I have today. Look with me in Mark chapter 5. I apologize for the lack of the PowerPoint. Normally that's up and running by 8 o'clock Sunday morning and plenty of time for Sunday school, but it's not cooperating today, and I'm not going to make you wait while we diagnose and speculate. It's not that important. You know this reference here, and it is a continuation of Jesus and the man released from his demon possession. It's quite a fascinating narrative. Mark chapter 5, and we'll just read verse number 18. And when Jesus was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil, That title, that line, no doubt stayed with that man's biography the rest of his life. I think, though, he came to realize that it was the door opener healing, his miraculous deliverance became his testimony. And God used it mightily, but he would be forever linked with that episode in his life. And it reminds me of Mary Magdalene and others, perhaps, who became famous because of what the deliverance entailed. That he comes to Jesus and prays him, asks Jesus, The idea is he begs Jesus he pleads with Jesus that he might be with him. Let me go with you. Let me get on the little boat one of the you got three boats and Let me get on the boat and go with you. I just want to follow you wherever you go. I don't know what his ministry. I don't think he aspired to be an apostle. I don't think he aspired to be one of the inner three. He says, I kind of think maybe he would have been willing to carry the bags and he would have done anything. He said, I'll clean the tackle. I'll just be whatever you want me to be. Let me go with you. how be it Jesus suffered or allowed him not. but saith unto him, go home to thy friends and tell them how great things the Lord has done for you and has had compassion on thee. Father, I pray your blessings on those who've gathered here today in this passage this afternoon. I preach that I might preach Christ and that we would be able to tell others what Jesus has done for us and that he's had compassion on us. You're going to notice in a moment, and I'm going to split the verse like this, Jesus' commandment and Jesus' compassion. It's easy for you to remember, even if it's not on the big screen, you can remember two things. Jesus' commandment, commandments plural perhaps, go home. Sometimes all Jesus requires you is to stay right where you are. Just go to work. Monday morning or Tuesday morning if you get President's Day, just show up at the family table. Just be where you're supposed to be. Not asking you to go to Africa. Not asking you to go to Alaska. Brother Travis Gilbert called me Friday a couple questions and Actually, he's finishing a degree and a couple months ago. He asked me to be his mentor To sign off on some of his projects and think that's glad to do it. It's fascinating interesting Love brother Travis. But anyway, he said pray for a brother so-and-so and I wrote it down, but I don't have it up here I've already forgotten it. That's why I wrote it down. He said God has been using him in our church, but now he's going to be pastoring And I said, yeah, he said, he's going to so-and-so Alaska. I said, he said, I asked him, are you sure that's where God wants you to go? He says, and he's going to a church that's just had a horrendous split. The pastor has left discredited and unfaithful. And he said, that's where God wants us to go. He's been up there to visit, he's preached, he's met the people who remain. And he's going to have to work. He's going to have to be bivocational. And Travis said, are you sure? He says, I'm sure. Sometimes God does ask you to go to Alaska. Sometimes he does ask you to go to Africa. Sometimes he just says, Go home. Be where you're supposed to be. Not everyone goes to the foreign mission field. Now, everyone has a field, though. A ministry says, go home to your friends and tell them. One writer, a modern writer, he said, this man had friends? I never really thought about it. That's why you keep studying the Bible, reading the Bible. And this author went into a discussion of the demoniac and Gadara had friends. Now, maybe he had made friends after his deliverance, but I don't think so. I think there were people that cared about him. I think there were people that loved him, people that knew him. Maybe they knew him before he was demon possessed. Maybe they at times brought food to him. He survived somehow there in the tombs. Maybe they came and left food at a place and got away, but they cared for him, they loved him. Anyway, he had friends. And Jesus says, you go tell your friends. Because I think the friends would know him, wouldn't they? They would have known his testimony. They would have known what had happened to him. They would be able to recognize the miracle. If he just walked up to some rank stranger, they would have to take his word and say, what was wrong with you? What was your problem? And he could relate what it was. But to people that knew him, the people that were his friends, oh, I remember when you When this