I pray that God bless us. I ask God for His mercies, His grace. I'm going to see a picture of His salvation this morning. Again, He's going to testify of His power and His grace to save. And you that are saved, you understand, you'll see this picture. You'll see yourself. You'll see yourself. Not as the Savior, You'll see yourself as this deaf and dumb man. See, that's who you are by nature, and you'll see this. You can hear because he opened your ears.

And the language you speak is not the language of the world. It's not the language of this vain, empty, religious age. It's a language they can't hear. It's a language they can't speak. It's a language of grace, a language of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray that that would be the case. And my hope is that if someone is deaf and dumb, they don't know it, God would open their ears to hear it.

That's the only way it's gonna happen. I am not going to open anyone's ears. I'm gonna declare something to you, I'm gonna preach something to you, but I'm not gonna be able to make it effectual, and I'm certainly not gonna make it entertaining, I'm just not an entertainer. I'm not here to entertain. I'm here to declare something. I'm here to preach something. May God give me the grace to do it. All the skill I can, but I have no power to make this effectual to myself. I certainly can't make it effectual to you. I pray God will. So that's what I, my heart is for this message this morning.

Remember those churches still without pastors, God would be gracious, merciful to send men into those places. I'm thankful that God has given us a place and a time this morning, and I don't think we should be, we should presume upon that. We should be thankful. We should be thankful for what God has given us. Pray for those that are sick. Pray for Joan out in Oregon, isn't it?

Yeah, somewhere out west. And she has written a letter and she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Is that right? And so I didn't read the latest letter, so I don't know what she's going to do for that, but pray for her. Lord give her strength and heal her. She's taking the treatment. Okay, so pray for her during that. That's gonna be very painful experience for her.

She's 84, isn't she? I don't wanna say, I shouldn't have said her age. Now I'm in trouble. Now she's probably gonna write a letter with, tell me how insensitive I was, I'm sorry. So pray for her. Did you, is it your niece that went in for the heart surgery? Did she go in? She goes home today, okay. Everything went well?

Praise God for that. So pray for her. Rick and others who are sick, pray for them. Let's go to him in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow ourselves again before you seeking mercy, Father, seeking mercy. Confessing that if you hear us, it is mercy. And we confess that that mercy is only rooted in the life and the death and the righteousness of your son. We confess in ourselves there's nothing worthy of ourselves to be heard. But according to your word, we come in faith, trusting the blood and righteousness of Christ to make us acceptable in thy sight.

We have laid out petitions, Father, before you. We pray for them. We beseech you that you would be gracious, merciful, that you, Father, in power would again demonstrate the power of your spirit in quickening the dead, giving life to the dead, and giving faith to the unbelieving. It's a miracle of your grace. We that believe understand we believe by the power of your grace. We pray for others to come and find life and peace in Christ.

Father, for these that have come, I pray that you would open every heart and mind to the gospel and that you would, by your grace, give me the liberty and unction of your spirit to declare your gospel. I pray, Father, this day that you would be gracious to everyone, everywhere that comes and hears your word, to every preacher that is preaching this morning. Father, we have one aim, one purpose, and that is to preach Christ. And I pray that you would give us all liberty to preach and those to hear. Those that are sick, Father, we lift them before you, seeking mercy to heal. Praying, Father, that you would deliver them in their body and mind. Those who are struggling in their own hearts and minds, pray, Father, that you would deliver them, strengthen them.

I confess my need of you. I can't do this without you. I plead that you would be with me and strengthen me and fill me with your words. And by the grace and blood and power of Jesus Christ, I pray that you'd forgive us our sins and cleanse us of our unrighteousness. We ask these things in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen. I take your Bibles and turn back with me to Mark chapter 7.

I've entitled this message, He Hath Done All Things Well. To you that are saved, you know that is the language of those who believe. We confess this, that He hath done all things well. Now what is the cause? Look at verse 37, And beyond measure they were astonished, saying, He hath done all things well. And what was the root cause of this praise? Here it is. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.

