I'd like to bring your attention
to today's bulletin for our devotional this morning. The article written on the right-hand
page, the bottom left-hand side, by Brother Gabe Stoniker, titled,
Lord Keep Our Eyes and Hearts on You. Gabe writes, there's a song in
our hymn book that says, stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are fully
blessed. Finding as he promised, perfect
peace and rest. Oh, how true that is. When our hearts are sincerely
Fervently looking to Christ, we see a God who truly is God. We see a purpose that is ordered
and sure. We see a salvation that is forever
settled in heaven. And we see an eternal home that
is so much better than the pilgrimage we're passing through now. We see a husband who loves us
and gave himself for us. We see a friend that will stick
closer to us than a brother. We see a shepherd who will watch
over our every move, keeping his all-seeing eye on everything
concerning us. We see safety. We see mercy. We see grace. We see help in
our time of need. Every time we look to Christ,
we see lasting joy. We see contentment. We see perfect
peace and rest. The great blessing that God's
people have on this earth is the God-given ability to look
to Christ. That will forever be our blessing. The more we can look to Him,
the more joy we will have, the more contentment we will have,
the more peace we will have, and the more rest we will have. Lord, keep our eyes and our hearts
on You. Gabe Steiner. I'd like to ask you to turn to
the book of Luke, chapter 8, please. Like I was mentioning ago, A
moment ago, the gospel is a simple message. Too many men stand before
too many people and want to make it complicated. I will forever remember Daryl
for that very reason. Thank you Lord, as he would say,
for bringing a message through that man that so simple even
I can understand it. My day started at 2.30 this morning
when Daryl had passed. I got a text from his son Cody
and So I jumped in the car and rode
up there and spent some time with Marvin and Cody. Normally I would get up about
four o'clock in the morning and put together a message, but this
morning all I could think of was these words that we read
here in Luke. I brought this message once before many years
back. This morning I just want to bring
out some truths as we go through these words. If you're in the book of Luke,
would you look with me at verse 22? Now it came to pass on a certain
day that He, our Lord Jesus, went into a ship with His disciples.
And I want to stop there for just a moment. We sing the song, He is Lord
of all. You see, As Lord of all, everything
that comes to pass is by his providential means. I too, like many, was pretty
distressed about the situation our country has gotten itself
into over the last week. The Bible study Mike Loveless
brought before us this morning is recorded. And I cannot recommend
enough to everyone here to hear what the Lord laid on this man's
heart. Everything comes to pass exactly
how our Lord has determined it to be. He's Lord of all. Everything that was created was
created for one reason, so that our Savior would be glorified
in it. And he's glorified by being merciful. He delights in mercy. When it says here, it came to
pass on a certain day, it's exactly like He said in the Scripture
where He's talking about the lady at the well. He said to
His disciples, I must go through Samaria. He must go through everywhere
one of His children are until the last one is brought out of
darkness. He must. They were all given
to Him before the world began. Isn't that what Scripture says?
All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me. That's not
a maybe. That's not a might. Our Lord doesn't work with maybes
or mights. He's Lord of everything. You say, John, you might be taking
that a little too far. Really, our Lord takes it to
this point. He says, every hair on your head
is numbered, and I know what it is. It includes all the hair
that falls out each day. That's a detail that we can't
even wrap our minds around, isn't it? That's pretty detailed. Why? Because He's in control
of it. What He has purposed shall come
about. It shall come to pass. On that
certain day that He went into the ship with His disciples and
He said unto them, hear this now, let us go over unto the
other side of the lake. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
came to this world with a specific purpose, and that was to go a
certain place, and each place that he went to was purpose,
and he would go there, no matter what, and this is exactly what
we're seeing here. Let us go over onto the other
side of the lake. Why? Well, let's read on. And
they launched forth, but as they sailed, he fell asleep. And there
came down a storm of wind on the lake and they were filled
with water and were in jeopardy. Oh, do we not see the storms
of this world around us? The storms of our own lives. What's the worst sin that troubles
us the most? Is it not the sin of pride? Is it not the one sin that is
always before us? The scent of pride. Pride makes us do all kinds of
things. Makes us think we're better than others. Makes us look upon others. Why
is that person that way? The wind on the lake was so boisterous
