I'd like you to turn with me to the second chapter that we read the Gospel according to Matthew and chapter 9 and the text you'll find in verse 32. And they went out. 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 spank. And the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. As we continue on through the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ this is the 17th miracle of the Lord Jesus. If you remember last week we looked at the Lord Jesus healing those who were blind and giving them the ability to see. And we typed that as being spiritually blind as we are by nature, by birth we are spiritually blind, unable to perceive spiritual truth. and these physically blind men were able to view Jesus Christ by faith as to who he truly was, the son of David, that he had the ability to heal them of their sickness, of their condition. And then as Jesus continues to move on somebody is brought to him with another condition as we've seen throughout the Gospels there is that continued cycle of people coming to the Lord Jesus Christ with various ailments, various conditions. some bring their self to the Lord Jesus, some people's condition isolated them from ceremonial worship, some people were brought to the Lord Jesus Christ by other people and this dumb man he is brought to the Lord Jesus by other people. In the old language the Bible uses the word dumb, in our modern versions it will use the word mute. dumb is seen as probably more offensive in our culture and so if I try to remember I will try and use the word mute. It means someone who is unable to speak, to use their voice, to communicate what is taking place in their minds and so this person it has been restrained Not naturally, not because of any sickness or any condition or any accident that has taken place but this person, his specific condition is done by Satan. That it is Satan himself or a demon that is within him has restricted his ability to speak. And we know that there are conditions that people are born with that can render them unable to speak. There are situations that people pass through that can make them dumb. Sometimes in traumatic situations, especially with children and young people, a situation that they pass through can make them unable to speak. And there are people who have accidents or cancers of the throat whereby they are stopped from being able to speak. And so we know as the same as every other sickness that has been brought into this world, the core, the root core of all the sickness, all the suffering, comes from sin that entered in as man was disobedient to God he was chased out from God's presence and sin entered into the world and the Bible tells us that we have all been corrupted by sin which is why there is so much suffering and sickness in the world today but God in his mercy It has made means by which lots of suffering can be alleviated in our present day but it still continues. Suffering and the healing that we experience may elongate our life but it never stops the end result of sin which is death. all those whom the Lord Jesus Christ healed and all who he raised again from the dead experienced that final judgment that falls upon each and that is death. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life, that spiritual gift that is granted unto those who trust in the Lord Jesus. And so this man is mute, he's unable to speak. I don't know if you know anybody. I know Emily knows many people who are unable to speak. It is something that we take for granted, that we can just communicate our thoughts even in times of teaching, at home, times of emergencies. We can use our voice to communicate the things that we are thinking, wanting to pass over. And our voice is a wonderful creation of God. We go back to the beginning, right at the very beginning. We come face to face with a God who is living and a God who speaks. He spoke the world into being. And the reason why you and I are able to speak and to communicate truth is because God is a true living God and he created us after his own image with the same attributes that he blessed to his people. In the beginning, the Bible tells us, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. He did not do it with a magic wand. He did not do it by striking his hand over this place or that place. He did it by his voice. The Bible tells us, and God said, and God said, and God said, and it was so. As God spoke, everything changed. Nothing came into something. The elements were obedient to the voice of God. Nobody has that power to speak. and to bring something out of nothing. Remember last week we looked at those questions that science can't answer. Where does life come from? Science cannot boil that down and give us an answer but the scripture tells us that God spoke and it was done. Life was given. Science can't tell us how can something come from nothing but the scripture tells us that God was there at the beginning and he brought something from nothing. He spoke and it was done. He created the world by his voice. The voice that God has given to us is powerful. But that power lies in the one who is speaking. You think of the most powerful man alive, the man that has the most ability to do what he pleases, and arguably it could be Donald Trump, or think of Mr. Putin. You think of how many men have been brought to the end of their lives by him speaking. It was him who made the decision to advance into Ukraine by the word of his voice, brought about the action that he had in his heart. Think of Donald Trump. He only has to think about something, can discuss it with his