I think I have, I think I've
come across a statement that's made about our Lord that really
I want to use as a kind of a, to sum up all of this past year. And I hope that you who are the
people of God, the people of God gathered here tonight, and
those who are watching by way of the Internet as well, I hope
that you can honestly repeat these words in your own heart.
You say, Jim, what statement are you talking about? Well,
it's found in verse 37. In the middle of the verse, He
hath done all things well. We just sang all the way my Savior
leads me. Jesus doeth all things well. Can He who is the Son of God
do anything any other way? He is the perfect Son of God. He's God over all, blessed forever. And these people, the Scripture
says in verse 37, as they beheld this particular healing of this
man who was deaf and dumb, as they beheld the omnipotence of
Jesus of Nazareth, the Scripture says they were above measure,
astonished. And as you review, really, not
only this last year, but all of your life, all of your life, from the cradle
to where you are right now, do you not echo these same words? He hath done all things well. That doesn't mean that things
have always worked out the way you wanted them to. We all know
better than that. We all know the difficulties
of life, the troubles that we encounter, various
trials that come across our paths. Most all of us here know something
about sorrow, grief, weeping. We know something about broken
hearts. We know something about being
disappointed, being disappointed in others, and mainly being disappointed
with ourselves. And yet, we know from the Scriptures
that all things are of God. I can't explain that. And only
a fool would dare to try. Here's what is written in Romans
11. For of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are most things. No, all things. To Him be glory
forever. Amen. All things are of our God. He dominates all things. He controls
all things. He rules in every situation. And we must say, and I hope that
we can say it honestly and with rejoicing in our hearts, and
say it beyond measure astonished. He hath done all things well. Let me show you what led up to
this. First of all, and I'll divide the chapter for you, and
I'm just going to briefly kind of give you a summary of chapter
7 of Mark. In the first 13 verses, our Lord
is approached by the Pharisees and certain of the scribes who
came from Jerusalem. They were always quibbling about
something that he did or his apostles did. They were always
bickering. They were always arguing. They
were always contentious. Because, you see, the Lord Jesus
and His salvation's all of grace, their salvation was all of works. Their salvation was all of their
own obedience. And so they come to Him here
at the beginning of the chapter, and there's a very important
statement found there, three words at the end of verse 2.
They found fault. They always found fault with
Him, and they always found fault with His followers. And here
was the fault that they found with His followers. His disciples
ate with unwashed hands. That is, they did not ceremonially
wash after they had touched something else, certain rules and regulations
according to the traditions of the fathers that they had to
abide by, be it touching another person, touching something that
another person had touched, it involved washing. And if you
ate with unwashed hands, according to the rabbinical writers, It
was as though you had lain with a prostitute. That was the severity
of the guilt that they attributed to eating with unwashed hands. And this was the traditions of
the elders. In fact, I was reading again
today, and you can read at your leisure about these things. Josephus
had this to say in one of the illustrations that he gave, that
a man was in prison, and he was thirsty. They had given him water
for several days, and they gave him water, and rather than drink
it, he washed. He took a bath and so thirsted
to death. You say, boy, that's absolutely
ludicrous. Oh, how crazy people are. Yes,
people in false religion are crazy. They have lost their minds. They're blind in ignorance and
the only hope for them is the same hope that we had in Christ
Jesus to do something for us. See, the only reason we don't
believe the traditions of the fathers The only reason we put
the Word of God above all of the writings of mere men is because
the Spirit of God has done a work of grace within us and we understand
this is the Word of God. All other writings are the writings
of men. Notice what the Savior said in
verse 8. He says, "...for laying aside
the commandment of God..." He's not talking about like the ten
commandments. He's talking about the law of God, the Word of God. "...lay them aside," He said,
"...ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and
cups, and many other such things ye do." The traditions of the
fathers, man's writings of rules and regulations and laws that
kept people in bondage, you esteem those things more important than
the Word of God. And he says this in verse 9,
he said, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that
ye may keep your own tradition. Listen, we're thankful for the
writings of men. There are various men that we
enjoy reading, and sometimes we'll say, have you read such
and such a book? Yeah, that's really good. But
they're nowhere near the level of the Word of God. Now let's
remember that. I don't care who you're talking
about. I enjoy the writings of several
men. but they're just sinful men who
are giving their opinions concerning some truth of the Word of God.
