Mark 7:31-37

[0:00] Good evening again. Be in the New Testament this evening in the Gospel of Mark chapter 7.

[0:10] But we'll be backing up a chapter this evening to Mark chapter 7.

[0:36] You all, I'm sure, have heard me say that there are a couple of different names given to the Gospel of Mark. Some call it the Gospel of Servitude. Some call it the Gospel of Miracles because there's more miracles recorded in Mark's Gospel than the other two synoptic Gospels.

[0:55] Mark hits the ground running with his Gospel. You go to Mark chapter 1, verse 1. Christ is immediately referred to as the Son of God. And then, as I said, Mark hits the ground running proving that Christ is the Son of God.

[1:12] If you all remember, though, when I talked from Mark 8 a few weeks back, I told you the Gospel of Mark could kind of be divided into two sections. really, you've got the first eight or so chapters, or seven or so chapters, excuse me, of, you know, the question of who is Christ.

[1:35] And you have the last half of the Gospel of Mark. Christ's identity is very obvious whom He is. But the last half of it is what do we do with this Christ?

[1:49] And you can really divide the Gospel of Mark like that. But Mark, again, chapter 1, in the very first verse, He refers to Jesus as the Son of God.

[2:00] And we see many things happen in the following chapters. We see sick folks healed. We see demons cast out. We see all kinds of things go on in those chapters.

[2:13] And then we get to chapter 7, and we see really an issue, or the issue, the issue not being an outward thing, but the issue being an inward thing.

[2:26] If you read the first several verses of Mark in chapter 7, you see that some of the higher-ups in the religious community are coming against Christ, coming against His disciples, because they eat with unwashing hands.

[2:41] And, of course, Christ sets them straight on that. Then Christ goes into Gentile territory and begins some works there. And that's actually where we'll be tonight in the last few verses of the Gospel of Mark in chapter 7.

[2:57] But I thank God that we have the account of Christ. Yes, He's around the Jews. Yes, He came for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. We know that from the Gospel accounts.

[3:09] We know that from Jesus' own words. And I get that. But I thank God that Christ also entered into Gentile territory and showed that the blessing wasn't just for one narrow group of people.

[3:26] The blessing was for everyone. God told Abraham way over in Genesis that through the nation Israel, all nations of the world would be blessed. And we all know that Jesus Christ was a Jew that's coming from the nation of Israel.

[3:40] And through Jesus Christ, all the world can be blessed. But all that being said, we'll be in the Gospel of Mark chapter 7, beginning at verse 31. It says, 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.

[3:59] 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.

[4:13] And He spit and touched His tongue. And looking up to heaven, He sighed and saith unto Him, Ephatha, that is, be open.

[4:24] And straightway His ears were opened, and the string of His tongue was loose. 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.

[4:39] And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Back to verse 31. It says, And again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, Gentile territories, mind you, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, He came unto the Sea of Galilee back into Jewish territory through the midst of the coast of Decapolis.

[5:05] Now folks, if we're not real careful, we'll miss something in this verse here. We'll miss something very important. Again, He departed from the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

[5:15] If you look at a map of this area, back then, you'll see Tyre here, you'll see Sidon to the north. It says He departed from their coast, from the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

[5:29] And He came unto the Sea of Galilee. So if Tyre is here, Sidon is north of there, the Sea of Galilee is right down here. Decapolis is east of the Sea of Galilee.

[5:40] And if you read this the way that it's written, 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.

[5:52] Jesus was not taking a straight route to the Sea of Galilee. Again, you have Tyre and Sidon to the north. You have Tyre, you have Sidon further north. You have the Sea of Galilee to the southeast of there.

[6:04] And you have Decapolis to the east of there. Christ was taking a long way. In fact, if you look at a map, it's between 60 and 90 miles out of the way that He was going to go through Decapolis to get to the Sea of Galilee.

[6:19] But I praise God that this was not because Jesus Christ was lost. It is not because He did not know His way. It's not because He was just wandering around, wondering where the road might lead.

[6:32] Jesus Christ is very intentional in everything that He does. He was intentional in departing the coast of Tyre and Sidon. He was intentional in going through Decapolis first, completely passing by the Sea of Galilee to go to the regions of Decapolis, a Greek-speaking region there, to go back to the Sea of Galilee.

