Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 268 from your hardback hymnal. 268.
And let's all stand together. ? How firm a foundation, ye saints
of the Lord ? It is laid for your faith in his excellent word
? What more can he say than to you he hath said to you who for
refuge to Jesus have fled. Fear not, I am with thee, O be
not dismayed, For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee,
and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my gracious, omnipotent
hand. When through the deep waters
I'd call thee The rivers of woe shall not thee
overflow, For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, And
sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. When through fiery
trials thy pathway shall lie, my grace, all-sufficient, shall
be thy supply. The flame shall not burn thee
I only design, Thy cross to consume and thy gold to keep. A soul that on Jesus hath leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Please be seated. Don't you love that hymn? That's such a comfort, encouragement,
has been for God's saints for hundreds of years now. I saw
in our hymnal that hymn was written in the late 18th century. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles to Isaiah 61. Of course, we're familiar with
this passage because it's the place in God's Word where our
Lord opened the scroll when he began his public ministry in
Nazareth. And he turned to this place. Everybody there knew that this
was a prophecy of the Messiah, the anointed one, the Christ,
the one that would come in the power of the spirit of God to
accomplish the purpose of God in saving his people. And our
Lord read this passage and then said, This day, this scripture
has been fulfilled in my sight. Isaiah 61 verse one, the spirit
of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound to proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord. I understand that to be a reference
to the year of Jubilee and that's when all debt was counseled and
all slaves were set free and all property went back to its
original owner and every 50 years. And the Lord was the fulfillment
of that jubilee, setting us free and giving us that which we lost
in the fall and canceling our debt to proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our
God to comfort all that mourn. to appoint unto them that mourn
in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that he might be glorified. Our daughter, Jennifer, had a
heat stroke today and ended up in the hospital. She is now home. But it was very, very difficult
for her for several hours. So we're thankful that she's
doing well. Also, Zobey had an MRI today. And I haven't heard the results
yet. I've asked her. I don't know what the results
of that are. And a lot of you know Jeff and
Laura Bandle from Cottageville. Laura has had some tests recently,
even today, for a tumor that they found on one of her kidneys.
And they're waiting for the results back from that. So let's pray
together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
oh, What great hope and comfort, peace and joy we receive from
your Holy Spirit in being able to believe what thy dear son,
the Lord Jesus, came to accomplish, declaring
himself to be the anointed one and fulfilling all that you sent
him to do. Lord, we ask once again that
you would turn our mourning into joy. Lord, that you would turn
us again, turn us to Christ. Lord, Give us liberty. You said that where the Spirit
of God is, there is liberty. And Lord, we pray that you would
send your Holy Spirit in power and cause your word to be effectual
in our hearts and give us liberty in Christ. Lord, we thank you
for your hand of protection on Jennifer today. And Lord, we
ask that you would give her a good recovery. Lord, for Zobey and
Laura, we pray for your mercy, for your grace. We pray that
you would encourage them and their family and that you would
be pleased to place your hand of strength and healing on them.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again and
sing hymn number 296. 296. All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, Here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me,
cheers each winding path I tread, gives me grace for every trial,
feeds me with the living bread. Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul a thirst may be, Gushing from the rock before
me, O, a spring of joy I see! Gushing from the rock before
me, O, a spring of joy I see! All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. And my spirit clothed in mortal
Wings its flight to realms of day. This my song through endless
ages. Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages. Jesus led me all the way. Please be seated. Could you open your Bibles with
me to Mark chapter 7? Mark chapter 7. We have recorded only by Mark
a miracle that is so precious, it's so sweet, it
just, it reveals to the believer what the Lord has done for them.
