All right, brethren, back to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7. Looking there towards the end, the story of this deaf and mute man healed. The title of the message, Hear and Speak Plainly. your Mark chapter seven. Sometimes we didn't know what words mean. There's some words we ought to use. And as time goes through our vernacular changes, and there's some words we ought not use. I mean, if we were, if you've ever been out in public or like read a book or something, there's some things we ought not say. But so often as not Kimberly grew up in a town that was a deaf school. She grew up in a small town and there's a school there for the deaf. Deaf means you can't hear, okay? And dumb means you can't speak. You have a speech impediment. You don't have the ability to talk at all, or there's an impediment, you're dumb. And deaf and dumb always go together. We'll see at the end. The dumbness, pun intended, is always proof of deafness. If you can't hear from birth, there's some sounds you can't mimic, you can't imitate, because you've never heard. Now pay attention to me, David. God may open some ears, may open some mouths, I hope, after. Might start saying things right instead of just bad. Mark 7, verse 31. And again, departing from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, he came into 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. He took him aside from the multitude, from the masses, whatever else was doing. And he put his fingers into his ear and he spit and he touched his tongue. Hmm. Lord do that today. And looking up to heaven, our Lord sighed. He said unto him, Ephetha, that is be opened. And straightway his ears were opened and the strings of his tongue was loosed. He's unwound. And he spake plain. not muddied up, not taking two and a half hours to talk around things. He spoke plain. He spoke plain. And he charged them, the Lord charged them, them, that they should tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it. We'll see that at the end too. And they were beyond measure astonished, saying, he hath done all things well. A double L. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. The Lord performed miracles while he was on this earth. He performed physical miracles. And I love preaching through those miracles because it shows us, for me, it makes it easy. It shows us the spiritual miracle he does in and for his people. That's why he did the physical miracles. He told us in Matthew 15, The blind received their sight. You'll tell John. John was in prison. Ain't a man walked this earth like him. He was in the womb and just filled with the Holy Spirit. We weren't born that way. I'm gonna pop some bubbles, okay? We weren't born that way. John was. We wasn't. But he had doubt. Man ought never doubt. Well, you ain't a man of God. Man of God doubts. David doubted, didn't he? He had an old nature. He might have been, John may have been born with a new spirit already in him, already equipped. But he was born in a body. If we could learn something about seeds, if I could take people to school and teach about germination, they'd get this flesh and spirit thing. The Lord taught us it's like a seed. They're going, they're outside. The shell's gotta die and rot, right? New life comes. That shell ain't gonna do nothing but go away. You ain't gonna eat it. You ain't gonna clean it up, put it on your shelf. It's gonna go away. Life's coming out of it, but it has to be there. That's what feeds and keeps the sprout going, isn't it? Anyway. Our Lord told us, He said, you go tell John everything you saw, everything you heard. He said, the blind receive their sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised up. Those are miracles. What does he say next? I preached on this a couple times to you. The poor have the gospel preached to them. Well, that ain't a miracle. God said it was. How do we treat it as such? Eh, I'll try to make dinner if I can. Well, I got work. I need to go to the grocery store. Jimmy Buffett's coming to town. God said it's a miracle if the gospel is preached to the poor. Remember them poor last hour? Said we can soak something in this hour too. When the Lord found us, not we found Him. When He sent the gospel to us, not we went and found the gospel. Not whenever He declared Christ to us, not we decided this is right. That's dangerous. You better watch out. You'll meet a holy God with that on your mouth. Don't do that. When He found us, we were blind. He gave us sight. We didn't see His glory. We only saw our own glory. We saw some glory, all right, ours. We were lame. We could not walk in paths of righteousness. We thought there's a way that seemed right to us. That's a way to death. We were lepers, unclean, unclean, but not to us. We'd eat after ourselves, wouldn't we? We thought we was all right. We were deaf. We could not hear of his majesty and of his mercies and of his grace. All we heard was the beat of our own drum. I know some things. I tell some things. I read the word. That's what we were when we were dead. You get