[6:52] But there was a man in Decapolis that needed a touch from Jesus Christ. Folks, this is no different than the account that we have in John chapter 4 when Jesus goes straight through Samaria, a way that the Jews forbid to go, a way that the Jews, they would go around Samaria adding to their travel time to get to where they were going.

[7:16] And Jesus Christ went straight through Samaria. Why? Because there was going to be a woman there at a well at a specific time, on a specific day. And Jesus Christ had means and she had need to meet Him, to talk with Him, and to receive salvation.

[7:32] This man here in the Decapolis region had need to meet Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ took a long way about to meet that need. I'm happy to tell you, church, that sometimes the way might seem long, the way might seem dreary, the way might seem out of the way for you.

[7:50] You might say, why are all these twists and turns going on in my life? Why is this happening unto me? But Jesus Christ knows exactly where you're at. He knows exactly what to do and when to do it.

[8:02] Hallelujah! We've got to wait on Jesus. We've got to wait on Jesus. And that's something that we've been conditioned by the world not to do. We're not to wait.

[8:13] Some of you may have heard me say before, our patience over the years, over the decades, our patience has been whittled away at. We expect everything immediately. We expect instant gratification and I blame much of that on the microwave oven and on drive-thrus.

[8:29] Because we go to a drive-thru window and we expect we give our money to the person at the first window within 30 seconds we should have our food. If we don't, we start getting antsy. If we throw something in the microwave, we expect it to be warm in just a minute or two.

[8:45] If it's not, we start to get antsy. And folks, we expect Jesus to be like that. And Jesus is not like that. Jesus works on His own time, on His own schedule.

[8:55] But folks, I praise God that it is all for His glory and it is for our benefit that He does so. Jesus Christ taking a massively long way around to reach this man at Decapolis.

[9:10] And think about who He's dragging along with Him. The disciples. And I'm sure every one of them were thinking, why are we going this way? Why are we going north to get southeast? Basically be what they're, what they would be thinking of here.

[9:22] Think about, think about some of the roadways around here. Think about from here to Charlotte. There's several different ways we can get from here to Charlotte. You can take 421, you can hit 321, you can go to Charlotte that way, four, four and a half hours, you're there, depending on how much of a law-abiding citizen you are.

[9:40] But, you can also take other ones, you can take NCA, you can take NC 101, you can actually add to that time, but that's a more scenic route. Me, I just want to get there. I want to shoot up 81 to Wiffle, hit 77, and go down to Charlotte, and I'm there in three hours.

[9:56] But folks, Jesus Christ knew there was going to be a man here, and He knew when that man would be there. Now, Jesus Christ being omnipotent, Jesus Christ being omniscient, He could have changed anything in the schedule.

[10:10] He could have done anything He wanted. He could have caused that man to materialize where He wanted, when He wanted Him there. But Jesus meets us in our need, in His time.

[10:23] He meets us in our need, in our culture. We talked about that when I was teaching from Mark 8 a few weeks ago. He met that blind man. He met him spiritually, He met him physically, and He met him culturally.

[10:37] and He is doing the exact same thing with this deaf man here that is brought to Him. Verse 32, it says, 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.

[10:52] Think about this man here. This man has a weakness. He can't hear clearly. He can't speak clearly. And not only that, not only does he have these weaknesses about him, these infirmities about him, the folks that took other people to bring him to Jesus Christ.

[11:10] You can flip back a few chapters to Mark 2 and read about another account where people brought a man to Jesus Christ and lowered him through the roof of the place that Jesus Christ was in so that Jesus Christ could touch him.

[11:24] I praise God for people like that. I praise God for those that will carry me to Christ when I feel like I can't get there. People will carry me there in prayer. They will carry me there in encouragement.

[11:37] Folks, if you've never had a problem getting a prayer through, God bless you and I'm happy for you. But I have. I've been there. I've been in those shoes. But I thank God for the people with enough faith that they can carry me to the Savior in their prayers and in their encouragement and several other ways.

[11:56] Folks, sometimes the greatest faith in the room isn't the one who keeps trudging forward. It's the one who carries the ones that cannot trudge forward at that time. That's the greatest faith sometimes.