I have a better suggestion for you than even reading one of
the books That's in the library. What about reading the Word of
God? Just saturate your mind and your soul with the Scriptures. Bill agrees with me on this,
and all preachers of the Gospel do. Saturate your mind and your
soul. Bathe yourself in the Word of
God. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way by taking heed thereto to God's Word. God's Word. People say, well,
I worship the Lord by walking through a forest. Let me tell
you something, you can see something of the glory of God in creation
by walking through a forest, but you're not going to learn
how God saves sinners. You're not going to find out
about redemption. You're not going to find out about substitution. You're not going to find out
about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that cleanses from all
sin. You're not going to find out
about the righteousness that God demands that's to be found
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not going to learn that
out on the golf course or walking through a forest. Where are you
going to learn these things? Well, I can pick up a book, a
good theology book. What about try reading the Word
of God? It's amazing, God's Word will
shed a lot of light on those theology writers. The Word of God will clarify
a lot of things. So, here's the first thing. Our
Lord is accosted by these Pharisees and these scribes. And he sets
forth the necessity and the great, I'll call it, the supremacy of
the Word of God. You know, out of the Protestant
Reformation, there's a lot I didn't like about that, but out of the
Protestant Reformation, five great truths, the Word of God
alone, Scriptures alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ Jesus
alone. The glory of God alone. Get that
first one. Get that first one. You won't
have any trouble with the rest of them. The Word of God alone. But see, these men, no, the Scriptures
weren't of utmost importance to them. Which brings me to the second
section of the chapter, verses 14 through 23, What was the reason,
you think, that these men rejected the Word of God? Oh, they said
they didn't reject it, but they put the writings of the fathers,
the rabbinical leaders, the scholars of Israel, they put those writings
head and shoulders above the Scriptures. Why do people do
that? Why don't people bow to the authority
of the Word of God? When I was in Bible college,
we came to Romans chapter 9. Never will forget it. The professor,
when we got there, he said, now we're going to skip over three
chapters here because that's for another dispensation. Why do men do that? Why can't men take the Scriptures
and handle the Scriptures honestly? And take it for what it says.
Anybody who reads the Word of God honestly has got to come
to this conclusion. This book does preach and teach
predestination. It does teach and preach election
unto salvation. And nowhere is it even implied
that the redemption of Christ was a universal redemption. And the effectual call of the
Spirit, it's clearly taught in the Word of God. Salvation that's
forever, it's in the Word of God. Why do men bow to traditions? Why won't they bow to the Word
of God? Well, this next section tells us. I'll give you three
things. Number one, defilement of nature. Look at verse 15. See, these men were talking about
if you eat with unwashed hands, you take corruption into yourself. You take sin in. Especially if
you sat down where a Gentile sat, You're really filthy. You need
a bath for sure. Don't even touch me if you sit
where a Gentile sat. Here's what the Lord said. And
He says in verse 14, Now who hearken unto Me? Every one of
you. He called the people to come
and listen to what I'm going to say now. In verse 15 He says,
There is nothing from without a man that entering into him
can defile him. But the things which come out
of him, those are they that defile the man. He's defiled already. It's not what you're putting
into your body. The problem's already in there. And you can't get it out. You
can't be rid of it. It's part and parcel of you.
We're not only full of sin, we are sin. Sin's our name. Sin's our nature. Sin's what
we're all about. Whatsoever is not of faith is
sin. We just sin all the time. You
say, well, if I've sinned today, I hope the Lord will forgive
me. If you've sinned today, throw that word out. You are a sinner. That's why
you need the salvation of God found in Jesus Christ all the
time. Not merely when you think you
need it. All the time. He says, those
come out of a man, they defile him. Verse 16, if any man have
ears to hear, let him hear. Will you hear? That's the defilement of the
nature. Secondly, look at verse 18, the dullness of the mind.