And I hope that it will encourage us tonight to reveal more of
who he is and what he's done. I've titled this message, Plain
Speech. Plain Speech. It is amazing. how convoluted, how confusing,
how contradictory we can make spiritual things. You know, we
hear a lot about proof-checking or however they say it today
and we would never embrace nonsense in any other area of life, but
when it comes to spiritual things, we are so deaf, we are so blind,
we are so dumb that if the Lord doesn't unstop our ears and if
he doesn't speak to our hearts and reveal the truth to us, There's
no end to the nonsense that we will embrace and believe. We will readily, lest God makes
us to differ, we will say God is all-powerful and God is sovereign
until he comes up against my free will and then he's impotent. and he's not sovereign, he's
dependent upon me for something. We'll do that. It's just incredible
what we will believe. This man had an impotent, an
impediment in his speech. You couldn't understand what
he was saying. And so it is with man. when it comes to the things of
God. We will readily embrace the idea
that God loves everybody but that most of the people that
God loves he's going to punish with his fiery judgment in an
eternal hell. We'll embrace something like
that. It's just nonsense but that's
how dumb we are. That's how spiritually blind
and deaf we are. We will read the Bible and say
that it's the Word of God and that it's inerrant and infallible
and God-inspired and then we will... then we will completely
ignore whole passages of scripture and things that don't fit our
narrative we'll reject. We'll do that. We hold so many
inconsistencies and we will all do that if the Lord doesn't do
for us what he did for this man. We will We will say that we're
born spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins, but there's
enough life in us, though we're dead, to make a decision and
to take the first step and to obligate God to save us by something
that we as dead men do. That's just how ridiculous we
can be. We will say that salvation is
all of grace. It is not of works. And then
we'll turn right around and use the law to measure our salvation,
to monitor one another. We'll go right back under the
law. Jeff read passage from 2 Thessalonians
last Sunday where the Lord is warning us against unreasonable
and wicked men for not all men have faith, 2 Thessalonians chapter
3. And I looked up that word unreasonable
and the word is absurd, absurd. But that's what we, I mean, I
don't care how accomplished or how intelligent a man is, a woman
is, in any discipline of life. When it comes to spiritual things,
men will check their brains in at the door and they will swallow
hook, line, and sinker absurdity. Absolute absurdity. And you and I will do the same. God doesn't unstop our ears if
he doesn't do for us what he did for this man. Verse 31 of Mark chapter 7. And
again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto
the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coast of Decapolis,
And they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment
of speech. That's all men by nature. Deaf
to the voice of God, deaf to the word of God, deaf to the
truth of God. And when they try to speak the
things of God, This word impediment means you can't understand them,
it's gobbledygook, it doesn't make sense. And they beseech him to put his
hand upon him and he took him aside from the multitude and
put his finger in his ears and he spit and touched his tongue.
Just, you know, the... The Old Testament law, if an
unclean man spit on a clean man, then that ceremonially clean
man became unclean by the spittle of the unclean man. And here
we have a reversal of that. We have the only clean man. the
only one who is without sin, the only one who can stand wholly
in the presence of God. And he is taking his spittle
and putting it on the unclean that we might be made clean in
the sight of God. You see, the truth of the gospel
is just the opposite of what men think by nature. And so, You know, we have these preconceived
ideas of what things are and what things are true and we filter
everything we hear through those preconceived ideas and if God
doesn't change what we think is true, we'll not be able to
hear or understand or believe anything. Lord, I need you to put your
finger in my ears. I need you to take your clean
spittle and put it on my unclean tongue and loose the bands of
my tongue that I might speak plainly, clearly, consistently
the truth. In verse 34, and he looked up
to heaven, he sighed and said unto him, Ephratah, that is be
opened. And straightway his ears were
opened and the string of his tongue was loosed and he spake
plain, plain, clear. You understand every word he
said. And he, the Lord Jesus, charged
them that they should tell no man. But the more he charged
them, so much the more a great deal they published it, and were
beyond measure astonished, saying, he hath done all things well. We're gonna save that last verse
for another day, but there's a whole lot to be said about
he hath done all things well. Everything he did, he did perfectly. For he maketh both the deaf to
hear and the dumb to speak. Very simple outline I have tonight. We see something in this miracle
of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see something of his
power, and we see something of his purpose. His person, his
power, and his purpose. I love how The Lord looked up
to heaven, he sighed, and he said, Ephratah, be open. We see the dual nature of the
Lord Jesus in that one verse, in verse 34, the God-man. and the Lord Jesus was always
fully God and fully man. There was never a time when he
set aside his humanity to be deity and there was never a time
he set aside his deity to be humanity. He was the God's perfect
man and man's perfect God together in one nature, in one person
and two natures and we see that In this one verse, he has the
power of God to say, be opened, and this man's ears were opened.
