I wish I could tell you what it really means to me to
be standing here. I was looking a minute ago at
this schedule. I looked over there and I saw,
for this morning's service, and I saw my name there. And I just thought back very quickly over the last 60
years, and I thought, you know, this is a miracle of God's grace
that I'm standing here. I thank you. I thank you, Pastor. I thank the Lord for the privilege
of being able to be here with you. And I do pray the Lord bless
these services. Blessed them to me last night,
to Tom. Oh, that God would speak today. Wouldn't that be wonderful? We
come together, we have some services. Oh, if God Almighty would speak. I'm talking about truly. and
that I'd be able to hear. I want you to take your Bibles
and turn to the book of Mark first. We're going to look in
a passage of Scripture in Deuteronomy in a few minutes, but turn with
me to the book of Mark, chapter 5. Mark, chapter 5. Starting in verse 1, the Scriptures
say, And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into
the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the
ship immediately, 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, no, not with chains, because he had been often bound
with fetters and chains, and the chains that had been plucked
asunder by him, and the feathers broken in pieces, neither could
any man tame him. Verse 6 says that when he saw
Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped Him, and cried with a loud voice,
and said, What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the
Most High God? I assure Thee by God that Thou
torment me not, He said unto him, Come out of the man, thou
unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy
name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion, for we are
many." Scripture sets forth that the
Lord delivered that demoniac, sent those evil spirits, that
It means the same thing as about 6,000 men in a Roman legion. Sent them into a bunch of swine.
They drowned themselves in water. That's what the Scripture says. After the Lord delivered this
man of those demons, the Scripture says, in verse 18, and when he
was come into the ship, that is, the Lord, he that had been
possessed with the devil, prayed him that he might be with him.
How then, verse 19, Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him,
Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord
has gone for thee, and hath had compassion on thee." This man
wanted to go with the Lord. I'd like to go with you. Wherever
you're going, that's where I want to go. The Lord said, No, no. I'll tell you what I want you
to do. You go back home, and you tell your friends. what
I've done for you. I've had compassion on you. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 32
now. It's with that thought, what
the Lord told that formerly possessed demoniac. It's with that thought
I'd like for us to look at a few passages of Scripture. Deuteronomy
chapter 32. I'm going to begin reading in
a moment in verse 7 and read through verse 10. And while I'm getting ready to
read this, this is part of the Song of Moses. And this dying
pastor, Moses, was soon to be out of this world, and the Spirit
of God under the inspiration of that preacher. He wrote some
things down here. And these things that are said
concerning natural Israel then, these things are spiritual blessings. And while we read what the Lord
set forth in this passage of Scripture, I want you to do something
for me. I want you, you that know Him,
you that know By the grace of God, by faith in Him. I want
you to apply these to yourself. Because everything that He promised
Israel, that natural, that's a picture, that's a type of what
He's truly done spiritually for His people. I've entitled this
message, Great Things He Has Done For Me. That's what He told
the Demoniacs. No, you go back and you tell
them what great things the Lord's done for you. I'm going to just
share this. Somebody's going to say, well,
it's going to sound like a personal word of testimony or a word of
personal testimony. You say it, you know. Yeah. Yeah,
that is. This is what the Lord God Almighty
has done for me. He started off, he said in verse
7, the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy Father, and He will show
thee thy elders, and they will tell thee." And here is where
it starts, right here. When the Most High God divided
to the nations their inheritance, and when He separated the sons
of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number
of the children of Israel. Now here's an amazing thing.
From all eternity, Almighty God established in that everlasting
covenant of grace, His purpose to show mercy to His people.
I will have mercy. Moses said, show me your glory. I looked that word up one time
just to think what it meant. It's from the root word to think,
the opinion. Moses said, I want to know what
you think. Would you tell me what you think?
What, Lord? What's your thoughts? Show me
your glory. And he said, I will have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. Here the Scripture sets forth
from all eternity God Almighty gave, as Brother Paul said last
night, gave a bride to His Son. Chose her in the surety of Himself. And from that, and I'm just speaking
as a man speaks, I don't know how to speak in eternity. Everything
for me, Mike, kind of comes at time, you know, but from the
time that He gave those that He everlastingly loved to the
surety. He never looked at the sheep
again. Not for satisfaction He looked
at the surety. He watched the surety. Oh, that's good news. I'm so
glad that He never looked to me for satisfaction before Him. He purposed to show mercy to
me. And what he did, what great things
has he done for me? The Scripture says, when he divided
the nations in their inheritance and separated the sons of Adam,
he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the
children of Israel. What he did from the very beginning,
when men were starting to multiply and cities were coming up and
people would go here and there, migrate, and they came over from
Europe and they came to America and they discovered what he was
doing was he was setting the bounds and he was putting everything,
every place, everybody according to his purpose for the good of
his people. He raised up Ashland, Kentucky,
Vermont, West Virginia, Lexington, He made all these places, put
these people, put them together, put them here, put them there
for the good of His people according to the glory of His blessed Son. He's prospered. Prospered this
place. Prospered this one for your sake. Raised up a business. Gave a man who maybe never knew
God. Made that man, humanly speaking,
wealthy. He gave you a job. He did that
for you. What has the Lord done for me?
