If you weren't here for Sunday
school this morning, I bring all the love and well wishes
and thoughts and prayers from Lexington. You guys are constantly,
we constantly talk about you, we're constantly thankful for
you, thankful for your pastor. And it's the first time I've
been in your new building and it's beautiful, absolutely beautiful. So I'm
very thankful for you. I'm very thankful for what the
Lord's done for you. If you would, turn over to Mark chapter seven,
Mark seven. I'll read a few verses here to
open. When you get there, go down to verse 31. Mark 7, pick up in verse 31. And again, departing from the
coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he, which is the Lord Jesus Christ,
came unto the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coasts
of Decapolis. And they bring unto him one that was deaf and
had an impediment in his speech. And they beseech him to put his
hand upon him. Now, I want you to consider this
for a moment. This man was deaf and very likely from birth because
he can't talk as well. He lives in a world of absolute
silence. There is no communication coming
in. There is no communication going out. And this man's condition
is so grave, it's so bad, he doesn't even know where to go
to get healing. It tells us right here that he has to be brought
to Christ. His friends had seen the miracles. His friends knew
where to take him. He didn't even know where to
go. Go on reading. Verse 33, and he took him aside
from the multitude and put his fingers into his ears and he
spit and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he
sighed, and saith unto him, Ephapha, that is, be opened. Straightway,
immediately, his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue
was loosed, and he spake plain. 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, and were beyond measure astonished,
saying, and this will be the title of our message, He hath
done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear
and the dumb to speak. I wanna read you a very familiar
passage of scripture. All of you have heard this several
times, but I'm gonna read it to you. This is 1 Peter 3 15.
Peter says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be
ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you
a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear? How would you answer? I'm ashamed to say no one has
ever asked me. But if they did, perhaps someone you know who
is in your sphere of influence, maybe somebody at work, they're
going through a very troubling time. Circumstances seem very,
very dark. And they come up to you, and
they say, there's something different about you. You're always optimistic. You have some hope in you. What is that hope? Do you have
anything for me? I want to know what it is that makes you so
optimistic. With you, it's like everything
is going to be okay. What is it? What would you say
to him? If it were me, I'd bring him right here. This is my answer. He hath done all things well. That's my answer and I speak
for every believer. I believe when I say that he
hath done all things well. That is my hope. What's our hope? At the end, what is the hope?
My hope is this, on judgment day, when I stand before that
thrice holy and just God, who must punish sin, I will stand
before him and he's gonna say to me, well done, thou good and
faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord, despite
all the evil I've done, despite all the sin I've done, despite
all the evil imaginations that have gone through my heart, he's
gonna say that to me. And I'm gonna have full acceptance with
God in the person of Jesus Christ. And it's twofold. That's the
first hope, and here's the second one. that everything that happens
from now until that day comes is carefully purposed by my God
to bring him the utmost of glory and to bring me to that expected
end. That's my hope. But what is the
hope within the hope? Is that a good hope? Am I going
to hear that on that day? Is everything going to be just
fine along the way? He hath done all things well. Yeah, it's a good hope. If that's
your hope within the hope, it's a good hope. Now let's break
that down for a second. Let's start here with he. Paul
said, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. Our hope is what? It's not a
what. It's a who. It's a person. It's
the Lord Jesus Christ. Folks, I'm thankful for doctrine.
I'm a logical person. I'm also a very simple person.
And I love the fact that the Lord gives us these reoccurring
themes over and over in his scripture that we would know that is the
truth. That's the truth. It's over and over in the scriptures.
And I'm thankful for that doctrine. And Christ can't be known apart
from that doctrine, but doctrine did not bear my sins on a cross
and die for me. And I'm thankful for the gift
of repentance and the gift of faith. There's no salvation apart
from that, but that's not the cause, that's the end state.
That's the end of it all. Faith didn't love me before the
world ever began, a man did. A God man, the Lord Jesus Christ. We've got some young teenagers,
all our kids are becoming teenagers back home. We got quite a few
of them in the church. And you guys probably do the
same thing. Every once in a while when Todd's preaching, I look
over throughout the years just to see what they're doing. And
when they're little, they're just trying to be quiet, right?
They're fidgeting with something, maybe coloring, something like that.
And then you look over a few years later, and they're much
more quiet, and they're reading a book, they're doing whatever
they're doing. And all of a sudden now, you know what I'm seeing?