The power of God. Never a man spake like this man
before. He spoke unto the waves and the
sea and the disciples were amazed and they say, what manner of
man is this that even the wind and the waves obey his voice? Well, he's God. He's the God
man. He said to one man, your sins
are forgiven you. And the Pharisee said, no one
can forgive sins but God. And the Lord said, What is easier
to say, your sins have forgiven you or take up your bed and walk,
but that you might know that the Son of Man has power to forgive
sins. I say unto you, take up your
bed and walk. The performing of these miracles was not for
the purpose of trying to make himself known to men. He did
it very privately, didn't he? The Lord tells us why he did
it. These things have been written in order that you might believe,
and that believing you might have life through his name. These
things are for us. Oh, that we could glory in the
power of the God-man, the Lord Jesus, and rejoice in what he
has done for us. And even the Old Testament prophets,
when they spoke for God, they had to say, thus saith the Lord.
Every time they would speak, they would say, thus saith the
Lord. When we stand today, we have to say, thus saith the Lord.
But when the Lord Jesus spoke, he said, I say unto you, The word had become flesh and
he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the
only begotten of the father full of grace and full of truth with
the power to speak. And he's still speaking and we
have his word. And by his grace, we bow to all
that the Lord has said. It's the only way that we can
be saved. You know, the early verses of the book of Genesis
is just a picture of what the Lord does spiritually when he
saves us. The earth was without form and
void and darkness was upon the face of the deep. There we are,
without form and void, empty, nothing but darkness. And God said, Let there be light. And it was light. And he still has that power.
Lord, speak effectually. Speak the light of the gospel
to my heart because my heart is wicked and deceitful and I
don't have any spiritual discernment. I don't have any spiritual understanding
if you don't give it to me. Lord, I won't know anything.
I won't be able to do anything. I won't be able to see anything. I won't be able to say anything.
I will have an impediment of speech and I'll be deaf. By his word, he creates out of
himself. And he said to that leper, I
will be thou clean. And immediately he was made clean. Ephratah. Be open. And they were open. Lord, if
my ears are to be open, you're just going to have to speak.
You have to speak to me. Y'all know Sarah Lenore Reynolds,
and I was talking to them this past week, and Lenore used to
raise sheep. And they had a pasture out in
their back 40 up in Pennsylvania. And she raised her sheep as pets. And she had them all named. And
they intermingled with the neighbor's sheep who were being raised for
the slaughter. And Lenore said, you know, I'd
just go out in the yard and start calling my sheep. And they would
come out. One by one, they'd come out of
that group of sheep. And the ones that were being
raised for slaughter never lifted their heads. I thought that was... They never lifted up their heads.
They just kept eating. Just kept eating their belly.
No acknowledgment whatsoever to the voice of Lenore. Her sheep
herd. Oh. Lord, when you speak, don't
let me have my face down in the dirt. Lord, say to me, Ifrithah,
put your fingers in my ear, unstop my ears, loose my tongue. Lord, deliver me from the absurdity
of what I would embrace. The second thing I see in this
verse, verse 34, is not only the power of his deity, but the
sympathy of his humanity. He sighed. He sighed. He groaned. He looked. at this man and he
saw in this man the consequences of sin in this man's inability
and he groaned from his heart for that. This sigh is an emotion,
it's a human emotion. Much like in John chapter 11
when the Lord was at the graveside of Lazarus and the scripture
says, then Jesus wept. Why did he weep? Because he's
the God man. Yes, he's all-powerful. Yes, he's God. Yes, he's sovereign.
Yes, he's omnipotent. But let us not forget that we
have a high priest who is able to sympathize, to sympathize
with our afflictions. Able to be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, the scripture says. The Lord Jesus hungered
and he thirsted. The Lord Jesus marveled. That's an emotion. Well, how
do you explain that? Because we see both natures of
Christ in this one. He sighed, he groaned out of
pity for this man, and he exercised his power and his authority.
And he's the same now. He's the same now. Yes, he has
the power to save, but he also pities his children with a human
emotion, a human emotion. Remember when that centurion
came to the Lord and said, oh no, I'm not worthy that you should
come into my roof, but only speak the word and my servant will
be healed. And the scripture says, and he
marveled at him, for he had not seen such faith in all of Israel.