I'll tell you what He's done. He's made of one blood all nations
of men for to dwell on the face of the earth and has determined
the time before appointed and the bounds of their habitation.
He put everything just exactly where He purposed to put it.
He just set it up. It's amazing to me that the Lord
raised up a church place where the candlestick of the glorious
gospel of God's grace is raised up. And you'll find that there's
a group of people there. You can go places and there's
nobody. As far as I know, I can leave
Fairmont and I can drive hundreds of miles before I find a place
where the Lord's raised up a church. And between there, as far as
I know, there's nobody. But I guarantee you this, though
I may not understand why this is here and why that's here,
why did He put that? Why did He do this over here?
The Scripture says when He divided the nations, their inheritance,
when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the
people according to the number of the children of Israel. He
did this for their sake. for the glory of His blessed
Son. Verse 9 says that the Lord's
portion is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. All the works that we behold
are the works of His hands. He's made everything. I never
buy it. All souls are mine. Can he do
what he will with his own? He sure can. How do you know? He said so. He said so. We've got God's Word on that.
And the Lord's portion, His share, that's what that means, is His
people. Jacob is the lot held by a pledge. I like that. I like to look up
some words, you know. I don't know much. Thank goodness
I get a dictionary and look up some things. Jacob is the lot
of his inheritance. His people. That's his garden. In the midst of this world's
wilderness, the Lord has a garden. Oh, old north wind. Old south
wind on my garden. Oh, that despises. And that's something to think,
that Almighty God, before the foundation of the world, would
purpose to make someone like me, according to the infinite
riches of His grace, part of His garden. He made His portion
for Himself. That's His people. John 3.16, probably one of the
most abused passages of Scripture. For God so loved the world. And
I know what everybody else said. I don't have to go into all of
the false stuff. Let me just tell you what it
means. God loved the arrangement. He loved the order of man. He
loved the order of man. There's different orders. Order
of birds, four-footed beast, order of angels, different orders. And he loved the order of man.
Can you imagine? Not to try to explain it, he
just said, for God so loved the arrangement. And Almighty God
purposed it. The order of man was not going
to perish. So out of every nation and kindred
and tribe and tongue, he chose some out of that order. And he
said, this is my portion. This is my share right here.
And he gave them to his son and trusted them to his son. Old Brother Scott, I hear him
say sometimes, he said, put all of his eggs in one basket. Put them in Christ. This is my portion. Made him
for himself. He loved the order of man. And
the order of man was not going to be obliterated. That complete
order was not going to be cast out in wrath. I will have mercy. Made her for himself. Isaiah 43, verse 1, But now thus
saith the Lord God that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed
thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I have
called thee by name, thou art mine." Well, for those that He everlastingly
loved, created, redeemed, called by name, what does the Scripture
continue to say in this passage right here? That He's done for
them. Everything that's said right
here to natural Israel has a spiritual promise in that for everyone
that he's everlastingly loved. What has he done? You go back
now and you tell your friends what great things the Lord has
done for you. Look at verse 10. Here's the
first thing. It says, He found him in a desert
land in the waste howling wilderness. Can you imagine that demoniac
going back, former demoniac? He said, let me tell you what
the Lord did for me. You remember when I was out there
in that place and people tried to bind me up? I could break
those chains. But one day he came in on a ship
and I saw him. I ran down and tried to talk
to him. And He cast those demons out
of me. He found me. He found me. That's the first
thing. This is what the Lord has done
for me in the wilderness of this world where no provision of life
can be found. Here I was, fallen in Adam. Dead spiritually before God Almighty. No ability whatsoever. I was
just like everybody else. Children of wrath. Not that God
ever looked upon his people in wrath. God Almighty has never
looked upon his people in wrath. Do you know how I know that?
