It was Mark chapter seven, verse
31 to 37. And in these verses, we can see
something again of the miraculous power of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it seems as if Mark, as he
has been leading us through these passages, is constantly reminding
us that we are not in the presence of an ordinary man. as he unfolds
these miraculous truths that have been worked and performed
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Already in his gospel, Mark has
shown us the Lord raising to life a dead child, healing countless
physical diseases and deformities. feeding thousands of people with
just a few morsels of food, casting out demons, stilling storms,
walking on water, and even transporting a ship and all its crew across
the Sea of Galilee instantaneously. Every few verses opens to our
view more layers of the evidence of Christ's divine nature and
the glory of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And equally, in addition to the
greatness of these miracles and their quantity, because there
are many, the success that the Lord had in performing them,
and the publicity that he received by them. Mark is also teaching
us, and we have to acknowledge this, that there is a harmony
between the Lord's works and the Lord's doctrine. And these
two things meld together and complement one another. They form a unified message,
whereby the healing and the feeding and the deliverance and the new
life speaks not only to the body and the physical aspects of men
and women and boys and girls, but also to the soul and the
spiritual dimension of the people also. So here we find that the
Lord Jesus Christ, in accomplishing these great works, is also bringing
in a realisation that there is a spiritual aspect to all of
these miracles, these great works. So that what the Lord performed
physically, he also was accomplishing spiritually. His message, the
message of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ's gospel if you like,
called the gospel of Christ. Christ's gospel was authenticated
and validated to be real. It was shown to be the real thing
because he was able to do these miracles. These miracles, as
it were, caused people to stop and hear and think and be confronted
with the spiritual message that the Lord was giving, his doctrine
and his truth, his gospel. So that the glory of the miracles,
or the wonders and the signs as the apostle Peter calls them,
confirmed the truth of the gospel message. And this is something
that we always ought to remember. While we're going through these
passages and while Mark leads us through, it almost appears
like from amazing incident to amazing incident to amazing incident,
it seems that they come hard and fast upon us. But it is always
with this idea that it is the message of the Lord that undergirds
them all. And there's a lesson in them
for us. A spiritual dimension that is
revealed in the physical effects and changes that took place. So that men and women were left
without excuse for their willful and deliberate unbelief in the
face of the evidence that was set before them. And the miracle
that we've read today here in the last few verses of Mark chapter
7, this miracle of healing the deaf and dumb man follows that
same pattern. The Lord has compassionately,
because it was with compassion, it was with that desire to do
good to those who came to him, that the Lord agreed to this
request from perhaps a family for the healing of this man,
this deaf and dumb man. But he does it in such a way
as to attach, I hope you'll agree, a deep spiritual significance
to it, in addition to the physical conversion or the physical healing
of the man's senses. today I want to just draw your
attention and mention a few of the spiritual lessons that Mark
is leading us to see and to understand that give this amazing miracle
a deeper significance, a deeper meaning and an instructive value
to us. I want to think on four different
things. I'm going to draw your attention
to those who brought this man to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
also going to think about some lessons from the way in which
the Lord responded to this man when he touched his and he touched
his tongue and he looked up and he spoke. So the way in which
the Lord responded also gives us some spiritual instruction. I want as well for us just to
touch upon the little phrase that the Lord made when he said
to these people, tell no man, don't tell anyone what has transpired
here. Why did the Lord say that and
what was the significance of it? And finally, I want to dwell
upon, perhaps principally upon, the phrase towards the end of
our passage which says that the people acknowledged that he had
done all things well. So these are the headings that
we have before us today and the first one that I want to draw
your attention to is the fact that here in verse 32 we are
told that these people brought this man to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if we were talking about
a film or a movie then these people would be called the support
cast. We don't know anything about
them, really. They're not major characters in any way. And indeed,
in many respects, they wouldn't even be noticed. And yet, they
had a part to play, an important part to play. Mark simply calls
them they. They're not named. We don't know
anything about relationships or why they brought this man.
