The Gospel of Mark chapter 7. We looked at this story together
the first time, oh, let's see, it was about 92. 1992 and then 1996 or 98. So I guess about every six or seven
years we need to look at that. This is right after the story
of the Lord dealing with that Syrophoenician
woman, one of my favorite stories. how the Lord healed a deaf man,
deaf and dumb. The Lord Jesus Christ performed
many miracles while He was on this earth. He healed quite a
few blind people and deaf people. He cast out many devils. More than anything else, He cast
out devils. That's all significant. And he
raised the dead, proving who he is. That proved who he was. But all those who were healed
died of something, didn't they? The ones he raised eventually
died. Lazarus, Dorcas, whoever. But these stories of the Lord
healing, they tell a more amazing story,
a greater miracle. The Scriptures call it so great
salvation. These stories are recorded, I
believe, for that reason, to show us how the Lord saves sinners,
how every sinner the Lord saves. is all of those things. He is
possessed by the devil. They are blind, they are deaf,
they are dumb, and they are dead. So all of those things. Every
sinner the Lord saves is all of those things. And the Lord
performs the greatest miracle. He heals them of all of those
things. You see, that's why these miracles
are here. Now, the Lord just cast out a
devil from this woman's daughter, this Syrophoenician woman. In
verse 31 it says again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon,
he came unto 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. Someone brought unto the Lord
this man who was deaf, could not hear, and he had a speech
impediment. He couldn't speak plainly. They bring. Who brought him?
Well, maybe a father or mother, a friend, a brother or sister,
somebody. who was concerned about this
man. Someone who loved him and grieved
over him being deaf and wanted him to hear. They wanted him
to hear badly. And apparently, whoever it was,
they, whoever they were, they heard of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They heard that this man can actually give hearing to a deaf
person. They heard. Maybe they were deaf. But they had heard of Christ,
and they were real concerned about this man who couldn't hear
and couldn't speak. And so they brought him to Christ,
hoping, praying, wishing that the Lord Himself would touch
him and heal him and give him hearing and loose his tongue.
They brought him to Christ. Otherwise, this man probably
wouldn't have come. It says they brought him. And it says he was deaf. Now,
a person who's deaf is usually born that way. I'm getting... Nancy, I never did hear what
you said. I'm getting that way. My father
was born with good hearing, and now he's practically deaf. It
runs in my family, my father's father, my father's sister, my
father's brother, me, my sister. But a person that's deaf is generally
born that way. They're born unable to hear.
Now, this man, and a person who's deaf, they can't hear anything.
I mean, a person who's really deaf, they can't hear anything.
Thunder, this man couldn't hear thunder. This man couldn't hear birds
sing. Beautiful music. He couldn't hear anything. Maybe
these people who brought him, maybe they took him to church
with them. Maybe they took him to the temple.
But he didn't hear a thing. Somebody could read the Word
of God, all they would, and he couldn't hear a thing, Brenda.
He couldn't hear it. Doesn't matter how much they read to
him, he couldn't hear it. And they talked to him all the
time, for people do a lot of, you know, talk even if somebody's
not listening. But he couldn't hear them. They
could talk to him all they would, but he couldn't hear them. Do
you know anybody like this? Spiritually deaf? They can't hear anything. Don't
hear anything of God in this world. The Word of God, you can
read it to them, read them tape after tape, CD after CD. They
don't hear it. They can listen to someone in
here gave some messages to a loved one of theirs. And that person's
comment was, they're all saying the same thing. Well, if you can hear the gospel,
if you can sit and listen to the
declaration of God who is God, or just read Isaiah 43 like we
read, and then listen to all that's being said about God out
there today. God out there wanting, wishing,
hoping, you know, and not tell the difference. You're deaf. You're deaf. You know, the Lord
says this over and over again. He says, having ears to hear,
but they don't hear. And to every church, he ended
his letter to every church in the Revelation with this. Every
letter, he said, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. How
could you read what we read and not believe that God is God doing
as He will. Death. Death. Well, everyone
that's deaf is usually born that way. And I want you to... No, we're not going to go there.
