{"id":26370,"date":"2026-01-13T06:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T06:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/?p=26370"},"modified":"2025-11-26T08:51:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T08:51:15","slug":"great-things-the-lord-has-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/2026\/01\/great-things-the-lord-has-done\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Things The Lord Has Done"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Posted by permission. Bethel Strict Baptist Chapel<\/a>.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sermon preached at Bethel Chapel, Luton, by Mr. B. A. Ramsbottom, on Lord\u2019s day evening, 6th June, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you\u201d\u20141 Samuel 12:24<\/em><\/p>\n

Samuel was a very sad, disappointed man. After all that he had done in loving service to the Israel of God, for which he sought no reward, in which no-one could find any blame, his office as judge in Israel had now been rejected. The people were determined to have a king. But you notice the grace in Samuel. Though he was so upset, he did not show a wrong spirit. What about this: \u201cGod forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you\u201d? Now what grace there was that shone there!<\/p>\n

This in some ways is a very remarkable chapter. Samuel really gives a history of the nation of Israel, and how it was God who began with them. They were unworthy, undeserving. God began with them; God blessed them; God continued with them; God did not forsake them, despite all their sins. But Samuel has so many things to reprove God\u2019s ancient people for: that they are turning away from the Lord; they are rejecting Him; they are forgetting Him, except when they come into trouble. Aren\u2019t we often so similar! It is almost as if we forget the Lord until we come into trouble, and then we call upon Him.<\/p>\n

The Lord also gives them warnings, and He gives them encouragement, despite their having been determined to have a king, how they should act. And then in the midst of it all, a miracle was performed, and it terrified the people. They said, \u201cPray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.\u201d Now what was this miracle? \u201cIs it not wheat harvest to day?\u201d That, I gather, was the hottest time of the year when rain was unknown. \u201cIs it not wheat harvest to day?\u201d There was never a cloud in the sky, no prospect of rain. \u201cI will call unto the Lord, and He shall send thunder and rain; that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.\u201d<\/p>\n

But right at the end of this chapter, Samuel in so many ways kindly encourages God\u2019s ancient people, and he reminds them again of what he was speaking of at the beginning of the chapter: what the Lord had been to them and what the Lord had done for them. \u201cFor consider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d And the Lord had done great things for His ancient people, bringing them out of Egypt, delivering them at the Red Sea, bringing them through the wilderness, settling them in the land of Canaan, and all the blessings that they had known since then. \u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d The point was, ancient Israel was not considering these things, was taking them for granted. But in its fullest sense, this beautiful word belongs to us in these gospel days, the great things that God has done for His unworthy, sinful, backsliding people, and all for Jesus\u2019 sake.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d Now this is a great subject, about the great things the Lord has done, and there are so many of them, and they are so great, and they are so undeserved, and where do we begin to speak of them? Where do we end? But may we be given grace to consider them. Really, I take it a minister with the grace and ability could preach a series of sermons on this: the great things which God has done for His unworthy people.<\/p>\n

May we try to begin where Almighty God began, and that is in His purposes of mercy to lost sinners in the covenant of grace when He chose a people for His praise. It was all of His grace. What a great thing it was when He chose that people! What a great thing it was when He loved them with an everlasting love! What a great thing when He entered into covenant with His beloved Son, that He should save them with an everlasting salvation. He must do it all. When the Son of God lovingly accepted that covenant engagement, there the people of God were as safe in union with Christ in bonds of grace as they shall be when one day they are all gathered safely into heaven. These were great things for great sinners, and may they be great to us as we are enabled to consider them, if we have a sweet hope of our personal interest in them.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d O but to see the working out of these eternal, covenant purposes, all to the glory of God, all for the good of His people \u2013 purposes which can never be broken. The sending of His dear Son into this world of wickedness and sorrow \u2013 that was a great thing, His coming, the Son of God, taking our human nature without sin into lasting union with His Godhead, His divine Person. What emphasises the greatness:<\/p>\n

\u201cLove to sinners fills His heart,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And makes Him choose to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

And so that great work of salvation, a holy, spotless life, bringing in an everlasting righteousness for those who have none of their own, and their sin being taken away, and Christ\u2019s glorious righteousness reckoned to the sinner\u2019s account. O beloved friends, do you ever consider the greatness of this mysterious transaction? We sang of it in the last hymn this morning:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat wondrous love, what mysteries,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In this appointment shine!<\/p>\n

My breaches of the law are His,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And His obedience mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