cabinet, and a missile can be fired across the world to land in a specific place that he wants. He only has to speak. And it's done by the power of his voice, the influence that he has, the authority that he has. He speaks. You think of the power of almighty God, the God who we have come to worship today, the God who has separated this day. Six days shalt thou labour and on the seventh day you shall rest. This day we come to worship the true and living God, a God who is able to hear, a God who is able to see, a God who is able to speak and his voice demands the utmost obedience that as he spoke the heavens and the earth were created and it was so and he made man in his own image and God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowls of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and God created man in his own image in the image of God created he him male and female created he them. The only thing God created out of the clay by his hands was Adam. Eve, the Bible tells us, is taken from Adam. Adam is made to fall asleep and the Lord takes a rib from him and creates a woman and therefore he calls her woman. She is taken out from man. She is his help meat. One suitable, one compatible to work with him. They could talk to each other. They could see each other. They could hear each other and in their perfect relationship with God they could speak to God. They could witness and view God. They could communicate with God. But when they sinned against God that separation came about. That means of communication was severed. And they were chased out from the Garden of Eden and sin entered into the world and suffering as a result of sin. And so the freedom that they had to talk and to see and to hear God was broken. But we know that God made a way through his beloved son the Lord Jesus Christ to set about a means of communication by him being our great high priest. and providing that perfect sacrifice by which sinners are able to approach a holy God and to talk to this One who created us, to talk to this One who gives us life, to talk to the One who controls heaven and earth. We are able to come to Him once again through His Son and to speak to Him. How often do we speak to Him? How often do we use the means of communication that God has given to us to speak to our Creator, our Father which art in heaven. One regret I think many people have as they lay on their deathbed is that they haven't read their Bible as much as they would have liked to and that they haven't prayed as much as they would like to. So busy is our lives. So busy are we with talking to everybody else that we forget to talk with the creator, the one who spoke the world into being. In Psalm 29 it tells us there of the voice of God. What is the voice of God like? If you remember when Moses was given the law and there was the thundering and lightnings and the Lord spoke and the people of Israel trembled at the sound of the voice of God. They asked for a mediator. They asked that Moses would speak to God and that then Moses would speak to the people. So terrified were they at the sound of the voice of God. And Psalm 29 tells us, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The God of glory thundereth. The Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. Yea, the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon. He maketh them also to skip like a calf, Lebanon and Shiran, like the young unicorn. The voice of the Lord divideth the flame of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kedash. The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests, and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory. The Lord sitteth upon the flood, yea, the Lord sitteth king for ever. The Lord will give strength unto his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace. And so it's the voice of the Lord that causes this well to continue. As the Lord speaks, as he enables it to continue, the Lord causes the animals to give birth. Maybe it is that the voice of the Lord because it's so terrifying. You know sometimes when a lady is expecting a baby and she experiences a shock, that shock causes her to give birth. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness. It's a terrifying thing. A powerful thing. In Psalm 94 it tells us there. In verse 9, He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastises the heathen, shall he not correct? He that teaches man knowledge, shall he not know? The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, for they are vanity. And so the psalmist gives us the simple truth, the obvious fact that the one who created us is greater than his creation. The one who created the eyes he is able to see. The one who created the ears he is able to hear. The one who created the voice the voice box he is able to speak. Our bodies as does creation, declare the greatness of the creator. It is evident for all to see that creation or that the world around us must have been created. As we walk past the big buildings in London we don't say well that miraculously evolved into its place over thousands of years. We know because we see the building itself that it must have been built by a builder, must have been designed by an architect. And so when we see the human body, when we see the wonder of creation, the simple things that we take for granted every single day, our eyes, our ears, our voice, we know that they have come from the great creator. So complex is our voice. So wonderful is our voice, so detailed are our eyes and our ears that they come, they must come from an all-knowing designer. And