All right, brethren, back to
Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7. Looking there towards the end,
the story of this deaf and mute man healed. The title of the
message, Hear and Speak Plainly. your Mark chapter seven. Sometimes
we didn't know what words mean. There's some words we ought to
use. And as time goes through our vernacular changes, and there's
some words we ought not use. I mean, if we were, if you've
ever been out in public or like read a book or something, there's
some things we ought not say. But so often as not Kimberly
grew up in a town that was a deaf school. She grew up in a small
town and there's a school there for the deaf. Deaf means you
can't hear, okay? And dumb means you can't speak. You have a speech impediment.
You don't have the ability to talk at all, or there's an impediment,
you're dumb. And deaf and dumb always go together. We'll see at the end. The dumbness,
pun intended, is always proof of deafness. If you can't hear
from birth, there's some sounds you can't mimic, you can't imitate,
because you've never heard. Now pay attention to me, David.
God may open some ears, may open some mouths, I hope, after. Might
start saying things right instead of just bad. Mark 7, verse 31. And again, departing from the
coast of Tyre and Sidon, he came into 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 in his speech. And they beseech
him to put his hand upon him. And he took him aside from the
multitude. He took him aside from the multitude,
from the masses, whatever else was doing. And he put his fingers
into his ear and he spit and he touched his tongue. Hmm. Lord do that today. And looking up to heaven, our
Lord sighed. He said unto him, Ephetha, that
is be opened. And straightway his ears were
opened and the strings of his tongue was loosed. He's unwound. And he spake plain. not muddied up, not taking two
and a half hours to talk around things. He spoke plain. He spoke
plain. And he charged them, the Lord
charged them, them, that they should tell no man. But the more
he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published
it. We'll see that at the end too. And they were beyond measure
astonished, saying, he hath done all things well. A double L. He maketh both the deaf to hear
and the dumb to speak. The Lord performed miracles while
he was on this earth. He performed physical miracles.
And I love preaching through those miracles because it shows
us, for me, it makes it easy. It shows us the spiritual miracle
he does in and for his people. That's why he did the physical
miracles. He told us in Matthew 15, The
blind received their sight. You'll tell John. John was in
prison. Ain't a man walked this earth like him. He was in the
womb and just filled with the Holy Spirit. We weren't born
that way. I'm gonna pop some bubbles, okay?
We weren't born that way. John was. We wasn't. But he had
doubt. Man ought never doubt. Well,
you ain't a man of God. Man of God doubts. David doubted,
didn't he? He had an old nature. He might
have been, John may have been born with a new spirit already
in him, already equipped. But he was born in a body. If
we could learn something about seeds, if I could take people
to school and teach about germination, they'd get this flesh and spirit
thing. The Lord taught us it's like
a seed. They're going, they're outside. The shell's gotta die
and rot, right? New life comes. That shell ain't
gonna do nothing but go away. You ain't gonna eat it. You ain't
gonna clean it up, put it on your shelf. It's gonna go away.
Life's coming out of it, but it has to be there. That's what
feeds and keeps the sprout going, isn't it? Anyway. Our Lord told
us, He said, you go tell John everything you saw, everything
you heard. He said, the blind receive their sight. The lame
walk. The lepers are cleansed. The
deaf hear. The dead are raised up. Those are miracles. What does he say next? I preached
on this a couple times to you. The poor have the gospel preached
to them. Well, that ain't a miracle. God
said it was. How do we treat it as such? Eh,
I'll try to make dinner if I can. Well, I got work. I need to go
to the grocery store. Jimmy Buffett's coming to town. God said it's a miracle if the
gospel is preached to the poor. Remember them poor last hour? Said we can soak something in
this hour too. When the Lord found us, not we found Him. When He sent the gospel to us,
not we went and found the gospel. Not whenever He declared Christ
to us, not we decided this is right. That's dangerous. You
better watch out. You'll meet a holy God with that
on your mouth. Don't do that. When He found us, we were blind. He gave us sight. We didn't see
His glory. We only saw our own glory. We
saw some glory, all right, ours. We were lame. We could not walk
in paths of righteousness. We thought there's a way that
seemed right to us. That's a way to death. We were lepers, unclean,
unclean, but not to us. We'd eat after ourselves, wouldn't
we? We thought we was all right. We were deaf. We could not hear
of his majesty and of his mercies and of his grace. All we heard
was the beat of our own drum. I know some things. I tell some
things. I read the word. That's what we were when we were
dead. You get that? When we were deaf. Couldn't hear
nothing but us. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. We're poor. What we learned last
day, remember? Poor in understanding, poor of
atonement and uncovering, poor of a home. Plumb poor. This man here in
this text, he was spiritually deaf and dumb. He couldn't hear
God, and he couldn't say anything about him. I mean, he said, you
know, this is what David said in the Psalms, or he quoted some
stuff, or here's what Solomon said. He didn't speak the truth
of God because he couldn't hear. Like us, he was physically deaf
and dumb too. The Lord's using that physical
to prove to us the spiritual, using the carnal to prove the
spiritual. And just like us, also born spiritually deaf, Spiritually
dumb, not able to talk, but God. God passed through. He left Tyre
and Sidon to come down here where his fellow was. And he called
him and he brought this man to the great physician himself. through his mighty providence
and his mighty power, through his doing, not this man's own.