I'm seeing those heads start to raise up. They're paying attention,
and they're listening. And I talk to them, and all of
a sudden, they start saying things like, salvation by grace, it's
not of works. Things like that are coming out.
It's starting to make sense. They're starting to hear. But here's
where I get real encouraged. When it's not a what anymore,
it's a who. He saved us. He called us. It's a person, the very person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where we have to begin.
The hope is a he. And here's the thing. Can the
he be trusted? That's a good question. It really
is. The only way I can answer that, I gotta tell you who he
is. And we wouldn't have time to try to plumb the depths of
who the person of the Lord Jesus Christ actually is. Wouldn't
be enough time in this universe. But I'll give you two things
right now. Here's the first one. This is very important. He is
absolutely sovereign over everyone and everything at all times. Nothing happens outside of his
perfect purpose and will. And his will is always done. Now, you know this scripture,
Daniel 435, and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as what?
Nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand. Nobody can stop him
or say unto him, what doest thou? That's how sovereign he is. You
say, why do you have to begin there? I'll tell you why. Because
I can tell you that he is merciful to sinners. Now, as a side note,
Throughout this message, I'm going to use two words interchangeably,
sinner and elect. And I get to do that because
they are one and the same. You want to know you're a member
of the elect, those that God chose? If you're a sinner, you
can't come up with the goods, you're one of those. And I can
tell you that he is merciful to sinners, and he is gracious
to sinners, and he is savingly kind to sinners, and it matters
not at all if he's not sovereign and can't ensure that what his
will is comes to pass, but he is. He is absolutely sovereign. He has all power. No creature
has any power that He doesn't give to Him. He's the source
of all of it. And because He's sovereign, because He's omnipotent,
everyone He purposed us to save, they're saved. And none can stay
His hand. Nobody can stop Him from that.
That means if He purposed to save me, saved I must be, because
if I'm not, He ceases to be God. That's what's riding on the line
here. And here's the second thing I'll tell you about Him. He is
absolutely trustworthy because of that sovereignty. Did you
catch the first two words in the story? And again, those are
the first two words. Why does the story begin with
that? Because it's telling us this, you know what the Lord
Jesus Christ is doing in this story? What he could be counted
on to do, what he had always done. I say this reverently,
but this is the truth. He is utterly predictable. He
always does the same thing exactly the same way every single time
because he's utterly faithful. This is what he said in Luke
9-11. It says, And the people, when
they knew, followed him, and he received them, and spake unto
them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of
healing. What was he doing in this story?
He was giving a man hearing that had no hearing. He was making
him talk that could not talk. And he did that over and over.
He gave sight to the blind. He raised the dead. He cleansed
lepers. He did the same thing over and over again. And there
wasn't one that they brought to him that he failed to heal.
Can I trust him? Well, he says this, he healed
them that had need of healing. That's a promise. If you're one
that has need of healing, if you're a sinner, you can't come
up with the goods. I need him to wash me, just as we looked
at in Sunday school. I need to wash me head to toe and make
me clean before God. He healed them that have need
of healing. He is utterly trustworthy. You can trust him and he will
do the exact same thing every time. He'll cleanse you. He'll
heal you. Now, first was He. Here's the second part of the
hope. He hath done all things. Turn to a scripture here. Turn
to Colossians 1. He hath done all things. The point I want to make here
is this. This thing of salvation, God's people being saved. It
is a historical event. He hath done, past tense, all
things. It's already finished. It's been
completed from the foundations of the world. Now we're gonna
read a series of scriptures here, and if I've counted right, in
these scriptures, 14 times the Lord Jesus Christ is referenced
in pronouns. He, him, and every time it talks
about him taking action, it is always in the past tense, done,
or in the present tense, currently done. Never in the future tense. It never says he's going to do
something. It only says he did it back then and it's done right
now. Now read this. Pick up in verse 16 of Colossians
1. It says, for by him were, past tense,
all things created. that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. That simple. He created all things. Everything around here is His
creation. You know what He gets to do then? Exercise sovereign
dominion over that which is created. And that's what He does every
single time. Look down at verse 17. And He, Christ, is currently
before all things, and by Him all things consist. He is before
all things. Where did salvation begin? I'll
tell you where it began, with the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. That's where it began. The whole
thing began with an acceptable sacrifice to God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That covenant of grace, when
the father gave him the elect, he said, you're going to do everything
that is necessary to save them. And they struck hands. It was
over. Salvation was done in eternity
past. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And everything flows from him. He is before all things. It's
all presently done. And by him, all things consist.
