Jesus was refusing a friends request

JESUS WAS REFUSINGA FRIENDSREQUEST
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Mark 5:17-1917
Then the peoplebegan to plead with
Jesus to leave their region. 18
As Jesus was getting into
the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed
begged to go with him. 19
Jesus did not let him, but
said, "Go home to your own people and tell them how
much the LORD has done for you, and how he has had
mercy on you."
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Desire And Duty
Mark 5:18-20
A. Rowland There was wonderful variety in the methods of treatment adopted by our Lord in
dealing with those who surrounded him. He touched the eyes of the blind; he garb his hand to
those prostrate by illness or stricken with death; he sometimes spoke the word of healing first,
and sometimes the word of pardon, always suiting himself to the special condition of each,
according to his perfect knowledge of his deepest need. The same completeness of knowledge
and of consideration reveals itself in his intercourse with those who had been blessed, and were
now among his followers. Some were urged to follow him, others were discouraged by a
presentation of difficulties. A beautiful example of this is given by Luke (Luke 9:57-62), in his
account of those who spoke to our Lord just before he crossed the lake. The same gracious
consideration of what was really best for one of his followers is seen here. And his disciples now
do not all require the same treatment, nor have they all the same work to do or the same sphere to
fill.

I. THE CONVERT'S DESIRE. (Ver. 18.) "When Jesus was come into the ship," or, more
correctly (Revised Version), "as he was entering into the boat," the delivered demoniac prayed
that he might be with him. It was a natural desire, and a right one, although all the motives which
prompted it were possibly not worthy. As in us, so in him, there was a mingling of the noble with
the ignoble. let us see what actuated him.
1. Admiration. No wonder that he sat at the feet of this Mighty One, and gazed upon him with
adoring love. Angels bow before him; the redeemed cast their crowns at his feet. Reverence and
awe are too rarely felt now. Proud self-sufficiency characterizes the civilized world, and even the
professedly Christian Church. It is well to know, but it is better to adore. Consciousness of
ignorance and weakness, in the presence of God, leads to worship. let reverence characterize our
search into the Divine Word, our utterances in God's name, our approaches to his throne.
2. Gratitude. Having received salvation, this man longed to prove his thankfulness, and he
naturally thought that an opportunity would be found, while following Jesus, to defend his
reputation or to do him some lowly service. Under the old economy many thank-offerings were
presented. The firstfruits of the fields and flocks were offered to the Lord, and any special
blessing received from him called forth special acknowledgment. Show how thank-offerings
have dice out of the Church, and how they might be profitably revived. Point out various modes
of showing thankfulness to God.
3. Self-distrust. Near the Deliverer he was safe, but might there not be some relapse when he was
gone? A right feeling on his part and on ours. See the teaching of our Lord in John 15 on the
necessity of the branch abiding in the vine.
4. Fear. The people were greatly excited. They had begged Christ to go out of their coasts, lest he
should destroy more of their possessions. It was not improbable that they would wreak their
vengeance on a man whose deliverance had been the cause of their loss. They did not believe, as
Christ did, that it was better that any lower creatures should perish if only one human soul was
rescued. But this is in harmony with all God's works, in which the less is being constantly
destroyed for the preservation and sustenance of the greater. The luxuriant growth of the fields is
cut down that the cattle may live; myriads of creatures in the air and in the sea are devoured by
those higher in the scale of creation than themselves; living creatures are slain that we may be
fed and clothed. In harmony with all this, the destruction of the swine was the accompaniment
of, or the shadow cast by, the redemption of the man. And high above all these mysteries rises
the cross of Calvary, on which the highest life was given as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
In this event we can see glimpses of Divine righteousness and pity; but these people of Gadara
shut their eyes to them, and were angry at their loss. Amongst them this man must "endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
II. THE CONVERT'S DUTY. (Ver. 19.)
1. His work was to begin at home. "Go home to thy friends." His presence there would be a
constant sermon. In the truest sense he was "a living epistle." Sane instead of mad, holy instead
of unclean, gentle instead of raving; he was "a new creation." All true work for God should
commence in the home. Self-control and self-sacrifice, gentleness and patience, purity and truth,
in the domestic circle - will make the home a temple of God.
2. His work was to be found among old acquaintances. Some had scorned him, others had hated
and perhaps ill-treated him. But resentment was to be conquered in him by God's grace, and to
those who knew him at his worst he was now to speak for Christ. Such witness-bearing is the

most difficult, but the most effective. John the Baptist told the penitents around him, whether
publicans or soldiers, to go back to their old spheres, and prove repentance by changed life and
spirit amid the old temptations.
3. His work was to be quiet and unostentatious. Perhaps Christ saw that publicity would injure
him spiritually, for it does injure some; or it may be that the excitement involved in following the
Lord would be unsafe for him so soon after his restoration. For some reason he had assigned to
him a quiet work, which was not the less true and effective. Luke says that he was to show "how
great things God had done for him," as if the witness-bearing was to be in living rather than in
talking. Speak of the quiet spheres in which many can still serve God.
4. His work was to spread and grow. The home was too small a sphere for such gratitude as his.
He published the fame of the Lord in "all Decapolis." This was not wrong, or forbidden, for there
were not the reasons for restraint of testimony in Peraea which existed in Galilee. It was a natural
and legitimate enlargement of commission. Similarly the apostles were to preach to all nations,
but to begin in Jerusalem. He who is faithful with a few things is made ruler over many things,
sometimes on earth, and invariably in heaven. - A.R.
Biblical Illustrator
Prayed Him that he might be with Him.
Mark 5:18, 20
The unanswered prayer
W. G. Barrett.I. THE PROBABLE REASON THAT LED THIS RESTORED DEMONIAC TO
OFFER THIS PRAYER.
1. A vague but very dreadful fear may have taken possession of him that, perhaps, in the absence
of Christ, his deliverer, these demoniac powers might again regain the mastery over him. Fear,
the salutary fear, of going astray may often assist the soul; it may be, and has often been our
wisdom to be afraid of the possibility of departure from Christ.
2. And there may have been, who can doubt that there was, a depth of gratitude in his heart
towards Christ, that, perhaps, he thought could only be expressed by his becoming His disciple.
II. SOME OR THE PROBABLE REASONS THAT LED TO THE REFUSAL OF THIS
PRAYER BY OUR SAVIOUR. "Go home to thy friends," etc.
1. Because, perhaps, it was better for the healed Gadarene to be a living witness of Christ's
goodness and power amongst his countrymen.

2. Because young converts are generally unfit to choose their spiritual vocation. Many, in the
freshness of their love, are as impetuous and misguided as a mountain stream bursting from its
hidden prison.
(W. G. Barrett.)
Witnessing for Christ
H. W. Beecher.In general, every man who believes himself to be a Christian, is bound to make
such public acknowledgment that men shall know the source of his godly life. Every man who is
conscious that his character has been brought under the power of the Spirit of God, is bound to
let men know that the life which is flowing out from him now is not his own natural life, but one
which proceeds from the Spirit of God. This would seem too obvious for remark, did not facts
show that multitudes of men endeavour to live Christianly, but are very cautious about saying
that they are Christians — and from shame-faced reasons, sometimes; from reasons of fear,
sometimes; from reasons of pride, sometimes. Men who are endeavouring to live Christianly say,
often, "Let my example speak, and not my lips." Why should not a man's lips and example both
speak? Why should not a man interpret his example? Why should a man leave it to be inferred,
in this world, that he is still living simply by the power of his own will? Why should he leave it
for men to point to him, and say, "There is a man of a well-regulated life who holds his temper
aright; but see, it is on account of the household that he has around him; it is on account of the
companionship that he keeps; it is on account of the valorous purpose which he has fashioned in
his own mind" — thus giving credit to these secondary causes, and not to that Divine inspiration,
that power from on high, which gives to all secondary causes their efficiency?
(H. W. Beecher.)
Personal testimony appreciated
H. W. Beecher.Two men come together, one of whom is shrunk and crippled with a rheumatic
affection, and the other of whom is walking in health and comfort; and the well man says to the
other, "My friend, I know how to pity you. I spent fifteen as wretched years as any man ever
spent in the world. I, too, was a miserable cripple, in the same way that you are." And the man
with rheumatism at once says, "You were?" He sees him walk; he sees how lithe and nimble he
is; he sees that he can straighten out his limbs, and that his joints are not swollen; he sees that he
is in the enjoyment of all his bodily power; and he is eager to know more about it. "Yes, I was as
bad off as you are, and I suffered everything." "Tell me what cured you." There is nothing that a
man wants to hear so much as the history of one who has been cured, if he too is a sufferer.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Personal testimony hindered by the fear of subsequent fai
H. W. Beecher.lure: — When a watchmaker sets a watch, he almost always stops it first, in order
to get the second hand right; and then, at the right second, he gives it a turn, and starts it. But
suppose, having stopped a watch, he should lay it down, and should not start it till he knew
whether it would keep time or not, how long would he wait? There are a great many men who
are set exactly right, and all that is wanted is, that they should start, and go on and keep time. But
no, they are not going to tick until they know whether they are going to continue right or not.
And what is needed is, that somebody, out of his own experience, should say to them, "You are
under an illusion. Your reasoning is false. You are being held back by a misconception. You
have enough sense of sin to act as a motive. If you have wind enough to fill a sail, you have

enough to start a voyage with. You do not need to wait for a gale before you go out of the
harbour. If you have enough wind to get steerage way, start!" And if a man has enough feeling to
give him an impulse forward, let him move. After that he will have more and more feeling.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Personal testimony permits others to share the joys of the Christian experience
H. W. Beecher.I was as much struck, when I travelled in England, with the stinginess of the
people there, in respect to their gardens, as with anything else. It was afterwards explained to me,
as owing partly to conditions of climate, and partly to the notions of the people. I travelled two
miles along a park shut in by a fence, that was probably twelve feet high, of solid brick and
coped with stone. On the other side were all sorts of trees and shrubs, and though I was skirting
along within a few feet of them, I could not see a single one of them. There were fine gardens in
which almost all the fruits in the world were cultivated, either under glass, or against walls, or
out in the open air; and a man might smell something in the air; but what it came from, he had to
imagine. There were plants and shrubs drooping to the ground with gorgeous blossoms, and there
might just as well as not have been an open iron fence, so that every poor beggar child might
look through and see the flowers, and feel that he had an ownership in them, and congratulate
himself, and say, "Are not these mine?" Oh! I like to see the little wretches of the street go and
stand before a rich man's house, and look over into his grounds, and feast their eyes on the trees,
and shrubs, and plants, and piebald beds, and magnificent blossoms, and luscious fruit, and
comfort themselves with the thought that they can see everything that the rich man owns; and I
like to hear them tell what they would do if they were only rich. And I always feel as though, if a
man has a fine garden, it is mean for him to build around it a close fence, so that nobody but
himself and his friends can enjoy it. But oh! it is a great deal meaner, when the Lord has made a
garden of Eden in your soul, for you to build around it a great dumb wall so close and so high
that nobody can look through it or over it, and nobody can hear the birds singing in it. And yet,
there are persons who carry a heart full of sweet, gardenesque experiences all the way through
life, only letting here and there a very confidential friend know anything about the wealth that is
in them.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The gospel a living Christ in living men
H. W. Beecher.Why, then, did Christ refuse to allow the man to go with Him? Be was calling
disciples, and the very watchword almost was, "Follow Me." But now, here was one that wanted
to follow Him, doubtless from the best motives, and He says, "Go home." Why? Well, for the
best reason in the world, I think. The man's nature was so transformed, the very radiancy of his
joy was such a moral power, that not in one of the twelve disciples was there probably so much
of the gospel as this man had in his new experience; and He sends him out thus to make known
the Christ; to glow before men with trust, with gratitude, and with love. He was a glorious
manifestation of the transforming power of the gospel upon the human soul, and that was the
power that Christ came to institute in this world. It was because he was a gospel. The gospel
never can be preached. The gospel can never be spoken. It is a thing that must be lived. It defies
letters. It is a living soul in a Christ-like estate. That is the gospel. That can be manifested, but it
cannot be described. No philosophy can unfold it. No symbols can demonstrate it. It is life
centred on love, inflamed by the conscious presence of the Divine and the eternal. That is the
real power of the gospel.

(H. W. Beecher.)
The power of God working through man upon men
H. W. Beecher.This condition of the human soul carries with it a mysterious power which all
ages and nations have associated with the Divine presence. A man living in that high state of
purity, rapture, and love, always seems sacred. He is like a man standing apart and standing
above, and seems to have been one informed with the Divine presence. That is always
efficacious upon the imagination of men, whether they are brutal, vulgar, or heathen. Anything
that seems to represent the near presence of God stops them, binds them, electrifies them. A
great soul carrying itself greatly in the sweetness and putty of love, in the power of intelligence,
and with all other implements in its hand and around about it, suggests more nearly the sense of
Divine presence than any other thing in this world. When the human faculties are centred upon
love, and all of them are inflamed by it; when conscience, reason, knowledge, the will power, all
skill, all taste, and all culture are the bodyguards of this central element of Christian love, they
are really, by their own nature, what electricity is by its nature, or what light is by its nature.
They are infectious. If you want to move upon the human mind, that is the one force that all men
everywhere and always yield to. The glowing enthusiastic soul, even in its lowest moods, and
from its lowest faculties, has great contagious power. If you raise man higher along the levels of
wisdom and of social excellence, still more powerful is he; if you give him the dimensions of a
hero and make him a patriot, and give him the disinterestedness of a glowing love of country and
a love of mankind, still higher he rises and wider is the circle that he shines upon; but if you give
him the ineffable presence of God, if God is associated in his thought and perception, as in his
own consciousness with the eternities, if he has in himself all the vigour of Divine inspiration
and walks so among men, there is no other power like Divine-crowned power, no sordid power,
no philosophic power, no aesthetic power, no artistic power. Nothing on earth is like God in a
man.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Men too opaque to let the gospel through them
H. W. Beecher.Time and time again I have felt as though I were a window through which the sun
straggled to come. You may remember those old bull's-eye windows, with the glass bulging in
the centre so that the sun could not get through them except in twilight. I have felt that the
natural man in me was so strong that not half the light of the gospel came through. Or, as you
have seen, in an attic long unvisited by the broom, the only windows, jutting out from under the
gable, have been taken possession of by dust and spiders, until a veil is woven over them, and the
sun outside cannot get inside except as twilight! So men, cumbered with care and worldly
conditions, and all manner of worldly ambitions, attempting to preach the doctrinal Christianity,
are too opaque, or too nearly opaque, to let the gospel through.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The testimony of a gospel life within the reach of every variety of talent
H. W. Beecher.This issue comes home to all souls alike. It is the solvent of the difficulties which
we feel in diversities of talent. One Christian man says, "How can I be expected to do much
good? I am not eloquent, I am not an apostle, I am not Apollos, I am not a Paul." Another man
says, "I should be very glad if I were a man of affairs; I should like to live a Christian life in the
conduct of affairs; but I have no ability." Now, the gospel force belongs to every man alike. If
you are low in life, you are susceptible of living like Christ. If you are very high in life, you are

susceptible of living a Christ-like life. If you are wise and educated, that is the life for you. If you
are ignorant, that is just as much the life for you. It does not lie in those gifts that the world
prizes, and justly prizes, too. It is something deeper than that, far more interior than that; and it is
clothed by the creative idea of God with an influence over men's souls greater than any other.
Wherever you are; whether you are poor, obscure, mean, even sick and bedridden, or in places of
conspicuity, the highest, the lowest, and the middle, all come to a gracious unity. Not only that,
but they all feel resting upon them the sweet obligations of the duty of loving Christ, of being
like Christ, of loving our fellow men. When we shall become communal, whenever the coronal
faculties of the human soul are in ascendency and in sympathetic unity, the world will not linger
another eighteen hundred years before it will be illumined. The new heavens will come, and the
new earth.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The apostle to the Gadarenes
L. W. Bacon.Things must have looked perplexing enough to this poor man! "Go home to thy
friends!" "But, Lord, I have no friend but Thee. I have been an outcast now these many years —
a dweller in unclean sepulchres, abhorred of men. What have men done for me but bind me in
chains and fetters of iron? But Thy hand hath loosed my bonds of pain, and bound me with Thy
love. Let me be with Thee where Thou art!" But still from that most gracious One came the
inexorable "Go back — back to thy friends and thy father's house. Go, tell them what the Lord
hath done for thee." "What? I, Lord? I, so disused to rational speech? whose lips and tongue were
but now the organs of demoniac blasphemy? I, just rallying from the rending of the exorcised
fiends? I, surrounded by a hostile people that have just warned away my Lord and Saviour from
their coasts? And can I hope that they will hear my words, who turn a deaf and rebellious ear to
Thee? Nay, Lord, I entreat Thee let me be with Thee, there sitting at Thy feet clothed and in my
right mind, that men may look and point at me and glorify my Lord, my Saviour! Let them go,
whose zeal to tell of Thee even Thy interdict cannot repress — there be many such, send them!
But let me be near Thee, be with Thee, and gaze, and love, and be silent, and adore!" Was ever a
stronger argument of prayer? And yet the little boat moves off, and Christ departs, and the
grateful believer is left alone to do the work for which he seems so insufficient and unfit! How
like Christ's dealing is to His Father's! To translate the story into the terms of our daily life it
shows us —
I. THAT THE PATH OF DUTY WHICH CHRIST HAS MARKED OUT FOR US MAY BE
THE OPPOSITE OF THAT WHICH WE NATURALLY THINK AND ARDENTLY DESIRE.
All our natural aptitudes, as we estimate them, yea, our purest and highest religious aspirations,
may draw us toward a certain line of conduct, while on the other hand the manifest indications of
God's Word and providence inexorably close up that way and wave us off in another direction.
II. WHEN RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGE AND RELIGIOUS DUTY SEEM TO CONFLICT, THE
DUTY IS TO BE PREFERRED ABOVE THE PRIVILEGE.
III. DUTY, PREFERRED AND FOLLOWED INSTEAD OF PRIVILEGE, BECOMES ITSELF
THE SUPREME PRIVILEGE. The interests of the soul are very great, but they are not supreme.
The supreme interests are those of the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and whoso,
forgetting the interests of his own soul, shall follow after these, shall surely find that all things
beside are added unto him.
(L. W. Bacon.)

Going home -- a Christmas story
C. H. Spurgeon.I. WHAT THEY ARE TO TELL. Personal experience. A story of free grace. A
story filled with gratitude.
II. WHY THEY ARE TO TELL IT. For the Master's sake. To make others glad.
III. HOW IS THIS STORY TO BE TOLD?
1. Truthfully.
2. Humbly.
3. Earnestly.
4. Devoutly.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The refused request
R. Glover.It was a natural prayer of gratitude and sweetness. Why, when Christ giants the bad
prayer of the people, does He deny the good prayer of the restored sufferer?
I. MERCY TO THE MAN HIMSELF.
1. To teach him to walk by faith, not by sight.
2. To leave his fears of a return of his affliction unsanctioned.
3. To indicate that Christ's work was perfect, not in danger of relapse.
4. To suggest that a distant Christ, if trusted, is as strong to save as a Christ who is nigh at hand.
II. MERCY TO THE GERGESENES. The presence of the Lord oppressed them. The presence
of a disciple among them was
(1)a link to Him, and
(2)a testimony of Him. So the man is left, a living gospel, seeing whom, others may reflect,
repent, and ultimately believe.
III. MERCY TO THE FAMILY OF THE RESTORED MAN. His family had suffered much
pain, and probably poverty; let them have the pleasure of seeing his health and peace, and the
advantage of his care. For wife and children's comfort he should return. How thoughtful is Christ
of our best interests, even when He is crossing our wishes! How merciful in leaving an
evangelist with those on whom some would have called down fire from heaven!
(R. Glover.)
Christ's disinterestedness
Segneri.Do you ever find, among all the persons whom Christ miraculously cured, a single one
whom He retained to be afterwards near Him as His disciple, His attendant, His votary?...Where
now is your worldly friend who will behave himself towards you in this fashion? So far from it,
no sooner has he done you any service, however trifling, than he immediately lays a claim upon
you for your daily attendance upon him. He requires you to be henceforth always at his elbow,
and to be giving him continually every possible proof of your gratitude, of your devoted and
even slavish attachment to his person.
(Segneri.)

The home missionary
H. Phillips.A converted man should be a missionary to his fellow men.
I. CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY WORK, THE DUTY OF EVERY CONVERTED MAN, should
be undertaken
(1)out of gratitude to God;
(2)from regard to human need,
(3)to promote the glory of Christ.
II. CHRISTIAN EFFORT SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME.
III. CHRISTIAN USEFULNESS MUST BE BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
IV. CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE WILL BE CROWNED WITH THE REWARD OF SUCCESS.
(H. Phillips.)
The mission of the saved
C. H. Spurgeon.Men saved from Satan —
1. Beg to sit at Jesus' feet, clothed, and in their right mind.
2. Ask to be with Him always, and never to cease from personal attendance upon Him.
3. Go at His bidding, and publish abroad what great things He has done for them.
4. Henceforth have nothing to do but to live for Jesus and for Him alone. Come, ye despisers,
and see yourselves as in a looking glass. The opposite of all this is true of you. Look until you
see yourselves transformed.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The restored demoniac
J. Burns, D. D. , LL. D.I. AN INTERESTING PRAYER which notwithstanding was rejected,
1. The prayer itself — "To be with Christ." Was not this the end of Christ's mission, that He
might collect souls to Himself? Gather them out of the world, etc. It seems evidently a wise and
proper prayer, a pious prayer, the sign of a gracious state of soul.
2. The probable reasons by which this prayer was dictated. It might be the result
(1)Of holy cautiousness and fear.
(2)From grateful love to Jesus.
(3)From a desire to know more of Christ.
3. The refusal of this request. "But Christ sent him away." However wise and proper and pious
the man's petition appears, Jesus determined and directed otherwise; his suit could not be
granted. Here let us pause and learn
(1)how necessary to be taught rightly to pray. We know not what we should pray for.
(2)We should learn to be satisfied with the Lord's good pleasure whether He grants our requests
or not.
II. AN IMPORTANT COMMAND WHICH WAS PIOUSLY OBEYED. "Jesus sent him," etc.

1. The nature of the command. He was to be a personal witness for Christ; a monument of
Christ's power and compassion. He could testify
(1)to the enthronement of reason.
(2)To emancipation from the thraldom of evil spirits.
(3)To restoration to happiness.
(4)To the Author of his deliverance, "Jesus."
2. The obedience which was rendered.
(1)It was prompt and immediate. He did not cavil, nor reason, nor refuse.
(2)It was decided and public. Not afraid, nor ashamed.Application:
1. The end of our conversion is more than our own salvation.
(1)We must testify to and for the benefit of others.
(2)We must glorify Christ.
2. The converted should not consult merely their own comfort.
3. Christian obedience is unquestioning and exact.
4. The hearts' desires of the saints shall be granted in a future state. Be with Jesus forever, etc.
(J. Burns, D. D. , LL. D.)
At the feet of Jesus
J. Caroming, D. D.Two grand features in the close of the parable.
I. THE POSITION IN WHICH THE MAN WAS FOUND.
1. How interesting is this spectacle. It was the place of nearness to Jesus and intimate
communion with Him. Perhaps he selected this place also as the site of safety, or, he may have
been seeking that instruction which was requisite to guide and to direct him.
2. What took place in the case of the demoniac is only a fore-light of what will take place in the
case of all creation.
II. THE PETITION THAT HE MIGHT BE ALLOWED TO REMAIN WITH HIM OR TO
ACCOMPANY HIM. Why?
1. Because he might have recollected the fact of which the words are the description (Matthew
12:43). If we have obtained anything from Christ for which we feel thankful, we shall be jealous
lest we lose it.
2. To give expression to the deep love that he felt to Him.
III. THE ACTUAL ANSWER THAT CHRIST GAVE HIM. Explain the seeming contradiction
between this and Luke 8:56 and others. We have in this indirect but striking evidence of the
divinity of the character of Jesus. A mere, common wonder worker would have been too glad of
having a living specimen of his great power to accompany him into all lands, etc. We have these
great lessons taught us! That he that receives the largest blessing from Christ is bound to go and
be the largest and most untiring distributor of that blessing. We receive not for ourselves, but for
diffusion, etc.

2. That the way, if you are Christians, to be with Christ, and to be with Him most closely, is to go
out and labour for Christ with the greatest diligence. We are never so near to Christ as when, in
His spirit and in His name, we are doing His work and fulfilling His will.
3. That labouring for Christ, according to Christ's command, is the very way to enjoy the greatest
happiness that results from being with Christ. Labour for Christ and happiness from Christ are
twins that are never separated.
4. That as Christ, in hearing the demoniac, had an object beyond him, so, in healing us, He has
an object beyond us.
5. But there is something very instructive, too, in the place that the Saviour bade this recovered
demoniac go to. Go to the sphere in which providence has placed you, and into that sphere bring
the glorious riches with which grace has enriched you...Test your missionary powers at home
before you try them in the school, etc. The little home, the family, is the fountain that feeds with
a pure and noble population the large home, which is the country. Let us begin at home, but let
us not stop there.
6. Conceive, if you can, the return of the man to his home — the picture realized in his reception.
(J. Caroming, D. D.)
The power of home in regenerating society
J. Cumming, D. D.Loyalty, and love, and happiness in Britain's homes, will make loyalty, and
happiness, and love be reflected from Britain's altars and from Britain's shores. There may be a
mob, or there may be slaves; but let statesmen recollect there cannot be a people unless there be
a home. I repeat, there may be in a country slaves, or there may be mobs, but there cannot be in a
country a people, the people, unless it be a country of holy and happy homes. And he that helps
to elevate, sustain, ennoble, and sanctify the homes of a country, contributes more to its glory, its
beauty, its permanence, than all its legislators, its laws, its literature, its science, its poetry
together. Our Lord began at the first home that was found at Bethabara beyond Jordan — the
home of Andrew and Peter; and starting from it, he carried the glorious gospel of which he was
the author into the home of Mary and Martha at Bethany, of Cornelius the centurion, of Lydia, of
the gaoler of Philippi, of Crispus, and finally of Timothy; and these consecrated and converted
homes became multiplying foci amid the world's darkness, till the scattered and ever multiplying
lights shall be gathered one day into one broad blaze, that shall illuminate and make glad the
wide world. Let us begin at home, but let us not stop there. It is groups of homes that make a
congregation; it is clusters of congregations that make a country.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
The return of the cured demoniac
J. Cumming, D. D.He went home, and proclaimed not only there, but in all Decapolis, what God
had done for him. Conceive, if you can, the picture realized in his reception. He turns his face
quietly to his home the first time, perhaps, for years — the first time, at least, that he recollects.
One child of his, looking from the casement, sees the father return, and gives the alarm: every
door is doubly bolted; the mother and children cling together in one group, lest the supposed still
fierce demoniac, who had so often torn and assailed them before, should again tear and utterly
destroy them. But a second child, looking, calls out, "My father is clothed; before he was not
clothed at all." A third child shouts to the mother, "My father is not only clothed, but he comes
home so quietly, so beautifully, that he looks as when he dandled us upon his knee, kissed us,

and told us sweet and interesting stories: can this be he?" A fourth exclaims, "It is my father, and
he seems so gentle, and so quiet, and so beautiful — come, my mother, and see." The mother,
not believing it to be true, but wishing it were so, runs and looks with sceptical belief; and lo! it
is the dead one alive, it is the lost one found, it is the naked one clothed, it is the demon-
possessed one, holy, happy, peaceful; and when he comes and mingles with that glad and
welcoming household, the group upon the threshold grows too beautiful before my imagination
for me to attempt to delineate, and its hearts are too happy for human language to express. The
father crosses the threshold, and the inmates welcome him home to their fireside. The father
gathers his children around him, while his wife sits and listens, and is not weary with listening
the whole day and the whole night, as he tells them how One who proclaimed Himself to be the
Messiah, who is the Prophet promised to the fathers, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty
God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, spake to him, exorcised the demons, and
restored him to his right mind, and made him happy.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
Work for Christ the way to retain the vision of Him
J. Cumming, D. D.A poor monk, who, in spite of his cowl, seems from the fact to have been one
of God's hidden ones, was one day, according to a mediaeval legend, meditating in his cell. A
glorious vision burst upon him, it is recorded, with the brilliancy of noon-day, and revealed in its
bosom the "Man of Sorrows," the "acquainted with grief." The monk was gazing on the spectacle
charmed, delighted, adoring. The convent bell rang; and that bell was the daily signal for the
monk to go to the poor that were crowding round the convent gate, and distribute bread and
fragments of food among them. The monk hesitated whether he should remain to enjoy the
splendid apocalypse, or should go out to do the daily drudgery that belonged to him. At last he
decided on the latter; he left the vision with regret, and went out at the bidding of the bell to
distribute the alms, and bread, and crumbs among the poor. He returned, of course expecting
that, because of his not seeming to appreciate it, the vision would be darkened; but to his
surprise, when he returned, the vision was there still, and on his expressing his amazement that
his apparent want of appreciating it and being thankful for it should be overlooked, and that the
vision should still continue in augmented splendour, a voice came from the lips of the Saviour it
revealed, which said, "If you had stayed, I had not." This may be a legend but it teaches a great
lesson — that active duty in Christ's name and for Christ's sake is the way to retain the vision of
His peace in all its permanence and power.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
The three prayers
W. Jay.Here are three prayers, the prayer of the devils, of the Gadarenes, and of the demoniac
who had been restored. The first prayer was answered, and the devils obtained their wish; the
second was complied with, but the last was re. fused, though all he asked was permission to be
with Christ; surely there must be something very instructive in all this, otherwise it would not
have been registered.
I. "AND ALL THE DEVILS BESOUGHT JESUS, SAYING, SEND US INTO THE SWINE."
Here, the devils acknowledge the power of Christ over them; they cannot injure even a brute
without leave. This is orthodox so far as it goes, and even beyond the creed of many who profess
themselves Christians. None of the devils in hell disbelieve the divinity of Christ. But cannot
faith save us? It can, but not such faith as is purely a conviction of truth. All Christians know that

their speculative surpasses their experimental and practical religion. But will devils pray? and
will they be heard? Yes — "and forthwith Jesus gave them leave." Their request was founded on
malice and mischief, in order to render Christ obnoxious to the Gadarenes, through the spoiling
of their goods. Permission was given in judgment. Satan killed the children of Job; but Job
triumphed in his trial. The same permission was given to Satan to tempt the Gadarenes, how
different the result; he destroyed their property and them with it. The gold will endure the
furnace, the dross will not.
II. THEY SAW THE POOR WRETCH DISPOSSESSED AND INSTEAD OF BRINGING ALL
THEIR SICK TO BE HEALED BESOUGHT JESUS TO DEPART. How dreadful was this
prayer! Oh, if you were of Moses you would say, "If Thy presence go not with us, suffer us not
to go up hence." David said, "Cast me not away from Thy presence." You need the Saviour's
presence as much as the earth needs the sun; in adversity, death, judgment. Observe, you may
pray thus without words, actions speak louder than words. When you would tell a man to be off,
it is done without speaking; an eye, a finger, nay, but turning your back will effect it. God
interprets your meaning, he translates your actions into intelligible language. Wonder not if God
takes you at your word; He punishes sin with sin; sealing men's eyes when they will not see;
withdrawing grace that is neglected.
III. THE POOR PATIENT PRAYED TO BE WITH CHRIST.
1. His prayer arose from fear.
2. From gratitude.
3. From love. Everyone who has obtained grace prays, "Lord, show me Thy glory."Learn:
1. To think correctly of answers to prayers — that God may hear in wrath, or refuse a petition in
kindness. God can distinguish our welfare from our wishes.
2. There is no ostentation in the miracle. The pure benevolence of Jesus terminated with the
individual. The religion of Jesus Christ calls us into the world, as well as out of it. It calls us out,
as to its spirit and maxims, in, as the sphere of activity, and place of trial. The idea of living
among the wretched Gadarenes must have been uncomfortable to the renewed mind of the poor
man, yet he is directed to go, without murmuring or gainsaying; not, indeed, in the spirit of the
Pharisee, nor of the rigid professor, who, while he confesses a man can have nothing, except it be
given him from above, is occupied all the day in maligning and censuring his neighbours; but to
display the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ in his conduct and conversation, to relate his
recovery, to honour the Physician, and to direct others unto Him. Oh, if there were a history of
all whom the Saviour has made whole, what a work would it be.
(W. Jay.)
Home piety a proof of real religion
W. Jay.He that is not relatively godly, is not really so; a man who is bad at home is bad
throughout, and this reminds me of a wise reply of Whitfield to the question "Is such a one a
good man?" "How should I know that? I never lived with him."
(W. Jay.)
The recovered demoniac
S. Bridge, M. A.I. THE MAN'S REQUEST. We cannot wonder that his mind should shrink at
the thought of the devil's returning in the absence of our Lord. He may have heard of such cases.