But there are some things that we do know about they, that we
do know about them. And here are two things. So this
is my first point, but I've got two things I want to say in this
first point, so don't get confused about the numbers. Here's the
first thing that we know about these people who brought this
man to Christ, that they had a high opinion of the Lord Jesus
Christ and they were persuaded in his ability to help and cure
their friend. They had a high opinion of the
Lord Jesus Christ and they had a persuasion in their own hearts
and souls that the Lord Jesus Christ was able to help and cure
their friend. And I think that that is a very
worthy thing to note because here we see that these people
had some knowledge of Christ and acted upon it. And that's a lesson surely for
us too. You know, this confidence, this
confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ is not something that
arises naturally. It comes through the work of
the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit
to cause us to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and to give us faith
and confidence in Him. And having given that faith and
confidence, here we find that these people put that trust into
effect and they bring their friend to the Lord Jesus. That confidence
is our privilege alone. I sometimes talk about those
who are believers in the doctrine of free will, that everyone has
free will to choose Christ for themselves or reject Christ for
themselves, and that man has the final say in this matter,
a position that I totally reject and utterly refute. It is God
who is sovereign in all matters of salvation and God alone who
is able to save. Salvation is of the Lord. But here's another way in which
this doctrine of free will is undermined when we think about
these people who brought their friend to the Lord. Free will
believers have no grounds for praying for the salvation of
their friends and their family. They have no grounds for it.
How dare they, indeed, pray that God would override the will of
their friends and their families? Can they pray for their children,
that their children will be saved? What grounds have they for such
a request? Now this is a privilege of the
Lord's people alone, those who have confidence in Him because
we've tasted something of the power of Christ in our own lives. And I'm sure that these people
who brought, perhaps it was their son, Mark doesn't tell us that,
perhaps it was just a friend, whoever they were, they brought
this young man to Christ because they were confident that Christ
could do him good. Let us never allow our views
of God's sovereignty to deter us from praying for someone else. In truth we are the only people
who have got the right to do such a thing according to our
doctrinal understanding. If someone is laid upon your
heart, if the Lord lays someone upon your heart for their spiritual
well-being, for their eternal good, then take that person to
the throne of grace and prayer. Take them to the Lord. How do
we bring someone to the Lord? The Lord's not going to be in
the next village or the next town and we get them and take
them and carry them there. That's what happened when the
Lord was performing his ministry. How do we take someone to the
Lord now? Well, we bring them to the Gospel.
We invite them to hear the Gospel preached. Invite them to listen
to this service. Send them the link for this service.
Let your high opinion of Christ, let your persuasion of his ability
be the motivation to support your friend, your family in coming
to the Lord. It worked here for this man and
it will be profitable again. So here's the second point that
we know about these people. they beseeched the Lord. That little word there, beseech,
it means to seek earnestly, to cry out with passion. Do you remember the Syrophoenician
woman that we were speaking about last week? She would not let
go. She insisted that the Lord heard
her voice. And he did. And so these people
here beseech the Lord. Are we passionate about these
things? Do we seek earnestly for the
salvation of those that we love, the salvation of those who have
been laid upon our hearts? What kind of relationship did
they have with this man? I don't know. But let us think
about whose faith was being tested here. Wasn't not the faith of
those that brought the deaf man? The Lord doesn't seek for faith
on the part of the deaf man, but he is fulfilling the desires
of those who came to him in faith. They believed that the Lord would
help their friend. Now watch this. Watch this, because
I think this is really very interesting. We so often feel inadequate in
these matters, but look at what these people said to the Lord
when they were beseeching him, when they were crying out to
him. They asked, Lord, lay your hand
upon him. Lay your hand, it says, In verse
32, they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment
in his speech, and they beseech him to put his hand upon him. Now why? Why did they ask that
the Lord put his hand upon him? Was that necessary that the Lord
laid his hand upon him? No, it wasn't necessary. We've
seen that. The Syrophoenician woman, she
came herself And she asked that the Lord would heal her daughter
who was back at home lying on a bed. Jairus came and he asked
that the Lord would say a word and heal his daughter. There
was no necessity for the hand of the Lord to be laid on this
young man. But that's what the people asked
for. It was not necessary. But did
they know that it wasn't necessary? No. They didn't know that it
wasn't necessary. That's why they asked for the
hand of the Lord to be laid on him. They thought that it was
necessary. I don't know why. Perhaps they
had seen the Lord lay his hand on someone else. Perhaps the
Lord had laid his hand on them when they were healed. Maybe
that was the connection that these people had. But for some
reason they thought that it was imperative that the Lord laid
his hand upon this man. Therefore they brought him to
him and they beseeched the Lord, lay your hand upon him. Now you
see the point that is being made here. They went with an incomplete
understanding of what it was that the Lord was able to do. They went with a limited knowledge,
they went indeed with little faith But they succeeded. They succeeded nevertheless. See, it's not about us. It's
not about how comprehensive is our knowledge, how great is our
faith. It's about going upon the ground
that the Lord has revealed and coming in a childlike way and
saying, Lord, help. Lord, help. Do what is needed. We've got to leave this to you.