Look at verse 32. And they bring unto him one that
was deaf and had an impediment of his speech. And they beseech
the Lord to put his hand upon him. Get this, and the Lord did. Does that not stop you in your
socks right there? Do we get that? Has anybody believed
our report? They asked the Lord to give us
man sight and to give him speech and give him hearing, and God
did. What do you reckon we ought to ask? Do we? Do we talk about doing it or
do we do it? Oh, he'd make us pray. The Lord did it. Think
about that. Well, who are the they? They
brought him and they beseeched the Lord. We'll look at them
at the end also, but that's the Lord's servants. That's the Lord's
service. That's those who've already been
given ears to hear and a mouth to speak those things that come
from a new heart with plainly without impediment. They know
the language. They know how to say, I was thinking
this, I listened to a bluegrass album. I ain't listened to in
20 years, Bob. And, and I haven't listened to that song. I still
knew all the words and I know the breath breaks and you can't
sing bluegrass unless you're from that area. If you're tired,
you can't stand to see the sun sinking, you can't sing that.
The sun's sinking. You read that the other day.
Eric wrote about Clay preaching, the difference between a pen
and a pen. I had to go look it up. I was like, what? What do
you mean it's a pen? It's different, don't it? The
Lord has to give us a new heart that can speak that language
that only He gives. It don't sound right unless He does it.
People can tell, that's how they know the difference. Look here,
verse 32. They said, they beseech him. Those people that give that life,
they hear, they have a mouth to speak. They tell others and
they bring him to the only one that can help. They say, come
see a man. Come see that woman at the well, that half-breed
Samaritan woman that the Jews wouldn't lie to talk to. They
had to go around town. The Samaritans couldn't be around them. The
Lord came to her. What are you doing dealing with such a crazy
woman? You can't do that. You better
hope you can. He went to her, he went to that woman at the
well, and he revealed himself to her, and he revealed who she
was. He convicted her in person of sin, and showed his righteousness
to her, didn't he? And the woman left her water
pot, that thing she's packing all her water around in, because
she just meant the water of life. She left it, and she went to
the city, and she said to the man, come, see a man which told
me all the things that ever I did. Is this not the Christ? Not a
Christ, not that, lowercase c, or some dude named Jesus you've
been talking about your whole life, this is the Christ. Come
see him. And they went out of the city
and they came unto him. They listened to her, they come, that's
what these they did. You're deaf? You can't talk? Let's go. If you got a problem,
we got a solution. Problem is, people ain't got
problems. They're just fine. Or they're not. If there's problems,
we couldn't stand in this place. We'd have to knock a wall or
just go stand outside. I'd have to climb uphill and get a bullhorn.
There ain't no problems. This man had a problem. These
people, they knew there was a problem. That woman, she had a problem.
And she went and told her friends about it. And Christ preached
to those people that came to that well. Those that come. And he heard their prayers of
that lady. That lady prayed and said, Lord, heal these people.
I like them. These are my friends. This is
my family. I want them here. Just like at Harlot in a whorehouse
there in Jericho, wasn't it? If I bring my family here, you
keep them too? Well, come on. She brought them. And you know
what those people said after God spoke to them, after Christ
preached to them? They said, now we believe. Now we believe.
Not because of thy sin. Not because you brought us here.
I've heard people say, well, we had to teach them the gospel.