"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man...the last state of that man is worse than the first."
Thus the soul rescued from Satan is frequently for a time unable to rejoice, but appears to
"receive the spirit of bondage again to fear." Our feelings, after any unexpected deliverance or
event, are such that we find it difficult to believe its reality. Go, tell the mother who has heard of
the shipwreck of her child, that her son who was dead is alive again, she is with difficulty
persuaded of its truth. And when so much is at stake we should fear for those who do not
sometimes fear for themselves. Can the Christian, harassed by rising corruption, beset with
temptation, feel no concern?
II. OUR LORD'S ANSWER. We might have supposed, after the great salvation Jesus had
wrought for him, He would not have been reluctant to grant him any favour, especially when the
request was dictated by gratitude.
1. The reply showed the modesty of the Saviour.
2. Also His compassion for the man's friends. Mercy to one member of the family should be an
encouragement to all the rest.
3. And the great object which every man truly converted to God will keep perpetually in view is,
the promotion of the Divine glory, and the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom, in the salvation
of those around him. The wife of his bosom, the parent, the brother, or the child; reason, as well
as affection, points out these as the first objects of our concern. Religion does not petrify the
feelings, and make us to be so absorbed in seeking our own safety, as to be indifferent to the fate
of those about us; the grace of God does not annihilate the sympathies, or snap the bonds of
nature; no, it strengthens and refines those sympathies, deepens the channel in which the
affections flow, and purifies and consecrates the stream. But are there not some, who, instead of
entreating Jesus that they may go with Him, are saying of the world and of the flesh, We have
loved these, and after them we will go? But, fellow sinners, be persuaded it is the way of
transgression, it is hard.
(S. Bridge, M. A.)
Mark 5:19
►
But Jesus would not allowhim. "Go home to your own
people,"He said, "and tell them how much the Lord
has done for you, and what mercy He has shown you."

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Desire And Duty
Mark 5:18-20
A. Rowland There was wonderful variety in the methods of treatment adopted by our Lord in
dealing with those who surrounded him. He touched the eyes of the blind; he garb his hand to
those prostrate by illness or stricken with death; he sometimes spoke the word of healing first,
and sometimes the word of pardon, always suiting himself to the special condition of each,
according to his perfect knowledge of his deepest need. The same completeness of knowledge
and of consideration reveals itself in his intercourse with those who had been blessed, and were
now among his followers. Some were urged to follow him, others were discouraged by a
presentation of difficulties. A beautiful example of this is given by Luke (Luke 9:57-62), in his
account of those who spoke to our Lord just before he crossed the lake. The same gracious
consideration of what was really best for one of his followers is seen here. And his disciples now
do not all require the same treatment, nor have they all the same work to do or the same sphere to
fill.
I. THE CONVERT'S DESIRE. (Ver. 18.) "When Jesus was come into the ship," or, more
correctly (Revised Version), "as he was entering into the boat," the delivered demoniac prayed
that he might be with him. It was a natural desire, and a right one, although all the motives which
prompted it were possibly not worthy. As in us, so in him, there was a mingling of the noble with
the ignoble. let us see what actuated him.
1. Admiration. No wonder that he sat at the feet of this Mighty One, and gazed upon him with
adoring love. Angels bow before him; the redeemed cast their crowns at his feet. Reverence and
awe are too rarely felt now. Proud self-sufficiency characterizes the civilized world, and even the
professedly Christian Church. It is well to know, but it is better to adore. Consciousness of
ignorance and weakness, in the presence of God, leads to worship. let reverence characterize our
search into the Divine Word, our utterances in God's name, our approaches to his throne.
2. Gratitude. Having received salvation, this man longed to prove his thankfulness, and he
naturally thought that an opportunity would be found, while following Jesus, to defend his
reputation or to do him some lowly service. Under the old economy many thank-offerings were
presented. The firstfruits of the fields and flocks were offered to the Lord, and any special
blessing received from him called forth special acknowledgment. Show how thank-offerings
have dice out of the Church, and how they might be profitably revived. Point out various modes
of showing thankfulness to God.
3. Self-distrust. Near the Deliverer he was safe, but might there not be some relapse when he was
gone? A right feeling on his part and on ours. See the teaching of our Lord in John 15 on the
necessity of the branch abiding in the vine.

4. Fear. The people were greatly excited. They had begged Christ to go out of their coasts, lest he
should destroy more of their possessions. It was not improbable that they would wreak their
vengeance on a man whose deliverance had been the cause of their loss. They did not believe, as
Christ did, that it was better that any lower creatures should perish if only one human soul was
rescued. But this is in harmony with all God's works, in which the less is being constantly
destroyed for the preservation and sustenance of the greater. The luxuriant growth of the fields is
cut down that the cattle may live; myriads of creatures in the air and in the sea are devoured by
those higher in the scale of creation than themselves; living creatures are slain that we may be
fed and clothed. In harmony with all this, the destruction of the swine was the accompaniment
of, or the shadow cast by, the redemption of the man. And high above all these mysteries rises
the cross of Calvary, on which the highest life was given as a sacrifice for the sins of the world.
In this event we can see glimpses of Divine righteousness and pity; but these people of Gadara
shut their eyes to them, and were angry at their loss. Amongst them this man must "endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
II. THE CONVERT'S DUTY. (Ver. 19.)
1. His work was to begin at home. "Go home to thy friends." His presence there would be a
constant sermon. In the truest sense he was "a living epistle." Sane instead of mad, holy instead
of unclean, gentle instead of raving; he was "a new creation." All true work for God should
commence in the home. Self-control and self-sacrifice, gentleness and patience, purity and truth,
in the domestic circle - will make the home a temple of God.
2. His work was to be found among old acquaintances. Some had scorned him, others had hated
and perhaps ill-treated him. But resentment was to be conquered in him by God's grace, and to
those who knew him at his worst he was now to speak for Christ. Such witness-bearing is the
most difficult, but the most effective. John the Baptist told the penitents around him, whether
publicans or soldiers, to go back to their old spheres, and prove repentance by changed life and
spirit amid the old temptations.
3. His work was to be quiet and unostentatious. Perhaps Christ saw that publicity would injure
him spiritually, for it does injure some; or it may be that the excitement involved in following the
Lord would be unsafe for him so soon after his restoration. For some reason he had assigned to
him a quiet work, which was not the less true and effective. Luke says that he was to show "how
great things God had done for him," as if the witness-bearing was to be in living rather than in
talking. Speak of the quiet spheres in which many can still serve God.
4. His work was to spread and grow. The home was too small a sphere for such gratitude as his.
He published the fame of the Lord in "all Decapolis." This was not wrong, or forbidden, for there
were not the reasons for restraint of testimony in Peraea which existed in Galilee. It was a natural
and legitimate enlargement of commission. Similarly the apostles were to preach to all nations,
but to begin in Jerusalem. He who is faithful with a few things is made ruler over many things,
sometimes on earth, and invariably in heaven. - A.R.

Biblical Illustrator
Prayed Him that he might be with Him.
Mark 5:18, 20
The unanswered prayer
W. G. Barrett.I. THE PROBABLE REASON THAT LED THIS RESTORED DEMONIAC TO
OFFER THIS PRAYER.
1. A vague but very dreadful fear may have taken possession of him that, perhaps, in the absence
of Christ, his deliverer, these demoniac powers might again regain the mastery over him. Fear,
the salutary fear, of going astray may often assist the soul; it may be, and has often been our
wisdom to be afraid of the possibility of departure from Christ.
2. And there may have been, who can doubt that there was, a depth of gratitude in his heart
towards Christ, that, perhaps, he thought could only be expressed by his becoming His disciple.
II. SOME OR THE PROBABLE REASONS THAT LED TO THE REFUSAL OF THIS
PRAYER BY OUR SAVIOUR. "Go home to thy friends," etc.
1. Because, perhaps, it was better for the healed Gadarene to be a living witness of Christ's
goodness and power amongst his countrymen.
2. Because young converts are generally unfit to choose their spiritual vocation. Many, in the
freshness of their love, are as impetuous and misguided as a mountain stream bursting from its
hidden prison.
(W. G. Barrett.)
Witnessing for Christ
H. W. Beecher.In general, every man who believes himself to be a Christian, is bound to make
such public acknowledgment that men shall know the source of his godly life. Every man who is
conscious that his character has been brought under the power of the Spirit of God, is bound to
let men know that the life which is flowing out from him now is not his own natural life, but one
which proceeds from the Spirit of God. This would seem too obvious for remark, did not facts
show that multitudes of men endeavour to live Christianly, but are very cautious about saying
that they are Christians — and from shame-faced reasons, sometimes; from reasons of fear,
sometimes; from reasons of pride, sometimes. Men who are endeavouring to live Christianly say,
often, "Let my example speak, and not my lips." Why should not a man's lips and example both
speak? Why should not a man interpret his example? Why should a man leave it to be inferred,
in this world, that he is still living simply by the power of his own will? Why should he leave it
for men to point to him, and say, "There is a man of a well-regulated life who holds his temper
aright; but see, it is on account of the household that he has around him; it is on account of the
companionship that he keeps; it is on account of the valorous purpose which he has fashioned in
his own mind" — thus giving credit to these secondary causes, and not to that Divine inspiration,
that power from on high, which gives to all secondary causes their efficiency?
(H. W. Beecher.)
Personal testimony appreciated

H. W. Beecher.Two men come together, one of whom is shrunk and crippled with a rheumatic
affection, and the other of whom is walking in health and comfort; and the well man says to the
other, "My friend, I know how to pity you. I spent fifteen as wretched years as any man ever
spent in the world. I, too, was a miserable cripple, in the same way that you are." And the man
with rheumatism at once says, "You were?" He sees him walk; he sees how lithe and nimble he
is; he sees that he can straighten out his limbs, and that his joints are not swollen; he sees that he
is in the enjoyment of all his bodily power; and he is eager to know more about it. "Yes, I was as
bad off as you are, and I suffered everything." "Tell me what cured you." There is nothing that a
man wants to hear so much as the history of one who has been cured, if he too is a sufferer.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Personal testimony hindered by the fear of subsequent fai
H. W. Beecher.lure: — When a watchmaker sets a watch, he almost always stops it first, in order
to get the second hand right; and then, at the right second, he gives it a turn, and starts it. But
suppose, having stopped a watch, he should lay it down, and should not start it till he knew
whether it would keep time or not, how long would he wait? There are a great many men who
are set exactly right, and all that is wanted is, that they should start, and go on and keep time. But
no, they are not going to tick until they know whether they are going to continue right or not.
And what is needed is, that somebody, out of his own experience, should say to them, "You are
under an illusion. Your reasoning is false. You are being held back by a misconception. You
have enough sense of sin to act as a motive. If you have wind enough to fill a sail, you have
enough to start a voyage with. You do not need to wait for a gale before you go out of the
harbour. If you have enough wind to get steerage way, start!" And if a man has enough feeling to
give him an impulse forward, let him move. After that he will have more and more feeling.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Personal testimony permits others to share the joys of the Christian experience
H. W. Beecher.I was as much struck, when I travelled in England, with the stinginess of the
people there, in respect to their gardens, as with anything else. It was afterwards explained to me,
as owing partly to conditions of climate, and partly to the notions of the people. I travelled two
miles along a park shut in by a fence, that was probably twelve feet high, of solid brick and
coped with stone. On the other side were all sorts of trees and shrubs, and though I was skirting
along within a few feet of them, I could not see a single one of them. There were fine gardens in
which almost all the fruits in the world were cultivated, either under glass, or against walls, or
out in the open air; and a man might smell something in the air; but what it came from, he had to
imagine. There were plants and shrubs drooping to the ground with gorgeous blossoms, and there
might just as well as not have been an open iron fence, so that every poor beggar child might
look through and see the flowers, and feel that he had an ownership in them, and congratulate
himself, and say, "Are not these mine?" Oh! I like to see the little wretches of the street go and
stand before a rich man's house, and look over into his grounds, and feast their eyes on the trees,
and shrubs, and plants, and piebald beds, and magnificent blossoms, and luscious fruit, and
comfort themselves with the thought that they can see everything that the rich man owns; and I
like to hear them tell what they would do if they were only rich. And I always feel as though, if a
man has a fine garden, it is mean for him to build around it a close fence, so that nobody but
himself and his friends can enjoy it. But oh! it is a great deal meaner, when the Lord has made a
garden of Eden in your soul, for you to build around it a great dumb wall so close and so high

that nobody can look through it or over it, and nobody can hear the birds singing in it. And yet,
there are persons who carry a heart full of sweet, gardenesque experiences all the way through
life, only letting here and there a very confidential friend know anything about the wealth that is
in them.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The gospel a living Christ in living men
H. W. Beecher.Why, then, did Christ refuse to allow the man to go with Him? Be was calling
disciples, and the very watchword almost was, "Follow Me." But now, here was one that wanted
to follow Him, doubtless from the best motives, and He says, "Go home." Why? Well, for the
best reason in the world, I think. The man's nature was so transformed, the very radiancy of his
joy was such a moral power, that not in one of the twelve disciples was there probably so much
of the gospel as this man had in his new experience; and He sends him out thus to make known
the Christ; to glow before men with trust, with gratitude, and with love. He was a glorious
manifestation of the transforming power of the gospel upon the human soul, and that was the
power that Christ came to institute in this world. It was because he was a gospel. The gospel
never can be preached. The gospel can never be spoken. It is a thing that must be lived. It defies
letters. It is a living soul in a Christ-like estate. That is the gospel. That can be manifested, but it
cannot be described. No philosophy can unfold it. No symbols can demonstrate it. It is life
centred on love, inflamed by the conscious presence of the Divine and the eternal. That is the
real power of the gospel.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The power of God working through man upon men
H. W. Beecher.This condition of the human soul carries with it a mysterious power which all
ages and nations have associated with the Divine presence. A man living in that high state of
purity, rapture, and love, always seems sacred. He is like a man standing apart and standing
above, and seems to have been one informed with the Divine presence. That is always
efficacious upon the imagination of men, whether they are brutal, vulgar, or heathen. Anything
that seems to represent the near presence of God stops them, binds them, electrifies them. A
great soul carrying itself greatly in the sweetness and putty of love, in the power of intelligence,
and with all other implements in its hand and around about it, suggests more nearly the sense of
Divine presence than any other thing in this world. When the human faculties are centred upon
love, and all of them are inflamed by it; when conscience, reason, knowledge, the will power, all
skill, all taste, and all culture are the bodyguards of this central element of Christian love, they
are really, by their own nature, what electricity is by its nature, or what light is by its nature.
They are infectious. If you want to move upon the human mind, that is the one force that all men
everywhere and always yield to. The glowing enthusiastic soul, even in its lowest moods, and
from its lowest faculties, has great contagious power. If you raise man higher along the levels of
wisdom and of social excellence, still more powerful is he; if you give him the dimensions of a
hero and make him a patriot, and give him the disinterestedness of a glowing love of country and
a love of mankind, still higher he rises and wider is the circle that he shines upon; but if you give
him the ineffable presence of God, if God is associated in his thought and perception, as in his
own consciousness with the eternities, if he has in himself all the vigour of Divine inspiration
and walks so among men, there is no other power like Divine-crowned power, no sordid power,

no philosophic power, no aesthetic power, no artistic power. Nothing on earth is like God in a
man.
(H. W. Beecher.)
Men too opaque to let the gospel through them
H. W. Beecher.Time and time again I have felt as though I were a window through which the sun
straggled to come. You may remember those old bull's-eye windows, with the glass bulging in
the centre so that the sun could not get through them except in twilight. I have felt that the
natural man in me was so strong that not half the light of the gospel came through. Or, as you
have seen, in an attic long unvisited by the broom, the only windows, jutting out from under the
gable, have been taken possession of by dust and spiders, until a veil is woven over them, and the
sun outside cannot get inside except as twilight! So men, cumbered with care and worldly
conditions, and all manner of worldly ambitions, attempting to preach the doctrinal Christianity,
are too opaque, or too nearly opaque, to let the gospel through.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The testimony of a gospel life within the reach of every variety of talent
H. W. Beecher.This issue comes home to all souls alike. It is the solvent of the difficulties which
we feel in diversities of talent. One Christian man says, "How can I be expected to do much
good? I am not eloquent, I am not an apostle, I am not Apollos, I am not a Paul." Another man
says, "I should be very glad if I were a man of affairs; I should like to live a Christian life in the
conduct of affairs; but I have no ability." Now, the gospel force belongs to every man alike. If
you are low in life, you are susceptible of living like Christ. If you are very high in life, you are
susceptible of living a Christ-like life. If you are wise and educated, that is the life for you. If you
are ignorant, that is just as much the life for you. It does not lie in those gifts that the world
prizes, and justly prizes, too. It is something deeper than that, far more interior than that; and it is
clothed by the creative idea of God with an influence over men's souls greater than any other.
Wherever you are; whether you are poor, obscure, mean, even sick and bedridden, or in places of
conspicuity, the highest, the lowest, and the middle, all come to a gracious unity. Not only that,
but they all feel resting upon them the sweet obligations of the duty of loving Christ, of being
like Christ, of loving our fellow men. When we shall become communal, whenever the coronal
faculties of the human soul are in ascendency and in sympathetic unity, the world will not linger
another eighteen hundred years before it will be illumined. The new heavens will come, and the
new earth.
(H. W. Beecher.)
The apostle to the Gadarenes
L. W. Bacon.Things must have looked perplexing enough to this poor man! "Go home to thy
friends!" "But, Lord, I have no friend but Thee. I have been an outcast now these many years —
a dweller in unclean sepulchres, abhorred of men. What have men done for me but bind me in
chains and fetters of iron? But Thy hand hath loosed my bonds of pain, and bound me with Thy
love. Let me be with Thee where Thou art!" But still from that most gracious One came the
inexorable "Go back — back to thy friends and thy father's house. Go, tell them what the Lord
hath done for thee." "What? I, Lord? I, so disused to rational speech? whose lips and tongue were
but now the organs of demoniac blasphemy? I, just rallying from the rending of the exorcised
fiends? I, surrounded by a hostile people that have just warned away my Lord and Saviour from

their coasts? And can I hope that they will hear my words, who turn a deaf and rebellious ear to
Thee? Nay, Lord, I entreat Thee let me be with Thee, there sitting at Thy feet clothed and in my
right mind, that men may look and point at me and glorify my Lord, my Saviour! Let them go,
whose zeal to tell of Thee even Thy interdict cannot repress — there be many such, send them!
But let me be near Thee, be with Thee, and gaze, and love, and be silent, and adore!" Was ever a
stronger argument of prayer? And yet the little boat moves off, and Christ departs, and the
grateful believer is left alone to do the work for which he seems so insufficient and unfit! How
like Christ's dealing is to His Father's! To translate the story into the terms of our daily life it
shows us —
I. THAT THE PATH OF DUTY WHICH CHRIST HAS MARKED OUT FOR US MAY BE
THE OPPOSITE OF THAT WHICH WE NATURALLY THINK AND ARDENTLY DESIRE.
All our natural aptitudes, as we estimate them, yea, our purest and highest religious aspirations,
may draw us toward a certain line of conduct, while on the other hand the manifest indications of
God's Word and providence inexorably close up that way and wave us off in another direction.
II. WHEN RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGE AND RELIGIOUS DUTY SEEM TO CONFLICT, THE
DUTY IS TO BE PREFERRED ABOVE THE PRIVILEGE.
III. DUTY, PREFERRED AND FOLLOWED INSTEAD OF PRIVILEGE, BECOMES ITSELF
THE SUPREME PRIVILEGE. The interests of the soul are very great, but they are not supreme.
The supreme interests are those of the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and whoso,
forgetting the interests of his own soul, shall follow after these, shall surely find that all things
beside are added unto him.
(L. W. Bacon.)
Going home -- a Christmas story
C. H. Spurgeon.I. WHAT THEY ARE TO TELL. Personal experience. A story of free grace. A
story filled with gratitude.
II. WHY THEY ARE TO TELL IT. For the Master's sake. To make others glad.
III. HOW IS THIS STORY TO BE TOLD?
1. Truthfully.
2. Humbly.
3. Earnestly.
4. Devoutly.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The refused request
R. Glover.It was a natural prayer of gratitude and sweetness. Why, when Christ giants the bad
prayer of the people, does He deny the good prayer of the restored sufferer?
I. MERCY TO THE MAN HIMSELF.
1. To teach him to walk by faith, not by sight.
2. To leave his fears of a return of his affliction unsanctioned.
3. To indicate that Christ's work was perfect, not in danger of relapse.

4. To suggest that a distant Christ, if trusted, is as strong to save as a Christ who is nigh at hand.
II. MERCY TO THE GERGESENES. The presence of the Lord oppressed them. The presence
of a disciple among them was
(1)a link to Him, and
(2)a testimony of Him. So the man is left, a living gospel, seeing whom, others may reflect,
repent, and ultimately believe.
III. MERCY TO THE FAMILY OF THE RESTORED MAN. His family had suffered much
pain, and probably poverty; let them have the pleasure of seeing his health and peace, and the
advantage of his care. For wife and children's comfort he should return. How thoughtful is Christ
of our best interests, even when He is crossing our wishes! How merciful in leaving an
evangelist with those on whom some would have called down fire from heaven!
(R. Glover.)
Christ's disinterestedness
Segneri.Do you ever find, among all the persons whom Christ miraculously cured, a single one
whom He retained to be afterwards near Him as His disciple, His attendant, His votary?...Where
now is your worldly friend who will behave himself towards you in this fashion? So far from it,
no sooner has he done you any service, however trifling, than he immediately lays a claim upon
you for your daily attendance upon him. He requires you to be henceforth always at his elbow,
and to be giving him continually every possible proof of your gratitude, of your devoted and
even slavish attachment to his person.
(Segneri.)
The home missionary
H. Phillips.A converted man should be a missionary to his fellow men.
I. CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY WORK, THE DUTY OF EVERY CONVERTED MAN, should
be undertaken
(1)out of gratitude to God;
(2)from regard to human need,
(3)to promote the glory of Christ.
II. CHRISTIAN EFFORT SHOULD BEGIN AT HOME.
III. CHRISTIAN USEFULNESS MUST BE BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
IV. CHRISTIAN OBEDIENCE WILL BE CROWNED WITH THE REWARD OF SUCCESS.
(H. Phillips.)
The mission of the saved
C. H. Spurgeon.Men saved from Satan —
1. Beg to sit at Jesus' feet, clothed, and in their right mind.
2. Ask to be with Him always, and never to cease from personal attendance upon Him.
3. Go at His bidding, and publish abroad what great things He has done for them.

4. Henceforth have nothing to do but to live for Jesus and for Him alone. Come, ye despisers,
and see yourselves as in a looking glass. The opposite of all this is true of you. Look until you
see yourselves transformed.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The restored demoniac
J. Burns, D. D. , LL. D.I. AN INTERESTING PRAYER which notwithstanding was rejected,
1. The prayer itself — "To be with Christ." Was not this the end of Christ's mission, that He
might collect souls to Himself? Gather them out of the world, etc. It seems evidently a wise and
proper prayer, a pious prayer, the sign of a gracious state of soul.
2. The probable reasons by which this prayer was dictated. It might be the result
(1)Of holy cautiousness and fear.
(2)From grateful love to Jesus.
(3)From a desire to know more of Christ.
3. The refusal of this request. "But Christ sent him away." However wise and proper and pious
the man's petition appears, Jesus determined and directed otherwise; his suit could not be
granted. Here let us pause and learn
(1)how necessary to be taught rightly to pray. We know not what we should pray for.
(2)We should learn to be satisfied with the Lord's good pleasure whether He grants our requests
or not.
II. AN IMPORTANT COMMAND WHICH WAS PIOUSLY OBEYED. "Jesus sent him," etc.
1. The nature of the command. He was to be a personal witness for Christ; a monument of
Christ's power and compassion. He could testify
(1)to the enthronement of reason.
(2)To emancipation from the thraldom of evil spirits.
(3)To restoration to happiness.
(4)To the Author of his deliverance, "Jesus."
2. The obedience which was rendered.
(1)It was prompt and immediate. He did not cavil, nor reason, nor refuse.
(2)It was decided and public. Not afraid, nor ashamed.Application:
1. The end of our conversion is more than our own salvation.
(1)We must testify to and for the benefit of others.
(2)We must glorify Christ.
2. The converted should not consult merely their own comfort.
3. Christian obedience is unquestioning and exact.
4. The hearts' desires of the saints shall be granted in a future state. Be with Jesus forever, etc.
(J. Burns, D. D. , LL. D.)