Now, we're going to begin this and we're going to go back to verse 31 here. I had an introduction to this message, but my introduction got so long it became a message in itself. So I had to disregard it. We're just going to dive in, okay? One of Spurgeon's said that one time. He said, I'm just going to dive right in. So that's what we're going to do. So I got the introduction. It's over here somewhere. But I don't think I'd get to my text if I just did the introduction. So we're going to skip that. We're going to go right into this. And the first thing we're going to see is this.

This is a picture of salvation. The healing of this deaf and dumb man is a picture of salvation. Now the story is quite simple. Our Lord departed here and he went through this coast of Decapolis. Ten cities on the near the Sea of Galilee and he doesn't go into those cities at all He just stays on the edge of these cities and he's staying on the edge of Galilee and my introduction was simple It was wherever Jesus is that's where salvation is and where he's not there's no salvation There was no salvation given to those cities He skipped right by all ten of those cities. No miracles were done there. No message was preached there No salvation was there But listen, wherever Christ is, that's where salvation is. He is the Savior. And so He departs and He comes through this coast.

And notice these men in verse 32, they bring unto Him one that is deaf and had an impediment in his speech. And they beseech Him to put His hand on him. That's a clear picture. They bring this man for whatever reason, whether he's a friend or whether he was a neighbor or whether... They heard something about Jesus' ability. And they bring him to him and he's deaf and he can't speak. And so they're asking Jesus, would you put your hand on him? Notice this.

Jesus took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers in his ear. That doesn't do exactly what they wanted him to do. I said, what in the world is he doing? He puts his fingers in his ear. Wait, the guy's deaf. What is that going to do? And then he spits on his tongue. Get that? He puts his fingers in his ear, and he spit and touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed. We'll get to that in just a minute. I think that's important. You understand why he sighed. And he saith unto him, Epaphratha, that is, be open. It's a command here, be open.

And straightway, immediately, this guy's ears were open and the string of his tongue was loose and he spake plain, didn't need no speech therapist. Isn't that amazing? He didn't need a speech therapy coach to tell him how to make sounds. This guy had never made a correct sound in his life. And here he is, immediately speaks plain. And he charged them that they should tell no man. We'll get to that. Why? Why would he do that? Charged them to tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more, a great deal they published. and were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well.

He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Now the first thing I want you to see is the faithfulness of these men to bring this person to Christ. Faithfulness of these men. Scripture says, And they bring him one that is deaf and had an impediment in his speech.

Now these men, they could hear. And they heard something. They had heard something about this man Jesus Christ. They had heard that He was able to heal the sick. They heard that He was able to heal. And not only was he, they heard he was able, they believed he was willing.

Otherwise, they never would have brought this guy. If they didn't believe those two things, they never would have, never would have labored to get this guy to Christ. Whatever they knew, they were persuaded to these two things. What an example these men are to us who have heard and experienced the saving grace of God. Have you not found that Jesus Christ is both an able and a willing Savior? Is that what you found? When He healed you, when He saved you, did you not find an able and a willing Savior?

Just before this, that woman of Canaan, remember, she had come asking the Lord about her daughter, and she was a Gentile. And the Lord ignored her at first. And then she kept on asking. And his disciples said, hey, send her away. She bothers us. She wasn't after them. And he turned, he said, why in the world should I give the children's bread to dogs? And she said, truth. She said truth, Lord. But even the dogs received the crumbs from the master's table. And what did she find? She found a willing and an able Savior. And that's what we find.

We have found Him to be able to heal the greatest of sinners. Are we not great sinners, you that believe? You who were touched by the hand of His Spirit, was He not gracious to you? Did you not find Him willing and able to save such a great sinner as yourself? This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to what? What did He come to do? He came to save sinners. And what was Paul's confession?

Of whom I am chief. Not was chief. I am chief. So the question is to us, why would we not bring sinners to Christ? And what do I mean by that, bring sinners to Christ? He was there physically and they brought him physically to the Lord. or physical healing, but in a spiritual sense, how then do we bring men to Christ? Simply by the preaching of the gospel. That's how we bring men to Christ. We either declare the gospel to them or we bring them to a place where they might hear the gospel.

