[0:00] Before the preaching of God's word, please take your Bibles again and turn to the book of Mark and chapter 7. The book of Mark chapter 7. I will read from verses 31 through to 37.
[0:19] Mark 7 verse 31. This is the word of God. Then Jesus left the vicinity of Tyre and went through Sidon down to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis.
[0:34] There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man. After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears.
[0:48] Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him, Ephatha, which means be opened. At this the man's ears were opened. His tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly.
[1:06] Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone, but the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.
[1:21] Amen. What a Savior to sing to. What a Savior to listen to. One of the blessings of having the four Gospels is that we get to join the twelve disciples and to follow our Lord around as he went from place to place and to watch him as he went about doing good, preaching the gospel of salvation, healing all kinds of diseases, and casting out demons.
[1:50] Well, he's wrapped up his one year plus ministry in Galilee. We saw last week that having ended that ministry in Galilee, he turned north and he went up to the pagan territory of Tyre where he cast out a demon from the daughter of a Gentile woman.
[2:11] Remember how she refused to let him go until he blessed her. Now today we'll find Jesus moving on, but continuing to travel in Gentile territory.
[2:24] I'm calling this sermon, Gentiles Get Messiah's Blessings. Gentiles Get Messiah's Blessings. So verse 31, So when Jesus left Tyre, he did not go straight down into Galilee.
[2:49] He rather went north up into Sidon, right along the Mediterranean Sea. Then he went east and on the other side of the Sea of Galilee to this area called Decapolis, the ten cities.
[3:04] These were Greek Gentile cities. So once again, we see our Lord moving in the region of the Gentiles. Now, this term, the Decapolis should have rang a bell with you.
[3:21] If you remember, Jesus drove that legion of demons out of that man and he wanted to go with Jesus, remember? And Jesus said, no, you go home and tell what the Lord has done for you.
[3:33] And he went throughout the region of the Decapolis, telling the great things that the Lord had done for him. So that's where Jesus is.
[3:43] He's come back to this region of the Gentiles. I wonder if we're doing that. Telling others what the Lord has done for us.
[3:54] Let us declare the praises of him who has brought us out of darkness into his wonderful light. So when Jesus came into these parts, we're not surprised to find a crowd there ready to receive him.
[4:07] Having heard such an evangelist as this man who had been controlled by a legion of demons and saved from it, he's going everywhere in this region telling of Christ.
[4:20] Mark zeroes in on just one person in the crowd. Verse 32. There were some people who brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk.
[4:33] And they begged him to place his hand on the man. Although it's not stated that he was a Gentile, it's highly probable that he was as he's in Gentile territory.
[4:47] Verse 33. Jesus first took him aside away from the crowd, perhaps to secure his attention, to deal one-on-one without distraction.
[4:58] And in this we see that Jesus cares not just for the crowds, but he cares for the individual. And he ministers to them one-on-one. He put his fingers into the man's ears.
[5:13] Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. Now, this seems to be a strange way of healing, doesn't it? Most often Jesus healed with a word or just a touch or both.
[5:26] But remember, this man cannot hear. So that could be why our Lord communicates with his actions what he's about to do.
[5:37] I'm about to unstop your ears. I'm about to unloose your tongue so that you can both hear and speak. And so he looked up to heaven, acknowledging the source of the authority that his heavenly Father has given him to heal.
[5:57] And with a deep sigh, he said to him, Ephphatha. That's Aramaic, which the Jews spoke, but the Gentiles perhaps needed to be brought understanding what it means.
[6:12] And Mark seems to be writing to the Gentiles, especially in this gospel. And so he interprets it for them. This means be opened. That's what he said. And at this, the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened, and he began to speak plainly.
[6:27] No more deafness, no more impediment of speech. It was a complete and an immediate healing. And that, as we've seen throughout Mark, is the hallmark of Jesus' healing ministry.
[6:42] Complete and immediate. Now, 700 years earlier, Isaiah had foretold the blessings that would be enjoyed when God came to earth.
[6:54] Yes, in his Messiah, God did come to earth. Isaiah 35, 5, and 6, Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf be unstopped.
