EPHPHATHA

^[p. 263] EPHPHATHA

Mark 7: 30 - 37; Mark 8: 22 - 26

Each evangelist has a definite end in view in his narrative. Mark intends to secure the believer wholly; he seeks the man, so at the end he records that at the empty tomb of Jesus there was a young man, and he was clothed in white. Luke indicates that we are to have a place in heaven, and Matthew that we are to have a part in the assembly here — a very great matter; but Mark would have us in entirety in spiritual energy and freshness in our faculties. Taking all the evangelists together, the Lord has very great things, and a variety of them, for us, but He would say to each that He has need of you.

I recollect hearing of an incident which occurred in the war period. Man was doing his worst, but God is always doing His best. In the gift of His Son He did His best. He spared not His own Son. And so during that awful period the work of God went on, and there were thousands of conversions, and the work goes on still.

A bishop was the instrument whom God used for the conversion of a young woman in London. She was converted to God, but not secure in the sense in which the young man at the end of this gospel suggests and which God would have. She entered into the Red Cross service, and then got away from the Lord. In her service evidently she was not robed with white like the young man at the end of this gospel. The Lord speaks of certain walking with Him in white, referring to our holiness, our moral cleanliness here. There can be no doubt she had not been instructed as to the white robe; for she placed herself where it could easily be defiled with the filth ^[p. 264] of this world, and as a consequence she got away from the Lord.

She came back to London and the bishop was preaching again, and when he finished preaching he walked down the aisle and the young woman stepped out and spoke to him, and said, ‘You will be sorry to hear that I have discovered that I can get along without Christ’. Satan had got the better of her, it was all out, she was deceived, like many others, in the thought that she could get along without Christ. To be independent of Him here means that I have to exist without Him by and by; terrible thought to be without Christ in eternity, in that awful place that is spoken of as prepared for the devil and his angels!

Well, the bishop said, ‘I do regret it very much, but I can tell you that He cannot get along without you’, and this so touched the wanderer that she broke down and was restored on the spot. The bishop told this story in Paris, where he was also preaching, and a person who was in the audience told me. The Lord has need of each of His elect; He died in order to have you, and He will have you. He may have to overthrow kingdoms to get you, but He will get you, and He wants you wholly; He wants the entire person.

A young man with a white robe is available for service; he is in all his faculties, spirit, soul and body in his prime, ready for the Lord, for the testimony here; that is Mark; in Luke it is for heaven; in Matthew for the assembly, but in either case He has great thoughts for you, and He will have you. He is ordering things to this end; everything that is happening in the world at the present time is to secure God’s end. If the world be turned upside down, it is that the elect might be saved. The Lord would have you now.

Mark has that in view early in his gospel; he speaks of a palsied man being cured. The whole man was affected, but at the Lord’s word he took up his bed and went to his house. Then again we get a man whose hand was withered; the hand is restored. That refers to your ability to serve, to work for the Lord. In this passage (Mark 7) what the Lord has in mind are those faculties in us which relate to our moral being; He must have these. He must have our hearing, He must have our ears, mouths, tongues and eyes. Some people are reckoned as converts who are not affected in these faculties.

Now you get here in the verses I read in chapter 7 a girl who was lying on a bed, the demon having been cast out, but that is not like the young man at the end; he is not lying down. No doubt there is a good deal in that, persons are numbered as converts and they do not get beyond lying down. They are no use in the testimony. A young man is energetic; he has his faculties, he has energies and intelligence, and the Lord has need of such. Heaven will be filled too with persons such as are represented in the two men at the grave according to Luke, in shining garments, for that is how we shall be there; everyone robed with robes of heavenly lustre. What courts these shall be! as someone has said, ‘Saint-thronged courts’. They will all be in full dress there, as was said of the prodigal in the gospel of Luke, the best robe was put upon him. God’s gifts are of the best.

We shall be there, beloved, as believers in Christ, in every way suited to the place, and Luke would prepare us for that; indeed he begins with bringing heaven down to us in volume — a multitude of the heavenly host. Shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks by night, and heaven comes down to them and surrounds them, to make known to them the mind of God. And as the angels were departing into heaven it says the shepherds moved. And where did they go? To the manger to see the Babe — the Saviour. The angels could not take them. Gabriel ^[p. 266] with all his dignity could not take one man to heaven. These multitudes were saying: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good pleasure in men”. Luke 2:14 The guarantee for that was in the Babe, lying in the manger — a Saviour.

They went and saw the Babe. Have you moved in this way? “Unto you is born”, the angel says to them, “this day in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”. Luke 2:11 These are the feelings of heaven — that we should be saved and brought up into heaven, to be like Jesus there. God has wonderful thoughts. He has the best things for us, and that is what Luke emphasises. But Mark would say to you in the meantime, that the Lord wants you here, and He wants you here in your entirety, as the young man in purity — a person with all his faculties, and his energies, and his freshness.

But to refer again to this young woman lying on a bed. She had an unclean demon. In these modern days we are living in an awful world, young people get defiled so easily; the world is calculated to catch the eye of the young, and the wicked one is set to get them occupied with its filth, its theatres, and its picture houses; the very worst the world can produce is presented to them for entertainment — like the demons possessing the girl.

