The Lord Jesus Christ performed
many miracles while on this earth, miracles that proved him to be
God manifest in the flesh, proved him to be the Christ. The blind
received their sight, the lame walked, lepers were cleansed,
the deaf heard, he gave them ears to hear, the dead were raised. In Mark chapter 7, I'm reading
another story of the Lord healing someone. Mark chapter 7 says
they brought to Him, in verse 32, they brought to the Lord
one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. And
they beseeched Him to put His hand upon him. Well, the Lord
did. He took this man and healed him. He opened his deaf ears and His
speech was given to him. Well, this is another picture
of the salvation of every one of God's people. All of God's
people were blind when He found them. They were deaf, could not
hear the truth, could not hear His voice. They were lame, they
could not walk by faith. Lepers, dead and trespassed in
sin. If you have never been blind,
then you do not see now. The Lord one time said to some
Pharisees, He said, if you were blind, you would have no sin.
We need to go and learn what that means. If you've never been
dead and trespassed in sin, then you're yet in your sin. When
salvation comes, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes through the
preaching of the gospel, it says as in Isaiah 29, the deaf shall
hear the words of the book, the eyes of the blind shall see.
Here in this story, it says in verse 31 that the Lord Jesus
Christ departed out of the coast of Tyre and Sidon, came into
the Sea of Galilee. He departed from this tiring
sight and he went a long ways over the mountains to this remote
village, a notoriously evil place, and he went there to save one
woman, one woman's daughter that is. And then he left and went
back to Galilee. Let me ask you a question. Could
God save anyone he wanted to? Can God save anyone he wants
to? Can Christ save whom he will? Can he? I'm sure most everyone
will answer why yes. Then why doesn't he? Why doesn't
God save everyone? Why not? I'll tell you why. Because
salvation is God's will, God's choice. He saves whom He will.
No one deserves to be saved. People say this all the time.
False preachers say this. Everyone deserves a chance to
be saved. No. No one deserves to be saved.
Salvation is the mercy of God. Mercy means not getting what
we deserve. No one deserves to be saved,
and salvation is not by chance. It's according to God's purpose
and grace, not by chance, but God's choice. Salvation is according
to the sovereign mercy of God. He said, I will show mercy on
whom I will show mercy, and I will be gracious on whom I will be
gracious. I urge everyone listening to
this to call on the Lord for mercy. Don't expect it, but ask
for it. If you call, He will. He'll show
mercy. But they bring to the Lord, verse
32, one that was deaf. One that was deaf. He had no
hearing. He was deaf from birth. He had ears, but he could not
hear. They were useless. Scripture
says that's all mankind by nature. That's all of us. That's how
we're born. Having ears to hear, we hear
not. Eyes to see, and see not. I know people who hear this gospel,
who hear God's Word, yet they don't hear it. I know people
who read God's Word, and yet cannot see clearly what it's
saying. In fact, they say that very thing.
I don't see it that way, when it's just as plain, as we would
say, as a nose on your face. This was me. I was deaf. I was blind to the truth. I'm
a preacher's kid. I've heard thousands of messages. My father was a pastor for 60-some
years, and I heard message after message after message, and yet
I didn't hear a thing. I read the Word, saw it with
these eyes, but did not see. Did not see. Proverbs 20 verse
12 says, "...the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord
hath made them both." That's speaking of not only physical
eyes and ears, but spiritual eyes and ears. When people see,
it's because God gives them eyes to see. This is what the Lord
said, "'I will bring My sons,' Isaiah 43, "'I will bring My
sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth. Everyone
is called by My name. I have created him for My glory.'"
He said, "'Bring forth the people that have eyes and the deaf that
have ears.'" Well, they bring this man to Christ, and I say
unto whoever is listening to this right now, those who are
listening who believe the gospel, who believe the truth, do you?
If you do, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
someone in your house right now, or someone you know, who does
not believe, who has not heard the truth, who has not seen God,
who has not seen their need of Him, need of Christ, have not
seen themselves for what they are, sinners, Bring them to Christ. Bring them to hear this message.
Bring them right now. Bring them into this room and
let them hear this message. They must hear it. They must
hear it. It says, Faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? That's Romans 10, 14. And how
shall they preach except they be sent? Bring them. Bring them. Bring them to my
prayer. Bring them before the Lord. Ask
Him to open their ears and blind eye. Bring them to His church. Bring them to where the Gospels
preach. Bring them. Bring them this morning. Bring
them to 3596 Franklin Street, Rocky Mount, Virginia at 8, at
930, and they will hear the truth, the truth of God's Word, the
Gospel of salvation that's able to make them wise unto salvation.
