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[0:00] The following message was given at a Sunday celebration at Trinity Grace Church in Athens.! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.

[0:12] ! I want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden.

[0:36] But immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

[1:00] And he said to her, Let the children be fed first, for it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

[1:15] But she answered, Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

[1:30] And then he said to her, For this statement you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

[1:45] Verse 31. And he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the region of the Decapolis.

[1:58] And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had a speech impediment. And they begged him to lay his hand on him. And taking him aside from the crowd privately, he, that is Jesus, put his fingers into his ears.

[2:17] And after spitting, touched his tongue. And looking up to heaven, he sighed. And said to him, Ephrathah, that is, be opened.

[2:36] And Jesus charged them to tell no one. But the more he charged them, the more jealously they proclaimed it. And they were all astonished beyond measure, saying, He has done all things well.

[2:53] He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. It's the word of God. The only infallible, inerrant word of God.

[3:06] Last summer, the hit musical, Hamilton, was released on Disney+. The musical is based on one of America's largely unknown and often overlooked founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton.

[3:23] It tells the story of Hamilton's life, of being orphaned in the Caribbean islands, of gaining passage in this new land of America, of joining the revolution, of serving with George Washington in the revolution, climbing through the ranks of politics, of the Federalist Papers, of establishing much of our financial system, and of course, his deadly duel with Aaron Burr, who happens to be Jonathan Edwards' grandson, the theologian.

[3:53] It's a remarkable story. And the musical, Hamilton, brings the story to life in a remarkable way. And that's why it's been sold out every night since it opened in 2015.

[4:06] So when Hamilton was released in July of last summer, four months into a worldwide pandemic that left all of us stranded on our couch, the whole nation tuned in to hear.

[4:19] In the final song, though, the music turns from Hamilton's story to ours. It recaps again musically all the great things he did and all that was vital to his story, but then it turns to the audience and says, who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

[4:42] Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? In a culture pushing us to think of our lives as our story, our one chance to make a difference and make a statement, these words are searching.

[4:55] Who will tell our story? What will they tell? The assumption, the musical provides it, that no one will tell your story unless you join the revolution.

[5:07] Unless you're on the right side of history. Unless you do something great. Unless you make a name for yourselves. But this morning, we're going to hear about two individuals whose stories are not told because of the great things they've done.

[5:23] In fact, these individuals are outcast. They're unclean, unwelcome in the family of God. They have no story to tell. They should be two individuals forgotten in the nameless pages of history.

[5:38] And yet, Mark preserves their story and the remarkable encounter they have with Jesus Christ. They're part of a group of 13 outcasts in the book of Mark.

[5:50] One writer introduces these outcasts this way. He says, So again and again, you see these little moments where Mark just kind of summarizes lots of healings, lots of signs and wonders, lots of miracles.

[6:26] But in these 13 incidences, he gives these guys an entire scene to themselves. These are the ones who come to Jesus with a need for healing or exorcism, which Jesus meets.

[6:39] This group of 13 supplements show us a slice of life in the first century world. Despite their variety, together they illustrate a world in great need, a world under the shadow of death.

[6:56] They also show that the Jewish religion was completely unable to help them in their need. In fact, it probably even made their situation worse by excluding them as unclean and so making God seem further away.

[7:13] These individuals, which we've already studied a number of them, show us a world in great need. They take us outside the camp.

[7:25] Some of the gospels takes place within the camp of Judaism. And rightly so. Jesus came to bring the gospel to the Jews. But these little encounters take us outside to the camp, to the unclean and unholy.

[7:42] And we've already encountered a number of ones, but we're going to encounter two this morning, a woman with a demon-possessed daughter and a deaf man with stumbling speech. And in so many ways, after the showdown with the scribes and Pharisees in the last 23, 24 verses, in which Jesus made clear that it's not what you do, it's not what's on the outside that makes you clean, the story of these two individuals show us that no one is too far to come to Jesus by faith.

[8:07] So in a way, in a word where we're going is no one is too far to come to Jesus by faith. And we're going to unpack this and these two encounters in two points. The first is a Gentile woman with a demon-possessed daughter.