You know what that means, consist? Established that's what it means
all things all his people we are established Concreted in
Christ fully established in righteousness and holiness in sinlessness in
full acceptance with God Established we consist by him. It's already
done keep on going look at verse 18 and He is the head of the
body The church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. Why did the
father engineer it this way? He engineered it this way that
the Lord Jesus Christ would do everything in the salvation of
his elect. Why that way? Why is he gonna do it all? Very
simply this, so that he would get all the glory and he would
have all the preeminence in this thing we call salvation and God
would achieve his chief glory on that cross. Go on reading
verse 19. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness dwell. And having made, past tense,
peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all
things unto Himself, by Him I say whether they be things in earth
or things in heaven." This is the means of salvation right
here, the very blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. But notice what
it did. It is not making peace. It will not make peace. It made
peace by the blood of his cross. If I'm in Christ, if I'm one
of his, my peace with God has already been made. It was made
on that cross. It is finished. Everything he
did here, everything he talks about, it's already been done.
Folks, it's finished. It's finished. It's over. Here's
where the you comes in, though. Look at verse 21. And you, What did we contribute to this
thing of salvation? We're about to find out. And
you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works. What did we contribute to this
thing called salvation? Well, the scripture here tells
us this, you alienated yourself from God and you made him your
enemy by your wicked works. This is what we contributed,
the sin that made that salvation necessary. That's it. And we
reap all the benefits. Look, read again. And you that
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you, the you that had alienated themselves,
the you that had made themselves the enemy of God, holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Later on, as he is. So are we in this world. That's right now. Right now.
That's it. He hath done all things. That's my hope right there. And
finally this. He hath done all things well. Romans 8, 28. And we know that
all things, all of them, all things work together for good
to them that love God. to them who are the called according
to his purpose. All things, happy things, sad
things, edifying things. Yep, he did all those things.
Sad things, tormenting things, depressing things. You'll know
what I mean when I say this. Things I don't understand. How
can that be good for me? How does this lead to the glory
of God? How could this be right? Especially those things. He hath
done all things, and folks, he did them well. I'm gonna give
you an example of this. In Genesis 42, Jacob sends his
sons down to Egypt. There's a famine in the land.
He says, you go down there and you buy some corn. Nobody knows
this, but the man who's handing out corn down in Egypt, That's
his long-lost son, Joseph, who he thought was dead, who his
brother sold him to slavery. And they go down there, and Joseph
notices them, and he's going to do something here, so he takes
Simeon. He doesn't tell him who he is. He takes Simeon and puts
him in prison, and he says, you boys go back. He goes, you go
back to your father. He goes, and you bring your youngest
brother, Benjamin, back here. That's the only way you're going
to get Simeon back, so I know you're true men. And so they
go on back. They go back to Jacob. And they
tell Jacob, said, the man in Egypt, he said, we got to bring
Benjamin back, or we're not going to get Simeon. He wants to see
that we're true men. Jacob looks around. He already thinks Joseph
is dead. Simeon's in prison. He might
as well be dead. He's thinking that right now.
And now they want to take Benjamin, too. It would be the worst day
of your life, wouldn't it? And he said this. All these things
are against me. That was his exact statement.
What didn't he know? He didn't know that man in Egypt
was his long lost son, Joseph, that he thought was dead. that
Joseph was orchestrating this to bring all the family down
to Egypt where that was food. In just a short time, Jacob was
gonna lay eyes on all of them, and he was gonna have all his
family together, and he would have a huge posterity that would
inhabit that land for many hundred of years. Did he know that at
the time? No. All these things are against
me. No, they're not, Jacob. No, they're all working for you.
You just can't see it. He's utterly reliable. He hath
done all things well. Is everything gonna be okay between
now and that judgment day? Folks, it's gonna be more than
okay. It's gonna be perfect. Absolutely perfect. I look forward to this
day when we lay down this body of flesh, we lay down this old
sinful nature, and Lord take us and be like, let me show you
how everything's interconnected. Let me show you all these things
I did, how everything fit in together, because we'll be able
to understand that. We'll have the mind of God. We'll understand
that it all had to be this way, all these little purposes that
lead up to this great purpose that me and you are here right
now. I look forward to that day. It's going to be a good day.