I was going to go to Romans chapter 1 and how it clearly tells of man's refusal to believe
God, that the things of God are clearly revealed from heaven,
the wrath of God. That's what Romans 1, 18 says,
the wrath of God. And I venture to say you never
hear that word used today, except from here and a few other
places. But the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness. You know, the only ones today
who acknowledge that God pours out his wrath on man is insurance
companies. Did you hear that? To keep from
paying the premiums, they'll call it an act of God. Flood, hurricane. Nobody else
will. So-called preachers don't, damn
it, wouldn't dare tell people that God sent Katrina. They'd lose some of their congregations. Clearly revealed. A man's deaf. He's deaf to it. He said there
in Isaiah 1, he said, why should you be stricken anymore? Remember
that? God said in Isaiah 1, why should
you be stricken anymore? You'll just keep rebelling. You're
not hearing it. There's only one person that
can give ears. The one that made it. The only one person that can
give ears, Teresa, to hear the voice of God. And that's the
God that hearing ear and the seeing eye is of the Lord. Only one person that can cause
you, in his good time, to actually hear what his words say and see. And those who are born deaf usually
have a speech impediment, don't they? You've been around people
who are deaf. They can't talk plainly, can
they? They can't talk plainly. They
try. But they can't. They may think they are. They
may think they're talking plainly. But those who talk plainly and
hear well, it's not plain at all, is it? Now, here's the picture. If we
do not hear the Word of God, which is wisdom, which is knowledge,
everything else is foolishness. If we do not hear the word of
truth, Scripture says, the gospel, everything we say will be wrong. We'll have speech impediment.
If we don't hear the word of God, if God does not speak to
us through his word, everything we think about God will be wrong. Everything we say about God will
be wrong. Everything we think about man will be wrong. Everything
we think about ourselves will be wrong. Everything we think
about salvation and how man is safe will be wrong. It will be
wrong. And generally that speech impediment
comes out like this, I, I, I. Or you say just I. What do you think? Which is what
I think. Me. My. Man. I, me, my man. Will. My will. I did. I accepted. I chose. I let Him. I let God
be. I received Him. I, I, I, I, I
got a speech impediment. I. Because they hadn't heard Him. Him. This whole book is a Him
book. We've seen before how that we
You've heard of the Hivites and the Hittites and the Jebusites
and the Malakites and all that? We're the He-hathites. Not going to be cute, but really,
He hath. He hath. He hath. He hath chosen
us. He hath called us. He hath saved
us. He hath redeemed us. He hath
washed us. He hath given us a new heart. He hath given us life. He hath
kept us. He hath saved us. He hath protected
us. He hath spared us. He hath had
mercy. He hath, he hath, he hath. Not
I, I, I, anything. The only thing we can say about
I is I have sinned. Behold, I have sinned. The only
thing about my, me, my is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But he hath, But you won't, your speech won't,
and I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but you'll have
a speech impediment until God Almighty through His Word, do
you see that? Do you see what He said to Jacob?
He said He gave them over to the spoiled because they refused.
You know, man says this, that God is up for acceptance or rejection.
Well, I've got news for you. Every single human being that's
ever born rejects God. Rejects Him. That's true. Everybody rejects
God. Thumbs down. The carnal man,
Romans 8, 7, is enmity against God. 1 Corinthians 2, he says,
The natural man receiveth not the things of God, but foolishness
to him. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually understood. He can't. The natural man says,
no. Rejects God. Thumbs down. Everyone.
I did. You did. Nobody can accept Him. Nobody will accept Him. Our Lord
said that. Listen to the Lord Jesus cry.
He said, No man can come unto me except the Father which sent
me. Draw him. No man can. He said it again. He said, Can't
you hear my speech? Remember that? Remember he said
that? Stand. Why is it you can't hear
my speech? He said, He that is of God heareth
God's words. He said, no man can come unto
me except the Father draw him. Why? He's deaf. He's dead. He's blind. He's dumb. He's a
sinner against God. He's a self-lover. He's a God-hater.
