The Healing of a Deaf-Mute
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Fallen man is born spiritually dead, rendering him unable to respond to the living word of God. He perceives its sound, but is deaf to the truth. God desires that His creation be in fruitful fellowship with His word; but the sinner's heart can only respond as a deaf-mute. He must be born again. "THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." Rom. 3:11-12 |
The gospels of Matthew (ch 17), Mark (ch 9) and Luke (ch 9) tell of the healing by Jesus of a boy with a demonic deaf and mute spirit. The healing of this boy by Jesus is a foreshadow of the spiritual healing of all who heed the gospel call to receive Christ by faith and so become born of His word and reconciled to fellowship with the heart of God.
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He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." Mark 9:25 |
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...and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. Mark 9:26-27 |
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"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches..." Rev 2:7 |
Fallen man worships and pursues idols made in his own blind, deaf and mute image
"The idols of the nations are but silver and gold, The work of man's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; They have eyes, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear, Nor is there any breath at all in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, Yes, everyone who trusts in them" Psalm 135:15-18
Those who worship God will do so with hearts made alive to understanding God's word as they fellowship with God through that word
"But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:23-24
"It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life" John 6:63
The conversion from spiritual deaf-mute status to hearts awash with God's word was foretold in the Old Testament as a preview of the coming New Covenant
"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all
your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a
new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your
flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances" Ezekiel 36:25-17
Only in Christ can spiritual deaf-mutes have unstopped ears and tongues; able to assimilate God's word and then express that word like a letter written by Christ
"being manifested that you are a letter of Christ,
cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living
God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new
covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but
the Spirit gives life" 2Corinthians 3:3-6
Only with unstopped spiritual ears and spiritual tongues can believers have fellowship with God, and so fellowship with one another
"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with
our hands, concerning the Word of Life--and the life was manifested, and we have seen and
testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father
and was manifested to us--what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you
also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our
fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete" 1John 1:1-4
Only with unstopped spiritual ears can we follow our Great Shepherd as we hear and understand His voice
Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture...and when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." John 10:7-9, 4-5
Isaiah 55:10-11 illustrates how:
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God's word cannot flow out until it is received in |
So
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"Ye must be born again" |
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Why? Because all men are born sinners under God's wrath and judgment with hell as their eternal destiny How? By believing that Jesus Christ suffered and died at Calvary for your sins and rose from the dead in order to provide a way to eternal life "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" John 3:16 |
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