[7:06] Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongues shout for joy. Now, all of this, Messiah did at his first coming. But that just becomes something of a forecast of what he's going to do when he returns again at his second coming, healing all the diseases of his people in a perfected resurrection body, just like our Lord Jesus' glorified body.
[7:36] But then let's not read over this great sigh of Jesus, because it takes us right into the heart of our Lord. Now, what is a sigh? What is a sigh?
[7:48] Well, it's when you breathe in, and then you exhale so hard that it can be heard. That's a sigh.
[8:03] Now, it's an expression of emotion then. It can be a sigh of relief. Sure glad that didn't happen. Close call.
[8:14] It can be a sigh that expresses weariness and exhaustion. It can express frustration and aggravation. Kids, maybe you've heard those sighs.
[8:27] And it can express grief and sorrow. So which emotion was it that Jesus was expressing through this sigh? Well, we're not told, so how do we know?
[8:39] Well, the context, again, helps us to interpret the sigh. And I think we can rule out a sigh of relief. No, that's not it.
[8:50] It's more a sigh of grief and sorrow. Indeed, the New Testament says in Matthew 8, 16 and 17, that when Jesus was healing people, He was bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows.
[9:09] A sigh of grief. A sigh of sorrow. Perhaps even a bit of weariness, not of body, but here of heart. Maybe even a bit of aggravation in this sigh.
[9:23] As Jesus sees in this man what the fall of humanity into sin has brought into this world. The ravages of disease upon the body.
[9:35] The hardships, the sorrows and griefs of the soul. And we dare not miss the tender heart of our Lord Jesus in this sigh. He is no different today.
[9:49] He cannot look upon man's fallen condition without being moved with compassion. Child of God, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us in our weaknesses.
[10:01] weaknesses. Weaknesses in front of temptation and sin. Weaknesses of a thousand kind, of body, of soul. Griefs that rend the heart and make us sigh.
[10:18] He's able to sympathize with us. Why? Hebrews 4, 15 says because He's been here. And He's been tempted and tried in every way like we have.
[10:31] Yet without sin. And it's out. You see, we have a real man on the right hand of God the Father. Yes, He's a real man.
[10:42] The God man. And out of that real human experience on this earth for 33 years, He is able to draw what is going through our hearts and our minds as He sees us going through our trials.
[10:59] He knows exactly our feelings. He knows what we're thinking and it moves Him to pity. It moves Him to help us. Remember, that's what brought Him out of heaven in the first place to see our fallen condition.
[11:13] And He left heaven in order to save us. Now He sends grace and mercy to help us from the throne when He sees us suffering. In music, there is something that's called sympathetic resonance.
[11:32] You place two pianos in the same room and you strike middle C on this piano and the chord starts vibrating and that vibration starts the middle C in this piano vibrating, producing the same sound as is found in the first one that was struck.
[11:54] What strikes your heart, brother and sister, here on earth, making you sigh or inwardly cry or outwardly cry, stirs a sympathetic fellow feeling in the heart of your high priest though he is enthroned at the Father's right hand.
[12:12] a feeling that is a fellow feeling with yours that matches yours here on earth. He has this sympathy for our fallen condition that moves Him to pity and to help us.
[12:28] So what this is supposed to do for us, Hebrews 4.16 says, therefore, let us come with boldness to this throne of grace, knowing the kind of high priest that sits on that throne of grace, that we might receive mercy and grace to help us in our time of need.
[12:46] The Lord Jesus has not changed since this day in the Decapolis when He stood before this man that was deaf and with a speech impediment.
[12:57] His heart went out to Him and He moved toward Him to help Him. Jesus has a heart that sighs when you sigh and a heart that cries when you cry and as He stands before this man and sees what the fallen condition of man has done to Him and introduced into this world with a sigh, He says, Ephatha, be opened.
[13:26] And with the word, the man's ears were opened and His tongue untied. I want you to notice the response of the people. Verse 36, Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone.
[13:37] Now we've seen this over and over in the book of Mark, haven't we? Sometimes He tells them like the demoniac, He told them to go and to proclaim everywhere with the Lord. But other times He says, don't tell anyone.
