Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 33 in your hardbacked hymnal. Number
33, and let's all stand together. ? Stand up and bless the Lord ?
? Ye people of his joys ? ? Stand up and bless the Lord your God
? ? With heart and soul and voice ? ? Oh, high above all praise
? ? Above all blessing high ? Who would not fear His holy name
And laud and magnify? Oh, for the living flame From
His own altar brought ? To touch our lips, our minds inspire ?
And wing to heaven our thought ? God is our strength and song
? Hence is salvation ours ? Then be his love in Christ proclaim
? With all our ransomed power Stand up and bless the Lord,
the Lord your God adored. Stand up and bless his glorious
name henceforth forevermore. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Isaiah
chapter 35, Isaiah 35. You know, a perfect example of
being blind is, I can remember in religion, interpreting some
of the things in this chapter as it related to irrigating the
desert in the Middle East. You know that this was the fulfillment
of prophecy because they had figured out how to get things
to grow in the desert. I hope the Lord will give us
a better understanding than that. Let's read it together. The wilderness
and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon
shall be given unto it, and the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the
Lord and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with
vengeance, even God with a recompense, and he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness
shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched
ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water,
in the habitation of dragons, where each lay shall be grass
with reeds and rushes. and a highway shall be there
and away. And it should be called the way
of holiness, and the unclean shall not pass over it. But it
shall be for those, the wayfaring men, though fools, should not
err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any
ravenous beast shall go up thereon. It shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord
shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy
upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness
and sorrow and singing, sighing, I'm sorry, shall flee away. I talked to Jorge this afternoon,
and he got home last night and had a really difficult time last
night with a lot of pain, discomfort. But he seemed to be doing some
better this afternoon, still taking pain meds and recovering
from his surgery at home. So good to have Craig and Donna
with us tonight from Spring Lake. We're with John Chapman, Spring
Lake, North Carolina. John Chapman's pastor. Been a
while since I've been there I've always always enjoyed going up
preaching for y'all. Let's let's let's pray together
Our Heavenly Father Thank you For making rivers of
life to flow in the parched land Surely Lord we live in a dry
and thirsty land and a wasteland of sin and unbelief. Lord, you
were pleased to open the windows of heaven and cause the showers
of your blessings to come and to cause life to spring in the
hearts of your people and to give them hope and faith in Christ. Lord, we pray that you would
do that again for us tonight. We pray that that river clear
as crystal would flow from thy throne, and that we would drink
freely from the river of life. Lord, we, we thank you for creating in
us a thirst for thee. We pray that you would quench
it. Give us ears to hear, eyes to see. Thank you for Jorge and
for the surgery that you gave him and pray Lord for your hand
of healing to be upon him. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 1 58 1 58. Let's all stand
together again. Number 1 58 Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove
With all thy quickening powers Kindle a flame of sacred love
In these cold parts of ours ? Look how we grovel here below ? ?
Fond of these earthly toys ? ? Our souls how heavily they go ? ?
To reach eternal joy ? In vain we tune our fourfold songs. In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues
and our devotions. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live at this foredying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
Thee, and Thine to us so great. ? Come Holy Spirit heavenly dove
? With all thy quickening powers ? Come shed abroad the Savior's
love ? And that shall kindle ours Please be seated. going to be in Matthew chapter
nine, this evening, Matthew chapter nine. Last Wednesday night, we looked
at the miracle of the Lord giving these two men their sight, they
were blind. And the story continues in verse
32, As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man
possessed with a devil. And when the devil was cast out,
the dumb spake, and the multitude marveled, saying, It was never
so seen in Israel. But the Pharisees said, He casteth
out devils through the prince of devils." When John the Baptist was about
to be beheaded, sent a couple of his disciples
to confirm with the Lord that he was the Christ. And he asked
him, he said, are you the one that should come or should we
look for another? And our Lord told those disciples
of John, you go back and you tell John the things that you've
seen and heard. That the blind see, the deaf
hear, the lame walk, And he used these miracles to encourage John
to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the son of the living
God. And that's how John, the apostle
finishes up his gospel. These things have been written
to you that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
son of the living God. And that believing you might
have life through his name. Every single one of these miracles,
if the Lord enables us, are true of every one of God's children. We come into this world blind,
we can't understand, we can't see. The Lord told Nicodemus,
except you be born of the Spirit, you cannot perceive, you cannot
see, you cannot understand the kingdom of God. We're blind as
to what our condition is, dead in our trespasses and sins. We're
blind as to who God is. We walk in darkness. We don't
know that he's sovereign, that he's omnipotent and immutable,
and we have really no understanding of his nature or his character. And we're blind especially as
to how it is that God saves sinners. We come into this world believing
that there's something that we can do to merit favor with God.