God marveling? Yes, the God man, the God man. What the Lord's showing us here
is the tenderness of his Humanity. And the pinnacle of that, the full display
of that is in his suffering. When the scripture says that
he told the disciples, he told them, my soul is exceedingly
sorrowful when he was there in the garden of Gethsemane. and
praying and pleading with the Father that there might be some
way for this cup to pass from him knowing that he was going
to bear the sins of his people and suffering as the God-man. Fully God, fully man. And the full agony and shame
and humiliation of crucifixion Yes, the real horror of his death
was the sin of his people that he bore and his separation from
his father. But as the son of man, he suffered
every part of that torturous crucifixion as if you had or
I had. He sighed. He groaned. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
2. Hebrews chapter two. Look at verse 14 in Hebrews chapter
two. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, that's us, we're partakers of
flesh and blood, the weakness of our flesh. He also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death, he might
destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
He had to be born under the law. He had to be made of a woman
to redeem those who were cursed by the law. and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage, for verily he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He sighed,
He groaned. He was filled with compassion
and pity, a human emotion. You wouldn't think, well, God,
what could cause God? He's the God-man, fully God,
fully man, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, able to be touched with the feelings
of our infirmities, For in that he himself hath suffered being
tempted, he is able to help them that are tempted. What the Lord is saying to you
and me, brethren, is that when we struggle in this world with
our own sin and with unbelief and with our circumstances, we have a savior. who possesses
all the power of God and all the sympathy that we need for
him to know exactly what we're going through. What greater Savior
could we have? He knows everything. Turn with
me to 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Verse 1, for we know
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
We have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens, and for this we groan earnestly. That word groan is the same word
in our text. He sighed. He groaned. And we live our sojourning here
in this world groaning. And the Apostle Paul tells the
same thing in the book of Romans, how all of creation groans for
its redemption. And in this we groan earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with the house which is from heaven.
Oh, we live our lives in this world groaning to be rid of sin,
to be made in the fullness of his likeness, to be in his presence. And here he's groaning and sighing
because he sympathizes. He sympathizes with our afflictions
and with our infirmities. And then he says, be open, be
open. Oh, the best of both worlds. Verse 36 in our text. That's the person that I see
in this miracle. The person that I see is the
God-man. The one who possesses all power and at the same time,
He possesses all sympathy. And the second thing I see is
the power of God. And I want you to notice with
me in verse 36. And he charged them that they
should tell no man. But the more he charged them,
so much the more, a great deal, they published it. If a man had the power to do
what the Lord Jesus did. Would he be doing it in secret? Would he be telling people, don't
tell anybody about it? Would he be taking those that
he performs miracles on privately out of the way and doing it quietly?
I doubt it. He'd do, Moses was given power
one time. And he had a rod and there was
a rock that followed them through the wilderness and that rock
was Christ. And the rock had already been
smitten once. And now the rock had dried up and the children
of Israel were thirsty and they were murmuring. And Moses went
before the Lord and the Lord told Moses, don't strike the
rock again, speak to the rock. The rock can only be smitten
once. We know what that's a picture of. The Lord Jesus on Calvary's
cross was smitten by the wrath of God, by the rod of God's justice
one time. And he satisfied divine justice
in what he accomplished on that cross. And now we speak to him. We speak to the rock. Oh, Lord,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Lord, save me. Lord, open my
ears. Lord, I need you to sympathize
with my afflictions and to give me help in the time of my need,
Lord. Moses didn't do that. Moses, out of frustration for
the people, he took his rod and he said to the congregation,
I'm gonna show you the power of God. And he took his rod and
he smote the rock. He made a public display out
of it. Moses was never allowed to enter
into the promised land after that. The rock can't be smitten
twice. But now what men do, They don't
trust that what the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross
was sufficient for their salvation. They've got to smite him with
something else. And as a result of that, the
never-ender into the promised land. But the Lord Jesus, he didn't
then and he doesn't now do anything that appeals to the flesh. Moses
was appealing to the flesh, that which is of the flesh is flesh,
and the flesh profited nothing. The Lord was not making a show
in the flesh. He's not seeking the approval
or the popularity of man. He's not looking for a following. There's such confidence and such
power demonstrated in what our Lord's saying here. Don't tell