[12:08] And I thank God for people like that. These people, it says, 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.

[12:19] They're beseeching Christ. They're begging Christ to place your hand upon this man. Obviously, these people in Decapolis had heard of this man, had heard of this man, Jesus. They had heard of the miracles.

[12:29] They had heard of this rabbi from Galilee. They had heard of this great teacher. And they bring this deaf man and this man with the speech impediment to Jesus. Verse 33, And He took him aside from the multitude and He put His fingers into His ears and He spit and touched His tongue.

[12:48] Verse 3, it says, And He took him aside from the multitude. What happened in Mark 8 when I talked from that a few weeks ago? Jesus took that man away from the crowd and He does the exact same thing here.

[12:59] Folks, Jesus does not treat us like we're a category. He treats us individually. He saves us individually. He saved me from sin that He didn't save you from.

[13:10] But regardless, He saved all of us from sin. But He treats us individually. And after salvation, hey, that doesn't cease to be one single bit.

[13:21] Jesus continues to treat us individually. I may have needs in my life that you may not have and you may have needs in your life that I may not have. Jesus comes to us personally.

[13:32] And sometimes He has to take us out of the way. Sometimes He has to take us out out of the view so that we're not a spectacle. So that He can deal with us privately. Folks, there's folks like that all throughout the Bible like that.

[13:45] Tell you what, when Jacob wrestled with God, he didn't have a big crowd of people standing there watching him. He was all by himself doing that. Moses, when God was dealing with Moses, Moses was talking about his impediment.

[13:59] This man here had an impediment. He said, Lord, I have a stutter. I can't talk right. God sent him anyway. God dealt with him personally. On His level, He said, that's alright, you can't talk right.

[14:11] I'll send Aaron along with you. And that's what He did. And Moses went on to do what God would have him to do. God deals with each one of us personally. Personally. And I thank God for that.

[14:23] It's not the same with you as it is with me. Now, is it the same God? Absolutely. He is the same God. He is the same Savior.

[14:34] And He has the same salvation for everyone who has been redeemed. You can't be saved any more than I am saved and I can't be saved any more than you are saved. But He deals with us and He helps us and He grows us all individually according to us.

[14:52] Folks, it's personal care that Christ gives us. It's personal care that He has given this man here. He takes him out of the way of the cross and He took him aside from the multitude.

[15:04] But not only do we have the personal care here that Jesus is showing this man by taking him away just him and Jesus. And I'm sure the disciples were there too because the disciples went everywhere with Jesus.

[15:16] but Jesus takes him to the side and He put His fingers into His ears and He spit and touched His tongue. It's also the method that Christ uses for us individually.

[15:32] He might help you. We might have the same problem. We might have very similar situations but God may help you through it in a different way or by a different method than what He does me.

[15:46] And vice versa. God, again, He helps us individually. He helps us according to what we need and how we need it.

[15:57] And according to how it's going to glorify Him. That's how God helps. This method that He opened up these deaf ears on this man says He stuck his fingers in his ears and then He spit and then He touched the man's tongue.

[16:14] He touched his tongue. Now, people say, ooh, that's nasty. That's nasty. Christ's Spirit. Nowhere in this account do I read where He spit on His finger and touched the man's tongue.

[16:25] Is that what happened? I don't know. I don't know. But either way, the man was healed. The man received what he was needing at that time. And Christ knew exactly what to do and how to do it.

[16:37] Again, Christ met this man much like the blind man in chapter 8. He met him physically. He met him spiritually. And he met him culturally. And that's exactly what he was doing with this man here.

[16:49] And folks, Christ met me all those different ways. He met me physically. He met me spiritually. And he met me culturally. He met me right in the midst of a world that hates God.

[17:02] He met me in a spiritual state where I hated anything that had to do with God. And he met me physically right here in this body. And showed me what kind of shape I was in.

[17:14] Showed me what I needed to do. I repented of my ways believing on Jesus Christ and I received salvation. Hallelujah. But it took Christ meeting me like that.

[17:25] Folks, Lazarus didn't just pop out of that grave on his own. It took Christ saying, Lazarus, come forth! And that's when Lazarus came forth. It's how we need it and when we need it and how Christ does it for us as individuals.