You better not have. Eternally, for your sakes, you
better not have. God had better taught them, right?
They said, we came, we believe, not because of thy saying, for
we have heard ourselves and know that this indeed is the Christ,
the Savior of the world. That means everybody, that means
Samaritans too, half-breed Samaritans too, me. Sinners, I'm a sinner,
he saved sinners. I'm gonna touch him. I'm gonna
get where he is. Now, the providence the Lord
used was that woman bringing him, wasn't it? The providence
the Lord that he used was his servants bringing this deaf and
dumb person to him. He used that. Who you reckon
he's going to use us for? We were deaf. There was a time
we didn't hear. But now we hear him. Off he'd
speak. We don't need, heed me. As Jerry Clare said, I'm a lion
or I'm a dime. Either believe me or don't. I've searched these
scriptures, I tell you things, and it ain't because I'm just
winging it and I got a good idea of successful life. It's because
the scriptures say so. Believe me when I tell you, we
don't need to sit down and reason with loved ones about the gospel.
Don't do it. The Lord must do that. The Lord
must speak to them, come let us reason together. Our charge
is to tell them to come listen. I told you before, Dad, tell
everybody at the gas station, grocery store, wherever, come
church with me. And I thought, that fool, his whole company,
he paid them to come listen to the gospel. They only come for
two weeks. He couldn't even pay them eight hours to come sit
through 30 minutes of preaching. He's an idiot. And then I realized
it was the power of God for him to say that, to make him not
be a coward to say, come to services. There's a fellow preaching about
cross down there. and I won't be this great and grand honored
person that's brought you. I'm just another sinner saved
by grace. You'll know it and I'll know it if God's works in you. Paul
said, for whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. I see it on bumper stickers and billboards all around this
country, don't you? But how shall they call on him
of whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe him
whom they've not heard? How shall they hear unless they
read a good old Puritan? No. How shall they hear without
a preacher? Somebody's gonna stand up speaking
to deaf ears. Say live. And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? Lord, if you're not with us,
don't let me go. If he's not, if his spirit's not with us,
I don't want to preach. I understand the consequences of that. I'll
be accountable. I don't want to do it. But if
he sins us, That's what we're charged to do. If all were blind
when he found us, every one of us, and we were all deaf when
he first spoke to us, and we need to be made known how deaf
we really are. We need to be made known how
blind we really were. And if we've never been deaf,
we still are. If God's never made you see you
were blind in knowing God, you're still blind. He said those Pharisees,
they come to him in John nine, he healed that fellow. And they
heard all these words, and they said to him, are we blind also?
You're saying I'm blind? Yeah. You got an old man in you
that's blind, blind on a bat right now. You carry it around. They said, you're saying we're
blind? And the Lord said, if you were blind, you should have
no sin. But now you say, we see. Oh, I see. I see. I see. I get it. Do you? You say, we
see, therefore your sin remaineth. Think you're something, you're
gonna find out there's a God that's everything. He has to show us
we're blind, show us we're deaf, show us we're dumb. And when
the Lord works, when he comes to his child and he works in
him, we see, we hear, we walk, we're clean. We finally hear
the gospel preached and can't live without it. Do whatever
it takes to get it. Because we need it, not want
it. We need it. One thing's needed,
but I wanna hear about it. The Lord said in Isaiah 29, and
in that day shall the deaf hear the words of this book. Wouldn't
that be something? I've been reading that all the
time. People don't hear now. They don't see now. You read
that, well, I don't see it that way. Obviously. Obviously. Is that what the Lord said? Well,
yeah, I know. And you just act like you don't
see it and walk off. They don't want to see it. He said in Isaiah
43, I will say to the North, give up, and to the South, keep
not back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the
ends of the earth, even everyone that is called by my name, for
I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. You self-made man. God makes his men and women,
don't he? Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the
deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered
together. Let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this
and show former things? Is anybody there that used to
be deaf and now hear? Can they explain this? Anybody
there that was dumb and couldn't say, can they tell you what's
going on? They sure can. They'll sing in one song, won't
they? Let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified.
What's your witness? God did it. I was dead. He raised me. I was a leper.
He made me clean. I was blind. Wasn't even looking
for him. Couldn't, because I was blind. And he, in his providence,
made his servants bring me to him. And he gave me sight. He
spit me right in the eye. And I was offended. Till I saw. And one day, I'll see things
as they are. Not like men, like trees walking around. I'll see
clearly. Let them bring forth witnesses
that they may be justified, or let them hear and say it's true.