Look at verse 18. And he saith unto them, unto
his disciples, entered into a house, and his disciples are there,
and they asked him about what had happened. And he said to
them, Are you also without understanding? Do you not perceive? that whatsoever
things from without entereth into the man, it can't defile
him. Dullness of the mind. I tell
you, we're sharp in many areas. There are people in here tonight,
people who are watching, you're very keen, you're very intelligent,
you're sharp on many subjects. But the subject we're naturally
dull about is our condition and the only one who can save us
from it. We have no understanding. Dull minds. Paul says the mind's
blinded by Satan. Dull minds. And then quickly,
thirdly, depravity of the heart. What he says in verse 20, he
said, remember he called and he said, come and listen to me
now. They knew how the Pharisees believed. They knew what the
scribes believed. And he says, now you listen to
me. And he says to them here in verse
20, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man
forth from within, out of the heart, That's where the depravity
is. Out of the heart of men proceed
evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride,
foolishness. All these evil things come from
within and defile the man. Depravity of the heart. And you can't do anything about
it. Isn't that something? You can't do anything about it.
You go ahead and wash. That's not touching the inner
man. The defilement is still there.
The depravity is still there. So, then he leaves them. Verse 24, from thence he arose
and went to the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he went into a
house and he shut the door. Don't tell anybody I'm here. He's heard enough bickering,
didn't want to hear any more that day. Enough fussing, enough
finding fault. Can you imagine somebody trying
to find fault with the faultless one? But he couldn't be hid. And here's
the reason, verse 25, for because a certain woman, she had a real
problem. She's not fussing about. You
ought to eat with washed hands. Ceremonially cleanse yourself. Some of them said you need to
wash all the way up to your elbows. Some of them said you need to
take a total bath. She's not fussing about those
things. She's got a real problem. Listen, folks. We've got a real
issue. We've got a real problem. It's
called SIM. S-I-N. We're not laying down
rules and regulations and duties that you've got to live by. If
you live by these, you're living a holy life. I've got news for
you. You can't even live a holy life. You don't even know what
holiness is. We strive to live a godly life. But holiness, that's sanctification. And that One who has gone to
glory, who laid down His life for us, He's been made of God
to be our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification, that's holiness,
and redemption. You're going to have a hard time
even defining holiness. God's holy. So goes in this house, but a
woman, she's got a real need. She's not fussing about all these
other things. She's a Greek. She besought him and said, my
daughters, she's got a devil. She came to
him with a real need. And Jesus said, well, let the
children be filled first. It's not right to take the children's
bread and cast it under the dogs. You know what He was saying?
You're a dog. You're a Gentile dog. Some people get offended when
we talk about all of us being sinners. I don't say you sinners,
I say us sinners. Because we're all the same boat.
We all fell in Adam. We've all got this problem. I'm
not offended when Bill preaches or somebody else preaches and
says I'm a sinner. In Sunday school class, when
you say, we're all sinners, that doesn't offend me. Actually, that's good news, because
Christ came to save sinners. I can get in that camp. I can
identify with that crowd. Now, if you start talking about
a holy people, and a people who are real stern in obeying the
Ten Commandments and observing the Sabbath day, I can't get
in with that crowd. They're too holy for me. But I'll tell you, I do identify
with sinners. That's me. And you can't tell
me that too often. You couldn't tell the apostle
that too often. He said, it's a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came in the
world to save sinners, of whom I'm chief, and I'm in his about
on his way out. Well, he hadn't progressed very
far in sanctification, had he? He said, I'm a sinner. Who needs
a Savior? A Spirit-convinced sinner. This woman's got a real problem. But His language to her is not
going to drive her away. You show me a real needy sinner. set forth their condition, our
condition, from the Word of God and tell it just like it is.
You can't drive them away. Because that's what they want
to hear. The truth. The truth. And where are you
going to find the truth? Only in the Word of God. That's
where you're going to find out who God is. That's where you're
going to find out what salvation is all about, who Christ is,
why He came into this world, how it is that people come to
believe Him and rest in Him. You only find that out from the
Word of God. Bowing to the authority of the
Scriptures. So she tells Him her need. What
a different attitude this woman's got than those fellas at the
beginning of the chapter who came to him looking to find fault. She's not looking to find fault.
She's looking for help. You say, I bet you I can find
fault with your message. You probably can. I got grammatical
errors. I say ain't every once in a while. But we tell Him the truth of
the Word of God. And she said in verse 28, yes
Lord, that's true. I love that, yes Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table
eat of the children's crumbs. If you'd just push a few crumbs
off my way, I'm going to tell you something.
