Well, it's an honor to be here,
and I thank God for the divine providence that brought us safely
here. We put a little over 3,000 miles already on the family car,
and probably another 3,000 before we get home, and he has kept
us safe and brought us safely here, and I just thank our Lord
for his protecting hand upon us. Thank you. Thank all of you,
members of this church, in labor of love and hosting these conferences,
and your pastor and his wife, dear friends of ours, were so
thankful for those who love the Gospel, are willing to support
the Gospel, and those Gospel preachers are willing to go and
preach the Gospel. Oh, I have been fed already.
It's been wonderful. I received an email note from
a dear pastor friend of mine. He was talking about a preacher
who was closing his message And he said, before I invite the
song leader to come and lead us in a closing hymn, I'm just
going to tell you how I feel about some things. If I owned
all the beer in the world, and I knew I could make a fortune
selling it, I'd dump it in the river. Same with wine. If I owned all the wine, if I
owned all the alcoholic beverages, whiskey and all, I'd just dump
it in the river. And then he sat down, Song leader stood up,
said to him, turn to hymn 222, let's sing, shall we gather at
the river. Bring your own glass. Well, we're
gathered here, feasting on the riches of Christ, that living
water, isn't it wonderful? It's just so, so wonderful. I draw your attention to Mark
chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. In the previous chapter, and
it's already been mentioned about our Lord carrying us through
the storms of life, but our Lord was crossing over the sea in
the boat with His disciples and the storm came up and He was
asleep back into the boat. Now all of these things were
ordained by God. Our Lord came to do the will
of the Father and this was part of that. Not only the storm,
our Lord brings the storms, but also where Christ was during
that storm. And His disciples were frightened. Woke up the Lord and said, don't
you care that we perish? And He stood up and said, peace. Be still. The winds and the waves obeyed
His voice. And His disciples in one of the
other Gospels said, What manner of man is this that even the
waves obey His voice? Well, thank God for divine revelation
because we know what manner of man He is. He's the God-man.
He's our Creator. He's Jehovah God. He's the one
who created everything that we see, just by the word of His
mouth. Just spoke it. And the winds and the waves obey
His voice, but not just the winds and the waves, everything obeys
His voice. Did you know the Word of God?
I know you know this, but I get to tell it to you again. The
Word of God tells us that we're not even to say that we're going
to go into a town and buy and sell unless we say God willing.
Now that might not be difficult to believe in a little town called
Rescue, because there's not very many of us there. But that's
talking about all the cities. Hong Kong, New York, Chicago,
San Francisco, People coming and going, doing the will of
God Almighty, and not even aware of it. Well, that same boat, on that
same sea, was taking our Lord to one of His lost sheep. That's
the will of God. Our Lord came to do His will.
Of God the Father. We just heard that read from
the Scripture. Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. And He did
it perfectly. Everything our Lord Jesus did,
from His mother's womb, to where He laid down His life for His
sheep, and everything in between, He did it perfectly. Every thought
in His mind, every word He spoke, every deed He committed, every
miracle He performed, and the motive for doing all of that
was absolutely perfect. He's never made a mistake. Our
God cannot fail. That brings us to this first
verse. Actually, let me read the first
three verses of chapter 5 of Mark. It says, They came over
unto the other side of the sea, unto the country of the Gadarenes,
And when He, our Lord Jesus, 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, and verse 4 with that, that he had
been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had
been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces,
neither could any man tame him." So he's in a pretty helpless
and hopeless condition. He is absolutely lost. And nothing could help him. No
man could tame him. I was witnessing to my foreman,
when I was on a construction job out in Montana, telling him
what the Lord had done for me, trying to express myself that
would glorify my God, and maybe speak to that man, and telling
him a little bit about my past and what the Lord had delivered
me from, and he said, boy, you did need delivering. As if he
didn't. And this is what's wrong with
the unregenerate. They think they're alright. They
think their good is going to outweigh their bad. There's no
good in any of us. The only one that's good is God.
And it says no man could tame this man. No man could tame him. Our Lord Jesus, speaking to His
disciples, He said it's easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into glory, into
heaven. Well, that just surprised His
disciples because of a rich man who has the money to build synagogues
and feed the poor and help out in these kinds of situations.