Now, that's the hope. He hath done all things well. Let's look at the hope illustrated.
And it's illustrated in this deaf man right here. Go back
to verse 32 of your text. Mark 7, 32. And they bring unto him one that
was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, and they beseech
him to put his hand upon him. Now, we talked about this earlier,
this man is deaf. He lives in a world of absolute
and utter silence. He cannot communicate, he cannot
intake, and he cannot output. What does he remind you of? He
reminds you of a dead man. He can't hear. He can't talk.
He can't communicate. He doesn't know where to go.
He reminds you of a dead man. This is talking about the way
we're born in this world. Dead in trespasses and sins. And here's
what that old, wicked, dead nature can't do. It can't hear the gospel
as good news. Now, as long as you can physically
hear, you can hear the gospel audibly. A man can sit here.
with an old, wicked, sinful nature, and have not the regenerate nature,
the new nature, the new man, and he can audibly hear what's
being said when a gospel message is preached. And he can read,
as long as he's been given that physical gift. And he can see
that the Bible at least claims to be the inspired Word of God,
which it is. And he can see that what that man's saying up there
lines up with what this book says. But here's the thing, everything
it said, He will hate and he will reject because he hates
and rejects the one for which the words speak of, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now let me give you some examples
of this. Election. Does the scripture teach election?
Well, it's pretty simple. Ephesians 1, 4 and 5, according,
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. How are
you going to argue with that? That's pretty simple, isn't it? Before time began, God chose
who would be saved and they will be the only people who will be
saved. And the natural man hears that
and he recalls, he says, that's not right. I do not agree. That means I'm not in control.
I'm not in control of my own destiny. That means I'm in the
hands of God. I do not agree. And every time
the natural man hates something about God, he immediately misrepresents
it. He's going to turn it to take
the onus off himself and his own sinfulness and his own depravity
and put it on God. And this is what the natural
man thinks about election. I hear it all the time. Well,
if that's true, God chose before the world ever began who's going
to be saved, and they're the only ones who are going to be
saved, that means there's a whole bunch of folks out here who are begging
for mercy and want to be saved by Christ, and they just can't
because he didn't choose them. Never once has happened. Not once. I don't know when I
first heard this preacher make this statement, but I remember
when it did. It was one of the most moving things I'd ever heard.
He is more willing to save you than you are to be saved. Not
one sinner who needed mercy has ever come to him and has been
turned away. No, that's not it, folks. Election
is that arm of sovereignty, that necessity in salvation that reaches
out and grabs one that would not come, who would not be saved
by Christ, who would not be saved by his blood alone. And he drags
me and he says, you're coming with me. And he changes the will
and actually makes him come voluntarily and willingly. That's what election
does. If the Lord said, I'll save any man that comes to me,
but I'm not going to choose anybody. I'm not going to get involved
here. They've got to come to me first. Not one person will
be saved. But because he chose a people,
because he is sovereign in this thing of salvation, everybody
he chose, they will be saved. Do you want to be saved by Christ?
Is that what you want? I tell you, that's what I want.
I wouldn't have it any other way. I simply want Him to save me. I want to be washed in His blood.
I want to be one of His people. I want Him to get all the glory
in His salvation. I truly do want that. There is
nothing natural about that. Nothing natural. And if you want
the same, you're one of His. You're one of His elect. I'll
give you another one here. The fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ died only for His elect. Does Scripture teach that? Matthew
121, and he shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Very simply, the act of salvation
is the Lord Jesus Christ's death. Who did he die for? He died for
his elect. The natural man says, no, no,
it can't be that way. That's not fair. That's not right. Well, that's the way it is. You
know who loves that though? Who needs that? A sinner. It's
the best news I've ever heard because if he died for me, that
means there's nothing left for me to do. It's over. I am secure
in Christ and my security does not rest in me. My security rests
in him and what he has already done and it can't crumble. I
am established in him. That's the best news I've ever
heard. The fact that God's grace is irresistible and invincible,
you will not come to him and I will not come to him by nature.
We can't and we won't want to unless he comes and he gives
us a new nature and he draws us to himself. Natural man says,
no, that's not fair. I'm not in control. But if you're
a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, I can't get to him.