so as God is a God who communicates, he has made us that we also may communicate. Even the animals are able to communicate with each other and God has designed specific ways by which specific animals communicate with each other and some ways the human cannot fully grasp. Some animals communicate by the chemicals that they place on the ground, some sounds that are able to travel over vast distances. that God has created them to be able to communicate with each other just like you and I are able to communicate with each other and God has provided a way by which we can communicate with Him, the true and living God who made us. He can hear, He can see and He can speak. The Bible tells us that the earth was originally of one language. But God came down and he confounded the language of man at the Tower of Babel. And every people group gathered together, every language group gathered together and then spread out over the face of the earth and multiplied the earth as God had commanded them to do. They wanted to stay together. They wanted to make a name for themselves and to become powerful. But God scattered them. and he scattered them by changing their language. They were unable to communicate. There are at the moment over 7,000 different languages in the world. 7,000. When we were in Kenya, you've got English, you've got Swahili, and then you've got the local tribal languages. In England, we have our own English language, one of the broadest spoken languages over the whole earth. The English language is spoken by billions of people. but God in his mercy when he wanted the gospel to be communicated when he wanted people to speak of the goodness of God when he wanted people to speak about salvation what did he do? Instead of bringing confusion he brought about a unity he brought about the ability to speak in other languages so that the gospel may go forth that people may be brought from the darkness into the light. That Babel experience was to be changed and the people testified how do we hear every man in our own tongue wherein we were born. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit of God is the ability to speak in another language and the ability to translate into another language. And so what we see at Pentecost was a moving of the Spirit of God so that the advancement of the Gospel may go forth with power. So it's God. created the voice to enable us to communicate with each other and with him and that his gospel may go forth and people may hear the word of the Lord that they may see by faith the Lord Jesus Christ and that they may speak of the goodness of God. think of the Lord Jesus Christ. He came speaking. The Bible tells us never a man spake like this man. He is the word of God, the living word, the physical manifestation of God's mind and will, the embodiment of God himself. We have seen Christ, we have seen the Father. It is God manifested or revealed to us that in the flesh and he came hearing, he came seeing and he came speaking. He saw the multitudes and his heart was touched. He was moved with compassion because of them and he said He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were as sheep scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then said he unto his disciples, the harvest is truly plenteous, but the labourers are few. Pray ye therefore. Speak to the Lord of the harvest. Use your voice to pray and to unburden your heart. Pray to the Lord. that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. What you'd speak to God and that God would speak to men and that men would move forward with the gospel. They would proclaim the truth. But many times they didn't hear the Lord Jesus as we have seen with those who are deaf. They're unable to hear what is going on round about them and the Bible tells us that by our nature we're unable to hear spiritual truth and to believe a spiritual truth. And so it was with many that came and who sat under the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ they heard his voice but they couldn't comprehend the things that he was saying. He spoke to them in parable. Matthew 13 and verse 10 it says, And the disciples came and said unto him, Why speakest thou to them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but unto them it is not given. For whosoever hath to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he has therefore speak I to them in parables because they seeing they see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which saith by hearing you shall By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and not perceive. He says but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. And so although the Lord Jesus Christ never a man spoke like this man although his words were powerful and sharper than any two edged sword yet there were those within his congregation that were deaf to the message. They heard with the natural ear but they didn't understand and it didn't stir anything within their hearts to cause them to go and ask the reason why. Why did Jesus speak in parables? So that people would come to him and ask, what do you mean by these things? That showed him that something had taken place within their heart and that they had a desire to understand. Do you have a desire? Do I have a desire to understand? Do you hear these truths that God created the heaven and the earth, that God is a true and living God and does it just pass by? Or does something stir within our hearts? Well I want to know. I want to know more. I want to go and talk to this God. I want to find out what this God is saying to me. How