At the feet of Jesus
J. Caroming, D. D.Two grand features in the close of the parable.
I. THE POSITION IN WHICH THE MAN WAS FOUND.
1. How interesting is this spectacle. It was the place of nearness to Jesus and intimate
communion with Him. Perhaps he selected this place also as the site of safety, or, he may have
been seeking that instruction which was requisite to guide and to direct him.
2. What took place in the case of the demoniac is only a fore-light of what will take place in the
case of all creation.
II. THE PETITION THAT HE MIGHT BE ALLOWED TO REMAIN WITH HIM OR TO
ACCOMPANY HIM. Why?
1. Because he might have recollected the fact of which the words are the description (Matthew
12:43). If we have obtained anything from Christ for which we feel thankful, we shall be jealous
lest we lose it.
2. To give expression to the deep love that he felt to Him.
III. THE ACTUAL ANSWER THAT CHRIST GAVE HIM. Explain the seeming contradiction
between this and Luke 8:56 and others. We have in this indirect but striking evidence of the
divinity of the character of Jesus. A mere, common wonder worker would have been too glad of
having a living specimen of his great power to accompany him into all lands, etc. We have these
great lessons taught us! That he that receives the largest blessing from Christ is bound to go and
be the largest and most untiring distributor of that blessing. We receive not for ourselves, but for
diffusion, etc.
2. That the way, if you are Christians, to be with Christ, and to be with Him most closely, is to go
out and labour for Christ with the greatest diligence. We are never so near to Christ as when, in
His spirit and in His name, we are doing His work and fulfilling His will.
3. That labouring for Christ, according to Christ's command, is the very way to enjoy the greatest
happiness that results from being with Christ. Labour for Christ and happiness from Christ are
twins that are never separated.
4. That as Christ, in hearing the demoniac, had an object beyond him, so, in healing us, He has
an object beyond us.
5. But there is something very instructive, too, in the place that the Saviour bade this recovered
demoniac go to. Go to the sphere in which providence has placed you, and into that sphere bring
the glorious riches with which grace has enriched you...Test your missionary powers at home
before you try them in the school, etc. The little home, the family, is the fountain that feeds with
a pure and noble population the large home, which is the country. Let us begin at home, but let
us not stop there.
6. Conceive, if you can, the return of the man to his home — the picture realized in his reception.
(J. Caroming, D. D.)
The power of home in regenerating society
J. Cumming, D. D.Loyalty, and love, and happiness in Britain's homes, will make loyalty, and
happiness, and love be reflected from Britain's altars and from Britain's shores. There may be a
mob, or there may be slaves; but let statesmen recollect there cannot be a people unless there be

a home. I repeat, there may be in a country slaves, or there may be mobs, but there cannot be in a
country a people, the people, unless it be a country of holy and happy homes. And he that helps
to elevate, sustain, ennoble, and sanctify the homes of a country, contributes more to its glory, its
beauty, its permanence, than all its legislators, its laws, its literature, its science, its poetry
together. Our Lord began at the first home that was found at Bethabara beyond Jordan — the
home of Andrew and Peter; and starting from it, he carried the glorious gospel of which he was
the author into the home of Mary and Martha at Bethany, of Cornelius the centurion, of Lydia, of
the gaoler of Philippi, of Crispus, and finally of Timothy; and these consecrated and converted
homes became multiplying foci amid the world's darkness, till the scattered and ever multiplying
lights shall be gathered one day into one broad blaze, that shall illuminate and make glad the
wide world. Let us begin at home, but let us not stop there. It is groups of homes that make a
congregation; it is clusters of congregations that make a country.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
The return of the cured demoniac
J. Cumming, D. D.He went home, and proclaimed not only there, but in all Decapolis, what God
had done for him. Conceive, if you can, the picture realized in his reception. He turns his face
quietly to his home the first time, perhaps, for years — the first time, at least, that he recollects.
One child of his, looking from the casement, sees the father return, and gives the alarm: every
door is doubly bolted; the mother and children cling together in one group, lest the supposed still
fierce demoniac, who had so often torn and assailed them before, should again tear and utterly
destroy them. But a second child, looking, calls out, "My father is clothed; before he was not
clothed at all." A third child shouts to the mother, "My father is not only clothed, but he comes
home so quietly, so beautifully, that he looks as when he dandled us upon his knee, kissed us,
and told us sweet and interesting stories: can this be he?" A fourth exclaims, "It is my father, and
he seems so gentle, and so quiet, and so beautiful — come, my mother, and see." The mother,
not believing it to be true, but wishing it were so, runs and looks with sceptical belief; and lo! it
is the dead one alive, it is the lost one found, it is the naked one clothed, it is the demon-
possessed one, holy, happy, peaceful; and when he comes and mingles with that glad and
welcoming household, the group upon the threshold grows too beautiful before my imagination
for me to attempt to delineate, and its hearts are too happy for human language to express. The
father crosses the threshold, and the inmates welcome him home to their fireside. The father
gathers his children around him, while his wife sits and listens, and is not weary with listening
the whole day and the whole night, as he tells them how One who proclaimed Himself to be the
Messiah, who is the Prophet promised to the fathers, the Wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty
God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, spake to him, exorcised the demons, and
restored him to his right mind, and made him happy.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
Work for Christ the way to retain the vision of Him
J. Cumming, D. D.A poor monk, who, in spite of his cowl, seems from the fact to have been one
of God's hidden ones, was one day, according to a mediaeval legend, meditating in his cell. A
glorious vision burst upon him, it is recorded, with the brilliancy of noon-day, and revealed in its
bosom the "Man of Sorrows," the "acquainted with grief." The monk was gazing on the spectacle
charmed, delighted, adoring. The convent bell rang; and that bell was the daily signal for the
monk to go to the poor that were crowding round the convent gate, and distribute bread and

fragments of food among them. The monk hesitated whether he should remain to enjoy the
splendid apocalypse, or should go out to do the daily drudgery that belonged to him. At last he
decided on the latter; he left the vision with regret, and went out at the bidding of the bell to
distribute the alms, and bread, and crumbs among the poor. He returned, of course expecting
that, because of his not seeming to appreciate it, the vision would be darkened; but to his
surprise, when he returned, the vision was there still, and on his expressing his amazement that
his apparent want of appreciating it and being thankful for it should be overlooked, and that the
vision should still continue in augmented splendour, a voice came from the lips of the Saviour it
revealed, which said, "If you had stayed, I had not." This may be a legend but it teaches a great
lesson — that active duty in Christ's name and for Christ's sake is the way to retain the vision of
His peace in all its permanence and power.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
The three prayers
W. Jay.Here are three prayers, the prayer of the devils, of the Gadarenes, and of the demoniac
who had been restored. The first prayer was answered, and the devils obtained their wish; the
second was complied with, but the last was re. fused, though all he asked was permission to be
with Christ; surely there must be something very instructive in all this, otherwise it would not
have been registered.
I. "AND ALL THE DEVILS BESOUGHT JESUS, SAYING, SEND US INTO THE SWINE."
Here, the devils acknowledge the power of Christ over them; they cannot injure even a brute
without leave. This is orthodox so far as it goes, and even beyond the creed of many who profess
themselves Christians. None of the devils in hell disbelieve the divinity of Christ. But cannot
faith save us? It can, but not such faith as is purely a conviction of truth. All Christians know that
their speculative surpasses their experimental and practical religion. But will devils pray? and
will they be heard? Yes — "and forthwith Jesus gave them leave." Their request was founded on
malice and mischief, in order to render Christ obnoxious to the Gadarenes, through the spoiling
of their goods. Permission was given in judgment. Satan killed the children of Job; but Job
triumphed in his trial. The same permission was given to Satan to tempt the Gadarenes, how
different the result; he destroyed their property and them with it. The gold will endure the
furnace, the dross will not.
II. THEY SAW THE POOR WRETCH DISPOSSESSED AND INSTEAD OF BRINGING ALL
THEIR SICK TO BE HEALED BESOUGHT JESUS TO DEPART. How dreadful was this
prayer! Oh, if you were of Moses you would say, "If Thy presence go not with us, suffer us not
to go up hence." David said, "Cast me not away from Thy presence." You need the Saviour's
presence as much as the earth needs the sun; in adversity, death, judgment. Observe, you may
pray thus without words, actions speak louder than words. When you would tell a man to be off,
it is done without speaking; an eye, a finger, nay, but turning your back will effect it. God
interprets your meaning, he translates your actions into intelligible language. Wonder not if God
takes you at your word; He punishes sin with sin; sealing men's eyes when they will not see;
withdrawing grace that is neglected.
III. THE POOR PATIENT PRAYED TO BE WITH CHRIST.
1. His prayer arose from fear.
2. From gratitude.

3. From love. Everyone who has obtained grace prays, "Lord, show me Thy glory."Learn:
1. To think correctly of answers to prayers — that God may hear in wrath, or refuse a petition in
kindness. God can distinguish our welfare from our wishes.
2. There is no ostentation in the miracle. The pure benevolence of Jesus terminated with the
individual. The religion of Jesus Christ calls us into the world, as well as out of it. It calls us out,
as to its spirit and maxims, in, as the sphere of activity, and place of trial. The idea of living
among the wretched Gadarenes must have been uncomfortable to the renewed mind of the poor
man, yet he is directed to go, without murmuring or gainsaying; not, indeed, in the spirit of the
Pharisee, nor of the rigid professor, who, while he confesses a man can have nothing, except it be
given him from above, is occupied all the day in maligning and censuring his neighbours; but to
display the meekness and gentleness of Jesus Christ in his conduct and conversation, to relate his
recovery, to honour the Physician, and to direct others unto Him. Oh, if there were a history of
all whom the Saviour has made whole, what a work would it be.
(W. Jay.)
Home piety a proof of real religion
W. Jay.He that is not relatively godly, is not really so; a man who is bad at home is bad
throughout, and this reminds me of a wise reply of Whitfield to the question "Is such a one a
good man?" "How should I know that? I never lived with him."
(W. Jay.)
The recovered demoniac
S. Bridge, M. A.I. THE MAN'S REQUEST. We cannot wonder that his mind should shrink at
the thought of the devil's returning in the absence of our Lord. He may have heard of such cases.
"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man...the last state of that man is worse than the first."
Thus the soul rescued from Satan is frequently for a time unable to rejoice, but appears to
"receive the spirit of bondage again to fear." Our feelings, after any unexpected deliverance or
event, are such that we find it difficult to believe its reality. Go, tell the mother who has heard of
the shipwreck of her child, that her son who was dead is alive again, she is with difficulty
persuaded of its truth. And when so much is at stake we should fear for those who do not
sometimes fear for themselves. Can the Christian, harassed by rising corruption, beset with
temptation, feel no concern?
II. OUR LORD'S ANSWER. We might have supposed, after the great salvation Jesus had
wrought for him, He would not have been reluctant to grant him any favour, especially when the
request was dictated by gratitude.
1. The reply showed the modesty of the Saviour.
2. Also His compassion for the man's friends. Mercy to one member of the family should be an
encouragement to all the rest.
3. And the great object which every man truly converted to God will keep perpetually in view is,
the promotion of the Divine glory, and the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom, in the salvation
of those around him. The wife of his bosom, the parent, the brother, or the child; reason, as well
as affection, points out these as the first objects of our concern. Religion does not petrify the
feelings, and make us to be so absorbed in seeking our own safety, as to be indifferent to the fate
of those about us; the grace of God does not annihilate the sympathies, or snap the bonds of

nature; no, it strengthens and refines those sympathies, deepens the channel in which the
affections flow, and purifies and consecrates the stream. But are there not some, who, instead of
entreating Jesus that they may go with Him, are saying of the world and of the flesh, We have
loved these, and after them we will go? But, fellow sinners, be persuaded it is the way of
transgression, it is hard.
(S. Bridge, M. A.)
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
CHRIST’S CURATE IN DECAPOLIS NO. 2262
A SERMON INTENDEDFOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JUNE 26, 1892
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON AT THE METROPOLITAN
TABERNACLE, NEWINGTONON LORD’S-DAY EVENING, APRIL 27,
1890
“And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts. And when he was
come into the ship, he that had been possessedwith the devil prayed him that
he might be with him. Howbeit Jesus sufferedhim not, but saith unto him, Go
home to thy friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord hath done for
thee, and hath had compassionon thee.” Mark 5:17-19
THAT is a striking name for a man, “he that had been possessedwith the
devil.” It would stick to him as long as he lived, and it would be a standing
sermon whereverhe went. He would be askedto tell the story of what he used
to be, and how the change came about. What a story for any man to tell! It
would not be possible for us to describe his life while he was a demoniac—the
midnight scenes among the tombs, the cutting himself with stones, the

howling, the frightening awayof all the travelers that went nearhim, the
binding with chains, the snapping of the manacles, the breaking of the fetters,
and a greatmany details that he alone could enter into when he told the story
among his own familiar friends. With what pathos would he tell how Jesus
came that way, and how the evil spirit forcedhim to confront Him! He would
say, “That was the best thing that could have happened to me, to be brought
to the Masterof that desperate legionof demons, which had encamped within
my nature, and made my soul to be its barracks.” He would tell how, in a
moment, out went the whole legion at the word of Christ. There are some
people who could tell a story very like this man’s, a story of slavery to Satan,
and deliverance by the powerof Christ. If you can tell such a story, do not
keepit to yourself. If Jesus has done greatthings for you, be ever ready to
speak of it, till all men shall know what Christ can do. I think that great
sinners who have been savedare especiallycalledupon to publish the good
news, the Gospelof the grace ofGod. If you have been valiant againstthe
truth, be valiant for the truth. If you were not lukewarm when you served
Satan, be not lukewarm now that you have come to serve Christ. There are
some of us here who might bear the name of “the man who was born blind,”
or “the leper that was healed,” or “the womanthat was a sinner,” and I hope
that we shall all be willing to take any name or any title that will glorify
Christ. I do not find that this man ever persecutedMark for libel because he
wrote of him as “he that had been possessedwith the devil.” Oh, no! He
owned that he was possessedwith the devil once, and he glorified God that he
had been delivered by the Lord Jesus. I. I am going to make a few
observations upon the passageI have chosenfor a text, and the first
observationis this, SEE HOW MEN’S DESIRES DIFFER. We find in the
seventeenthverse that, “they beganto pray him to depart out of their coasts.”
In the eighteenth verse, “he that had been possessedwith the devil prayed him
that he might be with him.” The people wanted Christ to go awayfrom them,
the man whom He had cured wantedto go whereverHe might go. To which
class do you belong, my dear friend? I hope you do not belong to the first
class, the class ofthe many who pray Jesus to depart from them. Why did they
want Him to go? I think it was, first, because they loved to be quiet, and to
dwell at ease. It was a greatcalamity that had happened, the swine had run
into the sea. They did not want any more such calamities, and

2 Christ’s Curate in Decapolis Sermon#2262
2 Volume 38
evidently the Personwho had come among them possessedextraordinary
power. Had He not healed the demoniac? Well, they did not want Him, they
did not want anything extraordinary. They were easygoing men, who would
like to go on in the even tenor of their way, so they askedHim to be good
enough to go away. There are some people of that kind still living. They say,
“We do not want a revival here, we are too respectable. We do not want any
stirring preaching here, we are very comfortable. Do not break up our peace.”
Such men, when they think that God is at work in any place, are half inclined
to go elsewhere. Theywant to be quiet, their motto is, “Anything for a quiet
life.” “Leave us alone, let us go on our old way,” is the cry of these foolish
people, as it was the cry of the Israelites, whenthey said to Moses, “Letus
alone, that we may serve the Egyptians.” Possiblythese people wanted the
Savior gone because theyhad an eye to business. That keeping of the swine
was a bad business. As Jews, theyhad no business with it. They may have said
they did not eat them themselves, they only kept them for other people to eat,
and now they had lost the whole herd. I wonder what all those swine would
have brought to their owners? As they begancalculating how much they had
lost, they resolvedthat the Saviormust go out of their coastsbefore they lost
anything more. I do not wonder that, when men sellintoxicating liquors, for
instance, or when they follow any trade in which they cannot make money
exceptby injuring their fellow men, they do not want Christ to come that way.
Perhaps some of you would not like Him to see you pay those poor women for
making shirts. I am afraid if Jesus Christ were to come round, and go into
some people’s business houses, the husband would sayto his wife, “Fetch
down that book where I enter the wages, andhide it away, I should not like
Him to see that.” Oh, dear friend, if there be any such reasonwhy you do not
want Christ to come your way, I pray that the Holy Spirit may convince you
that you do need Him to come your way. He who has the most objection to
Christ is the man who most wants Christ. Be you sure of this, if you do not
desire to be converted, if you do not wish to be born again, you are the person
above all others needing to be converted, and to be born again. Is it not a
most unwise decisionwhen, for the sake ofswine, we are willing to part with

Christ? “Forwhat shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose
his ownsoul?” He will get a cornerin the newspapersaying that he died
worth so many thousands of pounds, and that will not be true, for he was
never worth a penny himself. Who would give a penny for him now he is
dead? He will costmoney to get rid of him, but he cannot not take it with him.
He was not worth anything, he used his money for selfish purposes, and never
used it for the glory of God. Oh, the poverty of an ungodly rich man! I do not
wonder that these people, takenup with themselves, and with the world,
prayed Christ “to depart out of their coasts.”MayHe not, even though you
may not care to hear Him, stop somewhere onthe shore? No, when men get
excited againstreligion, they go to great lengths in trying to drive it away
from their midst. Many a poor man has lost his cottage, where he had a few
prayer meetings because the landlord not only did not want Christ Himself,
but like the dog in the manger, would not let others have Him who did want
Him. Are any of you in that condition? I hope that I have some here who are
of another kind, like this poor man, who prayed Him that he might be with
Him. Why did he want to be with Jesus? I think he wanted to be His attendant
to show his gratitude. If he might but wait on Christ, loose the latchets of His
shoes, and washHis feet, or prepare His meals, he would feel himself the
happiest man on earth. He would love to be doing something for the One who
had casta legionof devils out of him. Next, he wished not only to be an
attendant to show his gratitude, but a disciple that he might learn more of
Him. What he did know of Christ was so precious, he had personallyhad such
an experience of His gracious power, that he wanted to be always learning
something from every word of those dear lips, and every actionof those
blessedhands. He prayed Him that he might be with Him as a disciple who
wished to be taught by Him.
Sermon #2262 Christ’s Curate in Decapolis 3
Volume 38 3
He wanted also to be with Him as a comrade, for now that Christ must go,
exiled from Decapolis, he seemedto feel that there was no reasonwhy he
should remain there himself. “Lord, if thou must leave these Gadarenes, let
me leave the Gadarenes, too!Dostthou go, O Shepherd? Then let me go with

thee. Must thou cross the sea, and get thee gone, I know not where? I will go
with thee to prison and to death.” He felt so linked with Christ that he prayed
Him that he might be with Him. I think that there was this reason, also, one
of fear at the back of his prayer. Perhaps one of that legionof devils might
come back again, and if he could keepwith Christ, then Christ would turn the
devil out again. I should not wonder but he felt a trembling about him, as if he
could not bear to be out of the sight of the greatPhysician, who had healed
him of so grievous an ill. I would say to all here, that we are never safe unless
we are with Christ. If you are tempted to go where you could not have Christ
with you, do not go. Did you ever hear the story of the devil running away
with a young man who was at the theater? It is said that John Newtonsent
after Satanand said, “Thatyoung man is a member of my church.” “Well,”
replied the devil, “I do not care where he is a member, I found him on my
premises, and I have a right to him,” and the preachercould not give any
answerto that. If you go on the devil’s premises, and he takes you off, I cannot
say anything againstit. Go nowhere where you cannot take Christ with you.
Be like this man, who longs to go whereverChrist goes. II. Now, secondly,
SEE HOW CHRIST’S DEALINGS DIFFER, and how extraordinary they
are. Here is an evil prayer, “Departout of our coasts.”He grants it. Here is a
pious prayer, “Lord, let me be with thee.” “HowbeitJesus sufferedhim not.”
Is that His way, to grant the prayer of His enemies, and refuse the petition of
His friends? Yes, it is so sometimes. In the first case, whenthey prayed Him
to depart, He went. Oh, dear friends, if Christ ever comes nearyou, and you
get a little touched in your conscience,and feel a throb of something like
spiritual life, do not pray Him to go away, for if He does go, if He should leave
you to yourself, and never come again, your doom is sealed!Your only hope
lies in His presence, and if you pray againstyour one hope, you are a suicide,
you are guilty of murdering your own soul. Jesus went awayfrom these
people because it was uselessto stop. If they wanted Him to go, what good
could He do to them? If He spoke, they would not listen. If they heard His
message, they would not heed it. When men’s minds are set againstChrist,
what else is to be done but to leave them? He could spend His time better
somewhere else. Ifyou will not have my Lord, somebodyelse will. If you sit
there in your pride, and say, “I want not the Savior,” there is a poor soul in
the gallerylonging for Him, and crying, “Oh, that I might find Him to be my

Savior!” Christ knew that, if the Gadarenes refusedHim, the people on the
other side of the lake would welcome Him on His return. By going away, He
even savedthem from yet greatersin. If He had not gone, they might have
tried to plunge Him into the lake. When men begin to pray Christ to depart
out of their coasts,they are bad enough for anything. There might have
followedviolence to His blessedperson, so He took Himself awayfrom them.
Is it not an awful thing that, if the Gospelministry does not save you, it is
helping to damn you? We are a savorto God, always sweet, but in some men,
we are a savorof death unto death, while in others we are a savorunto life. O
my hearers, if you will not come to Christ, the seatyou occupy is
misappropriated! There might be another personsitting there, to whom the
Gospelmight be very precious, and our opportunities for preaching it are
none too many. We do not like to waste our strength on stony ground, on hard
bits of rock that repel the seed. Rock, rock, rock,will you never break, must
we continue to sow thee, though no harvest comes from you? Godchange you,
rock, and make you goodsoil, that yet the truth may grow upon you! The evil
prayer, then, was answered. The goodprayer was not answered. Why was
that? The chief reasonwas because the man could be useful at home. He could
glorify Godbetter by going among the Gadarenes,and among his own family,
and telling what God had done for him, than he could by any attention he
could pay to Christ. It is remarkable that Christ took nobody to be His body-
servant, or personalattendant, during His earthly
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ministry. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. He did not desire
this man to be with Him to make Him comfortable, He bade him go back to
his family, and make knownthe powerof Jesus Christ, and seek to win them
for God. Perhaps, too, his prayer was not answered, lesthis fear should have
been thereby sanctioned. If he did fear, and I feelmorally certain that he did,
that the devils would return, then, of course, he longedto be with Christ. But
Christ took that fear from him, and as goodas says to him, “You do not need
to be near me, I have so healed you that you will never be sick again.” A
patient might say to his doctor, “I have been so very ill, and through your skill

have been restoredto health, I should like to be near you, so that if there
should be any recurrence of my malady, I might come to you at once.” If the
doctor should reply, “You may go to Switzerland, or to Australia, if you like,”
it would be the best evidence that the doctorhad no fears about him, and it
ought to put a quietus to his doubts. You see, then, how Christ’s dealings
differ with different men. Have I not knownsome continue in sin, and yet
prosper in business, heaping up wealth, and having all that heart could wish?
Have I not knownothers repent, and turn to God, and from that very day
they have had more trouble than they everhad before, and their way has been
strangelyrough? Yes, I have seenthem too, and I have not envied the easy
ways of the wicked, neither have I felt that there was anything very wonderful
about the rough ways of the righteous, for, after all, it is not the way that is
the all-important matter, it is the end of the way, and if I could travel
smoothly to perdition, I would not chooseto do so, and if the way to eternal
life is rough, I take it with all its roughness. At the footof the Hill Difficulty,
Bunyan makes his pilgrim sing— “The hill, though high, I covetto ascend,
The difficulty will not me offend; ForI perceive the way of life lies here.”
III. My third point is this, SEE HOW GOOD A THING IT IS TO BE WITH
JESUS. This man entreatedof the Lord that he might be with Him. If you
have been savedrecently, I expectyou have a longing in your heart to be with
Christ always. I will tell you what shape that longing is likely to take. You
were so happy, so joyful, and it was sucha blessedmeeting, that you said to
yourself, “I am sorry it is over, I should like this meeting to have been kept on
all night, and the next day, and never to end.” Yes, you were of the mind of
Peter, when he wanted to build the three tabernacles on the holy mount, and
to stop there the rest of his days, but you cannot do it, it is no use wishing for
it. You must go home to that drinking husband or that scolding wife, to that
ungodly father or that unkind mother. You cannotstop in that meeting
always. Perhaps you have another idea of what it is to be with Christ. You
are so happy when you can get alone, and read your Bible, and meditate, and
pray, that you say, “Lord, I wish I could always do this, I should like to be
always upstairs in this room, searching the Scriptures, and having
communion with God.” Yes, yes, yes, but you cannot do it. There are the

children’s socksto be mended, there are buttons to be put on the husband’s
shirts, and there are all sorts of odds and ends to be done, and you must not
neglectany of them. Whateverhousehold duties come upon you, attend to
them. You wish that you had not to go to the city tomorrow. Would it not be
sweetto have an all-night prayer meeting, and then to have an all-day
searching of the Scriptures? No doubt it would, but the Lord has not so
arrangedit. You have to go to business, so just put on your week-dayclothes,
and think yourself none the less happy because youhave to show your religion
in your daily life. “Ah, well!” says one, and this I hear often, “I think that I
would always be with Christ if I could get right out of business, and give
myself up to the service of the Lord.” Especiallydo you think that it would be
so if you were a minister. Well, I have nothing to sayagainstthe ministry of
the Gospel. If the Lord calls you to do it, obey the call, and be thankful that
He has counted you faithful, putting you into the ministry, but if you suppose
that you will be nearerto Christ simply by entering the ministry, you are
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very much mistaken. I daresaythat I had about as many of the other people’s
troubles brought to me this morning, after I had done the preaching, as would
last most men a month. We have to bear with everybody’s trouble, and
everybody’s doubt, and everybody’s need of comfort and counsel. You will
find yourself cumbered with much serving, even in the service of the Lord,
and it is very easyto lose the Masterin the Master’s work! We want much
grace lestthis insidious temptation should overcome us even in our ministry.
You can walk with Christ, and keepa draper’s shop. You can walk with
Christ, and sell groceries. Youcan walk with Christ, and be a working man, a
dock laborer. You can walk with Christ, and be a chimneysweep. I do not
hesitate to say that, by the grace of God, you can walk with Christ as well in
one occupationas another, if it is a rightful one. It might be quite a mistake if
you were to give up your business, under the notion that you would be more
with Christ if you became a city missionary, or a Bible-woman, or a tract
distributor, or a captain in the Salvation Army, or whateverother form of
holy service you might desire. Keep on with your business. If you can black

shoes well, do that. If you can preach sermons badly, do not do that. “Ah!”
says one, “I know how I would like to be with Christ.” Yes, yes, I know, you
would like to be in heaven. Oh, yes, and it is a laudable desire, to wish to be
with Christ, for it is far better than being here! But mind you, it may be a
selfishdesire, and it may be a sinful desire, if it be pushed too far. A holy man
of God was once askedby a fellow servant of Christ, “BrotherSo-and-so, do
you not want to go home?” He said, “What?” “Do you not want to go home?”
He said, “I will answeryou by another question. If you had a man working for
you, and on Wednesdayhe said, ‘I wish it were Saturday,’ would you keep
him on?” The other thought that he would need a large stock ofpatience to do
so. Why, you know what a fellow is who is always looking for Saturday night,
do you not? You will be glad to see the back of him before Saturday comes,
for he will be no goodfor work. Have I a right to be wanting to go to heaven
if I can do any goodto you here? Is it not more of a heaven to be outside of
heaven than inside, if you canbe doing more for Godoutside than in? Long to
go when the Lord wills, but if to remain in the flesh be more for the goodof
the church and the world, and more for the glory of God, waive your desire,
and be not vexed with your Masterwhen, after having prayed that you may
be with Him, it has to be written of you as it was of this man, “HowbeitJesus
suffered him not.” Still, it is a very delightful thing to be with Jesus. IV. But
now, in the fourth place, SEE THAT THERE MAY BE SOMETHING EVEN
BETTER THAN THIS. In the sense which I have mentioned, there is
something better even than being with Christ. What is better than being with
Christ? Why, to be working for Christ! Jesus said to this man, “Go home to
thy friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord hath done for thee, and
hath had compassiononthee.” This is more honorable. It is very delightful to
sit at Jesus’feet, but if the most honorable post on the field of battle is the
place of danger, if the most honorable thing in the State is to have royal
service allottedto you, then the most honorable thing for a Christian is not to
sit down, and sing, and enjoy himself, but to getup, and risk reputation, life,
and everything for Jesus Christ’s sake. Dearfriend, aspire to serve our Lord,
it is a more honorable thing even than being with Him. It is also better for
the people. Christ is going awayfrom the Gadarenes, they have askedHim to
go, and He is going, but He seems to say to this man, “I am going because they
have askedme to go. My leaving them looks like a judgment upon them for