anybody about this. I mean, even Satan, when he tempted
the Lord in the wilderness, took him up on the pinnacle of the
temple and said, cast yourself down and the angels will not
allow you to dash your foot against the stone and all the people
will bow to you and believe. It was a temptation for the popularity
of the masses. And the Lord said, you shall
not tempt the Lord thy God. I'm not here to impress the masses. And even his family, when he
was performing these miracles quietly in obscure places, his
family came to him and said, go down into Jerusalem and do
this in public for no man who wants to be seen does these things
privately or secretly. And our God is, and he's still not,
The Lord is not doing what he does to appeal to the flesh of
men. He does it in a quiet manner,
and his churches are small, and his people are powerless and
insignificant, and the religious world thinks that the purpose
of the gospel is to change the world, and they're out trying
to exercise the power of God to change the world. We're not
here to change the world. We're here in hopes that the
Lord has changed us. The Lord saved me. And he does
it quietly. And he speaks to his children
quietly. And they speak to him quietly. He said to them, when
you pray, pray like this. Go into your closet and pray
to your heavenly father in secret. And your father which hears in
secret will reward you openly. See, our Lord's not not trying
to get men to follow him. He's not out to impress men in
their flesh. The gospel and the methods of
the gospel and the means of the gospel and the results of the
gospel go unnoticed by the world. They are unimpressive to the
natural man. And the Lord's still saying,
don't tell anybody. I'm not here to I'm here to save my people. And there's such a wonderful
demonstration of his power in that. And then finally, we see something
of his purpose. Deaf, with an impediment of speech,
Now, speaking plainly. The gospel is a mystery. In Revelation
chapter 2, the Lord said of the church of Pergamos, he speaks
of himself as the hidden manna. The hidden manna. And the Jews
were very proud of the fact that God had sent manna down from
heaven during their time in the wilderness, and the Lord said,
Moses didn't give you that manna, my father gave you that manna.
I'm the bread of life, that was me. But they couldn't see that. It was a hidden manna. And he said to the Pharisees,
you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal
life, but these are they which testify of me. We will not see
Christ. We will not have our ears open,
our eyes open. The seeing eye and the hearing
ear are both from the Lord. He's got to loose our tongue.
And a man's speech reveals what he's heard, doesn't it? That's
why all men have different accents and they speak different languages
because we learn to speak that which we hear. And if you listen to religious
people, you will find when they speak that they're not speaking
what God has said, they're speaking what they've learned from another
man. And we would do the same thing. Who maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you've
not received? A man can receive nothing except
to be given to him from heaven. Oh Lord, I'll embrace nonsense. We speak what we, We speak what
we hear. We were part of a mega church
years ago, and there was a short period of time while I was on
staff there that they asked me to help out in the deaf ministry. And I didn't know sign language,
but the deaf people wanted someone to teach them. And I had a translator
and so the translator would do the sign language and I noticed
after a while that there were some that had an impediment of
speech and some that didn't speak at all. They didn't speak at
all. And come to find out the difference
was the ones that were born deaf, stone deaf, never spoke. The ones who had lost their hearing
or had just a little bit of hearing were the ones who had an impediment
of speech. And we're born dead in our trespasses and sins, but
if you think about it from the fact that our father Adam walked
with God in the cool of the day. And I noticed recently that that
word cool of the day is the word breeze. And that's a picture
of the Holy Spirit. So there was the breath of God
that was walking with Adam in the garden and God, and he was
fellowshipping with a God and he was hearing God and he had
ears to hear and he understood exactly what the Lord said to
him. And now as a result of Adam's sin and our union with Adam, we were
born hearing but now we've died and now we have an impediment
of speech. We know that there's a God with
whom we must do and we've conjectured some things about that God and
we've come up with all sorts of religious nonsense to try
to explain the things of God. I also noticed after a while
that there was some very capable, it was a pretty large group of
deaf people and there was some very capable men in that group
and I thought, well, you know, let them teach. And I found out
right away from the rest of the deaf people, we don't want a
deaf person teaching us. I don't care how much they know
or how capable they are or how much they've said, we want a
hearing person to teach us because that deaf person's in the same
boat we're in. And we need somebody that we
can have confidence has a broader understanding of things because
they can hear. Well, that's, you know, that
we've got the, The blind leading the blind and they're all falling
into the ditch. You got deaf men teaching deaf
men and no one's heard from God. Plainness of speech. Oh, I want
to have plain speech. I want to have simple speech.
