Now if you'll open your Bibles
to Mark the fifth chapter, Mark chapter five, and it says in verse two, when
Christ was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out
of the tombs, from among the dead, out of the cemetery, a
man with an unclean spirit. He had his dwelling among the
tombs, and no man could bind him, no, not with chains. Because
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. Now this poor wretched man was
so possessed with evil demon spirits that he had been driven
to insanity. He had lost his mind. And he
lived among the dead in the cemetery. He was a terror to everybody
who came that way. He lived alone. He cut his flesh
with stones and he cried out through the night. And no man
could tame him, nobody could do anything for him. He was worse
than a wild beast. But the Lord Jesus Christ came
by and commanded the devils to come out of this man. And when
the demons came out of him at the command of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the man was healed in a moment. He was healed in a
moment. And he fell down at the feet
of Christ and worshiped Him. Before this time, he was unclothed,
naked. And when he came to know Christ,
and when the demons were cast out by the power of our he put
clothing on. He was a raving maniac, an insane
man, and when he met Christ he became an intelligent person. Before this time he lived alone. He would not associate with people.
He sought his company with the dead among the tombs in the mountains
all alone. But when he came to know Christ,
it says in verse 18, will you look at this a moment? And when
Christ was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with
the devil asked the Lord Jesus that he might go with him. Lord,
can I go with you wherever you go? But the Lord Jesus Christ
said to him, No, no you cannot. You go home to your friends. You go home to your friends.
Now I want you to listen to me for a few moments very carefully,
because I'm going to literally explode some religious myths
and traditions that have been taught through the centuries,
especially right now. This statement by our Lord Jesus
Christ teaches us an important fact. Go home to your friends. Go home
to your friends. True religion and true Christianity
does not separate a man from his friends. True Christianity and true religion
does not make a man an hermit, an oddball. someone who cannot
get along with other people or enjoy the company of other people.
True Christianity and true religion does not drive a man to a monastery,
to a cave, to a cell, to a lonely existence where he punishes his body crying
and cutting himself with briars and thorns and stones. That's
insanity. superstition, awful, terrible
superstition, has done this to people through the years. But
true faith never did, does not now, and never will, seek a lonely,
solitary life. Never. If I could, I would go to every
hermit every religious hermit in his lonely mountain cave,
and I'd say to him what the Lord said to this man, Go home. Go home. If you are what you
claim to be, a disciple of Christ and not an hypocrite as I think
you are, you'll go home. You'll wash your face, and you'll
take off your leather coat, and you'll dress like other people.
and you'll go home and you'll tell others what Christ has done
for you. Can you edify these trees out
here in the forest? Can the beasts, the squirrels
and the birds and the rabbits, can they learn to love God? Can
you convert these rocks? You cannot, but you can go home. and tell your friends what great
things the Lord hath done for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ said
to His disciples, You are the light of the world. Turn, if
you will, to Matthew, chapter 5. Now this is so important here. In Matthew, chapter 5, verse
14, listen to the Master. I'm not reading out of the writings
of the Puritans, I'm reading out of God's I'm not reading
out of the writings of the old monks with their shaved heads
and their long robes, living a deserted, solitary life. I'm
reading what God said. In Matthew 5, verse 14, Christ
said, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on
a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put
it under a bushel. And God's got as much sense as
you have. God doesn't light a candle and stick it in a cave. He puts
it out on a candlestick so it will light the house. Neither
do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick
that it might give light to other people who are in the house. True religion and true Christianity
never did seek out a lonely, separated, solitary True faith
always seeks out somebody else. Now we're prone, and you and
I have been guilty of this just like everybody else in this old
foolish tradition-bound world, especially where religion's concerned. We're prone to look at that man
or woman stuck off up yonder in a monastery or in a nunnery
and wish we could be as holy as they are. They're not holy,
they're hypocrites. every last one of them. There's
nothing holy about them. The love of a solitary, ascetic
life is not true faith, it's the disease of the mind. I told you I was going to explode
some old religious myths and traditions, but I'm telling you
the truth. Christ loved people. Christ walked
with people. Christ sought out the company
of people. Christ ate with people. Christ
was a friend of publicans and sinners, and so were His disciples. And the people who were most
critical of the Son of God were those people who lived in their
monasteries and in their temples and in their synagogues and talked
about Him being down there with the people and said He's possessed
of a devil. They were the ones who were possessed
with devils, not He. They called Him a gluttonous
wine-bibber because our Lord sought out the people. And when
this man, when this poor, possessed with demons, insane man. When he was possessed with demons
and insane, he didn't want to be with anybody. He wanted to
be alone. And when Christ saved him, he
wanted to be with the Lord and with his disciples. And the Lord
told him. He didn't tell him to go back
to the tombs and back to the mountains and buy him a a Bible
and get off up there by himself and lose himself in a lonely
ascetic life, he said, go home to your friends and tell them
what great things God's done for you. Go home to your friends. But my friends aren't converted,
Lord. You go home to your friends. If they were converted, they
wouldn't need you. Go home to your friends. When this man was
unsaved when he was possessed with demons. He sat up there
in a mountain and cut himself with stones and mistreated his body. And
when the Lord saved him, he cut that out and clothed himself. And Christ said to him, Go home.
