Some wrote, visions of the rapture
now burst on my sight. Visions of the Lord's return,
taking his people home, burst on my sight. That woman was a blind woman
that wrote that. Watching, waiting, looking above. She was a blind woman. And across the. She could say she could see. My declared. But most people
cannot Matthew fifteen we continue our study. Through this blessed
gospel. Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ
Matthew fifteen. Let's read the text verses Matthew
15, I'm sorry, 29 through 31. And Jesus departed from thence,
and came nigh unto the Sea of Galilee, and went up into a mountain,
and sat down there. And great multitudes came unto
him, having with them those that were lame, blind, and dumb, maimed,
and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet, and he healed
them. Insomuch that the multitude wondered
when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to behold, the lame
to walk, and the blind to see, and they glorified the God of
Israel." How many times have we heard and read of the Lord
healing the blind, the lame, the dumb, and so on? How many
times have we heard that? How many times have we read that? And yet, this is my story. Isn't it yours? This is my song. And we who have
been healed praise the Savior all the day long or give him
a size C. You think those that were born
blind who suddenly received their sight ever got over that? Do you think they ever took a
morning sunrise for granted? Maybe one or two here and there,
but I'm quite sure they remembered that they were once blind. For
those that were lame, they could not walk. You'd think they took
a walk for granted. Nor does anyone who has truly
been quickened by the word of God, who has been truly saved
from the pit of corruption, raised from the dunghill, set among
princes. It's just not something that
they easily forget. This is a beautiful picture,
really, of Christ's ascension, resurrection, ascension, and
glorification. Look at it in this way. It says,
Jesus departed from thence and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee,
and went up into a mountain and sat down there. That's a picture
of our Lord's resurrection, ascension, and glorification. He departed
this world. He left this place. Where did he go? He ascended
up on high. Where did he go? He sat down
at the right hand of the majesty on high. And what is before his
throne? Scripture says a sea of glass
like crystal. And the next verse says multitudes
were gathered unto him. Great multitudes came unto him.
John wrote this in Revelation 3. He said, I beheld and lo a
great multitude. which no man could number, of
all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before
the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and
palms in their hands, and with a loud voice saying, Salvation
to our God, which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. And these were those who were
lame, blind, dumb, and maimed, those whom the Lord healed."
He healed them all. He did it all. Single-handedly. And such were some of you. I say some of you. Those who
were and are healed. The living and true God. Look
at verse 31. It says, They wandered at the blind of dumb speaking,
the maimed to behold, the lame to walk, the blind to see, and
they glorified the God of Israel. Because he's the true God, he's
the living and true God, the God of Israel, God of Jacob,
that is. The God who elects a people,
a God who loves his people freely, sovereignly, the God who saves,
completely saves his people, the God of Israel. Now, there
are four maladies which these people had, four afflictions
which all saints once had. These are not individual maladies
or afflictions, which just some have, but we all have all of
this by nature. And the Lord heals all of these
maladies, all of us from all of these maladies. And wonders
of wonder, it says in verse 31, the multitude wondered when they
saw the dumb to speak. Now, we've looked at this many
times, but it's still This still amazed me, and I hope you'll
wonder at it yourself. Romans chapter 3. Go over to
Romans chapter 3. This is what God Almighty, through
Christ, through the gospel, the power of God's word, God's gospel,
does to all of his people who are born dumb. Dumb means unable
to speak. Romans 3. God made man's mouth,
as you know. See, and you know these things
before. Peter, who wrote that, says, I'll have you always in
remembrance of this thing. If you remember the pit from
which you were dig, if you remember that you were dumb, if you remember
that you were blind, you'll praise God for making you see, God for
loosening your tongue, for digging you out of that pit. We need
to keep remembering that. If we lose sight of that, the
gospel is no longer sweet to us, no longer a blessing. But
God made man's mouth, the tongue, for his glory. When God made
man, he made him for his glory. He made man to talk to God. He gave him a mouth and a tongue
and a mind and a brain unlike any other creature. Man was created
in the image of God Almighty. Well, Scripture says in the beginning
was the Word. God It's communicative. God communicates. God speaks. God talks. Before there was a
man, God spoke with his son, with his spirit. They communed
together. Did they not? When God made man,
he made him a rational creature with a tongue, with a mouth.
Why? To talk to God. To commune with
God. That's why he made this man.