And in that darkness, the Lord has to open the eyes of our understanding. That's what he did. And in the
same regard, we're deaf. We can't hear the voice of God. until the Lord, as we just read
in Isaiah chapter 35, unstops the ears of the deaf. And in the verses that we just
read, this man who was dumb, and that word is used for deafness
and for muteness, and so obviously people that are deaf are mute,
And that was the case here. He couldn't hear and he couldn't
speak. And the scripture says that he
was possessed with the devil. And usually when we think about
demonic possession, we think immediately about that demoniac
over there in the Gadarenes who was cutting himself with stones
and was stripping himself naked and was an absolute wild man. and how when the Lord cast that
legion of demons from him, the scripture says that he was clothed
and seated and in his right mind. And what a picture of what the Lord
does when he takes those who are under the power, and that's
what this word, you see in our text, it says that he was possessed
with the devil. If you possess something, you
own it, it's your property, it's under your control. You have
possession of it. And I don't want us to think
of demonic possession just as that crazed man over there in
the Gadarenes, because the truth is that the Lord has to deliver
us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
son. And Satan is a liar and he's
the father of lies and he's the cause of the fall. And he certainly possesses each
one of us when we come into this world in terms of keeping us
in the dark. And... We may not be cutting ourselves
and breaking chains and stripping off our clothes but left to ourselves,
we are possessed in that we are his possession. Unbelief, unbelief is insanity. And it matters not to Satan whether
or not our spiritual insanity manifests itself in some sort
of crazed behavior or whether it manifests itself in some sort
of moral religion. In either case, he has the possession. And if he could just, do whatever
he does. Is Satan not called a minister
of righteousness? Is he not called an angel of
light? Is he not called a wolf in sheep's clothing? You see,
the truth is that he possesses most people, not in the sense
that we see that lunatic in the gatherings. He possesses most
people with just simply a spirit of unbelief, darkness, blindness,
deafness. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3,
you don't have to look this up, you're familiar with this passage.
If our gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are lost in whom
the God of this world hath blinded the minds of they which believe
not. The God of this world. Until the Lord's pleased to unstop
the ear and open the eyes of our understanding, we're just
as, you know, there's nothing said about this man as far as
some sort of wild-eyed behavior. It just says that he was dumb,
he was deaf, and he was mute, and he was under the control
of an evil spirit. This is every man's condition. Every man's condition. Here's the good news, brethren.
The Lord Jesus came into the world to destroy the works of
the devil. The Spirit of God comes. He causes us to see our sin because
of our unbelief, our righteousness, because we have an advocate with
the Father, the righteous one, Jesus Christ, and he causes us
to see that judgment has been executed, that Satan has been
defeated, and that all those whom he held captive are now
going to be led into the captivity of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see, the truth is that we either possessed owned, controlled by,
and under the authority of Satan or Christ. It's one way or the
other. He came to set the captives free.
He came to set at liberty them that are bruised. He came, as
the scripture says, to deliver us from the power of darkness
and to translate us into the kingdom of his dear Son. How
is it any different? Lord, before you were pleased
to speak to my heart, before you were pleased to birth me
spiritually, I was possessed. I was possessed. Isaiah chapter 43 verse 1 says,
but now, but now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O
Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel. And I looked up those
two words, he created us and he formed us. And it's an imagery
of a potter who takes the clay and forms that clay into a vessel. And it's a picture of our Lord
who is the potter and we are the clay. And so he created us
in that he made the clay and then he takes that clay in his
hands and he forms it. Some vessels of honor and some
of dishonor. But here's what the Lord says,
but now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, That's
how we were created, we came into this world, supplanters,
deceivers, deceived and deceivers. What were we deceived by? We
were deceived by the father of lies. And we deceived ourselves. And then he formed us, oh Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee I have called thee by thy name and thou art mine. You're mine now. You're my possession.
You're not Satan's possession anymore. You're my possession.
I bought you. I redeemed you. I put my name
on you. I formed you. And you are mine. We've been bought with a price.
No longer. No longer. Does he possess us
as his property? We are, as the scripture says
in Ephesians 1, verse 14, his purchased possession unto the
praise of his glory. We are his purchased possession.