Is that not the most gracious thing you can do for a sinner? Is that not the most kind thing you can do for a sinner? A lot kinder than what these men did. They came for physical healing. Believer, we would do well to bring others to hear the gospel of Christ. And listen, we should bring them no matter how deaf and dumb they are. We're not to judge who we bring based on their condition. If God give us the opportunity to bring them, we should.

Well, you know, I would ask so and so, but you know what? That guy's just too far gone. Really? Is he? Well, he's just so adamant and he hates the gospel. How could? Really? Wait a second. Wasn't that your condition? When someone else? brought you to hear the gospel.

Let us never cease to compel men to come to Christ. And I'll tell you, there are times we're forbidden to do so. There will be times where God will forbid us. Remember Paul desired to go into Asia and God said, no, no. There are times when God says no. There are times where I would have others come and hear the gospel and God says, what? No, they won't come. I compel them to come. I want them to come. I desire them to be there. I would facilitate anything they had need to get them here. And yet still they will not come.

Believers in Christ, let us pray then for men's souls. We should be, of all people, most understanding concerning sinners because we are ourselves chief of that tribe. Let us pray that God would use us. Do you ask God to use you? I know I received that letter from a believing woman and she had asked the Lord to be used. And the Lord made her sick. And through this sickness he was using her. Now do you ask God to use you?

You say as the prophet, here am I. Send me. Use me. We should desire to be used of our father. To use us as he did these men to bring this deaf and dumb soul to hear of the salvation of Christ. I'm going to give you this. Is this not our command? I've beseeched us that we should do this, but what does our Lord say concerning this? Is our Lord strictly beseeching us to do this or does He command us to? Mark 16, uh,

15. Go you into all the world and do what? Preach the gospel. Do, every creature. You know why every creature? Because you don't know who the elect are, do you? So you do it to everybody. Preach to everyone. Here's the result of it. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. Secondly, notice, I want you to see the presumption of these men. Look at this.

They bring this man, that's good. They bring this man, they're the only person that can heal him. What compassion, what grace in these men that they would bring their friend to the Lord Jesus. But notice this, they're presumptuous about it. And they beseech him to put his hand on him. Now this is obviously something the Lord did many times, is put his hand upon people to heal them. So obviously this is how they presumed he would heal. They presumed that he would just put his hand on this guy and that he would be healed. Well, maybe this was the experience of these men, maybe they saw it in somebody else or heard it, but it was presumptuous of them to demand the same experience.

Believer, is it not good and well for us to bring sinners to Christ, but it is wrong for us to tell the Lord how to heal them and when to heal them? Is that our business? As to how, the providence, the means, whatever takes place, is that our business? No. We would do well to point men to Christ but leave the means, the experience of it, up to Christ.

But as we bring sinners to Christ, seek for their healing of their souls, we should be wise as to leave them alone with Christ. I don't know about you, so many times I was so foolish, I'd bring someone, they'd hear the gospel and they'd do something, they'd hear something, and I just, boy, I saw that as an end, and I just started trying to meddle with it, Leave people alone with Christ. All saved sinners, now I want to make this plain. All who are saved by the, saved, all saved sinners are saved by the same free grace of God. Not saved any other way.

You're saved by grace, you're saved, you're saved by grace. Everyone who is saved were chosen by God the Father in eternity. Everyone who was saved of God is redeemed by the same blood of Jesus Christ. We have the same righteousness of God that was by the faithfulness of Christ. We were saved by the same Holy Spirit. We were given a new nature that is created after God, created after the image of God in true holiness.

There's nothing different about that. And listen, the means by which we were saved is the same. The preaching of the gospel. There is no alternative means. We see this in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. He says that it's by the foolishness of preaching God saves them that believe. It's the means that God chose.

And you can't find anyone in scripture who never heard of the Lord Jesus Christ or heard from God and was walking in a forest and automatically they knew. Nobody. Nobody. Abraham, how was he saved? He heard directly from God. He heard the gospel, but he heard it from God himself. The Apostle Paul, when he was called, he heard directly from the risen Lord Jesus Christ, but he heard the same gospel. And today, God does not speak audibly to his people, but has sent forth preachers. And yet it's the same means the preachers preach the gospel. The spirit of God takes the gospel and applies it to the hearts of his people.