can I talk to him? I can talk to him by praying to him through his son, the Lord Jesus. I can speak to him as I speak to my mum or dad or my brother or my sister or my friend. We can come to him. How does he speak? In the olden days there were the prophets of God who spoke the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, they cried. Today we have the whole counsel of God found in the Holy Bible. It's the Word of God, the written Word of God. It tells us all about his Son, the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. It tells us of his message, his life, his death, his resurrection. It tells us of his people, those who followed him who went proclaiming the truth of the Word. It tells us all we need to know about the Christian life and the church of the Lord Jesus. It tells us of the prophetic nature of the scripture that Jesus Christ is coming again as he came before so he will come again, the written word of God. Do we have ears that hear or are we deaf? spiritually death. Jesus came to this man and he delivered him of his muteness by casting out that devil which was holding him in that sad state It is Satan as we saw the other day who blinds the mind of the world, of those outside of Christ. Not only does he blind them but he also makes them deaf and he also makes them mute. They're unable to speak, they're unable to sing the praises of God, they're unable to testify of the goodness of the Lord because they haven't heard and they haven't seen the Lord Jesus Christ so they've got nothing to say. They are held captive, muted by Satan himself. And the Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ came to deliver people from that captive condition that they are in. In 1 John chapter 3, verse 80 says he that commits sin is of the devil for the devil sinneth from the beginning For this purpose the Son of God was manifested or revealed that he might destroy the works of the devil. And so we see the Lord Jesus Christ as he comes and he walks this earth we see him destroying the work of the devil. We see him casting out those demons that were holding people captive. We see him upon the cross destroying death. We see him becoming a curse for sin. We see him rising again from the dead. The grave could not hold him. And so as Jesus released this man and gave him that ability to speak, he overthrew the stronghold of Satan in his life. So he's able to do that for you and for me. And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake, and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel. Wonder what he said. The man who was lame, when he was healed by the Lord Jesus Christ, what did he do? He leaped and danced. I wonder what this man said. The first words that came out of his mouth, they're not seen. They're not written down for us. We can only imagine how thankful he was to be released from this condition that he was in. No doubt he praised God. No doubt he praised the Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt he testified of all that the Lord Jesus Christ had done for him. And as the multitudes marvelled and some accused the Lord Jesus Christ of being a devil, being the prince of devils, this man knew for sure who the Lord Jesus Christ was. The Bible tells us, Jesus tells us, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. What goes on within our hearts comes out of our mouths. What was going on in the hearts of the Pharisees was a hatred to the Lord Jesus Christ and so what they saw they attributed to the work of Satan. Hatred was in their heart and so hatred came out of their mouths. You see words they reveal something about us. What comes out reveals something about the condition of our standing before God. The Bible tells us that our words can cause us to sin. Think of blasphemy. Blasphemy is speaking the name of the Lord Jesus Christ or God himself in an empty way or using it as a curse word. And the scripture tells us that that is a sin. So words that we say they're not just nothing. They have an effect. Lies. The Bible tells us that hell will be full of liars. Yesterday I was on the train and the ticket man was coming and a young couple had just got on with their new baby, very small baby. They came on the train together. The man was pushing the buggy but as soon as he saw the ticket man he left the baby with the mother and ran off down the other end of the train. The ticket man came to the lady and said to her, do you have any tickets? She said, no, I don't have any tickets. I'm just going to the next station. And he said, is that one or two? And she said, oh, just one. He said, well, you came on with another man. No, no, I don't know him. Well, you came on together. No, he's nothing to do with me. Immediately, she was lying. And so she bought one ticket. The ticket conductor goes right down the other end of the train, finds the man and they begin to reason and discuss and her lies were exposed. People think nothing of lying. A young mother with a baby, how is that baby going to be brought up? The mother lies, the father lies, they deceive. We're going to be brought up to lie. The Bible tells us lying is a sin. It's a distortion of the truth. God is a God of truth. Satan is a liar and is the father of lies. And so by our words, by the things that we say, they reveal whose we are. If we lie, if we blaspheme, it shows others that we are of the people of Satan. But if we're people of the truth, Our words will be words of truth, will be words of edification and encouragement. By our words we can deny that we know the Lord Jesus Christ or the things that we say. The