If they can't be saved, who then can be saved? And they ask Him
that question. Our Lord said, with men it is
impossible, but with God all things are possible. Salvation
is of the Lord. We come into this world dead
in trespasses and sins. Just as dead as Lazarus was when
our Lord said, Lazarus, come forth and raise them from that
state of physical deadness. Just as dead. I was preaching
on this at Brother Donny Bell's church. I mentioned it over at
Madisonville also on Wednesday night. Can you imagine? That condition that Lazarus was
in, can you imagine how he felt when our Lord gave him life? Now, our Lord had to give him
life before he could hear the voice of Jesus Christ. And when
our Lord said, Lazarus, come forth, he came forth. He heard the voice of Christ.
But before our Lord came to him, and Lazarus could not have come
to the Lord, our Lord had to come to him, just like what we're
reading here. Lazarus could not have said any Hail Marys. He
could not have walked the aisle of some Arminian free-willed
preacher, giving an altar call and shaking his hand and speaking
to him some words to fill his mind with false hope. He could
not have exercised his free will, could not have made a decision
for Jesus. He was helpless and he was hopeless. And that's the
condition we're in until our Lord comes and gives us life.
I can identify with this man. He's cutting himself. He's screaming. He's crying. He's living amongst the dead.
You say, what an awful place for anybody to live. That's where
we were. That's where we were. Living amongst the dead. Spiritually
dead, yes, but just as dead. And I'll tell you something. Those men in that cemetery where
he or women all who were buried there, they couldn't hurt him.
It's live dead people that hurt you. It's those who are spiritually
dead but alive physically do you harm. Those dead people couldn't
have done him any harm. And here we were with all of
those dead people just loving them and snuggling up to them.
enjoying ourselves and thinking we had the world by the tail
on a downhill drag, and on our way to hell and didn't even know
us. And our Lord Jesus comes to this man, It says in verse
5, it was always night and day. He was in the mountains and in
tombs, crying and cutting himself with stones. But 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 adjure Thee by God that Thou
torment me not. For our Lord had said unto him,
Come out of the man, Thou unclean spirit. Even the unclean spirits, the devil, and all the fallen
angels have to obey the voice of our Master, the Lord Jesus
Christ. They have to get permission from Him before they can do anything.
We see this in the case of Job. He couldn't do anything. Satan
couldn't do anything to Job until our Lord gave him permission
to do it. The devil is just like a dog
on a leash. He can only go so far and our
Lord just yanks back to that's far enough. And our Lord has
commanded the unclean spirit to come out of this man. And
they have to come out, but The spokesman for them, in verse
9, our Lord says, What is thy name? And he answered, saying,
My name is Legion, for we are many. He's speaking for all,
had to be at least 2,000 evil spirits in that one man. And
he, the spokesman for those evil spirits, besought him much that
he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was
there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding,
And all the devils besought Him, saying, Send us into the swine,
that we may enter into them." They wanted to go into those
pigs. They didn't want to be just floating around doing nothing.
They're destroyers. They want to destroy something.
And our Lord gave them permission. Verse 13, it says, 4th with Jesus.
Gave them leave, and the unclean spirits went out and entered
into the swine. And the herd ran violently down
a steep place into the sea. There were about 2,000 and were
choked in the sea. I don't know if our Lord has
a sense of humor or not, but you know, the Lord gave those
evil spirits permission to go to the pigs and then He knew
that those pigs were going to just kill themselves. I don't
think I'd want to have been in that part of the country, but
I was. I was. Evil spirits all around
us. Thank God He controls the devil
and the evil spirits that fell from heaven. Thank God He's in
control of everything. Thank God that He had His eye
of love on us before we even knew Him, when we were running
from Him, hating Him, drinking iniquity like water, shaking
our fist in His face, and I'll not have you to reign over me.
Thank God He was reigning even then, and He has always been
reigning. He always will reign. So we have
a picture of our helpless, hopeless, lost condition until the Lord
Jesus comes to us and delivers us. That's His name. The name of
our Lord Jesus is the Deliverer. He delivered us from the power
of darkness, delivered us from the power of Satan, delivered
us from the power of sin, Delivered us from the power of self. Translated
us right into a living union with Himself. Right into the
eternal kingdom of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. By His
sovereign power. By His power. That's the power
of Jesus Christ our Lord. All power in heaven and earth
has been given to Him. But God has always had all power.
