Now we are reading from Mark chapter 7
this morning, nice to see you all.
Although the numbers are on the wane, maybe
the blessing is increasing, I trust so.
You know in our homiletics courses that we
give in our various colleges, we always get
the students to take their turn in preaching
in the lecture room.
And they have to give a sermon before
the principal and the students.
And the students criticise them afterwards.
It's always constructive criticism, at least it's supposed
to be.
If one student gets up and gives a
bit of destructive criticism, woe betide him when
it's his turn to preach.
It really gets it in the neck.
And one student was very nervous, well they
all are of course, but I tell them,
I said, if you can learn to preach
in front of this critical crowd, you can
preach anywhere.
And one student very nervously got up and
he said, he said, I do feel a
bit out of place here this morning, giving
this sermon in the lecture room with the
principal here and you here.
He says, I feel as though I'm in
between the devil and the deep blue sea.
You know what I said after that?
First time in my life I've ever been
likened to the deep blue sea.
Yes, well it isn't difficult to preach in
this chapel, in this assembly.
I find it very easy, as a matter
of fact sometimes it comes too easy.
And I get too much liberty and I
get going too much.
And some people, as a result of my
ministry I understand, need the touch of the
Lord on their ears.
Been deafened a little bit, I'm apologised for
that.
But we have this, it all comes up
in our chapter 7 this morning, you know,
about the man who was deaf and the
Lord touched his ear and he was dumb.
One of our students, who is the grandson
of Fred Stanley Arnott, ever heard of Fred
Stanley Arnott?
Well his grandson Sam came to England to
do the course at Moorlands.
And I said, Sam it's your turn to
preach next week in class.
And this was going to be very difficult
for Sam, he realised.
Lest the Lord undertook for him, because Sam
stammered like the man in our portion today.
He got a stammering tongue and couldn't hold
a conversation, couldn't preach or pray without stammering.
Anyway, he made a very special matter of
prayer for it a week.
I gave him a very simple text to
preach from.
And he didn't spend the time in analysing
the text and getting out a sermon.
He spent the time in prayer for a
week, asking God to help him to preach.
And you know, I said, Sam it's your
turn.
And he got up, he hung on to
this, and he went like a shot from
a gun.
And he never stopped till the end, and
he never stammered once, and he hasn't stammered
since.
Wasn't that good?
Real touch from the Lord that day.
So he wasn't in between the devil and
the deep blue sea, was he?
He was in the Lord's control, that makes
all the difference.
All right, now let us read a few
verses from Mark 7.
Hope you'll find this interesting and helpful this
morning.
Verse 1.
Then came together unto Jesus the Pharisees and
certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem.
When they saw some of his disciples eat
bread with defile, that is to say, with
unwashed hands, they found fault.
Verse 6.
He answered and said unto them, Well hath
Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites?
As it is written, This people only lift
me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me.
Verse 9.
And he said unto them, Full well ye
reject the commandment of God, that ye may
keep to your own tradition.
Verse 26.
Now we ought to read a little bit
about this defilement.
Verse 18.
He said unto them, Are you so without
understanding?
Also do you not perceive that whatsoever thing
from without entereth into a man, it cannot
defile him, because it entereth not into his
heart?
And so on.
And verse 20.
That which cometh out of the man, he
said, that defileth the man.
For from within, out of the heart of
men, proceed evil thoughts, adulterous fornications, murderous thefts,
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy,
pride, and foolishness.
All these evil things, thirteen of them, come
from within and defile the man.
Verse 26.
The woman who came to him was a
greekess out of a nation by nation.
She besought him that he would cast forth
the demon out of her daughter.
But Jesus said unto her, Let the children
first be filled.
For it's not meet to give the children's
bread and cast it unto the dogs, or
the little doggies, poodles if you like.
And she answered and said unto him, Yes,
Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat
of the children's crumbs.
And he said unto her, For this saying,
Go thy way, the devil, the demon, is
gone out of thy daughter.