That's man by nature. What's his hope? What's hope
for a deaf man? One person. If he's pleased. This man would
never have heard unless the Lord Jesus Christ gave him ears to
hear. And somebody was concerned for him. Somebody loved him. Now how would we, let's say,
bring him to Christ. Bring him to Christ. I'll tell you how. You can pray
for him. Bring him to Christ in prayer.
Lord, my husband. He does not believe this gospel
that I believe, that I love. He's in idolatry. He believes
a God who's not God. He believes a Jesus who's just
His fire escape. He believes, you know, He's a
good man. He believes this. He believes
this. He believes that. Lord, would You please? Would
You please open his ears to the truth? Lord, my son, he has no
interest in God at all. He's a wild ass's code. How do
I know? Because he came from me. And
that was the way I was until you rode me. Lord, my son, would
you please? He won't hear a thing. I've spoken
to him. I've spoken to him. I've spoken to him. And providence
after providence has happened to him. You and your sovereign providence,
you've done this, you've done that. He hadn't heard a thing.
Lord, would you please? Would you please? According to
the riches of your grace and your mercy, would you please?
open his deaf ears to hear the Word. That's how we bring them
to Christ. Give them a CD. Give them a tape.
Listen to the radio program. Would you please, Lord, unless
the Lord gives them... I told you about the woman at
the radio station. I asked her if she's listening.
She said, oh yeah. She got real uncomfortable when
I asked her that, as people do. Oh yes, yes, a good program. I think if she'd really heard
it, she might come and talk to me about, I don't know, either
about salvation or toning it down. Right? Well, they brought him to the
Lord Jesus Christ. He had an impediment. Oh my,
you know, God's Word says, I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal. Clearly says that, doesn't it? If we don't hear that, we say
things like this. We've got an impediment. But
he had an accident. You know, there's no such thing.
Well, you know, I understand. I understand. We use these words
for years. I do understand that when something
happens, it didn't mean for it to happen. And we call it an
accident. You understand? That's why we
call it that. But there are no accidents. Everything
has been purposed by God. That's right. How could anybody
have any peace or comfort if that were not so? Well, I'd never get in a car
again, would you? If you're hurtling along at 65,
70 miles per hour, you're about two feet away from the car going
the other direction. There ought to be a lot more
than there are, aren't there? God's merciful. Well, we say
things like, he sure was lucky. It sure was lucky. When I was
18, 19 years old, I fell 60 feet off a building. I landed flat
on my back and got up and walked to the ambulance. I was lucky, wasn't I? The Scripture says they did
not like to retain God in their knowledge. They didn't like to
think about God. God's not in all our thoughts.
I don't even give God a thought. A 102-year-old woman on TV yesterday,
she said, I'm one of the lucky ones. An impediment. A speech impediment.
God's Word says, I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal. God says,
I wound, I heal. And we say things like, she beat
cancer. She fought hard and she won. And we put her picture on a poster
as if she did something great. She beat it. God healed her. God spared her. God had mercy
on her hell-deserving soul. And then she's taken credit for
it. Don't give God a thought. Praise
doctors more than God. God's Word says things like this. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Psalm 711. Angry. Psalm 55 clearly says, Thou hatest
all workers of iniquity. That's people, not sins, but
sinners. Thou hatest. Psalm 55. But these
wicked, vile creatures called preachers stand up and tell everybody,
without exception, how much God loves them. And God's going to
send their souls to hell someday. And they're taking the word of
this liar rather than the word of God. Why? We read it this morning. Turn away their ears from the
truth. They say, we don't like that. I don't like that. Now
you tell me what I want to hear. That's what I want to hear. I
don't tell me that. Tell me what I want to hear.
They're translating it away so it doesn't say what it says.
God's Word says things like this. I will work. We just read that.
Isaiah 43, 13. I will work and who will let
it? Did you read that? How could
you take that any other way? How could you twist that any
other way when God says, I will work and who's going to do anything
about it? I will work and who will let
me? But this is the clarion cry of
false religion. Let God. Won't you let God? God
wants this. God wants that. Won't you let? Ron, it doesn't say let God in
any of this book, anywhere in this book. It doesn't say that.