You've been bought with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're no longer Satan's and you're no longer your own, you
belong to him. Now all of that being true about
the child of God, how much the Lord warns us in his word as
believers of the power of darkness that's still in the world. Be
vigilant, be vigilant, be sober. Peter tells us, for your adversary,
the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And when the Lord in the Lord's
Prayer said, when you pray, Lord, deliver me from evil, really
the word there is the evil one. Lord, deliver me from the evil
one. Though I'm no longer his possession,
though I now belong to you, Lord, Apart from your daily care and
protection and sustaining me and keeping me, Lord, I'm subject. Well, Peter was subject to him,
was he not? Peter, Satan has asked to sift
you and he's gonna do it. I've given him permission. But
I prayed for you. And when you've been converted,
you teach the brethren. You use the experience of that
fall to warn other believers about what can happen when you
have a spirit of pride like you have. So Ephesians chapter six, put
on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. This roaring lion, this demonic
spirit, this evil influence, though he no longer possesses
the child of God, we're still warned in plenty of places to
beware of him and to keep our eyes on Christ lest he get advantage. So, here's the miracle. Here's the miracle. This deaf and mute man was possessed
of the devil. And what a horrible place to
be. But true of each one of us. And the devil had to be cast
out. You see that in verse 33, when the devil was cast out,
then the dumb spake. He had to be delivered from this
spiritual power and only the Lord Jesus can do that. He's
the only one that has power over the devil. He came to destroy
the works of the devil. Satan is God's devil. He's of
no match. We are of no match to him, and
he is of no match to Christ. We could not perceive the kingdom
of God, except the Lord give us a hearing.
The hearing ear, the scripture says, is of the Lord. Let him
who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. We're completely deaf to the
voice of God. My sheep hear my voice. They
follow me. Why do you not understand my
speech, the Lord said to the Pharisees? Because you cannot
hear my word because You are of your father, the devil. We couldn't hear God's word.
We couldn't believe. We couldn't bow. We couldn't
rejoice. We couldn't understand. We couldn't
see. Because you cannot hear my word. He is a liar. He is the father
of lies. There's no truth in him. how dependent we are that the
Lord perform a miracle for us to hear. What a blessing it is
to hear. And yet even like with being
possessed with the devil and being tempted of the devil, So it is with hearing, though
now when the Lord unstops the ear and gives us grace to hear
his voice and to believe on him, oh, child of God, how dependent
are we now for him to give us ears to hear? Jeff and I were talking about
this the other day, about preaching and how difficult it is to to come before the Lord and to
have a message that he gives you, that he puts on the heart. Everything in our flesh fights
against it. When you come here to worship,
your heart's desire is to hear, and yet how many distractions
there are, and how many things, how many thoughts, Stuff goes
through our minds that keeps us from, Lord, give me hearing
ears. I need you. Every hour I need
you, especially in the hour of worship. When I come before you
in prayer, when I go to your word, Lord, you're going to have
to give me ears to hear. So it's not like all of a sudden
at the new birth, our ears are open and now we hear everything.
No, it doesn't work like that. The parable our Lord told about
the four soils and the sower of the seed and the sower is
Christ and the seed is his word. And some
of the seed fell on stony ground and the birds of the air came
and plucked it away. Now we often think of that as
the pearls before the swine and the holy things that you don't
give them to dogs. The unbeliever will hear, well,
the script, the most often quoted verse from the Old Testament
to the New Testament is found in Isaiah chapter six. They will
have ears, but they will not hear. Eyes they will have, but
they will not see. And so men will sit there and
they'll listen and they don't hear a thing. Only by God's grace is his sheep
here. How continually dependent are
we up for that grace? For how many times has God spoken
to you? And it seems as if the birds of the
air came and plucked it away. You got caught up in something
else, and someone asked you about something that the Lord showed
you, something he taught you, something he warmed your heart
with, and you can't remember. I've had people ask me what I
preached a couple of days ago, and I'm, well, you know, I'm
thinking about another message. I ought to think about that,
you know, yeah. You see, we're vulnerable, aren't we? You say,
well, some of the seed fell on stony soil and it rooted and
it sprung up quickly, but the heat of the sun and the persecution
of the world beat down on it and it shriveled and died and
produced no fruit. And we think of that as those
who have ears, but they do not hear. And the unbeliever oftentimes
will jump on the bandwagon of enthusiasm and and in time they'll
fall away. But how many times has the sun
parched the soil of your soul and kept the word of God from
being fruitful in your heart? And then some of the seed fell
on thorny soil and it was choked out by the cares of the world
so that it never produced fruit. And how many things have we tried
to cherish and then we get distracted by the things of this world and
they get choked out and we become fruitless in our endeavors. You
see? Yes, this is a miracle of salvation
but it's a continual miracle of grace, isn't it? For we've
got this evil spirit all about us that's always going to be
our adversary and we have this flesh, this unbelieving Body. We are in need of the Lord to
break up the fallow ground. And when he does, and the seed
falls on ground that he has prepared, and it takes root, and it produces
fruit, some 20, some 60, some 100-fold. Not always the same,
and not always the same between believers, but God makes it fruitful. Scripture calls believers trees
of righteousness, the plantings of the Lord. The Lord's got to
plant that seed. And unless the seed dies and
falls into the ground, it cannot bear fruit. And of course, that's
a picture of Christ. He is the seed that died and