You know I changed that word, because it
isn't really correct translation from the Greek, because
there's only one devil, but there are many
demons.
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.
And he took him aside from the multitude
and put his fingers into his ears, and
he spat and touched his tongue, and he,
and looking up to heaven, he sighed and
saith unto him, Ephapha, that is, be open.
Straightway his ears were open, and the string
of his tongue was loosed, and he spake
plain.
He charged them that they should tell no
man, but the more he charged them so,
the much the more a great deal they
published it, were beyond measure astonished, saying, He
hath done all things well.
He maketh both the deaf to hear and
the dumb to speak.
And that, as you noticed from the outline,
is our subject as well as our text
this morning.
He hath done all things well.
He maketh both the deaf to hear and
the dumb to speak.
So may the Lord bless to us his
precious word and the reading thereof.
I spurned his love, I broke his laws,
and yet he undertook my cause, he saved
me, though I did rebel, my Jesus hath
done all things well.
When to that bright world I rise and
claim my mansion in the skies, above the
rest this note shall swell, my Jesus hath
done all things well.
And this is what they said when they
saw the mighty works of God manifested in
Christ.
He was anointed with the Holy Ghost and
with power, and went about doing good.
And all that he did, he did it
very, very well.
Blessings abounded wherever he went.
The prisoner leaped to loose his chains, the
weary found eternal rest, and all the sons
of want were blessed at the touch of
the powerful hand of the Son of.
Now notice therefore, in our portion this morning,
taking it in order as we read it
through, the traditionalist is shown up, and the
hypocrite is blown up, and the humble person
is raised up, and the deaf ear is
opened up, and the dumb tongue is loosened
up, and in the middle of the chapter
he speaks about pollution, the worst pollution in
the world, in the hearts of men, which
must be cleaned up.
And so at the conclusion of the chapter
it says he hath done all things well,
speaking particularly of the dumb person being made
to speak, and the deaf man, the same
man being made to hear.
But all that he did was very good.
Now God is almighty, and God is love.
When you were coming in this morning, the
chapel piano was playing.
I should say the pianist this morning was
playing for us on the piano, to put
it the right way round, this is not
a pianola, you don't just turn the handle,
we have a pianist here, and the message
was, if you've noticed it, God hath done
great things for us.
No, it was, praise the Lord, great things
he hath done.
Now here it says, the Lord hath done
all things well.
Well God, when God does anything, he does
great things because he's almighty, and he does
good things because he is love.
And so that was the message which we
started with, and this is the one we
continue with, he hath done all things well.
When God made the world, and all that
in them is, you remember, God saw that
it was good.
Except of course when he came and made
man, and then it says it was not
good.
Well not at that stage, because man was
incomplete.
It was not good that man should be
alone.
So he brought the woman to the man,
and then that was good.
I'd like to give a little sermon on
that, because you're interested in that, aren't you?
You see if a man had been left
alone, that would have been an oddity.
If the woman had been left alone, that
would have been a pity.
But God brought the woman to the man,
and that was a trinity of blessedness.
And if it's you and her, or you
and him plus the Lord, well that's the
secret of the marriage union blessing.
Well now, don't ask me to marry you,
because I haven't got any time.
Although we love these happy occasions.
Well now, I was going to say, as
the text says, he hath done all things
well.
In Revelation 4, in relation to creation.
It says, for thy pleasure we were and
are created.
At the end of chapter 4, you see
there's a great contrast with chapter 5, you
know that.
Everybody in the morning meeting reads chapter 5,
nobody reads chapter 4 of Revelation.
We worship God for what he is, in
chapter 4, and we worship Christ for what
he's done, in chapter 5.
God is the creator, and they worship him
for his creation.
And they said, for thy pleasure we were
and are created.
Worship God is the word, in chapter 4.
And then in chapter 5 it is, worship
Christ for he is the redeemer, worthy as
the lamb that was slain to receive power,
and so on.
So we worship God for all his creation,
and especially when we come to the path
of a path.