[8:23] I didn't have any alliteration like Taylor had last week. I couldn't figure out how to get this right, so I just laid it out there plainly. A Gentile woman with a demon-possessed daughter. So we capture, when we pop into our text this morning, we capture Jesus on the move.

[8:39] He goes to the region of Tyre, which is north of the Sea of Galilee and encounters a Gentile woman. Look in verse 24, and from there he arose, so he got up and he went to this region.

[8:50] So he travels to Tyre, which is present-day Lebanon, or it's in the country of Lebanon. And the people there were not friends of Israel in any way, shape, or form.

[9:01] They were longtime enemies because of their idolatry and their opposition. That's where Jezebel was from, if you remember her. She wasn't exactly a great character in the Old Testament.

[9:13] So she did not, and they do not, worship the same God. In fact, just a few hundred years before, they teamed up in a war against Israel. So many Jews believe one of the first things a Messiah would do is come to wipe out and run down people like them.

[9:32] But Jesus goes into Tyre, as we'll see, for another reason. At first, it seems that he wants to get some rest. Look at that. I love the way Mark puts this in 24b. And he entered a house.

[9:43] We don't know whose house, but he entered a house, did not want anyone to know. The assumption is that he's tired of the crowds chasing him around and tired of all the opposition. He enters this house wanting to get some rest, yet he could not be hidden.

[9:59] Man, that's a major theme in Mark. Again and again, Jesus interrupted every time he wants to rest. That's kind of informative for us.

[10:09] Don't negate the... Often the interruptions are the work of God, the work that God wants us to do. So interrupting his rest, barging into the house, a Gentile woman comes to confront Jesus with her request.

[10:25] First, we're introduced to what she does. Look at 25. Immediately, a woman, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him and came and fell down at his feet.

[10:36] So she's kind of bust into the room and comes and falls down at his feet. We don't know. We imagine he was reclining at table like they would have done in those days. He comes in. She just falls down even lower at his feet.

[10:48] Now, if you remember, the last person we heard about that fell down at Jesus' feet was Jairus, who also had a daughter that was sick. And so he fell down at Jesus' feet. But the contrast between Jairus and this woman could not be greater.

[11:02] Jairus, a president of the synagogue, and this woman, an outcast. Nevertheless, she falls before him. And then we hear who she is. As an aside, this sentence, Now, the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth.

[11:23] She begged him to cast out the demon out of her daughter. A Gentile, a woman, a Gentile, a Syrophoenician by birth. One scholar says this is a crescendo of demerit.

[11:36] You know, we have our crescendo of merit on our Facebook bio or our Twitter bio or something like that. We have our crescendo of merit.

[11:47] But this is a crescendo of demerit. She's a woman. Patriarchal culture, where a woman couldn't own property, couldn't be a witness in court. Wouldn't be a person a Jewish rabbi would associate with, would talk to.

[12:01] She's a Gentile. An outcast. Someone outside the family of God. She's a Syrophoenician. She's a pagan. That's what that's saying.

[12:13] She's not merely a neutral Gentile. She's an idolater. Outside the family of God, worshiping other gods. As if that weren't enough, she's been around an unclean daughter.

[12:27] A daughter with an unclean spirit. Mark is saying this woman has nothing to qualify her. No religious background, no religious experiences, no religious track record.

[12:41] In fact, the only thing she has should disqualify her. Nevertheless, at the risk of being turned down and being thrown out of the house, this woman burst into the house and desperately begs Jesus to heal her daughter.

[12:57] She begged him. The emphasis in the text is she just repeatedly begged him to cast out the demon out of her daughter. Now, it's not hard to imagine us pushing through some doors to protect our kids.

[13:13] Don't mess with a mama whose kid is hurt. You know, that tiger mama thing comes out. But this desperation is instructive to me.

[13:31] So often we treat prayer as a last resort. Well, I don't know what else to do, so I guess I'll just pray. But it's this desperation that really underlines the truths of prayer.

[13:49] As Tim Keller said, to fail to pray is to fail to treat God as God. So to pray is to treat God as God, the all-powerful king who works for those who wait for him.