To sing unto God. You reckon Adam sang? You love
singing don't you? Even in our fallen state we love
to sing. Even fallen men and women love
to sing. I mean unregenerate. Love to
sing. People love to sing don't they? And Brother Gabe and I were talking
about how the human voice is the most beautiful instrument
on earth. There's nothing like it, the human voice. But God
made man's mouth a tongue for his glory to talk to God, to
sing his praise. But because of the fall, because
of sin, we became dumb. That is, I'm unable to do what
we were made to do. This tongue, this mouth, no longer
did what it was supposed to do, does what it's supposed to do.
Look at Romans 3. Verse 13, this describes an unregenerate
man, his speech. Verse 13, their throat is an
open sepulcher. Have any of you ever smelled
dead flesh? Human flesh is the worst. It
says their throat is an open sepulcher. What an apt description
this is of what comes out of men's mouths. read on with their
towns they've used to see these towns that were meant to speak
truth. Are full of David said I came
forth from the womb doing what speaking lies. Your little children
these little precious little girls. Yeah mine and Abigail
and Kelly and all of them. Don't teach my life. You're trying
everything in your power to keep them from lying. You're trying
to teach them to tell the truth, because lying comes naturally. Truth doesn't. Well, when God
made Adam, truth came naturally. He couldn't lie. Truth came naturally. He spoke the truth. Christ, the
second man, the second man, the Lord from glory, said, What I
speak, I speak the truth. Everything he said, he said,
I am the truth. He spoke truth. What that woman
said in truth, everything you said is true, but not us by nature. Read on poison of ass is under
their lips. What does that mean? That means
there's nothing more hurtful. In the tongue, nothing to bite
you. Why? Why do words hurt us so
bad? They do, don't they? They hurt
worse than anything. I wish we were impervious to that, don't
you? I wish that we could just take
words with a grain of salt. That's all they are. They're
just words. Why should they hurt? But they
do, don't they? Like a snake bite. Verse 14,
a mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. What? And as I've
said so many times, this is so indicative of the end times.
What? That God's name is on everybody's
mouth. And I hope, really hope that
you don't ever grow used to that. It's. Does it make you recoil
when you hear God's name and it's just so common and it's
the most common byword on human lips today. Nobody thinks a thing
of that. It's very obvious to me that
God is taking his hand completely off our generation. Used to be
a little of the fear of the Lord. Cursing and bitterness. Well
that's man's tongue or mouth. He's unable to speak right. And there's nothing more vile
and hurtful and sinful than man's mouth. Literally. These mouths. Well. We came forth from the
womb speaking loud, but wonder of wonders. Wonder of wonders. God, in mercy
and grace, by his word, by his power, by his regenerating power,
his word, one day washes our mouths out. Some of, some, his
people, all his people, those whom he saves, he washes their
mouths out with the soap, Fuller's soap. I asked you before how
many of your mothers washed your mouths out with soap, and Deborah
raised her hand and said she washed Jennifer's mouth with
soap. Though I'm glad to see that's
still going on. You going to do that to Emma? Surely not. We'll see. We'll see. But God Almighty takes this word.
This is the only thing. The commandment is clean, isn't
it, Nancy? Psalm 19, as I do. The commandment
is clean. It cleans your mouth out. Wonder of wonders. God Almighty
loosens the tongue. A man, a woman, a boy or a girl
begins to say things they weren't able to say before. Begin to
actually thank God. Man, woman, boy, girl who'd never
prayed a prayer in their life. Wouldn't know how to go about
it. Had no thoughts about it, did not care to do so. All of
a sudden, calling on God. There's only one person that
can do that. Calling on God. Thanking God. Man, woman, boy,
girl who once sang the filth that this world's
songs are full of sitting in a pew. singing rock of ages left
for me. Now, that's a wonder of wonders,
isn't it? Who can do such a thing as that? Well, I'd have never
thought it about myself, would you? This is my story, this is
my song. And they wondered also, look
at verse 19, in our text, Matthew 15, it says in verse 31, they
wondered that the dumb were speaking, and they wondered that the maimed
were made whole. Maimed. Maimed means someone
who was once whole, now disfigured and unloved. Something happened
to to disfigure them, maim them. And all of us are born this way. We're born disfigured. As we
said, God made man in his image. Man, Adam, Eve, created in the
image of God. I really wanted to preach on
the altogether lovely Christ tonight, but Should have done
gave what I said I was going to do Sunday afternoon, but I
didn't do it. So I lost it. I had it on my mind, but I lost
it. Anyway, man was created, Adam
and Eve were created in the image of God, pure. Pure. Now I say that, but we can't
get a hold of that. Pure. I mean, their minds were
pure. They don't feel friends with
him. Lovely what's your thing for pure that's what they thought
of whatever things were lovely that's what they thought of what
they were sober things were wholesome they were whole. You know everybody. Everybody still likes Andy Griffith. Everybody in here smile. Everybody. Even every. person out there. Why? Because it's wholesome. They see something in that, and
that's far from what we're talking about here. But yet, it seems
kind of innocent, doesn't it? Life like it kind of ought to
be. Well, man was created wholesome, pure, lovely, wholesome, innocent. No gap, no deceit, no corruption,
no lies, no impure thoughts, none of that. Wise, he was wise. Adam, Eve, both were wise. They
had perfect discernment, judgment, understanding. Ignorance is what
makes us do the things we do. You know, that song Isaiah we
read, the wayfaring men, though fools, We act so foolish, don't
we? Why? Because we're ignorant.
