Mark chapter 7. We'll look at
verse 31 through verse 37 this morning. The title of the message is,
There is hope when Jesus is near. There is hope when Jesus is near. In verse 31, we read this, And
again, And again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon,
he came into the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coast
of Decapolis. Again. The Scripture says, again,
because this was the pattern of our Lord Jesus Christ in His
earthly ministry. Our Lord went from place to place
preaching the gospel. He went from one city to the
next. And let us learn this first.
I want us to note this first. How rapidly the Lord went from
place to place. If you go back to chapter 6.
Go back to chapter 6. Our Lord Jesus Christ commanded
His disciples to cross over into the Sea of Galilee. And to cross over after He had
fed the 5,000 people. You remember how that He had
compassion on them and He caused them to sit down. And He fed
the 5,000 with five loaves, and in verse 39 He said He commanded
them... Wait, I'm sorry. Go down. In verse 45, and straightway
after he had fed them, he commanded his disciples to get into the
ship and go to the other side before unto Bethsaida. while He sent away the people.
And if you remember then, He comes to them as they're toiling
on the sea. They're obeying His command,
going from this place over unto Bethsaida, and He walks on the
water to them and comes to them. And then after He comes to them,
He comes in verse 53, and He passed over, and they came into
the land of Gennesaret, and drew near unto the shore. And there
the Lord healed many people. He healed many people. Until
this happened in chapter 7, then the Pharisees came. And they
started trying to rebuke Him for not obeying their traditions. And Jesus told them the truth. He preached the gospel concerning
the truth of sin. He rebuked these hypocrites who
would rather follow the vain traditions of men rather than
obeying the commandments of God. These men made their traditions
above God's commandments in order that they may keep them. Isn't
that why men follow traditions rather than the commandments
of God? Because traditions are easier. Traditions are man-made. They say, well, God says this,
but I need to lower the bar just a little bit so I can make it.
And so they began to follow traditions like this washing of hands. And
so in verse 15 to 23 of this chapter, the Lord reveals the
truth concerning the origins of sin. He says that sin is not from
without, but within. He said in verse 20, that which
cometh out of the man, that defileth a man, for from within Out of
the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness,
an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All of these evil
things come from within and they defile a man. The Lord is telling
us where sin comes from. He said it comes from within. It doesn't matter what you put
into your body, that's not where the sin comes from. The sin comes
from the heart. The heart of man is defiled.
It's not what goes into a man that defiles him, but rather
what comes out. And the Lord leaves these self-righteous
people And so you see now he comes from feeding the 5,000.
He leaves them there. He comes across the Sea to Gennesaret
to heal a certain number of people. And then when these Pharisees
come in and try to rebuke him, he immediately sets them straight.
But what does he do? Does he stay around? No. He leaves
again. Look at that in verse 24. And
from thence he arose and went to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And why did he do this? Listen
to this. He entered into a house and would
have no man know it. Does this not show the complete
humanity of our Lord Jesus? That He desired rest. He was
constantly bombarded by people. All the time. Every day. Constantly
being besought. And he said, he desired to go
into this house, but he could not be hid. Why? Because there
was a woman there. It says, he could not be hid,
verse 25, for a certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean
spirit heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. And this
woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought him
that he would cast the devil out of her daughter. This woman had a need. The Lord
Jesus came to this place, and this woman found Him out. She
heard of Him, and she sought Him diligently. Her daughter
was possessed with an unclean spirit, and when she heard, she
came begging for mercy. And she besought Him. In Matthew's
Gospel, we read that she begged Him, saying, Have mercy on me,
O Lord, Thou Son of David. This woman heard that Jesus was
the Christ, that He was the promised One to sit upon the throne of
David, and that He should restore Israel and destroy the heathen.
She heard that. She heard that message. And she
came repeating the message that she heard. You're the Son of
David. You've come to destroy the heathen. And she was one of the heathen.
She was Greek. She was one of the Gentiles.