their rejectionof me, but yet I am not going awayaltogether. I am going to
stop with you, I will put my Spirit upon you, and so will continue with you.
They will hear you though they will not hearme.” Christ, as it were, resigns
the pastorate ofthat district, but He puts another in His place, not so goodas
Himself, but one whom they will like better, not so powerful and useful as
Himself, but one better adapted to them. When Christ was gone, this man
would be there, and the people would come to him to
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hear about those swine, and how they ran down into the sea, and if they did
not come to him, he would go and tell them all about it, and so there would be
a permanent curate left there to discharge the sacredministry, now that the
greatBishop had gone. I like that thought. Christ had gone to heaven, for He
is wanted there, and so He has left you here, dear brother, to carry on His
work. You are not equal to Him in any respect, but yet remember what He
said to His disciples, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
also;and greaterworks than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
That is why Christ does not suffer you to be with Him at present. You must
stop for the sake ofthe people among whom you live, as “he that had been
possessedwith the devil” had to remain for the sake ofthe Gadarenes, to
whom he might testify concerning Christ. His remaining, also, was betterfor
his family, and do you not think that, oftentimes, a man of God is kept out of
heaven for the sake ofhis family? You must not go yet, father, those boys still
need your example and your influence. Christian mother, you must not go yet,
I know that your children are grownup, and they are grieving you very much,
but still, if there is any check upon them, it is their poor old mother, and you
must stop till you have prayed them to God, and you will do so yet. Be of good
courage. I believe that there are many here who might be in heaven, but God
has some who He intends to bring in by them, so they must stay here a little
longer. Though infirm in body, shatteredin nerve, and often rackedwith
acute pain, perhaps with deadly disease upon you, and wishing to be gone, you
must not go till your work is done. “HowbeitJesus suffered him not.” This
demoniac must go home, and tell his wife and his children what greatthings

the Lord had done for him. Many eminent preachers have pictured the scene
of his going home, so I will not try to do it. You may only fancy what it would
be if it were your case,and you had been shut up in an asylum, or had been
almost too bad even for that. How glad your friends were to have you taken
away, and then how much more glad to find you come back perfectly well! I
can imagine how the man’s wife would look through the window when she
heard his voice. Has he come back in a mad fit? How the children would be
filled with terror at the sound of their father’s voice until they were assured
that there was indeed a change in him! Ah, poor sinner, you have come here
tonight! Perhaps you forgetthat your children often have to hide awayunder
the bed when Fathercomes home. I know that there are such persons about,
and they may even find their way into the Tabernacle. The Lord have mercy
upon the drunkard, and turn his cups bottom upwards, and make a new man
of him! Then, when he goes home, to tell of free grace and dying love, and of
the wonderful change that God has wrought in him, he will be a blessing to his
family and to all about him. It may be, dear friend, that you have to stop here
till you have undone some of the mischief of your early life. You have to bring
to God some of those whom you tempted, and led astray, and helped to ruin.
So, you see, dearfriends, there is even something better even than being with
Christ, that is, working for Christ. V. But lastly, CONSIDER THAT THERE
IS YET A CASE WHICH IS BEST OF ALL. We must always have three
degrees ofcomparison. What is the best state of all? To be with Christ is good,
to be sentby Christ on a holy errand, is better, but here is something that is
best of all, namely, to work for Him, and to be with Him at the same time. I
want every Christian to aspire to that position. Is it possible to sit with Mary
at the Master’s feet, and yet to run about like Martha, and getthe dinner
ready? It is, and then Martha will never be cumbered with much serving if
she does that, and she will never find fault with her sisterMary. “But, sir, we
cannot sit and stir at the same time.” No, not as to your bodies, but you can as
to you souls. You canbe sitting at Jesus’feet, or leaning on His breast, and yet
be fighting the Lord’s battles, and doing His work. In order to do this,
cultivate the inner as well as the outer life. Endeavor not only to do much for
Christ, but to be much with Christ, and to live wholly upon Christ. Do not, for
instance, on the Sabbath day, go to a class, andteachothers three times, as

some whom I know do, but come once and hear the Master’s message, and get
your soul fed, and when you have had a spiritual feastin the morning, give
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the restof the day to holy service. Let the two things run together. To be
always eating, and never working, will bring on repletion, and spiritual
dyspepsia, but to be always working, and never eating— well, I am afraid that
you will not bear that trial so well as the gentlemanwho yesterday ate his first
meal after forty days’ fasting. Do not try to imitate him. It is not a right or
wise thing to do, but very dangerous. Getspiritual food as well as do spiritual
work. Let me say to you, again, grieve very much if there is the leastcloud
betweenyou and Christ. Do not wait until it is as thick as a Novemberfog, be
full of sorrow if it is only like a tiny, fleecycloud. George Muller’s observation
was a very wise one, “Nevercome out of your chamber in the morning until
everything is right betweenyou and God.” Keep up perpetual fellowship with
Jesus, and thus you can be with Him, and yet be serving Him at the same time.
And mind this, before you begin Christ’s service, always seekHis presence
and help. Do not enter upon any work for the Lord without having first seen
the face of the King in His beauty, and in the work often recall your mind
from what you are doing, to Him for whom you are doing it, and by whom
you are doing it, and when the work is completed, do not throw up your cap,
and say, “Welldone, self!” Another will say to you, by and by, “Welldone!” if
you deserve it. Do not take the words out of his mouth. Self-praise is no
recommendation. Solomonsaid, “Let another man praise thee, and not thine
own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” When we have done all, we
are still unprofitable servants, we have only done that which is our duty to do.
So, if you are as humble as you are active, as lowly as you are energetic, you
may keepwith Christ, and yet go about His errands to the ends of the earth,
and I reckonthis to be the happiest experience that any one of us can reach
this side of the gates of pearl. The Lord bless you, and bring you there, for
Christ’s sake!Amen.

From a Maniac to a MissionaryMark 5: 1-20
Our text follows the greatmiracle Jesus performed as He calmedthe raging
sea that arose while they sailedupon the Sea of Galilee. As we come to
Chapter 5, we encounter severalmore miracles Jesus performed as He walked
among men. We will find Him casting out demons, healing a dreadful disease,
and raising a young girl from the dead.
This chapter emphasizes the greatpower and compassionJesushad as He
ministered in various places around Capernaum. There was no need too great
or too small. Everywhere Jesus wentHe transformed lives. For the believer,
eachof the accounts recordedin Mark 5 paint a beautiful picture of the
transformation that has takenplace in us. We have been setfree from the
bonds of sin, healedof the dreaded infirmity of our iniquity, and delivered
from eternal death and condemnation.
As we begin this wonderful chapter, I want to examine the details described in
the text and considerthe thought: From a Maniac to a Missionary. As we do, I
hope these verses will encourage us to look to Jesus forthe varied needs in our
lives.
I. Considerthe Maniac – Our text reveals a man in need of Jesus. Notice:
A. His Dwelling (3) – Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man
could bind him, no, not with chains. We find that he lived among the tombs.

We must understand that this wasn’t just a place he spent some time, but this
was his dwelling. He spent his days among the dead.
 His life pictures those separatedfrom God in sin. They are spiritually dead
and have no fellowship with those who are alive in Christ. They are literally
dwelling among the dead in a spiritual sense. PraiseGodI no longer live
among the dead, but dwell in the land of the living.
B. His Desperation(4-5) – Becausethathe 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. [5] And always, night and
day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself
with stones. He lived a life that was out of control. Others had tried to help
him, but could not. His life was dominated by the influence of Satan. He had
been bound with chains, but couldn’t be tamed.
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 No doubt he lived a life of despair – sad, lonely, rejected, and totally avoided
by society. The torments of life never ceased, V.5. Day and night the pain and
misery of life was upon him. He found no comfort or peace, only despair and
desolation.

 Many around us today are in the same desperate situation. I don’t know any
who dwell in the cemetery, but they live in despair. Their lives are dominated
by sin – drugs, alcohol, sexualaddiction, etc. Every day begins the same as the
day before – in despair. They find no way of escape and continue to live in
defeat. This man lived a tragic life, as many do today. They have no hope, joy,
peace, orcomfort, constantlysearching for a way to escape the pain and
suffering.
C. His Desire (2, 6) – And when he was come out of the ship, immediately
there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, [6] But when he
saw Jesus afaroff, he ran and worshipped him. He dealt with circumstances
beyond his control, (we can’t handle sin in ourselves), but he must’ve longed
for the day that the suffering would end. There was a day that he caught a
glimpse of hope; he saw Jesus!
 Can you imagine the scene? He has lived in torment among the tombs, but
one day a small boat arrives. Something within him knew Jesus was his only
hope. I don’t know if the man knew Jesus, but the demons inside certainly did.
James 2:19 – the devils also believe, and tremble. Whateverthe case, he is
found at the feet of Jesus, worshipping Him.  Our world is filled with those
who are in pain. We may never see or know, but their pain is real. They long
for a means to escape their desperation. Jesus is the way! Do you desire to
meet the Lord?
II. Considerthe Master – The text reveals much about Jesus. Notice:

A. His Presence (1) – And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into
the country of the Gadarenes. Jesuscame to where the demonic man was.
Jesus knew his condition and where to find him. It wasn’t coincidence orluck;
it was by divine appointment!
 It’s interesting to note that Jesus did nothing else while in Gadara. We don’t
find Him teaching in the synagogue,feeding multitudes, or healing their sick.
He came through the storm on Galilee to reachthis lost sinner. That one lost,
wretchedsoul needed a Saviorand Jesus showedup in his hour of need.
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 Aren’t you gladfor the presence ofJesus? Iremember the day I was saved.
It wasn’t in a greatrevival where many were saved – just me; I was the only
one. Jesus came just for me! He will do the same for you. Jesus loves you; He
knows your need and He wants to meet that need today! He died for you;
you’re the reason.
B. His Preeminence (7) – And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to
do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that
thou torment me not. As Jesus appearedthat day, the man immediately knew
this was the Son of God. He was aware that Jesus was there and that He

possessedall deity. Clearlythe demons had no desire to worship Jesus, but
they too acknowledgedHis deity.
 That is what is required if we are to be saved and setfree from the bondage
of sin. If you have never recognizedJesus forwho He is and your need for
Him, you must do so. He is the only way to be redeemed and given eternallife.
We must come to the place that we realize we need Jesus. We must see
ourselves as unworthy and undone before Him.
C. His Power(8-9, 13) – For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou
unclean spirit. [9] And he askedhim, What is thy name? And he answered,
saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. [13]And forthwith Jesus gave
them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and
the herd ran violently down a steepplace into the sea, (they were about two
thousand;) and were chokedin the sea. Forthose who knew this man, his was
a hopeless situation. He dwelt among the tombs, ran about naked, and was
unable to be bound.
 He was filled with a multitude of demons. At this time, a Romanlegion could
number as many as 6,000.I don’t know how many he was possessedwith, but
they were many. His was a desperate condition. There was only One who
could help this man and He had come. Jesus immediately commanded – Come
out of the man. Isn’t it amazing that at the voice of Jesus Satanhas to flee?
We are no match for him, but Jesus is!
 If you live a life controlled by sin, you’re helpless within yourself. Jesus,
however, canbring victory to your soul. He has the powerto cleanse your
heart, forgive your sin, and redeemyour soul. If Jesus possessedthe power to
save this man, (He did), I know He can save you! He forever defeatedsin on

the cross ofCalvary. Jesus has the powerto release youfrom the bondage of
sin if you will only trust Him.
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III. Considerthe Miracle – What a difference Jesus makes whenHe passes by.
This is the same man, that a few moments before was a maniac, living among
the tombs, desperate for a change in life. In a moment’s time he went from
complete despair to eternal deliverance. Notice:
A. His Conversion(15) – And they come to Jesus, and see him that was
possessedwith the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his
right mind: and they were afraid. As the people gatheredto see the spectacle,
they encounteredsomething they never imagined. This was the same man who
had brought terror to all who knew him. He had dwelt among the dead, but
now he has been changed. The Lord made all the difference in his life. Let’s
see what the Lord did for this man.
1. His Comfort – He is found sitting with Jesus. He is no longerrunning
among the tombs. He is no longer desperate for peace in his heart. He is no

longertormented by the demons and effects ofsin. If you are living life on the
run among the dead, Jesus alone canprovide the comfort you need. You can
come to Him and sit at His feet.
2. His Clothing – He was sitting, and clothed. He was no longerrunning
among the tombs nakedand unclothed. He was dressedand presentable.
There is a profound truth in the fact that the man was clothed. The point here
is that there was a change in the man that was noticeable for those who knew
him to see. The Lord had done a work on the inside and it was visible from the
outside.
3. His Comprehension – He was sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind.
Meeting Jesus affectedthe way this man thought. His mind was no longer
controlled by Satan. He no longerdesired the things of the world or the
pleasures of sin. His mind was focusedon the Lord. An encounterwith Jesus
will change your thought processes. Youwill no longer question or deny the
powerof the Lord. Your thoughts will no longerbe on the things of the world
or the lusts of the flesh, but on the Lord.
B. His Commission (18-20)– And when he was come into the ship, he that had
been possessedwith the devil prayed him that he might be with him. [19]
Howbeit Jesus sufferedhim not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends,
and tell them how greatthings the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had
compassiononthee. [20] And he departed, and beganto publish in Decapolis
how greatthings Jesus had done for him: and all men did marvel. The man no
longerwanted to live alone, but desiredto go with Jesus. He wanted to be with
the One who had brought deliverance. Jesus had another plan for him. He
was to go and tell what had happened in his life.

 When a man is truly saved, he’ll want to tell others what has happened. The
man wastedno time. He beganto publish what the Lord had done for him. He
told it all around Decapolis,the regionof ten cities that included Gadara. He
became a true disciple for the Lord.
July 19, 2017
C h u r c h
Page 5
Conclusion:We didn’t deal with it, but those in Gadara rejectedJesus. They
wanted no part of Him. This world doesn’t want you to get to Jesus. He is
ready to deliver and save. Are you as the maniac among the tombs? Maybe
you have been savedby His grace, but sin and burdens of life have robbed
your joy. If so, why not come today?
Mark 5:1-20, “Jesus Casts A Legion Of Demons Out Of The Demoniac
Among The Tombs”
By
Jim Bomkamp
Back BibleStudies HomePage
1. INTRO:
2. In our laststudy, we lookedat verses 35-41 ofchapter4, and the story of
Jesus’first calming of the sea to spare His disciples.
3. In our study today, we are going to look at verses 1-20 ofchapter 5 of Mark,
and Jesus’casting the demons out of the demoniac among the tombs who was
possessedby a legionof demons.

3.1. We will see that this man’s life is an illustration of what sin does to a
person, and also why people need Christ.
3.2. We will discuss society’s inability to transform a truly transform a life, for
Jesus is the only one who can do this.
3.3. We will talk about demon possessionand being demonized and see what
we might learn and speculate abouton this issue.
3.3.1. Actually, the word that is translated “demon possessed” in the New
Testamentmeans “demonized”. There apparently are differing levels of
demonic involvement that a person canhave in their life, and we will look at
where this man who is possessedin our story ranks in comparison. Certainly,
we would expectthat a Christian could not be so heavily influenced by
demons as those we see Jesus castdemons out of in the gospels. However,a
Christian can be harassedby demons if he opens a door in his life that
encouragesthat. We will discuss this more.
3.1. We will discuss the various ways in which Christ changes a person’s life.
4. Our text, Mark 5:1-20:
1
They came to the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gerasenes. 2
When He gotout of the boat, immediately a man from the tombs with an
unclean spirit met Him, 3
and he had his dwelling among the tombs. And no
one was able to bind him anymore, even with a chain; 4
because he had often
been bound with shacklesandchains, and the chains had been torn apart by
him and the shackles brokenin pieces, and no one was strong enough to
subdue him. 5
Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs
and in the mountains, and gashing himself with stones. 6
Seeing Jesus froma
distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; 7
and shouting with a loud
voice, he said, “Whatbusiness do we have with eachother, Jesus, Sonof the
MostHigh God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” 8
For He had
been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9
And He was
asking him, “What is your name?” And he said to Him, “My name is Legion;
for we are many.” 10
And he began to implore Him earnestlynot to send them
out of the country. 11
Now there was a large herd of swine feeding nearby on
the mountain. 12
The demonsimplored Him, saying, “Send us into the swine so
that we may enter them.” 13
Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the
unclean spirits entered the swine;and the herd rushed down the steepbank
into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea. 14
Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the country. And
the peoplecame to see what it was that had happened. 15
They came to Jesus
and observedthe man who had been demon-possessedsitting down, clothed

and in his right mind, the very man who had had the “legion”;and they
became frightened. 16
Those who had seenit described to them how it had
happened to the demon-possessedman, and all about the swine. 17
And they
beganto implore Him to leave their region. 18
As He was getting into the boat,
the man who had been demon-possessedwas imploring Him that he might
accompanyHim. 19
And He did not let him, but He said to him, “Go home to
your people and report to them what greatthings the Lord has done for you,
and how He had mercy on you.” 20
And he went awayand beganto proclaim
in Decapolis whatgreatthings Jesus had done for him; and everyone was
amazed.
5. In our laststudy, we lookedat Jesus incredible miracle of the calming of the
wind and the waves as He and the disciples had come into a life and death
struggle when crossing the Sea of Galilee because a huge storm had come
upon them and the wind and the waves had threatened to sink their boat and
cause them to perish. However, in this story today we are going to see whatI
believe is an even bigger miracle, that of a changedlife. Jesus casts a legionof
demons out of a man and the man is brought into his right mind.
6. Before we begin our study, let me ask this question. What would you
suppose would be true of 1 out of every 132 people in the United States? They
are incarcerated. Do the people of this world have the ability to change
people’s lives?
7. This particular story has the bestdescription of demon possessionthat we
find in the New Testament. If we look at the range of control that the Devil or
a demon might have over a person’s life on a scale from 1 to 10, this man is a
13. He is off the scalesas a demoniac. Thus, this is a very interesting story.
8. Jesus and His disciples had crossednow over to the southeastside of the Sea
of Galilee to the area knownas Gerasa orthe Gadarerens. The Pulpit
Commentary tells us that the ruins of this place have now been discovered and
that a Dr. Farrar had stated that Eusebius and Jerome knew the locationof
the steepplace where a mountain jutted up above the sea where this story had
occurred.
9. This same story is also told by Matthew and Luke, and they add some
additional details to it.
9.1. Matthew, in 8:28 of his gospel, tells us that there were actually two
demoniacs that met Jesus at this time. However, the story still centers around
this man because he is the more sensationalofthe two, and he is converted
and his life is radically changed.

9.2. In 8:28, Matthew also tells us that no one was able to travel by the road
that was there because the two demoniacs there were so violent.
9.3. Luke also tells us that this man had not put on clothes for a very long time
and that he had just been living among the tombs.
10. Mark writes here that this man was ‘seeing Jesus from a distance.’It is
very possible that this demon possessedman had been watching out over the
lake and saw the storm that had come up and Jesus’ stilling of the wind and
the waves, andthen that he had watchedand waited as the boat they were in
came right to where he was.
11. It is important to realize that Jesus knew the exact locationof this
demoniac and that He intentionally causedthe boat to go right to this man so
that He could castthe demon out of the man.
12. It must have been frightening for Jesus’disciples to see this nakedman
possessedof a legionof demons jump out at them in the dark of night when
they gotout of their boat at the other side of the lake. Jesus was never
frightened however!
13. This man was a “cutter” in that Mark tells us here that he was constantly
‘gashing himself with stones’. Today, there are many kids in our world, as
well as some adults, who often harm themselves by cutting themselves. I
wonder if many times today when people are diagnosedwith various
psychologicalproblems if because we outright dismiss any possibility of
demonic activity that those in the healing professionare unable to getto the
root of the person’s problems.
14. There is no doubt that this was a case ofdemon possession, andnot just
some psychologicalconditionfor this man. This man was possessedwith
superhuman strength because of the demons that possessedhim, and it says
that people had tried unsuccessfullymany times to restrain and subdue him,
and ‘he had often been bound with shacklesand chains, and the chains had
been torn apart by him and the shacklesbrokenin pieces, and no one was
strong enoughto subdue him’.
15. It is hard to understate how far out there this man was, for it says here
that ‘constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the
mountains, and gashing himself with stones’.
16. Now, what this story illustrates is the fact that in our modern world that is
in rebellion againstGod we are not able to really change a person’s life.
Today, we attempt to restrain people and limit their destructive behaviors,
but we really can’t change a person’s life.

16.1. Crime has not been reduced, including violent crimes. A survey taken
last year showed2,310,984million Americans were incarcerated. This means
that of the mid-2008 U.S. census population of 304.06 million, 1 out of every
131 people in America are incarcerated. This figure includes babies and
children.
16.2. Prisons don’t rehabilitate people who have committed crimes against
humanity. They simply restrain them for a time and attempt to limit
prisoner’s ability to harm others. Prisons do sometimes help people to learn
trades, and prisoners do getsome medical and psychologicaltreatment, but
statistics prove that the vast majority of those who get out prison will return.
Prisons cannotchange people’s lives.
16.3. Knowledge itselfdoesn’t change people’s lives as is evidencedby the fact
that many who are educatedare very unhealthy psychologicallyand commit
horrible crimes. The United States ranks high among educatedcountries and
yet we have more people in prison per capita than any nation.
16.4. Mentalhospitals would not be full across ourworld if those in the field of
Psychologycouldhave accuratelyidentified the source of people’s
psychologicalproblems so as to cure them. Psychiatrists and Psychologistscan
simply restrain people, they cannotchange their lives.
16.4.1.One of the things that I read in the lastfew months is that all forms of
counseling have been reduced greatlyin recentyears because ofthe
prescription of anti-depressants and neurotransmitter drugs.
16.4.2.One of the reasons forthe rise in the number of people in prisons in the
U.S. is that many mental health facilities have closedor cut back and so many
people who could be detained in mental health facilities are now in prisons. In
prison they do not get much treatment if any for their mental health issues.
But, there are still many people who are detained in mental health facilities.
17. Only Jesus Christ can change people’s lives, and He does this because He
is able to get to the rootof their problems.
17.1. He frees people from the powerof the Devil over their lives and then
removes the desire to sin from His people. He removes angerand hatred, lust,
greed, pride, etc. Plus, He delivers His people from their addictions to alcohol,
drugs, lust, etc.
17.2. The apostle Paul wrote in 2 Cor. 5:17 about the work that Christ
performs in a person’s life, “If any man is in Christ he is a new creature and
all things are become new.” When Christ comes into a person’s life He

changes everything in their life making them into a brand new person. He
gives us:
17.2.1.A new heart
Ezekiel11:19, 26, “19
And I will give them one heart, and put a new spirit
within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them
a heart of flesh…26
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit
within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you
a heart of flesh.”
17.2.2.A renewedmind (Rom. 12:1-2).
Romans 12:1-2, “1
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, whichis
your spiritual service of worship. 2
And do not be conformed to this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the
will of God is, that which is goodand acceptable andperfect.”
17.2.3.A sound mind.
2 Timothy 1:7, “7
ForGod has not given us a spirit of fear, but of powerand of
love and of a sound mind.”
17.2.4.A regeneratedspirit.
Titus 3:5, “5
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in
righteousness, but according to is mercy, by the washing of regenerationand
renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
17.2.5.A cleansedconscience.
Hebrews 9:14, “14
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the
eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience
from dead works to serve the living God?”
1 John 1:9, “9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us
our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
17.2.6.A new will.
17.2.6.1.Thelove of God constrains us and we do what we do for God because
we love Him and want to please Him.
17.2.7.Etc., etc.
18. Notice here what Mark tells us that this man possessedby demons does
when he sees Jesus, he comes and bows down before Jesus and then says,
‘“What business do we have with eachother, Jesus, Sonofthe MostHigh
God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!”’

19. Here we see that the demons request from Jesus to be sent from the man
into the body of another creature, in this case a large herd of swine nearby.
For some reason, demons hate to be disembodied and it is extremely
uncomfortable to them. In Matthew 12:43, Jesus mentioned what they go
through when they are castout of a person, “43
Now when the unclean spirit
goes out of a man, it passes through waterless placesseeking rest, and does not
find it.” Does this not indicate that demons once had an angelic type of body
howeverthat now they are disembodied spirits, and this disembodiment is
very uncomfortable and unsatisfying for them. Dwelling in any host is better
than none.
20. Note here that Jesus asksthe demon what its name is, and by doing this He
was able to make this story even more of a testimony and a point of teaching
for His disciples, who were looking on: “What is your name?” And he said to
Him, “My name is Legion; for we are many.”
21. The people in Galilee flockedto hear Jesus speak so much that they
pressedupon Him and He had to sit in a boat and teachthem. Then, many
even followedHim and the disciples in boats across the Sea of Galilee.
However, a vastly different response occurredamongstthe people of the
Gadarenes. Theysee His greatwork of changing a man’s life, and then they
ask Him immediately to leave their area.
22. We have to ask the question of why Jesus allowedthe demons to enter the
swine since He knew that they would crash into the sea and drown bringing
financial disasterto their owners? Some have statedthat He allowedthis
because Jewswere not allowedto eatswine (remember not all of the people of
Samaria were Jewishthough because during the exile the king of Persia (or
Babylon) relocatedpeople to Samaria to keepdown Jewishrebellion). We
would then have to ask if this loss of swine came about as punishment to them
from Jesus? But, I think that when we see that it was because that they lost
their pigs that they askedJesus to depart from them, that in spite of the fact
that they saw that Jesus had truly changedthis demoniac’s life, then we see
that Jesus did this because He knew that the people’s greatestlove was their
own money. They were more concernedabout financial gainthan the fact that
Jesus had done what had never been done before, that of changing a person’s
life. This loss of the swine brought to the head what was the real state of the
people’s hearts towards God.
23. Notice here that Jesus does not force Himself upon any man. A mere word
from the people of the Gadarenes asking Him to depart causes Him to
immediately leave. Such a tragic end.

24. Why was this man among the tombs possessedby demons when others
were not? Why was he possessedso thoroughly? I think that we ought to
considerthese questions. What leads to demon possession, if anything?
24.1. During the time of Jesus, demons were often encountered by Jesus.
Many of the people that Jesus encounteredwho were possessedby demons
actually exhibited many of the traits that people today possesswho have been
diagnosedby Psychiatrists and Psychologists with various mental illnesses. I
don’t believe that there is a demon under every rock, howeverI think that
when people appearto have certainmental illnesses that we ought to consider
that there could be a demonic element involved in their personalities. Some
time back Wikipedia.org postedthe following list of over300 classifiedmental
illnesses (today’s list there has 400 on it):
The DSM-IV
(Diagnostic and
StatisticalManual),
the U.S. standard
reference for
psychiatry, includes
over 300 different
manifestations of
mental illness.
Psychiatrists
themselves are in
dispute over how
common some of
these conditions are,
or whether they
should be listed as
'mental illnesses',
and eachversion of
the DSM is slightly
different from the
previous ones. The
DSM is currently
being revised and
updated, and the
next version will
include new and
refined diagnostic

criteria and
information. This is
a portion of the
currently recognised
list of mental
illnesses.
Aberration
Acute stress disorder
Adjustment disorder
Affective disorder
Agoraphobia
Alcohol and
substance abuse
Alcohol and
substance
dependence
Amnesia
Androphobia
Anxiety disorder
Anorexia nervosa
Antisocial
personality disorder
Aspergersyndrome,
also knownas
Asperger's disorder
Attention deficit
disorder,
abbreviated as ADD.
Attention
deficit/hyperactivity
disorder,
abbreviated as
ADHD.
Autism
Avoidant personality
disorder
Bereavement
Bibliomania {
hoarding of books
}
Binge eating
disorder
(proposed)
Boanthropy {
think you’re a pig
}
Bipolar disorder
Body dysmorphic
disorder
Borderline
personality
disorder
Brief psychotic
disorder
Bulimia nervosa
Cataplexy
Chronic tic
disorder
Childhood
Disorder
Circadian rhythm
sleepdisorder
Conduct disorder
Conversion
disorder
Conversion
hysteria
Cyclothymia (or
Cyclothymic
disorder)
Compulsive
overeating
Delerium
Delusional
disorder
Dependent
personality
disorder
Depersonalization
disorder
Depression
Disorderof
written expression
Disruptive
behavior disorder
Dissociative
amnesia
Dissociative
disorder
Dissociative fugue
Dissociative
identity disorder
Dyspareunia
Dysthymic
disorder
Downsyndrome
Emotional disorder
Encopresis
Factitious
disorder
Gansersyndrome
Gender identity
Hallucinogen
related disorder

Enuresis
(bedwetting)
Epilepsy
Exhibitionism
Expressive language
disorder
Echolalia
Echopraxia
Female and male
orgasmic
disorders
Female sexual
arousaldisorder
Fetishism
Folie a deux
Frotteurism
disorder
Generalized
anxiety disorder
General
adaptation
syndrome
Histrionic
personality
disorder
Hyperactivity
disorder
Primary
hypersomnia
Hypoactive sexual
desire disorder
Hypochondriasis
Hyperkinetic
syndrome
Hysteria
Impulse control
disorder
Intermittent
explosive disorder
Insomnia
Joubert syndrome Kleptomania Learning
disorders
Mania
Male erectile
disorder
Munchausen's
syndrome
Munchausenby
proxy
Mathematics
disorder
Mental
retardation/Learning
disability (strictly
speaking, these are
not mental illnesses)
Narcissistic
personality
disorder
Narcolepsy
Neurosis
Neuroticism
Nightmare
disorder
Obsessive-
compulsive
disorder
Obsessive-
compulsive
personality
disorder
Oneirophrenia
Oppositional
defiant disorder
Pain disorder
Panic attacks
Panic disorder
Paranoid
personality
disorder
Paraphilias
Parasomnia
Pathological
gambling
Pervasive
Developmental
Disorder
Pica
Posttraumatic
stress disorder
Postpartum
depression

Premature
ejaculation
Primary insomnia
Psychoneurosis
Psychotic disorder
Pyromania
Reading disorder
Retts disorder
Rumination disorder
Schizoaffective
disorder
Schizoid
personality
disorder
Schizophrenia
Schizophreniform
disorder
Schizothymia
Schizotypal
personality
disorder
Seasonalaffective
disorder
Separation
anxiety disorder
Sexual
Frustration
disorder
Shared psychotic
disorder
Sleepdisorder
Sleepterror
disorder
Sleepwalking
disorder
Socialphobia
Somatization
disorder
Specific
developmental
disorder
Tourette
syndrome
Transienttic
disorder
Transvestic
Fetishism
Trichotillomania
Vaginismus

Specific phobias
Stereotypic
movement
disorder
24.2. I think that when people let sin take controlof their life, that this can in
some cases have drastic effects in their lives over time, and setthem up to be
heavily influenced by demons (againthough we would expectthat a Christian
would only be influenced by a demon to a certaindegree). Forinstance:
24.2.1.Lets say that a person lets angertake control of them at times (we have
all known people like this), and we know that being angry is akin to
committing murder. This person lets his anger take him over more and more
often, and eachtime he gets more and more angry and out of control. Soon,
the angerwithin him begins to take over without him even thinking about it,
and he blows up and any and every little thing. Demons begin to inhabit that
man and controlhim via that sin of anger that he has allowedto take overhis
life.
24.2.2.Or, it could be the lustful passions that a person begins to let take over
their life. Eventually, they no longer have controlover themselves, and their
passions controlevery aspectof their life. They become a demonized sex
addict.
24.2.3.It could be alcoholand substance abuse that a person begins. He drinks
the bottle, then the bottle drinks the bottle, and then the bottle drinks him, so
to speak.
24.2.4.Bitterness andunforgiveness that is allowedto reign in a person’s life
can begin to control them and take over and characterize every aspectoftheir
life. I have seena person’s bitterness and anger be the only thing in life that
they hold closelyto, and then it characterizes everything that they do. The
demons begin to poison their mind and memories and drive them to such
extremes that their entire personality disintegrates and fragments and they
turn into a mad lunatic.
24.2.5.Dabbling in the occult, metaphysics, and false religions, I believe can
cause some people to be opened up to being influenced by demons.
24.3. I believe that even the sinning of parents can have an influence on a child
and cause him/her to be susceptible to demonic influence.
25. We can’t blame the Devil for the choices we make, and certain our own
flesh is sinful and causes us to give in to many temptations.