Not Adam. He's wise. He didn't act like
a fool. He acted like a man. Wise. Honest. Kind. Kind. Gentle. Gentle. Good. Complete. They were complete. And look at man now. We all went out to eat. today,
lunch together, several of them. And just look around at this
creature called man. He's a despicable person. And this generation, I thought
it was bad in the 60s, you know, but it's worse. It really is
worse now. Man, you know, marking his body
all up. cutting himself. This man is
a despicable looking creature. He's a disfigured, vile, grotesque
creature, and he doesn't resemble God at all. Does he? He does not bear the
image of God at all. Not only outwardly, but especially
inwardly. Vile, ugly, ignorant, dishonest,
violent, and so forth. And you can turn the TV on just
briefly and see, it's just a mess, isn't it? It's a mess. Do you wonder, does anybody in
here have any problem with God destroying this despicable place? Huh? I'd have destroyed it a
long time ago, wouldn't you? And I'd have destroyed me in
it. And you don't have to look, you
don't have to turn the TV on to see any of that vileness.
Just peer within your, look at the old man within you and see
what's still there. But wonder of wonders. Since
they wondered that the maimed were made whole. When the Lord
touches someone, they're made whole. He makes them into a complete
person. How's that? Like Christ. Christ was a complete whole man,
as God intended man to be. They're made whole, they're made
complete, pure, lovely, gentle, kind. They're not perfect, but
that's why this is an ongoing thing. In God's sight we are.
We're complete in Christ, but not in ourselves, are we? Someday
we're going to wake in His likeness. But until then, He's put that
image within all of His people. And you like to be around God's
people now because they're most like Christ. And it says they
wondered if these manes were made whole. And look at the next
thing. They wondered. The wonder of
wonder is a lame walk. A lame walk. I thought how significant
it is that man is the only creature that is born that's Unable to
walk after he's born. Nearly every creature. I stopped
and thought about it. Little kittens get up and walk.
Little dogs. Horses, in just a matter of a
few hours, up walking. A few more hours of running.
Not man. Man's crawling on his belly for
9, 10, 11 months. Isn't that right? That's significant, and it shows
us how that we're really the most fallen of all the creatures,
are we not? Totally helpless, unable to walk,
and man spiritually is unable to walk with God. God, I love to think about Adam in
the garden, don't you? God Almighty made man, and I
believe Christ. Yes, Christ came down and walked
with Adam in the garden, Adam and Eve. I'm just certain he
did. And his delight were with the
sons of men. In the beginning, the word of
wisdom, his delight was in the habitable part of the earth,
with the sons of men. I'm just sure of it, that Christ, who
was made flesh, came down to this earth and walked with Adam
and Eve in that garden. Who taught them all of these
things? Who teaches us? They had to be
taught, did they not? They learned fast because they
had good reception. Sherry, they had perfect attention. He never lost their attention.