[17:45] He didn't heal all the blind people the same way. Mark chapter 8, he healed that fellow in two different stages. The other blind people he healed, instantaneous. Instantaneously, they were healed.

[17:58] The leper that no one would come near Christ touched him and he was healed. He met that man in his need. He met him exactly where he was at spiritually, physically, and culturally.

[18:13] He met him there. And folks, he meets us the same way. He met this man here the same way. He took him aside from the multitude and he put his fingers in his ears and he spit and touched his tongue.

[18:26] It was not only the fact that he took him away so it could just be him and Jesus. But it's also the method that he used. It was very personal.

[18:37] And it is very personal between me and you. As far as salvation goes, folks, we are all saved by the same blood. But again, once we are saved, how God deals with us in our needs is very individual.

[18:49] He deals with us individually as far as salvation goes. He convicts you of sin. He convicts me of sin. But the salvation is the same for everyone who repents and believes.

[19:00] Verse 34, this, in Spencer's humble opinion, is the most important verse in this entire passage of Scripture. Now, all of it's important, but this, this is the hinge of the entire passage.

[19:16] Verse 34, And looking up to heaven, he sighed and saith unto him, Ephatha, that is, be open. And looking up to heaven, folks, Christ is modeling something for us here.

[19:32] Christ is God. There is no doubt about that. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. Christ Himself made that abundantly clear. But Christ here is in His humanity.

[19:44] Do not forget that. So Christ, Christ, it says, He looked up to heaven. It says, and looking up to heaven, He is modeling for us to realize where divine salvation, where divine healing, where divine mercy comes from.

[20:01] He is modeling for us to see that. It's no different than when He was feeding the thousands and He thanked God for it. Folks, He was showing us what to do.

[20:12] He was thanking the Father for the bread and for the fish. Yes. But He was also modeling for us how we should be acting. And here is no different.

[20:23] And looking up to heaven, He is recognizing God the Father. He is recognizing where power comes from. He is recognizing where deliverance comes from.

[20:34] We must remember that. I praise God for medicine. I praise God for all kinds of things. But folks, without God, all that stuff is useless.

[20:47] God is the one who gave people the knowledge to make those things and to utilize those things. God is the one who gave the people the wisdom to use those things and the wisdom to do surgeries, the wisdom to do procedures, the wisdom to do all of these things.

[21:04] If not for God, allowing man to have that wisdom, folks, most of us have been dead a long time ago if we're real honest with ourselves. But He looks up to heaven.

[21:15] Christ here looks up to heaven. He sighed. That's important. Why is it so important that Christ sighed? Folks, this was not a sigh of regret that He had come to Decapolis.

[21:29] And it was not a sigh that He was sick and tired of these people coming to Him bringing Him sick folks, bringing Him defective folks, bringing Him people with infirmity and Him having to heal.

[21:41] That's not what this sigh was. Jesus Christ sighed. Jesus Christ sighed because the Maker of this world was witnessing and feeling the weight of what sin had done to the world.

[21:54] Without sin, this man would have never been dead. Without sin, this man would have never had an impediment. I'm not talking about this man's personal sin. I'm talking about sin in general. Without sin, none of us would have any disease.

[22:08] Without sin, we wouldn't have to have eyeglasses. Without sin, we would need none of these things. But folks, sin is the reason all of these things are here now. That's why John the Revelator could write that in heaven there will be no sorrow.

[22:24] There will be no death. There will be no heartache. There will be none of those things in heaven because sin will not be there. There is no such thing as heartache in a place that is absent of sin.

[22:38] Praise God. We're not only going to a place where we will live forever, but we are going to a place where we will no longer be tempted. We will no longer have sin all around us.

[22:50] The devil sure ain't going to be there tempting us. None of the demons are going to be there tempting us. And we won't be in this particular flesh to be tempted by the flesh.

[23:01] We're going to a perfect place to live with a perfect God with a people that He has made perfect with His own blood. Think of that. But He sighed. Christ sighed because He was feeling the weight of what sin had done to His creation.

[23:19] Not only the world, but to this particular man and to all of those that He had been helping, that He had been healing. Christ feeling the weight of that. And He sighed. It says He looked up to heaven.

[23:30] He sighed and saith unto Him, Ephatha. That is, be opened. One word in the Aramaic. Ephatha.

