our Bibles this morning to Mark
chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, beginning with
verse 31. And again, departing from the
coast of Tyre and Sidon, he came 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 put his fingers into his ears, and he spit. and touched his tongue. And looking
up to heaven, he sighed and saith unto him, Ephetha, 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 hath done all things well. He
maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Tyre and
Sidon were two principal Gentile cities of Phoenicia, and we saw
last week that the Lord Jesus Christ came to their borders. Now he did not enter into these
Gentile cities as he had commanded his disciples not to go in the
way of the Gentiles. And also we saw that Paul later
in the letter of Romans wrote that the Lord Jesus Christ was
a minister unto the circumcision, that is, unto the Jews. The Lord
Jesus Christ, his ministry, his prophetical office was exercised
when he was here in the flesh toward the nation of Israel,
the Jews. And as I said, he did not enter
into one of these Gentile cities, but a Gentile from one of these
cities came out to him seeking help and finding it. This morning, we're going to
look at this remaining part of the chapter. And I would begin
by reminding us that there are many prophecies in the Old Testament
concerning the Messiah. In fact, the Old Testament, someone
described, is a message someone is coming. Someone is coming. And then the Gospels, that someone
has come. and the epistle, someone's coming
again. But anyway, in the Old Testament
concerning the Messiah, there were many prophecies, and one
of those spoke of the fact that when he came, he would unstop
the ears of the deaf. One of these prophecies we find
in Isaiah chapter 35 in verse 8. The scripture there says,
then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the
deaf shall be unstopped." The Lord Jesus Christ, as you read
through the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you read
the Lord worked miracle after miracle in healing men and women
of their physical infirmities. And the thing to always remember
is that all of these physical infirmities have a spiritual
counterpart. They all have a spiritual counterpart. You say, what do you mean by
that? Well, I mean they all testify to his power to save sinners. That is what he came to do. He
came to save sinners. Now, the scriptures tell us that
he raised the dead. We know of three, but that doesn't
mean those are the only three people that the Lord Jesus Christ
raised from the dead. But we know of three of them,
and they all testify to the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has
the power to quicken, to give life to men and women, boys and
girls who are born spiritually dead. Spiritually dead. He cast out demons and casting
out these demons all testify to his power to deliver men and
women, boys and girls from the kingdom of Satan. Every person
born into this world comes into this world in the kingdom of
Satan. He has the power and He's the
only one, the Savior, who has the power to deliver men from
that kingdom of darkness into His own kingdom, the kingdom
of God. He cleansed lepers. Oh, leprosy,
you read about it in Leviticus chapter 13 and 14. It was an
awful plague that would come upon people and separate them
from their families, from worship, from everything. They had to
be outside and live alone and identify themselves when they
approached unto people, putting their hand over their lips because
even their breath was contaminating, unclean, unclean. warning people not to come near. The Lord Jesus Christ cleansed
lepers, showing us, yes, He has the power, the power, the cleansing
power to cleanse men and women from the plague of our hearts,
the plague of sin. And He unstopped deaf ears and
opened blinded eyes also to show Him, to show rather, that He
has the power to unstop the deaf ears of men and women so that
we might hear His voice and open our eyes so that we might see
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. All of these
miracles. Turn with me, keep your place
here, but turn with me to John chapter 20. I believe that what John says
here about the miracles, I believe there's seven miracles recorded
in his gospel. or the gospel that goes by his
name, but I believe what he says here is true concerning all four
of the gospels. In John chapter 20 and verse
30, he wrote, and many other signs, that is miracles, wonders,
many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples,
which are not written in this book. In other words, John didn't
record all of them, neither did Luke. Neither did Mark, neither
did Matthew. He wrote so many, so many. But now look, but these are written. These are written that you might
believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing you might
have life through his name. In order that you might have
life Spiritual life, eternal life through Jesus Christ. These are recorded, showing he
has the power. But don't you love this also?
