Well, we have the privilege of looking at Mark's gospel once again, so let me invite you to take your Bible and turn to Mark chapter 3. In our last time together, we saw Jesus healing on the Sabbath. And now we're seeing Mark's summary of the popularity of Jesus. Begins in verse 7, takes us down to verse 12. Listen to what Mark says. Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples, and a great multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Udamia, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. A great number of people heard all that he was doing and came to him. And he told his disciples that a boat should stand ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd him. For he had healed many, with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around him in order to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down before him and shout, You are the Son of God. And he earnestly warned them not to tell who he was." In our text today, we hear of Jesus healing afflictions and commanding the unclean spirits not to tell who he was. And this, of course, sparked curiosity and it drew a crowd. You know, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. We know that from chapter 1, verse 22. And we also know, according to chapter 1, verse 27, that the unclean spirits obeyed him. If he said, come out, they would come out. If he said, go to this place, they would go. And though they obeyed his command to come out of people, Jesus would not permit them to speak because they knew who he was. Now we said last time that this was the last of the five conflicts that we have seen Jesus have with the religious leaders. And as we look now at the text that we're in, we're beginning to hear a summary of all that's taken place up to this point. It's almost he has given us detail in the first chapter, in the second chapter, in the first part of the third chapter. And now before he moves on, he's going to summarize. And we're really gonna see the popularity of Jesus because, you know, by him healing and doing all of these things and by him teaching like no one had ever taught, because when the rabbis would teach, they would just quote other rabbis. That's not much, is it? But when Jesus taught, he didn't have to quote anybody for authority. He was the authority. And when he spoke, he spoke with authority. When he healed, he healed with authority. When he cast out demons, it was with authority. He was truly Lord, and He is truly the Lord. And so as we begin to look at this section now, it comes off the heels of the previous story. You remember the man with the withered hand that Jesus healed on the Sabbath? Well, if you remember in verse six, it ends by saying, the Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians against Him as to how they might destroy Him. That's where that story ends. And so where the next story picks up is right on the heels of that when it tells us, so because of this then, Jesus withdrew. He withdrew to the sea with his disciples. His retreat was not out of fear. He wasn't afraid of anyone. He's the Lord. And as the Lord, he's fully aware of the behavior of all people. even the Pharisees and Herodians and what they were plotting against him. And he left because it wasn't his time to be given over to the religious leaders to be crucified. And he said that on a few occasions. I'll give you two of them. Sometimes we find that phrase used in reference to revealing who he was, like in John chapter two and verse four at the wedding of Canaan. And then we also hear it at times to speak of his death, like in John 7 30, where it says, so they were seeking to seize him and no man laid his hand on him, and here it is, because his hour had not yet come. Nobody could do anything to him until that appointed time. Because if you remember, when that time finally came, He said, this is your hour. So the same is true here. The Pharisees, they could plot all they want. They could plot with their archenemies, the Herodians, all they want. They could even go to the Sadducees if they want to. It doesn't matter. They can do all this for as long as they want, but nothing's going to happen until the time is for it to happen. You know, that's really a principle that we should think about in our own lives. Nothing's going to happen to any of us until it's that time for it to happen. We don't know when it's going to happen. We don't know how it's going to happen. So why worry about it? We're worried about something you know nothing about. So just live your life every day to the fullest for the glory of God and seek to make disciples. That's the whole gist of your life. Live for the glory of God and make disciples of all people. And I'd add a third one, and teach them all things that God's taught you. That's it. That's why we're here. That's why God didn't just take us out of here all of a sudden. He left us here to make disciples left us here to take those who are disciples and to mature them in the faith, teach them the word of God, and do all of that for the glory of God. Well, it says in verse seven, he withdrew to the