This one woman heard that Christ was come, that He was the promised
one, that He would come and destroy the Greeks, but Jesus, therefore,
would prove her faith that He was the Messiah by first rejecting
her. Isn't that unusual? Isn't that
exactly what most people think would be the opposite? He said
unto her, Let the children first be filled. For it is not me to
take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. In other words, he was saying,
If I am who you say I am, if I am the son of David, that I
should come and restore Israel, then why should I take my power
and my time that belongs to Israel and give it to you? You're a dog. He calls her a
dog. He said, is it meat to cast the
children's bread unto dogs? This is what Jews thought of
the Gentiles, that they were all dogs. But instead of taking
offense, this woman, in subjection to the Lord, She took her place. What did she say to this offensive
thing? She said, yes, Lord. Yet the dogs under the table
eat of the children's crumbs." This woman confessed herself
to be a sinner, unworthy of the Lord's mercy. And yet her faith
was not in her merits of Christ's power or healing, but she had
faith in His goodness, in His grace. She came to Him submitting
to Him as Lord. As Lord. She rested her request in His
sovereign hands, and it was this faith the Lord said was great
faith. It was great even because God
gave it. God gave her this faith. But
notice this again, that Jesus, after showing such great mercy,
notice what happened. And again, departing from the
coast of Tyre and Sidon. The Lord again left this place. After showing great mercy, He
left, and we have no record of anything else happening to anyone
else in that region. We have no record of any more
miracles or preaching the Lord did in that place. What are we
to learn from this? We can learn this. When the Lord
is present, there's hope. And when the Lord is absent,
there is no hope. When the Lord Jesus is present,
there is hope. But when He is gone, there is
absence of all hope. This is why the Scripture says
this, Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while
He is near. The Scripture says this, Today
is the day of salvation. The Apostle says to us who are
preachers and you who are believers in Christ, You, knowing the terror
of the Lord, You who believe, you know the terror of the Lord.
You know the wrath of God that is to come. Therefore, knowing
the terror of the Lord, we do what? We persuade men. We persuade men. This morning, listen to me. While
I am preaching to you, Jesus is near. He is. And whether you believe
that or not, that doesn't matter. It just don't matter if you believe
that or you feel that or whatever you think about that. That's
so. He's near. He's near now. He's near today. And therefore, I compel you to
know your low estate of sin. I compel you to see the utter
vanity of your efforts to please God. You cannot please God in
the flesh. I compel you to see that, that
there's nothing you can do to merit God's favor or love. I compel you now to forsake your
thoughts of how salvation should be. I compel you to forsake all
how you think this thing should go. Let the wicked forsake his
ways, and the unrighteous man his..." What? "...thoughts."
I thought! Forget about what you thought. See what God says in His Word.
I compel you to see that your best efforts are worthless and
the greatest sacrifices you make can never pay for your sins. Therefore, listen to me, I beseech
you, look at me, I beg you, I beg you, come to Christ right now. I beg you to come now while he's
near. I beg you to come and bow yourself
down at his feet and surrender everything to him. I beg you
to believe. I compel you to come in and find
rest for your soul. While he is near, there's hope. But I tell you, when he's gone,
there is no hope. I beseech you that you should
look to Jesus Christ who is both able and willing to save the
greatest of sinners. I endeavor to persuade you now
to cast your poor and helpless soul on Him, to believe on Him
for righteousness, that His righteousness should
cover your nakedness before God. and beseech you to believe on
His blood that can only atone for your sins. You see, only His sacrifice is
accepted of God for the pardon of sins. This matter I persuade you because
it is the most urgent and pressing matter concerning your soul. It is an urgent matter. It is
a matter that cannot wait. It cannot be pressed to the side.
I tell you, while He is near, come now and believe while He
is near. The urgency of this cannot be
overstated because the Lord is near now. Believe on Him now. Trust Him now. For what promise do you have
to hear this again? Some of you are pushing this
away and thinking, I've got more time. I've got more time. You have no promise of more time. Boast not thyself of tomorrow,
for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I know many
of you have lost family members. who claim this is their church.
Some of you have members in your family who
claim that this is their church, yet their attendance is so infrequent
that if they come or not, no one's surprised if they don't
come. How foolishly do they suppose
this church will always be here? How presumptuous is it to assume
that this church will be here tomorrow? The Lord may wrap this thing
up and you may never hear the gospel again. They foolishly think that they
have plenty of time to deal with Christ. They foolishly suppose
that there will be a more convenient day. It's not convenient now. It's not a good time for me.