And stay here if we can, because all
around speaks of his glory, and his majesty,
and his beauty, and his wisdom, and his
power.
All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord,
inaudibly, but thy saints shall bless thee audibly.
And with a loud voice, I like that
bit, sorry, I must be quiet.
Now, but with a loud voice they gave
praise unto the Lord.
And you know, this is all through the
scriptures, cry aloud and shout to spare none.
And this is why one reason I think
the Lord's called me to the Baha'u'llah,
because you're not a good preacher there if
you can't shout.
And they say, Amen!
And everybody says Amen over there.
You mind, you do it very well here
I must say.
And this audible Amen is a very scriptural
thing in both the Old Testament and the
New Testament.
So I'm glad to hear a bit of
it here too.
But I'm just learning to do it as
they do it in the Bahamas now.
Some of these colored brethren, they have a
unique technique of preaching, you know.
And if I say anything any good, and
they think it's good themselves, you know, they
say just like that, Amen!
And everybody says Amen!
It's marvellous how it works.
They say Amen!
Amen!
Fantastic really.
However, it's a joy.
Well now here you see the Lord Jesus
Christ always did his work well.
He hath done all things well, not only
making the deaf to hear and the blind
to see and the stammering tongue to speak,
but everything he did.
And a matter of fact he said to
his father in his high priestly prayer, I
have finished the work that thou gavest me
to do.
I have glorified thy name.
I have done all things well.
Lo, I come to do thy will, O
my God.
And on the cross, he cried, it is
finished triumphantly.
And the work was done.
Well that's just like the Saviour.
Now let's look at our chapter this morning.
I'm not going to finish early like I
did just in the morning, and I was
intending so to do.
So these first two or three ideas I'm
going through ever so quickly, if you will
forgive me for that as well.
The traditionalist in the first part of the
chapter by the Saviour is shown up.
And so you see in verse two, the
disciples were eating without washing their hands.
And the Lord said to them in verse
nine, you keep your traditions and you reject
the commandments of men.
Now these ablutions were only obligatory on priests
themselves, and they were not for hygienic cleansing,
but for the removal of ceremonial defilement.
And the Pharisees made such a lot of
this, and made it obligatory for all the
people.
And Christ was just showing up how vain
and false was their tradition.
How they strained at a gnat and swallowed
a camel, they kept their traditions and refused
the commandments of men.
It's an easy thing to do.
Actually in brethren circles, I understand some of
you are brethren.
I think this is a good fine expression
of the oneness of the body of Christ
here.
I like it.
Glorifying to the Lord.
Some of you are brethren.
Well that's nice.
I'm one myself.
I was one when I was three weeks
old.
Been going ever since.
Mind you they didn't have me in fellowship
then.
The elders wouldn't allow that.
I was too young.
Mind you God never asked for years.
He only asked for faith.
But I was too young to believe, wasn't
I at that age.
However, you know, especially we are inclined sometimes
to keep to our brethren tradition.
And in one place in your country, only
one so far, they refused me.
And they said that is not in accord
with our brethren principles.
Now you could show them from fifteen hundred
scriptures it was in accord with the word
of God, but they said we're not interested
in what the scriptures is.
It's not in accord with our brethren principles.
Now that's traditionalism, isn't it?
As long as you get back to the
word every time you're safe.
But if you keep to the traditions of
your church, you're very on unsafe ground, on
an unsure foundation.
There is no authority in the traditions of
men.
But there's all the authority of heaven in
the word of the living God.
You keep your tradition, he said, and you
reject the commandments of God.
And so traditionalism is shown up by the
Saviour.
David accepted the tradition of the Philistines once
and he got into a lot of trouble.
And do you know why he did it?
Because he was watching the Philistines and what
they did instead of reading the scriptures and
what was in the word.
And he went home and read the scriptures.
And he confessed his mistake afterwards and he
put everything right and did it according to
the word and not to the traditions of
the Philistines.
So I'll tell you the story, briefly it
must be.
This was the time when they were going
to bring the Ark of the Covenant back
to David's city Zion.