We see as we look at these cases, his willingness. Not only the
power, but his willingness. Did any ever come to him for
help and be turned away? We saw that last week. That was
about the closest, wasn't it? That woman. But even she received
the help that she desired, that she so needed. Now my message
this morning, I have two parts. First, the Lord's miracle of
unstopping the man's ears. We read of that in most of these
verses. the Lord's miracle of unstopping
the man's ears. The Lord put his fingers into
his ears. And the Lord spit on his fingers
and touched the, with a saliva, he touched the tongue of this
man who was both deaf and dumb. Now let me make this point. This
was not the first deaf man. This was not the first, nor the
last, or the only deaf man that the Lord unstopped their ears. A few weeks ago, we were looking
at Mark chapter 6. And in that chapter, we read
about Herod, King Herod, cutting the head off of John the Baptist.
You remember that. But while John the Baptist was
shut up in prison, before he was executed, Luke and Matthew
tell us something that Mark doesn't. They both tell us of something
that happened. And I want you to turn to Luke
with me, Luke chapter seven, and see what this was. In Luke chapter seven, beginning in verse 19, And John, that is John the Baptist,
in prison, calling unto him, two of his disciples sent them
to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we
for another? When the men were come unto him,
they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art
thou he that should come, or look we for another? And in that
same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of
evil spirits and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then
Jesus answering said unto them, go your way and tell John what
things you have seen and heard. How that the blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed. Now notice the death here and
the dead are raised to the poor the gospel is preached. This man here in our text, this
man that the Lord put his fingers in his ears and put the saliva
on his tongue, this man was not the first and he was not the
only and he was not the last because we read later here in
the gospel of Mark of that man who brought his son first to
the disciples They couldn't cast that devil out of his son. And then the Lord Jesus came
and cast that demon out, and we're told that that demon was
a deaf and dumb demon. So get the point here. This man
in our text, he wasn't the first, he wasn't the only, and he wasn't
the last deaf and dumb man that the Lord healed. Now, I suppose
I should say this because that word dumb, I don't guess it's
used anymore like it was when the scriptures were translated,
but we know what it means. It means not able to speak. A person has to hear to learn
to speak, to pronounce words correctly, right? And that's
the reason most people believe that this man at one time could
hear. and speak, but he had lost his
hearing because when the Lord touched him and healed him, he
began to speak plainly, immediately. But my point is this, were the
details, were the details always the same when the Lord Jesus
unstopped the ears of the deaf? Were the details always the same
when he granted speech to those who were dumb? Well, we know
that it wasn't. It wasn't. Now this man was not
blind, but he could see something here. I mean, he did see something
here. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
looking up to heaven. Notice that. in our text this
morning. The Lord took him aside, in verse
33, from the multitude, put his fingers into his ears, and he
spit and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven, as
though to tell this man what is true of all of his healings,
healing comes from above. Healing comes from above. In
other words, the Lord Jesus Christ, he is from above. He came down from heaven. That
is the eternal Son of God came down from heaven that he might
do the works of the Father. This man couldn't hear when he
was first brought to Christ, but he could see. And the Lord
testified in this way that all the healing, it came from above. It came from the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. Now, the details surrounding
the healing, his healing the deaf, they varied, just like
when he opened the eyes of the blind. We know blind Bartimaeus
was sitting by the wayside begging, the Lord was passing by and he
began to cry out, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy upon
me. And the people said, be quiet,
you're making too much noise. But you couldn't shut blind Bartimaeus
up. And the Lord Jesus Christ stopped
and called him to him and asked him what he would desire. And
he said that I might see. And the Lord said, your faith
hath made you whole. Immediately he could see. One
man who was born blind, the Lord Jesus Christ this time put some
mud on his eyes and sent him to a pool to wash himself and
he came back with sight. The Lord, the details around
these healings, that's the point I want to emphasize, they varied.