Go home to your friends. Go home to your friends. Now
true Christianity, and I get this, True Christianity is not
inconsistent with natural affection. When a man claims to get religion
and his profession of faith is inconsistent with natural affections,
he's a fool and he's met a false god. God created man and woman
to love each other. God created man and woman before
the fall to love each other and to have children and to build
a home and to fellowship with other people in a close, personal,
intimate relationship bound by the ties of love and happiness
and accord and fellowship. And any religion that destroys
these affections and these relationships is a phony religion. It's a false
religion. It's a phony hypocrisy, and it's
of the devil. And the people who get it and
it destroys natural affections, they are of the devil. That's
what this man was right here. He was possessed with demons. Oh, he He had a spirit, all right,
but it was an evil spirit. He had a spirit, but it was a
demon spirit. And I'm not saying that these
religious people who get off in monasteries and off in caves
and live a hermit life, I'm not saying that they don't have a
spirit. They've got a spirit. It's a demon spirit. When this
man came to know God, when this man met Christ, the first thing
Christ said to him, go home to your friends. Go home to your
friends. Build your home. Build a relationship of affection
with others. Go home and communicate with
people and tell them what great things the Lord's done for you.
and what great compassion the Lord's had upon you. How about turning in your Bible
to 1 Timothy and let me read something to you. 1 Timothy chapter
4. Now listen to this. 1 Timothy
chapter 4. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith.
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Now
what's the doctrines of devils? Speaking lies in hypocrisy. This is serious. Having their
conscience seared with a hot iron. What are they going to
teach? Forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from
meat. which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving." Marriage is a happy, holy institution
which God has created to be received with thanksgiving. And any religion that breaks
up the harmonious relationship of a husband-wife is of the devil.
Any relationship that destroys the happiness of a home is of
the devil. Any religion that separates a
man from his wife is of the devil. And any religion that puts its
significance in lint or commanding to abstain from meat on certain
days, I'm reading it out of God's Word now, is of the devil. God hath created these things
to be received with thanksgiving of people who believe and know
the truth. for every creature of God is
good. I don't care whether it's a pig
or a deer. And nothing to be refused if
it be received with thanksgiving. Now, when this man was possessed
of demons, he lived alone. But when he came to know Christ,
he went home. When this man was possessed of
demons, he left his his family hearth, and went to the mountains
to live alone with his evil spirits. But when he came to know Christ,
he went back home. When this man was possessed of
demon spirits, he cut his body and mistreated it and ran around
naked, crying, moaning. But when he came to know He put
on his clothes and went home. True faith can never demand that
I abstain from weeping. My Lord wept. True faith can
never demand that I never smile. My Lord rejoiced, and I said,
Jesus never laughed. You won't find that in God's
The Bible says, And Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank
you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast revealed
these things to babies, and hid it from the wise and prudent.
True faith makes a man a better man. True faith makes a husband
a better husband. True faith makes a wife a better
wife. True faith makes a daughter and
son a better daughter and son. True faith makes a friend a better
friend. True faith makes an employee
a better employee. True faith makes a boss a better
boss. Christianity. It's not Christianity
that divides the hearts of people, it's evil spirits. Christianity
never upset a household or a company. It binds them together in a bundle
of love and affection. And it's never inconsistent with
natural affection. Never. I want us to look at three things
from this statement by our Lord in Mark chapter 5, verse 19. Christ, this man, came running. Christ was about to leave. This
man had met the Lord. This man had had an operation
of grace. This man had been freed from
evil spirits. This man had been freed from
the fetters and chains that had bound him. And this man was clothed
and sitting clothed in his right mind. And Christ started to leave. And he ran and caught him before
he got in the ship. These people said, You just leave
our town, leave our coast. He said, All right, I'll leave.
And this man ran after him and said, Lord, let me go with you.
And the master turned and said to him, Go home to your friends
and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and
hath had compassion on thee. Now first of all, what are we
to tell? Well, first of all, we're to
tell a personal story. The Lord Jesus said to this man,
you go home and tell your friends what the Lord's done for you.