sea. This was the Sea of Galilee. If you've seen any pictures or videos of the Sea of Galilee, it's almost a complete circle. And you had all kinds of things that went on all the way around it. Jesus spent a lot of his time ministering there. In fact, his home base of ministry, from what we've already looked at, seemed to be Capernaum, a fishing village, a place that was very popular, very populated. One commentator tells us that his departure to the sea, it was really an act of prudence. He says, on the open beach, surrounded by crowds of followers, Jesus would be safer from treachery than in the narrow streets of Capernaum. But it was primarily prompted by his desire to avoid a head-on collision with the Jewish leaders and to make himself freely accessible to the masses. You know, Jesus really didn't wait for anybody to come to him. He went to them. And besides, what we're seeing here is they're coming to him, and they were coming from every direction, north, south, east, and west. They came from everywhere to where he was at. And so we see, he withdrew with his disciples. Now, that phrase, withdrew with his disciples, in Greek is considered emphatic. Emphatic means it's just placed at more the beginning of the sentence than at the middle or the rear. And it's placed there for emphasis. And the emphasis is this, the disciples were sharing in Jesus's annihilation too from the Jewish leaders. And the same is true for all of us. When we follow Jesus, whatever Jesus experiences, we experience because we're followers of Jesus. Jesus even told his disciples in John 15, 20, remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my word, they will keep yours also." So if you're being persecuted, it's because they can't get to Jesus now. So all they can do is get to you, because you're a follower of Jesus. And so, now the disciples are experiencing what Jesus had said to them. Now, I don't know if you realize this, and I think you should, But Jesus had more than 12 disciples. We just hear of the 12 because these were the 12 that he used and that he personally discipled that would change the world. These would be those who would become apostles, those he sent out. These would be the foundational part of the church. Because the church would be built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. So they were at the beginning stages of the church. And eventually, through time, of course, the apostles would cease. They would die out. There wouldn't be any more. There are no apostles today. There are no prophets today. We do not need them. The only prophets that we need today are preachers. They're heralding forth the Word of God, preaching the truth. That's what we need, and that's what we have. But unfortunately, we have fly-by groups and fly-by preachers, whether they're male or female, and they come along and they call themselves by these various titles that they have absolutely no biblical support for. And all it does is confuse the masses. It doesn't help. It doesn't encourage. It doesn't build up. It just confuses. But he did. He had more than 12. He had an unnumbered amount of disciples. And you'll notice there that the Bible does use that word disciple when describing believers. Over in Acts 11, 26, it says the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch. So if you're thinking of a disciple of Jesus, think of a Christian. A Christian is a disciple. A disciple is a Christian. They're interchangeable. In fact, probably a very clear verse is found in Acts 14, 21, when it says, after they preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, See, they preach, you see the connection. They preach the gospel, and as a result of the Lord opening up hearts, they became disciples, fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. So that means they were preaching the gospel of God, and they were seeing God save souls. That's a wonderful thing to see God change a life, isn't it? That's the most incredible thing. People are out today looking for miracles everywhere. And they'll have something kind of interesting happen in their life, and they'll call it a miracle. They're just really quick to label everything a miracle. I'll tell you, the miracles that we're seeing is when God totally transforms a life. That's one you can't deny, right? A changed life. The word that is used here for disciple, it's the word mathetes. It means learner. It means a student. It refers to those who had moved beyond an initial interest in Jesus and desired to follow him as their teacher. These are those who Jesus said in Luke 9, 23, were coming after Him, denying themselves and taking up their crosses daily and following Him. That is the definition of a disciple. That's the definition of a Christian. It's no different. Some people have this idea that a disciple is like a second-level Christian. You know, a Christian who's now becoming more committed. But the Scripture doesn't use it that way. It doesn't use the terms like that. So this is those who are coming after Christ, denying themselves, taking up their cross daily, and following Him. And so, like I