O consider how great that work of the eternal Son of God, and how He lived that holy life, though tempted by Satan, that, \u201cAs by one man\u2019s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d I think if most of us were asked what we felt was the greatest thing that the Lord Jesus had done for us, it was to go to Gethsemane, the sweat of blood, the agony, to go to the judgment hall, the cruel mocking and taunting, and then to go to the cross. And as we think of the great things He did, we think of the great things that He suffered, and who can really comprehend them? But may there be times in our lives when we are helped to consider them, and to consider them like this: \u201cIs it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto My sorrow, which is done unto Me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted Me in the day of His fierce anger.\u201d As we think of the crown of thorns, the cruel spear, the nails, O those dreadful sufferings, and the deeper sorrows of His holy soul as that weight of all the sins of the whole elect, from the beginning of time to the end of time, met on His sacred head, and He bore them \u201cwith strength enough, and none to spare,\u201d and in bearing them, He for ever bore them away.<\/p>\n

There is the fountain opened. There is the precious blood that atones for sin. And the greatness of the gospel is that unworthy sinners feeling their need are invited, are welcome, to flee to the cross, to seek salvation, to find salvation only there. Never forget that word, and if there are some great things done, there are some great promises spoken: \u201cAnd him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d His glorious resurrection and His ascension and His intercession, the carrying on of His offices as Prophet, Priest and King \u2013 what great things He hath done for you, and what great things He is doing for you now at the Father\u2019s right hand!<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d Of course, with living, exercised souls, they all see a beauty in it, the blessedness of it, as done for God\u2019s chosen people, but their point is, but were these great things done for me? For those two words at the end are of great importance. We cannot leave them out. \u201cFor you.\u201d So we must come to the great things that the Holy Spirit does for the sinner, bringing him into a personal knowledge and personal experience of these things done by the Saviour. What is it? \u201cAnd you hath He quickened\u201d \u2013 which means, given life \u2013 \u201cyou hath He quickened, who were dead\u201d \u2013 that is you and me by nature \u2013 \u201cdead in trespasses and sins\u201d; \u201chaving no hope, and without God in the world.\u201d \u201cBut God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved.)\u201d<\/p>\n

And so there is a difference. You are brought to feel your need. You are a sinner; you are unworthy; you are not fit to die; you cannot save yourself; you need a Saviour; you are led to the Saviour; you are able to rely on that Saviour; you are raised up to a hope in that Saviour, and that is the way in which a sinner is brought into some knowledge of this. He is not just a watcher, a bystander, an onlooker, but he is a \u201cpartaker of the inheritance of the saints in light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDear Lord, Thy quickening Spirit send From heaven, in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is the work of the Holy Spirit in teaching and leading and guiding, giving life. \u201cBecause I live, ye shall live also.\u201d The divine Comforter: \u201cI will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.\u201d So you see great things, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, all united in the salvation of unworthy sinners.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d But beloved friends, these great things that the Lord in love and mercy does for His people do not end when the sinner is brought from death to life and prepared for heaven. He is still in a body of sin and death. He is still weak; he is still helpless; he still needs a Saviour; he still needs salvation. So there are all these great things that the Lord in mercy continues to do for His unworthy people after He has blessed them with His grace.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd since my soul has known His love,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What mercies has He made me prove;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mercies which all my praise excel;<\/p>\n

My Jesus has done all things well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor consider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d Let us try to name a few of them. One is keeping His people. They needed saving, but now they need keeping, for we are prone to wander, and we need to be kept as much as we need to be saved. He \u201cis able to keep you from falling.\u201d We have had a few young people over the years who wished to be baptized, but one of them put it like this: \u201cIt is the afterward. I am concerned about the afterward.\u201d He \u201cis able to keep you from falling\u201d \u2013 this is a great thing \u2013 \u201cand to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.\u201d \u201cKept by the power of God\u201d \u2013 nothing less \u2013 \u201cthrough faith unto salvation.\u201d Never forget that this is a great thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d Giving us the gospel, the gospel to bear our spirit up, the gospel to meet our case. It is a great thing that the glorious gospel of the grace of God should be preached amongst us, which \u201cspeaks of pardon, full and free, through Christ, the Lamb once slain.\u201d Now these are great things: pardon, forgiveness, cleansing in the Redeemer\u2019s blood, acceptance in the Beloved, the gift of faith, the gift of hope, the gift of love. These are great things! O to know the love of Christ \u201cshed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d And the privilege of prayer. It is a great thing. What could we do without it, day by day!<\/p>\n

\u201cThat were a grief I could not bear, Didst Thou not hear and answer prayer; But a prayer-hearing, answering God Supports me under every load.\u201d<\/p>\n

So as we think of all these things, consider them when you come to chapel, and when you go home from chapel; consider them in your family, and consider them when you meet with your friends; consider them when you are in secret; consider them at the prayer meeting, in the house of God.<\/p>\n