first happened, you remember we used to bring you food and we've loved you and we just didn't know what to do. And when he shows up clothed and in his right mind to talk to those friends, they have to account for that. They have to deal with that. I find it fascinating that Jesus commands him to go home, go to your friends and tell them two things, two things. Tell them how great things the Lord has done for thee. I don't think there's any mystery about what the great things are. The release from the demonic, the demon possession. Not only that, but he has, he's in his right mind. The ordeal has not left him mentally or physically disabled apparently. He seems to be a lot of things to be thankful for. And he says, you go tell them what God's done for you, what the Lord has done for you. And one more thing I want you to tell them. I want you to tell them that the Lord has had compassion on you. You think, well, that's sort of understood, isn't it? Wouldn't they know if God did something great for him, that God loved him? Jesus emphasizes both. Tell them what God's done for you. Tell them how much God loves you. I wonder, Christians, when we give our testimony and we tell people God saved us from our sins or God's, given us hope and heaven. I wonder if we also say, and I can tell you how much God loves me. You ever think to include that in your testimony? Now maybe we say that at the beginning, I'm thankful God loved the world and gave his son, paid for my sins and took away my sin debt. But he says, tell them how Jesus had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel. One Puritan called him the first apostle to the Gentiles. I said he didn't aspire to be an apostle. He wasn't one in the classic sense, I guess. But the first foreign missionary of Bible times was this formerly demon-possessed man. And he goes to the 10 cities. That's what the capitalist means. Deca means 10. Polis means city. The 10 cities. They were 10 cities of the Gentiles. And he preached the gospel there. And we understand that many were saved and many came to Christ through his testimony he had. faithfully done what Jesus had commanded him. So we have two commandments, go and tell, and we have Christ's compassion. The word for compassion here, I wish I could show you the definition, benefits which result from compassion. It's not just mere sympathy or affection. Nothing wrong with affection or, oh my, how lost they are, how hurting they are. There is that, but compassion, this word, there are different words translated compassion. This word means it focuses on the benefits which come from compassion. Sometimes it's translated, maybe you've heard of this Bible word, mercy. Anybody ever heard of mercy, God's mercy? I read an interesting discussion this week about the difference between grace and mercy. It was a long essay, six or seven pages, and I wish I hadn't read it. Because people, theologians, Bible commentators, they have real difficulty distinguishing between grace and mercy, and they make their case that I understand some of the technical things they're talking about, and well, we're saved by grace, and God's mercies are maybe, Slightly different from from grace. I've read a lot of opinions about it, but the word mercy itself means to it means practical Love practical compassion when Compassion rolls up its sleeves, put on its work clothes, and wades into the problem. That's this kind of compassion. That's mercy. We talk about works of mercy. Grace. This writer said, and I criticized him a little too much. He said, that's really just the granting of forgiveness. But mercy is wading into our lives and fixing the problems and helping us when we're afraid and when we're shattered. And mercy wades in and says, let me give you all the things that pertain to life and godliness. God's mercy is, He says, I want you to tell them that I had compassion on you, that I am full of mercy, and I have benefits which result from my compassion. We're going to turn over in your Bibles, I would have had this on the screen for you, but I want you to turn over to Titus, because we're going to look at this concept of mercy. Titus chapter 3, lest you and I pass by the demoniac of Gadara too quickly and say, well, thank the Lord I didn't have that problem. I'm not that bad of a sinner. I'm not that far taken captive by the devil and I didn't have that horrendous Burden in my life lest we think of ourselves as a higher class of sinners or an easier Group of sinners to say look at Titus chapter 3 verse 3 for we ourselves I think Paul's using the editorial we I think he's Including you in this and me by the way he says we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Now, nowhere in the list does he mention demon possession or some horrendous sin. He doesn't really specify the lust And I think he does that because we sometimes categorize different sins. Not that there aren't some sins that are worse than others. Sins against knowledge are worse. Sins that harm more people. Sins that harm innocence. There