said, during Jesus's earthly ministry, He had numerous disciples, many of whom were superficial, many of whom would not remain with him. But even scattered among this crowd were those men who would later become the Twelve. Jesus already called Peter, Andrew, James, and John. And actually, by this time, he'd already called Philip, Nathaniel, Matthew to be his disciples. And that's picking up all the narratives. Soon he would call Thomas, He would call James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot. All of these would be added to the list. Well, Mark says in verse 7, after Jesus withdrew to the sea, great multitudes followed Him. And another word that is emphatic is the word great. It's also placed at the beginning, for emphasis, to show you that this was an exceptional size of multitude that flocked to Him. Now, this wasn't the first time that large crowds followed Jesus, even though this may have been the largest. We see it in Matthew 4.25, it says, large crowds followed Him from Galilee and Decapolis, and Jerusalem, and Judea, and beyond the Jordan. Even Matthew 14, 13 says that when Jesus heard about John, and he withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by himself, this is when John the Baptist was beheaded, and when the people heard of this, they followed him on foot from the cities, and when he went ashore, he saw a large crowd. Now, Jesus didn't say, you know, I need some time alone. He did take time alone. That's why he was up all night praying. When the crowds were sleeping, he was praying. When the crowds are sleeping for us, what are we doing? We're sleeping with them instead of praying. Sometimes we get woke in the night and we pray, right? But it says that he saw a large crowd and he felt compassion for them and healed their sick. We looked at that last time and saw his compassion with the man with the withered hand. He had compassion, but the Pharisees did not. They were hard-hearted. All they cared about was their ritual, traditional system. And by the way, the Sabbath day rituals was at the heart of everything they did. And so for Jesus to come in and to do things on the Sabbath that traditionally and ritualistically was not something that they were to do, they were furious over this. And you already saw that last time. Verse six tells us in Luke that they were enraged. They were full of anger. And as I told you last time also, Jesus says, is it right to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil? He was doing good. And what were they doing? Evil. Manifesting their evil hearts. Church father Chrysostom, he lived from 349 to 407 AD, he said, but this I am sure of that our Jesus nor any other have ever been so much talked of among all men as he. For not only in the cities, but also in the country parts is he known, and by all things is he glorified." Jesus is the most talked about person in all of history, and rightly so. Athanasius, who lived from 296 to 373 AD, he said this, In other words, he gave God the glory in everything. Well, Mark says that they were coming to Jesus after they heard what He was doing. What did they hear? Well, verse 10 says He healed many. Verse 11 says He commanded the unclean spirits. So this would certainly draw large crowds because they're seeing something that they've never seen before. I mean, it could even spark curiosity for the skeptic who wants to look on and see what's with this Jesus of Nazareth? What is he doing? I'm hearing that he's making the blind to see. He's making the lame to walk. He's making the mute to speak. I'm hearing all of these things. I need to see this for myself. You would have been there too, right? Every time I say that, this is what I think. Let's let you know out loud what I'm thinking. Every time I say something like that, I think, why don't we get excited now? Because we have it all right here. We have the accounts. We're witnessing it too. And why shouldn't we get excited as well to see what he has done? I'll tell you something that's fascinated me. I've been always fascinated by archaeology. I love it. And so part of that is that I love to have anything to do with the Holy Land. One day I want to go. I mean, I'm ready to go. I told my family yesterday, I said, I am ready to go to the Holy Land. Don't buy me anything else but a ticket. I want to go. I want to walk where he walked. I want to be right there where these events happen. And the closest that I can get to it is a picture or a video. Now I'll take it. That's all I get. But I want to be right there. I want to go there. You know, Jerusalem is the heart of the whole world. Everything. And I want to be right there with it. I want to see these places. And I've got some pretty good access to video that gives some really good tours of these places. And some are better than others, and some include more details than others. I just find all of this fascinating because we have so much archaeological evidence to prove the Bible. And you take the cults, Mormonism has no archaeological evidence for what they have written in the Book of Mormon about the cities, about these places that