Tell them what the Lord's done for you. We're not to go home
and argue with our friends and try to convert them to a doctrine.
This is a personal story. You tell your friends what the
Lord's done for you. This man didn't know a whole
lot of theology, but he knew what the Lord had done for him.
He knew what he was before he met Christ, and he knew who it
was that he had met, and he knew what Christ had done for him,
and he had something to tell. You go tell them what the Lord's
done for you. You're not to go home and argue
with them and try to persuade them to join a church. You're
to go home and tell them what the Lord's done for you. You're
not to go home and try to persuade them to unite with a system because
doctrines and laws and systems are a poor resting place for
an aching head and a sobbing heart. But tell them what the
Lord's done for you. There was a blind man whom Christ
healed, and they came to him and they said, Are you the fellow
that's been sitting there blind all these years? That's right.
Well, tell us what took place. And he said, I don't know. I
just know that I was blind, and now I can see. And I know who
did it, the man called Jesus. I know who did it. By his power
and by his will, he hath made me whole." It's a personal story. You go tell what the Lord's done
for you, for you. Don't get in an argument over
doctrine, because you don't know too much doctrine. Don't get
in an argument over which church is right and which church is
wrong and begin to find fault with everybody. Just tell them
what the Lord's done for you. And it's not only a personal
message, but it's a message of grace. Tell them what, not what
you've done for the Lord. Now here was a man insane and
Christ made him intelligent. Here was a man naked and Christ
clothed him. Here was a man out there in the
tombs and Christ gave him hope. And you go home now and tell
them what you did. Tell them what you did. No sir,
you tell them what the Lord did for you. That's what Christ told
this man. The man who always dwells on
what he's done for God and what he's given up for God and what
he's now doing for God makes a mighty boring witness. One
old songwriter said, Grace taught my soul to pray. Grace made my
eyes overflow. Grace hath kept me to this day,
and grace will not let me go. Christ said, You go home. You
go home to your friends. And you tell your friends what
the Lord did for you. What the Lord did for you. And how the Lord had compassion
on you. You tell your friends how the
grace of God sought you and found you and bought you and healed
you and made you whole. You tell them what the Lord hath
done for you. Now why should we tell this story?
First of all, we should tell this story for the Master's sake. If God has done a work of grace
in your heart, you love Him so much that you want Him to get
all the glory that He deserves, don't you? You don't want men
to speak of you, you want them to speak of your Lord. When William
Carey was dying, he was that great missionary, William Carey. He was on his deathbed. People
kept coming in and they kept talking about, he could hear
them talking, they kept talking about the great Dr. Cary. The
years that Dr. Cary spent in the mission field,
on the mission field. The sacrifices which Dr. Cary
made and the converts which were brought to God through the ministry
of Dr. Cary. And finally the old man
raised up on an elbow and he said, my friends, I'm tired of
hearing you talk of Dr. Cary. I wish somebody here would
say something about Dr. Carey's Lord. And when you go
to tell your friends the story, I know that you'll want to tell
them the story of your Lord for His glory and for His praise
and for His honor. And then look at Luke chapter
12. in Luke 12, verses 8 and 9. Not only do we want to tell
this story for his sake and for his glory, but we want an opportunity
to tell it for our own sake, because our Lord said in Luke
12, verse 8, I say unto you, Whosoever shall confess me before
men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels
of God. But he that denieth me before
men," and that's your friends. Go home and tell your friends.
"...he that denieth me before his friends shall be denied before
the angels of God." You know, the apostles, when
they were forbidden to speak in the name of Christ, they said
to the magistrates, We can't help but speak the things that
we've seen. We can't help but declare the
things we've heard. We can't help but declare the
things we've felt. We are constrained by love for
Christ to tell what He's done for us. And you can put us in
prison, and you can cut off our tongues, but somehow we're going
to tell people what God has done for us. And not only should we
do it for the Master's sake, and not only should we witness
for our own sake, but we ought to witness for the sake of others.
Turn to Romans, chapter 10. Listen to this. Romans 10, verse
13. It says, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they
going to believe in Him of whom they've not heard? And how are
they going to hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Let's not argue. Let's just preach. Let's not debate. Let's just
preach. And may God the Holy Spirit open
the hearts of those to whom we are sent. Go home and tell your
friends Our Lord didn't say, go home and convert your friends.
He couldn't do that. Salvation's of the Lord. Our
Lord didn't say, go home and convict your friends. It's the
Holy Spirit that convicts a man of sin. Our Lord didn't say,
go home and make disciples of your friends. He said, go and
tell them what the Lord's done for you. And when you tell them
what the Lord's done for you, it may please the Spirit of the
living God to make disciples out of them. It may please the
Spirit of God to reveal Christ to them. It may please the Spirit
of God to break their hearts and open their eyes to see Christ.