that it filled the ship with water. And they were in jeopardy. And just like all things, every
time somebody gets in jeopardy, they're down in the foxhole crying
out, Lord, save me! And they awoke him, in verse
24, saying, Master, Master, we perish! And then he arose and
rebuked the wind and the raging of the water, and they ceased,
and there was calm. He is Lord of all. When our Lord shows us the raging
waters of our lives, He shows us His authority over
those very things and reveals His Son to us with a new heart. Cutting away that old stony heart
that we were born with, that old nature that said, I will
not let this man rule over me and he who ruled over me even
when I didn't want him, reveals himself to me. He arose and he rebuked the wind
and the raging water and they ceased and there was calm. And he said to them, where is
your faith? Where is your faith? And they
being afraid wondered, saying one to another, what manner of
man is this? for he commandeth even the winds
and the water, and they obey him." Oh, what a Lord we serve. I like the fact that my God is
sovereign over everything, because I know that John Reeves would
run I know what it was when I was in the darkness, because now
the light is on, and I see what my heart was at one time. Do
you? Do you see the heart that you
once had? The heart that you came into
this world with? If you do, then now, do you see
the heart that the Lord has given you to look to Him, as Gabe Stoniker
pointed out to us? Look to our Lord and Savior for
peace, for mercy, for grace, Oh, Father, reveal Yourself unto
us. And they arrived at the country
of the Gadareans, which is over against Galilee. And when He
had went forth, our Lord and Savior, to land, there met Him
out of the city a certain man." Isn't it cool to be a certain
one? Especially a certain one to the
Lord? Oh, when I think of that very
thing, and how the Lord came to me. Can you remember the time
when He came to you? Remember when the first time
you heard God's gospel? And you said, oh, that makes
more sense than anything I've ever heard out of anybody else's
mouth anywhere. The Lord revealing His truth
to you for the first time? A certain man, verse 27, which
had devils, long time, and wear no clothes, neither abode in
any house, but in the tombs." You see, that's where each and
every one of God's children live, in the tombs. We've been walking
in the valley of the shadow of death, ever since the Lord has
brought us into this world. Daryl has finally left that valley
of the shadow of death and he stands in the light of our Savior
today. Oh how I want and look forward
to that day. When I brought this message before,
it was the first time I'd preached before Don Fortner. And I don't
know if I can explain this to you, but that was about the most
intimidating thing I've ever been in. Don't get me wrong, Don Fortner
is no more a man than any one of us. He's a man saved by grace,
a sinner saved by grace. But I have great reverence for
that man because of what the Lord has used him for. And the
experience and the knowledge that he has is hundredfold of
anything I will ever have. So to stand before him in preaching
was quite intimidating. And when I brought out about
how one of my points of this man that we're talking about
here in scripture that the Lord is bringing out, this man who
didn't wear clothes, he lived in the tombs, I said, you know,
one of the points here is this guy is flat out crazy. That's
the only time I've ever heard Don Fortner laugh in the middle
of a message. He never said nothing to me about
it. I don't know if it was good or bad. But he burst out laughing. He
just, you'd have to be here, I guess. But this man was crazy. He was
flat out insane, you might think. But folks, that's exactly where
we are. when we before the Lord calls
us, before the Lord gives us a knowledge of who He is. We're
flat out crazy thinking that we are gods. How many of you
have ever created anything? Okay, so we might put something
together that's already been created and we might make something
of that. But how many have created something
out of nothing? That's what God does. He created
the worlds. He put them in place so that
they would go around each other perfectly, and that there would
be one world with the atmosphere and all the other stuff on it
that man might need to live on, and then he put man on that world.
Isn't that wonderful? You know, Jesus Christ is the
very one who made that world. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Nothing was
made that He didn't make. And then in verse 14 of John
1 we read this, and the Word was made flesh. Our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ created everything that is. He's God. He's the very
God. Continuing on in verse 28, when
He saw Jesus, this One who was crazy, this One who went through
the tombs naked. He cried out and fell down before
Him and in a loud voice said, What have I to do with Thee,
Jesus, Thou Son of the God of the Most High? I beseech Thee,
torment me not. For he had commanded the unclean
spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught
him, and he was kept bound in chains and in fetters, and he'd
break the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness."