that they're told about, that the angel Moroni apparently told Joseph Smith. There is no record of this, no record of these golden tablets, nothing. And then you take Charles T. Russell, who's responsible for the Jehovah's Witnesses, and he just rewrites his Bible, and what he did was what a lot of people do, too, is they just go ahead and start cutting out things they don't like about the Bible. So he cuts out all references to hell. Well, just because you cut all those references out, it didn't go away. You know, it just made your hell hotter that you would tamper with the scripture like that and lead people astray like that. I would not want to be in your shoes. It'd be better if you'd never been born than to do something like that with the Word of God. I got a little argument online. It was comments, okay? It wasn't really an argument, but I was a little irritated over it because this particular person was commenting on just a little 8, 10 second clip I put up, and it was about not adding to the word of God. And in the description, I just mentioned Revelation 22, 18 and 19. He wrote back and he said, listen, that's referring to the book of Revelation. And so I didn't make any commentary, I didn't say anything, so I just put another verse up. Proverbs 30 and verse six, add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove you and you be found a liar. I thought that that would just settle it. Then he proceeded to call me a false teacher, and I had false teaching in my video, and I said, listen, I put all those in quotes with question marks and went, seriously? You don't even know the definition of a false teacher if you're just going to sling the language like that. But I said, here's the interesting thing about what you're saying. I never made one comment or one reference in the video to any scripture. It was just a video clip. Lasted 10 seconds. I mean, how much can you share in 10 seconds? You know what I mean? And I said, if you want to hear the whole thing, download the sermon. Never heard any more after that. But it's sad that that's kind of what we've come to. I know another pastor who's went through the same thing, and some of these young people, they just sling terms any way that they want and calling him names like them. So listen, they don't have a clue as to what they're saying or what they're doing. You know, David, who ran for 12 years from Saul, would never lift his hand against Saul, though he had opportunity to take his life several times. And David was a man of war. He wasn't afraid. But he was afraid of this, "'Touch thou not the Lord's anointed.'" And so when he was in that cave, when Saul came in to relieve himself, and his men encouraged him to go over there and take his life, and he went over there and just cut a piece of his garment off, and he was so convicted over doing that. He said, there's no way I can do this, that I can touch the Lord's anointed. And so he waited on God to remove Saul in his time, and it took 12 years. I'm like the guy in Princess Bride. He goes, I hate awaiting. So do I. But that's what it is. Sometimes that's what we have to do. I was reading in Genesis, reading about Jacob. He prayed for 20 years for his wife to have a child. That's a lot of persevering prayer. You know, having kids was a big thing among Jewish families. And if you didn't have a child, they believed that you were under the reproach of God. You were under the judgment of God. But I love what Jacob said. Am I in the place of God who is withheld from your womb? He is the one who opens and closes the womb. I don't think we really get that understanding. So Jesus drew crowds based upon what he was doing, based upon what he was teaching, and he drew them from everywhere. And as I said, this may have been the largest crowd so far. Look at where they're from. Some of them are from Judea, Jerusalem, Edomia. Edomia would be more down toward the south. Jerusalem would be more up toward the top. You'd have regions of the Jordan to the east, There were people from the Gentile region around Tyre and Sidon. That would be to the northwest. So you had them coming from every single direction. If you pulled up a map and you saw where he was at, and listing these locations, it's all the way around. It's a complete circle around him, and they were coming from everywhere. This man from Galilee, who is this man they call Jesus? We know his father and mother. We know his brothers and his sister. Who is this man? And they took offense at him because they knew him. Because they said when the Messiah come, no one would know where he came from. That is not true. They were mistaken when they said that. The scriptures said where he would come from. They were ignorant of the scriptures. And we know that, you read the Gospels, you read Matthew, and we see his travels till he finally settled in Nazareth. It's really unclear who were part of this group, whether it was Jews or Gentiles or both. But because the crowds were so large, look at verse nine, Jesus instructs his disciples regarding the crowd, and what does he tell them? He says, have a boat ready. This crowd is starting to press around him. And they were thinking, if I could just touch him, I would be healed. It was like that woman who had the hemorrhage for 12 years. All she wanted to do was just touch his garment, and she would be healed. Now, it's clear that people are drawn to Jesus for various reasons. Some come because of his teachings. Some come for a healing. Some come just because they're curious. Some come for miracles. Some come because people invited them to come. They didn't know anything about him. John makes note of this in John chapter 2. Listen to this, John 2, 23. Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, it says, many believed in his name, observing his signs which he was doing. So they saw the signs he was doing, and that was why they believed. So it was purely for physical signs. There's a lot of danger in this, but that's the reason why you come. It's not the right reason to come to Jesus for salvation, even though people do that even today. They come because they want a better life, and they look at Jesus as the one who can give them that better life, which is true. But that shouldn't be your main reason for coming. You say, well, what should be my reason for coming? You should come because you're convicted over your sin, and you see Jesus as the only means to be forgiven and granted eternal life. That's it. And so really, when you think about the signs that he was doing, they really only had one purpose, and that was to reveal who he was. That was to shed light on his identity. But if you come just for signs, Jesus said an adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And the only sign that he was going to give them was the sign from Jonah, three days in the heart of the earth. But John 2.24 It's right after he has just said, many believed in his name, observing his signs, which he was doing. It says, but Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them because he knew all men. He knew why they were coming to him. He knew what they were attracted to. They didn't come for salvation. They didn't come to be forgiven. They didn't come to be cleansed and washed clean from their sin. There was no one who better knew the heart of men than Jesus. Same is true today. So really, when you see your sin as God presents it in Scripture, and then you see that that's the reason to come, as you're fleeing, running from the wrath of God, that's the right reason to come. That's what John the Baptist told the Pharisees. Matthew 3, 7, "...you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the wrath to come? Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance." He said, flee the wrath to come, but repent. Don't just run, you got to repent. That's your reason. When Jesus began His ministry in chapter 1 and verse 14 of Mark, what does it say? After John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee. What was he doing? Preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. That's why you come. Paul said the same thing in Acts 17, 30 and 31. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to all men that all people everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead." Calls all men to repent. No matter how unpopular that message has become, it's the same message that we have to keep preaching. And I know it doesn't fill churches, but that's what we're to do. Look at verse 10. Mark tells us Jesus healed the people who came to Him. It says He healed many. And again, that's why the crowd was so large. They wanted to touch Him. You know, it's interesting, the verse in the original, it reads very vividly, it says this, for he had healed many, so that as a result, they are falling upon him in order to touch him, as many as were having scourges. They were so pressed upon him. That's why the disciples needed the boat ready for Jesus, so that if he had to, he would have to get into the boat, be pushed away from the shore to give him some space, because the people wanted to touch him. They thought if they could only touch him, they would be healed. And rightly so, because he healed many people with affliction. Listen to some of the things he healed that you find in the New Testament. Mark 10, 46 to 52, he healed Bartimaeus, who was a blind beggar, restored his sight. Mark 7, 31, he healed a man who was deaf and had difficulty speaking. Matthew 8, 1 to 4, he healed a leper, cleansing him from his disease. In Mark 2, 1 to 12, we've already looked at this, he healed a paralyzed man, allowing him to walk again. Also, we saw Mark 1, 21 to 28, he cast out an unclean spirit from a man in the synagogue in Capernaum. We also saw where in Matthew 8, it's also in Mark 2, that he healed Peter's mother-in-law, who was suffering from fever. In Matthew 9, 20 and following, he healed a woman who had been suffering from bleeding for 12 years. She had a hemorrhage. In Matthew 17, 14 and following, he healed a boy that was possessed by a demon, causing him to have seizures. We also hear in Luke 13, 10 and following, he heals a woman who had been bent over and unable to straighten up for 18 years. She