If you can't articulate it, you just say, that's right. Can you
explain that to my pastor preach one of the most thorough and
outstanding messages out of Romans 7, Thursday night? I mean, you
talk about a master's level class, theology, seminary can't touch
it. He knows God, that's the first
step. That was outstanding. I can't articulate it the way
he can. I haven't lived the life he lives, but I can listen to
that and say, that's right. That's what I told Cameron. I get so excited
whenever my pastor preaches to me and I say, that's what it
says. Right there it is. A natural man would say, that
fellow just stood up there, he just said everything that's in
the scriptures. God has to do that. He equips
that. He sends that. Why it's foolish
to the world, yeah. Is it foolish to you? Do we mock
it? Verse 32 says, 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. That's who they
did. They said, here's a deaf fellow. He don't even know he's
deaf. Did you tell him? Well, he can't hear. Right? Lord, you're going to have to
do this. Put your hand on him. This man,
he has the impediment of speech. His not being able to speak is
proof of a hearing problem. It's proof of the hearing problem.
Some sounds we cannot replicate unless we hear them. Vibration
will not do. And you know that, don't you?
You're messing with that cochlear implant. There's some words that
aren't pronounced right. And you go, that poor person,
they can't hear. They've had problems with their
hearing. Lord, give me the strength to
preach this. Unsafe people prove they have not heard the word
from the Lord because of how they talk. They think they talk
just fine. They think all the churchy little
junk that's coming out of their mouth is just squeaky clean and
holy and they're halo satat. They don't know what to do with
it. How they speak is proof of an unsaved heart, unregenerated
heart. They haven't heard the truth about themselves, and they
haven't heard the truth about the Lord, and they haven't heard
the truth about salvation. They're deaf, and you can tell
it by the way they talk. Remember the second part of that
commandment? The Lord said, thou shalt not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain. Well, stop short, don't keep
on reading. For, because the Lord will not hold him guiltless
that takes his name in vain. Ignorance ain't going to count.
We're guilty. We're guilty. That is to the
heathen that runs rampant in this world, cursing God and cursing
all the things around them and saying, no God, I wasn't born
a boy or I wasn't born a girl and I want to go to that bathroom,
whatever nonsense is going on and all that. That's a word to
them. God ain't going to hold them
countless, guiltless. And that's to the religious folks
too. That's to those preachers that as goes the pulpit, so goes
the pew, so I've been told. So the nation proves out. And
to religious folks, they say horrible and they say blasphemous
things. God tries. Hogwash, you don't
know God. The God does not try, he does.
Who's gonna stay his hand? Who's gonna let him? He said
that, who's gonna let me? You gonna let me? They'll say,
let God. Jesus wants to do you, do something. He wants to say,
he's got a purpose and a plan for your life. Well, if he does,
it's gonna be enacted. I can tell you that right now.
It's gonna come fast. If he says it. They don't know
God. Let go and let God. You don't
know you, and you don't know God. That message I sent out
to everybody, that woman was trapped in her car for five days.
She prayed to the Lord. She said, ah, the Lord's going
to save me. She said, Lord, all the thing I do wrong is play
a little bingo. That's it. I drink a little Dr. Pepper.
That's all I do. The only thing I choose, food.
She don't even chew tobacco. That Pharisee, he said, I'm not
an adulteress, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not all these bad things.
She's even better than that. She don't even chew nothing but food. Copenhagen's
never touched her lips. My grandma chewed Copenhagen,
you know that? Kind of stock I come from, not her. She's proven
she don't know God. She's proven that beer, I never
took a sip of a beer. You're proven you ain't been
convinced of sin yet. If you're my brother or my sister, God
ain't saved you. He ain't revealed himself to you yet. You've sinned
against the Holy God. You didn't believe him. I know
people right now that want other believers to stand up in a pulpit
and tell them all the sins they've done. Well, if they stood up
and said, I didn't believe God, I was proud. I thought I was
right. Well, don't stop there. That's the root of everything.