I gladly eat the Lord's crumbs because that's a banquet of mercy. Brush some crumbs off my way! And our Lord said, He is going
home. Your daughter, the devil's gone. He healed her daughter. And then that brings
us to the last section, verses 31 to 37. He goes visiting. Look at verse 31, and again,
here's the fourth part of the chapter now. Again, departing
from the coasts of Tyre inside, and he came to the Sea of Galilee
through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis. right along the
coast of the Sea of Galilee. And the root word is deca, which
means ten, and polis, which means city. Ten different cities. Ten
different communities. He stops and He preaches. And
He heals. And in one of them, they brought
this man to Him who was deaf and dumb. And He healed him. He healed
him, put his fingers in the man's ears and gave him hearing. Oh God, put your fingers in my
ears and let me hear the word of God. Let me hear the message of the
gospel. Because I can't hear unless you
put your fingers in my ears. And then he spit and touched
the man's tongue. Oh Lord, I can't preach your
gospel. Unless, as it were, you spit
and you touch my tongue. Every time I get behind the pulpit,
every time Bill gets behind the pulpit, every time Ron gets behind
the pulpit, or Matt, or anybody else, Brandon, whoever, that's
really I desire. Lord, touch my tongue. I don't
want to say anything that would in any way take away from me
glory. It let me speak clear words,
plain language, to communicate the truth of who you are and
what we are and who Christ is and what He did for the ungodly. Touch my tongue. And then, after He said, See, that's what's got to happen
to our friends and relatives. You've got relatives who don't
know the Gospel. Oh, you've tried to talk to them
and they hear, but they don't hear. Right? They hear, but they
don't hear. The sovereign Savior has to say
this, be opened. Wouldn't it be something if He
said that to you? Be opened. I tell you what, where
the Word of the King is, there's power. Be opened! Straightway his ears were opened.
And the string of his tongue was loose. And he spake plain. I wonder what he said. I bet he said, to God be the
glory, great things He hath done. I bet he honored that man who
healed him. And our Lord said, now don't
tell anybody about this. And the more he said that, now
don't tell anybody, they just went out and they spread the
word around. And the people who saw this, they were beyond measure
astonished. And here's what they said. He's
done all things well. You think about where you were
when God found you and where you are now. Are you not astonished beyond
measure? False religion? Believe in a false gospel? wrapped
up perhaps in outward vileness and wickedness. I don't know
where he found you, but he found you. Are you not beyond measure astonished
at God's grace to you? And do you not say, as you review
your life, not only this year, I entitled the message a summary
of 2022, but really, as you review all of your life, from the very
beginning, when you came forth from your mother's womb, to this
very moment, must you not say and say with thanksgiving to
God, He's done all things well. We know what His purpose was
from the beginning for you and me and all of His people, to
bring us to glory. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Himself, and He predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of His Son. And here we are tonight, there
you sit, you who are watching from home, you believers, We're honoring the Lord our God
who bought us with the blood of Christ Jesus. And we put no
stock in anything we've ever said, done or felt. And we say,
to God be all of the glory. to God the Father who chose us
unto salvation, to God the Son who bought us with His blood
and robed us in His righteousness, to God the Spirit who quickened
us when we were dead and granted us repentance from dead works
and idolatry, to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you not
astonished? Beyond measure, And must you not say, He's done
all things well. Yeah, I look back on my ministry,
and we've had some really good times. And we've had some very difficult
times. But God uses the difficult times
not only for preachers, but for all of His people. He uses those
to mold us and to make us and to teach us the things that we
know today. So we just don't know the heartaches
I've had. Are you going to back up on this?
Would you not agree that he's done all things well? No, I must
agree with that preacher, but I've had hurtful times in my
life. All of us have. All of us have walked to the
cemetery and shed tears the whole way. And yet, We know in our heart of hearts
he's done all things well. I've been asked before, if you
could live your life over again, what would you change? Nothing. Oh, when I'm cardinally minded,
which is more often than I would care to admit. I'd say, well,
I'd change this, I'd change that. But when I'm thinking straight,
in those few moments of spiritual sanity, I say, no, wouldn't change a
thing. Why not? Because my Lord has
done all things well. And I don't know when the end
will come for me, and you don't know when the end will come for
you. But when we get to the end of the road, if we're conscious, may God give us grace to say, I am beyond measure astonished
at the grace of God to me. And I want to say to my family,
if God would enable me, I'd like to look them all in the eyes
and say, listen, he's done all things well. You
can trust him. You can trust him. That's a summary of 2022. He's done all things well. Let's get a songbook. Turn to
303. Jesus, Savior, Pilate, me.