was like that. Luke 14, he healed a man with dropsy, which was swelling of the body. In Mark 7 31, he healed a man who was both deaf and had difficulty speaking. Of course, we saw in Mark 3 last week, he healed a man with a withered hand, restoring it to full functionality. In Mark 5, He heals a man possessed by multiple demons who lived among the tombs and acted in a self-destructive manner. In Matthew 4.23, He healed various diseases and illnesses among the people, including those without any specific name. In Luke 17, 11, he healed 10 lepers, cleansing them from their skin disease. In Luke 13, 11, he healed a woman who had been crippled by a spirit. And then, of course, in Luke 13, 10, he healed a woman who had a spirit that caused her to have a paralysis. And then, of course, John 11, he raised the dead. Now, wouldn't that draw a crowd? Just a little one. It would draw a crowd. In fact, it's summed up in this way. He healed every sickness among the people. Every sickness. That's why I said a few weeks ago that during the time of Jesus's earthly ministry, he about completely banished all sickness and diseases from Palestine, from Israel. And yes, this would make him popular. But it would be at a peak, and then it would begin to come down as the religious leaders continue to pound the people to killing. I don't know about you, but I'm just dumbfounded to hear and to see how they responded. Remember that they're dead in trespasses and sins, right? Dead people can't do the right things. They can't choose spiritual life. So we really shouldn't expect more from what we're seeing. Now, Mark brings us down to conclude this by mentioning in verses 11 and 12 where Jesus commands the unclean spirits to not speak. You say, what's that all about? Well, before I go into that, listen to this quote from John Phillips. He says, These evil beings did not try to touch Him. For them His touch would have been like the tormenting touch of fire. They had no difficulty recognizing Him, and down on their faces they went before Him, proclaiming His deity. Moreover, as always, the Lord silenced them. He wanted and needed no testimony from the likes of them. That's just like what Paul did in Acts 16 when he was in Philippi and there was this woman that was following him around saying, These are the servants of the Most High God. Do you remember? And he kept doing that for several days and it was annoying Paul. And so he turns to the Spirit and commands the Spirit to come out. And it did right then. Now, I don't believe we have that power today. I believe that was reserved for the apostles and their associates. That's my personal study from scripture. Same with healings. It was only for a select few. Not everybody had these gifts, but it's purported today like everybody does. And yet, we're still building hospitals, we're still building funeral homes, and no one will go there. What they want is you to come to them. Come on their turf and you'll get your healing. No. A lot of people can't come because of their diseases and sicknesses. You go to them if you have this gift. But see, they know they don't have it. They know that what they have is a counterfeit. It's a lie. And all it is is a scheme for them to make money. That's it. And 2 Peter 2 says that false teachers have a heart trained in covetous practices. That's all they care about. If you really had this gift and that was the purpose of its gift, then we wouldn't have hospitals. We wouldn't have funeral homes. But you know what, folks? That was not the purpose of the gift. Even though people get restored and get healed from a direct contact with someone who had this gift. But listen, the gift couldn't be used at any whim. If that was the case, why didn't Paul heal Epaphroditus? Why didn't he heal Timothy? He told Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's sake. If this was the norm, then why didn't he do it? Because Paul obviously had the gift. Same is true with other people. But that wasn't his purpose. His purpose was to validate the message, validate the messenger. It was a signed gift to point to the true Word of God, not to use this for any whim. It was also a judicial sign of judgment to Israel, at least tongues were. With men of other tongues I will speak to this people and they will not hear. It's quoted in Isaiah where it originally occurs and then it's in 1 Corinthians 14 as Paul is discussing the abuse of tongues in the Corinthian church. It's amazing what you can learn by context, isn't it? These were some Interesting times, to say the least. We have interesting times, and we see some interesting activity. But we see some things going on here that are even more interesting. Now, let me point out a couple things before we close. What one thing could the unclean spirits not deny? They could not deny who Jesus was. They didn't agree with him, they didn't like him, but they couldn't disagree with who he was. And they knew that he was God who has full authority. Mark says in verse 11, when the unclean spirit saw him, what would they do? Look at verse 11. They fall down before him and shout, you