So there's no different means. But there are different experiences concerning this. Not every one of our experiences are the same. Now, do you have the same experiences, Paul? Alright, who here heard from the risen Lord Jesus Christ himself and fell off their horse and was blinded? None of you. Well, if we don't have the same experience, I mean, this is what men think, that you've got to have the same experience they did. And if you don't have the same experience, then obviously you must be lost.

Now, men will say that to you. Some men hear the gospel for the first time, and I mean, they know. They know. They believe instantly, and the Lord say they know right then. I know a man that came into our congregation one time, That night he said, I didn't hear you. I heard him. Okay. That's great.

But there are some men who hear the gospel and their conversion is over a span of time. They don't know. They're convicted of their sins. They want to believe. They don't really seem to can't believe. And then all of a sudden they find themselves believing. And some guy comes up that knows when he believes, and he turns to him and says, OK, when did you believe? He says, I don't know. I can't give you a date. I can't give you a date. Does that make one saved and the other locked? They're just different experiences.

We should not try to impose the experience of our own upon someone else. Yes, they must hear the gospel. Yes, they must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, all these things are so. But the experience of it is different. These guys were presuming upon healing the same manner. The same manner. And so we should not presume upon that. Okay, this man. Now, let's look at this man here. They took this man and they presumed upon this. Now, notice the experience of this man.

The scripture says, and the Lord took him aside. This deaf man, this mute man, he's a picture of everyone of God's elect. Everyone by nature is spiritually deaf and spiritually mute. So this man was not only deaf by nature to the call. We see this here. This man was deaf spiritually, and so is everyone that is born of Adam spiritually deaf.

Go to first Corinthians chapter two. See this. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at... Well, if I get in the right book, that would be better, wouldn't it? 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at what Paul says when he came to preach. He says, verse 4, he said, My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Why? That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. How does one believe? By the wisdom of men and the power of God. Paul says that your faith might stand that it's by the power of God.

How be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor the princes of this world that come to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of the world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. As it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that loved him. Now we know this, that no man, no man can hear the gospel by nature.

We are deaf. Now, I want everybody to listen to this. If there's anybody that doesn't have any interest in this, I want you to know why you don't have any interest. You are totally deaf to it. You are deaf. And what I am saying to you, you can't hear it. It's gibberish. I might as well stand up here and say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Because that's all you hear. Because you're deaf to the word of God. This is what we are by nature. And the only hope for a deaf man to hear is a miracle. Is a miracle. Only if God opens our ears. Look what it says in verse 10. But God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit. It's not by the power or the ability of the man preaching.

I cannot open your ears. And let me just ruin the surprise. Neither can you. Try, if you will. Do what you may, be as religious as you want to, work as hard as you can trying to earn the merit of God Himself and you will never open your own ears. Deaf, you're dead as a stone. You'll never hear, this man was deaf. I preach the gospel to everyone, but I know this, I cannot make you hear it. And to you that are deaf, it is foolish. What I'm saying is foolish. Look what verse 14 said. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God. Listen, I'm talking about things like forgiveness of sins, eternal life, pardon, peace, heaven. I'm talking of wonderful things that are freely given without any works or merit and men hate it. Why? Why? Because they're dead. They're deaf to it. It goes in and bounces off that thing they call a brain and it never penetrates. You can't. You can't make yourself hear this. Now if there are two people, I would make here this would be my own children. Obviously I can't.

My children have no interest in things of God whatsoever. They're dead, they're lost, and without Christ there's nothing I can do about it. And there's nothing they can do about it. Except God. Be merciful. That's how utterly dependent we are on God to save. I know this, if God don't save me, I won't be saved. If God don't open my ears, I would never open my ears. I'd never listen to this.

And I know this, this man was dumb. I mean, I'm not trying to make fun of deaf people. But when you have someone who's deaf, if you hear them talk, you understand. There's some deaf people that they learn to try to make sounds and things like that, but you know this. You know when you hear them speak. They're deaf. And so it is with the natural man.