[23:42] One word. When we translate it into English, it becomes two words. Be opened. But folks, this is one word spoken by Christ to a man that we don't know how long he had been deaf.

[23:54] We don't know how long he'd had a speech impediment. We can rightfully assume because he had a speech impediment that at one time he had at least had his hearing or maybe he had had just very, very partial hearing all of his life and that's what caused the speech impediment because he was repeating things how he heard them.

[24:12] But regardless of any of that, one word, one word from one Savior, Ephatha, one word he spoke, but it was with absolute authority that he spoke it.

[24:29] You or I, one could have been there and we could have spoke the exact same word and nothing would have happened. But folks, this is no different than Genesis chapter 1 when Almighty God said, let there be light and the Bible says there was light.

[24:43] Hey, when God speaks, things change. When God speaks, things happen. Hallelujah! And it doesn't take a whole paragraph for it. He spoke one word and this man's ears were unstopped and his tongue was loosed and it says he spoke plainly.

[25:02] And folks, it was instant. It was instantaneous the healing that this man received from one word from a man, from a Savior, from God who had absolute authority.

[25:16] Folks, when God speaks into your life, it doesn't matter how long you've been sick. It doesn't matter how long you've suffered. It doesn't matter what kind of problems you've had or how long you have had them.

[25:28] When God speaks, that disappears. When it is God's time, that disappears. Whether it be in this life or whether it be in the next, it will disappear sooner or later.

[25:40] Our problem is we want it to be sooner rather than later. We don't want to wait on God. We want it to be done in our time. Under our conditions.

[25:52] Our stipulations. But God's got a much better plan. A far greater plan than you or I could ever muster up in our little finite minds.

[26:03] Looking up to heaven, He sighed and saith unto Him, Ephatha, that is, be opened. And straightway, straightway, immediately, and straightway His ears were opened and the string of His tongue was loose and He spake plainly.

[26:20] Folks, it is immediate when it happens. Now, you may read this story and you may say, you know, I've been sick for a while. This has been going on. That's been going on. I feel a little bit better now.

[26:31] But I'm still waiting on the finality of it. I'm still waiting to be completely well or completely whole or completely cured or whatever the case is. Folks, it's in God's timing when that happens.

[26:45] And you read this and it's happening immediately. Folks, when God says it's over, it's over. It is over. And there is no demon that knows that hell is home can do anything about it.

[26:57] Satan himself cannot stop it. When God speaks it, it will happen. It will happen. This man here being deaf and having his deaf ears unstopped.

[27:11] Folks, remember, this was a Gentile region that he was in. Decapolis was a region of several smaller Greek-speaking cities. Mostly Gentiles.

[27:24] And here was Jesus Christ fulfilling a prophecy that was spoken to Jewish people in the book of Isaiah in chapter 35. God told His own people there.

[27:37] He said, Speak unto them that have a fearful heart. Be strong and fear not. God will come and save you. He says, Your God will come and He will save you.

[27:51] And this is Christ in Gentile territory doing that very thing to Gentiles that knew nothing about the book of Isaiah. Gentiles that knew nothing about that prophecy.

[28:04] The very next verse there, that was Isaiah 35.4. Isaiah 35.5 says, And the blind eyes shall be opened and the deaf ears shall be unstopped. And Christ is fulfilling that prophecy here.

[28:18] Here. In a Gentile region. To a man that knew nothing about that prophecy. That's encouraging. That's encouraging, folks. Again, God didn't come to save just a few people from a certain sect.

[28:35] He came to save everyone. He came to save all of humanity. As Brother CJ quoted this morning and I've quoted many times myself, it's not His will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

[28:50] That's the will of God. Is that all be saved. But we know from the scriptural account that will not be, that has not been, nor will it be on into the future. But immediately this man was cured.

[29:02] Verse 36, 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.

[29:12] Hey, folks, when we truly see Christ do something, it's going to flow out of us. One way, shape, form, or fashion. When I was lost, I didn't think nothing about Christ.

[29:27] Except how much I disliked His people. That's all I thought about Christ. But folks, when I got saved, and when I saw what Christ's done in me, and done with me, and has done through me, folks, I have no choice but to praise God.