If I may venture this, over many years Almighty God has done a lot of great things at Bethel, and may we be thankful for it. We have a blessed inheritance. I think of all my original church members, who are all gone, but many of them were such simple-minded souls, but they only lived for the truth of the gospel. Their only delight was to come to the house of God. They honoured the Lord and the Lord honoured them. May we never forget what a blessed inheritance the Lord has given to us at Bethel.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d We might mention many things, and I am sure when you get home tonight, you will think of so many things, and you will say, \u201cI wish you had mentioned that; it is a great thing to me.\u201d But there is so much bound up with hearing and answering prayer. And there is giving strength equal to the day. There is that divine support, and that precious word, the supply of every need, great and small, providence and grace. \u201cMy God shall supply all your need\u201d \u2013 all of them \u2013 \u201caccording to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.\u201d O, \u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you,\u201d and He is still doing for you, and He has promised to do for you right to the end.<\/p>\n

Then there is one last great thing that no-one here has experienced, and that is a sinner being brought safely to heaven at last, brought through every fault, every danger, and landed safe above. \u201cSo He bringeth them unto their desired haven.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d Now in coming towards a close, I would like to speak a few things to you about the importance, the vital importance of considering these things. Beloved friends, there are so many things in Scripture we are told to consider, and one of our great faults is, we do not stop and think and pause and consider them. Well, we are told even to \u201cconsider the lilies of the field.\u201d It comes as low as that. But there is a solemn word: \u201cConsider your ways.\u201d Another solemn word: \u201cO that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!\u201d The apostle on one occasion was speaking of important things, and he pauses. He says, \u201cConsider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.\u201d We need the Lord to give us understanding.<\/p>\n

Above all, there are some precious words \u2013 they all come in the Epistle to the Hebrews \u2013 concerning our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. \u201cConsider how great this Man.\u201d \u201cConsider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus.\u201d \u201cConsider Him that endured such contra-diction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.\u201d Well, there are three precious truths, and I suppose you could quote them in less than a minute, but they need eternity fully to consider, to contemplate.<\/p>\n

But here, consider these great things the Lord has done. Especially consider whether they are for you or not, and if they are, what a wonderful thing! But a time to stop and think. The psalmist says, \u201cMy meditation of Him shall be sweet.\u201d So this is not hard work, to consider the blessed things the Lord in mercy has done for sinners.<\/p>\n

But just two or three points. One: as we consider these things, what cause for gratitude there is! \u201cBless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless His holy name.\u201d It is one point in real religion in which we come so far short: gratitude to the Lord when thinking of the great things He has done. We need it awakening, as Toplady says. \u201cAwake, sweet gratitude,\u201d because sadly, solemnly, it sometimes, oftentimes, is asleep and needs awakening. So first of all, in a way of humble praise and gratitude, \u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then secondly, remember \u2013 this point that has been coming through all the time \u2013 that all this was done on the grounds of mercy alone, free grace alone. No sinner deserved one of these great things to be done for him. We have sinned; we have \u201ccome short of the glory of God\u201d; we have forfeited any right to these divine privileges. May we ever remember that. \u201cGod commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d That is the substance of all this \u2013 our sin, our unworthiness, our guilt; we do not deserve these great things; we deserve the opposite: condemnation. O but there is none. \u201cThere is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,\u201d having had all these great things done for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d And the final thing, as we are brought to consider these things that the Lord in love and mercy has done, then how we should seek to honour Him and glorify Him, not offend against Him, walk worthy of our high calling. Actually, this was the point, the very point that Samuel enforced with God\u2019s ancient people. \u201cOnly fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart.\u201d That is the first part of this verse. What God has joined together, may we not put asunder. \u201cOnly fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart: for consider how great things He hath done for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace!<\/p>\n

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Call for songs of loudest praise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Teach me some melodious sonnet,<\/p>\n

Sung by flaming tongues above;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Praise the mount! O fix me on it!<\/p>\n

Mount of God\u2019s unchanging love.<\/p>\n

Here I raise my Ebenezer;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hither by Thy help I\u2019m come;<\/p>\n

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Safely to arrive at home.<\/p>\n

Jesus sought me when a stranger,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wandering from the fold of God;<\/p>\n

He, to save my soul from danger,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Interposed His precious blood.<\/p>\n

O to grace how great a debtor\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily I\u2019m constrained to be!<\/p>\n

Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.<\/p>\n

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Prone to leave the God I love;<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my heart, Lord, take and seal it;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Seal it from Thy courts above!<\/p>\n

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Samuel was a very sad, disappointed man. After all that he had done in loving service to the Israel of God, for which he sought no reward, in which no-one could find any blame, his office as judge in Israel had now been rejected. The people were determined to have a king. But you notice the grace in Samuel. Though he was so upset, he did not show a wrong spirit. What about this: \u201cGod forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you\u201d? Now what grace there was that shone there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":22562,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1729],"tags":[1227],"class_list":["post-26370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-benjamin-ramsbottom","tag-spiritual-assurance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26370"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26372,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26370\/revisions\/26372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.baptists.net\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}