But men don't care to do that. I said I wasn't going to get
excited this morning. They don't care. They don't give
a flip what God's Word says. means higher links. Higher links. Pay me enough,
I'll tell you just what you want to hear. I'll flatter you. And I'll get a big crowd because
we've got a big building to pay for. When you call people what God's
Word calls them, worms, dogs, no good, wading the dust of the
balance, they're wanting, hell deserving, Unworthy, don't deserve
a chance to be saved. No, no, men don't deserve a chance
to be saved. Salvation is for the undeserving.
Mercy is for the guilty, not the deserving. When you tell
people that, you can't get a big crowd. I'll tell you who you
will get. God's people. That's who you'll get if you
tell them these things. God's people will hear it. They'll
hear it. God's Word says that. He chooses,
He saves, He gives life, He reigns, He rules. Deaf people say, I,
me, mine, mine, me, mine, mine. Well, look here in our text.
Mark chapter 7. So they brought this deaf man
to Christ. They brought him to Christ. In
verse 32, they beseech him to put his hand upon him. Lord,
if you don't touch him. Someone once said that everybody,
when they are praised, even rank Arminians when they pray are
Calvinists. They call on God to save. Note that. When they are praying, everybody
prays to God to save somebody. And then when they quit their
little show, they tell people to accept God. That's hypocrisy
of it. Well, Mark 7, look at this. It says, verse 33, he took him. Lord, here's my brother. Here's my mother. Here's my father. Here's my husband. Here's my
son. Would you please? He doesn't
deserve it, Lord. I didn't deserve it. Lord, you
ought to send his soul to hell. That's just a fact. You ought
to just... He'd been a rebel from day one.
You ought to just... But Lord, would you do something? He took him. I don't think anybody
really got that. He took him. So the Lord's still
taking people. The Lord is the one taking applications
for acceptance, for mercy, for grace. The Lord is. He's not
applying, but He's taking applications. All who apply for mercy, He takes
them. He took him. That's good news
to me, isn't it you? You got anybody deaf? Huh? Do
you? He took him. It said, look how
He took him. Verse 33, He took him aside from
the multitude. Are you looking at it with me?
He took him aside from the multitude. Took him out of the crowd. When
the Lord deals with His people, He deals with them one-on-one. One-on-one. He speaks personally. personally. The Lord deals one-on-one. Though they're in a crowd, most
of the time they're in a crowd, the preacher preaching, and a
bunch of people. But when he's pleased, he singles
them out through his Word. Doesn't he, Irene? And the man's preaching on, like,
say, the woman at the well. You become that woman at the
well. And he's talking to you, nobody
else. That's the way he does it. That's the way he does it. And most of the time, the preacher
doesn't know it. Why? Because of God, that the excellency
of the power might be of God, not of men. I've never so-called
won anybody to Christ one-on-one. No, sir. It's not going to happen.
Christ did. But I don't. We won't. Because
I'd get the glory. But then you're standing up here
shooting arrows. That's what you do when you're
preaching the Word, shooting arrows. And most of the time, Dan, I
think, Dan sure needs to hear this, pew, pew. Are you going
to hear that? Pew, pew. And over here it's hitting him.
Pew, pew. Every one of them is hitting
him. And I'm not even aware of it.
Why? That's the wind bloweth where
it lifteth. And I think, oh, I failed miserably.