are sins that are greater than other sins, but I digress there. He says, this is where we were. And you can find yourself, before you were saved, and you can find every sinner in this catalog. Now, in some, the foolishness is more evident. In some, the disobedience. In some, the deception is greater. In some, the lust and their pleasures. In some, the malice and the envy and the hate is more apparent. He doubles up on the hate by the way, hateful and hating one another. I think God despises hate and hatefulness. It really grieves God that we would be hateful and hating on one another. condemned here twice. And some people who think, well, I'm not foolish. I'm smart. And I obey all the rules. And I'm not deceived. I know truth. And I'm not slave to any kind of lust. And I keep my pleasures in balance. But then he trips us up when he starts talking about malice or envy and hatefulness and hating one another. That's the catalog of sinners. And don't read through that list and start saying, well, that's Fred and that's Joe and that's Frank. That's not the point. The point is saying, you know, Yeah, that stuff's in me. That's me in my Adamic sin nature. The reason I know it was in my Adamic sin nature is because I still battle with some of these things in my Adamic sin nature, even after I've been saved. But he says, this is where we were. We don't see ourselves like the demoniac of Gadara, but we can see ourselves in Titus chapter 3. And then verse 4, Titus 3 says, But after that, the kindness and love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared. not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. And that's the same word that's compassion in Mark. It's the same idea. All of this kindness and love, this salvation, is according to God our Savior's mercy. Jesus Christ had compassion on you when He saved you. and you agree with God that you're a sinner, and you accepted Christ, He had already had compassion on you. He'd already taken steps to save you, to come, live a sinless life, to die on the cross for you. According to His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. It's not a controversy, but trying to explain the difference between mercy and grace is like this. Sometimes it seems like grace is the controlling influence and everything flows from grace. And here it seems like mercy is the controlling influence and everything flows from it, including grace. Sometimes it talks about mercy first and sometimes it talks about grace first. Some people think they're just synonymous. They're just different kinds of grace or different kinds of mercy. That may be. But here in this passage, it is compassion that goes to work for us. And here's what Jesus does to save us. First of all, he points out that salvation is not by our worth. W-O-R-T-H. Nobody gets saved because they're worth it. Nobody gets saved because they are essential or adding something to the glory of God. We're not worth it. We are not deserving of salvation. So salvation is not by worth, and he wants to also emphasize that it's not by works of righteousness, which we have done. Now, it doesn't here talk about whether these works of righteousness in and of themselves would be good things. We know that our righteousness in the sight of God, the Bible says, is as filthy rag. That doesn't mean that a lost person can't do a good thing. By that I mean people who don't know God can do something that looks like a righteous act, tell the truth in a courtroom, for example, or give to a philanthropic campaign, or help a neighbor when they have a need. There are many works of righteousness, and here's the thing. We look at it, we think, you know, that must count for something, and compared to us, And as far as making our community a better place to live and making them a better neighbor, yeah, he's a good neighbor. He's real helpful. He helped me. People who are lost can do those things. I've known people who did not profess to be saved, who seem to understand marital faithfulness, who've committed themselves to their spouse, and by their testimony, by their lives, have honored their vows. I know many who've gone to war who didn't know God or weren't saved, but yet they gave their life in sacrifice for some ideal or for their fellow soldiers and give up their life for another. You think, well, that sure must count for something. Compared to us, it does count for something. It is admirable, but it's not going to save anybody. Now, if you immediately say, well, that doesn't seem fair, then that will tell you that you're thinking like the people Paul's talking to here. Because we sort of think, if somebody does some works of righteousness, that ought to count for something, doesn't it? Shouldn't they get some credit for that? Shouldn't they get some salvation for that? The easiest religion in the world to preach is be good and go to heaven. It's not true, but it's easy to preach because it connects with the bias that people have about themselves. They think, I'm not perfect. I've got my