He put a tent up there ready for
it.
And it was in the Philistine, no it
wasn't, it was Beth Shemesh, been in the
Philistine country.
And you remember the Philistines had a lot
of trouble with it.
But they made a very nice new cart
for it.
And Samoxon pulled the cart and took the
place around the Philistine country, you know.
Took the Ark of the Covenant around the
various places in Philistine country.
And it was a nice new cart.
Now all tradition has to start somewhere and
that's where this one started.
And David said, well we'd better go and
bring back this Ark of the Covenant which
the Philistines have kindly sent to Beth Shemesh.
Mind you they didn't bring it, they were
afraid of getting killed.
They just put it on the new cart
and put Samoxon in it and said, whoosh,
go on, move on.
And they started walking and they came up
to Beth Shemesh.
And the men were glad at first and
then they were sorry because they did the
wrong thing not according to the word of
the Lord.
They were very, very careless about this holy
thing.
God says in Leviticus thou shalt not come
nigh to it nor touch it lest thou
die.
However, that's beside the point.
What was I saying?
The Ark of the Covenant was brought back
from Beth Shemesh in the tradition of the
Philistines.
And there was a lot of upset.
And one young fellow lost his life and
David couldn't understand it.
He said, how?
How shall I bring the Ark of God
home to me?
He was really grumbling at God.
It was his own fault.
It accepted the tradition of the Philistines instead
of the commandment of God.
He said, you know what he did?
He said, we won't do any more with
the Ark of the Covenant until I've gone
home and read the scriptures.
So we went home and read the word
and especially Leviticus he read.
Then he came back in chapter 13 and
he said, brethren, he said, it's my fault.
We did this Ark bringing home ceremony in
the wrong way.
We did it according to the tradition of
the Philistines and not after the divine order.
This is, I've been reading the word, this
is the divine order.
There are some poles to go through this
Ark of the Covenant.
Each corner, some poles and we have to
bear the weight of this holy thing upon
our shoulders.
The Levites, the Kohathites, the priests, they have
to bear the weight of it.
Throw the cart away.
Use the oxen no more.
Bear the weight of this holy thing.
Bear the weight.
Take some responsibility.
Get a bit of spiritual burden in yourself.
And so it was, they forsook the Philistine
tradition.
They did it God's way.
The commandment of God.
But now, not only is the tradition has
shown up, but the hypocrite is really blown
up in this same portion.
He says, you're honoring God with your lips,
but your hearts are far from God.
A hypocrite, you see, is a man who
is professing to be what he's not.
They profess to be close to God and
they were far from God.
Now to call Jesus Lord is orthodoxy.
To call Jesus Lord, Lord is piety.
But to call Jesus Lord and do not
the things that he says is hypocrisy.
And Peter had to learn that lesson.
Rise Peter, kill and eat, came the word
of the Lord.
And he said, not so Lord.
You can't say that Peter.
Now that is absolute hypocrisy Peter.
Not so Lord.
If you say not so, you can't say
Lord.
And if you say Lord, you must say
yes, Lord.
If he's not Lord of all, he's not
Lord at all.
To say, to call Jesus Lord is orthodoxy.
To call him Lord, Lord is piety.
Lord and do not the things that he
says is hypocrisy.
Not so Lord.
To never be in the vocabulary of any
believer.
So in vain, he says in verse 7,
in vain you worship God.
Every hypocrite attempts to worship God, professes to
be what he's not, but it's all in
vain.
And of course, this is a great hindrance
to the testimony of true believers.
Now some people say, I'm not going to
be a Christian because there's too many hypocrites.
Well now that's mad, isn't it?
The man says that to me, I say
to him, brother you ought to go and
see your physician.
Get him to test your brain.
It's ridiculous.
You see a hypocrite is a man who
professes to be what he's not.
So if I say, I'm not going to
be a Christian because there's a man down
the road who says he's a Christian and
he's not one, so I'm not going to
be one, that's dull.