As far as we know, this was the only man in which the Lord put
his fingers into his ears and put saliva on his tongue. I would
imagine that most of those that the Lord healed, he simply spoke
his word. Some he touched. They wanted
the Lord to touch this man, some he touched. But the details are
not important, are not important. They vary. But what is all important
is always the same, always the same. They were all alike. The man was deaf, he heard. The man couldn't speak, and he
could speak, and the Lord Jesus Christ wrought the miracle each
time. In other words, salvation comes
from Him. He is salvation, the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is salvation. To know Him
is to have eternal life, and it is to know the Father. You know, I bring this out to
us because I know, I know that some of God's dear children suffer
because their experience may differ from another person's
experience that they hear. And then they reason, well, my
experience wasn't like that. You know, You look in the scriptures,
God spoke to Moses on the mountain with all that smoke and the loud
voice and the sound of the trumpet. He spoke to Elijah in the cave
in a still, small voice. He spoke to John on the Isle
of Patmos with a voice that was as loud as a roaring water. Not always the same. The details
are not always the same. But here is what is all important. The Lord is sovereign in everything. He could touch this man and say,
be healed. He could just speak the word.
Remember, he commended that one man, that centurion who told
the Lord, I'm a man and I have soldiers under my command and
I just speak the word. I say, go, they go. I say, come,
they come. Lord, just speak the word. I'm not worthy that you even
come under my roof. And his servant was healed. The Lord is sovereign in the
way, the details. I've told you this story many
times and it sticks in my mind because it just shows the sovereignty
of God and it just shows how wonderful the Lord is. But it
does to me at least. Those three young men playing
outside that church building in England years ago, playing
out there on the green, Sunday evening. want to know what time
it was. And they knew there was a clock
inside the church building, but none of them were brave enough
to go in because they were holding service. Preacher was preaching. Finally, they convinced one of
their buddies to go in and look at the clock, come back out and
tell them what time it was. Well, he went in, but he didn't
come back. And so they decided they better go check on him.
They went in, they didn't come back. You say, what happened? God arrested them. The long arm
of Jehovah, just like the long arm of the law will arrest men. God arrested these young men. And they heard the gospel and
they were saved. The details, and I doubt if anyone
else had an experience like that. I've never heard of anyone else,
never read of anyone else like that. But yet, even though the
details are different, the experience is always the same. God the Holy
Spirit uses his word. I'm talking about conversion
experience now. God always uses his word to teach
us of our sin. to show us that we are guilty
before God. You ask the average person today
if he is a sinner, and he may admit, oh, I've done a few things
wrong. I'm not asking you that. I'm
asking, are you a sinner? Are you obnoxious to the wrath
of God because of your sinfulness? Very few people will admit, that's
me, that's me. By nature, that's what I am,
a sinner. God uses his word to show us,
to teach us that we have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. He uses his word to teach us
that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the son of God, that he
is God manifest in the flesh. Yes. And he gives us life and faith
to trust in him and in him alone. In this, we are all saved in
the same way. Our experiences may vary. Some people have told me their
experience over the years, and it's astounding. We don't all have the same experience. But we all know this. Once I
was deaf, but now I can hear. Once I was blind, but now I see. Yes. We all say this Jesus is
precious to me. So that's the first part of the
message. Now the second part I want us
to consider for just a few minutes the testimony of those who witnessed
this miracle. If you notice in verse 37, it
says, and were beyond measure astonished, saying, he hath done
all things well, he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb
to speak. What was their testimony? He
hath done all things well. He hath done all things well. Now their testimony, it's true,
concerned this miracle of unstopping the deaf ears and healing him
of the impediment of speech. But I'm not going to limit myself
to those things. He hath done all things well. Everything he did, he did well. Everything. Everything the Lord
Jesus Christ did, He did well. Let me mention four things that
He did. Number one, He glorified God. John chapter 17 and verse 4,
in His prayer He said to the Father, I have glorified Thee
on the earth. How did he glorify the Father? Well, we know he did by his perfect
obedience to God's will. His perfect obedience to God's
will. And in doing that, he glorified
the Father. Now, the first man, the first
Adam, he did not glorify God. He failed. He disobeyed. God gave him one rule by which
his obedience was tested, and that one rule was of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.