Come back later. I'll come back some other time
and hear this message. And then, and then I'll believe. I'll tell you someone else who
thought that. Two other people. Look at this over in Acts. Go
to Acts chapter 26. Acts chapter 26 and verse 25. The Apostle Paul here preaching,
he said, but he said, I am not mad, noble Festus, but speak
forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth
of these things before whom I speak freely. For I am persuaded that
none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing is not
done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou
the prophets? I know thou believest. Then Agrippus
said unto Paul, Almost thou hast persuaded me to be a Christian. Almost. This man, King Agrippa,
was a Jew. He heard the gospel. He heard
it all of his life. He heard about how Christ should
come. And Paul plainly described Christ to him from the Old Testament
Scripture. And he said, King Agrippa, you
know what I'm saying is true. When I talk about depravity,
when I talk about the human nature being worthless and without any
hope, every one of you know what I'm talking about. You've heard
it, I don't know how many times. When I tell you that Christ alone
is the Savior, that you should believe on Him, how many times
have you heard that? You know what I'm saying is true.
But how many times have you walked out the door almost being persuaded? This man was almost persuaded
and I tell you he was lost. He was lost. Another situation before this. was in Acts chapter 24. Look
at this. Acts chapter 24. This is another
man named Felix. In Acts 24 and verse 25. I'll
get the right page here in a second. There we are. And as he reasoned of righteousness,
temperance and judgment to come. Felix trembled. I tell you God
is coming in holy justice and he will punish every sinner that
is not covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. He will punish
you and I tell you hell is what you deserve and hell is what
you get. And Felix trembled and some of
you don't tremble, you don't have any interest in this. That's
alright. And Felix trembled and answered
and said, Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient
season, I will call for thee. Listen to me. Felix' convenient
season never came. When Paul preached, Christ was
near. And as soon as Paul left preaching,
Christ left Felix forever, never to return. This man never
heard the gospel again, and he died in his sins. We know that the power to hear
the gospel and believe on Christ belongs to God. I know that. I compel you to come in, I compel
you to believe, but I know this, you will not believe unless God
gives you grace to believe. All who hear and will not come,
you are responsible. That's true. Just as much as
the sovereignty of God is true, the responsibility of man is
true, and I don't have to reconcile either one of them to you. This
morning you are responsible for what you hear. You're responsible. I've warned you. I have warned
every one of you this morning to believe on Christ. And you're responsible for what
you hear. And what a warning it is to man
as we see our Lord pass from this coast to another and how
He did not stay long He came to show mercy to all that sought
for mercy. But when He left, mercy left. This may be the last time Christ
is ever near to you. Have you thought of that? This may be the last message
I preach to you. And this may be the last message
you hear. And I tell you, you should believe
now. You should cast off your sins
and come to Christ and bow down to him. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
Hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling, do not
pass me by. I tell you right now, the Lord
is here. You should seek him now. Second of all, go back to your
text. I want us to see not only this,
that the Lord was departing the coast of Tyre and Zion and He
came to this place. Where He comes, there's hope.
And look at this and see the picture of salvation and the
healing of this deaf and dumb man. In verse 32, when He came
to this place, and Scripture says, and they bring unto Him
one that was deaf. and had an impediment in his
speech, and they beseech him to put his hands upon this man."
Notice, first of all, these that brought this man. This man could
not hear of Christ, he was deaf, nor of his power to heal, but
these men that brought him had heard something. These men that
brought him knew something about the healing power of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, because they knew
something about this that either heard or experienced, they brought
this friend of theirs to the Lord Jesus Christ that He should
heal him. Now whatever they knew, These
men were persuaded that Jesus was both able and willing to
heal their friend. Otherwise, they wouldn't have
brought him. Is that not so? If they didn't believe that Christ
was both able and willing to heal this man, they never would
have brought him. What an example these men are
to us who have experienced the saving grace of God. Have you
experienced the saving grace of God? Have you believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ? Believer, were we not great sinners
who were touched by the hand of the Holy Spirit? How gracious
was our Lord to us! Did we not find Him to be a willing
and a powerful Savior? Did we not find that to be true? Why then will we not bring others
to Christ? If we have found Him to be such
a willing and a powerful Savior, should that not compel us to
bring others to here? Should that not compel our hearts
to bring others to the Lord Jesus Christ? Believer, we would do
well to bring others to hear of Christ no matter how deaf
or dumb they are. Isn't that what we do a lot of
times? We assess the person, we look
at that person and say, well, man, that person is not, no,
I better not because that person just is too dumb, too deaf. They're not gonna listen. Let us never cease to compel
men to come to Christ until we are forbidden of God to do so.