And a man says I've got God's blessing
and God's salvation and he hasn't, so I'm
not going to have it.
There's a man that I know or a
woman I know who's not, she's a hypocrite.
So I'm not going to be a Christian.
She is professing to be going to heaven
and I know very well she's going to
hell.
I don't know what the word you use
in your country, what is it crackers?
No.
Eh, it doesn't matter.
You know what I mean.
Plain crazy.
Well I said I'm not going to be
a Christian because of a hypocrite down the
road.
A man professing to be what he's not
and to have what he doesn't possess.
You see a hypocrite is a counterfeit.
You only counterfeit the real thing.
And real Christianity, Christ in the heart is
the real experience.
And you don't counterfeit dimes and nickels do
you?
Not worth it.
But you counterfeit fifty dollar bills, hundred dollar
bills, thousand dollar bills don't you?
Well I don't mean you do but you
know they do.
Worth it?
This is the real, the genuine article.
There's some value in this.
True Christianity.
Knowing Christ and his spirit in the life.
And lots of people pretend that they're in
the blessing whereas they're far from it in
their hearts.
Not only is the tradition has shown up
and the hypocrite blown up.
But here in verses 14 to 16 approximately,
there is the idea of pollution in the
hearts of men which must be cleaned up.
There are 13 forms of pollution, of real
poison that emanates from the hearts of men.
And it's a dreadful list.
The pollution program these days is developing.
We were driving through New York City, through
New Jersey, New York City to Long Island
a few months ago and we could hardly
breathe.
We had to tread on the gas somewhat
to get away from it.
It was just shocking.
The pollution in the air.
On this particular night I think there were
clouds overhead and keeping all the pollution down.
And the gas coming from the cars, our
car included of course, was making things worse.
And it was just dreadful.
We didn't know what we were going to
do.
And we were at the lakeside in, was
it Michigan or Wisconsin some time ago.
And there we saw the fish on the
side of the lake all dead.
It seemed so sad.
So much pollution but the saddest, the worst
thing in this connection is of course the
pollution in the hearts of men.
And we're all tainted with it unfortunately.
All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
But thank God for the cure in the
precious blood of Christ.
Lindsay Glegg, the great young people's evangelist in
Britain.
Of course he's a businessman, he's an engineer.
But for about 75 years he's been a
young people's evangelist.
He's about 90 now and he's still a
young people's specialist.
We went to hear him preach and thousands
of young people came to hear him preach
some time ago in the south of England.
And this little brother, he stood up there
in his little red jacket, you know.
And this is how he started.
He said, hello boys and girls.
He said, and he said to her, lend
me your palm or give me your palm,
olive.
And she said to him, not on your
life boy.
Of course you don't understand because you're not
English.
Life boy as well as palm olive is
a particular kind of soap in England.
And he's got a way of really getting
through to the hearts of the young people.
He was having a crusade on one occasion
and he'd invited the people to come into
the counselling room and get saved and about
30 of them came along.
And then after he'd pronounced the benediction in
the meeting he went in to have a
word with them.
So he's got his Bible and started to
read one or two verses of scripture to
them.
And then he finally came to one John,
the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses
up from all sin.
Then a man shut up, he said, excuse
me Mr. Glegg.
He said, can I pray?
He said, yes my man you can.
And he sank down on his knees amidst
the throng in the enquiry room and he
said, oh Lord I've got the cure.
I see it all.
The blood of Christ is the cure.
Amen.
And in that precise moment he was gloriously
saved.
And that's absolutely true.
The blood of Christ is the cure.
Efficacious, powerful forever.
Shall never lose its power till all the
ransomed church of God are saved by his
blood to sin no more.
Thank God for the power of the blood
of Jesus.
Cleansing today, wherever it flows.
That is, wherever the life of Christ lay
down for men is applied.
The blood of Jesus shed is applied in
the life of the individual who trusts him.
Well now next then there is the humble
person who is raised up.
And I must move along very quickly.
This was the Syrophoenician woman.
She fell at his feet.
