I want to read one verse here, Isaiah twenty-nine. Look at verse eighteen again.
It says, In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book. The eyes of the blind shall see
out of obscurity and out of darkness." And that day, he's talking about the day when
Christ came to this earth, the time when he walked this planet. And that day, he's also talking
about from that time till the next day that he comes to this
planet, a whole period of time where Christ and the gospel are
on this earth. And that day, the deaf shall
hear, the blind shall see. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ healed
many physically deaf and blind persons, many. John the Baptist one time was
in prison. And he sent two of his disciples
to the Lord to ask him, saying, Are you the one we look for,
or do we look for another one? Are you the Christ? Tell us plainly. And the Lord answered him by
quoting Isaiah 35. He said, you don't need to turn
there. He said, You go tell John that
The lame walk, the poor have their gospel preached. But he
said two things. He said, the deaf hear and the
blind see. That's how you know I am the
Christ. People that could not hear, hear. People that could
not see, see. And I did it. Now, every miracle that our Lord
performed. Every miracle he performed is
really a picture of a much greater miracle, like raising the dead. Those people died again. Lazarus,
Tabitha, they died again. He just raised them temporarily.
But that's a picture of Christ raising every dead sinner. Spiritually
dead. Healing the blind. Healing the
deaf. There were many that Christ healed
of physical deafness. Many who Christ healed of physical
blindness. But many, many more that He healed
of spiritual deafness and spiritual blindness. As a matter of fact,
every person in this room right now, young and old, every person in
this room right now is either right now spiritually deaf and
blind or Christ has given you ear to hear and an eye to see. I say an eye. So this is a picture of spiritual
healing. Every person in this room right
now is either deaf or blind or a watch or walk. Christ healed. Now, I want you
to notice, look at that verse again. Notice what the deaf hear. In that day shall the deaf hear
the words of the book. This is what all deaf people
hear. The words of the book. Now, go
over to Mark chapter 7, and we're going to see two examples of
this, the deaf hearing and the blind seeing. We're going to
see one example of each. Now, man cannot hear. There's someone in here right
now who is deaf to the word, to the gospel, to the words of
God. Because you cannot hear. A natural man cannot, scripture
says, receive the things of God. Cannot. God is spirit, we're
flesh. We cannot hear. Our Lord said
this in John chapter 8. Listen. He said, why is it that
you don't understand my speech? He's talking to some people.
Why don't you understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my words. You cannot. He said that. So man by nature cannot hear
the word, hear the gospel. And secondly, man by nature will
not hear the gospel. Man will not hear the gospel.
Paul said this in his letter to Timothy. He said there's going
to come a time when they will turn away their ears from the
truth. We don't like that. We won't hear that. We turn under
light. We like that. We like what we
like, but we don't like the truth. And they turn away. They will
not hear. So man cannot and man will not hear the gospel. The truth now. We're talking
about the truth here. We're not talking about this
silly stuff being preached today. We're talking about the true
God, who the true God is. God, holy, just, sovereign, absolute
in control, deciding who's saved and who's not. What man is a worm? God doesn't need him. God doesn't
have to save him. He doesn't deserve a chance to
be saved. What man is, really? No worth
to God. Who Christ is. What Christ did. Could be somebody heard what
I just said, and I don't like that. And man will not have that. Will not. And cannot. Will cannot
receive that. Cannot love the truth unless
Christ gives him ears to hear and eyes to see the truth. He
can look right at it and not see it. All right? Unless God gives ear.
All right, here are two men. Two examples. Mark chapter 7
is the first. physically deaf man. And both
of these examples are very similar, very similar, because the ears
and the eyes are directly connected. All right, let's look at Mark
chapter 7. Look at verse, begin with verse 31. Now 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. That is, he couldn't hear and
had an impediment in his speech. And they besought or beseeched
Christ to put his hand upon him. So it says, they bring unto him
one that was dead. If a person is going to receive
or hear the gospel, Christ is going to have to be the one to
make them hear it. They brought to him. They didn't bring this
man to the apostles. They didn't bring this man to
any mere man. They brought him to Christ. Christ
alone can make someone hear the gospel. Christ alone. Look, they're
going to have to hear Christ speak. They brought him to Christ.