But God has not always been a man. There's a glorified man in heaven
right now. His name is Jesus Christ the
Lord. He's 100% God. He's 100% man. You say that's a mathematical
impossibility. You're not familiar with the
mathematics of heaven. That's the truth. He's 100% God. He's 100% man. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is on His throne. He's ruling over this whole universe
and everything in it. And here we are. We heard it
already during this conference. Safe in the loving arms of Christ
our Savior. Absolutely nothing can separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And I love this scripture. Nothing can be laid to the charge
of God's elect. Does that bless you? Does it
bless you to know? that all your iniquities were
laid on Him, on the Lord Jesus Christ, to know that every sin,
past, present, and future were laid on Him. He took care of
the sin debt perfectly, fully. Nothing was left out. We are
free, free from the wrath to come because Jesus Christ, our
Substitute, endured the wrath of God in our room and our stead.
God punished His Son for me. for me. And He's a just God. He cannot demand payment twice. It's all taken care of. The ransom
price has been paid in full. And look what happens to this
man. It says in verse 14, And they that fed the swine fled
and told it in a city and in a country And they went out to
see what it was that was done. They're interested in these pigs. That's what they're interested
in. They're not interested in Christ. They're not interested
in what Christ has done. It says in verse 15, they come
to Jesus and see Him that was possessed with the devil and
had the legion sitting and clothed and in His right mind. And they
were afraid. Here's a man who was just living
with the dead in a cemetery, cutting himself, screaming without
any hope, naked, running around naked. Now he's sitting. That denotes rest. Well, look
where he's sitting. At the feet of Jesus Christ,
our Lord and our Savior. He's right where I always want
to be. Is that true with you? He's right there resting in His
Savior. Jesus Christ did it all. We cease from our own works when
we enter into His rest and just love the fact that we
are at peace with our God through the one and only mediator between
God and me and the man Christ Jesus. He is our peace. We rest in Him. Amen? And it
says he was clothed, sitting and clothed. He's not naked. He has clothes on him to cover
his physical nakedness. But I'll tell you something else.
He's clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ our Savior. That
righteousness is every believer's righteousness. It's the same
righteousness that was imputed to Abraham. Abraham believed
God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. But it wasn't
imputed to him alone, it was for us too. If we believe on
Him that raised up Jesus from the dead, who was delivered for
our offenses and raised again for our justification, we have
a righteousness from Christ Himself that makes us to hang on, makes
us as holy as God Himself. I'm telling you folks, that's
wonderful. If you don't believe that, there's something wrong.
If you can't rejoice in that, there's something wrong. And
you can amen that if you want to. I don't mind. It's the truth. We have a righteousness that
makes us acceptable in God's sight, No one can really put
into words, but thrills the hearts of all of God's children to the
point that we just shout for joy, thanking God that we've
been made accepted in the Beloved. But He's also in His right mind. Now, I don't want to bust your
bubble. Well, maybe I do. You didn't have a right mind
until the Lord came until God sent the Spirit of the Son into
our heart. We were always out there with the wrong mind. That
mind would not allow us to do anything but sin. And I don't
care how religious we were. I don't care how often we went
to church. I don't care how many hours we
read the Bible. Without the Spirit of God dwelling
in us, we didn't have a right mind. But when God enlightens
our minds, when He sends the Spirit of His Son into our heart
and enlightens our minds, we have the mind of Christ. And
we believe what the Word of God says about Christ. We believe
what the Word of God says about us. Sin from the top of our head
to the bottom of our feet. No soundness in us. But Christ
Jesus our Lord and our Savior, took by His own supreme sacrifice
and made us acceptable in God's sight. He didn't try to redeem us. He
redeemed us. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. By one offering, He sanctified
us forever. One offering. He is our sanctification. By one offering, He perfected
forever all of those He sanctified. And so we have this right mind
that looks to Christ, the author and the finisher of our faith,
believing that Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. So
this man was sitting and clothed, and in his right mind, and they
were afraid. It says in verse 16, they that
saw it told him how it befell to him that was possessed with
the devil, and also concerning the swine, and they began to
pray him to depart out of their coasts. Isn't that sad? There's a man that they knew,
A man that was a wild man, an old man contained. A man who
is completely different. A man that our Lord has changed.