When are we forbidden to compel men to come? When they're dead. When they're dead. If they're
dead, no sense in trying to compel them to come. They're dead. They're
gone. And the only other time is when
the Lord tells us not to cast our pearls before swine. In other
words, when men begin to mock and ridicule the gospel and to
defame the name of our Lord Jesus, reject them. Leave them alone.
Leave them alone. Believers in Christ, let us not
cease to pray for men's souls. Let us pray that God would use
us as He did these men. Did not God use these men to
bring this man to Christ? Even so, we should pray that
God would use us to bring others to Christ. Is this not the purpose and commission
of the church? Go ye. into all the world and preach
the gospel to who? Every creature. Now, I like that
word ye because it tells me something. It tells me that it's singular
in its scope. Go you singular individual personally. Not go you, generally, someone
else. That's what we like to say. Go
ye, go you, into the world. No, go you, personally, into
all the world and preach the gospel to who? Every creature.
That's our commission. That's what we're commanded to
do. We are called to bring men to
Christ. And notice, but notice their
presumption. They bring this man to Christ,
this deaf and dumb man. They bring him to Christ, but
notice their presumption here. And they beseech him to put his
hand upon him. The presumption of these friends.
They sought the Lord to put his hands on them. Maybe these men
experienced healing of the Lord's hand. Maybe these men were sick
and that's how the Lord healed them. He put his hands on them
and that was their experience. But it was presumptuous of these
men to demand of Christ to heal them, heal this man in the same
way. Believer, it is good and well
to bring sinners to Christ, but it is wrong for us to tell the
Lord how to heal them. Isn't that so? When we bring
people to Christ, when we bring people to hear the gospel, we
have an expectation of our God to do it exactly how He did it
to us. You shouldn't. You should bring people to Christ
and leave them there. Leave it to the Lord to deal
with them. We like to meddle, don't we? We bring someone, we tell someone
the gospel, we say, look at the gospel, here's the gospel. And
then we begin to try to meddle in how God does things. I do. Maybe I'm the only one. May God teach me to bring men
to Christ and leave them there. Leave them to the Lord to deal
with them as He pleases. It's wrong for us to tell the
Lord how to heal them. We would do well to point men
to Christ, reveal Him as He reveals Himself in Scripture, but as
we bring sinners to Christ and seek for His healing of their
souls, we should also be wise to leave them alone with Christ. All saved sinners are saved by
the same free grace of God. All saved sinners are redeemed
by the same blood of Christ. All saved sinners are robed with
the same righteousness of Christ. And every elect redeemed sinner
will be called to life and faith by the Holy Spirit through the
preaching of the gospel. This is the same means of salvation
for everyone. But listen, not everyone has
the same experience. We all have the same means of
grace, but we all don't have the same experience of grace.
Isn't that right? Think of the Apostle Paul. He's the only one
we read about in Scripture that the Lord revealed himself from
heaven, the risen Christ, and he fell down from his horse and
he bowed himself and was sent to that man to hear the gospel. That was his experience. Now
I don't expect every believer to fall off their horse seeing
the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter, James, and John were called
while they were mending their nets. Some men hear the gospel
for the first time and immediately believe. Others hear the gospel
for many years before the Lord quickens their soul. Some can remember when it happened.
Some can't. This man was truly a picture
of all of us by nature, isn't he? This man that they brought.
This deaf and dumb man. He is truly a picture of every
sinner saved by grace. Deaf and dumb. He was deaf in
that he could not hear the Word of God. And I can stand here and I can
tell you about the wrath of God and I wish that I could preach
it in such a way that you would even feel the fires of hell burning
under your feet. But I'll tell you this, you'll
never feel it, you'll never hear it unless God opens your ears
to hear it. The wrath of God speaks to all
sinners and yet not all sinners Hear it, the soul that sinneth
it shall surely die. And yet this word of condemnation
has no effect on some men. Trying to preach the gospel to
the lost is like trying to talk to a dead man and reason with
him about the benefits of life. If I had a dead corpse here and
I was trying to talk to him and reason with him, how do you suppose
that would go? Do you think I would convince
him? I would say, hey, breathing is
a good thing. You should really try to breathe.