[29:43] I have no choice but to praise His name for what He has done, because I know who I was, I know where I came from, and I know that if I had been God, I wouldn't have saved someone like me.

[29:55] But God in His mercy, and God in His long-suffering, and God in His patience, and God in His love, and His kindness, and in His perfect plan of salvation, came to where I was, and met me in my greatest need, and saved my soul.

[30:12] Just like He done with this man here. But folks, these folks that were around, these were witnesses. These were witnesses as to what Christ had done. Now I understand.

[30:23] Previously in the Scripture, it says, Christ took this man away from the multitude. But folks, the man couldn't stay away from the multitude. It says that his ears were unstopped, the string of his tongue was loosed.

[30:36] Sooner or later, He had to go back to him, and I would imagine it was pretty immediately, because people could obviously hear Him speaking plainly as the Scripture says. And it says, and He charged them, who's them?

[30:47] The people that were around. 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. Hey, when you see Christ working your life, or when you see Christ working the life of someone you've been praying for, hey, publish it to the world.

[31:05] Publish it to the church. Tell everyone about the goodness of Almighty God. Are we not instructed to praise God? Are we not instructed to praise Him in all things?

[31:16] Are we not instructed to seek Him in all things? Folks, praise God for what you see Him do. But not only in your own life, in the life of others. Many times, many times, I've prayed for people, whether it was for salvation, whether it was for a need that they have, whether it was for health, or whatever the case was, and God delivers.

[31:37] How can we hold that back? How can we hold that back? Folks, that is proof to us. That is affirmation to us and confirmation to us that God hears our prayer and He acts on behalf of His people while not praising for it.

[31:53] I ain't saying you have to cut a shine. I ain't saying you have to make a spectacle of yourself. But you can praise God. And you should praise God and I should praise God for what He has done in not only our own lives, but in the lives of others.

[32:08] Verse 37, And we're beyond measure astonished. I can understand that. Again, we don't know how long this man was deaf.

[32:18] But these people brought a deaf man with a speech impediment to Christ. They knew His problem. They knew what was going on with Him.

[32:30] They knew He was deaf. They knew about the string around His tongue or His speech impediment, however you want to phrase it. They knew about it. It says, And they were beyond measure astonished.

[32:41] Christ had worked a miracle before them. Christ had unstopped His deaf ears. And Christ had taken the string off of His tongue. And this man was now speaking plainly.

[32:52] And they were astonished. Folks, I get astonished every time I think about the day the Lord saved me. But not only me. The day that He saves anyone.

[33:05] That God would even want to save anyone. That astonishes me. And that drives me to praise Him. It drives me to praise Him that God, knowing what kind of creatures we are, knowing how filthy, rotten, and nasty, and wicked, and evil we are, every one of us, that He would still send His only begotten Son into the world that we could be saved.

[33:34] That astonishes me. That astonishes me. I've told many people, many different occasions, that the Bible is full of astonishing tales.

[33:45] The Bible has many miracles in it. This being one of them. Chapter 8, the blind man being healed. But we read in the book of Exodus where God parts the Red Sea.

[33:56] We read in the book of Joshua where He parts the river so they can go on into the promised land. We read about Daniel being in the lion's den, coming out unscathed.

[34:07] We read about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into the fiery furnace, coming out with not even the smell of smoke on them. We read about Jonah going down into the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea while he's inside a fish and nothing happened to him as far as his life was concerned.

[34:23] And these are all miraculous things. But the most miraculous thing in all of Scripture is that God would save my soul. That is the greatest miracle miracle in this entire book that He would save me.

[34:39] And that should be the greatest miracle for you that He would save you. But folks, that is the love of the God that we have is the love for His creation that He has.

[34:49] That is the God that we have that would reach down, that would meet us wherever we are, meet us in our sin. I'm not saying be a partaker in our sin, but knowing exactly what we've done and who we've done it with and how long we've done it and He would still reach down to that filth and pick us up to establish our goings by setting our feet upon a solid rock.

[35:12] Hallelujah. That's the greatest miracle of Scripture. That He would save us. They were beyond measure astonished saying, He hath done all things well.

[35:25] He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Folks, these witnesses to what had happened here, they weren't lying.