When he starts talking about religion, you know he's deaf. When you hear a religious man, a lost religious man speak, He talks about works and he talks about earning salvation either by a man's free will or man's obedience to the law. And when you hear that, you're hearing a man that has a speech impediment. He cannot speak the language of grace because he doesn't know it. Now a deaf man can pretend to hear until when? Until he speaks.

I remember there was a guy sitting in our congregation and he spent three years in our congregation. You didn't say much. He'd be pretty faithful, kept coming. And he'd come to the door and he'd say, well, good message, I appreciate the message, wonderful message. And he called me one time, he had left and then he went away and he called me and see how I was doing and everything. And then I finally got to listen to him for a little bit.

And that man had no idea. about the salvation of God by grace. This guy was talking about how horrible election was and how horrible God's salvation by grace. He didn't know anything at all about it. He pretended for a long time, but his language betrayed him. His language, his speech betrays him. Even so, the language of grace is unknowable to the deaf sinner. He can acknowledge all he wants to the doctrines of grace, but he don't have it in his heart.

And so then, I want you to see now the healing of this man. We see that that man is a picture of everyone, of God's people by nature. But now then, I want you to see the healing. First of all, look back at your text. First thing the Lord did, verse 33, what did he do? He took him aside. If God is ever going to save a deaf sinner, this is what He's going to do. He's going to take him aside from everyone else. He's going to take him aside from everyone else. This is a picture of election, isn't it? This is what He did to all of His people.

Didn't He set us aside? Before the foundation of the world, God chose a people and He set us aside. for a very specific purpose out of love to save us. This man, we're going to say he was one of those men that had been set apart long before he was set apart. He was set apart by the election of grace. God set us apart in Christ and purposed our salvation.

These elect are sanctified by the Father, set apart from the rest of humanity, to be saved by Jesus Christ. Therefore, just as the healing of this man was not by mere chance, nor will those who are brought to glory. Even so is the salvation of every sinner not by chance, but according to the divine purpose of God.

Isn't this wonderful? Do you think the Lord went to this place by accident? The Lord knew that this is the place where these men would bring Him. He put it in the heart of those men to bring that man who God made deaf. That was not accidental, was it? That he was deaf and dumb? The Lord made him deaf and dumb. And guess what? Those men just all of a sudden had an epiphany to bring this guy to Christ at a very specific time, at a very specific place. Was that by chance? No. And neither was it when you were brought to Christ. That was not by chance. God set you apart for that. God purposed that you come to Christ.

So all who believe and hear and speak the language of grace, we know this, that we were saved by grace. It was totally the grace of God that did it. And all that God has purposed to save, God sets apart by putting us into union with Christ. Therefore, we are accepted in the beloved before the world began. But not only this, we were set apart in Christ when Christ came into the world. We were set apart in Christ as our representative man. So when Christ walked upon this earth in perfect obedience, so did everyone that was in him. You that hear the gospel, you that believe.

Where's your righteousness come from? Where does your right? You have to have righteousness to stand before God. Where does that come from? Well, that comes by his righteousness. Redemption. Without redemption, no man is going to stand before God. Without the shedding of blood is no remission of sins. Where's your redemption?

My redemption is in Him who redeemed me by His blood on that cross once for all. Once for all. And when He rose again, Scripture tells us that we were in Him. And we are seated together with Christ in the heavens. because of the love and grace of God.

And everyone God chose, everyone Christ redeemed, listen to me, He's gonna come to them at a very specific time and place, and He is going to literally set them aside. He is going to set them apart. The Spirit of God will come at the appointed time, and He will give you ears to hear, and then your tongue will be loosed. Then you'll be able to understand. You'll be able to hear. Notice this, the Lord set him apart. Now, I have an illustration here of Hosea. Remember that Hosea married Gomer, that prostitute? And after they had a couple of children, she ran off to go back to prostitution. What a horrible thing that was. He loved her. He cared for her. And she went back into prostitution.

And every day, he left those gifts of food and her necessities at her door. And every day she woke up and said, ah, look what my lovers gave me. And the scripture says at the appointed time, listen, he stopped giving her those necessities. He said, now's the time for you to come back. And he stopped giving her those things. And then she began to be in want, remember? And she said, I know what I'll do. I'll return to my first husband. And no real repentance, no real heart. But eventually, this woman was left destitute. She didn't have anything. She was a used up woman who had nobody and nothing.