Not on my own. I can't muster faith. I can't
do these things. I have to be drawn. I have to
be brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what they did
with this deaf man, didn't they? He didn't know where to go. He was
brought to Christ. I have to be brought to Christ.
You know who loves that? One who has to be brought. That's
it. And because he is deaf, because this man can't hear, he also
has a speech impediment. That's what this man in his story
did. You know what that speech impediment sounds like? He can
only say one word. I. I made the decision to allow
Jesus Christ to save me. God grades on the curve, and
I'm better than most. I've allowed Christ to be the
Lord of my life. I've come up with some pretty
good words. I, I, I, that's the speech impediment
of the natural man. It's always me, what I've done,
what I've contributed, what I'm doing, what I intend to do. That's
the speech impediment of the natural man, I. I'll tell you
this, to break us of that, to change that from where it goes
to I, to he, the Lord has to give you life. Now I'm going
to give you an example of that. Turn over to Judges chapter 12
real quick. Judges 12. While you're turning there, I'll
give you the back story here. The Gileadites and the Ephraimites
are having a battle, and the Gileadites won. And the Ephraimites,
to get back home, they got to cross the Jordan. So what the
Gileadites decide to do is they're going to go down, and they're
going to get on the sides of the Jordan. When an Ephraimite tries
to cross over, they're going to kill him. Here's the problem.
You can't tell a Gileadite from an Ephraimite just by looking
at them. They all look the same. So they hatch this plan. We're
going to know them by their speech. Judges 12, look at verse 5. And the Gileadites took the passages
of Jordan before the Ephraimites. It was so that when those Ephraimites
which were escaped said, let me go over, that the men of Gilead
said unto them, art thou an Ephraimite? If he said nay, then said they
unto him, say now Shibboleth. And he said Sibboleth, for you
could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him
and slew him at the passages of Jordan, and there fell at
that time of the Ephraimites 40 and 2,000. What was the difference? An H. I said, say Shibboleth. He said Sibboleth. He couldn't
say it right. What's that H? I'm no theologian,
but what I understand is this. When the Hebrews insert that
letter H there, it's called the breath of life. It's talking
about being given a new nature. I'll give you an example of that.
What was Abraham's name before he was Abraham? Abram. When the Lord saved him, when
the Lord revealed himself to him and gave him a new man, what
was his new name? Abraham. His wife, Sarah, S-A-R-A-I,
that's how she began. Then the Lord revealed himself
to her and he breathed life into her. He says, you got a new name,
S-A-R-A-H. They were given life. When will
a man go from a being I, I, I, to him? To he hath done all things
well. The Lord has to come to you and
he has to give you life. He did it. He did this. He did
these things. All things have been done, and
they were done by Him. That's where it's at. Now, I
want to consider in the end here what the Lord did for this man,
this deaf man, and I'll give him to you in order. The first
thing he did was this. He took him aside. This man was
in a multitude of people and our Lord took him and dealt with
him personally and he dealt with him individually. And that's
how the Lord deals with all his people. He pulls you out of the
crowd. I, I, I, I, and then he grabs
you and separates you and he teaches you. And all of a sudden
what you find is the crowd was wrong. I was wrong. They're all
wrong. And I don't fit in with the crowd
anymore. I don't think the way they do. I, I, I ain't gonna
cut it for me. It has to be Him, Him, Him. That's
the only thing that'll work for me, Him. Second thing, this. He put his fingers in his ears. Now, what is that talking about?
I'll give you a side verse here. Luke 11, 20 says, but if I, with
the finger of God, cast out devils. His fingers here, it's talking
about the almighty power of God. Where does salvation come from?