26. After having the demons castout of him and having his life changedand
his mind made sound, the man did not want to leave Jesus’side. He asks Jesus
if he may follow Him and go whereverHe goes. However, Jesus disallowsthis
and instead calls the man to be an evangelistto his own people, and He says to
the man: ‘“Go home to your people and report to them what greatthings the
Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” 20
And he went away
and beganto proclaim in Decapolis whatgreatthings Jesus had done for him;
and everyone was amazed.’
27. There may have been many reasons (some perhaps even practical
considerations)for which Jesus forbid the man from following Him at this
time.
28. CONCLUSIONS:
28.1. Only Christ canchange a person’s life. Has He changedyour life? Do
you know him? Has He made you a new creationand given you a new heart,
mind, will, conscience, etc.?
28.2. It is important to considerwhat things we can do that will keepus from
having demonic involvement in our life… We need to spend time with God in
His word every day, and be committed to being obedient to all of the things
He shows us. We need to stay in fellowshipwith other believers, and attend
church regularly. We need to be committed to praying about all of the things
that we do. If we will do these things then we need have no fear of the Devil
and demons influencing our lives.
http://www.calvarychapelgb.com/Mark/Mark.htm
ALAN CARR
TAMING THE TOMBSTONE TERORIST
Intro: This text sits in the middle of severalhopeless situations. Justprior to
the events we just read, Jesus and His disciples were out on the sea during a
tremendous storm. The disciples were certain that they were going to die,
4:38. In their minds, they were in a hopeless situation.

When they were engulfed in that storm, the disciples were certain that they
would die. Those men were seasonedfishermen, but they were helpless to
solve their problem. But, that storm out on the Deepwas no problem for the
Masterof the sea. He calmed the storm and He calmed His men.
Now, Jesus moves into a new setof impossible situations. He encounters a
demon possessedman. This man possessedwas by thousands of demons. He
cannot help himself and the people around him are helpless as well. After this,
Jesus will deal with a diseasedwomanand a dead girl. All four of these
situations appear hopeless from a human perspective. Yet, in eachof these
cases, Jesusproved that He was the Masterof them all.
If that demon possessedman were alive today, he would be sent off to live in a
mental institution. That diseasedwomanwould be sent to terminal care ward.
The dead girl would be sent to the cemetery.
As we move through this chapter, we are going to discoverthat Jesus is not
just the
Masterof the Deep. He is also the
Masterof the Demonic; the Masterof Disease andthe MasterofDeath. He
will demonstrate His powerover all situations, problems, difficulties and
dangers.
Today we will take a trip to the cemetery. We will watch as Jesus
demonstrates His power over the spiritual realm. We will watchHim deliver a
man from a hopeless caseofspiritual possessionand bondage. As we watch
the Lord deliver this poor soul, we need to keepin mind that He can move in
our lives with the same power. He can break the chains that bind us and He
can setus free!
Let me share three
phases of this encounterthat offer hope to those in bondage today. I want to
take these verses and preach about
Taming The Tombstone Terrorist.
I. v. 1-5
CONSIDER THE MAN
A. v. 2 The Man’s Defilement – As this story opens, we are told that this man
is held fast in the grip of the devil. Satanis the master of his life and he is in a
state of hopelessnessandhelplessness.

We are told that he has an unclean spirit! Then, we find out that he is not just
the home to one foul spirit, but he is possessedby a Legion of demons, v. 9. A
legionin the Roman army could be from 2,000 to 6,000 men.
In verse 13, we are told that when the demons left this man, they entereda
heard of swine that number 2,000!This man was totally under the controlof
the devil!
This man’s case is no different from the condition of every lost soul in the
world, Eph. 2:1-3; John 8:44. What a pitiful shape to be in! He is in a state of
defilement!
B. v. 3-4 The Man’s Depravity – Two words factor heavily in this man’s
world. Those words are cemeteries and chains. This man had his dwelling
among the dead. The demons in him drove him awayfrom the living and he
spent his life in the cemetery.
In those days, people were not usually buried in the ground. Tombs were
carved into the hillsides and the bodies were placedthere. Because ofhis
demons this man lived with bones and the decaying corpses of the dead.
We are also told that the people around him tried their best to restrainhim.
They would catchhim and bind him with fetters and chains. Fetters would
have been attachedto his feet. Chains would have bound his hands, his arms
and his torso. These manmade devices could not hold him. He broke them as
though they were made of paper.
When we look at this poor soul, it is not hard to make the leap from him to the
lost ones around us. They are trapped in the same state of pitiful depravity.
The sin that possessesthe heart of the lost sinner drives him to spend his days
and waste his years with the dead. The lostsinner has no desire to be around
the living. Deathand the works of deadness are all they care about!
Of course, man has his methods of trying to conquer and cure all the
problems that plague humanity. Man has his
jails, his prisons, his institutions and his
asylums. Man pushes his pills, his
potions and his psychologyas the answerto man’s dilemma. The problem
with man’s efforts to cure humanities problems is that man’s efforts only treat
the symptoms, not the cause ofman’s situation.
Man acts like he acts and does what he does because he is a sinner! Lost
people choosedarkness overlight because they hate the light, John 3:19-21.

Lost people choose sin over the Savior because theyare evil and totally given
over to the pursuit of evil, Rom. 3:10-23.
Let me add that a professing believerneeds to examine his or her heart when
they begin to desire the works of darkness. You need to look at your spiritual
condition when you find reasons for avoiding the light! When you can’t sit
through a preaching service, you have a spiritual problem! When you find
reasons to avoid the house of God, you have a spiritual problem! You are
beginning to revert back to the old ways of the old man. That is a dangerous
and frightening place to find yourself!
C. v. 5 The Man’s Desperation – Can you imagine the terror this man caused?
He is up there in that cemetery. He is naked. He is running around like a wild
man day and night. He cuts himself and his body is coveredwith blood and
scars. He screams and yells in his torment.
We do not know whether this man cut his body in an effort to find relief from
his demons or whether the demons causedhim to do it.
We do not know why he shrieked, screamedand cried in those tombs. It may
be that he did these things because he was desperate to be free. It may be that
he did them because he was compelled to do them. What matter is this, he is in
a desperate situation and he needs help!
Whether you are lostand bound in sin or whether you are savedand out of
God’s will there is only one cure for your condition! You do not need a
pill. You do not need a psychiatrist. You do not need a priest. You do not need
a
program. You need Jesus!He is the antidote for the poison of sin! He is the
cure for your condition! He is the solution to your problem! Getto Jesus and
get the help you need!
(Ill. That is the man’s condition! It is horrible, but it could serve as a template
that could be laid over millions of other lives. In fact, there are people in this
room, this city and county who are defiled, depraved and desperate!They
need help and there is but one source for the help they need. Helps name is
Jesus!)
II. v. 6-13
CONSIDER THE MASTER
A. v. 6 The Master’s Compassion – Everyone in that region fearedthis man.
They fled in terror when he came near. They trembled in their houses atthe

sound of his shrieks of torment. Children were warned to beware of that crazy
man in the cemetery. Everyone avoided this man. Everyone, that is, but Jesus!
Jesus Christ did not avoid this man; He made a specialtrip across the sea and
braved a storm simply because He wanted to deliver this one man from the
grip of Satan, 4:35.
Everyone else feared, avoided and despisedthis man; Jesus had compassion
on him! Jesus caredabout the condition he was in and Jesus was moved to do
something about it! This man wasn’t even a Jew!He was a Gentile and still
the Lord reachedout to him!
Thank God for the boundless love and endless compassionofthe Savior!
Praise the Lord, there are no hopeless caseswith Him! We see people and
sometimes we think that some are a lost cause. We may wonder if they can or
will be saved. Well, I can’t tell you for sure that they will be, but I canlook
around this very room and I see case aftercase ofmen and womenthat others
had written off as a lost cause. You are here and savedtoday because the
Savior had compassionon you!
He loved you in spite of your sins and He came to where you were to deliver
you from the bondage that gripped your heart and life. He loved you enough
to die for you on the cross, Rom. 5:6-8; and He loved you enough to come and
setyou free. No one is beyond the compassionatetouchof the Master!Not
Zacchaeus in his tree. Not Saul of Tarsus with his agenda of hate and
destruction. Notthe Ethiopian eunuch with his religious confusion. And not
even you with all the baggageyoucarry. There is a compassionate Savior
waiting to setyou free!
(
Note:Jesus sees people with a different setof eyes than we do! We see their
sins, He sees whatHe can make of their lives!
We see a drunk, He sees a deacon!We see a drug addict, He sees a preacher!
We see a harlot, He sees a choir member!
That is how lives are changedwhen they come to Jesus!He will take what you
give Him and He will give you something much more precious in return!
You give Jesus your crab apple; He'll give you back a golden delicious. You
give Jesus your thorn; He'll give you back an American rose. You give Jesus
your acorn; He'll give you back a mighty oak. Give Jesus your Jacob, the
schemer;He'll give you back an Israel, a prince with God. Give Jesus a
Simon, the cursing fisherman; He'll give you back Simon Peter, a mighty
preacher. You give Jesus your Saul, persecutorof the church, He'll give you

back Paul, militant missionary apostle. You give yourself to Jesus;you'll be
amazed at what He'll do with you. It's amazing what Jesus cando when a life
is placed in His hands, 2 Cor. 5:17!)
B. v. 6-13 The Master’s Confrontation – This man, who ran from everyone
else, ran to the Lord Jesus and fell at His feet. The demons that drove this
man awayfrom all human relationships drove him to the feetof Jesus. Why?
They did not fall down before Jesus to worship Him as Lord; they merely fell
down in acknowledgementof His deity. They were bowing in subjection to the
Lord of Lords!
Jesus confronts the demons, ordering them to release their captive, v. 8. The
demons acknowledge the deity and authority of Jesus,
v. 7, and they beg Him not to “torment” them. That is, they beg Him not to
send them to Hell, Luke 8:31. The demons then request that they might be
allowedto enter into a heard of swine that was feeding nearby, v. 11-12. Jesus
gives them permission and they leave the body of the man and enter the swine,
v. 13. When they do, the swine cannot tolerate the demons and kill themselves
by running in to the sea, v. 13. This is a strange passage,but it teaches us some
important truths.
· First, it teaches us that all spirits are subject to Jesus. Theyrecognize His
authority,
v. 7. They must have His permission to do the things they do, v. 10-13. Jesus is
the Masterevenof the demons! That gives us hope today! It often looks like
the devil is winning this thing. If you think that, then you need to read
Rev. 20:10. That verse tells us that Satanwill be castinto the lake of fire. This
war is over and Jesus is the Victor!
· This passagealso teaches us that man is the most depraved creature in
existence. This one man could tolerate a “legion” ofdemons,
v. 9. A Romanlegion consistedofaround 6,000 soldiers!If you do the math,
there were 2,000 swine in that herd. That comes out to three demons per pig.
They couldn’t tolerate the presence ofthe devil and they committed “suey-
cide”. Those pigs couldn’t stand just a few demons, yet this man was able to
live with thousands. This just illustrates the human capacity for evil!
C. v. 13 The Master’s Command – Every effort of man had failed this poor
soul. Everything he had tried to retain a grip on his own sanity had proven
useless. But, one word from Jesus and He was free!
That is the glory of salvation! Man cantry his religious works, but they will
all fail to save, Eph. 2:8-9. Man can try his pop psychology, but it will fall far

short of changing the heart of a sinner. Man can try his pills, his programs
and his practices, but they will never change the lives of lost, hell bound
sinners.
There is one solution to the problem of sin and His name is Jesus!There is
only one hope for the fallen soul and His name is Jesus!There is only one hope
for those trapped in a life of sin and
hopes name is Jesus, John14:6; John 6:37.
III. v. 14-20 CONSIDER THE MIRACLE
A. v. 14-16 He Was ChangedBy Jesus – When the pigs ran down the
mountain and killed themselves, the servants who were tending the herd went
to town and told their masters what had happened. The townsfolk came to see
for themselves. Whenthey arrived, they heard all the details and they could
see the evidence of a changed life right before their eyes.
· V. 15 Jesus ChangedHim - No longeris he running around, crying out and
cutting himself. Now, he is calm and seatedbeside Jesus!What a change!(Ill.
That’s how it works!You cannot meet Jesus and remain the same. He changes
all those who come to Him, John 3:3, 5; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:10!)
· V. 15 Jesus ClothedHim - No longeris he naked, but now he is clothed! (Ill.
This is just further proof of his change!What we need to notice here is that
what Jesus does in the heart of a man is ALWAYS workedout on the outside
of a man, Matt. 12:35!)
· V. 15 Jesus CalmedHim - We are told that he is in his right mind! Where
there has been turmoil and agitation, there is now perfect peace!He has been
changedspiritually, physically and mentally!
(Ill. What a picture of the total change that salvationbrings to the converted
sinner! Jesus literally gives everyone He saves a brand new life!)
(Ill. Jesus changedhim from the inside out! Jesus startedwith the man’s real
problem! A bad heart is every lostman’s real problem! His sin isn’t his
problem; the outwards manifestations of sin are merely the fruit of the
problem; a wickedheart is the root!)
B. v. 17-18 He Was Committed To Jesus – The people of that region were
afraid of Jesus,
v. 15, and they demanded that He leave their country. For these people, this
episode was just too much! They might have been able to handle a little
preaching, but when Jesus startedchanging lives and costing them money
they wanted no part of Him. So they drove Him away.

By the way, there are a lot of people like that around today! Just give them a
Sunday morning service and they are satisfied. Maybe they will even come
back Sunday night or Wednesday. But, don’t ask them to do any more than
that! When the Lord wants more they rebel and push Him away.
Friend, when you come to a place in your life where you are satisfied, you
have problems! When you come to a place where you cannot sit through a
preaching service, you have a problem. When you refuse to give Jesus a little
more because it will interfere with your life and your routine, you have a
problem!
Mostfolks want just enough Jesus to make them feelgoodand to keepthem
out of Hell. Jesus isn’t a goodluck charm! He is a life-changing, eternity-
altering Savior. He wants more than just a few hours a week. He wants
everything you have and everything you are to be laid on the altar of
surrender.
We had better be careful how we treat the Lord. He might just give us what
we want. When we teachour children that other things in life are more
important than worship and the things of God, don’t be surprised when they
walk awayfrom the Lord later on. When we tell the Lord by our actions that
we are satisfiedand that we do not want any more, do not be surprised when
He takes awaywhat we already have.
If we honor Him, He will bless us. If we treat Him like we canmake it without
Him, He may just give us what we ask for!
Look at the contrast!The townspeople wantJesus to leave. The man who has
just been savedwants to be with Jesus. That’s what salvationwill do for you!
It will ruin you! When you getsaved and your heart is right with the Lord,
you will love Him, His house, His Word and His people. Wherever Jesus is,
that’s where you will want to be too!
C. v. 19-20 He Was CommissionedFor Jesus – Jesus refusedthe man’s
request to go with Him. Instead, Jesus senthim back to his home to tell others
what the Lord had done for him. And, that is preciselywhat he did. We went
into “Decapolis”, whichmeans “the ten cities” and he preachedthe Gospelof
grace to all who would listen!
Can you picture in your mind how this scene must have played out? The
people see him coming. They cringe in fear, children hide behind their
mothers, doors are slammed shut, and people run in fear to hide from the
mad man.

But wait! Something is different today. Yes, it’s still him. He still bears the
scars in his body, but the look in his eye is different. He isn’t screaming, he is
preaching about a man named Jesus. He isn’t running around like a wild
man; he is calm and sane and he is talking about how Jesus has changedhis
life. He isn’t naked;he is clothed and peacefuland changed. The people listen
to his story and they are touched; some are no doubt saved. What a difference
Jesus makes!
We are commanded to share the Gospel,
Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19-20. We are to go to a lost world and tell them the
same thing this man was commanded to tell: “
how greatthings the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassionon
thee”. People might argue with us about our doctrines; but they cannot refute
our testimonies!Nothing is more powerful that the testimony of a changed
life!
Conc:Jesus tamed the tombstone terrorist and He cantame you! One of the
most notoriously bad characters thatever lived in New York was Orville
Gardner. He was the trainer of prize fighters and companion of all sorts of
hard characters. His reputation was so thoroughly bad that he was called
"Awful Gardner."
He had a little boy, whom he dearly loved, and this boy died. A short time
after his boy's death, he was standing in the bar of a New York saloon,
surrounded by a number of his companions. The night was sweltering, and he
stepped outside the saloonto geta little fresh air. As he stood out there and
lookedup betweenthe high buildings at the skyabove his head, a star was
shining down upon him, and as he was looking at it, he said to himself, "I
wonder where my little boy is tonight?" Then the thought came to him quick
as a flash, "
Wherever he is, you will never see him againunless you change your life."
Touchedby the Spirit of God, he hurried from the saloonto the room where
his godly mother was. He went in and askedhis mother to pray for him. They
spent the whole night in prayer and toward morning "
Awful Gardner" found peace and gained the victory.
Gardner was the victim of an overwhelming appetite for drink, and had in his
house a jug of whiskeyat the time. He did not dare to keepit and did not
know what to do with it. Finally, he took it down to the river, got into a boat
and rowedover to an island.

He set the liquor on a rock and knelt down, and as he afterwardsaid, "I
fought that jug of whiskeyfor a long time," and God gave him perfect
deliverance. He did not dare to break it, lestthe fumes should tempt him. He
did not dare to leave it, lest someone else getit. Finally he dug a hole and
buried it. He left the island a free man. "
Awful Gardner" became a mighty preacherof the Gospel.
What has you today? Are you lostand in the grip of sin? Jesus cansetyou
free! Are you out of God’s will and trapped in pride and bitterness? Jesus can
setyou free! Do you need His touch? Do you need His compassion?Do you
need His life-changing power? Friend, what you need is but a prayer of faith
away!Come to Jesus!Come home! Obey His voice.
He weatheredthe storm on the sea to getto this man. He weatheredthe storm
of Calvary to get to you. Is He calling? Come to Him now.
ALAN CARR
Mark 5:1-20
THE MANIAC WHO BECAME A MESSENGER
Intro: JacobKoshy grew up in Singapore with one driving ambition: to be a
successin life, to gain all the money and possessions he could. That led him
into the world of drugs and gambling, and eventually he became the lord of an
international smuggling network. In 1980, he was arrestedand placedin a
government drug rehabilitation prison in Singapore.
He was frustrated beyond endurance. All his goals, purposes, dreams, and
ambitions were lockedup with him in a tiny cell, and his heart was full of a
cold emptiness.
He was a smoker, and cigarettes weren'tallowedin the center. Instead, he
smuggledin tobacco androlled it in the pages ofa Gideon Bible. One day he
fell asleepwhile smoking. He awoke to find that the cigarette had burned out,
and all that remained was a scrapof charred paper. He unrolled it and read
what was written: "Saul, Saul, Why do you persecute me?"

Jacobaskedforanother Bible and read the entire story of the conversionof
Saul of Tarsus. He suddenly realized that if God could help someone like Saul,
God could help him, too. There in his cell he knelt and prayed, asking Christ
to come into his life and change him. He begancrying and couldn't stop. The
tears of a wastedlife washedawayhis pain, and God redeemed him. He
started sharing his story with the other prisoners, and as soonas he was
releasedhe became involved in a church. He met a Christian woman, married,
and is now a missionary in the Far Eastwhere he tells people far and wide,
"Who would have believed that I could find the truth by smoking the Word of
God?"
N our text, we are presented with a man who had no ambition in life. He was
lost in his sins and was headed to Hell. Until Jesus intervened. On the way to
Gadara, Jesus has demonstratedHis powerof nature by calming the sea.
Now, He will demonstrate His powerof sin and Satanby claiming a sinner.
Allow me to share with you the story of The ManiacWhoBecameA
Messenger.
I. V. 1-7 THE MAN'S CONDITION
A. V. 3 His Home - This man lived his life among the dead. He was a
sad, lonely, hurting, longing, unloved, unwanted individual. His was a
tragic existence!
(Ill. He is a picture of that personwho is separatedfrom God be the gulf
of sin - Eph. 2:8-9; Eph. 2:12; Col. 1:21.)
B. V. 3-5 His Helplessness - He is a man who is out of control. Others
had tried to intervene in his life, but to no avail. His passions were
strongerthan his ability to control them. No man could change him. He
was a man sold under the influence of the evil in his life. (Ill. Again, he is
a picture of that lostperson who is out of control and under the strong
influence of sin, Eph. 2:2-3. Though people who care try to intervene in
their lives, it does no good, but only creates resentmentand rebellion in
the life of the person they are trying to help.)
(Ill. That doesn't mean we should not pray, care or reachout to them,
but we should not take it personally when they rejectour efforts. Lost
men are just what they are until Jesus changesthem by His power!)
C. V. 5 His Hopelessness - Notice that his torment was continual. Day
and night he cried out. Day and night he was in that place of isolation.
Day and night he did his best to injure and harm himself. What a
pathetic scene is painted by Mark concerning this man and his lost

condition. Surely he wanted a different life, but he was absolutely
powerless to accomplishthat by himself.
(Ill. So it is with the lost man. He may not understand why he is driven
to drink, use drugs, curse, or whateverit is that he does. It is a lifestyle
that he becomes so hopelesslytrapped in that he is unable to free
himself. He literally becomes a prisoner of his own vices. Every day
brings with it more of the same pain and suffering. Every day drives the
wedge betweenhimself and God deeper and deeper. He has no way to
free himself. Every day his torment grows. Everyday, like a man
struggling with quicksand, he falls deeper and deeperinto his pit of
isolation, wretchedness andentrapment.)
D. V. 6-7 His Helper - He needs someone to rescue him. He needs
someone to do for him that which he cannotdo for himself. He needs
someone to reach farther down than he can reachup! One day a boat
lands just outside the graveyard. This tormented man doesn't know the
occupants of that boat, but the demons who live within him do, James
2:19. He finds himself at the feetof the only One in the universe Who
could help! Thank God that Jesus wasn'tcontentto leave that man to
wallow in his wretched condition! Thank God Jesus crossedthat sea,
through that storm, just to reachthis one, solitary individual. (Note:
Jesus did nothing else while He was here! He came just for this man!)
(Ill. Thank God, that the Lord is not willing that any should perish, 2
Pet. 3:9. But, He comes to where we are and calls us to come to Him,
John 6:44. He enters the squalor of our sin because He knows that we
cannot getto Him on our own. Praise Godfor the Lord Jesus Christ
Who loves sinners, comes to where that are trapped in their sins and
offers them a way out! In the midst of Job's trial, he declaredhis need
for a Daysman, Job9:33. He was looking for one who would stand
betweenhim and the Lord, join his hands with theirs and bring them
together. This is just what Jesus has done for every sinner who will
come to Him. On the cross, Jesuswas our Daysman. He took fallen
humanity in one hand and He took a holy God in the other, and He
brought them togetherin Himself, Eph. 2:14-16.)
I. The Man's Condition
II. V. 8-17 THE MAN'S CONVERSION
A. V. 8-10 It Was Divine - That which this man, nor anyone else could
do, was accomplishedby the Lord Jesus Christ. One word from Jesus
and this man was free. He was forever changedby the powerof the

Lord Jesus Christ. As we will see in a moment, his life was totally and
radically changed.
(Ill. You see friends, it is Jesus that makes all the difference in life! A
person is savedsolelyby trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. When we place
our faith in Him for salvation, we are saved. It is a gift of pure grace,
Eph. 2:8-9. There is no way to earn it by works. There is no way to
secure it by religion. The only way to get it is by faith, Acts 16:31.)
(Ill. This is the kind of thing that happens when Jesus passesby!
Remember, this seems to be the only reasonJesus came to this side of
the lake. He came so that one man might be savedby the grace of God.
Oh, but what a difference it makes whenJesus passesby! Just ask:
1. The woman at the well - John 4 (Ill. "Must needs go")
2. Bartimaeus - Matt. 10:46-52
3. Woman with issue of blood - Luke 8:43-48
4. Lame man at Poolof Bethesda - John 5:1-9
5. The Leper - Mark 1:40-45
6. The Blind man - John 9:1-38
7. Saul of Tarsus - Acts 9:1-9
8. The Disciples - Matt. 4:18-22
9. Lazarus - John 11:1-44
10. Me - May 23, 1983!(Ill. It wasn't as dramatic as some of those
others, but it made the difference when Jesus passedby where I
was!)
B. V. 11-14 It Was Dramatic - These verse tell us that those demons left
that man, entered a herd of 2,000 swine, drownedthe swine and left!
That's pretty dramatic conversion!Factis, I've never seenon quite that
dramatic! It grabbed their attention! It causeda stir. Those who saw it
ran to tell the news!)
(Ill. That's the way salvationis! Anytime it occurs, it is dramatic! A life
is changed!Hell is robbed of another victim! Deathis cheated! Satan
loses anotherbattle! God is glorified! There is rejoicing in Heaven! A
sinner is foreverredeemed, changed and made a member of the family
of God! That's pretty dramatic! Swine may not die by the thousands
when a sinner repents, but greatermiracles than that take place in the
heart, life and future of that individual. When Jesus moves into a place

and starts redeeming sinners, word will get out about it! It's dramatic!
It's exciting!)
(Ill. Nothing is more dramatic that what happens is the life of a person
who trusts Jesus. Thatold, dead sinner is made alive in Jesus and
becomes a brand new creation, 2 Cor. 5:17. They get new life, a new
family, total forgiveness oftheir past and future, deliverance from the
prison of sin and a home in Heavenwhen they leave this world. That's
pretty dramatic!)
C. V. 15-17 It Was Definite - When those who ran to town to tell about
what had happened returned with the townspeople, they were greeted
by an amazing sight: that wild, uncontrollable demoniac was just sitting
there looking around with a big smile on his face. He wasn't crying out!
He wasn't hurting himself! He wasn't naked. He was just sitting there,
fellowshipping with Jesus, acting as if he was as normal as anyone else!
There was no mistaking the factthat something big had happened!
(Note:What they observedabout this man is a picture of what happens
when a person comes to faith in Jesus Christ. Notice what they observed
concerning him.)
1. He Was Calmed - He is sitting. Peacehas replacedtorment.
Instead of being driven about by the demons and desires of his
flesh, he is just sitting there as calm as can be.
(Ill. This is what Jesus does for those who trust Him. He takes
their torment and turns it into peace. All the oppressions and
obsessions are replacedwith a peace that passes all
understanding. Peaceforthe saint is the promise of Jesus, John
14:27.)
2. He Was Clothed - Even if they hadn't noticedhow calmly he
was sitting there, surely they noticed the factthat he was no
longernude. The work Christ had done on the inside of this man,
produced changes on the outside of him as well.
(Ill. So it is when a person comes to faith in Jesus. The outer
appearance and manner of life will conform itself to the new inner
life createdby Jesus. In other words, when you get right with God
in your heart, it will change the way you act, look and live! Your
desires will change!Your appetites will change!You sense of right
and wrong will change!You will prove the reality of your
salvationby the way you live your new life! As I have already
said, you will become a new creature, 2 Cor. 5:17.)