Scripture says, and I will allure her into the wilderness. Isn't this what he did with us, setting us aside? When God the Holy Spirit convinces a man of sin, he finds himself in a desert place. He finds himself unable to please God and then the things of this world, the sins that he once loved, the sins that he once adored, become nothing but a burden to his soul and he can't do anything about it. He's in a desert place. He's destitute. This is what God does when he sets us apart. He makes us destitute of any hope.

And listen, I will allure her into the wilderness for one reason, to speak comfortably to her. Now is that what you would do? Is that what we would do if someone we loved ran off and jilted us. And finally, they're at their lowest point. What will we do? I told you so. I told you not to run off. I knew this would happen. That's what we'd do. Is that what he did to you? What, he set you apart? Did he scold you? He didn't have to, did he?

He speaks comfortably. God sets apart a sinner. He doesn't speak judgment. He speaks comfortably. And he says, I'll give you your inheritance. And listen to this. The valley of Achar for a door of hope. That's Hosea 2, I think, verse 9 or something like that. He said, I'll give you the valley of Achar. You know what that is?

That's that place where that old wicked man. Oh, now he escapes me. Aiken, that was his name. He stole all that stuff. God said, when He conquered Jericho, He said, don't take anything because the victory is mine and you're robbing me if you take something. That old man, that man took that silver and those raiments. And Israel could not win the victory in the next battle unless what? Unless he died.

What a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not the wicked part, but the substitutionary part. Our Lord Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. When the Lord's healing this man, you see that when He says He sighed? You know why He sighed? Because in this, He was reminded again of what He had to suffer to heal us of our deaf, dumb spirit. He bore our sins.

This is the Valley of Achor. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only door of hope. And when God sets apart sinners, guess what? That's what we learn. He sets us apart so that we should sue Christ for mercy. And notice this, He puts His fingers in His ears. Now why this? The man's already deaf. He puts His fingers in His ears. Why?

So that He shuts out every other voice but His own. When God's going to save a sinner, He's going to shut out every other opinion but His own. There's nothing going to matter, no opinion of man, when a man is brought down to the depth of his own depravity, there is nothing going to satisfy except he speak.

You know, when I was young, I felt conviction of sin that really just feared hell. I didn't want to go to hell. I was very young. Boy, that scared me to death. I think Milton Howard preached a message on that text I read in Mark 15. And he that believeth not shall be damned. And I swear, that word just in my mind became larger than I could imagine. It just shall be damned.

And I called my mom. I was out at summer camp, called my mom. And you know what my mom said? She said, it'll be all right. It's OK. It's OK. Don't worry. You know what mamas do. And I was able to, OK. Mom said it'll be all right. It'll be OK. The Lord convicted me of sin.

My mama's voice could not soothe me. I would not be soothed until I heard His voice. Until He said to me, live. I could not live until He said to me, be opened! I could not hear. My experience may be different, but I laid at the feet of Christ for many years. longing for him to open my eyes, open my heart. I was like that woman of Canaan. I would not be silenced until he spoke to me.

So he puts his fingers in his ears and he says, be opened. And when Christ sends the gospel into the hearts of the sinner, there is nothing that can stop this from happening. Was there anything to stop his ears from being opened? When Christ said those words, apatrita, be open, was there anything to stop it?

Now you get this that the man was deaf. He had no idea what he was doing. They brought this man, but really he couldn't hear what the Lord Jesus Christ was saying. He'd never heard of Jesus healing. What's the guy putting his fingers in my ears for? What is he saying? And then all of a sudden, he heard that word, apathica, apathica. That's the first word he heard, open. What could stop it? What could stop you from hearing the gospel? What could stop you from believing?

Now, I know this, you don't believe like you want to. I know you don't. I know you don't have the faith you want to have. I know you don't have the love you want to have. But tell me this, can you do without it? Do you want less? You want less faith? You want to hear less? Well, man, I've just heard too much. I think I'm satisfied, I think. Never.