Bring them. So they brought this man to the
Lord and beseeched Him. They begged Him, Lord please
open his ears. If the Lord doesn't open ears,
they won't be opened. If the Lord doesn't give eyes
to see, they won't see. It says this man had an impediment
in his speech, and that's how you know. That's how you know
he was deaf, that he could not hear because his speech gave
him away. There are certain words and sounds
that a person cannot imitate if they cannot hear them. Unsaved
people clearly reveal that they haven't heard God's voice, Christ's
voice. They haven't heard the Word of
God, haven't heard the truth by the way that they speak. Unsaved
people, be they irreligious or religious, there's just as many
lost people in religion as there are out of religion. The irreligious,
those who make no pretense of worshiping God, they don't go
to church, they don't read their Bible, they don't pray, they
don't call on the Lord, they make no profession of believing
God. They give away the fact that
they haven't heard God's Word by the way they speak. God says,
they that take his name in vain, he will not hold them guiltless.
Many take God's name in vain. We live in a day in which the
name of God is on the lips of most people, men, women, and
even little children. Do you hear this saying all the
time, oh my, God as a byword, as an exclamation point. That's
taking God's name in vain. If people knew God, they wouldn't
use His name like that. If they feared God, they wouldn't
use His name like that. Scripture says there's no fear
of God before their eyes. David said the transgression
of the wicked tells me there's no fear of God. The way they
take His name in vain. Religious are no different. What
they say about God, Religious preachers tell me that they don't
know God by the way they speak about God. They say God wants
this, God wants that, God didn't want that to happen. When scriptures
say no such things like that. They say let go and let God,
let God be your Lord, let Jesus into your heart. They don't know
God or they wouldn't speak like that because the scriptures doesn't
say that. And the religious give away the fact that they haven't
heard God's voice. They have an impediment in their
speech because they say things like this. I accepted Jesus. I got saved. I made Jesus Lord. I let Him into my heart. I joined
the church. They speak about their will,
my will, my works, my decision. Their religion starts with I,
me and mine. Man's will, man's choice, man's
decision, that is not the salvation of God's people. Scripture says,
let the redeemed of the Lord say so. One time a man said to
my wife, he said, I got saved the other day, and she said,
I'm sorry to hear that. And he was shocked. He said,
what do you mean? She said, if the Lord had saved you, you would
have said so. He said, well, that's what I
mean. Well, no, that's not what you said. Out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaketh. If the Lord saved you, you would
have said so. You mean to tell me that if you
were in a burning building or if you were drowning and someone
gave their life saving you, that you'd run around telling people
that you let that man save you? You'd run around telling people
how you accepted him as your personal Savior? Sounds foolish,
doesn't it? Neither would you tell people
you let God do anything if God in great mercy and great grace
came and saved you and gave his life, Christ gave his life for
you, you would tell people as all of God's true people do,
the Lord saved me, the Lord had mercy upon me. The Lord gave
me eyes to see. The Lord, in great mercy and
great grace, undeserved mercy and undeserved grace, saved me. The redeemed of the Lord say
so. He hath saved me. All people in heaven are saying
unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood. None of this I, me, and my stuff.
Well, they brought this man to Christ, and it says, he took
him. Where did he take him? It says in verse 33, he took
him aside from the multitude. He took him out of the crowd,
because wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth
to destruction, and many there be that go therein. That's what
the Lord said. Can all these people in religion
be wrong? Yes, most of them are. There
were millions of people in the days of the ark, Noah's ark.
Only eight people were in that ark. Millions went through the
wilderness of sin. Only two over twenty went in
the promised land. Can all these people be wrong?
Yes, they generally are. The truth is always in the minority. Vast multitudes followed Jesus,
believed in Jesus, and He turned to them and said, you only follow
Me for the food, for the miracles. They asked him one time, Lord,
are there few that be saved? He said, yes. Many are called,
but few are chosen. People, the Lord is going to
have to bring you out of religion, outside the camp, Hebrews 13
said. And he's going to have to stop
your ears from hearing lies. Verse 33 says, "...he put his
fingers in his ears, touched his tongue..." He spit something
from the Lord's mouth and touched his ears and touched his tongue.
That's the Word of God. The Lord's going to have to stop
your ears from hearing lies, hearing all of this false gospel
that's being preached today, false religion. lies on God,
and have you hear His voice, His truth from His mouth, from
the Word of God." And he put his fingers in his ears and touched
his tongue and it says, his ears were open. The Lord said, be
open. His ears were open and his tongue
was loose and he spake plainly. He spake plainly. What came from
the Lord's mouth opened his ears and loosed his tongue. What did
he hear? Well, he heard the voice of the
Son of God, the Word of God, which is Christ. He heard Christ.
What did he say? He says his tongue was loosed
and he spake plainly. I'll tell you what he said. He
said, Salvation's of the Lord. He said, He chose me. He called
me. He had mercy on me. He hath saved
me unto Him, unto Him, unto Him. None of this I, me and my, but
unto Him. Salvations of the Lord for His
glory. Oh, may the Lord open your deaf
ears this morning to hear His voice, to hear His truth. That
is my prayer. Amen.