3. He Was Controlled - Now they see that he is in his right mind.
He is no longer out of control, driven about by the powerof the
demonic forces within. Now, he is completely sane and in the
possessionofa rational mind! What a difference!
(Ill. This is just what happens when a sinner comes to faith in
Jesus!Their heart is changed. Their outward man is changed.
Their mind is changedas well. You see, when a personis born
again, a new "Spirit"takesoverin that person's life. At the
instant of conversion, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in the
savedperson's life. He is there to guide, John 16:13;to comfort,
John 14:16-18;to teach, John 14:26. He begins a process that
results, over time, in the "renewing ofour minds.", Rom. 12:2.
That is, He helps us to come to think about things like God thinks
about them. Instead of filtering everything through our own
wickedsetof filters, where everything is seenfrom the vantage
point of personal advantage or self-indulgence, He teaches us to
see things from God's perspective. We learn to look at life through
God's eyes. When this occurs, we are saved from much grief, pain
and sorrow. When this occurs, we are growing strong in the Lord.
When this occurs, we are finally in our right minds. It is a long
process, but I am thankful that he Lord doesn't give up on us!)
I. The Man's Condition
II. The Man's Conversion
III. V. 18-20 THE MAN'S COMMISSION
(Ill. There isn't a single one of us that God savedto do nothing, Eph. 2:10. In
fact, one of the surest evidences of the reality of your salvationexperience is a
desire to be active in the Lord's work. We see this truth manifestedin the life
of this newly converted man.)
A. V. 18 The Man's Wish - This man wanted nothing more than to be
with Jesus. Look at all Jesus had done for him! It is no wonder that he
wants to be in the presence ofthe Lord.
(Ill. From a human point of view nothing says as much about your love
for Jesus and the reality of your salvationthat does a burning desire to
be near Jesus. The things of God are precious to those who love Him.
His Word is a treasure chestto be explored and enjoyed. His worship is
an event that must not be missed. His songs are precious because they
afford us the privilege of lifting our voice in praise to Him. His House is
a specialplace for which our hearts yearn. His presence is delightful

and eagerlysoughtas one passes through life. The redeemedsoul just
wants to be with Jesus and nothing more. Is that the burden of your
heart? Is being near Him the deepestlonging of your soul? Oh, those
who are redeemed, as in a close relationship, know the bliss of a few
moments spent with Him! What a Savior! After all He has done for us,
how could we not want to be near Him?)
B. V. 19 The Master's Will - While surely the Lord was thrilled by the
man's love, Jesus knew there were others who needed to hear what God
had done for this man. Therefore, Jesussends him home with the
instructions to tell others what the Lord had done for him. He was to
give his testimony and tell the lostthat he had been found. He was to tell
the captives that there was freedomin Jesus!He was to tell the wounded
that there was balm in Gilead. He was to bear the goodnews of
salvationto a lostand dying world.
(Ill. By the way, this is still the Lord's desire for every redeemedperson
in the world today! If you are saved, you have a story to tell! It is a story
of a person who was hopeless andhelpless until Jesus came by and
made the difference! Jesus wants you to tell someone else aboutwhat He
has done for you, Matt. 28:19-20;Mark 16:15. Haggai2:19 asks this
question, "Is the seed yet in the barn?" Friends, it cannot grow until it is
sowninto the fields. Jesus told His disciples to "cast their nets." Why?
He knows that a net lying in the ship can enclose no fish! Who will sow
the seed? Who will castthe net? Who will come before God today and
surrender to tell a world about Jesus? As the Lord askedin Isaiah 6,
"Who willgofor us?")
C. V. 20 The Man's Work - When this redeemedman heard the will of
the Lord for his life, he did not hesitate. He arose and returned home
and beganto preach the goodnews of salvationthrough the Lord Jesus
Christ. This man proved his conversionby obedience to the will of God
for his life, John 14:15; 21. He simply did what the Lord commanded
without question. What an example!
(Ill. Remember what James said: "Yea, a man maysay, Thou hast faith,
and I have works:shew me thy faith withoutthy works, and I willshew
thee myfaith by myworks.", James 2:18. Nothing proves love for Jesus
any more clearlythan a life that just jumps to do the Lord's will. Can
the Lord count on you? If Jesus has made the difference He can!)
Conc:On one occasion, while traveling in the West, Evangelist"Uncle" John
Vasservisited the home of a praying wife whose husband was an infidel. She

beggedfor a Bible, and Vassar, giving her one, went his way. He had no
soonerleft when the husband, coming home, saw the book and was enraged.
Seizing the Bible with one hand and the ax with the other, he hurried to the
wood-pile where he placed it on the chopping block and hackedit crosswise in
two. Returning to the house, he threw half of the destroyed Bible at his wife,
saying, "As you claim a part of all the property around here, there is your
share of this."
The other half he tossedinto his tool shed. Months later on a wetwinter's day,
the man, wanting to get awayfrom his Christian wife, retreatedto his shed.
The time passedslowly, and in boredom he lookedaround for something to
read. Thumbing through the mutilated Bible, his attention was caughtby the
story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. He became absorbedin the parable only
to discoverthat its ending belongedto his wife's section. He crept into the
house and secretlysearchedfor the bottom half of the book, but was unable to
find where his wife had hidden it.
Finally he broke down, askedher for it, and read the story againand again. In
the process he came to the Heavenly Father like a penitent prodigal returning
home.
That's the difference Jesus makes in every life He touches. Has He made the
difference in you?
THIS I KNOW
Dr. W. A. Criswell
Mark 5:16-20
3-6-66 8:15 a.m.
On the radio, as with us here in the First Baptist Church in Dallas, if you will
turn to the fifth chapter of Mark, you can easilyfollow the message this
morning hour. Mark chapter 5, the title of the sermon is This I Know or The
Powerof PersonalTestimony.
The fifth chapter of Mark, the fifth chapter of Mark is the story of our Lord
when He came over into the other side of the sea. Always the "other side" is
the easternside, from the westto the east. "And when He came out of the
boat, there met Him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, who had
his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, not even with

chains" [Mark 5:2-3]. Then it describes whenthey bound him with fetters and
chains, he broke them as though they were pieces of string.
Neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the
mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But
when he saw Jesus afaroff, he ran and worshiped Him.
[Mark 5:4-6]
Then follows the story of the Lord and this demented and possessedman.
Jesus askedhim, what was his name? And he said, "My name is Legion: for
we are many" [Mark 5:9]. And those demons besoughtthe Lord that they not
be sent into the abyss before the day of their judgment, but that they might be
sent into a herd of swine eating close by. And in some way that was best, best
for this man, best for the testimony of the Christ, best for the goodof the
messageofGod, the Lord allowedsucha thing. And the swine, possessed, ran
down a steepplace violently, and were drowned in the sea [Mark 5:9-13].
When they who kept the hogs went into the city and told what had happened,
and the people in the town came out to Jesus. And the first thing they saw was
him that was possessedwith the demon and had the legionof demons, sitting,
and clothed, and in his right mind. And they that saw it told them how it befell
to him that was possessedwith those demons, and concerning the swine. And
when the people in the city saw the loss of their hogs, they besoughtthe Lord
to depart out of their country.
[Mark 5:14-17]
Now, when the Lord prepared to leave and when we dismiss the Savior, He
never abides, it is in our volitional choice.
When He was come into the ship, when Jesus gotinto the boat, he that had
been possessedwith the demons prayed Him that he might accompanyHim
– be one of His disciples like the Twelve –
Howbeit – and this is the text – howbeit Jesus sufferedHim not,
but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends, and tell them how greatthings the
Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassiononthee. And he departed,
and beganto publish in Decapolishow greatthings Jesus had done for him:
and all – you have in italics there – all men
– all women, all children, all young people, everybody –
did marvel.
[Mark 5:18-20]

Now before I close this sermon, we shall look at an astonishing thing that
came as a result of this man’s personaltestimony. And he beganto publish
abroad in Decapolis,that’s the name of the league of the ten greatcities on the
other side, on the easternside of the Jordan and of the Sea of Galilee,
everywhere, he beganto saywhat greatthings God had done for him, and
everybody who heard him, every town, and city, and village, and countryside,
and farm home, and individual, marveled at the marvelous story this man had
to tell about Jesus [Mark 5:20]. And that’s what we’re going to speak about
this morning.
In the seminary at Louisville in the days when I was there, there was a fellow
student who came to me and said that he had heard Dr. Truett, the great far-
famed pastor of this church, that he had heard Dr. Truett for the first time.
And that the greatpastor had made a lifelong, deep impression upon that
seminary student. And I askedhim, "What was it and how is it that the great
pastor so moved you?"
And the seminary student replied, he said, "I never heard anything like that. I
never felt anything like that." Well, I said, "Justgive me an example. What
did Dr. Truett say that seemedto you so moving and mighty?"
"Well," he replied that it was like this: "Dr. Truett mentioned in his message
of his preaching in India, and the greatpastordescribed a meeting of the
Brahman leaders of the Hindu religion. And they came to the convocation
with skepticism;they were opposedto the Christian faith, and they had so
many things againstthe preaching of the gospelof Christ in India. And Dr.
Truett describedhis standing before those men, and the message thathe
delivered, it was one of personalconviction and testimony and assurance;
what Christ meant to him, and what Christ had done for him. "And the great
pastor said," so this seminary student was telling me, "that when he finished
the descriptionof his message to those Brahman priests in India, that he sat
down, waiting, for discussionand criticism. And after a long pause, the pastor
said one of those Brahman leaders stoodup and turning to Dr. Truett avowed,
‘Sir, we have no fault to find with your Christ. We have nothing but love and
respectand reverence for your Lord.’" The seminary student in telling me
what the greatpastorsaid moved my soul. How wise he was in what he did.
Not a polemicaladdress, not a discussionof theologyor comparative religions,
but he had spokenon "What Christ means to me." And that’s the subject of
this message, This I Know, The Powerof PersonalTestimony.
Go home to thy friends, and tell them how greatthings God hath done for
thee, and hath had compassionon thee. And he,beganto publish in all
Decapolis whatgreatthings Jesus had done for him, and all men did marvel."

[Mark 5:18-20]
First: the method, "Go and tell how great things God hath done for thee."
And the Lord never changedthat method in His life, in the days of His flesh,
in His life in the days of His resurrection. Whether He spake then, or raised
from the dead, or from heaventoday, it is the same method. In Acts 1:8:
Ye shall receive power, after that the gift of the Holy Spirit is poured out upon
you; and ye shall be witnesses, andye shall be witnesses unto Me in
Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria, whereverGod shall send you.
Now the Lord uses a court term there, a judicial term. It is taken out of the
proceedings before a judge. "And ye shall be," the Greek is a martoi, martus,
martus, a martus. In the courts of the ancient Romanempire and in the Greek
civilized world, a martuswas a man who stood up and told what he had seen
and what he had heard and what he had experienced; a witness. And because
so many times the Christian witness, martyr, laid down his life for his
testimony, the word martusbecame "martyr." As in the twenty-second
chapter of the Book ofActs, Paul says, "And when the blood of thy martyr…"
The Greek wordis "witness," martus. "Whenthe blood of Thy martyr – Thy
witness – Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and they laid down their
clothes at my feet" [Acts 22:20].
In the secondchapterof the Book of Revelation, the Lord writes to the church
at Pergamos where Satan’s seatis and refers to "My martyr, Antipas"
[Revelation2:13]; "My witness," the Greek is. So oft times did a Christian lay
down his life in his testimony that the word "witness" became the word
"martyr," but they are the same word.
And this has been Jesus’method from the beginning, after His resurrection,
and now, and to the end of time. The tremendous propagation of the gospelof
the Sonof Godis by the personalwitness and testimony of God’s people. So
tremendous, so tremendous was the impression made upon the sainted apostle
John of this method of our Lord, that when he writes – you look at the
writings of John – that when he writes, he will say those things as Jesus
describedin these mandates He gave to those who believed in Him.
Now you look at John. In the first chapter of his first epistle, he starts off with,
"What our hands have handled, the Word of life, that which we have seenand
we have heard, declare we unto you" [1 John 1, 3]. Notsome hearsay, not
what somebody else thought or experienced, but "what I have seen, and what
I have heard, and what my hands have handled."
Then when we turn back to the Gospelof John and just read the story of the
Lord as it unfolds, John writes this in his old age:Peter has been dead for a

generation. Malchus is dead whom Simon Petersoughtto slay when Jesus was
arrested[John 18:10]. All of them had been dead so long that, when John
writes, he calls them by name. There is no possibility of anyone being arrested
or tried for assaultand attempted murder now. These things have happened a
generationpast when John writes.
And as John writes of the days of the flesh of the Son of God, what does he
remember? He will start off with the testimony of John the Baptist. And that
was the first time John saw the Lord Jesus and was introduced to the Lord
Jesus as the Son of God, and John says, "And it was ten o’clock in the
morning." He remembers the exactday, and the exacthour, and the exact
time, and the exactplace, at ten o’clock in the morning [John 1:39]. And he
and Andrew are introduced to the Lord Jesus by John, the greatBaptist.
Then he describes the personal witness and testimony of Andrew [John 1:40-
42]. A preacher came back home one day and said, "TodayI preachedon
Andrew." And a friend said, "Well, why?" And the preachersaid, "Because
there is something remarkable about him. Whereverhe is mentioned in the
Word of God, he is introducing somebodyto Jesus."And after John describes
the personalappealof Andrew, then he describes Jesus’personalappealto
Philip, then he describes Philip’s personalappealto Nathanael[John 1:43-46].
Then you turn the page and Jesus is talking to Nicodemus [John 3:1-21], who,
later on, in the descentfrom the cross came and helped bury the body of our
Lord [John 19:38-42]. Then you turn the page, and he describes atgreat
length the personalappeal of the Lord Jesus to the woman at the well at
Sychar [John 4:1-42]. Then you turn the page, and he will be describing the
testimony of the blind man, whom the Sanhedrin soughtto break but who
avowed, "This one that thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I can
see!" [John 9:25]
The impression made upon the saintedapostle was one of this man to this
man, and this testimony, and this avowal, and this conviction, and it became
his ownmethod: "This which my eyes have seenand my ears have hear, and
my hands have handled" [1 John 1:1-3].
Hearsayreligion is futile and vain religion. What do I know? And what have I
experienced? And what has God done for me? And what testimony have I to
lay at His blessedfeet and in His dearname? You will find that method picked
up by the other Gospelwriters. Luke, for example, will describe the Lord
Jesus going to the exacttown where a sinner lives, and on the exactstreet
where his house is, and to the exacttree up which he has climbed to see the
Lord, and calls him down and says, "Zaccheus, todayhave I come to spend

the day and to break bread with thee in thy house. Come down, Zaccheus, I
have come to see thee" [Luke 19:5].
And when the Lord died on the cross, He did not die alone. All the Gospels are
very careful to saythat He was crucified betweenmalefactors, andwhen the
Lord bowed His head and gave up the Spirit and entered into Paradise, He
did not enter by Himself. Arm in arm, He walkedthrough those pearly gates
and down those golden streets with a converted thief by His side [Luke 23:39-
46].
And when the story is continued in the Book of Acts, the acts of the Spirit of
Jesus, it is the same method. And the Holy Spirit said to Philip, "Arise and go
down into Gaza." Thatis a place that is desert, "Why there, Lord, leaving this
greatrevival in Samaria?" And standing by the side of the road, there came
by the treasurerof the nation of Ethiopia, and the Spirit said, "Go, join thy
step to this man and tell him about Jesus" [Acts 8:26-39].
May we look in these few brief moments, may we look now at the place that
our Lord said to this man to do his witnessing and his testifying. "Go home to
thy friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord hath done for thee" [Acts
5:19]. Go home; he wanted to go with Jesus and on the other side of the lake,
and to another people, and to another country. No, said the Lord. "Jesus
suffered him not, but saith unto him, ‘Go home to thy friends and tell them
how greatthings the Lord hath done for thee.’"
You know, there is a certain psychology, a certain turn of our minds that is
very unusual. Sometimes we have the feeling, "You know, if I could go way
over there, if I could go abroad, if I could go as a missionarysome far off
place, I believe I might be able to testify of the Lord. But here the message is
so trite; it’s on radio, it’s on television, it’s in every church, it’s just so
common among us. But if I were somewhere away, Ibelieve I could tell about
the Lord."
John Wesleythought that. A precise little Oxford don, growing up in a
church-related institution, Oxford, he thought within himself, "If I went to
America to the heathen Indian, I could tell them about Jesus." And he crossed
the Atlantic Oceanin a day of greatdifficulty, and landed in Georgia, and
sought to do work among the American Indian in Georgia, andin failure and
discouragementreturned back to England.
I was talking to a Muslim missionary, a Christian missionary to the Muslim
world, and discouraged, he said to me, "I do not know of one single woman
Muslim convert in the world." And he said, "I only know five or six men who

have ever been convertedto Jesus outof Islam, and there is a missionary
grave for eachone."
Oh, the difficulty, the difficulty, the hard difficulty of witnessing for Christ
across the seas in Hindu, and Buddhist, and Muslim, and animistic lands! You
think it is hard here? It is a thousand times harder to getpeople to Jesus
across the sea. No, there are some that God sends to Nineveh, there are some
that God sends to Philippi, and to Phrygia, and to Tarsus, but for the most,
for the most part, the assignmentof our Lord is as it was to this man in
Gadara:"You go home, and tell thy friends what God has done for you."
And I can expatiate here by the hour upon the need of that. I so well
remember in one of my early pastorates – you know people look at a young
minister and look at a young man, and sometimes just seeing, just weighing,
just scrutinizing – well, in this town, there was a reprobate, and he died drunk
in an automobile accident. And everybody was there, everybody, everybody
was there. "Thatyoung preacher is on the spot now. He certainly will be
embarrassednow. This vile and filthy reprobate who died drunk, just what
will he say now?" And they were all there, everybody.
You know what I said? I said, "This man died drunk, as all of you know. And
this man lived a vile life, as all of you know. But what I want to know is this:
how many of you sought out this man to pray for his soul? How many of you
went to see this man and invite him to the blessedJesus? How many of you
testified to this man of the grace and goodnessand mercy of Jesus? How many
of you calledhis name before the throne of grace in prayer? How many of you
loved him for Jesus’sake?"
Well, when that service was done, you would have thought that the time had
come for the mourner’s bench and for a personalscrutiny of our own souls
and our own lives. It is not for us to judge other people, never, never. As the
Lord said to James and John; "Lord, let us callfire down and burn up the
Samaritan village," and the Lord said, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye
are of. For the Son of Man came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save men’s
lives" [Luke 9:54-56].
It may be for the liquor industry to destroy men, and for the carping critic
and the pharisaicalto judge men and criticize men; let’s you and I give
ourselves to praying for people, and loving people, and encouraging people,
and inviting people to the blessedLord. That’s our business and our
assignment, and let the destruction of men’s lives and souls be the work of the
devil and his angels. But for us who love Jesus, we’re in the business of

helping people, and encouraging people, and saving people, and witnessing to
them of the grace and mercy of our precious and living Lord.
Now, we must hasten. I want to show you something. I have spokenof the
method of our Lord, which is a witness. I have spokenofthe assignedplace of
our Lord, which is where we are so greatlyneeded, that I haven’t time to
begin to touch the hem of the garment of the need of our witness and
testimony. Now may I speak of the results?
You don’t see this because it is not actually named, but when you turn to the
eighth chapter of the same Book of Mark, the Lord is back overthere in
Gadara. He is back over there on the easternside of the lake. Now, whenthe
Lord first was there, the people came to Him and beggedHim to leave. "Lord,
depart out of our coasts.Leave;Lord, leave" [Mark 5:17]. But when Jesus
comes back againto Gadara, there are such multitudes about Him, such
thousands and thousands about Him, that the people, that the people tarrying
do not even leave to find bread to eat, they are so enraptured, and so thrilled,
and so drawn, and so enticed, and so blessed. ThenJesus performs the
feeding, the miracle of the feeding of the four thousand [Mark 8:1-9]. Where
did that come from? Why, bless the name of the Lord, when that Gadarene
demoniac got through telling what Jesus had done for him, when Jesus came
back, they surrounded the Masterand welcomedHim by the thousands and
the thousands and the thousands. That never fails. That never fails.
Oh, I have such a flood of things that I want to say! I conclude with one little
emphasis, it never fails, it never fails: the effort, the dedicated Word, the
witness, the testifier, he never fails – this miraculous thing, it never fails.
Do you remember a summer or two ago, we held a revival meeting out in a
coliseum? Do you remember that? There was a young man in this church who
brought his friend, another young man, to that coliseumCrusade for Christ,
and after that preacherhad preachedhis message andwas making an appeal
for Jesus and we were singing that invitation hymn, that young man pled with
his friend to come to Jesus, talkedto him all the time the invitation was going
on. And the young man refused to respond: "No. No. No. No!" And after the
young fellow who belongs to our church had done his bestand his friend said,
"No, no," there was a girl, a little girl, seatedin front of him who turned
around to the young man in our church and said to him, "Would you go with
me to the pastor? Would you take me to the preacher?"
Now, the young fellow, amazed but not knowing what else to do, said, "Why,
yes. Why, yes." And that young fellow brought that girl to me and said to me,
"Pastor, I have no idea who she is. I never saw her before; I have no idea who

she is or where she came from, but she said to me, ‘I want to go talk to the
preacher,’and, ‘Would you take me? Would you go with me?’ So I told her I
would, and here she is."
And do you know what that little thing said to me? She said, "I was seatedin
front of him as he was talking to his friend." And she said, "The friend
wouldn’t take Jesus, and he refused, but as I heard him plead, I said, ‘I’ll take
the Lord.’ And I turned and askedhim if he would bring me to you and come
with me when I make this confessionoffaith in Jesus."
I think God’s Word is true, "My word will never return unto Me void,"
never! [Isaiah 55:11] The fruit of it may be after I am dead and in heaven, I
may never see the harvest and the reward, but no testimony, and no word,
and no appeal will ever fall to the ground; never, never.
Let me take time just to say one other: I buried a man this week. Notany of
the family belongs to the church, not one, and when I lookedon his face, I
recognizedhim. I had seenhim in a store downtown and had spokento him.
And because ofthat one kindness and that one testimony, he saidto his wife,
"When I die, I want you to have the pastor hold my funeral service," out of
that one kindness!I just happen to know that, but there are ten thousand
things that we sayfor Jesus that bring a harvest to God that we never know. It
has its infinite reward, "My word will not return unto Me void, it will
accomplishthat for which I purpose it."
So sweetand blessedpeople, with the love of Jesus in our hearts, let us sayand
let us tell what God means to us, and let the Lord waterit, and cultivate it,
and bless it that it bear fruit a thousandfold unto Him.
GreatTexts of the Bible
Desire and Duty
And as he was entering into the boat, he that had been possessedwith devils
besoughthim that he might be with him. And he suffered him not, but saith
unto him, Go to thy house unto thy friends, and tell them how great things the
Lord hath done for thee, and how he had mercy on thee. And he went his way,
and beganto publish in Decapolishow greatthings Jesus had done for him:
and all men did marvel.—Mark 5:18-20.

The story of the healing of this man, usually calledthe Gadarene demoniac, is
told in the previous verses ofthe chapter.
1. There is some uncertainty regarding the locality. The place is given in the
manuscripts in three different forms—country “of the Gadarenes,”“ofthe
Gergesenes,”and “ofthe Gerasenes.” Gadara wassix miles from the Sea of
Galilee, and therefore impossible. Gerasa was thirty miles away, and out of
the question. Still, the probability is that we should acceptthe reading
Gerasenes, andrefer it, not to the city of Gerasa, but to an obscure place of
the same name, close to the lake, which had been lost sight of. Gergesamay be
a corrupted form of this name.
2. Before passing to the subject, notice that three requests, singularly
contrastedwith eachother, are made to Christ in the course of this miracle of
healing the Gadarene demoniac—(1)the evil spirits ask to be permitted to go
into the swine; (2) the men of the country, caring more for their swine than
their Saviour, beg Him to take Himself away, and relieve them of His
unwelcome presence;(3) the demoniac beseechesHim to be allowedto stay
beside Him. Two of the requests are granted; one is refused. The one that was
refused is the one that we might have expectedto be granted.
For, ah! who can express
How full of bonds and simpleness
Is God;
How narrow is He,
And how the wide, waste field of possibility
Is only trod
Straight to His homesteadin the human heart;
Whose thoughts but live and move
Round Man; who woos his will

To wedlock with His own, and does distil
To that drop’s span
The attar of all rose-fields of all love!1 [Note: Coventry Patmore.]
I
The Variety of Christ’s Instructions
Three distinct instructions given by Christ to His followers are found in the
Gospels.
1. Sometimes He chargedthem to say nothing whateverabout what He had
done. In the end of this very chapter we find the injunction laid emphatically
upon those who knew that He had raisedJairus’ daughter from the dead: “He
chargedthem much that no man should know this.”
There are four specialcasesofthis injunction to silence, and they occur after
the healing of four of the greatestofhuman ills—dumbness (Mark 7:36),
blindness (Matthew 9:30), leprosy(Mark 1:44), and death (Mark 5:43); to
which must be added the command laid on the unclean spirits (Mark 3:12).
And in two cases(Mark 1:44; Matthew 9:30) a particularly strong word is
used to express a stern, urgent, even impassionedrequest or command.
2. He chargedthis man to go home and tell his friends. The explanation of the
difference betweenthe one command and the other is to be found in the
circumstances. In the previous cases silencewas necessaryfor Christ’s sake.
In this case speechwas necessaryfor the sake ofthe man himself. Moreover,
the dangerto the work of Christ in Decapolis was notas the danger would
have been in Galilee.
3. He commanded His disciples after the Resurrectionto go into all the world,
and preachthe gospelto every creature (Matthew 28:19). In the early part of
His ministry silence is enjoined that the work may not be hampered. But the
work is saving souls, and the considerationfor one soul makes anexception in
the case ofthe demoniac. At the end, when the work is accomplished, the
demand for silence is revoked. The order now is that the goodnews should be
made known in all the world, and it is laid as a charge on every one of His
disciples.

II
The Conflict betweenDuty and Desire
The greatlessonof the text is here. And it is that (1) desire is not always duty,
but that (2) duty must come before desire, and that then (3) desire and duty
will agree together. The demoniac, no longera demoniac, but clothed and in
his right mind, desired to be with Jesus;but Jesus bade him go home and tell
the story of his healing. He went, and found his greatpleasure in telling the
news, at which all men marvelled.
i. Desire
The request of the man commands sympathy. Had I been such as he, each
man seems to say, it is the very boon I should have craved. The brief period of
time betweenthe healing and the departure seemedfar too short to utter the
gratitude welling up in his heart. It may be that he was not free from the fear
that if the Great Healerdeparted, the old evil, which man had tried in vain to
master, would anew take possessionof him. He must live among the
Gadarenes, anobjectof their dull curiosity, and of their unslumbering
suspicion. He must live among those who would always remember him as the
man at whose healing their herds of swine were destroyed, and who would
bear him a grudge they could not forget. And most of all, his life would be
lonely, his unique experience would shut him out from the intimate sympathy
of any other. Presentwith Christ, listening to the voice that spoke his freedom
and still thrills his soul, he has no further need. And yet he shrank—who
would not?—from so speedya separationfrom Him whose coming had been
the cause ofhis salvation, whose presencewas the source of his stability,
whose departing, he perhaps feared, would prove the occasionof a new and
direr bondage to evil.1 [Note: J. T. L. Maggs.]
ii. Duty
“Howbeit, Jesus sufferedhim not.” There were arrears of duty owing to the
neglectedhome-life, from which he had been a strangerfor a long time (Luke
8:27). Besides, there were virtues which would find their most congenialsoilin
the very life from which he so naturally shrank. And, finally, there was some
risk that in daily dependence upon Christ the man would miss the discipline
which he needed.