Pride's the first thing, isn't it? Only pride. God said only
pride. Now, I don't know what you mean
when you say only. I know what he means. It means only, isn't it? They
speak those things because they don't know any better. They've
never heard any better. Somebody says, well, I've sinned a little
bit. I told some white lies. What'd John say? If we say that we've
not sinned or we've only told some little, I ain't done that
bad. We make God a liar. Somebody says that's calling
God a liar. You hear me? and His words not in us. How
did His word not get in them? Because of their death. You get
it? He didn't open their ears. I
chose to be saved. No, you didn't. You don't know
God. I found the Lord. I came to the
doctrines of grace. It was out there. I found it.
No, you didn't. Either God found you or you're
still lost. His providence may have done
it. You don't know God talking that way. What did David say? Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord, for he's good, for his mercy endureth
forever. And let the redeemed of the Lord
say so. They will. They ain't going to
tell them what they did. They're going to tell them what he did.
That's what everybody's going to say. He did something. Salvations
of the Lord. I know a faithful woman God saved
a long time and mature believer. She was out in public and a guy
said, Oh yeah, you're the preacher's wife. Cause don't tell people
that. I'll tell you all kinds of nonsense. And so I got saved
last week. She said, I hate to hear that. He goes, what do you
mean? She said, if God were to save
you, you'd have said so. Well, that's what I meant. No,
it ain't. Cause that's what you said. You say what you mean out
of the heart's what comes out the mouth. Is that what God says?
Or was he lying? That's what he says, wasn't it?
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed
from the hand of the enemy." I was in bondage, he got me out.
Those that hear speak that way. Those that's never experienced
that, those that's never been given ears, they can't, they
can quote some scripture at you, they can't speak it. In Philippians
2, it says, in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, things
in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ, he's Lord, Old preacher
in the past used to say, don't tell me about your savior, tell
me about your Lord. Everybody's got a savior. Who's got a king
on a throne right now? We do. They ask David, David,
where's your God? All those other religions, they
know where their God is. Where's Buddha? In a grave. Where's Muhammad? He's in a big black square box
over in Egypt. Where's all these other ones?
Here, there, all on the shelf, or I got a cross, I got a cross
I carry around. David, where's your God? My God's
in the heaven and he does whatever he wants to, because he's God.
He's heard that, so he says it. He don't say something else.
If he says something else, he knows something else. He don't
know God. By the way people talk, it is plainly and painfully obvious
they can't hear. Or that they can. It's not painfully
obvious to them. They never heard no different.
But to the ones that do hear, they can tell, can't they? Our
Lord said, Oh, generation of vipers, how can you being able
to speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart
as the Lord's increased us in our heart, that's how we talk.
If he's taught us something, we tell what we're taught. If
he does a work in us, we tell who did the work, why there's
a work needed. I'm a sinner. He saved me. That ain't complicated.
He's the door. He drug me through it because
I was dead. Dead man can't walk. What'd our
Lord do? Verse 33. And he took him aside
from the multitude. What'd we read for a scripture
reading? He took him out outside town? That's what everybody else
was doing. He took him out of religion, out of those following
just to fill their bellies. Lord got you one-on-one. He took
him from the multitude and he put his fingers in his ears and
he spit and he touched his tongue. He took him aside. He took the
deaf and dumb man to the side. He got him alone. I said that
before. It's one-on-one. Can't hear somebody. They that brought him. He didn't
take days out there to the side. Did he took him? They had been
by themselves before. And that evening or whenever
he's always with him. He got this man alone. You've
been along with God. Did you puff your chest out and
pop your suspenders? Did you bow? He got him aside. What scripts say there's a narrow
way in it. How alone did he get him? One
man wide. Enter ye in at the straight gate,
for wide is the gate. That's the multitude, that's
the whole town. Ain't it? This is life and death, let's
hold on. And broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many therein that go thereat, because straight
is the gate and narrow is the way. One man what? You have to do it with Christ
only. One on one. Which leadeth unto life. He said, I've come
that they may have life more abundantly. And few there be
that find it. Few there be that find it. There's a few people on this
earth right now that say I'm a rebel against God and I hate him. You have to, Andrew. Everybody's
saved. Everybody's fine. I saw a poster
in a store one time. It said, uh, the band in heaven.
It had Jimi Hendrix and, uh, a whole bunch of, you know, old,
uh, rock and roll fellas and all that stuff. And I was like,
that one died of heroin, and that one died of a ham sandwich,
and that one died of... Ah, they weren't professing Christ.