faults. But you know what? I do a lot of good things. And you know, honestly, they happen to, as far as comparing ourselves with each other, you have to say, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we do works. And even if they weren't works of righteousness, Paul says here in verse five, we're not saved by works of righteousness. In other words, even when we're disabusing people of the idea that they can earn salvation, If they did do works of righteousness, it doesn't save you. I've always explained, as best I could, that today's goodness doesn't compensate for yesterday's badness. They don't cancel each other out. You can be the good Samaritan today and be A mugger, the next day, and they don't cancel each other out like, well, he's good every other day. They don't bring you back to neutral. Works of righteousness do not save us, so we're not saved by our worth. Verse three makes that clear. We're not saved by works. Verse five makes it clear. But we're saved by mercy. We're saved according to His mercy. Technically, we're not saved by mercy, we're saved according, in an agreement with mercy. God's compassion wades in and does whatever's necessary for us. We're saved according to that compassion. That's what Jesus was telling this man to do. He says, I want you to go tell your friends who know you, who knew you, now they'll know you. You tell them what I did for you, and you tell them that I had compassion on you. Why would he need to tell them that Jesus had compassion on him? Isn't that obvious? No, maybe, maybe somebody would say, you know, I think Jesus healed that man because everybody was afraid of him. He just sort of calmed down, you know, that man was a threat to other people and maybe Jesus healed him to bring peace to the neighborhood and get rid of that unsightly, Raging and ranting and maybe Jesus saved him just because he felt sorry for the man and brought him back to sort of like a normal life. No, he says, you tell them what I did for you. Tell them about your, they'll know, your friends will know. Tell them what I did and tell them that I had mercy on you. Why would you tell lost sinners that? Because lost sinners need to know that Jesus has compassion for them. That he doesn't, he's not saving them because of their worth. He's not saving them because of their works. He saves them because he has compassion on them. And he could offer his testimony and say, and I believe sincerely, and Jesus has compassion on you. You'll turn from your sins. You may not be as lost as I was lost. I hope you know what I mean by that. You may not be as in bad shape as I was. But he says, Jesus came because he loved us. Romans 5 says, while we were yet sinners, he gave himself for us. He does these things according to His mercy. What does mercy do? It wades into the problem and the first thing it does is it washes us in regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. Someone may ask, and what may I ask is that? Well, I don't know. Well, yes, I do think this is a fascinating study. I don't think it's talking about baptism. But I do think it's talking about the new birth. And the margin of my Bible takes you to John 3 when Jesus explaining to Nicodemus about being born of the water and the spirit E.W. Bullinger believes that's two parts of the same thing. But whatever the point is here, and maybe I'll make you curious and you'll say, now I have to go home and read the Bible. I have to go home and look this up and get my concordance out and start studying the new birth and what the aspect of the new birth is. But I think this regeneration and this renewing, I think they both refer to the new birth, being born again when we're brought into God's family. And he sheds that on us abundantly, this regeneration, this quickening, this being made alive, this being made new. He gives it to us abundantly. Why does he do it abundantly? Because we are very great sinners. And no one can say, well, I'm sure there's not enough compassion or mercy for me. I am so wicked and so sinful. But he says it's abundant. He has abundant compassion. Jesus doesn't come into our world and our lives and come up short and say, oh my, I don't have enough love for this person. I don't have enough compassion for this person. I don't have enough mercy for this person. I don't have enough power in the new birth. Sure, he does. He sheds it on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Lord. If you're here today and you're not sure you're saved, you think, well, I'm not sure I understand this new birth. Don't feel bad, neither did Nicodemus, a master, a rabbi himself. He was not sure, and when he asked questions about it, you know what Jesus did? He just gave a simple Old Testament illustration of Moses lifting up that brazen servant, and he said, and even I'll be lifted up, talking about the cross, I'll be put to death, and God's will over the world that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have it relaxed. He just preaches the gospel to him. So all I can say to