There is a story of a poor but devout man who once came to a bishop of Paris,
and said with a sorrowing heart, “Father, I am a sinner; I feelthat it is so, but
it is againstmy will. Every hour I ask for light, and humbly pray for faith, but
still I am overwhelmed with doubts and temptations. Surely if I were not
despisedof God, He would not leave me to struggle thus.” The bishop
answeredhim with much kindness: “The king of France has two castles in
different situations and sends a commander to eachof them. The castle of
Mantleberry stands in a place remote from danger, far inland; but the castle
of La Rochelle is on the coast, where it is liable to continual sieges.Now, which
of the two commanders, think you, stands highestin the estimation of the
king?” “Doubtless,” saidthe poor man, “the king values him the most who has
the hardesttask and braves the greatestdanger.” “Thouart right,” replied
the bishop. “And now apply this matter to thy case and mine; for my heart is
like the castle of Mantleberry, and thine like that of La Rochelle.”
There is no better way of keeping out devils than working for Jesus Christ.
Many a man finds that the true cure—say, forinstance, of doubts that buzz
about him and disturb him, is to go away and talk to some one about his
Saviour. Work for Jesus amongstpeople that do not know Him is a wonderful
sieve for sifting out the fundamental articles of the Christian faith. And when
we go to other people, and tell them of that Lord, and see how the message is
sometimes received, and what it sometimes does, we come awaywith
confirmed faith.
But, in any case, it is better to work for Him than to sit alone thinking about
Him. The two things have to go together;and I know very well that there is a
greatdanger, in the present day, of exaggeration, and insisting too exclusively
upon the duty of Christian work whilst neglecting to insist upon the duty of
Christian meditation. But, on the other hand, it blows the cobwebs out of a
man’s brain; it puts vigour into him, it releaseshim from himself, and gives
him something better to think about, when he listens to the Master’s voice,
“Go home to thy friends, and tell them what greatthings the Lord hath done
for thee.”1 [Note:A. Maclaren.]
“Master!it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tabernacles. Stayhere;
let us enjoy ourselves up in the clouds, with Mosesand Elias;and never mind
about what goes on below.” But there was a demoniac boy down there that
needed to be healed; and the father was at his wits’ end, and the disciples were
at theirs because theycould not heal him. And so Jesus Christturned His

back upon the Mount of Transfiguration, and the company of the blessedtwo,
and the Voice that said, “This is my beloved Son,” and hurried down where
human woes calledHim, and found that He was as near God, and so did Peter
and James and John, as when up there amid the glory.2 [Note:Ibid.]
Not on some lone and lofty hill apart
Did Christ the Saviour render up His heart
For man upon the cross of love and woe;
But by the common road where to and fro
The passers wentupon their daily ways
And, pausing, pierced Him with indifferent gaze.
And still the crossesby life’s highway rise
Beneaththe blinding glare of noonday skies;
Still with the wrestling spirit’s anguished cry
Blends the light mockeryof the passer-by,
While scorners, gatheredat the martyr’s feet,
With railing tongues the olden taunts repeat.
We may not go apart to give our life
For men in some supernal, mystic strife,
Beside the common paths of earth doth love
Look from its cross to the still heavens above.
The refusalhad a threefold messageto the man—a message to his will, a
messageto his thought, and a messageto his heart.

1. A Messageto his Will.—Forby the refusal of his request the man is to be
educatedto a necessaryindependence. It was not gratitude alone that
prompted his wish to be near Christ. It was a haunting sense ofinsecurity.
Those who have had experience of some of the aspects ofnervous disorder
know the terrible characterofthe fears which haunt the minds of those who
are its victims. They lose self-reliance;they dread isolation. This man has been
cured of his disease, but he fears the return of it if left alone. But Christ in His
wisdom knows that it is best that he should be thrown on his own resources.
He must resume the prerogative of his manhood, as a self-directing, self-
controlling being. It is the method of all education, human and Divine. It is the
method of the mother with her child; it is God’s method with man when He
places him on the earth; it is the way Christ dealt with His Church.
2. A Messageto his Thought.—The man’s thoughts were concentratedon his
visible Healer. He must be taught to pass in thought beyond that which is seen
and realise those spiritual powers of which outward things conveybut a
passing expression. He must walk by faith and not by sight. He must pass
from the material to the spiritual. This step also has its analogyin all human
education. We begin our educationwith the concrete. We learnto count by
the use of coloured beads upon a wire; from these we pass to figures; from
figures we go forward to algebraicalsigns andsymbols. By the same method
man has been taught to know God. St. Paul appealedto the Athenians to give
over the worship of idols made with hands, and to worship Him in whom we
live and move and have our being. Even the visible Christ must go away. It is
expedient for us. “Touchme not,” He says to the eagerMagdalenestill; to
Thomas, “Blessedare they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
3. A Messageto his Heart.—Our Lord points out to the man that life is not for
self but for others. Instead of the joy of being near Himself He gives him a
duty—“Go home to thy friends.” Were the friends unworthy? Had they been
more kin than kind? It may be so. But this man had met with a wonderful
experience. He had gainedknowledge ofa love that did not look for return.
He can now think with sympathy of those to whom this wonderful revelation
is unknown. So every new power, and every fresh experience, carries with it
responsibility. Love is contagious;nay, it is more, it is infectious. Freely we
have received, freely we fain would give. Moreover, it is by self-forgetfuleffort
among others that the man is to win his own independence. And againit is the
method of all true education. The child is not merely told to try to walk. Some
objectto be reachedis put before him. The pupil is not simply bidden to think.
Some definite problem is submitted to his thoughts. Man’s powers of

independence and self-reliance are drawn out by the necessityof work. And
that the disciples might become assuredof power, Christ set them to discharge
their duty. Their task was to teachall nations.
It has been written, “An endless significance lies in work;” a man perfects
himself by working. Foul jungles are clearedaway, fair seedfields rise instead,
and statelycities; and withal the man himself first ceasesto be a jungle and
foul unwholesome desertthereby. Consider how, even in the meanestsorts of
Labour, the whole soul of a man is composedinto a kind of real harmony, the
instant he sets himself to work!Doubt, Desire, Sorrow, Remorse, Indignation,
Despairitself, all these, like hell-dogs, lie beleaguering the soul of the poor
dayworker, as of every man: but he bends himself with free valour againsthis
task, and all these are stilled, all these shrink murmuring far off into their
caves. The man is now a man. The blessedglow of Labour in him, is it not as
purifying fire, wherein all poison is burnt up, and of sour smoke itself there is
made bright blessedflame!1 [Note: Thomas Carlyle, Pastand Present, chap.
xi.]
iii. Duty and Desire One
“Go home to thy friends, and tell them”; and you will find that to do that is
the bestway to realise the desire which seemedto be put aside, the desire for
the presence ofChrist. For be sure that whereverHe may not be, He always is
where a man, in obedience to Him, is doing His commandments. So when He
said, “Go home to thy friends,” He was answering the requestthat He seemed
to reject, and when the Gadarene obeyed, he would find, to his astonishment
and his grateful wonder, that the Lord had not gone awayin the boat, but was
with him still. “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel. Lo! I am with
you alway.”
I said, “Let us walk in the field.”
He said, “Nay, walk in the town.”
I said, “There are no flowers there.”
He said, “No flowers but a crown.”
I said, “But the skies are black,

There is nothing but noise and din.”
And He wept as He sent me back,
“There is more,” He said, “there is sin.”
I said, “But the air is thick,
And fogs are veiling the sun.”
He answered, “Yet souls are sick,
And souls in the dark undone.”
I said, “I shall miss the light,
And friends will miss me, they say.”
He answered, “Chooseto-night,
If I am to miss you, or they.”
I pleaded for time to be given.
He said, “Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in heaven
To have followed the steps of your Guide.”
I castone look at the field,
Then set my face to the town.
He said, “My child, do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for the crown?”
Then into His hand went mine

And into my heart came He,
And I walkedin a light divine,
The path I had fearedto see.1 [Note:George Macdonald.]
III
The Home Missionary
1. The man’s first duty was to his own house. His tale was to be told first in his
own circle. “Go home to thy friends and tell them.” It is a greatmistake to
take recentconverts, especiallyif they have been very profligate beforehand,
and to hawk them about the country as trophies of God’s converting power.
Let them stop at home, and bethink themselves, and getsoberand confirmed,
and let their changedlives prove the reality of Christ’s healing power. They
can speak to some purpose after that.
Many years ago, a friend of mine was taking an evangelistic tour through the
Highlands of Scotlandin company with a young friend, recently converted.
When they came to the young convert’s native village, my friend said,
“Samuel, you must speak to-night.” “I can’t,” was the reply, “I never said half
a dozen words in public in my life.” “But you must; God tells me you are to
speak to-night.” Accordingly, at the right moment, Samuel rose in the meeting
and, in trembling awkwardfashion, said, “Everyone here knows me. Parents
used to point their children to me, and tell them to be like me. They calledme
a model boy: but if I had died three months ago, I should have gone straight to
hell.” My friend told me afterwards he could never forgethow the powerof
God came down upon that meeting. But this was only Samuel’s first word for
Christ. He has spokenmany since. For a long period he has been a member of
Parliament, and when a word needs to be saidon behalf of the cause of God
and truth in the House of Commons, Samuel is the man to say it. And,
somehow, he makes people listen. But to-day he would trace the beginning of
all that is useful in his public careerto those few trembling words, falteringly
spoken, in his native village.1 [Note:W. C. Sage.]
The fear was on the cattle, for the gale was on the sea,
An’ the pens broke up on the lowerdeck an’ let the creatures free—

An’ the lights went out on the lowerdeck, an’ no one near but me.
It is the story of a strong, regardless, ungodly man helpless among the cattle
aboard ship in a fearful storm. He sees that he will certainly be horned or trod
upon. And more pens broke at every roll—so he made his Contractwith God.
An’ by the terms of the Contract, as I have read the same,
If He gotme to port alive I would exalt His Name
An’ praise His Holy Majestytill further orders came.
So Mulholland was saved from the cattle and the sea, althoughsorely
damagedby a stanchion, so that he lay sevenweeks in hospital. Then when he
was convalescing he spoke to God of the Contract, and this was the reply—
“I never puts on My ministers no more than they can bear.
So back you go to the cattle-boats an’ preach My Gospelthere.”
“Theymust quit drinkin’ and swearin,’they mustn‘t knife on a blow,
They must quit gamblin’ their wages, andyou must preach it so;
For now those boats are more like Hell than anything else I know.”
I didn’t want to do it, for I knew what I should get,
An’ I wantedto preachReligion, handsome an’ out of the wet,
But the Word of the Lord were lain upon me an’ I done what I was set.
So the brave lad went on with his duty, turning his cheek to the smiter.
But following that, I knockedhim down an’ led him up to Grace …
The skippers say I’m crazy, but I canprove ’em wrong,
For I am in charge of the lowerdeck with all that doth belong—

Which they would not give to a lunatic, and the competition so strong.1 [Note:
Kipling, SevenSeas:“Mulholland’s Contract.”]
2. This recovereddemoniac was one of the first home missionaries. And in
regarding him as a home missionary, let us considerfirst his mission, next his
message, andthen his motive.
(1) The Mission.—Itwas a modest commissionthat he received. He was not
required like Moses to guide the nation; he was not calledwith David to
declare God’s faithfulness in the greatcongregation;he was not selectedwith
Paul to confess Christbefore kings. The Mastersetbefore him the open door
of his own house. But we must not regardthis domestic commissionas less
honourable than the wider vocationof evangelists and missionaries. Niagara
makes a greatnoise;it is clothed with rainbows; it is celebratedby painter
and poet: yet the fruitfulness of a country does not depend upon a cataract;
the landscapes are keptgreenby ten thousand hidden streams which go softly.
(2) The Message.—“Tellthem how greatthings the Lord hath done for thee.”
Little goodis done by way of disputation and controversy;but to declare what
God has done for our soul is a fruitful ministry anywhere. In the narrative of
the demoniac as given by St. Luke, we read “Shew how greatthings God hath
done for thee.” Characteris to sustain testimony; those about us are to take
knowledge that grace has cured our faults and infirmities, and enabled us to
walk purely and graciously.
(3) The Motive.—The first motive is love to the Saviour. The next motive is
love to the home and friends. A few years ago, in the British House of Peers, a
certain speechwas deliveredon a question concerning the extreme limits of
our Indian Empire. That speechjust thrilled England from end to end. It was
delivered by a plain man of action, who had done his duty in days gone by,
and came to the gilded chamber to speak out his convictions. Some sayhe
broke down, and lost the thread of his argument. Certainly, an average local
preachermight display better command of language, and a board schoolpupil
teachermight have correctedhis faults of style. But just because he could say,
“I love India,” the wisestand greatestofour land crowdedto hear him.
Perhaps some of us will consider that the speechwas on the wrong side; that
the India which the noble speakerlovedwas not that which most demands our
affection;it was India’s governing classesrather than her starving millions.
But we may learn from the effectproduced, the kind of testimony that Jesus
wants to-day. There are people in this world who respectyou for what you are

and what you have done. If you tell them in a few blundering sentences, “I
love Christ; He loved me, and gave Himself for me,” no one can tell the effect
of your poor stammering words. The greatrevival we pray for is waiting for
just such testimony as this.
The Rev. J. B. Ely relates that an oculist just from collegecommenced
business in the city of London, without friends, without money, and without
patrons. He became discouraged, until one day, going down one of the streets,
he saw a blind man. Looking into his eyes, he said, “Why don’t you have your
eyesightrestored?” The usual story was told of having tried many physicians
and spent all his money without avail. “Come to my office in the morning,”
said the oculist. The blind man went. When an operation was performed and
proved successful, the patient said: “I haven’t got a penny in the world. I can’t
pay you.” “Oh yes,” said the oculist, “you canpay me, and I shall expectyou
to do so. There is just one thing I want you to do, and it is very easy. Tellit;
tell everybody you see that you were blind, and tell them who it was that
healed you.”
Desire and Duty
Tell How Much the Lord Has Done for You!
• Resource by
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• Scripture: Mark 5:19 Topic:World Missions
And he did not permit him but saidto him, "Go home to your friends
and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had
mercy on you.
The most important event that has ever happened since the creationof the
world is the coming of Jesus Christ, God's Son, into the world. Therefore the
most important thing anybody could ever learn, or any church could keep
clearin its vision, is why Christ came. If Christ is the Creator, Ruler, and
Sustainerof the universe as the Scripture says (1 Corinthians 8:6; John 1:3;
Colossians 1:16–17;1 Corinthians 15:25;Hebrews 1:3), and if the purpose for
which he came is not yet completed, and if the church is his bodily instrument
for finishing that purpose, then no knowledge is more important than the
knowledge ofwhy Christ came to this earth.
Why Christ Came to Earth
l "
Therefore on this point God willed that the Bible speak with unmistakable
clarity. Luke 19:10, "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." 1
Timothy 1:15, "The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, thatChrist
Jesus came into the world to save sinners." John 3:16, "ForGod so loved the
world that he gave his only begottenSon, that whoeverbelieves in him should
not perish but have eternallife." Mark 10:45, "The Son of Man came not to
be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many." Romans 15:8–
9, "Christ became a servant to the circumcisedto show God's truthfulness, in
order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the

Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy." Then, to show that this has been
God's purpose from generations past, Paul quotes from 2 Samuel,
Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah. God's purpose is to be glorified among all
the nations for his mercy. First, Paul quotes 2 Samuel 22:50, "I will praise you
among the nationsand sing to your name." Then, he quotes Deuteronomy
32:43, "Rejoice, O nations, with his people." Then, Psalm 117:1, "Praise the
Lord, all nations, letall the peoples praise him." Finally, he quotes Isaiah
11:10, "The root of Jesse shallcome, and he who rises to rule the nations;in
him shall the nationshope."
The point of these Old Testamentquotations in Romans 15:9–12 is to show
that God's purpose in dealing with Israel was always to reachthe other
nations and to be glorified in them for his mercy. Therefore, whenGod sent
Christ into the world, the purpose was not only to confirm his promises to
Israelbut also through that to cause the nations to glorify God for his mercy.
So why did the most important event in world history happen? It happened in
order that the nations—the Aborigines of Australia, the Gola of Liberia, the
Yambasa of Cameroon, the Gypsies in Yugoslavia, the Hispanic and Lao and
Hmong and Ojibwa and whites of Minnesota—thatsome day "the earth will
be filled with the knowledge ofthe glory of the Lord as the waters coverthe
sea" (Habakkuk 2:14). The purpose of Christ's coming is that all the peoples
of earth might glorify God for his mercy. And what is this mercy? Simply this:
"The Son of Man came to seek andto save the lost; Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners." Putting it all togetherthen: God sent his Son intothe
world to save sinners from every nation so that they wouldglorifyhim for his
mercy.
The Purpose of Christ's Coming Is Not Yet Complete
l "
That truth is as clearand sure as anything in the Bible. But there is another
truth just as clearand sure: this purpose of God in sending his Son has not
been completed. There are hundreds of peoples on the earth to whom
salvationhas not been preachedand thousands more where his witness is faint
and no band of believers spreadhis salvationand glorify him for his mercy.
Since 1979 the Missions Advanced Researchand Communications Center of
World Vision has published a whole book of Unreached Peoples everyyear.
The purpose of Christ's incarnation is not complete. That is clear.

Christ's MissionIs PassedOnto the Church
l "
And a third truth is clear. The mission of Christ to seek andsave the lost has
been passedon to you and me, the church. Jesus saidto his disciples in John
20:21, "As the Father has sentme, so send I you." Few things could be
clearer—the purpose of the body of Christ is to extend the mission of Christ in
the world. Someone may ask, "How do we know that the words, 'Go and
make disciples of all nations,' were not intended just for the apostles but also
for us?" The answeris that the supporting promise was, "Lo, I am with you
always, to the close ofthe age" (Matthew 28:20). This age is still going on. The
apostles are dead and gone. But the promise remains: "I will be with you to
the close ofthe age." So the "you" in that promise and the command it
supports cannot be limited to the apostles. Thatpromise belongs to the church
until the close ofthis age, and the reasonit does is to empower us to complete
the Lord's charge. "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations."
But someone else might object: "No, the mission of Christ to seek and save the
lost was not passedon to the church but only to the clergy, the vocational
ministers and missionaries. It doesn't apply to everybody." There are two
answers to this objection:
1. It is unthinkable that the cause for which Christ came, lived, suffered,
and died should not be the cause ofeveryone who loves Christ.
2. 1 Peter2:9 says to the whole church, laity and clergy: "You are a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, that you may
declare the wonderful deedsof him who called you out of darkness into
his marvelous light." And two verses laterPetercommands us all (v.
12), "Maintain goodconduct among the Gentiles, so that . . . they may
see your gooddeeds and glorify God on the day of visitation."
So the objectionwill not stand. "As the Father has sent me, so send I you"
means that the unfinished mission of Jesus Christto seek andsave the lost so
that redeemedpeople from every nation glorify him for his mercy—that
unfinished mission is our mission, not just the apostles', notjust the clergy's,
but yours and mine as those who have already been savedthrough faith.
We Must Have Strategies to Pursue the Lost
l "
These three truths lead to an inevitable conclusionabout the priorities of
Bethlehem BaptistChurch.

1. Truth one: God sent his Son into the world to save sinners from every
nation so that they would glorify him for his mercy (Romans 15:9; 1
Timothy 1:15).
2. Truth two: this purpose of God has not yet been completed.
3. Truth three: Christ has passedon to the church his mission to seek and
save the lost. As long as this age lasts, our charge from Jesus is to tell of
his salvationwith our lips and show his love with our lives so that people
from every tongue and tribe and nation (Revelation5:9) will be saved
by faith and give him glory for his mercy.
The conclusionthat follows from these three truths is that strategiesand
actions to seek and save the lost (especiallywhere they have leastopportunity
to hear the gospel)must have high priority in the life of our church.
Three Biblical Priories in Ministry
l "
Now let me put this priority in a wider contextand then spell out some
practicalimplications that I get excitedabout. For three weeks now we have
been unfolding and supporting three biblical priorities of ministry to guide
and measure our success as a church.
1. The first priority was going hard after the holy God.
2. The secondpriority was helping eachother endure to the end, or
meeting togetherto stir eachother up to love and goodworks.
3. The third priority, today, is moving out beyond our Christian fellowship
to seek and save the lost that the peoples might glorify God for his
mercy.
You can testyour growth and maturity as a part of Christ's body by how you
are doing in eachof these three relationships. Are you going hard after God in
prayer and meditation and worship? Are you meeting with other believers in
a group small enoughto give and receive personalbiblical exhortation and
encouragementfor faith and love? Are you planning and pursuing your own
personalstrategyfor how to seek andsave the lost for the glory of God?
I regard it as extremely important to see how these three priorities relate to
eachother: worship toward God, exhortation towardeachother, and witness
toward the world. In one sense, growthin eachof these priorities intensifies
growth in the other two.

1. The deeperyour adoration of God in worship, the more precious to you
will be the assemblyof his people and the more compelling will be his
purpose to seek and save the lost.
2. Giving and receiving biblical exhortation in a loving support group will
cause your heart to long more to go hard after the holy God and will
give you courage andexcitement to plan your life for the cause of
witness and missions.
3. The more you strategize and fight to liberate Satan's captives in the
world, the more you will be driven back to your fellow believers for
prayer and encouragementand the more you will delight in God when
you see him show his powerthrough you.
So in a sense, eachpriority in our philosophy of ministry intensifies the others.
Genuine growth in one area leads to growth in the other two. And no one
should eversay he is calledonly to one or two of the priorities. All are
essentialto Christian obedience.
The Starting and Ending Point of All Ministry
l "
But the most important thing about how the three priorities relate has not yet
been said. The most important thing to say is that priority 1, adoring the glory
of God from a heart of faith and going hard after more and more of God, is
the starting point and ending point of all ministry. It is love for God that
enables us to come togetherin small groups as fellow-believers. Butthose
groups are a failure if they don't cause us to love God more. Priority 1 is the
starting and ending point of all Christian nurture (priority 2).
The same is true for Christian witness and mission to the world. We would
never undertake it if we had not first met and trusted and loved God. Our joy
in his mercy is the starting point of witness and missions. But what is the goal
of mission strategyand personalwitness? To seek andto save the lost (Luke
19:10). Yes! But the driving motivation for witness and missions is not fully
known until we say with Paul that the goalis for the nations to glorify God for
his mercy (Romans 15:9). Love for the glory of Godis the starting point and
ending point of personalwitness and mission strategy.
But I don't want us to make the mistake here of separating the desire for
people's salvationand the desire that God be glorified. Think for a moment:
What happens when a personwho is lost becomes saved? Objectively, they
pass from death to eternallife, from condemnation to justification, from
alienation to reconciliationwith God. Subjectively, they ceaseto rely on

themselves or goodworks or idols and rely on God's mercy. They cease to
glory in themselves and begin to glory in the cross of Christ and the grace of
God. When salvationcomes to the lost a new heart is given which glorifies
God by trusting in him and enjoying him and obeying him.
Do you see what this means? Seeking the glory of God and seeking the
salvationof the lost are not two distinct goals. The salvationof the lost is the
new creationof persons who glorify God for his mercy. If you love people, you
will want for them more than anything else the maximum eternaljoy of
knowing God as Savior in Jesus Christ. And if you love God, you will want
nothing more than that his glory be known and enjoyed and magnified by the
salvationof as many people as possible. It is the genius and beauty and
wonder of God's redemption that the pursuit of the lost and the pursuit of
God's glory are one pursuit.
Five PracticalSuggestions forPursuing the Lost
l "
Let me draw things to a close now with some practicalsuggestionsfor how to
move out in priority 3, our commitment to seek andsave the lost, especially
those who have leastopportunity to hear the gospel.
1. Pursue the Fire
Every Christian has tasted the fire of adventure, the thrill of a new idea, a new
way to invest your life with joy and meaning. Pursue that fire, because Satan
has his hell-hoses directed againstit all the time. It may mean getting up in the
middle of the night and listening to a John MichaelTalbotalbum like Tom
did, or reading The Crest of the Wave (Peter Wagner)or In the Gap (David
Bryant) or a greatbiography, or going to Urbana '84 or the A.C.M.C. annual
conference. Findwhat fans the coals ofyour heart for missions and pursue it.
God touched us last November during the missions conference. I'll never be
the same. And I am reading and praying and fasting to keepthe fire hot. I
strongly recommend that you build regular times of fasting prayer into your
lives to help you preserve a sense ofurgency about the battle we are in. For
myself, I don't know any other wayto maintain a wartime mentality with my
shield poised and my sword flashing for the liberation of Satan's captives.
2. Plan Your PersonalStrategy
We are all different. And none of that is accidental. All your inferiorities and
superiorities fit you to make a contribution to priority 3 that no one else can
make. But it won't happen if you don't plan. Get yourself a dream team to
brainstorm with you about what strategies are just for you. Think about every

part of your life and ask, How should my commitment to priority 3 affect
what I wearand eat, what I do for recreation, whatI read, what I watchon
TV, where I buy a house, what job I take, what groups I belong to, how I pray
with my children, which wayI walk to the store? It is far too vague to simply
say, "I live for the glory of God." All of us need a more specific integrating
vision for our lives. Streamlining and strategizing how to be uniquely you in
personalwitness and frontier missionwill provide very specific direction for
your life, and bring more glory to God than any other integrating vision.
I'm sure some of you feellike saying, "You talk like we're all spiritual
thoroughbreds raring to break out of the box and run for Jesus with all our
might. If you knew the mess my life and my family were in, you wouldn't call
us to the front-lines for battle. You'd take us to the infirmary." You may be
right. I might. The healing, nurturing role of priority 2 is very important.
But I want you to considera possibility. Could it be that part of the reason
you and your family are in such a mess is because your life is lacking a noble
adventure? You don't have a cause big enough to live for. You go through
your daily routine and it all seems so unimportant in terms of what really
counts. And so you feel frustrated, often guilty, then fearful, then irritable—
and life is an ever-downwardspiral of boredom, meaninglessness, andpetty
problems. Could it be that the infirmary you need is the front-lines, or at least
a plan and a strategyso that you cansee more and more of your life as
essentialsupport and back-up for the front-lines? I really believe that more
family and personalproblems than we imagine would be healed indirectly if
individuals and families turned outward and threw themselves into the
greatestcausein the history of the world.
Pursue the fire. Plan your personalstrategy. And, third,
3. Participate in Some Group Devotedto Outreachor Missions
Steve leads teams of our members every Monday night in visitation. He
provides training and help. There's fellowshipand support. You are welcome
tomorrow night at 6:45. CallSteve if you have questions. Then there is the
Frontier Missions Prayerand Study Group which meets monthly, open to
everyone with a heart and hunger for Missions. ContactMike Rowe.
Toshavim has its ownmissions ministry team. And I am praying that the
upshot of last week'sand this week's message willbe the formation of some
small groups with the double focus of support and outreach.
Pursue the fire. Plan your personalstrategy. Participate in an outreachor
missions group.
4. Perform Some Specific Act to Put Yourself in Touchwith Unbelievers

Invite neighbors for dessert. Go for walks in the neighborhood. Watch for
needs you can meet. Start an investigative Bible study. Readsome simple
books on basic Christianity and buy some extras to give out. Playracquetball
at the Y. Eatlunch with a different colleague. Do some volunteer work in the
community. There are hundreds of ways for your paths to cross the paths of
unbelievers. If you find the ones that fit you and pray that God will use you, it
will amaze you how Christ still loves to seek and save the lostthrough you.
5. Join in the Dream of Leadership Development
The fifth and final suggestionis that you join me in a dream I have for
Bethlehem—a dream that's alreadycoming true.
I am convincedthat Bethlehem should and will have a uniquely strategic role
to play in leadership-building for the cause ofmissions in the Baptist General
Conference and beyond. I think the reasonJesus crossedthe sea to the
country of the Gerasenes (in Mark 5:1–20)is because he had a strategy. Just
across the sea from Galilee lay the Decapolis, a clusterof Gentile cities with no
witness to his saving power(Mark 5:20). Jesus and his disciples devoted
themselves to "the lost sheepof the house of Israel" (Matthew 10:6; 15:24).
But he had a heart for the unreached Gentiles of the Decapolis. So he crossed
the lake, and healeda demon-ridden man. When the man wanted to
accompanyJesus back to Galilee, Jesus saidin effect, "No, I have at least82
missionaries covering the land of the Jews. Youare uniquely fitted to reach
your own people. They have no witness. I send you as my first missionary to
the Gentiles. Go, tell them how much the Lord has done for you." That's what
I call strategy.
Given the way I have felt about the gross imbalance of how many Christian
leaders there are in America as compared to other lands, there is no wayI
could stay here if I did not believe we could do at Bethlehem what Jesus did
for the Decapolis. In a mighty act of powerand commission, he prepared and
sent a witnessing leaderto an unreachedpeople. More and more of my
planning will take this direction for Bethlehem—the building of a leadership
training ground (a seedbed, a launching pad) for the sending out of men and
women who go hard after the holy Godwith all their might, who exhort one
another every day to keepthe faith, and who count their earthly lives of no
value except to seek and save the lost (Acts 20:24).
That's my dream for how we can best benefit a lostworld and best honor the
Lord we love. And I know it will come true if you pray with me the prayer he
commanded: "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his
harvest."