He can't hear. He's deaf. He's dead. He's not
going to listen. But if the Lord should give him
life, Then he would reason, we could reason with him about the
benefits of life. If the Lord will give him life,
if the Lord will open your ears, it's only then can the sinner
hear and understand the Word of God. Only then will he know
his sin and feel his guilt and condemnation under the Law of
God. The Gospel I freely preach to
all, but those who cannot hear it They cannot hear it even because
they will not hear it. Not only man by nature is unable
to hear the gospel, he's unwilling to hear it. You remember what
happened when Stephen was preaching the gospel? What did those men
do? They ran upon him and they put
their fingers in their ears and they stoned him to death. This morning, some of you have
got your fingers in your ears and you just will not hear. You will not hear. The gospel that is preached to
all, but those who cannot hear it put their fingers in their
ears and refuse to hear it. Man is not only deaf by nature,
by the curse and wrath of God, but he is also willingly deaf
that he will not hear of Christ. And not only was this man deaf,
but he was also mute. He couldn't speak. Lost sinners cannot speak the
language of free grace, neither can they understand it. All who preach and profess to
be saved by Jesus Christ, plus their works, plus their free
will, only prove their lost condition because their language betrays
them. Their language betrays them. A man who is deaf may pretend
to hear. Isn't that right? If a deaf man
come up to me, I couldn't tell if he was deaf or not. Until
when? Until he tried to speak. Have
you ever heard a deaf man speak? There's a lisp in their voice
that you can tell that they may be trained to talk. But I'll
tell you this, their voice betrays them, and I know immediately
if they're deaf or not. Once a man speaks, we can tell
if he's deaf. Now, those who are born as babes
in Christ, we should not expect them to have perfect knowledge,
or even as one is a mature believer. But one who is made to hear of
Christ, his speech will be immediately clear. immediately clear. You remember that story that
Spurgeon spoke of, Jack the Huckster, the salesman. How that Jack was
a wicked sinner, and he was a well-known sinner. And one day he came into
a town and he heard a woman singing, and she sang a song, I'm a poor
sinner and nothing at all, and Jesus Christ is my all in all.
And over a period of time, that song kept being rehearsed in
his mind. And one day, the Lord opened
his understanding. He opened his ears so he could
hear what he was singing. And immediately, Jack tried to
join the church. He wanted to join with those
people who believed in Christ. And they began to ask him questions
about his experience. And the only thing Jack answered
was this, I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, and Jesus Christ
is my all in all. Can we ever grow too much to
know the knowledge of our depravity?
I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Have you learned the
fullness of that? Not even the most mature believer
knows the fullness of his depravity. Can we ever outgrow the truth
that Jesus Christ is my all in all? Even so is the language
of all who have been made to hear the gospel. Our language
is that of grace. I may not know much, but I know
this, Jesus Christ is all my salvation. I may not know much,
but I know that. Everyone who believes in Christ
knows that Jesus Christ is all our salvation. This is our speech. And lastly, let us see the picture
of Jesus' healing. He took this man aside from the
multitude, look at that, and they bring him One that is deaf
and impediment of speech, they bring him. And in verse 33, and
he took him aside from the multitude. He put his fingers in his ears,
and he spit and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he
sighed and saith unto him, Ephrathah, that is, be opened. Is this not
a picture of God's saving election? Did He not first set us aside? Behold how the Father hath purposed
to elect some from the multitude of Adam's race, and set them
aside." In Jude chapter 1 and verse 1, it says, "...to them
that are sanctified of the Father." Set aside of the Father. These elect are sanctified by
the Father, set apart from the rest of humanity to be saved
by Jesus Christ. The healing of this man was not
a mere chance, nor will those that brought him
get any glory for it. Even so is the salvation of every
sinner. The Lord Jesus Christ saved you
because he set you aside. He chose you in sovereign grace. All you who believe, who hear
and speak the language of grace, we are saved by the free and
sovereign grace of God in Christ alone. And that is God's purpose to
save us. He set us apart by putting us
in union with Jesus Christ. And as Jesus Christ came into
the world and He obeyed the law of God, do you not see that you
were set apart in Him? that He honored the law of God
in your stead, for you. When He died on the tree for
our sins, do you not see that we were crucified with Christ?