Because he said, ìI have loved you with an everlasting love,
and having everlastingly looked upon his own in the person of
his blessed in the Lamb slain for the foundation of the world,
God Almighty has never looked upon His children in wrath, His
people in wrath. I'll tell you one verse of Scripture
that I can prove that by. He said, I change not. I don't change. There's no shadow
of changing with God. If Almighty God ever looked upon
you an object of his mercy in wrath, and then changed his mind
and said, no, I don't look on you in wrath. He changed an attitude
if he did that. And he said, I don't change,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Well, what does
it mean that we were all children of wrath? That was our attitude
toward him. We were just like everybody else.
We were children of wrath toward him. What great things has He
done for me? I'll tell you what He did for
me. He found me. He found me. And all of the mess,
all of the stuff, things and mess and stuff lost in the bondage
of sin, there came a day when it pleased
God. Ezekiel 16, 6, it says, When
I passed by thee, I saw thee polluted in thine own blood.
I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. Live. Wasn't no invitation there, was
it, Paul? Live. Yea, I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood, live. You didn't find Him. Ah, not
at first. He found you. Oh, I know in time
the Lord's people do find Him. Scripture bears that out. He
said, I'm sought of them that ask not for Me. I'm found of
them that sought Me not. Oh, they find Him as a result of Him finding them. He said in John 15, 16, You've
not chosen Me. I've chosen you. I ordained you
that you should go forth and bring forth fruit and that your
fruit should remain. We love Him because He first
loved us. It's always because of what He's
done for me. What great things, Marvin, has
the Lord done for you? He found me. Found me. Here's the next thing in that
verse. It says He led him about. You look in your margin. He accomplished
Him. He accomplished Him. What great
things has the Lord done for you? He found me. He led me. He accomplished me. I never knew. I never knew what
He was doing for me. I didn't know. Oh, I just go
in my merry way. I just do whatever I do best,
you know. Rebel against God. That's what
I do. I didn't even know I was rebelling
against God. I didn't care. It never even entered my mind. I didn't know about it. I'm just doing my thing. And
all the while, the Scripture says, He led me about. predestinated
me. The adoption of sons. Here and
there. I can look back now and I can
kind of see the trail of how I... I didn't know that deal. I didn't know that. I was, you
know, I went to college and got out and got me a job and this
is what I'm going to do and I'm going to go over here and I'm
going to be over here and I was in... and then one day He calls
my path to cross with a preacher of the Gospel. He calls me to
hear. Oh, I could probably say like
that Lydia. Scripture says she was a seller
who worshipped God in the only way that she even knew. Worshipped
the little God of her imagination. Oh, I was religious. And one
day, the Lord opened my heart and revealed Christ to me. What
has the Lord done to you? Well, He found me, encompassed
me, led me about, guided me. All of these things I now can
see in the wilderness. The Lord led His people by day
a pillar of a cloud, a pillar of fire by night, made them to realize something
of their need. Think about what he's doing right
now. I'm talking about how he kept me and compassed me and
directed me before. How about right now? I mean,
that I could even be here. Jeremiah 10.23, O Lord, I know
that the way of man is not in himself. It's not in man that
walketh to direct his steps. Psalm 25, 5, Lead me in thy truth
and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation on thee,
who I wait all the day. I don't want to go anywhere without
Him. I was reading the other day.
Exodus 33, the Lord told Moses, He said, I'm going to send you
into that land that I promised, the one I promised to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob. I'm going to send an angel with
you, but I'm not going. And I read that verse of Scripture,
and I thought, oh, Moses said it later, Lord, if you don't
go, don't send us. Let me ask you this. Would you
want to go anywhere? You want to leave this building
without His presence? Lord, if you don't go, what are
we going to do? I don't want to move. I don't
want to sit down. I don't want to do anything.
What great things has He done for me? He found me, led me about. And then back in verse 10, it
says, He instructed him. You know, Israel, think about
when they were in that wilderness. They had the finest opportunity
in the world to be instructed by Almighty God. Now think about
what they saw. Here they were hemmed up between
the Red Sea and the Egyptian army. And Moses said, Stand still. and see the salvation of your
God. And the Scripture says a wind blew all night and parted that
sea. And that water stood up and it
was dry ground. You think about that Red Sea
being a picture of our Lord stricken, opened up, out of the way. Christ,
our Red Sea. And they walked across, the Scripture
says, on dry ground. Boy, what were we taught by that? There was a day in which they
didn't have anything to drink. The Lord told Moses, He said,
you take this rock, strike this rock. Struck it with water. Told him, next time you speak
to the rock, you know what happened. He struck it. But that rock followed
them. That rock followed them. They
were out there in the desert. There they were. Fiery serpents,
biting. Moses made a brazen serpent.