That ain't what came out of their mouth, was it? Can a multitude
be wrong? There's strength in numbers.
Can a multitude be wrong? What was it in Noah's day? A whole lot of people standing
outside that ark laughing. It ain't funny, we ought to go preach
to them. What about Sodom and Gomorrah? Just enough angels
come taking them out hand by hand, isn't it? What about Jericho? Just a few of them in that house
of ill repute on a wall. That was so when the days of
our Lord was on this earth, isn't it? Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. People see Bibles. They see things, but they don't
see Christ. They hear Gospel preaching, and
they don't hear him speak. I agree that was a good, check
the block, yes, that was a gospel message. It hit all the bullets.
You ain't heard him speak. They had the penny pulpit back
in 1855 is when they started. They went in and they hand wrote,
they transcribed Spurgeon's messages, and they sold them for a penny.
Because if it's free, nobody'd take it, I bet. They're my best
giveaway, nobody wants it. Maybe I'll start charging for
it. But somebody went in there and I, you think of that. Oh,
I get it. No, think about it. Stop daydreaming and enter into
that. Somebody had to go and had to sit and transcribe verbatim,
word by word, shorthand, hopefully, then go back and make it full
words and then put it in a printing press, because his buddy on the
printing press, and then, you know, had to ink, look, let's
read it one more time. They had to ingest that sermon 10 times. You see what I'm saying? And
I heard the story one time. Pastor is preaching. And somebody
just took notes, took notes. One day they set the pen down.
Oh, did they quit hearing? No, they started hearing. They
just gonna soak it in. Well, if we put our pens down,
quit writing what we think, start bowing to God. The Lord took
him aside, got him by himself, gave him ears to hear, gave him
a mouth thing. He put his fingers into his ears.
Is that what it says? Why'd he do that? He told us
he did it. Why do you reckon he did that?
He had to stop them from hearing all the lies. He's heard his
whole life. He had to stop the roaring of
the world. I know people that can sit down,
they can listen to Charles Stanley or Billy Graham or Henry Mahan.
It don't make a difference to them. It's so. He's got to plug that out. He's
got to stop up our ears, stop us from hearing anything or anyone
other than Christ the word. Well, I think heresy. Well, we've always done it this
way. Well, we've done it wrong. If it ain't according to this
word, stop it. I'm not clinging to that. We'll burn it. Hold
on now. It was real expensive. My grandpa kept it. Lord had
to stop it. I saw a thing one time said the
Lord said it. I believe it. That settles it. No. You're still thinking too highly
of self. The Lord said it. That settles it. I pray the Lord saves me. I pray
I'm his. I pray I'm his preacher. But he's right and not saving
me. And I ought to proclaim his glory
anyway. He deserves it. With all that's
in me right now. The Lord has to tune out what
everyone else is saying, what families are saying, what preachers
are saying, or whoever they are, whatever office they are. He's
got to tune that out and only hear what he says. Because he's
got to speak. It'll be through somebody. Sent.
The voice, right? Not every voice. His voice of
many waters, he's able to drown out everything else. If he speaks,
you can't unhear it and you can't undo it. He's almighty, that's
who we're dealing with. And he spit, he's plugged up
that fellow's ears and he spit that water of life standing before
him. He made water come out of his mouth, the word of truth. They ain't gonna save by a lie.
And people say, well, that's gross. Like that blind man there
in John. He spilled on the ground, made mud, put it in his eyes.
What are you, jerk back? What are you doing? Didn't know about microbiology
back then. I mean, I assume it was still an insult to spit in
somebody's face, wasn't it? That's offensive. So what? Get
over it. I don't like that. He'll make
you like it. You'll be fine. He eats with
us. Didn't I say that? He receives
sinners and he eats with them. Doesn't that shock you? You know
what you are? That ought to be the shocking
part. He eats after us. He'll sit down and share a sandwich
with you. A worm, a leper, a wretch like me. And he touched his tongue. I thought of Isaiah 6. Then flew
in one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his
hand. which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar,
and he said, he laid it upon my mouth, and said, lo, this
hath touched thy lips, and so thine iniquities taken away,
and thy sin purged. I always thought about that,
even as a kid. I thought, if you take a live coal, because we had a
fireplace, and you stuck it on my lips, my lips are going to
be sealed shut. Yeah, you can't say the things you used to say
before. You get that? You're going to say what I make
you say now. A new heart that speaks out of
the mouth and is willing and is willing, not agrees that people
ought to be willing, they're made willing. So it says in Isaiah
6, also I heard the divorce of the Lord said, whom shall I send?