We were crucified as we were in union with Him. And in the
providence of time, God came to this deaf, dumb sinner and
He set me apart from everyone else. He took me aside from the crowd. There was nothing different between
me and the crowd, but yet He in mercy took me aside. And what
did He do? When He takes us aside, He causes
us to see our sin. He takes from us the pleasures
of the flesh and of sin, and to see that there is no value
in ourselves or this world. Has He ever taken you aside? Have you ever seen your worthlessness,
your depravity, your vileness? And it's there in the valley
of Achar that He gives us a door of hope. Go over to Hosea. I want you to see this in this
picture. Hosea. Hosea chapter 2. When God takes us aside, every
saved sinner, He does this. In verse 14, He says, Therefore,
behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak comfortably unto her. I will give her her vineyards
from thence, and the valley of Achar as a door of hope. When God takes us aside, He brings
us to a wilderness, and He strips us of everything. And then he brings us to the
valley of Achar. You know what that valley of
Achar is? It's Achan. You remember Achan who took the
gold and the garment from Jericho when he wasn't supposed to? God
commanded him not to. He took the gold and he dug it
in a hole in his tent. And God says, Israel has sinned! And remember that they stoned
that man to death. because of his sin. What is that
a picture of? It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, who bore our sin in His own body on the tree, and He
died for the salvation of Israel. He died so that all Israel might
be saved. He is the door of hope, so He
strips us, and He brings us to Jesus Christ. He brings us to
Himself. to behold His blood and righteousness
as the only salvation for our souls. And I tell you, when He
brings us aside, nothing else suffices us. Nothing else satisfies
but to be in Him. The kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take it by force. I must have Christ! That's what He does when He brings
us aside, is He causes us to see our need. Our need! This is not an option for me.
I must have him. I must have him or I perish.
I must have him or I die. I must have his righteousness
or I have none. I must have his blood or else
I punish, he'll punish me in hell forever. I must have him.
It's not an option. I must have him. And notice the Lord puts his
fingers in this man's ears. This is very strange. He puts
his fingers in his ears and he leans forward and he spits in
the guy's mouth. Very strange experience, isn't
it? But isn't that what the Lord does? He puts his fingers in
our ears and we can't hear anything but him. I don't want to hear
this world anymore. I listen too much to radio. Everybody's telling me how important
the election is. The election of 2016. If we don't
elect the right guy, then this country is destroyed. I don't
care. I don't care. You know why? Because I have a king. I'm not
a citizen of this world. I'm a citizen of heaven. And
my King is in heaven and controls all things. And I tell you, God's going to
put on the throne whoever He wants to. God's going to put
in that office whoever He wants to. And I don't need to worry
about that. May He put His fingers in my
ears so I don't want to hear anything else but His voice.
Listen, if you hear me today and that's all you hear, you've
heard nothing. My prayer is you hear His voice.
And you know what His voice says? Ephrathah. Be opened. When Christ opens a man's ears,
is there anything to stop them from being opened? Praise God, no. Not even my own
wickedness will stop his power from opening my ears. I'm very
thankful for that. When he says, be thou opened,
this man's ears was opened and straightway he opened his mouth
and spake plainly. Listen to me, I want to speak
very plainly right now. Jesus Christ is the only hope
for your soul. And I compel you to come to Him
now while there's hope. Is that clear? Is that plain enough speech for
you? I don't want to be complicated. You should come and you should
give up everything and you should bow down and obey Christ. And if you will not come, you
will suffer under the vengeance of God. You say, Preacher, I can't hear.
I don't understand. Then I tell you, you should beg
Jesus to open your ears that you might hear His voice. Well, I have. Well, you should
keep on begging until He does. You know, I have begged him to
open my ears. I have begged him, pleaded and
asked for mercy. And I've not stopped. If you ever believe on Christ,
you'll never stop begging. You'll never stop pleading. You'll
never stop coming and you'll never stop bowing to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Until you see him face to face. What a day that's going to be,
isn't it? Isn't it going to be a wonderful day when all of this
sin and this world is put aside and all I have is left is love
for my Savior? And I can see Him as He really
is. Is that your hope? Is there anything else more pressing? Is there anything more important not the one who believes. I pray that God would bless this
to your hearts, that He would open your ears, and that He would
loose your tongue, so to speak of His grace. Tell
of His mercy, and don't stop telling. This man, he couldn't
stop. He couldn't stop telling of the
great things that God had done for him. And neither will anyone
who believes in Christ ever stop telling of His grace. May God
be gracious to you. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed
in prayer.