that? When we were deaf. Couldn't hear nothing but us. We were dead in trespasses and sins. We're poor. What we learned last day, remember? Poor in understanding, poor of atonement and uncovering, poor of a home. Plumb poor. This man here in this text, he was spiritually deaf and dumb. He couldn't hear God, and he couldn't say anything about him. I mean, he said, you know, this is what David said in the Psalms, or he quoted some stuff, or here's what Solomon said. He didn't speak the truth of God because he couldn't hear. Like us, he was physically deaf and dumb too. The Lord's using that physical to prove to us the spiritual, using the carnal to prove the spiritual. And just like us, also born spiritually deaf, Spiritually dumb, not able to talk, but God. God passed through. He left Tyre and Sidon to come down here where his fellow was. And he called him and he brought this man to the great physician himself. through his mighty providence and his mighty power, through his doing, not this man's own. Look at verse 32. And they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment of his speech. And they beseech the Lord to put his hand upon him. Get this, and the Lord did. Does that not stop you in your socks right there? Do we get that? Has anybody believed our report? They asked the Lord to give us man sight and to give him speech and give him hearing, and God did. What do you reckon we ought to ask? Do we? Do we talk about doing it or do we do it? Oh, he'd make us pray. The Lord did it. Think about that. Well, who are the they? They brought him and they beseeched the Lord. We'll look at them at the end also, but that's the Lord's servants. That's the Lord's service. That's those who've already been given ears to hear and a mouth to speak those things that come from a new heart with plainly without impediment. They know the language. They know how to say, I was thinking this, I listened to a bluegrass album. I ain't listened to in 20 years, Bob. And, and I haven't listened to that song. I still knew all the words and I know the breath breaks and you can't sing bluegrass unless you're from that area. If you're tired, you can't stand to see the sun sinking, you can't sing that. The sun's sinking. You read that the other day. Eric wrote about Clay preaching, the difference between a pen and a pen. I had to go look it up. I was like, what? What do you mean it's a pen? It's different, don't it? The Lord has to give us a new heart that can speak that language that only He gives. It don't sound right unless He does it. People can tell, that's how they know the difference. Look here, verse 32. They said, they beseech him. Those people that give that life, they hear, they have a mouth to speak. They tell others and they bring him to the only one that can help. They say, come see a man. Come see that woman at the well, that half-breed Samaritan woman that the Jews wouldn't lie to talk to. They had to go around town. The Samaritans couldn't be around them. The Lord came to her. What are you doing dealing with such a crazy woman? You can't do that. You better hope you can. He went to her, he went to that woman at the well, and he revealed himself to her, and he revealed who she was. He convicted her in person of sin, and showed his righteousness to her, didn't he? And the woman left her water pot, that thing she's packing all her water around in, because she just meant the water of life. She left it, and she went to the city, and she said to the man, come, see a man which told me all the things that ever I did. Is this not the Christ? Not a Christ, not that, lowercase c, or some dude named Jesus you've been talking about your whole life, this is the Christ. Come see him. And they went out of the city and they came unto him. They listened to her, they come, that's what these they did. You're deaf? You can't talk? Let's go. If you got a problem, we got a solution. Problem is, people ain't got problems. They're just fine. Or they're not. If there's problems, we couldn't stand in this place. We'd have to knock a wall or just go stand outside. I'd have to climb uphill and get a bullhorn. There ain't no problems. This man had a problem. These people, they knew there was a problem. That woman, she had a problem. And she went and told her friends about it. And Christ preached to those people that came to that well. Those that come. And he heard their prayers of that lady. That lady prayed and said, Lord, heal these people. I like them. These are my friends. This is my family. I want them here. Just like at Harlot in a whorehouse there in Jericho, wasn't it? If I bring my family here, you keep them too? Well, come on. She brought them. And you know what those people said after God spoke to them, after Christ preached to them? They said, now we believe. Now we believe. Not because of thy sin. Not because you brought us here. I've heard people say, well, we had to teach them the gospel. You better not have. Eternally, for your sakes, you better not have. God had better taught them, right? They said, we