[13:50] Our Lord is not wanting to be known as some miracle worker only. He's more than that. He's the Messiah, the promised Messiah King. And His miracles are meant to prove that and to show them who He is.
[14:03] And He wants people coming to Him not just to have their bodies healed, but He wants them coming to Him to be saved from their sins. That's why He's come. And these signs were meant to verify and vindicate that He is God's appointed Messiah.
[14:18] He fulfills the prophecy about the one coming to unstop the ears and to loose the tongue. Therefore, worship Him. Therefore, listen to Him. Therefore, trust in Him. Follow Him.
[14:30] And He also doesn't want to hasten His death before it's appointed time. He's still a year away. And if this word just keeps getting out, it will only stir up the opposition.
[14:42] He has an appointment at Calvary, but He's still got work to do with His disciples. So He commands them not to tell anyone, but the more He commanded them, the more they kept talking about Him.
[14:54] People were overwhelmed with amazement, literally astonished out of measure. They said, He's done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute to speak.
[15:09] Do you remember God's own evaluation of creation after the sixth day? He looked at it all and what did He say? It is all very good. Very well.
[15:21] And here are these people looking now at the Creator in the flesh, seeing His works, His miracles, in which He is reversing the curse, the curse that brought the deafness, the curse that brought suffering and the speech and the curse that brings all kinds of heartache into our lives is now being reversed.
[15:45] By who? By the Creator, Redeemer, the Messiah. and they say, He has done all things well. All things well. What will it be when He comes again the second time and makes all things new permanently?
[16:11] Totally reversing the curse forever. Restoring all things to how they were meant to be. Perfect shalom. Unmixed blessing without any sorrow or sighing.
[16:24] Isaiah 35, 10. Then the ransom to the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing. Everlasting joy will crown their head. Gladness and joy will overtake them.
[16:35] And sorrow and sighing will flee away. That's what's going to happen when He comes the second time. For His people in the age to come that Christ returned then will be able to look back at what we did not understand.
[16:51] Remember Jesus said what you do not know now you will know hereafter. And from there we will be able to look back over all of God's dealings with us in our lives. The frowning providences, the painful separations, the sad losses, all of our trials and troubles in this life.
[17:10] But then we'll see them clearly and we will gladly say He has done all things well. Not one sorrow but that was needed.
[17:21] Not one degree of pain but that was absolutely necessary. My Father out of perfect wisdom and love was ordering these things for my good.
[17:35] And oh how we will glorify Him and proclaim He's done all of things well. Even those things that made us sigh. Every sad thing, every bad thing it all has worked for my good and the good of others and the greater glory of my God.
[17:50] So the answer is that we should now rejoice in hope of what we are going to see. Yes, the very things that are now causing you to sigh are the things that you will say He has done well.
[18:03] It was very good. Well, in applying this text I want you to notice Jesus' absolute sovereignty in the way that He works.
[18:14] The manner in which He heals. Imagine a convention of people that Jesus healed during His earthly ministry. And so these people, there are lots of them because Jesus never turned anyone away but healed them all.
[18:28] So here they are at this convention and they're discussing what is the proper way, the proper method of healing. And one group says, well, He just spoke the word and I was healed.
[18:39] Nothing more needs to be done. And others say, no, you're wrong. He has to touch you. It was when He touched me that my leprosy was cleansed.
[18:52] And others say, no, no, you've got to reach out and touch Him. That's how it works. And the woman that had the bleeding disease says, well, when I reached out, all I could touch was the hem of His garment.
[19:06] That's where you need to touch Him. And the man healed of blindness says, no, no, he's got to spit in the dirt, make some mud and put it on your eyes and then you've got to go wash in the pool of Siloam.
[19:17] Then you'll be able to see. Our man in the text this morning says, no, no, he's got to put his fingers in your ears and spit on his finger and touch your tongue and then say, and then you'll be able to speak and to hear.
[19:34] What nonsense. All the healing virtue in Jesus' miracles, it was not found in the spit. It was not found in the mud.
[19:45] It was not found in the pool. It was not found in where you touched Him or even in some formula of words that He spoke. No, all the healing virtue in Jesus' miracles came from within His divine power.