Christ said, my sheep hear my voice, didn't it? My sheep, every
one of them, are going to hear from me. personally, they're
going to hear me speak to them. Now, his voice is his word, all
right? It's his word. But Peter said,
now Peter said this, this is the word, he said, we're born
again by incorruptible seed, the word of God. But it's not
just the Bible. Peter said, this is the word
which by the gospel is preached unto you. The word of truth. Paul said in Ephesians 1, after
you heard the word of truth, not just hearing the Bible read
or the Bible preached or the words, but the word of truth,
the true gospel. He said, my sheep will hear my
voice, my word. And this is the word, Peter said,
which by the gospel is preached unto them. They all hear the
gospel, the one gospel, the only gospel, the same God. They all
hear it. They all hear who God is. Romans
chapter 1. If you want a declaration of
the gospel, clearest I know of in all scriptures is Romans chapter
1. Paul said it's the gospel of God. In other words, salvation
is of the Lord. It's God's gospel. He's the one
that thought it. He's the one that bought it,
paid for it. He's the one that brings it. He's the one that
purposed it. He's the one that purchased it.
He's the one that applies it. He's the one that willed it.
He's the one who decides who gets it. He's the one that performed
it. He's the one that worked it out.
He's the one that must do this work to those young men. Salvation
is of the Lord. This is God's gospel. This is
God's salvation. God made the air, God alone can
and must open it, spiritually. Paul said the gospel of God is
an old gospel, promised before by the prophet, concerning God's
Son. The gospel concerns Jesus Christ,
who he is and what he did. It doesn't concern what man does
for God. It concerns what Jesus Christ
did for some men. This is what Peter said. They're
going to hear this gospel, the word of truth. They're going
to receive it. At first, they don't like it. They turn away
their ears from the truth. But now, when Christ said, My
sheep will hear my voice, they're going to hear the word of truth.
They're going to hear that Christ is salvation and Christ alone.
Concerning God's Son, who's declared to be the Son of God with power,
he said, this is the gospel, God's gospel. It's an old, old
gospel concerning his son, what he did, and who he is. All authority
is given unto him, heaven and earth, to give eternal life to
as many as God gave him. That's the gospel, in short.
He said, every one of my sheep are going to hear that. They're
going to hear it. At first, they won't. By nature,
they won't hear it. I don't like that. I don't like
that. That's not what I want to hear. But if he comes, If
that person is brought to Christ. Now, here, these men brought
this man to Christ, didn't they? But now, really, who brought
this man? Why did Christ happen to be in
this place? For the purpose of saving this man right here. And
we, you see, we, if somebody, do you know anybody that will
not hear this gospel? You have a friend or a family
member who just will not. You've talked to them until you're
blue in the face about this gospel. And they will not hear it. You
can show them a passage and they just will not hear it. You cannot
make them hear it. Do you know anybody? You have to bring them to cry.
How do we do that? Pray for them. Pray for them. Lord, I can't make them hear. They won't hear me. I've talked
enough. All you've got to do is say one
word. All you've got to do is say one word and they'll hear. That's how we bring them to cry.
Surely all of us know someone. And it says here, look at this.
This is good. They bring unto him one that was deaf. He couldn't
hear. And he had an impediment in his speech. Everyone who cannot
hear has a speech impediment. Notice that? If you can't hear,
you can't hear yourself speaking. You may think you're speaking
plainly, but you're not. It's undiscernible. They've got a speech impediment.