[14:00] And that's what we desperately need, always, for anything of significance to get done. Years ago, the great preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones said it like this.

[14:14] He was exegeting pray without ceasing. He said, isn't this prayer the supreme need of this hour? Well, if you believe that to pray to God without ceasing, go on with all your activities if you like.

[14:30] Go on with your work. I'm not saying that you should stop doing everything and just wait. No, no. Go on if you like doing all your day. But I do say this. Make certain that you leave time to pray for revival and to see that that has more time than anything else because when the Holy Ghost falls, more happens in one hour than will happen as a result of your exertion in mine in 50 years or even 100 years.

[14:54] I love that because you just had a massive view of God and a massive view of what God can do when we fall before him in desperation. And so this woman kind of exhorts us. And so she desperately begs Jesus to help, to intervene, to cast a demon out of her daughter.

[15:12] And Jesus tells her no. Look at verse 27. He says, Let the children be fed first for it's not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

[15:28] Now, this is one of the most offensive things Jesus said upon first reading. Dogs are not man's best friend in Israel.

[15:42] They're not pampered with doggy daycare and daily walks and Alpo. They're unclean scavengers roaming the streets, rummaging around for things to eat in garbage and the carcasses of animals.

[16:00] So Jesus is essentially saying, No, I cannot heal your daughter. It's not right to heal unclean dogs. Now, that doesn't sound like the meek and mild Jesus that found his way onto our felt boards when we were growing up.

[16:20] What do we make of this? Well, is it an insult? Is Jesus kind of throwing it back in her face? Well, Jesus is answering this woman with a parable.

[16:33] And that's what's really important to see in order to understand what's going on. Jesus has already told, if you remember back in Mark 4, he already told us that Jesus said, I'm going to speak to the outside, to you I'll speak plainly, but to the outsiders I'll speak in parables.

[16:47] To those outside the kingdom that they will not know the secret of the kingdom. And so it's not surprising that in this encounter with a Gentile woman that Jesus speaks in a parable.

[16:58] And so the parable is that there's a house, you know, that the kingdom of God, I guess, is kind of like a house. And there's children in the house. There's children that belong to the landowner in the house.

[17:08] And the children are the children of Israel. They're inside the house. And there are dogs that are outside the house. And they may get food afterwards, but the food goes first.

[17:20] The bread goes first to the children who are in the house, who rightly belong in the house, whose last name is the same as the name on the mailbox, so to speak.

[17:34] The dogs, though, they're part two and they'll get fed in time. But first, the children have to eat. And so Jesus is not saying that the gospel's not for you Gentiles because you are all dogs.

[17:48] That's not what he's saying. He's not saying the gospel's not for you Gentiles because you're all dogs. Jesus is saying the gospel is for you Gentiles, but it's for the Jews first. Now, we see this pattern again and again throughout the New Testament.

[18:00] The gospel is declared first to Jesus' people. He came to his own people, and even though his own people did not receive him, then he went out, right, to all the world. We see it in Romans 1.16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God for salvation.

[18:11] To everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentiles. I remember memorizing that as a new believer. To the Jew first. What in the world does that mean? Well, that's the secret of the mission, that the mission is going to come, it's going to begin in Israel, then it's going to break out through the banks to all the people of the world.

[18:30] So Jesus essentially says, wait your turn, the gospel is for you too. I hope that's clarifying. But she won't take no for an answer.

[18:44] Look at verse 28. So he says, let the children be fed first, but it's not right if you take children's bread and throw it to dogs. She says, yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs.

[18:56] So she says, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord, I get it. I know the gospel is for the Jews. I know it's a part of the plan of God. I know it's coming first. To your people.

[19:11] So she gets it. Now you remember back in Mark 4 when he's talking about parables again, he says, who has ears, let him hear. So by answering this woman and not being confused, but by answering and revealing that she understands what's going on, she is revealing that she hears, she understands, she truly gets his mission.

[19:33] She is the first person actually to hear and understand the mission of Jesus Christ. Scribes and Pharisees do not receive him when he comes to synagogues first. The crowds are enamored and amazed by him, but they do not follow him.