But they're not going to call on Him if they haven't heard
of Him. And they're not going to hear of Him unless somebody
tells them. And we're not going to tell, be able to, unless we
go home. to our friends. Now, last of
all, how are we to tell it? Well, we're to tell it truthfully.
You say, well, I'm not much of a talker. You know, the first
thing that I believe ought to be pointed out here is that when
we're talking to another person about the grace of God, we should
just tell them what we know. Don't tell them what we don't
know, just tell them what we do know. I can't tell what John
Bunyan felt, but I can tell what I felt. I cannot tell what John
Owen experienced, but I can tell what I've experienced. I can't
tell what Richard Baxter believed, but I can tell what I believe.
You go home and tell your friends, Christ said, what the Lord's
done for you. What He's done in your heart
and in your life, what He means to you, you tell Him what He's
done for you. I think we're getting more trouble
trying to tell folks what they believed in 1620. What we need
to tell them is what I believe in 1973. What I believe right
here in my own heart, what God has shown me, what He's revealed
to me, what His Word has spoken to me. Tell them what He's done
for you. I love the writings of these
old men. I love the writings of the Puritans. I love the traditions of our
forefathers. They're good for a man to study.
We profit greatly by them. We've been taught by them. We
have sat at their feet. But brethren, when we come to
our friends, we're going to have to tell them not what somebody
said to us three hundred years ago, but what Christ has done
for us, the reality of His presence. the reality of His salvation,
the reality of His Spirit, what Christ has done for us. And then,
secondly, how are we to tell it? We're to tell it humbly. Now, sometimes we're prone to
be a little bit harsh with people who don't believe just like we
believe and see the Word of God just like we see it. But if you'll
turn to I Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, In 1 Corinthians
4, verse 7, I'm not telling you to tolerate another gospel. Paul
said, if any man preach any other gospel than what I preach, let
him be accursed. If any man love not the Lord
Jesus Christ, let him be accursed, the Scripture says. God's anathema,
God's wrath upon him if he loves not Christ and confesses not
Christ But I'm talking about when we go to those who thus
far have not been converted and do not profess to know our Lord.
There was a time when we didn't know Him, and we need to be patient
and tender. He said in 1 Corinthians 4, 7,
Who maketh thee to differ? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Now as thou didst receive it,
Why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? We must
not take pride in our grace, it came to us as a gift. We must
not take pride in our religious knowledge or religious accomplishment,
it came to us by grace. We must not take pride in our
religious growth, it came to us by grace. And then thirdly,
if you listen carefully to this now, How are we to tell it? Go home and tell your friends
what God's done for you. We're to tell it truthfully,
what He's done for us. We're to tell it humbly, without
pride of grace, without an haughty spirit, without a spirit that
sits in judgment. And thirdly, we're to tell it
devoutly. Now, holy things are not to be
joked about. Now if you want to joke about
the baseball games, if you want to joke about even the school
system, if you want to joke about the automobile industry, you
go right ahead. But my friends, holy things are
not to be ridiculed. Because if you're not careful,
when you talk flippantly about the things that you believe,
when you talk flippantly about God's Word, or any text in God's
Word, or death, or hell, or heaven, or preaching, or the gospel,
in front of other people, you're going to find that they're going
to regard that as your feelings about these things.
They're not genuine to you. They're not devout to you. There's
something to be laughed at. There's enough fun and ridicule
poked now at the seriousness of the gospel without any of
us adding to it. And if anybody's going to hell
for making fun of the Word of God, I don't want it to be me.
We're to tell it devoutly. I think we're to sing with our
friends and laugh with our friends and rejoice with our friends
and weep with our friends, but when it comes to holy things,
let's get down to business and tell it devoutly. Handle the
Word of God carefully. Handle the Word of God carefully. Handle the name of the Lord carefully. Handle the gospel carefully and
devoutly. and handle your minister carefully
and his message and the pulpit of your church. Anything else,
all right, laugh about it all you want to, but heaven and hell
are not a laughing matter. And the things of God are holy. They are holy. Back yonder in
the Old Testament when that fellow reached up and touched that ark,
God killed him. When the sons of the high priest
brought strange fire, God killed them. When Ananias and Sapphira
came into the church and made light of the holy, devout generosity
of other people, God killed them. God killed them. And I could
go on through the Word of God pointing out experiences of people
who handle lightly the holy things of God. Belshazzar sent down
and got the vessels from the temple, and brought them up and
drank wine out of them, and God killed him and sent him to hell. And Korah and his followers made
light of Moses' relationship with God, and God opened the
ground and sent him to hell with his shoes on. And as I say, we
are but men, and we are frail fickle, foolish creatures. But
when we come to this matter right here, it better be handled devoutly. And you go home to your friends,
and you tell them what God's done for you, but tell it in
a devout, serious, earnest manner. That is, if He's done anything
for you, if it is serious with you, if you are devout and consecrated
about But don't joke about it. I hear you got religion, John. You're better off now that you
got religion. My friends, I didn't get religion.
