The Lord Jesus Christ performed
many miracles while on this earth, miracles that proved Him to be
God manifest in the flesh, proved Him to be the Christ. The blind
received their sight. The lame walked. Lepers were
cleansed. The deaf heard. He gave them
ears to hear. The dead were raised. In Mark
chapter 7, I'm reading another story of the Lord healing someone,
Mark chapter 7, says they brought to him, in verse 32, they brought
to the Lord one that was deaf and had an impediment in his
speech. And they beseeched him to put
his hand upon him. Well, the Lord did. He took this
man and healed him. He opened his deaf ears and his
speech was given to him. Well, this is another picture
of the salvation of every one of God's people. All of God's
people were blind when he found them. They were deaf. Could not
hear the truth. Could not hear his voice. They
were lame. They could not walk by faith. Lepers, dead and trespassed
in sin. If you have never been blind,
then you do not see now. The Lord one time said to some
Pharisees, He said, if you were blind, you would have no sin.
We need to go and learn what that means. If you've never been
dead and trespassed in sin, then you're yet in your sins. When
salvation comes, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes through the
preaching of the gospel, it says, as in Isaiah 29, the deaf shall
hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind shall see.
Here in this story, it says in verse 31 that the Lord Jesus
Christ departed out of the coast of Tyre and Sidon, came into
the Sea of Galilee. He departed from this Tyre and
Sidon. a long ways over the mountains
to this remote village, a notorious, notoriously evil place. And he went there to save one
woman, one woman's daughter, that is. And then he left and
went back to Galilee. Let me ask you a question. Could
God save anyone He wanted to? Can God save anyone He wants
to? Can Christ save whom He will? Can He? I'm sure most everyone
will answer, why, yes. Then why doesn't He? Why doesn't
God save everyone? Why not? I'll tell you why. Because
salvation is God's will, God's choice. He saves whom He will.
No one deserves to be saved. People say this all the time.
False preachers say this. Everyone deserves a chance to
be saved. No. No one deserves to be saved.
Salvation is the mercy of God. Mercy means not getting what
we deserve. No one deserves to be saved,
and salvation is not by chance. It's according to God's purpose
and grace, not by chance, but God's choice. Salvation is according
to the sovereign mercy of God. He said, I will show mercy on
whom I will show mercy. I will be gracious on whom I
will be gracious. I urge everyone, listen to this,
to call on the Lord for mercy. Don't expect it, but ask for
it. If you call, He will. He'll show
mercy. But they bring to the Lord, verse
32, one that was deaf. One that was deaf. He had no
hearing. He was deaf from birth. He had ears, but he could not
hear. They were useless. Scripture
says that's all mankind by nature. That's all of us. That's how
we're born. Having ears to hear, we hear
not. Eyes to see, and see not. I know people who hear this gospel,
who hear God's Word, yet they don't hear it. I know people
who read God's Word and yet cannot see clearly what it's saying.
In fact, they say that very thing. I don't see it that way when
it's just as plain as we would say, as a nose on your face.
This was me. I was deaf. I was blind to the
truth. I'm a preacher's kid. I've heard
thousands of messages. My father was a pastor for sixty-some
years, and I heard message after message after message, and yet
I didn't hear a thing. I read the Word, saw it with
these eyes, but did not see." Proverbs 20, verse 12 says, "...the
hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made them both."
That's speaking of not only physical eyes and ears, but spiritual
eyes and ears. When people see, it's because
God gives them eyes to see. This is what the Lord said, I
will bring my sons, Isaiah 43, I will bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth. Everyone is called
by my name. I have created him for my glory.
He said, bring forth the people that have eyes and the deaf that
have ears. Well, they bring this man to Christ. Say unto whoever
is listening to this right now, those who are listening who believe
the Gospel, who believe the truth, do you? If you do, if you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, there is someone in your house right
now, someone you know, who does not believe, who has not heard
the truth. who has not seen God, who has
not seen their need of Him, need of Christ, have not seen themselves
for what they are, sinners. Bring them to Christ. Bring them
to hear this message. Bring them right now. Bring them
into this room and let them hear this message. They must hear
it. They must hear it. It says, Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? That's Romans 10, 14. And how
shall they preach except they be sent? Bring them. Bring them. Bring them by prayer. Bring them before the Lord. Ask
Him to open their ears and blind eye. Bring them to His church. Bring them to where the Gospels
preach. Bring them. Bring them this morning. Bring
them to 3596 Franklin Street, Rocky Mount, Virginia at 930,
and they will hear the truth, the truth of God's Word, the
gospel of salvation that's able to make them wise unto salvation.