You know that's true, don't you? Everyone who's born deaf cannot
speak right, can't speak plainly. This fellow had a speech impediment
because he couldn't hear. And so does everyone who hadn't
heard the truth. Everyone who hasn't heard the
truth of who God is. Everyone who hasn't heard of
the Holy God will talk about his own holiness. Everyone who hasn't heard that
God is absolutely sovereign, that everything that Byron would
say writhes or wiggles down to the particle of dust in the sunbeam
is absolutely under the predetermined will and purpose and power and
control and authority of God Almighty. That God is absolutely
sovereign, the God in whose hands thy very breath is. He decides
when you quit breathing. He decides who does this, who
does what. He decides that God is God. Everyone
who hasn't heard the true God, the living God, my lad, will
talk about how they let God do things. They've got a speech
impediment. You hear them? You hear people
talk? You hear somebody talk about
God, and they start talking about somebody that's in their hands,
that let, do, and they've got a speech impediment. They haven't
heard the truth. Everybody who hasn't heard of
God's absolute holiness, that God's a consuming fire, that
no human being can be accepted by this holy God for anything. He's too holy. He looks on the
heart. He looks on the thoughts, on
the motive, and it must be perfect to be accepted. Everybody who
hasn't heard the truth of God's absolute holiness will talk about
their own holiness. I'm a good boy. I'm a good girl.
Speech impediment. You see? Everyone who hasn't
heard of Christ's righteousness and Christ alone will talk about
their own. You see that? That's speech and
pattern. Everyone who hadn't heard the
gospel, the salvations of the Lord, would talk like this. All
that haven't heard, all who have, who are deaf spiritually, talk
like this. I. I. Everything they say is I.
It comes out like that. I, are you saved? Yes. I believed
on Jesus. Are you saved? Yes. I accepted
him. I made him Lord of my life. When
I was just a boy, I went down front and I, I, I, I got a speech
impediment. I'm not making fun of people
with actual physical speech impediments. I do feel sorry for them. And I do feel sorry for those
with spiritual impediments, too. But it's true, isn't it? When God gives a person ears
to hear, they start talking very plainly. He. He. He. That I changes to a him. Him. Well, they brought him to Christ,
and they'd beseech, look at verse thirty, to they beseeched Christ,
they begged him, Lord, put your hands upon him or her. Would
you like, Lord, would you make them here, please? Lord, lay hold of her. She hasn't heard yet. He hasn't heard yet, Lord, please,
would you make him here? I can't do it. They beseech,
that's what it means, beseeching. Like that woman that would not
let Christ go. Please. Please, they beseech
him, Lord. It's not the laying on of a man's
hands or a soul winner's hand that Lord's got to lay hold on
that person. We try and we fail, don't we? Lord, he won't hear
me. Only you can give ears. Please. She she's been listening, but
she hadn't heard a thing. He's been listening all this
time, but he hadn't heard that. Would you please lay hold on
him? But look at what our Lord does.
This is wonderful. Verse 33. So our Lord took him. Lord, here he is. I know he's
not much. I know you don't need him. But he can't hear. And he can't
even, he's not even going to call on you. He can't hear. He can't even speak. Please,
would you, would you make him hear? He took him. He took him. Barbarian. He took this man. They brought him to Christ and
he took him. Matter of fact, there's one verse
over this that says, he healed everyone that had need of healing.
Everybody kept coming to Christ and begging him, Lord, would
you heal my son? Would you heal my daughter? No,
it's not right to give children to bread to dogs. I know that,
but please, I'm a dog. Please! He took him. He took him. He had not because
we asked not. Look at what he did. He took
him aside from the multitude. You read that with me. Verse
33. Christ took this man apart from the multitude. He said,
in other words, what he did was, let's get out of here. Let's
get away from all these soul winners. Let's get away far from
the maddening crowd. It's too much noise around here.
Can't hear anything. See, he's going to have to hear
from, he's going to have to hear one voice. He took him aside. You know,
the Lord saves individuals and he does it one on one. He does
it one on one. Takes us apart from the crowd,
alone with himself, without the camp, away from religion. So
much noise and confusion in religion today. You know, so many voices,
most of them without this distinction. So many preachers, the woods
are full of them. More preachers than there are
attorneys. And there's a lot of attorneys. Look in the Yellow
Pages. Pitiful. Everybody and his brother
and his mother is a preacher now. Too many voices. Far too
many voices. All confusing voices. And what
the Lord Jesus Christ is going to do with every single one he
determines to give hearing to is take them aside from that
maddening crowd. Aside from all these voices.
And they're going to hear one voice. A voice in the wilderness. Too many voices. Look what he
did. Look what he did to him after
he got him away from the crowd. Verse 33, it says, He took him
and put his fingers into his ears. How's he going to hear with fingers
in his ears? Huh? That's no way to make a
man hear. That's the first thing that's
got to happen. Put his fingers in his ears so
he wouldn't hear all that he was going on. And the next thing he's going
to hear, really the first thing he's going to hear is a voice
of Jesus Christ himself. I was talking to a couple from
the church in Nashville, down in Florida. They were down there
at the conference and they were telling me their story, how they
first heard the gospel. Never heard it before. I've known
these people for nearly 30 years. And I was asking him when they
first heard the gospel. And he said that he was a deacon
in the so-called Methodist church, you know. His wife was head of
the whatever those women are head of in there, all kind of
committees, you know. She was head of one of them.
Anyway, they were big to-do's in that organization. Never missed
a service and all that. And one of the Brethren at 13th
Street Church gave him a tape of the gospel. He listened to
it. He said he didn't really hear
that much at first, but it got his interest, and the fellow
asked him to come visit. Well, he started coming, and
eventually he heard. He heard the truth. He went back,
to make a long story short, he went back to that Methodist place
and told the preacher, I'm leaving here. And what he said to the man was,
I'm hearing the gospel for the first time ever. The fellow said, you mean I'm
not preaching the gospel? He said, no sir, you're not.
And he said, I can't hear it anymore. what you're saying. I can't tolerate it anymore.
Does that sound familiar, John? I've got to go where I can hear
the word of life, the truth, the gospel. So the first thing
our Lord does to many people anyway, some of you are in religion, and the first thing the Lord
does to you really is make you so that you can't bear this anymore.
What I'm hearing around me, I can't take it anymore. He put his fingers
in his ear. And it says, look at verse 33,
he spit and touched his tongue. In other words, our Lord produced
something in his own mouth and touched that and then touched
the man's tongue with it. OK? Follow me? This is what he
did. The Lord touched the saliva in
his own mouth. had the man stick out his tongue,
and I believe he also did this to his ears. So in other words, what gave
that man ears to hear came from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. You understand now, huh? There's
only one thing that will open up the ear, the Word. I've already
told you what the Word was, the gospel, not just any gospel,
the one true gospel. will open the ears and loose
the tongue. You see, his tongue has an impediment.
Look at it. It says he loosed it. The string
of his tongue was loose and he spake plain. The only one thing that'll loosen
this tongue and make this tongue start speaking right, that's
the word, the gospel, the word of truth. Make this tongue start
saying what it's supposed to say. It says he spoke plain. What'd he say? What do you reckon
he said? Doesn't say, does it? I know what he said. I know exactly
what he said. Because every single person who's
ever been given ears to hear and who's had a speech impediment,
the first words out of their mouth, I know what it was. He
said it very plainly. Salvation is of the Lord. Yeah, he did. Huh, Nancy? That's the
first thing you were able to say. Couldn't say much else,
was it? How's a man saved? Salvation of the Lord. Huh? Everybody in here has heard
the truth. Isn't that the first thing you
uttered? Now you're talking right. Now you're speaking right. Don't
have an impediment. Very plainly. He spoke very plainly. What's
plain speech? Huh? Plain speech is yes, no. Ask a man who's had been given
ears to hear, did God choose you? Yes. You
choose him? No. Did God say yes? You didn't help
him? No. Very plain. Plain speech is very
simple, isn't it? Fire! Everybody knows what that
means, don't they? Salvation. Grace. That
means grace. It means God gave it, God did
it, God bestowed it. Not offer, grace. By grace, he
said. He may have uttered that, brother
Dan. First time. By grace, he said. By grace. Who saved you? Christ. Very plainly. Christ saved me. Now you're speaking plainly.
Now you're speaking plainly. What is it to save? What really
saved you now? Blood. Read my lips. Blood. Whose will is it? God's. Very blunt, very blunt. Plain speak. He spoke very plainly. Well, turn over to chapter eight
now. This story here is very similar. Very similar. And you know When God gives ears to hear what
was once noise, to hear a mumble, confusion, and all that becomes
sweet music. Music to the ears. They that
heard understand doctrine. They understand. They that hated
it now love it. Music to their ears. Chapter
8 now, it's very similar because all spiritually deaf are also
spiritually blind. Everybody who hadn't heard the
truth is also blind. They're blind to who, what God
is, blind to what they are. They're blind. What's a blind
man? Blind man. I don't like to be dramatic,
but this, you'll never forget this. What am I going to do? And everybody hadn't seen what
they are. Hadn't seen their desperate condition
for God. It's about to go over a cliff.
I mean, it could be in an automobile. It could be anything. It's about to fall. We need eyes. Eyes are very important.
Everybody's blind is also deaf. Watch out! Watch out! The one that made the physical
lies will have to give the spiritual lies. They bring him to Him. And look at it, verse 8, or 22,
"...and besought Him to touch him." Lord, he just won't see. I've been reading Romans 9 to
him for years now. He won't see it. He just won't. No, he can't. Why? He's blind. He can't. Why? He won't. None so blind
as those that will not see. Right? Lord, they just don't see. They don't
see their dangerous predicament. They don't see their need of
Christ. They don't see. Bring them to Christ. Keep bringing
them to Christ. Look at verse 23. He took it. He took it. He took it. Is that encouraging to you comforting
to some of you. He took him. The blind man. Just
like the deaf man. He took him Barney. He took him.
What's he mean with a blind man? Nothing. But he took him. He took him. Look at him, what
he did. He took the blind man by the hand. He laid hold on
him. Blind man couldn't see him to lay hold of him. Christ looked
at him. He doesn't even know who Christ
is. He doesn't know who he's with,
who he's in front of. Right? Who is it? Who got me? And what does he do? He let him out of town. Let's get out of here. Let him out of town. You know,
having a big crusade in Roanoke, everybody's going to be there.
Don't go there. You have to get out in the wilderness
where there's a man out there who's not trying to make a name
for himself. There's one man out there in the wilderness who
won't even tell you his name. If you ask him, he won't tell
you. I'll tell you what he will tell
you. I'll tell you who Christ is. Don't go to that big tent
meeting. Go out there to that little brown
tent in the wilderness where there's a man who's more interested
in you knowing God than knowing him. There's a man more interested
in you knowing Christ's name that is his own, a man who is
more interested in God getting the glory than his own glory,
a man who is more afraid of God than he is of men, and a man
who is more interested in you having the unsearchable riches
of Christ than having a new Mercedes-Benz. You've got to go a long ways
to find one. Did you ever find out the name of that road in
Fairmont, Brother John? You usually have to go a long
ways out in the wilderness to find a place. Find a place. You see, a few
people can't build a huge edifice. They've got to erect their little
tent. But that's where God is. They let him out of town. Get
away from here. Get away from that soul winner before he takes
credit for you. Come on out of here. Come with
me. You're coming with me. All right, read on. He said,
When he had spit on his eye, there it is again. In other words,
he took saliva. Christ took saliva from his own
mouth and touched his man's eyes. The same thing. Word of God. The word of truth. The gospel,
which we preached unto you, Paul said. And he said, Now if any
man preach any other gospel, than that which you have received.
The one, Jeannette, that opened your eyes and the one that opened
your ears is this. It's not the only place. But
there is one gospel in it. Isn't there one gospel? The one
that opened your eyes is going to take the same one, Jeannette,
to open other eyes and get the same gospel. Another one won't
do it. It's just eye salve. Well, he spit to touch his eyes
and he put his hands on him, laid hold on him again. And he
asked him if he saw anything. Verse 23, you see anything? And he looked up. He finally looked up. Have you
ever watched blind people? You know, they don't know where
to, they may have eyes in their head, but they don't know where
to look. You ever seen that? They can't really, they don't
know where to look. And they're generally, if you watch them,
they're heads. And besides the fact that they're walking along,
my aunt was born blind. And they're walking along and
they're listening more than anything. They can't look directly at what
they need to look at. This man finally looked up. Been
looking down all his life. And it says he looked up and
he said, I see men in those trees walking. What do you see? Well, the first thing he said,
I see. I do see. I see men. Now, there's more to
this than just he had cloudy vision. He didn't. He had cloudy
vision, but he did see. He once was blind, but he does
now see, doesn't he? He sees something light. And he saw men, they were all
people all over the place there, and he saw them, but they looked
like trees walking. You know, didn't that clear 2020
vision, see clearly all the, you know, characteristics of
faces and color, you know, style of clothing and all that. You
see, they all look the same. They all look the same, like dead
wood. Well, the first thing God causes
us to see is that all men are the same. I see men, and what
they are, they're dead and trespassed and sinned. I see myself that
way. I don't see clearly, perfectly
clear, but I do see this. They're like dead wood walking.
Dead. Man's dead and trespassing sin.
He saw Christ in front of him. He saw Christ in front of him.
He saw. Well, look at verse 25, and I'll quit. It says, After
that, after he saw a little bit, it says, he put his hands again
upon his eyes and made him look up. look further up, and he was
restored and saw every man clearly. Now, this is a good thought,
that when God, when Christ first opens the ear, you hear the truth. There's no mistake in that. But you don't hear everything,
right? You hear what man is. You hear who Christ is. When
God gives spiritual eyesight, causes a person to see, that
God dwelleth in life. God is God. Tell me about God. He's God. Is that the best you
can do? Well, yes. What does that mean? It means he's God. He doesn't
want to be. He is God. He's not running for
office. He is God. He does the electing.
He does the choosing. What about man? He's man. Well,
tell me more about that. I really can't put it into words
yet, but I know he did. I know this. I once was blind. Now I see. But God is gone and man is dead.
Well, what about salvation? How does a man say, Jesus Christ? Is that the best you can do? That's all I know right now.
Is that enough? Brother Ed, is that enough? It
sure is. But, you know, Christ, through
the preaching of the gospel, He keeps laying hold of His people.
Come hear the gospel and He keeps laying hold on them and teaching
you more perfectly, He said. More of that saliva from His
mouth that's going in your eyes so that you start seeing clearly.
Who is God? Omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent,
holy, just, righteous. merciful, great, starts speaking
more perfectly. What's man? Helpless, hopeless,
damned, doomed, dying, insufficient, unable, no good. What's Christ good? He's my mediator,
my righteous representative, my advocate, my high priest,
my shepherd, my... Let's see it more clearly, see
it more clearly. And just one day, right now,
right now, right now, we see, we see through a glass dimly. See through a glass dimly. We
preach in part. I thought I preached some good
messages before. Christ said, Paul said, then we'll see him
as he is. Then we'll know even as we are
known. We'll hear his voice. Then we'll see God face to face. Then we'll see really clearly. And so I know this. I once was
blind. Now I see. I know this. I once
couldn't hear a thing. I heard his voice. Best God. All right. I hope it's true.
Someone else. All right, let's sing. I think
at number 30 you had to pick that, wasn't it, John? Number
30? Is that it? Come, if you would. In number 30, let's stand as
we sing. Let's sing first and last verse. Stand with me. Bless the Lord and sing His praises. Bless the Lord now, O my soul. Join the song of heaven's praises. Let the anthems loudly roll. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Lord, all my soul and all that
is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord for truth He's
given, for the word of prophecy that has drawn the veil from
heaven and revealed my destiny. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless
his holy name. you