Why? Because this comes by the power of God. When a man is saved, it's by the power of God. You that are here, it's by the power of God. And notice this, his tongue was loosed. His tongue was loosed. And he spake plain. When you first believe, you don't know everything. You don't know much about anything. But I tell you, this is something you do know. I'm a sinner, and he saved me. Remember old Jack the Huckster? That story Spurgeon told about that wicked man, vile wicked man. He'd known in that whole county, everybody knew who he was.

And he was just going along in his sin, and he heard that woman singing that song, I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all, and Jesus Christ is my all in all. And somehow the tune just stuck in his head, and he kept just saying it and saying it, and all of a sudden the Lord said, Epaphrata! be thou open and he actually heard the words of that song I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all isn't that the gospel I don't think I preach a clear message in that about depravity I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all what's the hope of a poor sinner as nothing at all Jesus Christ is my all in all Mary tried to join that church and they had all those questions because he was a real wicked man they knew it He probably didn't even want him in the church.

And they said, what's your reason for being here? Why should we let you in? I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all. You see, that's the language of grace. And when someone is born again, can you, have you plumbed the depth of that first statement, I'm a poor sinner and nothing at all? You found the depths of that, the end of how, Deep that goes. What about this? Jesus Christ is my old Lord. You found the height of that yet? The glory of that? No. This is our language.

When a sinner's brought, he doesn't know much. He may not know much about election. He may not know much about the doctrine of total depravity or limited atonement, irresistible grace. But when he's priest, it sure makes sense. Somebody believes in our Lord Jesus Christ, and then all of a sudden they hear about the doctrine of rejection, and they say, well, yeah, that's got to be so. I'm a poor sinner, nothing at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all. Depravity? Yep, that's right. Limited atonement? Yes. Well, I understand that now.

But was he any less saved? Did he understand his language any less when he spake? No. And God loosens the tongue. And here's the confession of those. Now look at verse And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain. Now this is what Jesus did, he said, He charged them that they should tell no man. Now why is this? Because this is fulfillment of Scripture.

He shall not lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. This was his mission, his purpose was to honor God and not himself. He had to in order to save us. That was part of the righteousness that he was making for us. That he would not deflect any praise to himself, but all praise to God.

And so he told these men not to publish it. But, the more he charged them, in other words, the more he charged them not to praise him, the more they praised Him. Why? Because they could not help it. When a man is saved, he cannot help but give glory to God. He can't. This is the nature and language of one who has been quickened by the Spirit.

And notice this, and we're beyond measure astonished. Aren't you astonished that God saved you? Or are you thinking, well that just, you know. Are you astonished that God saved you? You should be. God saved you, you should be astonished. They were astonished beyond measure saying this, He hath done all things well. He hath done all things well. This is the language of one who is saved. Salvation is by who? Him. And His salvation, is it perfect? It's perfect. He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. May God, by His grace, give His people faithful hearts to bring the deaf and dumb to Christ. Because we know this, He is a willing and able Savior. We ought not to presume how the Lord would, or what experience a man should have in it.

Now we know things about salvation that are true. They will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They will hear the gospel, hear it by the gospel being preached to them. We know these things are so. And when Christ comes and he opens the deaf man, we know this by nature that we are the deaf and dumb man. And by grace he comes and sets us apart. convicts us of our sins, stops our ears of hearing the false religion of this world and the things of the flesh, and causes us to hear his voice, and then our tongue is opened and we speak. And we say what?

He hath done all things well. Because he causes the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. May God open the ears of the deaf to hear his voice. Jesus said, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall what? Shall live without doubt. There's no doubt. When a man hears him, he'll live. Have you heard him? Are you deaf?

I pray God will bless us. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Kevin, dismiss us in prayer, please. Father, what a privilege it is to be along with your Son and have him work in our community, in our hearts, in the West End, in the new creation of Jesus.

We're going to collect it. It's going to be nothing but fun. Nothing but a song. It is grace, it is power. It's going to be a gift, it's going to be a privilege. Thank you, Lord. Give us a heart of desire. I love one of my family and I'm in need. I know it's just not good news to know. in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.