[35:37] They said, He hath done all things well. But they don't understand the weight of what they said. They did not understand it 2,000 years ago.

[35:47] All they really know is that Christ put His fingers in the star's ear. He touched His tongue. And the man was no longer deaf. And the string of His tongue was loose.

[35:58] And He spoke plainly. That's all they knew. They did not understand the weight of what they said when they said, He hath done all things well. All things well.

[36:09] Again, we go back to verse 31. We think about Christ departing the coast of Tyre and Sidon to go to the Sea of Galilee. But He stops in Decapolis.

[36:20] Not along the way, but outside of the way. Hey folks, that weight, that long way around, He did that well. The weight for the healing for this man, He did that well.

[36:33] He done all of it well. Jesus Christ does everything well. Everything that He does is right. Everything that He does is good. And everything that He does is well.

[36:45] God looked down upon the earth at the very end of Genesis 1. The very last verse. It says, He looked down. He saw that everything that He did was very good.

[36:57] And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Everything that He did was very good. And that says something about the fall of Satan, but we won't get into that. But everything that He did was very good.

[37:11] What is Christ doing here? What happened just a couple of chapters after God said that in Genesis 1? The fall happened. The fall happened just two chapters later.

[37:25] What is Christ here doing? These people said everything that He's done, He hath done all things well. Christ is restoring. Christ is restoring what was lost in the garden.

[37:38] God said at the end of Genesis 1 that everything was very good. The fall happens two chapters later and Christ here showing the restoration of what was lost in Genesis 3.

[37:53] Again, folks, this man would have never been dead. He would have never had a speech impediment had it not been for sin. Christ showing that He is the one that is able to restore everything that was lost in Genesis 3.

[38:13] The perfect world that God created was lost because man chose to rebel against God. Man did not believe the Word of God.

[38:24] Man did not believe the commandment of God. Man did not believe the one law that God laid down for Adam and Eve. Don't eat the fruit of that tree.

[38:34] for in that day you shall surely die. And they did not believe that they were deceived. Eve was deceived. She brought it to her husband.

[38:46] He was deceived. And the fall of mankind happened. And Christ here is restoring what was lost. And folks, that restoration is ongoing.

[38:58] And one of these, the Bible says, the Bible plainly says that the very earth groans for her rebirth. Because the very earth was cursed by Almighty God.

[39:09] Folks, that restoration has not reached its completion, but it will in God's time again. And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well.

[39:20] He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Folks, again, God comes to you in whatever need that it is that you have. And He comes in His own time.

[39:32] And what God speaks, the same God, the same God that here said, Ephatha, be open. The same Christ that spoke those words is the same Christ that speaks life into a dead soul.

[39:48] He's the same Christ that speaks life into someone who is dead in their trespasses and sin. It's the same voice. It's the same God. It's the same Savior and it's the same Christ.

[40:01] And it has the same effect. When Christ saves your soul, when Christ saves your soul, He is saying, well, first, before He saves, He says, be open to that heart.

[40:17] Why? Because our hearts are hard. Our hearts are hard as human beings. And they grow harder and harder and harder. But when Christ says, be open, and that Word and that Spirit gets in there and it shows us who we are, it shows us who God is, when Christ does that, folks, it demands, it demands something.

[40:49] It demands that there be a response of some kind. He hath done all things well is the Word of these folks. Folks, salvation, Christ has done well.

[41:02] He hath done all things well. The plan of salvation He has done well. I'm sure that that city He's got up yonder waiting on us, He has done well. What little bit we can read about it in Scripture, it sounds awfully well to me.

[41:16] But folks, everything, He has done well. We need to remember that not only did He do all things well for this man. He has done all things well on our account for our salvation, for our redemption, for our reconciliation with God.

[41:31] All these things are done well. The question is, has He said that to you? Has He said be open? Has He said epithet? Has He opened that heart that you might see who He is?

[41:46] That you might receive the Word? That you might be convicted? That you might be saved? I tell you now, if you've never been convicted, you've never received salvation. It's an impossibility.

[41:58] It's an impossibility. You have to realize your need. And the only way to realize that need is to be shown by God who you are and what that need is.

[42:08] That need of salvation through and by Jesus Christ. That's tonight's message. God bless you all. I appreciate your attention.