scripture tells us that our words should be seasoned with salt, that they should be true, that they should be right, holy. Think of Peter. His words caused him to deny the Lord Jesus. Do you know him? No, I don't. I've never seen him before. He lied. He denied the Lord Jesus Christ. And it wasn't just words. That was a sin. was written down a mark we could say against his name although he is in Christ Jesus. Yet all those outside of Christ even the lies that they speak are allocated. And the Lord knows out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. And so our voices that God has given to us not to be voices that pull down, that destroy, voices of anger, voices of hatred, voices of bitterness, voices of lies. Our voices are to be used for the praise and glory of God, to be able to communicate the good news of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ especially if The Lord has taken us from a spiritual dumbness to a spiritual ability to speak. We've got something to say. We've been transitioned from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and we've got a testimony to tell of the goodness of God. I mean to use our voice. to glorify our creator and our maker. The psalms tell us, there's so much in the psalms, isn't there? O give thanks unto the Lord. In the last psalm, it says, Psalm 149. Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation. When we sing to God. We are joining with the angels around the throne that are already singing to God 24 hours a day. Holy, holy, holy they sing. The angels have voices to praise the Lord and when one is brought from spiritual dumbness to the ability to speak they also join in with that anthem and they sing together of the goodness of God and they tell of the goodness of the Lord and the dumb spoke. The Bible says a lot, doesn't it, about gossiping and busybodying as we've looked at a few months ago. And our voice has been created by God to speak the goodness of the Lord. But quickly, some people, as Emily can tell us more, though they are mute, they use signs to speak. They have created a sign language by which these mute people are able to communicate with each other and others who learn that language. And God also uses signs. He uses the signs or the letters in his word, the revealed word of God, his voice written down so that we can read it and it can be passed from generation to generation. You think of the sign of the rainbow that God put in the clouds so that we would remember his covenant that he made with Noah. When we see it, it's God's sign language to remind us of his goodness, a covenant keeping God. Think of baptism. Baptism is a sign, a symbol by which we can all look on and visually see what has taken place in the life of this person that is being baptised. Sign language to encourage us and help us in our faith, a visual by which we can see. And the Lord's Supper. visual elements of God's love in Christ Jesus, sign language. And also in the pathway of believers God uses sign language, providential situations, how he alters things, how he changes the course of Christians by altering the pathway that they're in. He hedges up their way, he opens doors for them to go through and we're to look at providence as like a sign language. that God speaks to us through the various situations, the physical situations that we can see. And we bring those situations and we analyse his word and we can determine that this is the right way, this is the will of God for us. And so as Jesus comes face to face with this mute man He casts out the demon and the dumb spoke. Well may we use our voices like this mute man to praise the glory of God. May we have some testimony to tell of his goodness and his mercy and may we look at the signs that he places in our lives to be guided and directed and to be encouraged by him and the means that he has given to us, a prayer hearing and answering God who can see, who can hear and who speaks to his beloved people. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen. The final hymn is from Gatsby's 529 to the tune 737. 529 Sweet Jesus, how great is thy love! And all that thy mercy in truth know no end, and all that are born from above shall find thee a permanent friend. Dear Saviour, enlighten mine eyes, that I may the wonders behold. contained in the law of the wise, too grand and too great to be told. 529. How great is thy love, Thy mercy and truth know no end, And all that are born from above Shall find Thee a permanent friend. Dear Savior, enlighten my eyes, That I may in wonders behold Contained in the lore of the wise, to man. yet able to tell. The half of the glory I see in the divine treasure of grace, sweet wonders O let me be wanting of sight, O may I with pleasure behold thy statues, and in their ? Against this barricade ? Almighty God, we give thee thanks that our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made and we thank thee Lord for our voices that we have something to tell of the goodness of the Lord and that we can sing thy praises and join with the angels around thy throne to sing holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty and we pray, Lord that thou work in each heart that they each may be able to testify that their God has done all things well. We pray that thou be with us then in the interval of worship and bless us as we meet together this afternoon and bless the Sunday school around thy word and now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father with the fellowship and communion of the Holy Spirit to be with you each now and forevermore. Amen. Amen.