I met the Lord, and it's serious business with me. And if you
want to be my friend, I'll be your friend. And I don't mind
you laughing about the clothes I wear and the way I comb my
hair. And I don't mind the way you're laughing about the way
I walk, but don't you laugh at my Lord, because that's serious
business. He died on the cross and shed
his blood and wore a crown of thorns and took the mockery and
humiliation of the multitude for my sins, and it's no joke. And when you stand before God
in the judgment strip with your sins on your own head, and God
calls the angels and says, bind him and cast him into hell, you're
not going to laugh on your way to hell. You're going to cry
for the rocks and mountains to fall on you and hide you from
his face. So you go home to your friends.
Don't draw your coat of martyrdom about you. and go off up yonder
to a cave and live in solitary confinement. Go home to your
friends and sit around the table and laugh with them and rejoice
with them. And be a man, and be a loving
husband, and be a kind brother and friend, and be a good neighbor. But you tell them what the Lord's
done for you. And you tell it truthfully, and
you tell it humbly, and you tell it devoutly, and last of all,
you tell it in such a way that the Lord Jesus Christ will get
all the glory. All the glory. I'm always a little
bit skeptical when I pick up a book and on the front of it
it says, How I Came from Prison to Pulpit. I always get just
a little bit skeptical when I go and somebody tells me to come
and hear a preacher who used to be this and used to be that
and used to be something else, and they keep talking about what
a great person he was in the world, but he humbled himself
and turned to the Lord. Well, bless his heart. In that
grave he swapped his old dunghill for a mansion. Wasn't that wonderful
of him? He traded his prison cell for
a mansion in the sky. Wasn't that wonderful of him?
What condescension! We don't want to hear what you
did for the Lord. We want to hear what he did for
you. Just think, he reached down there and lifted that old beggar
from the dunghill, that old wiggling maggot from the carcass of the
dead horse, and he washed him and bathed him. He did it! And
he exalted him and put him on a throne and put a crown on his
head. You tell it in such a way that when that man walks off,
he'll be talking about your Lord and not about you, and that's
pretty hard to do. Charles Spurgeon, in his greatest
hour over in England when he preached at the Metropolitan
Tabernacle to thousands of people, he had to ask his members to
stay home on Sunday nights so there would be room for the visitors.
And people would come from everywhere to hear that great old man preach.
Well, there was a couple who came from the United States to
England to hear Mr. Spurgeon, and they couldn't get
in the building on Sunday morning. It was packed out, no standing
room either. And so they went down the street
to hear another minister, and there were some other outstanding
preachers in those days. Spurgeon wasn't the only one.
There were other churches that had thousands of worshipers on
Sunday. So they went down the street,
and they heard another preacher. And when they came out of the
auditorium after hearing that man preach, the husband turned
to his wife, and he said, My, my, what a sermon! What a sermon! And that night they went out
to hear Mr. Spurgeon. And as was characteristic
of Mr. Spurgeon, he preached the gospel
of Christ. He lifted up the Lord Jesus Christ
in his glory, in his grace. And when that man and woman left
the service that night after hearing Charles Spurgeon, the
man looked at his wife and shook his head, and he said, What a
Savior! What a Savior! Now that's the
difference. When we get through preaching,
do people say, what a sermon. When we get through witnessing
and talking to people about our religion, do they say, what a
church, what a fine church they have, what a prosperous church,
what a generous church. When we get through talking to
them about what we believe, do they say, what a doctrine, what
logical reasoning What wisdom! But when you get through talking
to them, they say, What a Savior! What a Savior! Man of sorrows,
what a name for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! What a Savior! Our Father in
heaven, exalt and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. We're nothing.
Without Him, can do nothing. Without Him, never will be anything. We're so full of extortion and
excess. We're so full of sin and self. But in Him, we are perfected.
In Him, we are made holy. In Him, we are without blame.
In Him we have eternal life. He deserves all the praise. Unto
Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood,
and hath made us kings and priests unto our God, unto Him be the
glory, both now and forever. Amen.