What a beautiful position to be in, to be taking someone to
the Lord, to be bringing someone under the sound of the gospel,
to be bringing someone to the throne of grace and prayer, even
although our knowledge of the circumstances is incomplete and
the knowledge of the way in which the Lord might deal with them
is incomplete. it is still sufficient that we
bring them to the Lord. And here's a second point that
I want to draw to your attention. Look at the Lord's response in
this case. We read about that in verse 33
and 34. Let me just read them to you
again. and he took him aside from the multitude, interesting,
and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit and touched
his tongue, and looking up to heaven, he sighed and said unto
him, Ephaphrath, that is, be open. Now, I don't think anything
that the Lord did here was without significance and without meaning. He touched the ears of this man
and he touched his tongue. Why did he do that? Well, sufficient
that the friends had asked him to. That was a good enough reason. but I'm sure that the purpose
was to convey the spiritual necessity of opening what was closed. He drew attention to the ears
of this young man and attention to the lips of this young man
because they were the things that were closed. How often does
the Lord in his ministry and his doctrine speak about ears
to hear? He who has ears to hear. Where
do those ears to hear come from? But from God himself. It is grace
that opens the ears of men and women and boys and girls to hear
the truth of the gospel. Grace flows from the will of
God. Now, we could give many references
here. I just want to draw your attention
to a couple from the prophecy of Isaiah in the Old Testament.
Isaiah is talking to the people of his age, to the people of
his day, and he says this, your God will come and save you. Your God will come and save you.
He's anticipating the coming of the Messiah. And when he does,
here's what he says, Isaiah 35, verse five. Then the eyes of
the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. Then shall the tongue of the
dumb sing. And then he enlarges on that
in Isaiah 50 verse 4. The Lord God, he says, hath given
me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak
a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning
by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear
as the learned. And I'm sure that Isaiah was
speaking both about physical manifestations, but more importantly
about the spiritual work of the Messiah in bringing a hearing
ear, spiritually attuned understanding to the hearts and lives, the
souls and the spirits of men and women, the salvation of their
souls. And I won't insist upon it, it's
speculation on my part, but I wonder if the prophecy of Isaiah there
was not being fulfilled in this young man. I wonder if this young
man went on to be a preacher. I wonder if he went on to witness,
knowing how to speak a word in season to the weary. Why? Because
he had heard that word in his own ears. The very first thing
that that young man heard was the voice of Jesus Christ, be
opened. Do you often feel that you don't
know what to say? That you're in a situation and
you just think, if only I could find the words, if only I knew
what to say. And we become tongue-tied, like
this young man was. Well, is that not a prayer that
we could pray? Be open, that the Lord would
give us that word in season, a word to the weary, But there's
more in what the Lord did. He looked up. The Lord looked
up. Now, again, He doesn't do that
every time. He performs a miracle, but He
did it here. And I'm sure that he was reminding
his disciples and reminding the people that were there and reminding
us, his church, that such gifts as this spiritual healing is
all grace. All the good gifts of God come
from above. They come down from the Father
of lights. And here's another thing that
the Lord did. He sighed. He sighed. He said there was a groan on
the part of the Lord as he touched this man's ears. He was sharing the heart of sin