I'm going to quit. I'm going to quit preaching. That's the way it is. I'm just sowing seed. Sower went
forth to sow. Something falls on a different
ground, you know. We don't know. No man knows. Until it begins to manifest itself. But he took him apart, it says,
outside of the crowd. Took him outside. Scripture says
it. Scripture says in Hebrews 13, 13, it says, Let us go forth,
therefore, unto him, where? Without the camp. Jesus Christ, the true God, the
living God, the true Christ, the true gospel, It's not found
in mainstream modern religion. It's just not there. Go listen. You know. It's not
there. You've got to get outside this
mess. Christ significantly, providentially,
on purpose, was crucified outside of Jerusalem. You see, everybody
in Jerusalem hated the true Christ. They said they were looking for
him. Deborah, they said they were waiting on him, looking
for him. When he came, they killed him. They said, you're just a
man and you're not going to reign over us. We're good people and
we will not have you reign over us. Get him out of here. Get
him out of here. The heathen, the people rage
and they say against the Lord and against his Christ and we'll
break these back. Get him out of here. We won't believe that.
Get that out of here. Mainstream religion has the best
lots and the prettiest places in town and so forth, but God's
not there. Go outside the camp, literally.
John the Baptist, where was he? Outside by that old muddy river,
Jordan. That's always been that way.
Noah was out there. Religion was still in the world
at that time. Noah was out there building a
boat. That's where the gospel was, the truth. Outside the camp. bearing his reproach, it says. And Christ takes all his people
outside of broadway religion. You say, broadway. Wide is a
gate, broad is a way that leads to destruction, and many there
be go therein. Broadway religion. That's no,
well, straight is a gate, narrow is a way that leads to life,
and few there be that find it. Well, look at what the Lord did.
He took him outside the camp and it says he put his fingers
into his ears. Did you read it? Did you read
it? Verse 33. He put his fingers
in his ears. If you're not reading it, you
don't know what I'm saying. Put his fingers in his ears. What
does that mean? He stopped his ears from everything he'd heard
up to that point. The first thing the Lord is going
to do for you when he opens your deaf ears is stop your ears to
everything you've heard up to this point. To everything that
everybody else is saying, God Almighty puts his fingers in
your ears to where you say, I'll tell you, I'll give you
an illustration. My father-in-law, and most of you have heard this.
He was a deacon in the so-called First Christian Church in Ashland,
Kentucky. The biggest giver. A man of some means. The biggest
giver. The preacher didn't want to lose him. One day he came
to the preacher, so-called. He was a mealy-mouthed, effeminate
little hireling is what this fellow was. He wasn't a preacher.
Just like the rest of them. I'm not afraid to say that at
all. Elijah stood against 850 men.
Say, what's wrong with you, God? Everybody, get together, call
on him. What's wrong? Is he using the bathroom or something?
He made fun of him. And that's exactly what I'm doing
to the God of this world, making fun of him. He's no God at all.
I'm not afraid to do that. Come what may. They're blaspheming
my God, blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody's got
to declare God as God, don't they? Somebody's got to contend for
God's right to be God, not man's. Anyway, one day the Lord took
my father-in-law, who was there, I won't tell an old story. He'd come and sit and wouldn't
hear anything. He'd go across the street to
McClure's Restaurant and get a cup of coffee. They didn't know he was gone.
Anyway, he came to his so-called preacher one day and he said
this, and the Lord began to work on him. And he came to his so-called
preacher one day and he said this, he said, I don't know what
I'm not hearing, but I'm not hearing something. You hear that? He began to be discontent. You
remember those men in the cave with David? The Lord began to
stop his ears. He said to that preacher, I don't
know what I'm not hearing, but I'm not hearing something. He
said, I need to hear something, but I don't even know what I
need to hear. He knew this much. He said, I
need to hear God, damnation, hell, something. Not hearing
anything. My father-in-law was a man. A
man's man. I don't know how people can listen
to those guys anyway, honestly. He said, I don't know what I'm
not hearing, but I'm not hearing something. And a friend of his who was in
the building business with him, he said, would you come hear
my pastor? Would you come hear what I'm hearing? And he's kind of a hard-headed
man, wasn't he? Huh? Well, you know he was. It's just his daughter. A hard-headed man, you're not going
to convince him of anything. So he came, sat on the back row. I said, where Bonnie at? He sat
on the back row. And I kissed. You know, like, convinced me. And he told My pastor later on,
he said, I still wasn't hearing anything. He said, but I do know
this. He said, I knew that what you
were saying, you were getting out of the Bible. Everything you were saying was
from the Bible. So I kept coming. Well, the Lord
put his fingers in this man's ear. And look at this, verse
33, and he spit. The Lord did. He spit and touched
his tongue. In other words, the Lord put
his fingers in this man's ear and then took something. The Lord took something from
his mouth. Touched his mouth. Now, what
is it from the mouth of the Lord? We'll both open the ears and
loosen the tongue. One thing. One thing. And it says, the Lord looking
up to heaven, he sighed and said unto him, said unto the Lord,
unto God, epithah, that is, be open. And straightway his ears
were opened. And the string of his tongue
was loosed. And it says he spoke plain. Oh, my. The Word of the Lord
is His power. His ear-opening, tongue-loosening,
speech-changing power. It says straightway, His ears
were open. I've seen some of you. I know
somebody in here kept telling his wife, you know, if I die,
I want this other preacher where he went to bury me and this and
that and the other. You know, he just, you know.