Scripture says that anybody that looks, anybody that looks will
be healed, will be whole. You think, well, that wasn't
too much to it. No, except when you realize that man by nature
is blind. If anybody looked, He taught them. Has He not taught
us? Here we are. We've got the Scriptures. God's raised up a pastor. That's
a miracle of God's grace that God would send a preacher, a
pastor. I'll give you pastors after my
heart. We have the unction, the anointing of the Spirit of God
to take what Almighty God has said in His Word through a preacher. And God, by His Spirit, teaches
you that. He taught them. What has He done
for you, Marvin? He found me and He led me providentially. Then He taught me something. about His eternal purpose. He
taught me something of the Father that chose to show me mercy. He taught me something about
the Son made flesh, the Word Himself. And that the Lord Jesus
Christ put away my guilt and laid down His life for me. He
taught me something about the surety of the Spirit of God calling
out all that the Father chose and the Son redeemed. All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh
to me, I will know wisely. He's taught me something about
the truth. I'm not going to leave you. I'm
not going to forsake you. He taught me. You go into a doctor's office
and the doctor says, well, looks like we've got a problem. I can tell you this, truthfully,
the best thing that ever happened to a man. David said, it's good
that I've been afflicted, that I might learn of your statutes.
The best thing that ever happened. act of indescribable mercy and
grace that God would teach me something of my need of Him. I need Thee every hour. I know
just a little bit about that. Taught me. Everything that He
brings us through in providential mercy is for our instruction. For whom the Lord loved it and
chastened it. Always, my kids growing up, you
know, Gabe's bigger than I am now. Man, I'm telling you, I
remember those kids growing up and never would whip them for,
you know, mistakes, for disobedience. And when I said, right there,
lay down across that bed, I'd tell them first, now I'm
going to tell you something. This is why I'm going to do this.
I've got to. If I don't, I'm disobedient. And I said in time, if I don't,
the Lord's going to deal with me. He's going to whip me through
you. Not a one of my kids will tell
me any different. Now, Dad, I know what you mean.
It didn't make sense then, but I know now they've got kids,
you know. And every time after I'd have to discipline them,
I'd say, now listen, I love you. And I wouldn't do anything to
hurt you. He taught me. What has He done for me? He found
me. He led me. He taught me. And here's the
last part. Verse 10, He kept him as the
apple of His eye. Kept him. Tender. Tender. Oh, just remembering
those things I just looked at where it said Instructed him,
I think about those Egyptians coming and kept them. Can you
imagine how they felt when they walked across that Red Sea? Water standing up. As soon as
they got over, here comes the Egyptians. They felt he kept us. Every time they took a drink
out of that rock, there was Christ. That's what we're doing here
this morning. I'd like to just come this morning,
just get a good cold drink of water of Him who is our rock. We're going to eat of Him. He's
the bread, that manna that fell in the wilderness that went out
there every day. Not enough for that day except
one, and good enough on one day because of the Sabbath to stay
two days. He kept us, directed us. The Scripture says in 1 Chronicles
16, 21, He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, He reproved
kings for their sakes. Kept us. Those snakes biting
everybody and The Lord instructed Moses, you take that piece of
brass, there's a picture of Christ made what was biting them. There's
a picture of Christ made sin. Those snakes, that's a picture,
a type of sin. Men die from that. Made that
brazen serpent, held it up. As Moses lifted up the serpent,
even so, in that manner, made what was biting them. There he
was, made sin. Made sin. Made sin. Almighty God put my
guilt away. Scripture says He kept him. Preserved him. Now you think,
just for a second, here we are this morning. By the mercy and
grace of Almighty God, you're still here. There's some places that I can
remember going years ago and preaching, and they're not there
anymore. They're not there. And you're still here this morning.
This church is still here. God Almighty has allowed this
place to still be here. I tell the folks at Katie all
the time, don't take this for granted. Don't take it for granted. The Lord may raise up a church
and leave a church there 50 years and then remove the candlestick
and put it somewhere else. And it's by the grace of God
that you're still here. What has He done for me? What
great things has He done for me? He ordered this world and put
everything that it is for me. Raised up kingdoms and
put down kingdoms and He would do that for me. And in the midst
of my rebellion, He found me. And then He led me. Encompassed
me. And then He taught me. And He's kept me. And He said
this, He said, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you.
And this is what I can say this morning. I am what I am by the
grace of God.