Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7. Our lesson this morning is found
in verses 31 through 37 of Mark chapter 7. Let's read through
these verses. And again, departing from the
coast of Tyre and Sidon, he come unto the Sea of Galilee through
the midst of the coast of Decapolis. And 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. And he took him aside from the
multitude, and he put his finger into his
ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue. And looking up to
heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Epartha, that is, be
opened. And straightway his ears were
opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain. And he charged them that they
should tell no man. But the more he charged them,
so much the more a great deal, they published it, and were beyond measure astonished,
saying he had done all things well. He maketh both the deaf
to hear and the dumb to speak. Now, as I've told you many times,
these miracles of Christ are pictures of sinners being brought
to Christ. There is no one ailment or condition
which the sinner has that can really portray sin and depravity. And so the Lord uses all sorts
of maladies to picture that, and viewed together, we get some
idea of the depravity of man. He's blind, he's deaf. How many times did our Lord say,
he that hath ears to hear, let him hear? Everybody don't hear. Everybody's not gonna hear. And
those who do hear have ears to hear. And he's leprous, he's unclean,
he's demon possessed, and you could go on and on. He's paralyzed,
palsied. The sinner's in bad shape. He's
in bad shape. And none can do him any good
but Christ. So this morning as we consider
this, and I'm going to call him a deaf mute even though he wasn't
mute completely. He had a speech impediment. But
this deaf mute being brought to Christ, and I want to point
out just a few things that struck me as I read through these verses.
And the first thing I want you to consider is that he was brought
to Christ. This deaf mute was brought to
Christ. Now, he wasn't seeking the Lord. He was not a hopeful follower
of the Lord. He was brought to the Lord. And
that's true of every sinner he's brought to the Lord. Now he doesn't mention who brought
him or why. There may have been some that
were just desirous, like some of the kings, to see our Lord
perform a miracle. They wanted to see that magic. They wanted to see that astonishing
act a man who couldn't hear and all
of a sudden he can hear, a blind man receiving his sight and so
on. They'd heard about these things. And it may have been
some there that brought him for no other reason than to see our
Lord perform a miracle. Or perhaps someone who actually
knew the Lord. Somebody maybe even that had
received benefits from the Lord himself and wanted to see others
receive that same grace. It doesn't really say, it just
says they brought him to Christ. But here's what I want you to
take away from this this morning. He was brought by the providence
of God. That's how he got there. And
you can, I've talked to, I don't know, how many hundreds, perhaps
thousands of believers, and I've heard their confessions, and
I've heard them talk about, well, this guy brought me, that guy
brought me, somebody else brought me, they invited me, they had
a meeting, I saw it on the sign, and on and on it go. But here's
the truth of the matter. You're brought by the providence
of God. See, we're not geared to think about that. Religion
doesn't even consider those things. There's nothing that goes on
out here that's not exactly according to the providence of God. Nothing. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. Our Lord told those murmuring
Jews, he said, don't murmur. He said, no man can come unto
me except my father draw him. How does the father draw a man? Well, he draws him through his
providence, and he draws him through the preaching of the
gospel. And while there might be a thousand
reasons and secondary means, the first cause is the providence
of God. Romans 8 28 it says and we know
all things work together for good They may not be good in
themselves But all things work together for good To them that
love God to them who are the called according to his purpose
I Remember years ago one of the members down at Kitchens Creek
owned a seafood restaurant and If I remember correctly, there
was something like 1,200 people who would cycle through there
on a Friday and Saturday night. They came from all around to
eat at this seafood restaurant. And I asked him, I said, would you
mind, he had some tables out there and it had people's business
cards and all this kind of stuff on there. And I said, would you
mind if I set a box or something out there with some cassette
tapes in there and just put a sign there, free, take one. And he
said, I can, but if any of these other churches see that and ask
me, he said, I'm going to have to allow them to do the same
thing. I said, that'd be all right. If you don't care, let's
just put them out there and see what happens. Well, the very
first time we put one out there, there was a a deacon from a church
in a neighboring city that came over there to eat, and he picked
up that cassette tape. And if I remember correctly,
the message was, the just shall live by faith. But anyway, he
took that cassette tape, and he went home and listened to
it, and he thought it was the most erroneous thing he'd ever
heard in his life. And so when he went to church,
he took it with him, and his fellow deacon was there, and
he handed it to him. He said, I want you to listen
to this. He said, this is the craziest thing I ever heard.