comes from the power of God, the power to justify, the power
to sanctify, the power to keep, the power to choose, the power
to draw. There is a power involved in salvation. It takes almighty
power, the very power of God. He has to reach out and touch
a man with his almighty power. Second thing was this. He spit
on his hand and he touched that man's tongue. What happened there? Something
was transferred from our Lord to that man. Something was transferred
from that man to our Lord. We read 2 Corinthians 5.21 where
I quoted to you this morning, for he hath made him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the very righteousness
of God in him. What had to happen for his people
to be saved. My sin had to be transferred
to him. His righteousness has to be transferred to me, the
great transfer that took place on that cross. But I ask you
this question, why spit? If there's anything about this
story where it stands out, right, something just jumps out at you,
it just seems odd that he spits on his hand and touches this
man's tongue, right? And I looked, and there's two other places
in the scripture where the Lord brought a man in contact with
his spit while he was healing him, while he was performing
a miracle. So it's a reoccurring theme. Why spit? I think I know. Let's say you went to the doctor
and you had a disease. And the doctor said, I can cure you,
no problem. Open your mouth, I got a spit into your throat. Yeah, exactly. I saw some eyes
get real big there. What does that make you do when
you hear that? It makes you recall, right? That's grotesque. That's
gross. That's disgusting. Here's my
point. You know what this world wants
to talk about? It wants to talk about love, and it wants to talk
about building wealth, and building communities, and making this
world a better place. And what we need to talk about
is blood. You see, this thing of salvation,
these means of salvation, it is messy, and it is bloody, and
it is grotesque, and it is grief-stricken, and that's what needs to be said.
This is the great glory of God. Now, I'll take you to Genesis
22, where the Lord looked at Abraham and he said, you take
now your son, your only son, Isaac, and you offer him up on
that hill that I'm going to tell you about. And you go to the
top of that hill, and there Isaac is on that altar, bound, voluntarily
there. There Abraham is standing over
top of him with that knife. It was already done in Abraham's
mind. He fully believed the Lord was going to raise him from the
dead. But here he is, his son, he loved that boy more than anyone
else in the world. And he knew in just a second
he was going to have to drive a knife into that boy's throat.
Then he was going to have to chop him up, and then he was
going to have to light him on fire, and watch as the smoke came up
from that. You say, that's disgusting. Imagine how God the Father felt, looking on his son as he was
punishing him, taking all his wrath and putting it down upon
him. How devastating, how horrible
that must have been. Consider Isaac. He loved Abraham. I was his father. Loved him more
than anyone else in the world. And he's a willing sacrifice.
Abraham says, God said I got to sacrifice. What are you waiting
on? Do it, Dad. And he's looking
him in the eye, Abraham holding that knife over top of him. And
this man he loved, he thought, the last thing I'm ever going
to see is him plunging a knife into my throat. How grief stricken
he must have been in that moment. So much more the Lord Jesus Christ
when his father, whom he loved, was pouring down his wrath upon
him. This is gross. This is messy.
But this is our religion. It is a sinner's religion. It
is a bloody religion. But out of all this mess, out
of all this filth, came the greatest cleanliness and the greatest
good that has ever taken place the full salvation of all of
God's people. I have no doubt that that's why
it spit. This is a messy religion and
we wouldn't have it any other way. Next thing he did for this man,
he looked up to heaven. Why did he do that? Because what
he was about to command, he wasn't commanding it to the man, he
was commanding it to his father. You see, he was making intercession
for this man. When he said, afatha, he was
telling his father, open his ears. Why? Why does he have the
authority to say that to his father? And his father do what
he asked him to do, because he's equal with God. And he has made
the restitution to God. Therefore, the Lord gives him
anything he wants. When he brings his people before
him and he says, save them. And he shows them the marks on
his hands and his feet. And the father says, I'm pleased.
I'm pleased because you have made full restitution. I'm pleased
with all of them. They're clean. Let them all in.
This is the Lord being the high priest for all his people. He
sits right now and he makes intercession for every single one of us, an
intercession that cannot fail. The father says, I will receive
all of them because of you, because of what you've done. Here's the
next thing he did. He sighed. Was he exasperated? Was he tired of this man? Was
he angry with him, frustrated with him? No. He felt for this
man. He was a high priest that was
touched with the feelings of his people's infirmities. This
is one of his own. He loved this man. This man was
deaf. This man couldn't talk. This
man couldn't find him. He was in a horrible, deplorable
place, and Lord sighed. I know. He loved this man. And finally this, he commanded,
be opened. And straightway, straightway,
those ears were opened. When he commands, the command
is always done. And when he says to you, when
he says to his people, be open, those ears open. And this word,
Christ, he hath done all things well, it becomes everything to
you, it becomes all your hope, and it becomes real. What is my hope? This is my hope. And I call for a verdict right
now. Which one is it? Is it I? I've done this. I've done that. I've helped.
Or is it this? He hath done all things well. If it's a second one there, you
belong to God. And he has done all things well
for you. I'm going to leave you all right
there.