And who will go for us? He didn't know. And said, here I am, send me. I thought his lips got seared,
they sure did. He said, well, I got cows I gotta take care
of. I got a baby potty training. Well, I got a little sniffles,
I ought not come. He didn't say it no more, did
he? His lips had been touched. Christ touched this man's lit
tongue? Isaiah had his tongue touched, he didn't say it no
more. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. Now he
speaks plainly. Now he speaks plainly, Luke verse
34. And looking up to heaven, he sighed, the Lord did. And
he said unto him, Ethitha, that is, be opened, be opened. Why did the Lord sigh? The spiritual
deafness, the spiritual mute, the spiritual dumbness, he bore. You get that? It's that man's
fault. We sinned against God and Christ bore our sin. He bore
the burden. What do you do when you put a
burden on you? You exhale, right? Not that you're sighing in regret
or anything like that. He sighed. He wept for us. He
stood in our place. And straightway his ears were
opened and the strings of his tongue was loosed and he spake
plain. He spake plain. He didn't have,
you hear how many words I crossed out? That's what I do when I
go back through. Strike out impediment and say
he didn't talk right. Speak plainly to people. Time's short. Jesus spoke plainly. Didn't we
look at that recently in John 11? They said, oh, he's sick.
And why do we have to go all the way back there if he's just
sick? If he's got a cold, you know, you ain't really got to,
if it's just a flu, why do we got to go all the way back there?
And Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. He's dead. Christ spoke plainly, and those
he gives faith to do so, they do too. They do too. Over in
Hebrews 11, people call that, oh, that's the hall of fame of
faith. Big hall, because we all get the same one, don't we? All
these died in the faith, not having received the promises,
but seeing them afar off, and they were persuaded of them,
and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on earth. This ain't my home. I don't belong here.
Now, I got to work, and I got to get along. do those things,
I still got to live here, this ain't my home, I'm passing through.
For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek
a country. And it ain't just saying it in
words, saying it in deed too. They live that way. I'm looking
for the cross return or me going to him. They plainly declare
these things. I'm just visiting here. Uh, he
gave me ears and he gave me mouth and heart and everything. And
I'm going to be with him until then. He has me here and he's
got something for me. They taught plainly, plainly that they seek
a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country
from which they came out, if they were still worried about
that one, they might have had opportunity to return. If they
was really worried about staying in that geographical location
or this earth that we're on now, they'd have went to it. But they
didn't. They plainly declared where they
was going, who they wanted to be with. Believers speak plainly. A brother of mine read scripture
this morning in another place, Robbie Dudenath, there in New
Jersey. Me and Karen, we drove from Alaska, that's on one side
of this continent we live on, to New Jersey. That's on the
other side of the continent we live on, to go hear a man preach.
That was almost as far as the Ethiopian eunuch went to go services.
Ain't nothing. Now, we did an RV. He did it
on a camel. We got there. I've been listening to Clay preach
online for a long time. I want to meet him in person.
I said, this might be where we ought to be. We got there. Ravi
Dudnath got up to pray and read scripture. I bumped to him. I
said, that's my brother. That's my brother. We're from
a different country. He wasn't born here. He's born
in South America. He's got a different job than I got. Wildly different.
Everything's different, right? Kids are different. Family's
different. Everything's different. I love him. Well, I didn't know
him. All I'd ever done is heard him
read the scriptures and pray. That's my brother. That's my
brother. Clay got through preaching. What
did I say? Preached on the watchman and the walls of Jerusalem. And
I didn't want to influence Kimberly at all. My sole responsibility
is make sure she's underneath the sound of the gospel and then
those children in that order. That's my job. God's charged
me with that. Those are the talents he given
me. And I got to put them underneath the sound of the gospel. And
I didn't want to influence her. And I said, what'd you think
about that message? And just wiggling, because I ain't the, I'm not
the, I ain't Switzerland. You know what I mean? I ain't
the neutral type. If I got something to say, I'm going to say it.
If I can influence something, I'm going to do it. Can't say
nothing. And she said, I loved it. I think we ought to be here.