He said, I want you to listen to it. He took it home, listened
to it, and God saved him. And he moved over to our place
and joined the church. You see what I'm talking about?
The providence of God. That's what brings men to Christ. The providence of God. And the providence of God is
plainly taught in the scriptures. Whenever you hear Paul or one
of the other apostles talking about the Holy Ghost forbade
them to go into a place, that's what he's talking about. That's
what he's talking about. He was brought to Christ, all
right. Secondly, I want you to see the sinner. He was a deaf
man, had an impediment in his speech And as I thought about
this, I thought, you know, how often, especially early in my
Christian life, I can remember doing this. How often have I
sat down one-on-one with a sinner and talked to him and caught
myself raising my voice? Honey, they're deaf. Raising
your voice is not going to make them hear. God has to give them
ears to hear. When he gives them ears, they
can hear you talk normally, and they'll understand what you're
saying. Raising your voice ain't going to help anything. It's
just like the dead man. I live right beside a church
cemetery down in Ball, Louisiana years ago. The Parsons, we built
it right beside the cemetery. Not one time, the whole time
I lived there, not one time did I ever see anybody out there
trying to preach those dead folks. They come out and weep over them.
They come out and look at them, turn around and go home, and
they come out and clean the weeds out from around the markers,
but they never preach to them. Why? Dead men can't hear. Have to be given life. And that
was the problem here. This man couldn't hear. He couldn't
hear. And those who can't hear have
a secondary problem. It's with their speech. You sit
down and talk to a sinner, and he's never heard. And he's not
hearing you while you're talking to him. His speech ain't going
to make any sense. He's going to talk about free
will. He's going to talk about works, religion. He's going to
talk legalism. He's going to talk self-righteousness.
He's going to talk all kinds of things to you. He's going
to talk worldly philosophy to you. He's going to talk religion
to you. But he's not going to talk about
the gospel because he can't hear. And his speech is going to be
muddled. He can't clearly communicate.
He can't even tell you what he believes. Ask him. I don't know how many times I've
just asked folk point blank, what do you believe? What's your
hope before God? Well, it'll take me a while. I bet it will. I bet it will. Our Lord didn't say for everybody
to hear. He said he that hath ears to
hear, let him hear. And again, I say remember, this
is just one of the many things that manifest our depravity. Know this, a deaf person hears
nothing. He hears nothing. You know, our Lord talked about
the eye one time, the light. And he said, if the light that
be in you be darkness, that window, you got a window there and there's
light coming through it. But if that light is really darkness
and not light at all, isn't that what it is in religion? They
think they have a light. They think they have truth. They
think they have wisdom. But if that light that they have
is darkness, then how great is that darkness? And I would say
the same thing about the ears. How great is that deafness? A deaf person hears nothing.
Well, what do you mean by that, preacher? I mean, he don't hear
the law. Well, you say people hear the
law? I hear them quote the law. They hear the law. No. No, if
they did, they'd be paralyzed with fear. They'd be paralyzed
with fear. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. Can a person know he's cursed
of God and not fear God in judgment? He can if he don't hear. Bible said, by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Can a man believe
he has a hope before God based on his obedience to the law then?
He can if he don't hear. Paul said to those Galatians
that sought to go back under that law, he said, you that desire
to go back under that law, do you hear the law? And for the same reason that
they don't hear the law, neither can they hear the sweet promises
of God in the gospel. Come unto me, all you that labor
and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Rest for
your souls. The Jews said to Jesus, if thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I told you, plainly. But you believe not. And you
believe not, because you're not of my sheep. As I said unto you,
now listen, my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. All his sheep are given ears
to hear. Blessed are your eyes, for they
see, and your ears, for they hear. And though the gospel's
plainly read from the word of God and rightly divided to the
people, Yet they obey it not, because it falls on deaf ears. And then thirdly, I want you
to see this glorious work of the Son of God upon the sinner.