Now there's humility for you.
She accepted the description, little dogs, little Gentile
dogs.
All the Jews looked upon the Gentiles as
little dogs.
You see, Gentile dogs.
She accepted it.
But you know, she also expressed her faith
in the Lord Jesus.
And true faith always begins in humility.
Twice over the Lord Jesus marvelled at great
faith.
And on both occasions it started with humility.
I am not worthy that thou shouldst come
under my roof.
And he marvelled at his faith.
And this woman, if you read the other
Gospels you'll find, he marvelled at her faith
when she said, well even the dogs eat
of the cubs.
But there's another part of her faith which
I like very much.
And he said to her, let the children
first, that is the Jewish children, first be
fed.
You know, she hit on that one word
first.
And this morning when I was reading it,
I put a ring round it in my
Bible.
That's very important.
She said, there's hope for me then.
If they are first, then somebody must come
second.
I'm coming second.
And she took him at his word.
Eat the crumbs that fall from the children's
table, and they come second.
I'll be one of those who come second.
If they are first, let them be first.
But I'll be second.
And her humility and her faith got her
the blessing.
So the humble person is raised up by
the gracious Saviour.
The Lord Jesus was here with a brief
Gentile ministry, foreshadowing, I presume, His blessing
for all mankind, and the Gospel of the
whosoever, for He died.
She became this woman, I presume, the first
heathen convert.
And He healed the girl.
He healed the child at a distance.
And the Saviour still can do that.
The Lord Jesus is on the throne.
He's a long way away.
But He can still heal and bless and
save at great distance.
Distance is no object with Him.
Believe only in deepest humility believe, as she
did.
And distance won't come into it at all.
But the power of God will come into
it.
Because the Spirit of God is here, who
is the Spirit of the Saviour, sent to
bring us the we need when we're in
the right attitude, as she was before Him.
And then, the deaf ear is opened up,
and the dumb tongue is loosened up.
And when they saw all that He had
done, they confessed and said, He hath done
all things well.
And thank God, He always does.
Now, first of all, please notice, He took
him aside.
This man was deaf.
And the Lord wanted him to hear, and
the Lord wanted him to hear His word.
So you know what happened?
He took him aside.
Now that often happens.
Have you been deaf lately?
Have I been deaf lately?
Have I not been listening to His voice
to me day by day?
Now, if He takes you aside for a
little while, don't complain, it's for good.
So that you might hear His voice, and
have your ear opened up by Him.
Notice the seven steps, the method employed by
the Saviour here.
I'm not going into these, but just tell
you about them.
There was the retirement from the crowd, as
I just said.
And then He bore with His fingers into
the man's ear.
And then there was the use of His
own saliva.
A lot could be said about that, and
the biblical idea behind it, but we cannot
do that this morning.
It was probably designed to evoke in the
man the cooperation of faith, which was usually
necessary to receive His blessing.
Fourthly, there was the touch by the Saviour
on his tongue.
And then there was the upward look to
heaven of the Saviour, and which of course
was significant, proving again our Lord's dependence upon
the Father as the servant of Jehovah.
I do nothing of myself.
And then there was His sigh, or more
particularly, His groan.
When the Lord Jesus sees people in need,
He's very much concerned.
And when He sees some people suffering through
sin, although suffering is not always the result
of sin, don't get the wrong idea, it
can be as in the case of Job,
for the glory of God and the naturally
greatest blessing of the individual concern.
And so it was the Lord sighed and
groaned.
He always felt these things emotionally, being a
perfect man.
He feels just as you feel.
When you sigh, He sighs.
He can be touched with the feelings of
your infirmities, and you and I are infirm
in one way or another.
We're very physically fit, may we were infirm
spiritually in some way.
Anyway, the Lord knows.
And very often He sighs and groans for
us, as in this case.
And then seventhly, He said, ephapha, which is
the Aramaic, which means, be open.
Now, dumbness usually resulted in deafness, and this
was probably the case here.