was put into the ground and brought forth the fruit of righteousness
and salvation for all of his people. It's also a work of grace in
our heart, isn't it? Paul said, I die daily. And how we're so quick to find
life and satisfaction in ourselves and in the world around us and
in our things, and the Lord has to kill us again. In order for
the seed to bear fruit, it has to die, it has to die. We will never see ourselves as
spiritually dead and devoid of any righteousness except the
Lord slay us. Except he put us to death. And
what does he use to do that with? He uses law, doesn't he? The law is what slays us. The
law is what lays us low. It shows us what sinners we are. The purpose of the law is to
make sin utterly sinful. And we look at God's law and
we think, well, there's no life in me as far as my ability to
keep God. I need a law keeper. I need one
who's able to satisfy the demands of God's law. I need the Lord
Jesus Christ, who himself is my life. Lord, you're gonna have to give
me ears to hear. You're gonna have to protect
me from the evil one. You're gonna have to give me
faith. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing
comes by the word of God. Call upon the name of the Lord
and shall be saved. How can they call upon him in
whom they've not heard? And whom they've not believed?
And how should they believe on him in whom they've not heard?
And how shall they hear? Without a preacher. So here's
the means by which the Lord breathes, continually breathes life into
our hearts and makes his word alive. Not only was this man deaf, as
we are, and not only was he possessed with the devil, as we were, and continued near the Lord's
deliverance from. But he was mute. He couldn't
speak. We speak what we hear, don't
we? A person who can't hear can't
speak. And that's evident in the accents that different people
have. You express your language in
the accent in which you heard it. And so, the mouth just says what the
ear hears. And we see this in false prophets when they preach.
You've listened to someone preaching and you think, he didn't say
anything. He didn't say anything. Well,
the reason he didn't say anything is because he's never heard anything.
You can't speak if you haven't heard. You can't lift up Christ if you
don't know him. And if he's not, and how much
preaching today is storytelling and quoting dead theologians
and confessions and so little scripture. So little scripture. Why? Because God hasn't spoken. So they haven't heard the word
of, you know, you talk to a religious person and they wanna give you
a logical argument and you give them scripture after scripture
after scripture and they stand there and they have no response. No response. They can't, they
don't understand what you're even saying. And how we won't
have anything to say. The Lord doesn't speak to us.
We'll just We'll just fill the air with words. Bless the Lord,
causes his word to be alive, effectual in our hearts and gives
us words to speak. By your words you shall be justified
and by your words you shall be condemned. For out of the heart
the mouth speaks. So here's the avenue that the
gospel takes the Lord brings it in through the hearing ear,
not the physical ear but spiritual ear and brings it into the new
heart and enables the heart to express it and give to him all
the praise. You listen to an unbeliever speak
about their experiences with God and generally they always
start out with I. You know, well I was here and
I was there and I did this and I did that and I accepted and
I believed and I committed and you know, and they expose themselves. Nothing about, well, the Lord
arrested me. He knocked me off my high horse. He stopped me on my road to self-destruction. He called me by his grace. God, who separated me from my
mother's womb, when it pleased the Lord, he called me and revealed
Christ in me. And had he not taken that charge,
I never would have come to him. Never would have come to him. And they can't tell you about
what Jesus did on Calvary's cross 2,000 years ago, but they can't
tell you why he did it. They have no understanding of
what it was he accomplished on the cross. It was just, well,
you know, Christ died. And I believe, and they take
the first couple of verses at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and
you know how that, a term of me there to that passage. I wanna
point out an important distinction in this passage. 1 Corinthians
chapter 15, verse one. Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have
received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved,
if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed
in vain. For I declared unto you, first of all, that which
I also received. How? How? Not that, but how? This is the why, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. All the things
in the scriptures were fulfilled. All the types and pictures and
shadows of the Lord Jesus coming as the Christ, the Messiah, the
anointed one to save all of Israel. He accomplished that. He fulfilled
the prophets. He fulfilled the law and he satisfied
everything the prophets had to say, how that Christ died, according
to the scriptures. Here's the message that God uses
to save his people. And that he was buried and rose
again the third day, according to the scriptures. Men will take
those verses and say, well, if you just believe that Christ
died, was buried and rose again, that's the gospel. Just believe
that historical event. That's not what that passage
says. But we can't believe that. We
can't hear that unless the Lord, first of all, delivers us from
the power of darkness, translates us into the kingdom of his dear
son, opens our ears, and then enables us to speak. And we say
what we hear, what we hear. And like the other things that
we talked about, that is a continual work of grace, isn't it? How
many times have you had an opportunity to speak for His glory with someone
and you either didn't take advantage of the opportunity or you look
back on it now and you think, boy, I shouldn't have said that,
I should have said this, I didn't speak clearly. I've had plenty
of those experiences. I was telling Jeff, we were talking
about preaching the other day, and I told him, I said, you know,
the most painful thing for me to ever do is have to listen
to my own preaching. I like what Spurgeon said. He
said, some men are going to be punished by God by having to
listen to themselves preach for all of eternity. And they're
going to cry out with Cain, my punishment is too great for me.