OUR DAILY BREAD
Tell Your Story
Bible in a Year:
• Psalms 116-118
• 1 Corinthians 7:1-19
Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He
has had compassion on you. —
Mark 5:19
comment
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Today's Scripture:
Mark 5:1-20
An organizational consultant in New York says that his graduate students typically recall only 5
percent of the main ideas in a presentation of graphs and charts, while they generally remember
half of the stories told in the same presentation. There is a growing consensus among
communication experts about the power of the personal touch in relating an experience. While
facts and figures often put listeners to sleep, an illustration from real life can motivate them to
action. Author Annette Simmons says, “The missing ingredient in most failed communication is
humanity.”
Mark 5:1-20 gives the dramatic account of Jesus setting a violent, self-destructive man free from
the powerful demons that possessed him. When the restored man begged to stay with Jesus as He
traveled, the Lord told him, “?‘Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord
has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.’ And he departed and began to
proclaim in Decapolis all that Jesus had done for him; and all marveled” (vv.19-20).
Knowledge and eloquence are often overrated in the process of communicating the good news of
Jesus Christ. Never underestimate the power of what God has done for you, and don’t be afraid
to tell your story to others.
By: David C. McCasland

GOING HOME—A CHRISTMAS SERMON NO. 109
A SERMON DELIVERED ON SABBATHMORNING, DECEMBER21,
1856, BYTHE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,AT THE MUSIC HALL, ROYAL
SURREYGARDENS.
“Go home to your friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord has done
for you, and has had compassionon you.” Mark 5:19.
THE case ofthe man here referred to is a very extraordinary one—itoccupies
a place among the memorabilia of Christ’s life, perhaps as high as anything
which is recordedby either of the evangelists!This poor wretch, being
possessedwith a legion of evil spirits, had been driven to something worse
than madness. He fixed his home among the tombs where he dwelt by night
and day and was the terror of all those who passedby. The authorities had
attempted to curb him. He had been bound with fetters and chains, but in the
violent outbursts of his madness, he had torn the chains in sunder and broken
the fetters in pieces. Attempts had been made to reclaim him, but no man
could tame him. He was worse than the wild beasts—forthey might be tamed.
But his fierce nature would not yield. He was a misery to himself for he would
run upon the mountains by night and day—crying and howling fearfully—
cutting himself with the sharp flints and torturing his poor body in the most
frightful manner. Jesus Christpassedby; He said to the devils, “Come out of
him.” The man was healedin a moment—he fell down at Jesus’feet. He
became a rational being—anintelligent man. Yes, what is more—a convert to
the Savior!Out of gratitude to his deliverer, he said, “Lord, I will follow You
whereverYou go. I will be Your constant companionand Your servant,
permit me to be so.” “No,”saidChrist, “I esteemyour motive, it is one of
gratitude to Me, but if you would show your gratitude, go home to your
friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord has done for you, and has
had compassiononyou.” Now this teaches us a very important fact, namely
this—that true religion does not break in sunder the bonds of family
relationship. True religion seldomencroaches uponthat sacred, I had almost
said, divine institution calledhome. It does not separate men from their

families and make them aliens to their flesh and blood. Superstition has done
that. An awful superstition, which calls itself, Christianity, has separatedmen
from their kind. But true religion has never done so! Why, if I might be
allowedto do such a thing, I would seek outthe hermit in his lonely cavern
and I would go to him and say, “friend, if you are what you profess to be—a
true servant of the living God and not a hypocrite, as I guess you are—if you
are a true believer in Christ and would show forth what He has done for you,
upset that pitcher, eat the lastpiece of your bread. Leave this dreary cave,
washyour face, untie your hemp belt— and if you would show your gratitude,
go home to your friends, and tell them what greatthings the Lord has done
for you! Can you edify the dried leaves of the forest? Can the beasts learn to
adore that God whom your gratitude should strive to honor? Do you hope to
convert these rocks and wake the echoes into songs? No, go back—dwellwith
your friends, reclaim your kinship with men and unite, again, with your
fellows—forthis is Christ’s approved way of showing gratitude.” And I would
go to every monasteryand every nunnery and say to the monks, “Come out
brethren, come out! If you are what you say you are, servants of God, go
home to your friends! No more of this absurd discipline. It is not Christ’s rule!
You are acting differently from what He would have you do—go home to your
friends!” And to the sisters of mercy we would say, “Be sisters of mercy to
your own sisters—gohome to your friends— take care of your agedparents!
Turn your own houses into convents—do not sit here nursing your pride by a
disobedience to Christ’s rule, which says, “Go home to your friends.” “Go
home to your friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord has done for
you, and has had compassiononyou.” The love of a solitaryand ascetic life—
which is by some consideredto be a divine virtue—is neither more nor less
Going Home—A Christmas Sermon Sermon #109
Tellsomeone today how much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 3
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than a disease ofthe mind! In the ages whenthere was but little benevolence
and, consequently, few hands to build lunatic asylums, superstition supplied
the lack of charity and silly men and womenwere allowedthe indulgence of
their fancies in secludedhaunts or in easylaziness!Young has most truly
said— “The first sure symptoms of a mind in health Are rest of heart and
pleasure found at home.” Avoid, my friends, above all things, those romantic
and absurd conceptions ofvirtue which are the offspring of superstition and
the enemies of righteousness!Be not without natural affection, but love those

who are knit to you by ties of nature. True religion cannotbe inconsistentwith
nature! It can never demand that I should abstain from weeping when my
friend is dead. “Jesus wept.” It cannot deny me the privilege of a smile when
providence looks favorablyupon me. For once Jesus rejoicedin spirit and
said, “Father, I thank You.” It does not make a man say to his father and
mother, “I am no longeryour son.” That is not Christianity, but something
worse than what beasts would do—which would leadus to be entirely
sundered from our fellows—to walk among them as if we had no kinship with
them. To all who think a solitary life must be a life of piety, I would say, “It is
the greatestdelusion!” To all who think that those must be goodpeople who
break the ties of relationship, let us say, “Those are the best who maintain
them.” Christianity makes a husband a better husband! It makes a wife a
better wife than she was before!It does not free me from my duties as a son. It
makes me a better son, and my parents, better parents. Instead of weakening
my love, it gives me fresh reasonfor my affection. And he whom I loved
before as my father, I now love as my brother and co-workerin Christ Jesus;
and she whom I reverencedas my mother, I now love as my sisterin the
covenantof grace to be mine forever in the state that is to come. Oh, suppose
not any of you, that Christianity was ever meant to interfere with households!
It is intended to cementthem and to make them households which death,
itself, shall never sever—forit binds them up in the bundle of life with the
Lord, their God, and re-unites the severalindividuals on the other side of the
flood. Now, I will tell you the reasonwhy I selectedmy text. I thought within
myself there are a large number of young men who always come to hear me
preach. They always crowd the aisles of my Chapel and many of them, by His
grace, have been convertedto God. Now, here is Christmas Daycome round,
again, and they are going home to see their friends. When they get home they
will want a Christmas Carol in the evening. I think I will suggestone to
them—more especiallyto such of them as have been lately converted—Iwill
give them a theme for their discourse on Christmas evening. It may not be
quite so amusing as, “The Wreck ofthe Golden Mary,” but it will be quite as
interesting to Christian people. It shall be this—”Go home and tell your
friends what the Lord has done for your souls and how He has had
compassiononyou.” For my part, I wish there were 20 Christmas days in the
year! It is seldom that young men can meet with their friends. It is rarely they
can all be united as happy families. And though I have no respectto the
religious observance ofthe day, yet I love it as a family institution! It is one of
England’s brightest days—the great Sabbath of the year—whenthe plow
rests in its furrow. When the din of business is hushed—when the mechanic
and the working man go out to refreshthemselves upon the greenturf of the

glad earth! If any of you are employers, you will pardon me for the digression
when I most respectfully beg you to pay your employees the same wages on
Christmas Day as if they were at work. I am sure it will make their houses
glad if you will do so. It is unfair for you to make them feastor fast, unless you
give them wherewithalto feastand make themselves glad on that day of joy!
But now to come to the subject. We are going home to see our friends, and
here is the story some of us have to tell. “Go home to your friends, and tell
them how greatthings the Lord has done for you, and has had compassionon
you.” First, here is what they are to tell; then, secondly, why they are to tell it;
and then thirdly, how they ought to tell it. I. First, then, HERE IS WHAT
THEY ARE TO TELL. It is to be a story of personalexperience. “Go home to
your friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord has done for you, and
has had compassionon you.” You are not to repair to your houses and
forthwith begin to preach. That you are not commanded to do! You are not to
begin to take up doctrinal subjects and speak atlength on them and endeavor
to bring persons to your peculiar views and sentiments. You are not to go
home with sundry
Sermon #109 Going Home—A Christmas Sermon
Volume 3 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ.
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doctrines you have lately learned and try to teachthese. At leastyou are not
commanded to do so. You may, if you please and none shall hinder you. But
you are to go home and tell not what you have believed but what you have
felt—what you really know to be your own! Notwhat great things you have
read, but what great things the Lord has done for you. Not, alone, what you
have seendone in the greatcongregationand how greatsinners have turned
to God, but what the Lord has done for you. And mark this—there is never a
more interesting story than that which a man tells about himself! The Rhyme
of the Ancient Mariner derives much of its interest because the man who told
it was himself, the mariner. He satdown, that man whose finger was skinny,
like the finger of death and beganto tell that dismal story of the ship at sea in
the greatcalm when slimy things did crawl with legs over the shiny sea. The
wedding guests satstill to listen, for the old man was, himself, a story. There is
always a greatdeal of interest excitedby a personalnarrative. Virgil, the poet,
knew this and, therefore, he wiselymakes Aeneas tell his own story and makes
him begin it by saying, “In which I also had a greatpart, myself.” So, if you
would interest your friends, tell them what you felt yourself. Tell them how

you were once a lost, abandoned sinner, how the Lord met with you, how you
bowed your knees and poured out your soul before God and how, at last, you
leaped with joy, for you thought you heard Him say within you, “I, even I, am
He that blots out your transgressions forMy name’s sake.”Tellyour friends a
story of your own personalexperience!Note, next, it must be a story of free
grace. It is not, “Tell your friends how greatthings you have done yourself,”
but, “how greatthings the Lord has done for you.” The man who always
dwells upon free will and the power of the creature, but denies the doctrines of
grace, invariably mixes up a greatdeal of what he has done, himself, in telling
his experience. But the believer in free grace, who holds the greatcardinal
truths of the gospel, ignores this and declares, “Iwill tell what the Lord has
done for me. It is true I must tell how I was first made to pray. But I will tell it
thus— “Grace taughtmy soul to pray Grace made my eyes overflow.” It is
true, I must tell in how many troubles and trials Godhas been with me. But I
will tell it thus— “It was grace which kept me to this day, And will not let me
go.” He says nothing about his own doings, or willings, or prayers, or
seeking—butascribes it all to the love and grace of the greatGod who looks
on sinners in love and makes them His children—heirs of everlasting life! Go
home, young man, and tell the poor sinner’s story! Go home, young woman,
and open your diary and give your friends stories of divine grace. Tellthem of
the mighty works of God’s hand which He has workedin you from His own
free, sovereign, undeservedlove. Make it a free grace storyaround your
family fire! In the next place, this poor man’s tale was a grateful story. I know
it was grateful because the man said, “I will tell you how greatthings the Lord
has done for me.” And (not meaning a pun in the leastdegree)I may observe
that a man who is grateful, is always full of the greatnessofthe mercy which
God has shownhim. He always thinks that what God has done for him is
immensely goodand supremely great. Perhaps when you are telling the story,
one of your friends will say, “And what of that?” And your answerwill be, “It
may not be a greatthing to you, but it is to me. You say it is little to repent but
I have not found it so. It is a greatand precious thing to be brought to know
myself to be a sinner, and to confess it—do you say it is a little thing to have
found a Savior?” Look them in the face and say, “If you had found Him, too,
you would not think it little. You think it little I have lost the burden from my
back? If you had suffered with it and felt its weightas I have, for many a long
year, you would think it no little thing to be emancipated and free through a
sight of the cross.”Tellthem it is a greatstory and if they cannot see its
greatness,shedgreattears and tell it to them with greatearnestnessand I
hope they may be brought to believe that you, at least, are grateful, if they are
not. May God grant that you may tell a grateful story; no story is more worth

hearing than a tale of gratitude! And lastly, upon this point—it must be a tale
told by a poor sinner who feels himself not to have deservedwhat he has
received. “How He has had compassiononyou.” It was not a mere actof
kindness, but an actof free compassiontowards one who was in misery. Oh, I
have heard men tell the story of
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their conversionand of their spiritual life in such a way that my heart has
loathed them and their story, too, for they have told of their sins as if they did
boastin the greatness oftheir crime! And they have mentioned the love of
God not with a tear of gratitude—notwith the simple thanksgiving of the
really humble heart—but as if they as much exalted themselves as they
exalted God. Oh, when we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it
done with deep sorrow—remembering whatwe used to be—and with great
joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things. I was once
preaching upon conversionand salvation and I felt within myself, as
preachers often do, that it was but dry work to tell this story and a dull, dull
tale it was to me, but all of a sudden the thought crossedmy mind, “Why, you
are a poor lostruined sinner, yourself! Tell it, tell it, as you receivedit! Begin
to tell of the grace ofGod as you trust you feelit, yourself.” Why, then, my
eyes beganto be fountains of tears—those hearers who had nodded their
heads began to brighten up and they listened because they were hearing
something which the man felt, himself, and which they recognizedas being
true to him—if it were not true to them. Tellyour story, my hearers, as lost
sinners! Do not go to your home and walk into your house with a supercilious
air, as much as to say, “Here’s a saint come home to the poor sinners to tell
them a story.” But go home like a poor sinner! And when you go in, your
mother remembers what you used to be—you need not tell her there is a
change—she willnotice it—if it is only one day you are with her. And perhaps
she will say, “John, what is this change that is in you?” And if she is a pious
mother, you will begin to tell her the story and I know, man though you are,
you will not blush when I sayit—she will put her arms round your neck and
kiss you as she never did before—foryou are her twice-born son! Hers from
whom she shall never part, even though death, itself, shall divide you for a
brief moment. “Go home, then, and tell your friends what greatthings the
Lord has done for you and how He has had compassiononyou.” II. But now,

in the secondplace—WHYSHOULD WE TELL THIS STORY? ForI hear
many of my congregationsay, “Sir, I could relate that story to anyone sooner
than I could to my own friends! I could come to your vestry and tell you
something of what I have tastedand handled of the Word of God, but I could
not tell my father, nor my mother, nor my brothers, nor my sisters.” Come,
then. I will try and argue with you to induce you to do so—thatI may send
you home this Christmas Day to be missionaries in the localities to which you
belong and to be real preachers!Dear friends, do tell this story when you go
home. First, for your Master’s sake. Oh, I know you love Him. I am sure you
do—if you have proof that He loves you! You cannever think of Gethsemane
and of its bloody sweat, ofGabbatha and of the mangled back of Christ,
flayed by the whip—you can never think of Calvary and His pierced hands
and feetwithout loving Him! And it is a strong argument when I say to you,
for His dear sake, who loved you so much, go home and tell it. What? Do you
think we canhave so much done for us and yet not tell it? Our children, if
anything should be done for them, do not staymany minutes before they are
telling all the company, “Such an one has given me such a present and
bestowedon me such-and-such a favor.” And should the children of God be
backwardin declaring how they were savedwhen their feetmade haste to hell
and how redeeming mercy snatchedthem as brands from the burning? You
love Jesus, young man! I put it to you, then, will you refuse to tell the tale of
His love to you? Shall your lips be dumb when His honor is concerned? Will
you not, whereveryou go, tell of the God who loved you and died for you?
This poor man, we are told, “departed and began to publish in Decapolis how
greatthings Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel.” So with you; if
Christ has done much for you, you cannot help it—you must tell it! My
esteemedfriend, Mr. Oneken, a minister in Germany, told us lastMonday
evening that as soonas he was converted, himself, the first impulse of his new-
born soul was to do goodto others. And where should he do that good? Well,
he thought he would go to Germany! It was his own native land and he
thought the command was, “Go home to your friends, and tell them.” Well,
there was not a single Baptist in all Germany, nor any with whom he could
sympathize, for the Lutherans had swervedfrom the faith of Luther and gone
aside from the truth of God. But he went there and preached—andhe has
now 70 or 80 churches establishedon the continent! What made him do it?
Nothing but love for his Masterwho had done so much for him could have
forcedhim to go and tell his kinsmen the marvelous tale of divine goodness!

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But, in the next place, are your friends pious? Then go home and tell them, in
order to make their hearts glad. I receivedlastnight a short letter, written
with a trembling hand, by one who is past the natural age of man living in the
county of Essex. His son, under God, had been convertedby hearing of the
Word preached and the goodman could not help writing to the minister,
thanking him and blessing, most of all, his God, that his son had been
regenerated. “Sir,” he begins, “an old rebel writes to thank you and, above all,
to thank his God, that his dear son has been converted.” I shall treasure up
that epistle. It goes onto say, “Go on! And the Lord bless you.” And there was
another case I heard some time ago where a young womanwent home to her
parents and when her mother saw her, she said, “There!If the minister had
made me a present of all London, I should not have thought so much of it as I
do of this—to think that you have really become a changedcharacterand are
living in the fear of God!” Oh, if you want to make your mother’s heart leap
within her and to make your father glad—if you would make that sisterhappy
who sent you so many letters which sometimes you read againsta lamp-post,
with your pipe in your mouth—go home and tell your mother that her wishes
are all accomplished!That her prayers are heard, that you will no longer
tease her about her Sunday schoolclassand no longer laugh at her because
she loves the Lord! Tellher that you will go with her to the house of God, for
you love Godand you have said, “Your people shall be my people and your
God shall be my God, for I have a hope that your heaven shall be my heaven
forever.” Oh, what a happy thing it would be if some here who had gone
astrayshould thus go home! It was my privilege a little while ago to preachfor
a noble institution for the receptionof womenwho had led abandoned lives.
Before I preached the sermon, I prayed to God to bless it and in the printed
sermon you will notice that at the end of it, there is an accountof two persons
who were blessedby that sermon and restored. Now, let me tell you a story of
what once happened to Mr. Vanderkist, a city missionary, who toils all night
long to do goodin that greatwork. There had been a drunken broil in the
street. He stepped betweenthe men to part them, and said something to a
woman who stoodthere, concerning how dreadful a thing it was that men
should thus be intemperate. She walkedwith him a little way and he, with her,
and she began to tell him such a tale of woe, and sin, too—how she had been
lured awayfrom her parents’ home in Somersetshire andhad been brought
up here to her soul’s eternalhurt. He took her home with him and taught her
the fearand love of Christ. And what was the first thing she did, when she

returned to the paths of godliness and found Christ to be the sinner’s Savior?
She said, “Now, I must go home to my friends.” Her friends were written to—
they came to meet her at the stationat Bristoland you canhardly conceive
what a happy meeting it was!The father and mother had lost their
daughter—they had never heard from her. And there she was, brought back
by the agencyof this institution [The London Female Dormitory] and restored
to the bosomof her family! Ah, is there such a one here? I know not, among
such a multitude, if there may be such a one. Woman! Have you strayed from
your family? Have you left them long? “Go home to your friends,” I beseech
you, before your father totters to his grave and before your mother’s gray
hairs sleepon the snow-white pillow of her coffin. Go back, I beseechyou! Tell
her you are penitent. Tellher that God has met with you—that the young
minister said, “Go back to your friends.” And if so, I shall not blush to have
said these things, though you may think I ought not to have mentioned them.
For if I may but win one such soul, I will bless God to all eternity! “Go home
to your friends! Go home and tell them how greatthings the Lord has done
for you.” Can you imagine the scene, whenthe poor demoniac mentioned in
my text went home? He had been a raving madman! And when he came and
knockedatthe door, don’t you think you see his friends calling to one another
in affright, “Oh, there he is again,” and the mother running upstairs and
locking all the doors because her son had come back who was raving mad;
and the little ones crying because they knew what he had been before—how he
cut himself with stones because he was possessedwith devils? And canyou
picture their joy when the man said, “Mother!Jesus Christ has healed me!
Let me in. By His grace I am no more a lunatic!” And when the father opened
the door, he said, “Father!I am not what I was—allthe evil spirits are gone!
By God’s grace I shall live in the tombs no longer. I need to tell you how the
glorious man who workedmy deliverance accomplishedthe miracle—how He
said to the devils, ‘Get you hence,’and they ran down a steepplace into the
sea. And I am come home healed and
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saved!” Oh, if such a one, possessedwith sin, were here this morning and
would go home to his friends to tell them of his release—Ithink the scene
would be somewhatsimilar. Once more, dear friends. I hear one of you say.
“Ah, sir, would to God I could go home to pious friends! But when I go home,

I go into the worstof places. Formy home is among those who never knew
God themselves, and consequently never prayed for me and never taught me
anything concerning heaven.” Well, young man, go home to your friends. If
they are ever so bad, they are still your friends. I sometimes meetwith young
men wishing to join the church who say when I ask them about their father,
“Oh, sir, I am parted from my father.” Then I say, “Young man, you may just
go and see your father before I have anything to do with you. If you are at ill-
will with your father and mother, I will not receive you into the church; if
they are ever so bad, they are still your parents.” Go home to them and tell
them, not to make them glad, for they will very likely be angry with you—but
tell them for their soul’s salvation. I hope, when you are telling the story of
what God did for you, that they will be led by the Spirit to desire the same
mercy, themselves!But I will give you a piece of advice. Do not tell this story
to your ungodly friends when they are all together, for they will laugh at you.
Take them one by one, when you canget them alone, and begin to tell it to
them, and they will hear you seriously. There was once a very pious lady who
kept a lodging-house for young men. All the young men were very merry and
giddy and she wantedto saysomething to them concerning religion. She
introduced the subject and it was passedoff immediately with a laugh. She
thought within herself, “I have made a mistake.” The next morning, after
breakfast, whenthey were all leaving, she saidto one of them, “sir, I should
like to speak with you a moment or two,” and taking him aside into another
room she talkedwith him. The next morning she took another and the next
morning another and it pleasedGod to bless her simple statement—whenit
was given individually! But without doubt, if she had spokento them all
together, they would have backedeachother up in laughing her to scorn.
Reprove a man alone!A verse may hit him while a sermon flies right by him.
You may be the means of bringing a man to Christ who has often heard the
Word and only laughed at it, but who cannotresista gentle admonition. In
one of the states of America there was an infidel who was a greatdespiserof
God, a hater of the Sabbath and all religious institutions. What to do with
him, the ministers did not know. They met togetherand prayed for him. But
among the rest, one elder resolvedto spend a long time in prayer for the man.
After that, he got on horseback androde down to the man’s forge, for he was
a blacksmith. He left his horse outside and said, “Neighbor, I am under very
greatconcernabout your soul’s salvation. I tell you, I pray day and night for
your soul’s salvation.” He left him and rode home on his horse. The man went
inside to his house after a minute or two and said to one of his faithful friends,
“Here’s a new argument. Here’s elder Bobbeen down here. He did not
dispute and never said a word to me except this, ‘I say, I am under great

concernabout your soul. I cannotbear you should be lost.’ Oh, that fellow,”
he said, “I cannot answerhim.” And the tears beganto roll down his cheeks.
He went to his wife and said, “I can’t make this out. I never cared about my
soul but here’s an elder that has no connectionwith me, but I have always
laughed at him, and he has come five miles this morning, on horseback, justto
tell me he is under concernabout my salvation.” After a little while he thought
it was time he should be under concernabout his salvation too!He went in,
shut the door, began to pray, and the next day he was at the elder’s house
telling him that he too was under concernabout his salvationand asking him
to tell him what he must do to be saved. Oh, that the everlasting Godmight
make use of some of those now present in the same way—that they might be
induced to— “Tellto others round What a dear Savior they have found! To
point to His redeeming blood, And say, Behold the way to God!” III. I shall
not detain you much longer, but there is a third point, upon which we must be
very brief. HOW IS THIS STORYTO BE TOLD? First, tell it truthfully. Do
not tell more than you know. Do not tell John Bunyan’s experience, when you
ought to tell your own! Do not tell your mother you have felt what only
Rutherford felt. Tell her no
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more than the truth. Tellyour experience truthfully, for maybe one single fly
in the pot of ointment will spoil it and one statement you may make which is
not true may ruin it all. Tell the story truthfully. In the next place, tell it very
humbly. I have saidthat before. Do not intrude yourselves upon those who are
older and know more, but tell your story humbly. Not as a preacher, not ex-
cathedra but as a friend and as a son. Next, tell it very earnestly. Let them see
you mean it. Do not talk about religion flippantly. You will do no goodif you
do. Do not make puns on texts. Do not quote Scripture by way of joke—ifyou
do, you may talk till you are dumb—you will do no goodif you in the least
degree give them occasionto laugh by laughing at holy things yourself. Tell it
very earnestly. And then, tell it very devoutly. Do not try to tell your tale to
man till you have told it, first, to God. When you are at home on Christmas
Day let no one see your face till God has seenit. Be up in the morning. Wrestle
with God, and if your friends are not converted, wrestle with God for them—
and then you will find it easywork to wrestle with them for God. Seek, if you
can, to getthem one by one and tell them the story. Do not be afraid—only

think of the goodyou may possibly do, by God’s grace. Remember, he that
saves a soul from death has covereda multitude of sins and he shall have stars
in his crownforever and ever. Seek to be under God—to be the means of
leading your own beloved brothers and sisters to seek and to find the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then one day, when you shall meet in Paradise, it will be a
joy and blessedness to think that you are there and that your friends are
there, too, whom God will have made you the instrument of saving. Let your
reliance in the Holy Spirit be entire and honest. Trust not yourself, but fear
not to trust Him. He can give you words. He canapply those words to their
heart and so enable you to “minister grace to the hearers.” To close up, by a
short, and I think, a pleasant turning of the text, I will suggestanother
meaning to it. Soon, dear friends, very soonwith some of us, the Masterwill
say, “Go home to your friends.” You know where the home is. It is up above
the stars— “Where our best friends, our kindred dwell, Where God our
Savior reigns.” Yonder gray-headedman has buried all his friends. He has
said, “I shall go to them but they will not return to me.” Soonhis Masterwill
say, “You have had enough tarrying here in this vale of tears—go home to
your friends!” Oh, happy hour! Oh, blessedmoment when that shall be the
word—”Go home to your friends!” And when we go home to our friends in
Paradise, whatshall we do? Why, first we will repair to that blessedseat
where Jesus sits, take off our crownand castit at His feet and crown Him
Lord of All! And when we have done that, what shall be our next employ?
Why, we will tell the blessedones in heaven what the Lord has done for us and
how He has had compassiononus. And shall such tales be told in heaven?
Shall that be the Christmas Carolof the angels? Yes, it shall be. It has been
published there before—blushnot to tell it yet again—forJesus has told it
before. “When He comes home, He calls togetherHis friends and neighbors,
saying unto them, Rejoice with Me, for I have found My sheepwhich was
lost.” And you, poor sheep, when you shall be gathered in, will you not tell
how your Shepherd sought you and how He found you? Will you not sit in the
grassymeads of heaven and tell the story of your own redemption? Will you
not talk with your brothers and your sisters and tell them how God loved you,
and has brought you there? Perhaps, you say, “It will be a very short story.”
Ah, it would be if you could write it now. A little book might be the whole of
your biography. But up there when your memory shall be enlarged, when
your passionshall be purified, and your understanding clear—youwill find
that what was but a tract on earth, will be a huge volume in heaven! You will
tell a long story there of God’s sustaining, restraining, constraining grace.
And I think that when you pause to let another tell his tale and then another
and then another, you will, at last, when you have been in heaven a thousand

years, break out and exclaim, “O saints, I have something else to say.” Again
they will tell their tales, and againyou will interrupt them with, “Oh, beloved,
I have thought of another case ofGod’s delivering mercy.” And so you will go
on, giving them themes for songs, finding them the material for the warp and
woofof heavenly sonnets! “Go home,” He will soonsay, “Go home to your
friends, and tell them how greatthings the Lord has done for you, and has
had compassiononyou.” Wait awhile. Tarry His
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leisure and you shall soonbe gathered to the land of the hereafterto the home
of the blessed—whereendless felicityshall be your portion! God grant a
blessing for His name’s sake. Amen.

Jesus was refusing a friends request

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