Folks, our sin is what has dominion over us. The very sin that we
have when we come into this world. We come into this world dead
and trespasses in sin. It has dominion over us. It's what rules the will of man. There is no such thing as free
will. We are bound by our nature. An
example of that is given in Scripture where if you try to feed a deer... No, I'm sorry, that wasn't in
Scripture. Scripture actually says you can't change the stripes
on a zebra. You know what I'm saying? I'm
confusing myself here. Somehow I got off the subject
there and it's all in my notes. It's right there. You can't change the nature of
the beast. If you take a deer And you put
a piece of red, bloody meat in front of it, it'll cower back
away from it, because that's its nature. But if you take that
same piece of meat and put it in front of a lion, the lion
will devour it. That's the nature. We can't change our nature. Only
God can do that. Oftentimes, it caught him and
he was kept bound with chains and fetters and he'd break the
bands and was driven by the devil into the wilderness. And Jesus
asked him, saying, What is thy name? Verse 30. And he said, Legion, because
many devils were entered into him. And they besought him that he
would command them to go out into the deep. And there was
there a herd of many swine, feeding on the mountain. And they besought
him that he would suffer them to enter into them, and he suffered
them. Then went the devils out of the
man, and entered into the swine, and the herd ran violently down
a steep place into the lake, and were choked." Takes God Almighty. God Almighty
to remove that devil from us and that's exactly what He did
on the cross 2,000 years ago. His blood covered those sins
forever. And when they had Then went the
devils out of the man, and entered into the swine, and the herd
ran valiantly down to a steep place into the lake, and were
choked. And when they that fed them saw
what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city
and in the country. And then they went out to see
what was done, and they came to Jesus. And here's my point
for this morning. I've titled my message, In His
Right Mind. They found the man out of whom
the devils were departed, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed
and in his right mind, and they were afraid. My brother Mike Ledless brought
out how, you know, there's, I'm going
to add a little bit to it. There's two sides to what's going
on in our world today. You have those who are very happy
about something that has happened, and you have those that are very
sad. And if you stop and consider that on both sides, what is causing
each of the emotions from both sides? It's all of the information. that's coming in from the world. And the world doesn't look upon
God Almighty. They are just like that man was,
going through the valley of the shadow of death, living in the
tombs, living a lie. This man is found in his right
mind. sitting at the feet of Jesus.
And this is where all of God's children will be brought to.
Each and everyone who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, each
and everyone for whom He went to that cross and died, each
and everyone for whom His blood was shed, the perfect blood of
Christ, will come to our Lord and be
found at His feet in their right mind looking to the only truth
that we will ever find. I thought about this as Mike was
bringing this out, you know, I have every reason to go back
to work on Monday just as happy as can be even though I lost. Because it doesn't matter what
I think of what happened, it's all in my Lord's hands. We began
this message by saying He is Lord of all, is that correct?
Well that means He's Lord of what just happened. And who am
I? Who am I to think that what just
happened isn't perfect according to His purpose? Hmm. That makes life a whole lot easier
now. That makes me a whole lot happier
just knowing that. That's what this man was dealing
with right now. He's at the feet of Jesus seeing the truth of
the Lord. The Lord has revealed Himself
to him. Here's the truth. Jesus Christ
is God. And His salvation is perfect. And our salvation is in Him,
not in anything that we can do. I'm almost without words for
that. I heard that come out of the
voice of our dear brother when he called me on the phone and
he said these words to me. He said, John, and it was hard
to hear him because his vocal box had been affected by the
cancer to a certain degree. He said, John, I'm going home. And I'm going to be perfect. That's this man. Folks, we can feel that way today. Despite all the stuff that's
going on around us in the world. Despite whatever disappointment
we might have in the way the world is reacting to things.
We can feel perfect. We can feel at peace at the feet
of our Savior. Turn from the flesh. Turn from
what it is you think is inside of you, because there is nothing
inside of you that you can count on. There's no good in us. There's
no good in this flesh. John, you're so down on yourself.
That's alright. I've got the Lord dwelling in
me, in my heart, in my spirit. That's all I need. You can think
of whatever you want of my flesh. I got the Lord hanging out with
me in my heart, in my spirit. And I got all the peace I need
in the world right there. Only a man with the peace of
God would say, I'm going home and I'm going to be perfect.
I'm going to see the Lord face to face. I found Him. I found Him that
day to be at the feet of our Savior in His right mind. That's how simple the Gospel
is. Have you ever looked at the Word
of God and thought to yourself, how is it people can believe
that other stuff when it says right there It says right here
in God's Word, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. How can they
believe in all that other stuff about the Lord loving all the
whole world and all it is is up to you to make a decision
to this? How can they believe that when the Lord's Word says
it's not of Him that willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy? Have you ever looked at Scripture
and wondered that? It seems so simple to me. Because Christ has revealed Himself
to me, just as He did that man who was wandering around in the
tombs. Has the Lord revealed Himself to you? And shown you
the simplicity of the Gospel? The doctrine of Christ? If He has, there's a day coming
when we're all going to go through that doormark death. And when that day comes, We're all going to stand before
Him in judgment. Will you be standing in your
own righteousness? Will you be standing on something
you have done? Lord, I have done many good things in this world.
Lord, I have cast out many devils in Your name. Our Lord says this
in His Word, He says, I will tell them, depart from me, ye
workers of iniquity, I have never known you. Or will you be standing in the
righteousness of Christ? Only those who have no righteousness
of their own and know it will be standing in the righteousness
of Christ. And if we are, We'll be standing face to face with
the very one who has saved us, called us, redeemed us, sanctified
us, all those wonderful things that he does for his people.
I'd like to sing that song as our closing hymn today.