[20:01] Remember, when that woman touched Him, He felt power going out from Him. That's the source of it. That's the cause of the miracle. It's divine power.
[20:13] Whatever the means He uses and the means He used differed widely. We can only guess at some of the reasons why He did so. But Jesus Christ is absolutely sovereign in the way that He works.
[20:29] Choosing to work this way here, that way there. And that's not only true in His healing miracles of the body, but it's true also in His miracles of conversion.
[20:41] There are myriads of ways that Jesus saves sinners. Now, don't get me wrong, it's all through the cross and all of that, but many different ways and means that He uses to bring them to salvation.
[20:55] Some, under the preaching of the Word in church. Others never darkened the door of a church. Some brought to repentance and faith hearing about the fearful condemnation of the wrath of God that's coming and only in Jesus are we saved from the coming wrath.
[21:13] Others were just melted by the amazing love of Jesus at the cross. Some brought to conversion by a tragedy in life.
[21:25] Some failure, some sickness, some loss, and it showed them their need of a Savior and they came. Some threw a great fall into sin and shame, but others, through great mercies, received.
[21:41] Romans 2, 4, that through the goodness and the patience of God, they're meant to bring you to repentance and some have been brought to repentance through those sheer mercies and kindnesses of the Lord.
[21:57] Some were saved through a godly upbringing in a Christian home. Others in an ungodly home setting. Some in youth, others in old age. Some who knew a lot about the Bible, others who didn't know who Moses or Paul were.
[22:11] It teaches us that God is sovereign in the means of grace that He uses to bring His people home to Himself.
[22:23] But all come to see that they are lost and in need of salvation because of their sins against God. All come to see that Jesus is the only one who can take care of my sin problem.
[22:38] All repudiate any trust in themselves anything of their own good works and throw themselves upon the mercy of God in Christ. They all enter the kingdom of God by the one way, the one truth, the one life, who is a person, Jesus Christ.
[22:56] And no one comes to the Father except through Him. have you been converted? Have you come to Christ and cast yourself upon God's mercy trusting only in what Jesus has done?
[23:13] You know, tragedy alone cannot save a person. None of these means alone can save a person. You know, tragedy leaves some people more bitter in their opposition to God.
[23:26] more is needed than just these means that God uses. God must unstop the spiritual ears of every sinner. Ears that don't want to hear the voice of the Son of God.
[23:42] He's got to unstop those ears. He's got to loosen the tongue if ever we are to confess our sins to Him. If ever we are to call on the name of the Lord to be saved, to save me.
[23:57] He's got to give sight to the spiritually blind eyes that see no glory in the Son of God. They see nothing in Him that they should desire Him, that they should live for Him, that they should trust in Him. He's got to raise the spiritually dead and make them alive in Christ.
[24:14] God must change the heart. God must draw them if ever they're to come to Christ. He must give them the gifts of repentance and faith if they are to willingly come and believe on the Lord and be saved.
[24:27] God must save for salvation is of the Lord. It is all of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. So every conversion is an astonishing miracle of divine grace and glory.
[24:43] No less than these healing miracles that we're studying in the Gospel of Mark. Indeed, conversion is a far greater miracle because He heals us from our waywardness.
[24:55] The very thing that was posting us onward on the broad road to hell. He heals us of our waywardness, our wayward heart that wants our way and He turns that heart heavenward to cast ourselves upon God's Savior, God's Messiah and to taste life eternal.
[25:17] Yes, that's the greater miracle. and this same Jesus calls on you to come to Him. He's done all the work.
[25:30] He lived the perfect life you couldn't. He's died the atoning death you should have. Turn and live. Upon a life I did not live, upon a death I did not die, another's life, another's death, I trust my whole eternity.
[25:45] That's the Gospel. believe and receive eternal life. Now our text in Mark chapter 7 for the last three weeks, we've made ourselves our way through this chapter, they've all had something in common.
[26:01] Have you noticed it? It's the Gentile component. And I'd like to draw out this theme that Mark is developing in the time remaining. The primary audience of this Gospel seems to be Gentiles as I mentioned.