And if our ears are not open to
the Word of God to tell you what's
going to happen, you're not listening to the
voice of the Saviour day by day, then
your mouth is going to be closed, and
your tongue will have to be loosened again
by the Saviour.
Your witness will be poor or non-existent.
If your ears are not opened, your tongue
won't move.
In your worship it will be vain worship
if your ears have not been opened to
hear the voice of the Lord.
And so it was that the deaf ear
was opened up and the stammering tongue was
loosened up.
He had an impediment in his speech, like
most of us have in our witness for
the Lord Jesus, unfortunately.
One of my students from Moreland, he was
a chap called Fernand Legrand from Belgium.
He was from a large assembly in Belgium.
He came over to do the course at
Moreland, and he stuttered very much indeed.
And he still stutters today.
Difficult to have a conversation with him.
He certainly has, like this man, a stammering
tongue, and God has not seen fit to
take it away, as in the case of
Sam Arnott.
But let me tell you, listen to this,
Fernand Legrand, I was told on very good
authority that while one of the outstanding Christian
leaders in Belgium today, Fernand Legrand is the
greatest gospel preacher in the world in the
French language today.
When he preaches he never stammers at all.
Marvellous what the Lord can do.
And the Lord seems to touch him every
time he preaches.
The touch of God on his tongue every
time he preaches.
And is the sweetest, most beautiful and effective
gospel preacher in the French language today.
So his tongue was loosed by the Lord,
and he spake plain.
Or plainly, I think we were saying correct
grammar today.
He spake plainly.
And it's good to have a plain speech,
and clear and spiritual speech in praise and
in worship and testimony and witness.
Everybody said he hath done all things well.
And the everybody included this man who'd had
his stammering tongue unloosened by the Lord Jesus
Christ.
One old brother was dying in Cornwall, England,
and Billy Bray went to visit him.
Billy Bray was really a star turner.
A great man of faith, quite an ignorant
brother, no education, but he really knew the
Lord and proved the Lord in a thousand
ways.
And there's quite a book or two been
written about Billy Bray and how he proved
God's faithfulness.
But he was always praising the Lord.
He always had loads of glory in his
soul.
They said shut up Billy.
He said I can't, I must always praise
the Lord.
They said if you don't shut up, he
said we'll put you, they said we'll put
you in a barrel.
Well he said if you put me in
a barrel, I'll shout hallelujah through the bum
hole.
So it was that he went to visit
this dear old brother who was dying.
His tongue loosened by the Saviour.
He never said a prayer.
He never goaded out of him.
He never testified, you know.
And he was very, very quiet.
Maybe he was deaf.
He hadn't heard the voice of the Lord.
Anyway, now he was very, very weak in
hospital.
And after Billy had tried to console him
and help him a bit, you know, give
him a verse of scripture.
He turned to Billy Bray and he said,
oh Billy said, Billy said brother you should
have praised the Lord when you've got some.
And that was his response.
You should have praised the Lord when you've
got some.
Brethren, while we've got our breath and our
being and our life and our ability, let
us hear his voice and get our tongues
loosened to speak forth his praise and witness
to his goodness and to his grace.
What a marvellous thing to get a touch
from the Saviour on your ears and then
to listen to.
The marvellous thing to get the touch of
the Saviour on your tongue and to speak
forth his praise.
You see how the two are linked together.
And the hymn says, he touched me, he
touched me and all the joy there filled
my soul.
Something happened and now I know he touched
me and made me whole.
And behold he hath done all things well.
He makes both the deaf to hear.
And oh
Lord thy word is wonderful, but the living
word thy dear son is past and beyond
our comprehension and we are unable to speak
forth his praise as we should.
But we worship thee and worship him this
morning for all that he is and all
that he is to us and all he's
done for us.
And the times he's touched our ears and
touched our tongues.
And we pray that again this morning we
may know his divine touch.
We know that when he does it, he
does it well.
And when to that bright world we rise
and claim our mansion in the skies, above
the rest this note shall sway.
My Jesus hath done all things, all things.
Amen.