I looked up this word plain in a couple of places. You remember
when the Lord went to the Pharisee Simon's house. And there was a woman who was
a notorious sinner and she came into the house and she broke
open an alabaster jar and she took this precious ointment and
she anointed our Lord's feet and she wiped her tears with
her hair. And Simon, the Pharisee, thought
to himself, if the Lord knew who that woman was, he wouldn't
let her do that. And the Lord rebuked Simon. He
said, Simon, I came into your house and you didn't offer to
wash my feet. You didn't anoint me with oil.
This woman has done all those things. And then the Lord gave
Simon a parable. He said a creditor had two debtors
and one debtor owed him 500 pence and one debtor owed him 50 pence.
And he forgave them both, their complete debt. Simon, which of
those two debtors would love the creditor more? And Simon
said, I suppose the one that was forgiven, the greater debt. And the Lord said to Simon, you
have judged rightly. For he that has been forgiven
little loves little, and he that is forgiven much loves much."
That word rightly, you have judged rightly, is the same word plain. It's only used a few times in
the New Testament. And this is the only place where it's used
plain. It's translated right or right judgment in every other
place. And he said to Simon, you have
judged rightly. You have spoken the truth. You
have made a proper judgment. and that you understand that those who have been forgiven
much love much. Oh, how much have we been forgiven? God makes you to be a sinner.
You don't look down your self-righteous nose at other sinners and think
that you're better than them. You believe yourself to be the
chief of all sinners. they that have been forgiven
much, love much." That's a right judgment. Oh, the impediment
of religion says, yeah, men are sinners but I'm not as bad a
sinner as someone else. But the plain speech of the believer
believes himself to be the chief of all sinners. The second time this word right
is used is in Luke chapter 10, when a lawyer tempting the Lord. That's amazing in and of itself,
isn't it? That a lawyer would try to tempt
God, kind of catch him in a trap is what he's doing. And he said
to him, he said, he said, good master, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? And the Lord said, well, what
does the law say? And he said, well, the law says to love the
Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your mind and
all of your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. And the Lord looked
at him and said, you have judged rightly. Do that and you'll live. Do that and you'll live. And the impediment of man-made
self-righteous freewill religion The religion that we're all born
with and that we would be in if God didn't come and put his
fingers in our ear and loose our tongue. The religions that we're by nature
of would say, well I can... I can maintain a certain degree
of obedience to the loving God with all my heart and all my
soul and love my neighbor. I can be a good person. I can
earn eternal life. I can inherit eternal life. And
the plainness of speech says, Lord, I've never kept any one
of your laws, not one single time. And the Lord Jesus is the
only one that's kept the law perfectly. He's the only one
that loved God with all of his heart and all of his soul and
all of his mind all the time. And I've never loved God like
that for a moment. That's plainness of speech, isn't
it? Luke chapter 20. Another Pharisee came before
the Lord and said, we know that thou sayest and thou teachest
rightly. He was flattering the Lord. We know that you're teaching
rightly. You're teaching, and that you're not affected by the
opinions of men. You teach God's Word truly. So let us ask you a question.
Should we pay tribute unto Caesar? Should we pay tribute unto Caesar?
And the Lord said, give me a coin. Whose image is on this coin,
Caesar? The Lord said, render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's
and unto God that which is God. And no man ask any more questions.
Why? Because they spoke the truth
when they said, he speaks rightly. His word is infallible, his word
is true. And we have plainness of speech
and our tongues have been loosed when God by his grace enables
us to speak the same thing that he has spoken. His person, he's the God-man. His power, he's gonna save his
people wherever they are and he's not gonna make a show of
it. Not a show in the flesh. Not a show that's gonna impress
men. He doesn't need that. He knows what's in man. And his purpose is to give his
children ears to hear. Give them ears to hear and loose
their tongue so that they can say the truth about themselves
and about God and about how it is that God's pleased to save.
They can speak plainly without contradiction. Our heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Lord, we pray that you would perform this miracle
for us. Keep us for Christ's sake. Amen. All right, let's stand. 352, 352.