And this may not appear to some to be a great miracle, like the
raising of Lazarus. I mean, what could compare to
that? Been in that tomb? several days, and by now his
sister said, he stinketh, corruption's already set in, don't roll that
stone back. But he did roll that stone back,
and Lazarus came out of that tomb, and he commanded those
great foes to fall off of him, and they did. That's a great
miracle, but this is a great miracle. This is a great miracle. This is as great a miracle as
the raising of Lazarus. Without hearing, there can be
no believing. Isn't that what our Lord said? How you gonna call on him in
whom you have not believed? And how you gonna believe on
him of whom you have not heard? And how you gonna hear without
a preacher? And how they gonna preach except they be sent? Without
hearing, there can be no believing. And without believing, there
can be no life. Without faith, It's impossible
to please God. This is a great miracle to have
ears to hear. And those who've been given the
gift of God's grace to hear, I think they understand what
a great work of God this is. I was raised in religion and
for years, from the time I was just a little child until I was
up in my late 20s, All of that time, I heard absolutely nothing,
absolutely nothing, nothing of the gospel, nothing of the grace
of God, nothing about the sacrifice of Christ, and I'm talking about
truth, spiritual truth of these things. Not one time, not one
time. Though those who've been given
ears to hear, I think they understand at least a little bit about how
great a miracle it is. There were some folks who were
just absolutely enamored by the miracles that Christ performed,
and they said, what can we do to work the works of God? And
he said, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom
he hath sent. There's one lesson taught by
all those who came to Christ. They came because nobody else
could do them any good. This wasn't something you could
take a pill and it'd fix. What they needed done had to
be done by God. And then notice this, when our
Lord turned his attention to the deaf mute, He did so in an
irresistible fashion. He always does. Find me one example of a man
that Christ set out to do something for that he didn't do what he
intended to do. Show me one example and you can't
find it. One of the many absurdities being
preached today is the idea that a sinner chosen of God and purposed
of God to be saved for his glory should ultimately resist the
will of God and the power of God and perish in his rebellion. That's an absurdity. My friend, the skies. I want
you to think about this. The skies. had never before dropped
a single drop of rain on this earth. From the time God created
it until the day of the flood, not one drop of rain fell. A
mist came down and watered the planet. But not one drop of rain
fell. Nowhere, nowhere on this planet. But when our God commanded the
sky to dump a deluge on this earth, the skies couldn't resist
them, could they? They had to do what God commanded
them to do. The sea, which lay in a bowl
that God made for it, could not resist the will of God. when
he commanded for a draft path to go right through the middle
of it that his people might cross over to the other side. Couldn't
resist. Couldn't resist. The mighty Jordan
at flood stage could not resist the power of God to stop its
flow until Israel crossed over. The natural Gravity, what we
call the law of gravity. There's just one law, and that's
God. But he's put some natural forces at work, and gravity's
one of them. But he made that iron to float
that day. Iron don't float. But that one
did. Couldn't resist him. There's
no difference, my friend, when God sets his eye on the sinner.
And he turns his power and grace to the sinner. The sinner cannot
resist. And whatever's missing, God gives
it to him and enables him. Scripture said, my people shall
be willing in the day of my power. All right, fourthly, I want you
to see a most unusual means manifested here. Now, there's something
here. because their names are not mentioned.
Nowhere does he even say that these people were believers.
It just said that they brought him. Now listen to what they
beseeched him to do. They wanted him to lay his hand
on them. You remember I just read that.
They besought him that he would lay his hand on him and cure
him. Now this is what religious people
do. They sit around and dream up things, sensual things, things
that appeal to them to be things of grace, things of love. How's God gonna do this? Well,
he's gonna say some words and then he's gonna, you remember
old Naaman? He came out there and the prophet
wouldn't even go talk to him. This is a great man, had a full
entourage with him and everything. He came out there and and parked
outside the tent and allowed to send his servant out. And
boy, he got upset. He said, I thought the prophet
would come out and say some words over me and maybe lay his hand
on me. Well, that's what these people
thought. But I'm going to tell you something. Jesus Christ is
not your trained monkey. He ain't going to do stuff just
because you think he will. He's not a trained dog going
to jump through the hoop when you tell him to jump. They came
and said, please, lay your hand on this man. What did he tell
them? Well, the first thing he did,
he took that man and got him away from the people who were
talking like that. He took him away from the multitude,
took him over here by himself. And he didn't lay his hand on
him. He took his finger and stuck it in his ear. Huh? Is that what
you would have done? Huh? Bring you a deaf man, you stick
your finger in his ear, is that how you would have done it? That's
how Christ did it. And then he spit. Where'd he
spit? Well, if he's got his finger
in his ear, where's he gonna spit? I say he spit in his face. Now I'll tell you something,
you're gonna know something about your sins and how your sins appear
before God. You're gonna know that. Just
like being spit in the face. But I don't know what he did.