[19:44] And even the disciples don't really get him. They keep trying to set up a healing ministry for our Lord Jesus Christ, but the woman gets it, that yes, it's a mission that's going first for the Jews.

[19:56] But then she adds, but still, the dogs get to eat the crumbs under the table now. She knows she's undeserving, but at the mention that mercy will soon be available to her, she refuses to go away until she gets it.

[20:18] Now this is huge. When my wife and I were dating, she told me her favorite movie was Dumb and Dumber.

[20:37] I nearly proposed on the spot. Dumb and Dumber is by all accounts a dumb movie about two losers, Lloyd and Harry, trying to return a briefcase of money to a lady one of the guys has fallen in love with at first sight.

[20:57] After finally making, finally finding a woman in Colorado or something, Lloyd professes his love for her. And one of the best, or I don't want to overstate it, it's a concerning movie in about ten ways, but when he does have the moment alone with this woman that he's built up in his mind and thinks he's destined for, he says to her, what are the chances of a girl like you and a guy like me ending up together?

[21:31] She says, not good. He goes, not good like one of a hundred? She says, no, not good like one in a million.

[21:45] And Lloyd steps back for a minute and says, so, you're telling me there's a chance. You're telling me there's a chance. That's all Lloyd needed to hear to keep running all the way and the promise of mercy that will soon be available to the Gentiles is all this woman needed to hear.

[22:04] There's a window that's open for this woman. And she says, I'm not going anywhere until I get it. More than anyone else in Scripture, this woman resembles Jacob.

[22:18] She resembles somebody who wrestles with the Lord in order to get the promise. She resembles one who fights. She wrestles with the Lord. She refuses to go away until the Lord blesses her.

[22:29] She sees that window of opportunity open up, the promise that mercy will soon come to the Gentiles. And she says, I'm not leaving, Lord, until I get it.

[22:40] And she gets it. Look in verse 29. For this statement, you may go your way. The demon has left your daughter. Your daughter is healed. Matthew 15 includes the same episode.

[22:52] Jesus answered her, O woman, great is your faith. Be it done for you as you desire. And her daughter was healed instantly.

[23:03] Now, there's something really incredible going on here. Though she is an outcast, outside the camp, though she is an outcast, she resembles true faith. Jesus says, How great is your faith?

[23:16] Though she is not a Jew outwardly, she reveals that she is a Jew inwardly, having been made new by the Spirit.

[23:28] In the same way that Jacob's name was changed to Israel after he wrestled with the Lord. So this woman's identity was changed from a dog to a child of God.

[23:42] Martin Luther says it like this. She took Christ at his words, at his own words. He then treated her not as a dog, but as a child of Israel. That's incredible. Not even a Gentile woman with a demon-possessed daughter is too far if she has faith.

[23:59] No one is too far to come to Jesus by faith. Second, a deaf man with stumbling speech. A deaf man with stumbling speech.

[24:12] After returning from Tyre, Jesus goes through Sidon and on to the region of the Decapolis. And if you remember, Jesus was in the Decapolis back in Mark 5, or back previously in his journal.

[24:23] He didn't think Mark 5, that's where I was. But he was in the Decapolis. That's where he healed the demoniac legion, right? And if you remember, he was expelled from that land after he healed the demoniac.

[24:34] Well now, as soon as he arrived, they come running to him with a man. So apparently the demoniac, or legion, has been doing his evangelist ministry and been bringing many to Jesus Christ.

[24:49] And so they bring to him this deaf man with stumbling speech. And Sinclair Ferguson says, what happens next is one of the most beautiful, as well as perhaps one of the most unusual of all miracles.

[25:02] One of the most beautiful, as well as perhaps one of the most unusual of all miracles. It begins quite normally. They bring this man. The locals bring the man to Jesus. So he arrives on the land and they carry this man, or not carry this man, but they walk with this man.

[25:17] They guide this man to him. And Jesus, unlike the Syrophoenician woman, he does not delay in answering their plea, but Mark does carefully unfold the beautiful yet unusual steps Jesus takes to heal him.