And I remember one day, I was sitting on my tractor, bush hogging. And Mindy came out and said,
somebody's on the phone. I said, well, I'll call him back. And she said, he wants to talk
to you now. I said, well, I'm out here plowing,
or bush hogging. She said, he's coming by. I said, okay. And I kept him. Finally, here he came. This man
sitting in this congregation right now. Here he came. I didn't
ask him anything. I didn't tell him anything. I
didn't tell him what to do, how to be saved. I didn't tell him,
you need to give him a book on how to. He didn't do anything.
Just did what I'm doing right now. Preaching, preaching, preaching.
All that while he was going, hang on a minute, you're not
going to. Finally, he came running out there, weeping. He said,
I want you to baptize me. I believe the Lord revealed Himself
to me. What do you think this man first
said? What do you think the first words out of his mouth were? Huh? I know what they were. First
words out of everybody's mouth whom the Lord saves, whom the
Lord opens their ears and loosens their tongue and delivers them
from this I, I, I, I, this speech impediment. Everyone whom the
Lord saves. opens their ears and loosens
their tongue, the first thing out of their mouth when the Lord
reveals himself to them is this, salvation is of the Lord. Not I anything. He accepted me. Now, isn't that
amazing? He hath shown mercy to me. Now,
isn't that amazing? I didn't deserve it. He hath
been gracious to me. Isn't that amazing? He hath redeemed
me by His blood. He hath made me righteous. He
hath justified me. He hath redeemed me. His prayers,
His ascension, His, His, His, His, Him, Him, Him. He's worthy
unto Him that washed us, unto Him that loved us. I didn't love
Him. I do now because he first loved me. Him, him, him. Now you're talking plain. Now
that old tongue's been loosened to do what it's supposed to do,
give God, A-double-L, all the glory. This people draws near
with their lips. They're saying, glory to God,
glory to God, glory to God, but they don't mean it. My buddy, when God really loosens
your tongue out of the abundance of the heart, you go up to a
fellow and you ask him, Are you saved? The first words out of
his mouth will pretty much reveal it. Out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speak, Are you saved? Why? Because I accepted
Jesus a few years back and I made my decision out of that. You ask old Henry Sword there,
Are you saved? Why? It's God that justifies, because
Christ hath died, because he ever liveth to make the intercession
for me. Isn't that what you'd say? Because he hath shown mercy
unto me. I believe I am, because this
is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners like me. I am the chief. Now you're talking plain. Here's
another story real quickly. Mark 8, and I quit with this.
Similar story, same end, different affliction, but the same. Mark
8, verse 22. I hope you'll look at it. I hope the Lord will show you just
how the Word is the same. He came to Bethsaida, verse 22,
and they bring a blind man unto him, somebody that was concerned
about him, and they besought him to touch him. Lord, if he's
blind, he can't see it. Barbara, how many people, your
sisters, your family, your friends and all that, you show them the
scripture, you say, here, this is what it says right here. Don't
you? You see that? Don't you say that
to them? Do you see this? You see that? They say, I just
don't see it that way. Well, but that's what it says.