are the son of God. See, James said in James 2.19 that the demons believe and they shudder because they know that there is a coming judgment for them. Judgment in the Bible on people is not annihilation. Hell is not annihilation. Matthew 10 says that those that are in hell will have a body for hell. Just like 1 Corinthians says in chapter 15, those who are in heaven will have a body for heaven. You have a glorified body fit for heaven. In hell, you have an unglorified body, but it's fit for hell. These bodies would perish in a fire, in a flame, a constant flame. And I know people who have. I had a friend in school and their house burned down and she lost her brother in the fire. And the only way that they could identify him was through dental records. That's what fire does to this body. But that body that some will have in hell will not be consumed by the torment, by the flame. which means that they will be left to experience it forever. Now, we can't imagine forever because we've never seen forever, right? But like Spurgeon said, hanging over their heads are the words forever. And there's no relief. This should be the number one motivator for all of us to make disciples. You can't get any better than this. If you can't get motivated by that truth, you are so hard-hearted and callous, and you need to repent. Me too. These unclean spirits knew who Jesus was, and they knew that their time was numbered. In Mark 1 24, When he cast the demon out of the man in the synagogue in Capernaum, what did the unclean spirit say? Mark 1 24, what business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. Every time they said that, he would tell them to be quiet. Mark 125, Jesus rebuked him saying, be quiet and come out of him. That's the same response you have here in verse 12. And he earnestly warned them not to tell who he was. R.C. Sproul says, them manifested the dominion of the human over the beast. Of course, in God's economy, no fallen spirit could possibly have power over the second person of the Trinity, so the demon's shouting of Jesus' identity was pointless. John MacArthur adds in his study Bible, he says, Jesus always rebuked demons for their testimonies about him. He wanted his teaching and actions, not the impure words of demons, to proclaim who he was. All of this goes back to Mark's original declaration. Look at this, go to Mark 1. What's it say in verse 1? In the beginning, the gospel of Jesus Christ, what's it say next? The Son of God. No one can deny it, especially the demons. Even his enemies eventually admitted it after he died on the cross. You remember the centurion? Matthew 27, 54 says, now the centurion and those who were with him keeping guard over Jesus when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening became very frightened and said, truly, this was the son of God. This is Mark's whole point. This is Mark's thesis for this letter. 16 chapters of proving that Jesus is the Son of God. But not everybody sees Him as such. And that's tragic. Because the very thing that the demons affirm, and can't be saved, but have pending judgment coming, people deny who can be saved. You know, there's no one beyond reach. You know that, don't you? You might think that a person is beyond being reached, and I'm sure some people thought that about myself, and maybe even thought it about you, but we're not unreachable. There is no person on the planet unreachable. We are to preach the gospel to every creature, right? So my question to you this morning, do you see that Jesus is the Son of God? Or are you going to let a demon out-proclaim Him? when you should be out proclaiming the demons. He is the Son of God. Mark has proven that already over and over. He proved it with the preaching of John the Baptist. He proved it at Jesus' baptism. He proved it at Jesus' temptation. He proved it when he began his preaching ministry. He proved it when he called his disciples. He proved it when he taught in the synagogues. He proved it when he healed the people. He proved it when he cast out demons. How much proof do you need? Right? How much proof does somebody need? It's just like the parable that Jesus gave of the rich man and Lazarus. It was a different Lazarus, but they both died, and the rich man went to Hades, and Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man in Hades was tormented in the flame, and he asked Abraham if he would just dip his finger in water and touch his tongue just to cool him in this flame, give him some very brief relief, but there was no relief. Even at one time, he begged that Abraham would allow him to go back to tell his brothers, to warn them about this place. And Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets, and if they won't hear him, They won't hear them. They won't hear someone rising from the dead. See how much stock Scripture puts on itself? You don't need all these fancy things. You don't need all these miracles. You don't need all of these signs and wonders and mighty deeds. No. This is what you need, right here. The Word of God. This is it. This is all you need. This right here, if you surrender