I cannot bear it. It would be too great for me. You know, my point I'm trying
to make is we want to speak clearly and we often are not able. We say things we shouldn't have
said, and we don't make things clear like we want them. Why?
Why? Because we're continually needing
the Lord to open our ears and enable us to speak. It's not
a one-time blessing. It's not something that just
happens at salvation. Okay, now I've got ears to hear.
I can speak now, and I'm just gonna speak to His glory. It's
a continual work of grace, isn't it? To whom coming? What about
in prayer? Brothers and sisters, we pray
and our prayers are often just words. Lord, what do I say? How
do I pray? Lord, teach me to pray. Lord,
give me words. Put words in my mouth. Lord,
remind me of the scriptures. Let me repeat back to you what
you've told me. Job said in Job chapter 6 verse
24, and it was a long time before this prayer was answered, because
after Job prayed this prayer, he continued to justify himself. Why? Because it wasn't until
Elihu came and preached the gospel to him. And then the Lord took
over from Elihu's words, and the Lord spoke to Job. It wasn't
until after all of that that Job said, behold, I am Bile. I spoke without knowledge. I
didn't know what I was talking about. I repent in dust and ashes. Who
is this that darkens my counsel without knowledge? Isn't that
what the Lord said? Brace yourself, Job, like a man. I'm gonna ask
you a few questions. Well, that was way over there
in chapter 39, 40, 38. Listen to what Job said early
on in Job chapter six, verse 24. Teach me and I will hold
my tongue. Cause me to understand wherein
I have erred. Lord, teach me and I'll hold
my tongue. When the Lord taught him, he
did hold his tongue. And it wasn't until the Lord
taught him that he held his tongue. Because for the next several
chapters, Job defended himself and justified
himself for his miserable comforters. Turn with me to Psalm 25, Psalm
25. Verse four, show me thy ways,
O Lord, teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth and teach
me, for thou art the God of my salvation, on thee do I wait
all the day. And they shall all be taught
of God. Oh, we never graduate from that
school, do we? Always students, always needing
to learn, always in need of this same miracle that the Lord performed
for this dumb man who was possessed with the devil. Lord, you have
to unstop my ears, you have to enable me to speak, you have
to deliver me and keep me from the evil one. Never get beyond that. Lord, perform this miracle for
me. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Lord, like this, dumb man possessed with the devil. We are as dependent upon thee
and thy grace as he ever was. Have mercy upon us. We ask it
in Christ's name. Amen. 37 in the spiral hymnal. Let's stand together. Approach my soul, the throne
of grace, in every time of need. There's mercy for the needy one,
Who Jesus' name shall plead. Though I'm a weak and sinful
wretch, I will approach the throne. I'll lean upon Christ's mighty
arm and plead His blood alone. The blood, the precious blood
of Christ has opened up the way. by which I can draw near to God
and to my Father pray. Though Satan tempts my heart
to sin, I'll call upon my God. And if I fall, He'll lift me
up and cleanse me in the blood. The way is open, God will hear
my groans and cries of free. Nothing can keep me from His
throne but my own unbelief. O Lord, my unbelief, reboot and
turn my heart by grace. Come tell me to approach your
throne, And there spread out my case.