[25:32] First, Jesus takes him aside. Look in verse 33. And taking him aside from the crowd privately. One commentator says, by himself the needy man is simply another face in the crowd of Gentiles, of unclean, unholy, ungodly.

[25:59] But in removing him from the crowd, Jesus signifies that he is not simply a problem, but a unique individual. These words are so pregnant.

[26:10] He took him aside from the crowd privately. You know, I think we often are led to believe that Jesus' ministry was just so sweeping and so dramatic that it was just another miracle, just another disease healed, just another problem solved.

[26:24] But Jesus does not gather a crowd. He's not trying to gather a crowd with wonders. He's so unlike the spiritual leaders we know. He doesn't come for applause or reputation. He doesn't use this man as a platform for himself.

[26:37] Jesus came to help him. Now, if you can imagine this man who did not hear his whole life and been pushed forward because there's this man, Jesus, who they can't even articulate what he's going to do except for with sign language or something like that that he's going to do.

[26:53] And so they drag him over to see Jesus Christ. Whatever might be going on in his mind, there's no doubt he's anxious and afraid about what this man is going to do to him.

[27:04] Most likely, he's already been subjected to all the teachers in the land. I mean, all the doctors in the land. Everyone has tried their spells. Everyone has tried their work to try to get these ears to open and get this man to speak.

[27:18] And so, is this one more episode? Is this one more man that's going to try out his thing on me? But Jesus does not act like them.

[27:29] He gently takes him aside to heal him privately. Every introvert's favorite verse in the Bible. And then he touches the places that are deformed.

[27:49] He put his fingers in his ears. After spitting, that is, putting saliva on his fingers, he touched his tongue. Lord, you know, I mean, clearly Jesus doesn't need to touch him to heal him.

[28:08] He just healed the woman's daughter from afar. Same thing with Jairus' daughter. He can heal with a word.

[28:19] He's the living God. Saliva. But here, he touches this man twice with saliva on his finger. To give him a wet willy?

[28:30] I don't know, you know. He's speaking to this man in a way he can understand. He's saying, those ears, that's where I'm going.

[28:48] That tongue. That's where I'm going. John Calvin, the great reformer, says it like this, the laying on of hands would of itself have been sufficiently efficacious. And even without moving a finger, he might have accomplished it by a single act of his will.

[29:04] So he could have healed him by laying on of hands. He could have healed him by just commanding it. But it is evident that he made abundant use of outward signs when they found, they were found to be advantageous.

[29:21] Thus, by touching the tongue with spittle, he intended to point out that the faculty of speech was communicated by himself alone. It is God who created the tongue.

[29:35] And by putting his fingers into his ears, he showed that it belonged to his office to pierce the ears of the deaf. I love that.

[29:50] He could have healed by touch. He could have healed by word. But for this man who was deaf, he heals by both.

[30:02] Then Jesus, look, verse 34, looking up to heaven, he sighs. Now, looking up to heaven, that's just what he did before he fed the 5,000.

[30:15] Looked up to heaven as if to signify or to signify that his power comes from God. But then he sighs. Sinclair Ferguson again says, the gospel of Mark is very sparing in its description of Jesus' expression of emotion.

[30:27] It's very sparing. We know this about Mark. Mark's just kind of, he's breakneck space, breakneck pace the whole way, but he gives us this precious little window into the emotional life of our Lord.

[30:39] You know, we sigh all the time. We sigh after losing something. We sigh when we're stuck in traffic. But Jesus is sighing over something in a different way here.

[30:52] He's sighing at the crippling and devastating effects of sin on this world. He's sighing because he's outside the camp now and he's looking into the eyes. It's almost like it catches him by surprise and it overwhelms him.

[31:06] As the eternal Son of God, Jesus knows in theory that the sin-cursed world is afflicted with sickness, disease, and disorder.

[31:17] But now, as the eternal Son of God incarnate, Jesus experiences personally, he touches these deformed organs. He looks into the eyes of this deformed man and experiences in his human humanity the effects of a sin-cursed world.