Yeah, but I don't... But that's what it says. But, yeah, but...
You can take a blind man up to a red wall and say, that's red. I just don't believe that. You're blind. Lord, would you open his eyes? Look at verse 23. He took him. He took him. He took the blind man by the
hand and he led him out of town. Let's get out of here. We've
got to get out of this mess. You're not going to hear anything
from me unless we get out of this mess. There are so many
voices. They're all saying the same nonsense.
Come on, let's go out here. You're going to hear from me. I took him out of town, verse
23, and he spit on his eyes. On the mouth of Christ. On one
thing that opened blind eyes. And made him what? Made him do
what? Look up. Look up. Don't look to the preacher. Don't
look back. Don't look back to a profession
you made. Well, I believe it not. Don't look in. Am I this? Am I that? Look up. Look unto
me and be ye safe. All the ends of... I'm God. There's
nothing else. Look unto me. Don't look at what the world's
doing, what the world's saying, what the modern translation. From whence cometh thy salvation.
Look up. May him look up. And he was restored
in verse 23. Verse 22, he looked up and said,
I see men as trees walking. When the Lord began to open his
eyes, He didn't see everything perfectly clearly, but he did
see, didn't he? Like the man in John chapter
9, you know, the blind man. He said, I know this. I was once
blind, now I see. And the man said, I see men as
trees walking. And when we first hear the Gospel,
when the Lord first begins to deal with us, He begins to open
our eyes, open our ears. We hear things we haven't heard
before. You see, when you're deaf, you don't hear anything. But then when the Lord begins
to open your ears, you hear things, I've never heard that before.
Are you saying that God is God? That's right. Are you saying that God does
the choosing and not man? It's up to God. That's exactly
what I'm saying. Are you saying it doesn't matter what I have
done, that God doesn't look at that and God won't accept me
because of that, it doesn't matter? That's exactly what I'm saying.
I ain't never heard that before. Every single person whom God
opens their eyes and ears, that's what they... I never heard this
before. That's what they said to Paul
at Mars Hill, wasn't it? In Acts 17, they said to Paul,
this is your talking about a strange God here. Let's hear this strange
doctrine. The only reason it's strange
is because very few people were telling it or hearing it. It's
not strange. It's as old as God. In the beginning, God. The very
first words out of this book was, in the beginning, God did
what? Name something. He did it. If
there's anything, He did it. Now it starts out that way. The
whole book starts out that way. In the beginning, God. Not man
and God. Not God consulted man. Not God's
asked man, will you let me make the world? And he says that all
the way through. Where were you? I didn't ask
you. Do I have to ask you? Am I consulting anybody? I am
God. Starts out that way. Let go and let God. Hadn't heard a thing of it. But God. Take an old dyed-in-the-wool
Methodist or what have you. Doesn't it, John? Did you? What were you? I don't know.
Baptist. Southern Baptist. Were you a
Methodist, Henry? You don't know what you were,
do you? Heathen. Heathen. Doesn't matter at all. Heathen. If it doesn't matter,
Catholic all the same, God loves you, Jesus died for you. No different. God. Like Isaiah 43, I'm God. Yes, I'm God, the living and
true God. It's an idol you've been worshiping. It's a refuge
of lies that you've had. You've been trusting in a God
who's not God. You've been trusting in your goodness and your righteousness.
You've been trusting in your heritage, trusting in your religion,
trusting in your attendance, trusting in your baptism, trusting
in your preacher, trusting in what your grandmother believed,
what your mother believed, trusting, trusting all that. I ought to send you to hell.
That's what you deserve. But I'm merciful. And I decided
long ago to choose you. Now, that's ear-opening and eye-opening. God doesn't ask His people anything.
He's not calling to ask them to make a decision. No, He's
telling them what He had already decided. It's already been made,
and it just informs them. My father-in-law, and then finally,
the Lord says, it says he put his hands again on his eyes and
made him look up. He saw every man clearly. Clearly. When we first begin
to hear and see, we see things we haven't seen before, and God
is where we hear things we have never heard before, but don't
know too much. But then we keep coming. The
Lord, this is how He lays His hands on our eyes and ears. This
is how the Lord keeps working on us. Until finally, I see clearly
now. How do you see man now? He said,
I see men clearly. I see man clearly. How do you
see men now? Kellie, how do you see men now?