Bring them. So they brought this man to the
Lord and beseeched Him. They begged Him, Lord, please
open his ears. If the Lord doesn't open ears,
they won't be open. If the Lord doesn't give eyes
to see, they won't see. He says this man had an impediment
in his speech, and that's how you know. That's how you know
he was deaf, that he could not hear because his speech gave
him away. There are certain words and sounds
that a person cannot imitate if they cannot hear them. Unsaved
people clearly reveal that they haven't heard God's voice, Christ's
voice. They haven't heard the Word of
God. They haven't heard the truth. by the way that they speak. Unsaved
people, be they irreligious or religious. There are just as
many lost people in religion as there are out of religion.
The irreligious, those who make no pretense of worshiping God,
they don't go to church, they don't read their Bible, they
don't They don't pray. They don't call on the Lord.
They make no profession of believing God. They give away the fact
that they haven't heard God's Word by the way they speak. God
says, they that take His name in vain, He will not hold them
guiltless. Many take God's name in vain.
We live in a day in which the name of God is on the lips of
most people, men, women, and even little children. Do you
hear this saying all the time? Oh my God! As a byword, as an
exclamation point. That's taking God's name in vain.
If people knew God, they wouldn't use His name like that. If they
feared God, they wouldn't use His name like that. Scripture
says, there's no fear of God before their eyes. David said,
the transgression of the wicked tells me there's no fear of God.
The way they take His name in vain. Religious are no different. what they say about God. Religious
preachers tell me that they don't know God by the way they speak
about God. They say, God wants this. God
wants that. God didn't want that to happen.
When Scriptures say no such things like that, they say, let go and
let God. Let God Be your Lord. Let Jesus into your heart. They
don't know God or they wouldn't speak like that because the Scriptures
doesn't say that. And the religious give away the
fact that they haven't heard God's voice. They have an impediment
in their speech because they say things like this. I accepted
Jesus. I got saved. I made Jesus Lord. I let Him into my heart. I joined
the church. They speak about their will,
my will, my works, my decision. Their religion starts with I,
me and mine. Man's will, man's choice, man's
decision. That is not the salvation of
God's people. Scripture says, let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. One time a man said to my wife,
he said, I got saved the other day. And she said, I'm sorry
to hear that. And he was shocked. He said,
what do you mean? She said, if the Lord had saved you, you would
have said so. He said, well, that's what I
mean. Well, no, that's not what you said. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. If the Lord saved you, you would
have said so. You mean to tell me that if you
were in a burning building or if you were drowning and someone
gave their life saving you, That you'd run around telling people
that you let that man save you? You'd run around telling people
how you accepted him as your personal Savior? Sounds foolish,
doesn't it? Neither would you tell people
you let God do anything if God in great mercy and great grace
came and saved you and gave His life, Christ gave His life for
you. You would tell people, as all
of God's true people do, the Lord saved me. The Lord had mercy
upon me. The Lord gave me eyes to see.
The Lord, in great mercy and great grace, undeserved mercy
and undeserved grace, Save me. The redeemed of the Lord say
so. He hath saved me. All people in heaven are saved
unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. None of this I, me, and my stuff.
Well, they brought this man to Christ and it says He took him.
Where did He take him? It says in verse 33, He took
him aside from the multitude. He took him out of the crowd,
because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be that go therein." That's what
the Lord said. Can all these people in religion
be wrong? Yes, most of them are. There
were millions of people in the days of the ark, Noah's ark.
Only eight people were in that ark. Millions went through the
wilderness of sin. Only two over twenty went in
the promised land. Can all these people be wrong?
Yes, they generally are. The truth is always in the minority. Vast multitudes followed Jesus,
believed in Jesus. And He turned to them and said,
You only follow Me for the food, for the miracles. They asked
Him one time, Lord, are there few that be saved? He said, Yes.
Many are called, but few are chosen. People, the Lord wants
to bring you out of religion, outside the camp, Hebrews 13
says. And he's going to have to stop
your ears from hearing lies. Verse 33 says, he put his fingers
in his ears, touched his tongue. He spit something from the Lord's
mouth and touched his ears and touched his tongue. That's the
Word of God. The Lord's going to have to stop
your ears from hearing lies, hearing all of this false gospel
that's being preached today, false religion, lies on God,
and have you hear His voice, His truth. from his mouth, from
the Word of God. And he put his fingers in his
ears and touched his tongue, and it says, his ears were open. The Lord said, Be open. His ears
were open and his tongue was loosed, and he spake plainly.
He spake plainly. What came from the Lord's mouth
opened his ears and loosed his tongue. What did he hear? Well, he heard the voice of the
Son of God. The Word of God, which is Christ. He heard Christ. What did He
say? It says His tongue was loosed.
He spake plainly. I'll tell you what He said. He
said, Salvation is of the Lord. He said, He chose me. He called
me. He had mercy on me. He hath saved
me unto Him, unto Him, unto Him. None of this I, me and mine,
but unto Him. Salvations of the Lord for His
glory. Oh, may the Lord open your deaf
ears this morning to hear His voice, to hear His truth. That
is my prayer. Amen.