[31:39] He sighs, not because he doesn't know what to do, but because he's overwhelmed at the groaning of this sin-cursed world that will push him all the way to the cross to set it right. You know what Jesus thinks about Alzheimer's.

[32:00] You know what Jesus thinks about trisomy. You know what Jesus thinks about genetic disorders. He sighs. He says, I'm going to bring a world that's going to make everything right.

[32:20] Because this sin-cursed world has made everything wrong. And then he says, be opened.

[32:41] Be opened. Immediately, his ears are opened. His tongue is released. Literally, the chain of his tongue is broken.

[32:56] He begins to speak. Can you imagine the thrill of this man's heart? I'm a sucker for inspirational videos, you know. Late at night when I can't sleep, find myself scrolling through Instagram stories or something like that.

[33:10] Videos pop up of dad or mom coming back from the war, coming back from combat, busting into their kid's classroom or graduation or something like that. They always leave me in a bucket of tears. Now, that's probably not surprising based on the last three minutes.

[33:22] But, I'm almost always compelled to lie to the same thing when I see somebody who gets a cochlear implant and begins to hear. I watched one the other day.

[33:33] This little boy, it wasn't a cochlear implant. It was a new procedure. But, but he heard his dad's voice and, and dad's saying, hello. You know, they're speaking softly so as not to jar this little kid and he's hearing for the first time.

[33:46] looking around and, and the same thing's going on with this man. This man that, that's been, been drug here to see this man named Jesus. He's been drug here after seeing all the doctors in all the areas.

[33:57] He's been drug here to encounter this man, this man who finally releases his ears. He unstops them in a word. Finally lets loose his tongue to sing and to praise.

[34:08] And the first voice he hears is not his father or mother. It's not even his brother or sister. The first voice he hears, first verse he, voice he hears is the voice of the living God himself.

[34:21] The one who called him into being. The one who formed him in the womb. The one who formed those little ears. So not even a deaf man with stumbling speech is too far off for the word of the gospel.

[34:33] No one is too far off for Jesus Christ. That's, that's what this is getting at. No one is too far off. No matter how dirty are you, no matter how long you've been outside the camp.

[34:47] But there is in here a reminder that Jesus' ability to heal is not just physical. It's not just the physically deaf and the physically dumb. J.I. J.C. Ryle says it like this, here we're also meant to see our Lord's power to heal the spiritually deaf.

[35:04] He can give the chief of sinners a hearing ear. Oh, praise the Lord. He can make him delight in hearing the very gospel he once ridiculed and despised.

[35:17] Here also, we're meant to see our Lord's power to heal the spiritually dumb. He can teach the hardest of transgressors to call upon God.

[35:29] He can put a new song into the mouth of him whose talk was once only of this world. He can make the filest of men speak of spiritual things and testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

[35:44] He that healed the deaf and dumb still lives. This past week marked 20 years since I became a Christian.

[35:57] I went out on G Creek to walk and delight in the gospel that I once just ridiculed and despised.

[36:11] I was raised in a family of Christians, church kids. One of my friends liked to say he had a drug problem. He was drugged to the church every time the doors were open. I had that drug problem and other ones.

[36:24] I learned the stories and all the right things to say. I learned a little bit about Jesus and that little bit was enough to keep the real Jesus far away from me for a long time. After years of drinking and doing drugs I went to the University of Tennessee in the fall of 1999 to continue the party and I did.

[36:45] One particular night the party pushed early into the morning but I had to get home so I drove. Along the way I made an illegal turn and was pulled over.

[36:56] Within minutes I was handcuffed by the police charged with a DUI possession drug paraphernalia a few other things. I was taken to jail. I think that's my kid's favorite part even though I don't glory in it at all.

[37:11] The next morning two friends bailed me out.

[37:23] I never forget coming back to the dorm room you know it's kind of like it's circulated along the hall and so when I walked out of the elevator everybody knew. Now they were feeling sorry for me but I was getting what I deserved.

[37:38] Throughout the day the sinfulness of my lifestyle began to settle on me. Desperate I opened my Bible and did a method I don't recommend to anybody.