[26:15] Last week I pointed out how in the Old Testament God entered into a covenant with one nation out of all the nations of the world. He chose the nation of Israel.
[26:25] Not because they were righteous or more numerous, just because He set His love upon them and chose them. They weren't righteous. Indeed, their father Abraham, the first one, was an idolater before God called him.
[26:45] You see, all the peoples of the world had gone astray, Abraham included. And out of all the mass of fallen sinners, God chose one family, the family of Abraham.
[26:56] And that family, you remember, grew down in Egypt and became numerous and became a nation. And God entered into the covenant with that nation of Israel.
[27:07] And only they were called by God as His children, His people, His nation, to whom He gave His word, His presence with them, His way of worship, His sacrifices, His promises of a coming Messiah who would bring salvation blessings.
[27:23] Only to them did God say, You will be My people and I will be your God. God called Himself the God of Israel. And He called them the Israel of God.
[27:35] You see, they were joined in a covenant, God and this one nation. Now, to be sure, not all the Israelites were saved.
[27:46] Never think that, well, because He chose the nation of Israel, they were all believers, that they were all saved. They enjoyed many privileges, just as we mentioned, but only those who believed were saved.
[28:00] As only by faith was any sinner ever saved in the Old or New Testament. And only by faith in Christ. And so the believing Israelites in the Old Testament were looking forward to this promised Messiah, the seed of the woman that would come and rescue them.
[28:17] We, in the New Testament, are looking back to that same Messiah who has now come, lived a perfect life, suffered, risen, died, risen, ascended into heaven.
[28:28] They looked forward to Christ. We looked backwards to Christ. But Christ has ever been the object of saving faith. Not all Israelites were saved.
[28:41] But it was within Israel that the true religion was maintained. All the other nations were left by God to go their own way. Acts chapter 17, Romans chapter 1.
[28:55] And what happened when God let them go their own way? Well, they had sinful hearts so they went towards sin. All of them, without exception, we all have wondered like wandering sheep.
[29:09] Each of us to our own way. And that's the way it was with these nations. They went into gross wickedness and idolatry. Worshipping other gods that were no gods.
[29:20] Worshipping the Son instead of the Creator of the Son. Worshipping Baal, the fertility god with all kinds of perverted acts of worship. Worshipping Malik by sacrificing their children in fire to this god.
[29:38] They worshipped spirits of their ancestors. They worshipped demons. They worshipped angels. They worshipped idols of stone and wood that their own hands had made. Indeed, it could be said they worshipped everything except the one true and living God.
[29:52] exchanging the truth for a lie. Worshipped and served created things instead of the Creator who is God blessed forever.
[30:05] These were the Gentile nations of the world. Gentile simply means non-Jewish. And because they were left in spiritual darkness, there were few Gentiles who ever came to hear about the promise of the Messiah and believed on God's Messiah.
[30:25] So why is this important to us? Well, I would imagine most everyone here is a Gentile just from who I know. And that means that these are our ancestors.
[30:40] These are our people. These are our religions. Our gods. As Paul says to the Gentiles in Ephesians 2, you who are Gentiles by birth were separated from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise.
[30:57] You were without hope and without God in the world. That's why it's important to us. If you'd been born 3,000 years ago, you'd have been bowing down to some piece of wood or stone or some imaginary gods.
[31:14] And you would have lived and died probably without ever hearing about a coming Savior just because you were born as a Gentile before Christ had come.
[31:30] Can you see why in the Old Covenant God wanted to keep His people separated from the nations? Lest they would learn their false religions and mix it with the worship of Jehovah.
[31:43] God's purpose in the Old Covenant was to keep them apart from the Gentiles. Many of the ceremonial laws were given to Israel to keep them distinct and apart from the Gentile nations.
[31:56] Lest the true religion becomes mixed and impure with heathen religions. There was to be no intermarriage between Israel and the Gentiles.
[32:07] They were given dietary laws with foods that were marked these are clean you can eat these are unclean you cannot eat. Well what did that law do?