They listened to every word he said and absorbed every word
he said. This was this, this was this,
this and that. They walked with God. They walked
with God, and after the fall even, what does it say? The voice
of God came what? Walking in the garden. Man was made to walk with God. Walk in paths of righteousness. Walk by faith. But we will not
now because of sin. We will not. We cannot walk by
faith. We cannot. come to Christ we
will not Christ that you will not come under me that you might
have. No man can come under me except. But. Draw. And wonder of wonder. Wonder of wonder one day. Those who walk the course of
this world remember that. Even as other children are right,
wonder of wonders, they turn 180 degrees and begin to walk
to Christ. Begin to walk with God, like
these little children. I was watching, not too long
ago, Emma was the last to start walking, and soon it'll be Abigail,
won't it? But, you know, Kelly started
Now she's, now Emma's, you know, toddler, toddler, you know, toddling
around. I remember that several Sundays
ago when she was taking her first steps. I remember more than anything
watching Patrick and others. See, all of a sudden, one day,
this little girl who could not walk. Somebody, though, had to
pick her up. Somebody, her daddy. Picked her
up. Set her on her feet. And she took a step. And all
the adults were surrounding, just cheering, rejoicing, weren't
they? And that's what we do when we
see somebody start walking with pride. It's a wonder of wonders,
is it not? One day, The church saw me walk
through the door. The prodigal son. It hadn't been in that door in
years. And they never thought they'd see him again. Wonder
of wonders. Look coming through that door. Wonder of wonders. Look who's
walking with God. Look who's walking with Christ.
Look who turned from his cronies to the people of God. I said,
well, I'll never get over that. Wonder of wonder. Is Emma fall? That's part of the process. That's
part of the walking process. Adults fall. I was looking at
Kelly the other day. Her mom was holding her both
knees, just skin all up. But that's good. That means she's
walking. Oh, she's going to take a fall.
She's not going to stay down. She's going to get up. Walking. Look who's walking by
faith. Oh, boy, it's a wonder of wonder.
Only the Lord can do that. Hmm. My, my. A wonder of wonder. And then it says they all wondered,
verse 31. They all wondered if the blind
could see. The blind could see. We're all,
as you know, born blind spiritually. Born blind. I think we're pretty
much born blind physically to our little children. I know that we're real, real,
real, real nearsighted. I know that. When we're born,
if not blind, totally. Because, you know, little children,
when they're born, just can't see things clearly. And then
all of a sudden, one day, and you mothers have seen this, and,
you know, everything's like this. And then all of a sudden, you know, they're just totally
captivated by their hand. You put these, these, we call
those things, the hangout mobiles, put these mobiles in their You
know if you sit there captivated by this this stuff you'll see
that early on. And then they start to develop.
Well that's a pretty good illustration. We're born blind we can't see
God. You know this this this whole
world says God. The heavens declare his glory.
The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech.
Night after night knowledge doesn't it? Huh? That the things that
are made by God are clearly seen. Romans 1 says, he's even his
eternal power and Godhead. But some people, not just children,
adults can't see God in anything. You do, don't you? Don't you
see God's hand in everything? Everything. His eternal power
and Godhead can't see self. People can't We're born where
we can't see ourselves. We just cannot see ourselves
clearly. We look at ourselves. Oh, my, my, my. You know, you
look back at pictures of yourself back when you were, whatever,
a teenager or something, you say, did I actually think I looked
good? You remember that, Mac? I don't
know how you looked when you were a teenager, but, you know,
I got to tell this on myself. I attended my sister's wedding.
I was, I don't know, 19, 20 years old or whatever. And this was,
when was it? Early 70s. Ain't nobody look
good in the 70s. But I had, you know, I had a
full beard and all that. And I wore to her wedding, I
wore a, I had a white turtleneck a navy blue shirt open at the
collar, a white leisure jacket. Steve and I had blue and white
checkered, big checkered pants, bell bottom pants, and white
patent leather shoes with two-inch wooden heels, platform shoes. At the time, I remember walking
by the mirror thinking, Wait till they see me. You all laugh
because every one of you. We're like that. And you can't
walk by a mirror without looking at you. Whoa, man. Aren't I something? How could
I have been so blind? I look back. I was flat blind. Man, and you know, that's all
of us spiritually. No matter what we do, no matter
what we are, no matter what we don't see ourselves that way.
No, we do not see God. We don't see ourselves. We see
what we want. It's amazing. We see by nature what we want
to say, not what the way really. And we can't see the world. You
know, the scripture says the things that are saying are temporal.
It's just a big soapbubble. It's just a big soapbubble. It
really is. It appears for a while and it's
gone. I remember a preacher one time
giving this illustration. I don't have it in change on
me, but he held up to a little child, a small child. He held
up a $10 bill and a dime. He had a shiny dime. You know which one the child
took? Just grabbed that dime. Glitter is pretty, look at it,
that's valuable. Ignorant, can't see, doesn't
know. Our Lord said this, things that
are seen are temporal. Things that are not seen are
eternal. Scripture says, set your affection on things. Well,
we can't by nature until God. But God, wonder of wonders. God,
when he gives eyes, begin to see clearly. Begin to see, hey,
we have here no continuing city. No, I remember I was telling
Gave the other day, and I gave was they were going to do some
improvements on their house. I said, don't do that. Do it to our house.
