take some slop out and pour it in the trough.
And that's the only way you'll get that hog up out of there.
You can't even stone him up out of there. Can you, Darius? Darius
knows something about it. You can't even stone him. He'll
stay right in there. And if he gets hungry, he'll
eat his young. He'll eat his baby pigs even. But an angel,
that hog that's transformed into an angel, has liberty to go back
to the field, but he doesn't use his liberty because it's
contrary to his nature. So will it be with you. Another
fellow says, well, I'll be miserable. I'll be miserable. Well, do you
think that the Lord Jesus Christ came on this earth to make us
miserable? That would be a miserable life to be a Christian. That
would just be a miserable life. I just couldn't be happy. I couldn't
do anything. I just couldn't laugh. I couldn't
cry. I just couldn't do anything.
I just had to be straight-laced.