[32:18] It put a barrier a separating wall between Jews and Gentiles. You couldn't even eat with a Gentile because they didn't keep all these dietary laws. And by eating with them you may have defiled yourself ceremonially and needed to go through ceremonial washing in order to be brought back into the worship of God.
[32:39] So it was an intentional thing these dietary laws the other clean and unclean laws that you weren't to touch a dead body or you became unclean and anybody that touched that person became ceremonially unclean.
[32:52] Again the Gentiles didn't keep this so it put up a wall between Jew and Gentile to keep their distance. to protect the Jews not just from ceremonial uncleanness but from real moral and spiritual uncleanness.
[33:13] But then in the first sermon from Mark 7 we saw the scribes and Pharisees came down from Jerusalem to oppose Jesus. They complained the disciples didn't keep the tradition of the elders in that they ate with unwashed hands.
[33:28] They did not go through the ceremonial washing of hands and you remember Jesus rebuked them saying nothing outside of a man can make him unclean by going into him rather it's what comes out of a man out of his heart that makes him unclean.
[33:43] Jesus repeated the same thing to his disciples and then Mark adds a parenthesis in verse 7 19 you'll see it there Mark 7 19 at the end. Now he's writing this 25 years later when he's writing his gospel and he inserts this insight in saying this Jesus declared all foods clean.
[34:09] He realized later that in this teaching of Christ the Old Testament ceremonial food laws were being abolished. They served their temporary purpose of keeping the Jews and Gentiles separate to keep the true religion pure although they did defile it but they were no longer binding with the coming death and resurrection of Christ.
[34:30] A new day has dawned a new covenant has come sealed in Jesus' blood so the disciples are no longer told go only to the lost sheep of the tribe of Israel. They're now told go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature make disciples of all the nations all the Gentiles now the Gentiles who believe are to be grafted into the Israel of God as now in Christ Jesus we who were once you and I who are Gentiles we who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ for he himself is our peace who has made the two one destroying the barrier the dividing wall of hostility.
[35:10] You see Jesus even during his earthly ministry was giving hints of this coming change he's preparing his church his Jewish church for the inclusion of the Gentiles and Mark 7 showed that the food laws that kept this dividing wall up were to come down that wasn't something easily grasped by the Jewish believers as the book of Acts and the New Testament epistles show remember how difficult it was for Peter to realize that Gentiles are to be gathered in to God's covenant people the great ends that the Lord went to the ascended Lord to teach him remember Cornelius the Gentile had a vision in which an angel from God told him to send to Joppa for a man named Simon who's called Peter who has something to tell him he's staying at Simon the Tanner's house and is by the sea so Cornelius sent three men on a mission to fetch Peter Cornelius the Gentile Peter the Jew meanwhile to prepare Peter to go with them into the Gentile's house
[36:14] God gave Peter a vision remember it was a great white sheet that was lowered down from heaven it had all kinds of animals and reptiles unclean food in it unclean animals and then a voice from heaven get up Peter kill and eat Peter says surely not Lord I've never eaten anything impure or unclean the voice spoke a second time do not call anything impure that I have made clean and the sheep went back up into heaven and it came down again same thing rise Peter kill and eat no Lord I've never eaten anything unclean don't you call unclean what I've made clean up it went down again three times and all the while Peter's thinking what's the meaning of this vision what is the Lord saying in it the three men from the Gentile Cornelius show up at the house and they ask if Simon known as Peter was staying with him the Holy Spirit told Peter do not hesitate to go with them for I have sent them and they told him about Cornelius' vision
[37:20] Peter went with them when he arrived the house was full of relatives and friends all Gentiles and Peter said to them you're well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or to visit him but God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean that's what the vision about the unclean foods was communicating to Peter no more food laws that meant to keep Jew and Gentile apart don't you call a Gentile unclean anymore and so when I was sent for I came without raising any objections he says and he preached the gospel to them and all of them believed all of them received the Holy Spirit all of them were baptized and so you can see how the food laws were interconnected with the inclusion of the Gentiles into God's covenant people now that they're they had meant to keep them apart now that they're abolished we see that God is bringing the Gentiles into his covenant people so even a year before his death we find Jesus preparing his people in Mark 7 for the inclusion of the Gentiles by three events first by abolishing the food laws that kept them apart second by immediately going north into Gentile region in Tyre and giving covenant mercies to a Gentile woman who would not let him go even though the Lord said