A man who is welcomed in the community now, wasn't before. A man who would be an asset to
any community. But they loved their pocketbook
more than they loved the miracle of God. They loved their bank
account more than they loved Jesus Christ. They hated Jesus
Christ. It was their pocketbook that
bothered them. The money that they lost with
the pigs being now gone into the sea and dead. And that's
typical of false religionists today. You know, they'll go along
with you a little bit, but if you start messing with their
pocketbook, they won't go along with you at all. So we have a
picture of the world the ungodly people, the power of our Lord,
and how those in this world hate Christ. Even if they're religious,
they hate Christ and don't want Him in their midst. They don't
want Him. They have no use for Him. And our Lord Jesus said,
if they hated Me, they'll hate you also. But, we read in verse
18, when He was coming to the ship,
When our Lord Jesus was coming to the ship, he that had been
possessed with the devil prayed to him that he might be with
him. I don't blame him, do you? Lord, I want to go with you.
Take me with you. That's the desire of every enlightened
child of God, to want to be with our Savior. But it wasn't the
Lord's will that he would go with him. We read in verse 19,
Howbeit Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to
thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done
for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. He wanted to go with the Lord,
but the Lord sent him back to be a testimony in that community
where he lived. Now, give this some thought.
I don't know how many were followers of the Lord Jesus Christ later
in that area, but I believe he was the only one at that time.
I believe there was one man that had the testimony, that had a
testimony that would give our Lord Jesus Christ all the glory.
And he was sent back into that community to be a lighthouse
for the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Now, I don't believe
that man went back into his community telling them that he was the
master of his own destiny and that he, by his own free will,
changed his life No, He gave a testimony for the glory of
Jesus Christ, how Christ came to Him, how Christ manifested
His power in setting Him free. We were just singing that song,
Free From the Law, Oh Happy Condition. Jesus has bled and there is remission. Jesus Christ our Savior makes
a difference. He changes us. And we're to give
Him all the glory. I was preaching to saints over
in Madisonville, talking about this very subject. What an honor
God has bestowed upon us. The honor of preaching the Gospel. There's no greater honor of all
the men in this world. Of all the men in this world,
God chose me to be one of His preachers. That just overwhelms
me Humility, I was humbled before God. What a terrible testimony it
would be if I stood up here before you and started talking about
what I've done for Jesus. That's not what that man did.
He didn't go back into his community and talk about what he had done
for Jesus. Our Lord says, tell them what great things the Lord
hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee. God has mercy
on whom he will have mercy. He has compassion on whom he
will have compassion. What an honor it is, not only
for a man to be called to preach the gospel, but what an honor
for a church to be entrusted with the gospel, to support the
gospel with your prayers and your monies and your time, your
attendance and your gifts. What an honor! As I said over
in Madisonville, I don't think there's another church over there
that preaches the grace of God but the church that this man
is a part of, is a pastor of. And I don't think there's another
church here in Danville that preaches the gospel. I don't
know that for a fact, but I don't believe that. I know for a fact
that Rescue is the only church that preaches the gospel in our
area. What an honor God has bestowed upon us. And we have that honor
of testifying before others in our community what great things
God hath done for us. How our Lord Jesus Christ has
had compassion on us. How many in your community have
been entrusted with the Gospel? Well, if you're in Christ, and
if you know the Gospel, you're one of them. There might not
be too many in your area, but thank God there's one or two
or four or six or how many. And let us be faithful to our
Lord and our Savior, giving a testimony for His glory, telling others
What great things our God has done for us. How He has had compassion
on us through His darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who redeemed
us with His own precious blood and has assured us that He will
be with us every step of the way. Now, that man could not
get in a boat and go with Jesus, But I'll guarantee you our Lord
Jesus was with him every step of the way. Thank you. God bless
you.