A bunch of notes. See them like God sees them.
Don't you? You see men like God sees them.
God looked down upon the children of men to see if there were any
that didn't understand, any that didn't seek after God, any that
didn't God, any righteous, all together. And he destroyed the
whole planet by flood. Not the love of God, but the
wrath of God. And he looks down on the same world right now and
says, I'm going to burn it up. He sees it. We see the tip of
the iceberg. What's reported on the news is
not the exception, but the rule which God sees. There's no problem in understanding
why God played with it. We see men clearly. We see ourselves
clearly. We look in the mirror of this
world, we don't see a good person. We see a rotten, no-good sinner. And we say, God, be merciful
to me. Oh! We see God. Begin to see God
clearly. Thou art God, aren't you? And
beside thee there is none else. There is not even a little God
with you. We see Christ clearly. You know, salvation is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know what I'm hearing, Preacher? I'm hearing that it's all up
to Him, isn't it? Now you're hearing something. You know, it is. It's His righteousness,
isn't it? It's His. It's His blood, isn't
it? It's His intercessions. It's
His prayers, not my prayers. It's His works, isn't it? Yeah,
you're seeing very clearly now, aren't you? until your whole
eye becomes single. Our Lord said, if thine eye becomes
single, the whole body is full of light. What does that mean? Of Him, to Him, through Him,
all things. Your eyes are cross-eyed, you
see. My father-in-law. Let's finish
the story. I don't know what I'm not hearing,
but I'm not hearing something. He sat there. He sat there. And then one day my pastor said,
that old frown came off his face. Big smile. I saw it on your face. And he met my pastor at the door. This was on Sunday morning. He
met him at the door. Ran to meet him. Before, my dad would say,
come back, Ed. He said, I might. And this time,
Barbara, he came running. And Dad said, come back, Ed.
He said, I'll be here tonight. I'll be here Wednesday night.
He said, I see. We see now. There's only one hope for a deaf
man, blind man. You see, this is what God uses.
This is what we did this morning. This is what He does. I don't
beg. I don't plead. We don't have
programs and gimmicks and tactics and do things to try to woo people
and, you know, have singles. We're going to have singles meeting
tonight. Now all the singles and doubles,
they get one thing in here. It's all one thing. There's only
one hope for singles as well as doubles. And you're not going
to be saved because you're with a bunch of women having a conference.
You're going to be saved by hearing one thing. And the preacher gets
up and just declares who God is. Just declares who God is.
Just declares who Christ is. Where salvation is. What man
is. And then he closes his book.
And he sits down. And he goes home. He doesn't have to do anything.
The Holy Spirit. That's how you've got to get
people out of here. You've got to have an altar call, don't you? How are people
going to know to come? We don't want them coming down
here. There ain't no salvation down here. There's a bunch of
flowers, a bunch of plastic flowers. Jesus Christ is at the right
hand of the majesty on high. Go home, get in your clothes
and call to Him who you've not seen. I can't save Him. Come there and shake my hand.
What do you think? That's not it. Altar call? That ain't in the
Bible. A man named Charles Finney started
that crap. It's not in the Bible. Nobody
cares, do they? They sure love it, it sure is.
Oh, I feel so good when I come down and concentrate, dedicate,
read, concentrate. Ha! We have an altar, don't we, John?
You know Hebrews 13, don't you? We have an altar, and it ain't
a piece of wood. It's a man right now. He's up
there right now, and there's a mercy seat up there too. That's
where you need to go. Well, how do I get there? Go
home and find out. He put no confidence in the flesh. No, no. This thing's spiritual. It cleanses the man and God. Ah, boy. Okay. That's all I can say. Turn to hymn number 46 and let's
sing it. We'll sing the first fifth and
sixth verses of hymn number 46.