[39:00] I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel even though the Lord said it's not right to throw the children's bread to their dogs she kept holding on to the Lord I know you're full of mercy I know you're full of grace let me just be your unclean dog then and let me eat the crumbs that fall from the children's table go your daughter as well that was the second one and now the third one this deaf and mute man in the Gentile territory of the Decapolis and we're going to see it goes right on into chapter 8 as Jesus continues to spread his covenant mercies to Gentiles we must not think that this inclusion of the Gentiles was some spur of the moment hurried up decision that God made once the Jews rejected Jesus no it wasn't an afterthought it was a part of God's original plan from the beginning of calling out a people when he first established his covenant with Abraham what did he tell Abraham
[40:03] Genesis 12 3 all peoples of the earth will be blessed through you all peoples and he told them in chapter 22 18 through your seed Abraham singular your seed one seed from you Abraham all nations on earth will be blessed and so it was the coming Messiah is proved in Matthew 1 1 to be the son of Abraham and he did indeed bring salvation blessing to the nations there are many prophecies foretold way back in the Old Testament my favorite is Isaiah 49 5 and 6 where we have the servant of the Lord that's the title for Messiah and it's one of the servant of the Lord's songs and the Messiah son of God is talking about what God the Father had said to him and now the Lord says he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and to gather Israel to himself for I'm honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength he says the Father says to me his son it is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and to bring back those of Israel that I have kept
[41:17] I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth there's the Father saying that the work is not big enough it's not grand enough it's not worthy enough of your person my son to simply have you saving the remnant of a few Jews I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth nothing less is worthy of you my son than a totally redeemed planet filled with people from every tribe and language and nation singing worthy is the lamb that was slain so it's this Gentile theme that predominates this section of Mark's gospel as Christ is preparing his Jewish church for the inclusion of believing Gentiles when Jesus would be openly proclaimed to be the Messiah of all the nations now do you know why this is important do you see now why this is important for us Gentiles how blessed we were to not be born 3,000 years ago in the old covenant when God was letting the nations go and they didn't have the gospel they didn't have the promise they didn't have the covenants they didn't have the worship pointing to Christ the one sacrifice that would end all sacrifices when he let the
[42:52] Gentiles go their way without God and without hope aren't you happy you chose to be born after Christ after Christ had come and opened the door to the Gentile nations oh you didn't choose to be born in this era well then whose choice was it that you would be born after Calvary or were you just lucky is that it no Paul says in Acts 17 26 from one man God made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live that's right it wasn't luck it wasn't that you chose the time to be born the place to be born both of which have brought you immeasurable gospel opportunities then let's bow and adore the sovereignty of God and his grace in our salvation we unclean Gentiles idol worshippers sacrificing our own children bowing down to what our hands have made that God would bring the gospel door wide open to the nations lost sinner what are you doing with this privilege to be born after the cross when the invitation goes out to one and all come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest to whom much is given much will be required if you go on rejecting Jesus Christ your condemnation will be greater than that of
[44:39] Sodom and Gomorrah who were born before with Gentiles before hearing the gospel you know what happened to them but your condemnation will be greater why reject him any longer when his arms are open to you and he's inviting you come to me reject him no longer Jesus is ready to receive you let's pray Lord we thank you for your pity on fallen sinners even this man this probably Gentile man who is deaf and mute and you showed us your compassion your power a compassion and power that is divine and we thank you for what you are going to do when you return Lord Jesus and even in our congregation that we will see dear brothers in Christ with their ears unstopped and their tongues loosed and the first thing they will do is to praise the lamb who was slain oh Lord we want to be there with them we want to rejoice with them but we are those people ourselves and you have come and unstopped our spiritually deaf ears and loosened our tongues to cry for mercy in Jesus Christ so we thank you thank you for the place that we were born thank you for the time in which we were born thank you for the love and grace behind it all to us we are unworthy and we would adore you today in Jesus name amen prayer and we are fun and we are ku and you can't me in this