[37:50] Flopped it open to point and shoot and I pointed to two verses in Psalm 34 the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous his ear towards their cry the face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off even the memory of them from the earth.

[38:03] I knew who I was. I knew the Lord was opposing me. I wept because of my sin. I wept because of who I really was.

[38:16] I wept because I saw what God really thinks of my sin the weakness of my lifestyle. I wept because I began to understand the bad news. Several months later in God's mercy though I'd heard the gospel hundreds of times my ears were suddenly unstuck to the good news.

[38:41] God gave me saving faith August 9th 2001. It was as if the world had been black and white before suddenly everything was color.

[38:54] My ears could not hear enough. My eyes could not read enough. I took my kids back there this summer to point out hey this is where I lived. This is where Matthew and Mark and Luke and John became my greatest companions.

[39:09] My mouth could not sing enough. My heart could not rejoice enough. If you told me 20 years ago I'd still be trying to figure out what happened to me on that hot August day I would have called you a liar or fool.

[39:20] But that's what happened to me and that's what can happen to you because of what God has done in Jesus Christ. No one's too far off. Anyone in need?

[39:33] Anyone outside the camp? Anyone struggling under the shadow of death? Is there anyone broken? Is there anyone buried under guilt and sin and condemnation?

[39:45] Anyone who has failed? Well, if this Jesus can heal that woman and unstick stuck the ears of that deaf man then surely he can save you.

[39:58] That is the message of this passage. Oh, would you come to Jesus? Let no one tarry. Come to this one. There's room enough for you. There's room enough in Jesus Christ for you.

[40:12] No matter how far you've fallen or how many times you've stumbled no matter how willingly you've rejected him he says, come to me all you weary and heavy laden I'll give you rest.

[40:24] Take my yoke upon you for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. No one's too far. So why does Mark preserve the story of these two individuals?

[40:38] These two supplements. These two supplements. Not because of anything remarkable they do. Not because they start a revolution. So that everyone would know no one's too far off.

[40:56] And after the man is healed the crowd breaks out into song. They were astonished me. I met it saying he does all things well.

[41:09] He makes the deaf hear and the mute sing. speak. Sing too but.

[41:22] So it's fitting that we conclude with song. We're going to conclude by singing an old hymn called Oh for a thousand tongues to sing. You know every time you read this song let me tell you one thing about it and then we'll dive into singing in a minute.

[41:34] You know he says Oh for a thousand tongues to sing my great redeemer's praise. What Charles Wesley is not saying oh that I had a thousand people with me to sing. Now that would be pretty cool if this was just suddenly multiplied by several hundred people to sing.

[41:49] He's not saying oh that I had a thousand oh that there were a thousand people there to sing. He's saying oh that I had a thousand tongues. Oh Lord that you would give me more tongues because more tongues are worthy of your praise.

[42:00] And so he's saying oh that I had a thousand tongues to sing of my great redeemer's praise. And so it just continues along those lines. My gracious master my God assists me to proclaim spread through all the world abroad the honors of his name.

[42:15] Jesus the name that charms our fears that bids our sorrows cease. Tis music in the sinner's ears tis life and health and priests. He breaks the power of canceled sin.

[42:26] He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood availed for me. He speaks and listening to his voice new life the dead receive.

[42:38] The mournful broken hearts rejoice. The humble poor believe. Listen. Hear him ye deaf. His praise ye dumb. Ye loosened tongues employ.

[42:49] Ye blind behold your Savior come. And leap ye lame for joy. Glory to God and praise and love. Be ever ever given by saints below and saints above the church in earth and heaven.

[43:05] Let's pray. Amen. Amen. Father we offer to you our hearts promptly and sincerely we offer to you our lives.

[43:21] What else we do before this Jesus but fall before him clinging to him alone for salvation and exalting him alone and our words and our actions and our lives.

[43:41] God we praise you and worship you for the loud testimony that there is none who has strayed too far that you have come to bring all the children home.

[43:55] We praise you and worship you give you all the glory in Jesus name. Amen. You've been listening to a message at a Sunday celebration at Trinity Grace Church in Athens.

[44:07]  For more information about Trinity Grace please visit us at