I said, that's my watchman. And I started following. She said,
mine too. And we moved right then. Then we took the children
down to Asheville, went back and rented a place. Took everything
we had, took it to New Jersey. I knew her right then. Well,
maybe we ought to give it away. I know my brothers when I hear
them. I know my sisters when I hear them. And I know those
that ain't neither when I hear them do. What's this deaf person
say? This dumb person, what'd it say?
Salvations of the Lord. He did it. You reckon he might've
got some words mixed up there, that blind fella in John 9? He said, oh, he's a prophet.
He's the prophet. Prophet, priest, and king. Well, he's been believing for
35 minutes. Give him a thesaurus, he'll be all right. Sit down,
be patient with me. But he's gonna speak plainly, he's gonna
speak truth too, isn't he? Look here in verse 34. And looking
up to heaven, he sighed. bearing his deafness, bearing
his dumbness. And he said, Ephetha, that is, be open. And straightway
his ears were opened and the strings of his tongue was loosed.
And he spake plainly. And he charged them. He charged
the blind fellow. Well, he's with the group, wasn't
he? He's with the outfit. But he charged them that they, that's
the fellows that brought him. We already established who that
was. That's the ones that are already here. That's the ones that already
speak, because God saved them. He charged them. He said, tell
no man, But the more he charged them, so much the more great
deal they published. Does that mean he didn't have
the ability to shut their mouths? No. I'll tell you exactly what
that was. He's putting a little pressure
on them to prove it to them. Don't say nothing. Well, I got
to. I can't keep quiet. I have to say, no, I don't say
nothing. Just go home. I can't go home. I'm going where
you go. He's going to prove it to them. He's gonna put a little
pressure on him. Doesn't mean he's undoing it,
and I'll prove it to you. This is for you, buddy. You ready?
You tie a knot, you check to see if it's tied, don't you?
Wiggle it, shake it, don't you? What we call a San Diego snake,
San Diego County snake, that's a husky strap from Home Depot. They're all over. I'll give a
block of instruction if somebody needs to learn how to use a ratchet
strap. They're everywhere. I'm like, there's a snake. I
go to hit it. I'm like, oh, it's a ratchet strap. And then when you start counting
up ratchet straps, it's immense. You grab that ratchet strap and
yank it some. Make sure it's tight. Make sure it's secure.
The Lord come to his servants to go out and preach the gospel.
He said, don't preach the gospel. The prophet said that one time,
didn't he? He said, I ain't saying your words no more, Lord. I've
said that. You know how many times I went
fishing, went back to work on ice machines? And then it burns
in my bones and I can't keep from it. And he proves it ain't
me, it's him. And his seed in me. He's putting
a little pressure on him. Give him a little resistance.
The Lord proves to these servants that they profess him and him
alone not their doing. And he does it with a little
bit of pressure applied. Don't say nothing about it. I gotta
say something. Does that shock you? If you've experienced it, not
heard about other people experiencing it, if you've experienced it,
are you astonished that the Lord would do that? That's paradoxical, isn't it? That's for him. You're shocked
the Lord would do that. Look at verse 37, and they were
beyond measure astonished. I don't think the Lord ought
to put pressure on us, and I don't think he ought to send us fiery
trials, and I'm just too good of a person, I don't think he
ought to treat me that way. Not if you've heard him. You're astonished,
saying he hath done all things. Everything he's done has been
right. I can't say that in the middle of the trial. I can say
it with my mouth, I can't say it with my heart. I take too
highly of myself, I still have a body of death on me. But I
know through experience, done a lot, long time. I see him,
he does it right. And at the end of that trial,
or whatever, that deafness, that dumbness, once that dumb thing's
over, he did it right. Everything in my life, he's done
right. Everything in your life, he's done right. Not I've done,
he's done. He hath done all things well.
He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak." What
deaf person deserves to hear his words? People say, talk about
a revival. I pray there's a revival in this
country, but if there's a massive revival going on right here,
and 18 people sitting here, how many people, if God saves one
in San Diego County, how many people in San Diego County deserve
to be saved? How many people earned salvation? None. If God saves one, it's worth
it. That's what I told you the other day. If I spend hours laboring
and laboring and laboring and God blesses one soul, it's worth
it. It's worth it. He got us one
by one, didn't he? One on one. I pray the Lord would open deaf
ears and give new hearts that speak of his works, not of our
snake oil that we grew up with. I pray he'd make us do that.
All right.