But he did not glorify God, he disobeyed God, he defied God. But now the Lord Jesus Christ
who is revealed to us in the word of God as the last man,
Adam was the first man, Christ is the last Adam, the last man. And just as that first man was
a representative, so the last man, Adam, was a representative
man. Adam represented all men. And as the scripture says, in
Adam, all die. Christ represented all who were
in Him, who were chosen in Him, who were given unto Him, and
in Christ shall all be made alive. He had done all things well. He glorified the Father. When He came into this world,
He came saying, Lo, I come. Do thy will, O God. He did all
things well. Number two is the second thing. He witnessed a good confession
to God. Look with me, if you will, in
1 Timothy just a moment. He glorified God. Yes, he did
that well. Also, he witnessed a good confession. to God. In 1 Timothy chapter
6, the Apostle Paul said to Timothy,
I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things
and Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession
or profession. When he stood before Pilate,
when he was brought before Pilate, he witnessed a good confession. But some understand this text
as saying that he witnessed a good confession under the reign of
Pontius Pilate. Because the Lord exercised his
ministry under the reign of Pilate. All of his ministry under his
reign of Pilate. And he witnessed a good confession. It is true when he stood before
Pilate, he witnessed to Pilate both by what he said and what
he didn't say. Pilate asked him, are thou the
king of the Jews? And he confessed. He said, thou
sayest, which means I am. That's what he confessed. But
he also at the same time told Pilate, my kingdom is not of
this world. And then Pilate asked him this,
hearst thou not how many things they witness against thee? Here
you have these Jewish priests and scribes and they were witnessing,
they were testifying against the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ answered not a word. He didn't defend himself. The scripture had prophesied
concerning him he was oppressed and he was afflicted, and yet
he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth
not his mouth. So he witnessed a good confession
before Pilate, literally, and during the reign of Pilate, when
he exercised his ministry, he witnessed a good confession.
In Revelation chapter one, in verse five, that's one of his
titles. That's one of the titles of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
faithful witness, the faithful witness. He hath done all things
well. He witnessed a good confession. Number three, he revealed God. He glorified God. He witnessed
a good confession. He revealed God. You're very
familiar with John 14, nine, when he said, he that has seen
me has seen the father. Remember that this was said about
the Lord Jesus Christ, the God man. You have seen me, you have
seen the Father. This testimony was said about
Him. He hath done all things well.
The God-Man, He hath done all things well. He has revealed
God. John, in his first epistle, tells
us two things about God. He said, God is light, holy,
just, righteous in every way. God is love, gracious, and merciful. He revealed God. Hanging upon
the tree, he revealed God. There's God's darling son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and yet we see God is light, God is just,
God is righteous, and even when his son was paying the penalty
of sin for his people, The Lord poured out his judgment upon
Christ. He reveals God, and he reveals
God is love, doesn't he? Hanging on that tree, he that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall
he not freely with him give us all things? You see His light,
just, righteous, holy. You see His love, gracious, merciful. Yes, He revealed God. He had
done all things well. And lastly, He redeemed His church unto God. He had done all things well. We read in the book of Revelation
that the ransomed in heaven, they sing to the Lamb, Thou worthy,
for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. When the Lord
Jesus Christ was there upon that cross and at the close of his
life, when he saw that everything had been fulfilled, he said,
I thirst. That was prophesied of him. And
then with a loud voice, he cried, It is finished. Redemption. Redemption is finished. Nothing more need nor can be
added to his redemption of his people. He didn't make salvation
possible. He saved his people. He had done all things well. That's the reason we like to
worship him and sing of him, isn't it? Because of who he is
and because of what he has done. He's done all things well. Most
of us men, we couldn't say I've done anything well. We've tried. But he's done it all for everything. Isn't that amazing? Everything. He hath done all things well. We're going to sing a hymn before
we are dismissed in prayer, number 252, Only