in his own senses in his union with his people. You know, what
happens if a youngster comes in and maybe they've had a tumble
or they've grazed their knee or they've cut their hand or
their arm and they come in and they want to show you the graze. They want to show you the bruise. And as they roll up their trouser
leg or they show you their arm, your reaction is to groan. because you empathize with the
heart of that little one. And the Lord sighed when this
one, the effects of sin on his dear people, the effects that
sin has had on his dearly beloved, his bride, and the Lord felt
it in his own soul, he felt it in his own heart. He shared the
heart of sin in the lives of his people, such is his union
with us in our body and in our flesh. Not only did the Lord
touch this man's ears, not only did he look up to heaven, not
only did he sigh, but he commanded Ephrathah, open, be open, be
free. And he commanded that the natural
functions of the ear and the tongue be made effective. and thereby he demonstrated his
power in spiritual matters too. Because it is that same power
that opened the physical hearing of that man that also does the
greater work of bringing spiritual hearing and spiritual understanding,
the granting of spiritual wisdom to lay hold upon the Lord Jesus
Christ and the gospel. And the immediacy of that work
points to the sovereign omnipotence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
these are the lessons that Christ was teaching us by his actions
in this miracle. The immediacy, that immediately
the man heard. It's the Lord Jesus Christ, not
us, that holds the power to heal and the power to save, the power
to give eternal life. We go to Christ for these things. These blessings, these eternal
blessings flow from Him and it's His sovereign omnipotence, His
sovereign power. He openeth and no man shutteth. He shutteth and no man openeth. What Christ opens, no one can
close, and what Christ closes, no one can open. The Apostle
John tells us that in Revelation 3, verse 7. And might you and
I today not say to the Lord, might we not send up a prayer
even now, Lord, Open our ears, our mouths, our hearts. Lord,
open spiritual ears today. Open the mouths, open the hearts
of those that we love, that they might worship Thee, that they
might praise Thy name, that they might experience what we have
experienced of Thy mercy and Thy goodness. So we've thought about the people
that came to the Lord Jesus Christ and brought their friend. We've
thought about the mannerisms of the Lord as he healed this
man. His touching of the man's ears,
his looking up, his sighing, and of the immediacy of the effect
upon his command, all speaking about his sovereignty and his
power in these matters. But then the Lord says, Don't
tell anyone. Don't tell anyone about this.
What a strange thing to say. Tell no man. And I just wanted
briefly to touch upon this because somebody might wonder, why did
the Lord say that? Why was the Lord saying? Why
did he draw him aside from the multitude to perform this miracle? Was it because the Lord was concerned
about his enemies that these scribes and Pharisees might take
occasion from this to do him harm? Maybe, maybe. Was it because he felt that there
might be those within the crowd who would manipulate the crowd
to fulfil their own political desires, possibly. There were
those who, when the Lord had fed the 5,000, wanted to make
him king, which was surely a political and a revolutionary activity. And I'm sure that there would
be those still willing to do that. And yet, the Lord was able
to defend and protect his own person and those around about
him. So maybe there's more to it than
that. Certainly the Lord did not need
the applause and the adoration of the people. And indeed we
often find that he withdrew himself from the people and he seemed
to downplay the wonderful miracles that he performed. And I think
that that's the point of the Lord saying, tell no man here. This is a lesson for the disciples.
It's a lesson for the church. It's a lesson for you and me.