you today is say, well, what exactly is the new birth? How does that happen in the soul? What are the constituent parts of the metaphysics? You don't have to know that. Bible students, Bible theologians are still writing books and commentaries about what it could all mean and how deep and how rich it is. What you need to know is that Christ loves sinners. Christ died for sinners. If you turn from sins and trust Christ, you can be saved. He has abundantly provided for us through Jesus Christ. We have regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. One last thing. Well, two things. Verse 7, that being justified by His grace, You think, well, is that, can you get born again and not be justified? Can you get justified and not get born again? No, don't worry about it. Don't worry about saying, well, I think I got born again, but I didn't get justified. Or I got justified, but I don't think I've been born again. Don't worry about it. That's God's part. God does his part. And there are so many wonderful aspects to this whole term of salvation, Some of which hasn't even happened yet. The glorification of my body. I know I look pretty good today, but it hasn't happened yet. No, it hasn't happened yet. That's still future. I have not yet been given that new body. I haven't yet been glorified. But it's certain to happen. It's absolutely certain because I've already received the promise of it and the guarantee of it. But verse 7 says that we are justified by His grace that we should be made heirs. We not only are born again through regeneration and renewal, we are made royalty. That shows that word because it starts with an R. But we are heirs. We are royal heirs of the kingdom of God. We are joint heirs with Christ, the Bible says, according to the hope of eternal life. And this hope is not wishful thinking or anything less than the guarantee of future blessings to the believer. Hope is the confident expectation of future blessings through, in, and by Christ. We already possess eternal life, but the hope of eternal life has so much more ahead. There's so much more ahead, so many wonderful things in the future for those who have eternal life. There's eternal life, and I don't mean to disparage that, I think that's wonderful, but then there is reunion with loved ones who are in Christ, there is heaven, and then there is the eternal state, the new creation, so many wonderful things that are ahead for us. Paul, in one place, says that you can't even imagine what God's prepared for you. Far beyond we're able to even think. We are heirs of God's kingdom. You think God's kingdom is big and wonderful and glorious? I'm an heir to that kingdom. I'm a child of the King. So, Jesus said, you go tell your friends what I did for you. His friends would know. They may have known him when the demon came upon him. As I said, they may have often gone within eyesight earshot of their friend and say, is he any better? No, he's still screaming. He's still up there, terrified, terrifying. Somebody said, perhaps they did take food and leave it. Maybe they tried to minister to him. But one day, he shows up at their house. It may have taken a few minutes to recognize him. Maybe his voice or something about him. And he says, it's me. I don't think we're told his name. I think tradition has assigned him. But I don't think the Bible tells us his name. But I can't imagine this man showing up at the front door of a friend. And who is it? Don't you recognize me? He says, I was your next door neighbor for a long time. I used to work with you. I went to school with you. Something. And they would have known that something had happened. And he says, Jesus says, tell them what I did for you. But tell them I did it because I had compassion. That's why it's an evangelistic. That's why it's hope for other sinners. Father, I pray you would bless our hearts and our ears today. We pray that you would, first of all, make every one of us, perhaps everyone here is a Christian, perhaps not. There may be somebody, even in this number, who's trusting their worth. They are part of a Christian family. They live in a, they attend church. Try to do good things when they can. But Father, we're not saved by our worth. We're not saved by our works. We're saved by your mercy. Perhaps this would be the day when someone would come and say, I want to turn from my sins and trust Christ and Christ alone. Perhaps this would be a day when every one of us would say, Lord, Lord, help me to tell people what you've done for me. and that you had compassion on me, that you continue to have compassion and love for me, that you continue to have mercy showered abundantly upon me, that we are born again, that we've been regenerated, we've been made new, we've been set free, and that we're heirs of the kingdom. Tell people what Jesus has done for us and tell them why he did it, because he had compassion. help lost sinners to be saved, help saved sinners to rejoice, and go and tell. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand.