In Mark chapter 7, the Lord Jesus
performed many, many miracles during his public ministry. And
those miracles that he performed so often share with us, in a
physical sense, what he would do in a spiritual sense. And that's going to happen today.
We're going to see that the Lord Jesus is going to heal a man
of two maladies, two problems. And both of them share with us
a spiritual problem that relates to it. In the book of Matthew
chapter 7, we're jumping into a passage of scripture, and it'd
only be right if we read the whole chapter, but time doesn't
permit that. So we're going to start with
verse 31, and it tells us that the Lord Jesus departed from
the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. He came into the area of Galilee
through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. This is quite a
distance that he's traveling. These two cities, Tyre and Sidon,
are on the Mediterranean Sea. They're coastal towns, and they're
quite a distance apart if you're walking. Now, if you're in a
car, it wouldn't be near as far, but he did not have that privilege. He walked almost everywhere he
went. We know of one time that he was
on a donkey, and that's when he came into Jerusalem. But he's
there in Tyre and Sidon, and he leaves that area and comes
to the Sea of Galilee, which is about 40 or 50 miles away,
and then he goes into an area called Decapolis. Now, Decapolis
was a Greek area in Palestine at that time. It means ten cities. The word Decapolis means 10 cities.
It's a region. It's kind of like saying the
Columbia River Gorge. That's kind of a nebulous thing
to say. It's part of our property going
down through the gorge. So he's over in Decapolis, and
we find out that most people, as they follow the life of the
Lord Jesus, they think that he is just doing things randomly. That's what I often end up doing,
just random things. But the Lord never did anything
random. He always did everything on purpose. So the time he left those towns,
those cities there on the coast, the Mediterranean Sea, traveled
inland to the Sea of Galilee, got into the area of Decapolis,
all of that was a plan. He had a plan and a purpose in
mind. Now there's going to be somebody
that he's going to meet there. We don't know his name, it's
not listed in the Bible, but we do know that he had a couple
of physical defects, a couple of physical problems, and he
is being brought by some friends to someone that could help him
out of his problem. It tells us, as we think about
Jesus doing things random, over in the Psalms, The psalmist wrote
these words for us. It says, the steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.
You know, in religion, I thought that was a possibility. The steps
of a good man. I found out that my steps were
never good when it comes to comparison with the Lord. And then it tells
me that there was a rich young ruler that came to the Lord one
time, and he said, Master, what shall I? The ruler asked him,
saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Now, the Lord Jesus answered
him in a strange way, until you understand it in just a moment.
Jesus saith unto him, Why callest thou me good? None is good, save that is God. Why do you call me good? Because
there's only one good, and that is God. So if we go over there
to the Psalm, it says, the steps of a good man are ordered by
the Lord. So when we follow the ministry of the Lord Jesus for
those three and a half years, we find that every step he took
was on purpose. And he had something that needed
to be done because it had been planned and purposed before the
foundation of the world. Now he's going to meet a man
here. Some friends of this guy are going to bring him to meet
the Lord Jesus. It tells us here, going back
to the book of Mark chapter 7, it tells us in verse 32, and
they bring unto him, unto Jesus, one that was deaf and had an
impediment in his speech. Mark chapter seven, verse 32. They bring somebody that has
two maladies, two problems. One of them is he cannot hear.
And the other is that he cannot speak clearly. He cannot speak
clearly. He may be able to mumble a few
words, but he cannot speak clearly. So they brought him to Jesus
and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. Now, we always
have an idea how God should take care of his business. We've got
it figured out. God needs to do this. And that's
what these people said. Put your hand on him and it'll
be done. Well, you know, the Lord said,
that's not what I want to do this time. He does put a finger
on his tongue. And we'll read that in just a
moment. But we find here that Jesus says unto him, or they
bring that deaf man to him and he says, please put your hand
on him. Now, many years ago in Israel,
there was a young maiden, a young lady taken as a captive. The
Syrian army came into Israel and they were doing a war. There's
no end to that. And they captured a young lady
and took her home, took her away from Israel, took her away from
her family, and the captain of the army took her into custody,
and she became a servant girl for him. Now the man that is
in charge is a leper. Now this is what she has to say
about that when she realizes that her master is a leper. She
said, would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in Samaria,
for he would recover him of his leprosy. I wish my master was
over there in Samaria and could talk to this prophet because
he'd heal him. Well, we follow that through
and he was healed of his leprosy. The point I want to make is that
God often puts people in our way to point us to the Lord Jesus
just like that young girl did with regard to the leprosy of
her master. Somebody had told some friends
that there's somebody coming that is able to take care of
this man, our friend's ear problem and his speech impediment. It
doesn't mention his name. It doesn't mention their names.
But they had great intentions. And that was to bring this man
to the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and see what he would
do. Now, they've got to figure out
how he's going to handle it. And we find out the Lord doesn't
do it that way. So often when we get it figured
out, we find out that's not God taking care of it. It's us trying
to figure it out. So here we have that someone
knows something about someone who can help us. Moses told his
father-in-law, come with us and we will do the good. And you
know, that's what someone tells us, come to Christ, he will do
the good. These friends were to take him
to the Lord. And it tells us there, and he
took him aside. Now the Lord did something very
strange here. Most people that have some kind of gift, they
want to show it off. Most religion is for show. Christianity
is to worship a king. Christianity is to worship a
king. And so the Lord Jesus did not stick around that great crowd
of people. Jesus Christ did not stick around
the friends of this man. Jesus Christ, it tells us here,
took him aside from the multitude and got alone. Now that's how
God does his business. He works with us alone. It's not a shotgun blast that
takes care of it. It is a very pointed message
to us individually. So the Lord demonstrates that
by taking him away from the crowd, over here, away from all the
notoriety, all of the braggadocios, and said, we're going to deal
with this. We're going to deal with this on my terms. And it
will not be that I'll put my hands on him, per se. Took him
away, and then it says he put his fingers into the guy's ears. He didn't say a word. He just
took... Now, we have to realize that
when we read about the Lord Jesus Christ, we're reading about omnipotence. And omnipotence means all powerfulness. There is nothing that God cannot
do. And so he has the power in his
fingers to do whatever he pleases. You know, sometimes we find the
Lord healing somebody and doesn't even say a word. And sometimes
he heals somebody and he says a word. And sometimes he does,
he heals somebody and he touches them. And sometimes he just takes
his finger and puts them in their ears and clears up his deafness. Now, how long this man was deaf,
it doesn't tell us, but we know from a spiritual standpoint that
we're born spiritually deaf to the good message of grace found
in Christ Jesus. So he come along, this master
of all things, the Lord, put his fingers into his ears, and
then he did something very strange. Now, to us, we may recoil. If you spit on your finger and
want to put it in my mouth, I'm not going to let you. We recoil at things. You know
what? Free and sovereign grace is recoiled
at. God's in charge of my salvation. God's in charge of me being saved.
Salvation is of the Lord. You know, we naturally recoil
against that because we want to be involved. And yet if we're
involved, we cannot be saved. We must have him do it. So he
put his fingers into his ears and spit on us and touched his
tongue. Now that's absolutely contrary
to anything we could think of. But you know what? God does things
really his way. He spit on his finger, stuck
it in the man's tongue, and guess what? The speech impediment was
gone. So I guess if we had a problem
like that, and we wanted someone to take care of it, and they
said, I guarantee that if I spit and put it on your tongue, you
can speak, we'd probably let him. Well, this man stood by
and let the Lord Jesus do that. And you know what? He no longer
had a speech impediment. He could say, praise be to almighty
God as clear as a bell. He could say, thank you, God,
clearly. It was not muddled or messed
up. You know, this man had a speech
impediment, and some people could probably understand him. When
I was in religion, I had a speech impediment. Not literally, but spiritually. I could not honor God with my
mouth. It was always something else.
Always involved in it. So we find that this man's speech
impediment was cleared up and he could say things about God
that he never could say before. He didn't need an interpreter.
God could hear him say these things. And so he took them aside
from the multitude, put his fingers into his ears and spit and touched
his tongue. And looking up to heaven, it
says the Lord sighed or groaned. and said unto him, Epaphrathah. Now that particular word is an
Aramaic word, but the translation is given to us in the original
language. We have the word that he used,
which means be opened. He used, you know, To some people,
it's an impossible thing to hear what the Lord has to say until
he interprets it for us. And here we have, he interpreted
his word for us. His word is difficult to understand.
It's in a totally different language. You know, spiritual language
is so different than physical language. And spiritual language
allows us to honor God with our lips. Spiritual language allows
us to praise God with our heart. Spiritual language allows us
to worship God Almighty with our whole being. Instead of just
saying, praise God, praise God, we can really do that. So, the
Lord, it tells about the Lord for, in the book of Revelation
chapter 19, for the Lord God omnipotent. I like that word
because it means he can do anything. He can do anything. He is not
limited. There is nothing that limits
the Lord Jesus Christ in anything he does. There is no limitations. He has all power and he can do
what he said he wants to do. And so he did here in straight
way, the ears were open and the string of his tongue was loose
and he spoke plain. I have an idea. that the people
that brought him down there were just a little bit surprised at
how far the Lord went with him. He went the whole way. He took
care of all the problems. The guy could hear completely
clearly. He didn't have these 70-year-old
ears. He had brand new ears. And then
it says he could speak plainly. His tongue was loose, and he
spake plain. And then it says he charged them
that they should not tell no man, but the more he charged
them, so much more the great deal they published it. So the
Lord healed a man. The Lord took care of it. He
took care of it without the man's help. What did he bring to the
equation? What did the man bring to the
equation? Deaf ears and a speech impediment. What did he leave
with? Open ears and could speak plainly. He didn't contribute one thing
to what the Lord had done for him. The Lord took care of it
all. And that's what we read in the
book of the Jonah chapter two, salvation is of the Lord. It's all his, all belongs to
him. He has all the words to say, he has all the power to
deal with that. So here's a man, how long he
was in this case? I know that from a spiritual
standpoint, we're born with the hearing problem and we're born
with a speech impediment, spiritually speaking, and the Lord takes
care of it in his good time. And we walk away and we can say
for the first time in our life, thank God. Praise be to the Lord. Hallelujah. And it's not just
a word. It's a feeling that God gives
to his people about what he has done for them. So one more time,
a man, two maladies this time, Lord took care of it completely.
He walked away healed. He went home saying, let me tell
you what somebody did for me today. I can hear you and I can
speak to you. And what a blessing that is.
All right, Brother Mike, if you'll come and lead us in that closing
hymn.