It just says he spit. I'll leave it at that. He spit.
And then he took his finger, touched his tongue. Now our Lord said he could raise
up sons, that's what he told Peter, he said, I could raise
up of those stones children unto Abraham. I don't need these natural processes,
I'm God. If by purpose to do so, I could
just call those stones and those stones would become children
of Abraham. And on many occasions, our Lord
did his work on somebody who was nowhere near where he was. We just had a study on that,
that Syrophoenician woman. Her daughter was demon-possessed
and her daughter wasn't with her. She was somewhere else.
And he said, you go home. The demon's gone. Well, she wasn't
there and he didn't touch her. He didn't do anything. She was
somewhere else completely. He raised a dead child. The child
wasn't anywhere near him. And our Lord on many occasions
did a work on somebody who was nowhere near where they was. But it pleased God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believed And the preaching
of the cross, it says, is foolishness unto them that are perishing.
Now that, to me, this is why these means are being shown.
As this is a picture of the sinner coming to Christ, so is the means
by which he's healed. He's gonna picture his gospel.
And his gospel, the means that he uses to recover, he devises
means to recover his banished. Who does? The Lord does. And it's foolish, you remember
over in the book of John, there was a blind man. And our Lord
spit on the ground. He didn't have to spit for blind
Bartimaeus, but he spit on the ground and he took his fingers
and rubbed them around there and made a little bit of clay
and anointed his eyes. Now he said, you go down there
and wash in the sheep pool, the pool of Siloam, you go down there
and wash. Kind of foolishness, ain't it?
Yeah. And so was sticking his fingers
in his ears and touching his tongue and spitting. Kind of
look like a witch doctor or something, doesn't it? What I see on these
Hollywood movies. Spitting and stomping and doing
all this stuff. Foolishness. It is foolishness. There's nothing more foolish
to a natural man than for you to tell him something about the
necessity of the preaching of the gospel. It's foolishness. Foolishness. These seemingly foolish means
were used to picture the ordained means of life and faith through
the preaching of the gospel. You know what it says? It says,
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
Doesn't receive any of them. Why? For they are foolishness
unto him. Oh, why God use those foolish
men? Well, he tells you in 1 Corinthians 1, down at the end of the chapter,
to confound the wise. That's why he does it. Just leaves
them, just leaves them, they don't know what to do. They don't
know what to say. It confounds the wise. The wise can't say, well, two
and two is four. I'll prove it to you. No, you
can't prove it to them. God has confounded them. Men and women walk in the vanities
of their minds, and they have ideas about how things should
go, and they resist everything that don't fit those ideas. This
multitude envisioned the Lord laying his hands on the sinner
and saying some words about him so they could see everything
and be pleased. Fact of it is, he didn't let
them see anything. Took them aside and then used
these seemingly foolish means to give him his hearing. And then very quickly, see what
happened after the fact. Verse 37, they were beyond measure
astonished, saying, he hath done all things
well. He maketh both the deaf to hear
and the dumb to speak. Now let me ask you something. You think that deaf dude ever
questioned the means Christ used to heal it? He didn't care if he spit and
stuck his finger in his ear. The fact of it is, is he was
a deaf man and now he can hear. He was a man with an impediment
of speech. He couldn't talk. He couldn't
clearly converse. Now he can talk. Would you care if he was in that
condition, Lord? Stuck his finger in your ear?
No, you wouldn't care. Brethren, poor sinners are not
questioning the means God has ordained to save their souls.
And after God unstopped his ears and untied his tongues, then
the multitude fell in line with the sinner. And they were astonished,
and they said, you know what? He doeth all things well. Well. He doeth all things perfect. Perfect. All right. Thank you.