came, we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard ourselves and know that this indeed is the Christ, the Savior of the world. That means everybody, that means Samaritans too, half-breed Samaritans too, me. Sinners, I'm a sinner, he saved sinners. I'm gonna touch him. I'm gonna get where he is. Now, the providence the Lord used was that woman bringing him, wasn't it? The providence the Lord that he used was his servants bringing this deaf and dumb person to him. He used that. Who you reckon he's going to use us for? We were deaf. There was a time we didn't hear. But now we hear him. Off he'd speak. We don't need, heed me. As Jerry Clare said, I'm a lion or I'm a dime. Either believe me or don't. I've searched these scriptures, I tell you things, and it ain't because I'm just winging it and I got a good idea of successful life. It's because the scriptures say so. Believe me when I tell you, we don't need to sit down and reason with loved ones about the gospel. Don't do it. The Lord must do that. The Lord must speak to them, come let us reason together. Our charge is to tell them to come listen. I told you before, Dad, tell everybody at the gas station, grocery store, wherever, come church with me. And I thought, that fool, his whole company, he paid them to come listen to the gospel. They only come for two weeks. He couldn't even pay them eight hours to come sit through 30 minutes of preaching. He's an idiot. And then I realized it was the power of God for him to say that, to make him not be a coward to say, come to services. There's a fellow preaching about cross down there. and I won't be this great and grand honored person that's brought you. I'm just another sinner saved by grace. You'll know it and I'll know it if God's works in you. Paul said, for whosoever calleth upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I see it on bumper stickers and billboards all around this country, don't you? But how shall they call on him of whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe him whom they've not heard? How shall they hear unless they read a good old Puritan? No. How shall they hear without a preacher? Somebody's gonna stand up speaking to deaf ears. Say live. And how shall they preach except they be sinned? Lord, if you're not with us, don't let me go. If he's not, if his spirit's not with us, I don't want to preach. I understand the consequences of that. I'll be accountable. I don't want to do it. But if he sins us, That's what we're charged to do. If all were blind when he found us, every one of us, and we were all deaf when he first spoke to us, and we need to be made known how deaf we really are. We need to be made known how blind we really were. And if we've never been deaf, we still are. If God's never made you see you were blind in knowing God, you're still blind. He said those Pharisees, they come to him in John nine, he healed that fellow. And they heard all these words, and they said to him, are we blind also? You're saying I'm blind? Yeah. You got an old man in you that's blind, blind on a bat right now. You carry it around. They said, you're saying we're blind? And the Lord said, if you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see. Oh, I see. I see. I see. I get it. Do you? You say, we see, therefore your sin remaineth. Think you're something, you're gonna find out there's a God that's everything. He has to show us we're blind, show us we're deaf, show us we're dumb. And when the Lord works, when he comes to his child and he works in him, we see, we hear, we walk, we're clean. We finally hear the gospel preached and can't live without it. Do whatever it takes to get it. Because we need it, not want it. We need it. One thing's needed, but I wanna hear about it. The Lord said in Isaiah 29, and in that day shall the deaf hear the words of this book. Wouldn't that be something? I've been reading that all the time. People don't hear now. They don't see now. You read that, well, I don't see it that way. Obviously. Obviously. Is that what the Lord said? Well, yeah, I know. And you just act like you don't see it and walk off. They don't want to see it. He said in Isaiah 43, I will say to the North, give up, and to the South, keep not back. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, even everyone that is called by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have made him. You self-made man. God makes his men and women, don't he? Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together. Let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show former things? Is anybody there that used to be deaf and now hear? Can they explain this? Anybody there that was dumb and couldn't say, can they tell you what's going on? They sure can. They'll sing in one song, won't they? Let them bring forth their witnesses that they may be justified. What's your witness? God did it. I was dead. He raised me. I was a leper. He made me clean. I was blind. Wasn't even looking for him. Couldn't, because I was blind. And he, in his providence, made his servants bring me to him. And he gave me sight. He spit me right in the eye. And I was offended. Till I saw. And one day, I'll see things as they are. Not like men, like trees walking around. I'll see clearly. Let them bring forth witnesses that they may be justified, or let them hear and say it's true. If you can't articulate it, you just say, that's right. Can you explain that to my pastor preach one of the most thorough and outstanding messages out of Romans 7, Thursday night? I mean, you talk about a master's level class, theology, seminary can't touch it. He knows God, that's the first step. That was outstanding. I can't articulate it the way he can. I haven't lived the life he lives, but I can listen to that and say, that's right. That's what I told Cameron. I get so excited whenever my pastor preaches to me and I say, that's what it says. Right there it is. A natural man would say, that fellow just stood up there, he just said everything that's in the scriptures. God has to do that. He equips that. He sends that. Why it's foolish to the world, yeah. Is it foolish to you? Do we mock it? Verse 32 says, 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. That's who they did. They said, here's a deaf fellow. He don't even know he's deaf. Did you tell him? Well, he can't hear. Right? Lord, you're going to have to do this. Put your hand on him. This man, he has the impediment of speech. His not being able to speak is proof of a hearing problem. It's proof of the hearing problem. Some sounds we cannot replicate unless we hear them. Vibration will not do. And you know that, don't you? You're messing with that cochlear implant. There's some words that aren't pronounced right. And you go, that poor person, they can't hear. They've had problems with their hearing. Lord, give me the strength to preach this. Unsafe people prove they have not heard the word from the Lord because of how they talk. They think they talk just fine. They think all the churchy little junk that's coming out of their mouth is just squeaky clean and holy and they're halo satat. They don't know what to do with it. How they speak is proof of an unsaved heart, unregenerated heart. They haven't heard the truth about themselves, and they haven't heard the truth about the Lord, and they haven't heard the truth about salvation. They're deaf, and you can tell it by the way they talk. Remember the second part of that commandment? The Lord said, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Well, stop short, don't keep on reading. For, because the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes his name in vain. Ignorance ain't going to count. We're guilty. We're guilty. That is to the heathen that runs rampant in this world, cursing God and cursing all the things around them and saying, no God, I wasn't born a boy or I wasn't born a girl and I want to go to that bathroom, whatever nonsense is going on and all that. That's a word to them. God ain't going to hold them countless, guiltless. And that's to the religious folks too. That's to those preachers that as goes the pulpit, so goes the pew, so I've been told. So the nation proves out. And to religious folks, they say horrible and they say blasphemous things. God tries. Hogwash, you don't know God. The God does not try, he does. Who's gonna stay his hand? Who's gonna let him? He said that, who's gonna let me? You gonna let me? They'll say, let God. Jesus wants to do you, do something. He wants to say, he's got a purpose and a plan for your life. Well, if he does, it's gonna be enacted. I can tell you that right now. It's gonna come fast. If he says it. They don't know God. Let go and let God. You don't know you, and you don't know God. That message I sent out to everybody, that woman was trapped in her car for five days. She prayed to the Lord. She said, ah, the Lord's going to save me. She said, Lord, all the thing I do wrong is play a little bingo. That's it. I drink a little Dr. Pepper. That's all I do. The only thing I choose, food. She don't even chew tobacco. That Pharisee, he said, I'm not an adulteress, I'm not an extortioner, I'm not all these bad things. She's even better than that. She don't even chew nothing but food. Copenhagen's never touched her lips. My grandma chewed Copenhagen, you know that? Kind of stock I come from, not her. She's proven she don't know God. She's proven that beer, I never took a sip of a beer. You're proven you ain't been convinced of sin yet. If you're my brother or my sister, God ain't saved you. He ain't revealed himself to you yet. You've sinned against the Holy God. You didn't believe him. I know people right now that want other believers to stand up in a pulpit and tell them all the sins they've done. Well, if they stood up and said, I didn't believe God, I was proud. I thought I was right. Well, don't stop there. That's the root of everything. Pride's the first thing, isn't it? Only pride. God said only pride. Now, I don't know what you mean when you say only. I know what he means. It means only, isn't it? They speak those things because they don't know any better. They've never heard any better. Somebody says, well, I've sinned a little bit. I told some white lies. What'd John say? If we say that we've not sinned or we've only told some little, I ain't done that bad. We make God a liar. Somebody says that's calling God a liar. You hear me? and His words not in us. How did His word not get in them? Because of their death. You get it? He didn't open their ears. I chose to be saved. No, you didn't. You don't know God. I found the Lord. I came to the doctrines of grace. It was out there. I found it. No, you didn't. Either God found you or you're still lost. His providence may have done it. You don't know God talking that way. What did David say? Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he's good, for his mercy endureth forever. And let the redeemed of the Lord say so. They will. They ain't going to tell them what they did. They're going to tell them what he did. That's what everybody's going to say. He did something. Salvations of the Lord. I know a faithful woman God saved a long time and mature believer. She was out in public and a guy said, Oh yeah, you're the preacher's wife. Cause don't tell people that. I'll tell you all kinds of nonsense. And so I got saved last week. She said, I hate to hear that. He goes, what do you mean? She said, if God were to save you, you'd have said so. Well, that's what I meant. No, it ain't. Cause that's what you said. You say what you mean out of the heart's what comes out the mouth. Is that what God says? Or was he lying? That's what he says, wasn't it? Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy." I was in bondage, he got me out. Those that hear speak that way. Those that's never experienced that, those that's never been given ears, they can't, they can quote some scripture at you, they can't speak it. In Philippians 2, it says, in the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ, he's Lord, Old preacher in the past used to say, don't tell me about your savior, tell me about your Lord. Everybody's got a savior. Who's got a king on a throne right now? We do. They ask David, David, where's your God? All those other religions, they know where their God is. Where's Buddha? In a grave. Where's Muhammad? He's in a big black square box over in Egypt. Where's all these other ones? Here, there, all on the shelf, or I got a cross, I got a cross I carry around. David, where's your God? My God's in the heaven and he does whatever he wants to, because he's God. He's heard that, so he says it. He don't say something else. If he says something else, he knows something else. He don't know God. By the way people talk, it is plainly and painfully obvious they can't hear. Or that they can. It's not painfully obvious to them. They never heard no different. But to the ones that do hear, they can tell, can't they? Our Lord said, Oh, generation of vipers, how can you being able to speak good things for out of the abundance of the heart as the Lord's increased us in our heart, that's how we talk. If he's taught us something, we tell what we're taught. If he does a work in us, we tell who did the work, why there's a work needed. I'm a sinner. He saved me. That ain't complicated. He's the door. He drug me through it because I was dead. Dead man can't walk. What'd our Lord do? Verse 33. And he took him aside from the multitude. What'd we read for a scripture reading? He took him out outside town? That's what everybody else was doing. He took him out of religion, out of those following just to fill their bellies. Lord got you one-on-one. He took him from the multitude and he put his fingers in his ears and he spit and he touched his tongue. He took him aside. He took the deaf and dumb man to the side. He got him alone. I said that before. It's one-on-one. Can't hear somebody. They that brought him. He didn't take days out there to the side. Did he took him? They had been by themselves before. And that evening or whenever he's always with him. He got this man alone. You've been along with God. Did you puff your chest out and pop your suspenders? Did you bow? He got him aside. What scripts say there's a narrow way in it. How alone did he get him? One man wide. Enter ye in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate. That's the multitude, that's the whole town. Ain't it? This is life and death, let's hold on. And broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many therein that go thereat, because straight is the gate and narrow is the way. One man what? You have to do it with Christ only. One on one. Which leadeth unto life. He said, I've come that they may have life more abundantly. And few there be that find it. Few there be that find it. There's a few people on this earth right now that say I'm a rebel against God and I hate him. You have to, Andrew. Everybody's saved. Everybody's fine. I saw a poster in a store one time. It said, uh, the band in heaven. It had Jimi Hendrix and, uh, a whole bunch of, you know, old, uh, rock and roll fellas and all that stuff. And I was like, that one died of heroin, and that one died of a ham sandwich, and that one died of... Ah, they weren't professing Christ. That ain't what came out of their mouth, was it? Can a multitude be wrong? There's strength in numbers. Can a multitude be wrong? What was it in Noah's day? A whole lot of people standing outside that ark laughing. It ain't funny, we ought to go preach to them. What about Sodom and Gomorrah? Just enough angels come taking them out hand by hand, isn't it? What about Jericho? Just a few of them in that house of ill repute on a wall. That was so when the days of our Lord was on this earth, isn't it? Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. People see Bibles. They see things, but they don't see Christ. They hear Gospel preaching, and they don't hear him speak. I agree that was a good, check the block, yes, that was a gospel message. It hit all the bullets. You ain't heard him speak. They had the penny pulpit back in 1855 is when they started. They went in and they hand wrote, they transcribed Spurgeon's messages, and they sold them for a penny. Because if it's free, nobody'd take it, I bet. They're my best giveaway, nobody wants it. Maybe I'll start charging for it. But somebody went in there and I, you think of that. Oh, I get it. No, think about it. Stop daydreaming and enter into that. Somebody had to go and had to sit and transcribe verbatim, word by word, shorthand, hopefully, then go back and make it full words and then put it in a printing press, because his buddy on the printing press, and then, you know, had to ink, look, let's read it one more time. They had to ingest that sermon 10 times. You see what I'm saying? And I heard the story one time. Pastor is preaching. And somebody just took notes, took notes. One day they set the pen down. Oh, did they quit hearing? No, they started hearing. They just gonna soak it in. Well, if we put our pens down, quit writing what we think, start bowing to God. The Lord took him aside, got him by himself, gave him ears to hear, gave him a mouth thing. He put his fingers into his ears. Is that what it says? Why'd he do that? He told us he did it. Why do you reckon he did that? He had to stop them from hearing all the lies. He's heard his whole life. He had to stop the roaring of the world. I know people that can sit down, they can listen to Charles Stanley or Billy Graham or Henry Mahan. It don't make a difference to them. It's so. He's got to plug that out. He's got to stop up our ears, stop us from hearing anything or anyone other than Christ the word. Well, I think heresy. Well, we've always done it this way. Well, we've done it wrong. If it ain't according to this word, stop it. I'm not clinging to that. We'll burn it. Hold on now. It was real expensive. My grandpa kept it. Lord had to stop it. I saw a thing one time said the Lord said it. I believe it. That settles it. No. You're still thinking too highly of self. The Lord said it. That settles it. I pray the Lord saves me. I pray I'm his. I pray I'm his preacher. But he's right and not saving me. And I ought to proclaim his glory anyway. He deserves it. With all that's in me right now. The Lord has to tune out what everyone else is saying, what families are saying, what preachers are saying, or whoever they are, whatever office they are. He's got to tune that out and only hear what he says. Because he's got to speak. It'll be through somebody. Sent. The voice, right? Not every voice. His voice of many waters, he's able to drown out everything else. If he speaks, you can't unhear it and you can't undo it. He's almighty, that's who we're dealing with. And he spit, he's plugged up that fellow's ears and he spit that water of life standing before him. He made water come out of his mouth, the word of truth. They ain't gonna save by a lie. And people say, well, that's gross. Like that blind man there in John. He spilled on the ground, made mud, put it in his eyes. What are you, jerk back? What are you doing? Didn't know about microbiology back then. I mean, I assume it was still an insult to spit in somebody's face, wasn't it? That's offensive. So what? Get over it. I don't like that. He'll make you like it. You'll be fine. He eats with us. Didn't I say that? He receives sinners and he eats with them. Doesn't that shock you? You know what you are? That ought to be the shocking part. He eats after us. He'll sit down and share a sandwich with you. A worm, a leper, a wretch like me. And he touched his tongue. I thought of Isaiah 6. Then flew in one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand. which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he said, he laid it upon my mouth, and said, lo, this hath touched thy lips, and so thine iniquities taken away, and thy sin purged. I always thought about that, even as a kid. I thought, if you take a live coal, because we had a fireplace, and you stuck it on my lips, my lips are going to be sealed shut. Yeah, you can't say the things you used to say before. You get that? You're going to say what I make you say now. A new heart that speaks out of the mouth and is willing and is willing, not agrees that people ought to be willing, they're made willing. So it says in Isaiah 6, also I heard the divorce of the Lord said, whom shall I send? And who will go for us? He didn't know. And said, here I am, send me. I thought his lips got seared, they sure did. He said, well, I got cows I gotta take care of. I got a baby potty training. Well, I got a little sniffles, I ought not come. He didn't say it no more, did he? His lips had been touched. Christ touched this man's lit tongue? Isaiah had his tongue touched, he didn't say it no more. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made to salvation. Now he speaks plainly. Now he speaks plainly, Luke verse 34. And looking up to heaven, he sighed, the Lord did. And he said unto him, Ethitha, that is, be opened, be opened. Why did the Lord sigh? The spiritual deafness, the spiritual mute, the spiritual dumbness, he bore. You get that? It's that man's fault. We sinned against God and Christ bore our sin. He bore the burden. What do you do when you put a burden on you? You exhale, right? Not that you're sighing in regret or anything like that. He sighed. He wept for us. He stood in our place. And straightway his ears were opened and the strings of his tongue was loosed and he spake plain. He spake plain. He didn't have, you hear how many words I crossed out? That's what I do when I go back through. Strike out impediment and say he didn't talk right. Speak plainly to people. Time's short. Jesus spoke plainly. Didn't we look at that recently in John 11? They said, oh, he's sick. And why do we have to go all the way back there if he's just sick? If he's got a cold, you know, you ain't really got to, if it's just a flu, why do we got to go all the way back there? And Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. He's dead. Christ spoke plainly, and those he gives faith to do so, they do too. They do too. Over in Hebrews 11, people call that, oh, that's the hall of fame of faith. Big hall, because we all get the same one, don't we? All these died in the faith, not having received the promises, but seeing them afar off, and they were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. This ain't my home. I don't belong here. Now, I got to work, and I got to get along. do those things, I still got to live here, this ain't my home, I'm passing through. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And it ain't just saying it in words, saying it in deed too. They live that way. I'm looking for the cross return or me going to him. They plainly declare these things. I'm just visiting here. Uh, he gave me ears and he gave me mouth and heart and everything. And I'm going to be with him until then. He has me here and he's got something for me. They taught plainly, plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from which they came out, if they were still worried about that one, they might have had opportunity to return. If they was really worried about staying in that geographical location or this earth that we're on now, they'd have went to it. But they didn't. They plainly declared where they was going, who they wanted to be with. Believers speak plainly. A brother of mine read scripture this morning in another place, Robbie Dudenath, there in New Jersey. Me and Karen, we drove from Alaska, that's on one side of this continent we live on, to New Jersey. That's on the other side of the continent we live on, to go hear a man preach. That was almost as far as the Ethiopian eunuch went to go services. Ain't nothing. Now, we did an RV. He did it on a camel. We got there. I've been listening to Clay preach online for a long time. I want to meet him in person. I said, this might be where we ought to be. We got there. Ravi Dudnath got up to pray and read scripture. I bumped to him. I said, that's my brother. That's my brother. We're from a different country. He wasn't born here. He's born in South America. He's got a different job than I got. Wildly different. Everything's different, right? Kids are different. Family's different. Everything's different. I love him. Well, I didn't know him. All I'd ever done is heard him read the scriptures and pray. That's my brother. That's my brother. Clay got through preaching. What did I say? Preached on the watchman and the walls of Jerusalem. And I didn't want to influence Kimberly at all. My sole responsibility is make sure she's underneath the sound of the gospel and then those children in that order. That's my job. God's charged me with that. Those are the talents he given me. And I got to put them underneath the sound of the gospel. And I didn't want to influence her. And I said, what'd you think about that message? And just wiggling, because I ain't the, I'm not the, I ain't Switzerland. You know what I mean? I ain't the neutral type. If I got something to say, I'm going to say it. If I can influence something, I'm going to do it. Can't say nothing. And she said, I loved it. I think we ought to be here. I