It's a lesson that we might have some peace and some confidence,
both in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also in His
timing, that we might have patience. Our God is doing His will. Our God is accomplishing his
purpose. He is bringing all things to
pass according to his good plan and at its proper time. The schedule as well as the content
is all in the Lord's hands. Now, what that doesn't do is
justify any laziness or passivity on our part. We have a responsibility
as the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to worship him, to praise
him, to declare him, to preach him, to witness for him, and
these things fall to us. We have these responsibilities,
but we are reminded in this phrase, tell no man, that there is no
need for us to be wild enthusiasts about this gospel that we preach. There's no necessity for us to
be loud fanatics. There is a propriety, there is
a decency, there is a modesty about our gospel work. It's not
to say we are to hide our light under a bushel, but neither have
we to burn the house down. We take the work of the Lord
and we preach it as opportunity is provided. We speak that word
in season as the Lord gives us opportunity and we don't have
to be running ahead of ourselves trying to do the Lord's work
for him. Now I've moved kind of quickly
through these points because really I want to dwell finally
on the little phrase at the end of the passage here which I think
is most important and to emphasize and to leave this as a final
point in your mind today as we come to the end of our time together. Mark tells us that there was
general astonishment regarding the power of the Lord Jesus Christ
and there was this consensus amongst the people with respect
to the miracles that he had performed. He tells us that he finds the
people declaring that the Lord Jesus Christ hath done all things
well. And that's a lovely little phrase
for us to end upon today. The Lord Jesus Christ has done
all things well. And that was certainly true in
the experience of this young man, this poor man, whose life
was now completely changed for the better. as a result of this
meeting with the Lord Jesus Christ. But the phrase, he hath done
all things well, is a tribute to the Saviour, also in a much
broader sense, not only for this deaf mute, but in all things,
he hath done all things well. And it matters not When we begin
our list of achievements, our Lord has done all things well. Our Lord did all things well
when he stood forth in the covenant of peace and he became surety
for his people, promising to fulfil all righteousness and
do well for us. who could do no good for ourselves. Our Lord Jesus did all things
well when he came into this world, when he took our flesh, when
he brought himself into union with our nature. He did all things
well as he came as an infant child to represent us into this
world. He took our flesh that he might
be a substitute for us. And in so doing, he did all things
well. He lived a perfect life. He honoured
God in all he said and all he did and all he thought. He fulfilled
every command of God. He did all the will of God, doing
good for men and women and boys and girls, healing and teaching
and comforting and blessing. And he did all things well. Through
the malice of his enemies, They tried to slay him. Why? Because
he did all things well. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. There was no recrimination on
the part of the Lord. He had done no violence, neither
was there any deceit in his mouth. Isaiah knew that. Hundreds of
years before, he hath done all things well. In his death he
drank the cup of God's wrath, he endured the weight of our
sin, he bore our guilt in his own body on the tree, he took
it all away and he did all things well. In the resurrection he
drew the sting of death and he disarmed the strong man and he
removed the fear of the grave and he did all things well. He's seated now in honour in
heaven and he rules his kingdom in power and he does it well. He gathers His church. He protects
His people. He preserves us. He cares for
our souls. He safeguards our futures and
providentially, even now, even today, in the circumstances of
your life, whatever they may be, He is doing all things well. and soon he'll come again. And
he will take us to the heavenly mansions that he has been preparing
for all that love him. And I'm pretty sure that they
are going to be special because he does everything well. Then,
then, we shall join in that song of the redeemed and we shall
declare, surely, Surely my Jesus has done all things well. Friends, you and I, we haven't
done all things well. We have made many mistakes and
we have many regrets, more than a few. With sorrow we confess
the sins that we commit. and the mistakes that we make.
We lament the weakness of our flesh that binds us to this world
and to the lusts of this world. And we confess with the Apostle
Paul that we find a law, we find a law that when I would do good,
evil is present with me. And yet, Paradoxically, we declare,
being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun
a good work in me will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. What has begun in us? A good
work. Our salvation. is that good work
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he hath done well. The will and
the good pleasure of our God is the salvation of his people
by the Lord Jesus Christ. That salvation illuminates the
heart It subdues the will. It implants the divine nature. It forms Christ in our souls. Salvation is Christ's good work
and he has done it well. It makes us heirs of good things
to come. It turns sinners from darkness
to light. It produces peace in our heart.
It purges our conscience. Our salvation brings us to glory. and glory to God. This is our
Lord and Saviour. He has done all things well,
and having begun a good work in us, he will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. Amen. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us.