Invest your money in our house because we're going to be dead
in just about 15, 20 years. It's going to be yours. Don't
spend it on your, spend it on this house. Honestly, gone. And then he's going to be dead
and gone, and who are these things going to be? And the one thing
that opens our eyes to see these things clearly, the word of God,
Christ, who is the word. Can't see the world. Young people,
well, all people, unregenerate people, cannot see the dangers,
the pitfalls, the snares, the corruptions, the things that
this world is a pit. Reality. Can't see reality, just
can't see it. And these preachers, our Lord
said, they're blind leaders of the blind. And see, a blind man will have
you see what he wants you to see, which is nothing. But when
the Lord opens our eyes, and we try and try and try to get
people, especially our children, to see, no. Can't you see? Listen to me. Can't you see this,
that, that? No, they're not until their eyes
are open. The wonder of wonder. God Almighty
sends his word one day and they begin to see. And they begin to say things
that you've been showing them for years or the preachers have
been showing them. The people do this to me all the time. Say
a thing. Did you know? Did you know that? Well, Yeah
but I'm glad you don't know it now. I began to see. God is. You know the other day
I saw. That's great. That's wonderful. I began to say you know I'm a
sinner. I was telling one of the brothers
the other day that some woman years ago came in to see I think
it was John Bunyan. And she began to, she was weeping. And this is a woman that had
no interest before, and she was weeping and came in to Brother
Bunyan and said, Brother Bunyan, she said, I'm such a vile sinner. He said, good. And she, you see, Brother Bunyan,
he said, I have the most awful thoughts going through my head
all the time. He said, good. She said, you maybe didn't hear
me. She said, all I see within me is just nothing but blackness
and sin and corruption. I despair myself. He said, good. You're seeing clearly only God
can do that. I hate myself. Job said, I've
heard of you with a hearing ear. Now, man, I see it me. Therefore,
I hate myself. Man loves himself until God shows
him himself. God shows him Christ, the altogether
loved one, and he hates himself and wants to be like him. So
that's good, isn't it? Then they begin to see this world
is not all it's chalked up to be. It's nothing
at all, is it? You know, Christ is all, isn't
he? I'm beginning to see that Christ
really is all there is in the one thing. Yes, Hubert. Wonder of wonder. And they glorified
the God of Israel. The God of Israel? The God of Israel? You know,
he's the living and true God. The God of Israel is God. The
only God there is. I was thinking about our brother
Patrick, and I don't want to embarrass him. But I don't know
of a more tender, gentle, humble, meek, and mild. Christlike man
to him, he's not shaking his head, I know, but isn't it? Everybody in here, Patrick, is
nodding their head in agreement. Our God, the God of Israel, that's
what he does to people. The God of Israel, the God of
Allah, Islam doesn't do that. He makes them wild fanatics,
killing people and makes them, you know, our hands against everybody's
throat. Our God, the God of Israel, God
who's merciful, gracious, loving, kind, gentle, good, all that's
the embodiment of good, epitome of all that's good, personification
of all that's good, Christ himself. That's how he makes people. That's
our, that's God. That's our God. That's what he's
like, and that's what he makes his people like. Wonder of wonders, isn't it?
Takes a maimed person and makes them all together lovely. They glorify the God of Israel.
And our God's the one who sovereignly elects a people. God of Israel.
Jacob. Jacob. Jacob, man, have I loved. Jacob. That's who he sets his
love on. And when it's all over, see,
he gets great glory in what he makes out of a worm, out of the
son of Jacob. He gets great glory, and all
of them glorify him for doing it. Wonder of wonders. Wonder of wonders. Huh? The dumb
speak, the maimed are made whole, the lame walk in a blind state.
Isn't that a wonder? All right, stand with me. Our Lord, thank you for this
so great salvation that you wrought. By yourself, when you hit by
yourself, purged our sin, sat down, came here, you left, ascended,
you sat down, where you're seated forevermore before that crystal
sea, and we shall one day be gathered at thy feet to sing
thy praises. Glory be to God and the Lamb
that was slain. Thank you, Lord, for this great
work of yours. We give you all the honor and
glory for what you've done. Thank you for your people. Continue
this work, Lord. We're confident you will perfect
that which concerns us. That which you've, you're the
author and the finisher, and we're glad. It's in Christ's name we've
met here. Amen. You're dismissed. Thank
you.