said, that's my watchman. And I started following. She said, mine too. And we moved right then. Then we took the children down to Asheville, went back and rented a place. Took everything we had, took it to New Jersey. I knew her right then. Well, maybe we ought to give it away. I know my brothers when I hear them. I know my sisters when I hear them. And I know those that ain't neither when I hear them do. What's this deaf person say? This dumb person, what'd it say? Salvations of the Lord. He did it. You reckon he might've got some words mixed up there, that blind fella in John 9? He said, oh, he's a prophet. He's the prophet. Prophet, priest, and king. Well, he's been believing for 35 minutes. Give him a thesaurus, he'll be all right. Sit down, be patient with me. But he's gonna speak plainly, he's gonna speak truth too, isn't he? Look here in verse 34. And looking up to heaven, he sighed. bearing his deafness, bearing his dumbness. And he said, Ephetha, that is, be open. And straightway his ears were opened and the strings of his tongue was loosed. And he spake plainly. And he charged them. He charged the blind fellow. Well, he's with the group, wasn't he? He's with the outfit. But he charged them that they, that's the fellows that brought him. We already established who that was. That's the ones that are already here. That's the ones that already speak, because God saved them. He charged them. He said, tell no man, But the more he charged them, so much the more great deal they published. Does that mean he didn't have the ability to shut their mouths? No. I'll tell you exactly what that was. He's putting a little pressure on them to prove it to them. Don't say nothing. Well, I got to. I can't keep quiet. I have to say, no, I don't say nothing. Just go home. I can't go home. I'm going where you go. He's going to prove it to them. He's gonna put a little pressure on him. Doesn't mean he's undoing it, and I'll prove it to you. This is for you, buddy. You ready? You tie a knot, you check to see if it's tied, don't you? Wiggle it, shake it, don't you? What we call a San Diego snake, San Diego County snake, that's a husky strap from Home Depot. They're all over. I'll give a block of instruction if somebody needs to learn how to use a ratchet strap. They're everywhere. I'm like, there's a snake. I go to hit it. I'm like, oh, it's a ratchet strap. And then when you start counting up ratchet straps, it's immense. You grab that ratchet strap and yank it some. Make sure it's tight. Make sure it's secure. The Lord come to his servants to go out and preach the gospel. He said, don't preach the gospel. The prophet said that one time, didn't he? He said, I ain't saying your words no more, Lord. I've said that. You know how many times I went fishing, went back to work on ice machines? And then it burns in my bones and I can't keep from it. And he proves it ain't me, it's him. And his seed in me. He's putting a little pressure on him. Give him a little resistance. The Lord proves to these servants that they profess him and him alone not their doing. And he does it with a little bit of pressure applied. Don't say nothing about it. I gotta say something. Does that shock you? If you've experienced it, not heard about other people experiencing it, if you've experienced it, are you astonished that the Lord would do that? That's paradoxical, isn't it? That's for him. You're shocked the Lord would do that. Look at verse 37, and they were beyond measure astonished. I don't think the Lord ought to put pressure on us, and I don't think he ought to send us fiery trials, and I'm just too good of a person, I don't think he ought to treat me that way. Not if you've heard him. You're astonished, saying he hath done all things. Everything he's done has been right. I can't say that in the middle of the trial. I can say it with my mouth, I can't say it with my heart. I take too highly of myself, I still have a body of death on me. But I know through experience, done a lot, long time. I see him, he does it right. And at the end of that trial, or whatever, that deafness, that dumbness, once that dumb thing's over, he did it right. Everything in my life, he's done right. Everything in your life, he's done right. Not I've done, he's done. He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak." What deaf person deserves to hear his words? People say, talk about a revival. I pray there's a revival in this country, but if there's a massive revival going on right here, and 18 people sitting here, how many people, if God saves one in San Diego County, how many people in San Diego County deserve to be saved? How many people earned salvation? None. If God saves one, it's worth it. That's what I told you the other day. If I spend hours laboring and laboring and laboring and God blesses one soul, it's worth it. It's worth it. He got us one by one, didn't he? One on one. I pray the Lord would open deaf ears and give new hearts that speak of his works, not of our snake oil that we grew up with. I pray he'd make us do that. All right.