your life to what this book teaches, this book will transform your life. You will not be the same person. I promise you. You're looking at a transformed person right now. And other transformed persons in the room. But that's what scripture does. And it does that work in your life, right? It's profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So as we pray at this time, would you examine where you're at? You know, you only have this life to make it right. You leave this life without being a believer and follower of Jesus, you go into eternity without Jesus. You go to this Christless place. You go to this tormenting place called hell. And I know none of us in here want anyone to go to hell. But there are people that are. And here's the reason why. Because they refuse. They refuse Jesus. They refuse to have him over their life. They refuse to acknowledge his sovereignty. They refuse to recognize that he is king of kings and lord of lords. And we all know people that do that and are still doing that. And our hearts break because we know the truth and they don't. But what would you do if you left church today and took a left and passed by some houses that are further down, you rode down further. down Eastport, and you saw a house on fire, and the fire truck hadn't gotten there yet. I imagine the first thing you do is you pull your phone out and call 911, right? What's the second thing you would do? Would you try to find out if anybody's in the house so you can get them out? That's the question. Because that's where we're standing right now. We're standing outside the house. where this person's life is on fire. Are you gonna go in and rescue him? Or are you gonna keep standing there, calling for someone else to do it? There's a reason why this church is empty. Have you thought about that? A few weeks ago, I was brought back to an illustration that I'd read some years ago, and it was about a life-saving station. That life-saving station started outright. They wanted to rescue souls from the sea, people that were half drowned, people that had been shipwrecked. They built this place to bring them in, to get them out of the cold, take care of them. Well, over time, they needed to build a bigger one, and they did. And they began to bring nice stuff in there, and they decided, well, you know, we really don't want to bring them in there, because it'll mess up things, so we'll let them wash outside, and then we'll bring them in. Then after a while, they built an even bigger one. And that third one they built, they stopped going on life missions. You know what they were doing? They were having meetings about missions. They weren't doing any missions, they just had meetings. And they even hired another crew to do the life-saving efforts. And finally, both parties got into a feud and they told them to go down the road and build their own life-saving station. That sounds just like the church. Where's our effectiveness? Church isn't effective anymore. You know why it's not effective? Because the church has become the world. We're no different. You got pastors that shouldn't even be pastors up there. You got women pastors, they definitely shouldn't be there. You got a marrying homosexuals, that should never happen. That's an abomination to God. No matter how many times you want to say it's not, it's in scripture, Old and New Testament. The church has lost his power because it's not willing to stand up against the culture. Instead, it wants to be the culture because it wants to be accepted. Do you want to be accepted by the culture or accepted by God? Because if you accept the culture and become the culture, you're rejected by God. You want to be the last one standing? Confront the culture. Because you might be the only one doing it. It's a mess, isn't it? It's a mess everywhere. There's some days that I don't want to look at my phone. I don't want to read the first headline. I don't want to look at the first video. I've had enough. I got enough to make me miserable for the rest of my life looking at all this stuff. What I'm really more concerned about are my kids. That's what I'm concerned about. Just want them to follow Jesus with me. Now, I'm sure that I'll probably go to heaven before them. I just want to take them with me. You know what I mean? Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for what you've reminded us of in your word, reminding us of the work that we have been called to by you to go out and rescue people that are perishing. Forgive us for not doing that. Forgive us for our excuses. There are people around us everywhere perishing. And we act like we don't even care. Because we don't say anything. We watch. And we think, oh, what a tragedy. And then we forget about it. Forgive us, God. Please forgive us. Help us to repent right now from today forward that we stop doing or not doing what we should be doing. We stop giving ourself to the great omission and we start giving ourself to the great commission. Move in everyone's heart, we ask you, Lord. and save those who are not saved. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.