You will find throughout the gospels that the Lord casts out demons. Where do they go? In one place the legion are allowed of the Lord to go where they wished — terrible consideration for men! They besought Him that He should allow them to enter into the swine, and He allowed them. The swine are figurative of unclean persons. He allowed them, and so the demons are active. Do you not believe it? People may not be worshipping them outwardly, but as you go along the street in the evening and look at the string of people, some very young people, too, waiting to pay for a ticket to go into those filthy ^[p. 267] places, is there not a demon there? There is, beloved friends; Satan is forcing people on, and they are helpless. That is the situation; it is a terrible thing; and fathers and mothers do well to take note of it.

Now here is a young girl with an unclean demon; that was her state. The Lord put Himself where the mother could reach Him, and so now mothers and fathers can reach Him for their children. In this case the mother besought Him. He was in a house in the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and she was a Syrophenician. You will observe the mother was very anxious about this matter.

You can understand what an awful person a girl possessed with a demon is in the house! If there are any other children she would contaminate them. An unclean demon, too! The mother knew what that meant, and so she besought the Lord.

But then another great principle comes out in this incident, and that is, if we are to get blessing from the Lord, we must take our true place before Him. The Lord says to her, “it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs”. In this gospel she is said to be a Greek, in Matthew she is only a Canaanite, but here she is more than a mere Canaanite, she is a Greek. That is to say, she had some little status in the world, for Greeks had then a great status in the world. Who is there here who does not think of some little status that he has got? It may be a little bit of money, or education, or some distinguished personal merit. You can never get blessing from the Lord on those lines.

The Lord is most sweeping in His answer to the woman. “It is not meet”, He says, “to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs” dogs! But the truth is the Lord is bent on blessing you, but you must take your place before Him. The woman says immediately, “Yea, Lord; for even the ^[p. 268] dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs”. Then the Lord says, “For this saying” — not what He said, but for what she said, “Yea, Lord”, the dogs — she was one of them.

Her daughter and she were dogs of the gentiles; on that line they were both outside the pale of blessing. Her daughter sure enough was in a vicious state; the mother was not like her in that sense, but as regards her place before God, she had no more footing than the daughter had. He says, “The dogs”, and she says, “Yea”.

What about that, my friends? The Lord is full of grace, but He is full of truth. Christ is the only Man who has a status before God. He has it in the right of His own Person. God announced of Him “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. Matthew 17:5 He could have gone back to heaven at any moment in the right of His own Person, but He could not take another with Him. No, He could not take another with Him without dying, and so He died.

When the Greeks came up, as you will remember in John’s narrative, the Lord says, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”. John 12:24 Greeks and Romans though they be, they have no status with God. The Son of man must die; and He has died.

Well now, the woman took that place of having no status. She says, “Yea, Lord; for even the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs”. And the Lord says, “Because of this word, go thy way, the demon is gone out of thy daughter”. Mark 7:28 Note, “because of this word”. I do ask you for such a word. Confession is an immense thing in this matter. Many believe in their heart, and thank God for it, but there has to be the word — the acknowledgment of the truth.

“Because of this word”. She would never forget that. I can understand this Syrophenician woman having that word engraved upon her mind so that it ^[p. 269] would never be forgotten. Now let me advise you, let me urge you young people if you want to get into heaven, do not forget that word. Confess the Lord, confess with the mouth; not only with your acts, but with your mouth. That is what the mouth is for. What are you to confess? The Lord Jesus; not only Jesus, but the Lord Jesus. The Lord is against demons. He is against all the devil’s power. If you confess Him the demons have to go; they cannot stand in the presence of that name.

But to proceed, the girl is found lying on a bed. As I say, she is not in the attitude of service; however, the demon has gone out of her, but much more is needed. She would be, doubtless, counted as a convert by many. I do not deny it, but while the demon had gone out of her, what is she for Christ? Lying on beds is not the idea in Mark. The demon having gone out is well, but christianity means more than that. There is more than that needed; that demon has to be replaced, that house out of which the demon has gone has to be occupied.

The house must be occupied; but how occupied? The hearing, that is the first thing; so the deaf man hears. He could not speak right. It does not say he could not speak, but he could not speak right. Now what we find is that there are certain who came to the Lord about him, which is another feature of Mark, that is, he records a certain sympathy incited where the Lord is. They came to the Lord, and not only do they come and intercede for the man, but they tell the Lord what to do. They beseech Him to lay His hand on him. The Lord values such interest.

I think it is an immense thing that the Lord should have those here in a city who know what people need, not only knowing that the people are lost, that they are suffering from satanic power, but they know what they need; they know about them. Now the Lord has great pleasure in that. Well, they tell Him ^[p. 270] what to do, but the Lord does more than they ask. He knew more than they did, for however much I may think a person needs, the Lord knows better.

He puts His fingers into this man’s ears. Now think of the Lord of glory, the Creator of the universe, doing that! He never saw the young woman that was healed as far as we know. He acted at a distance, for He has power to act at a distance, and the demon had come out of her.

But now here we see the Lord’s further interest in souls. He puts His fingers into the man’s ears. Think of the intimacy of this! Then the Lord spat and touched his tongue, and looking up to heaven He groaned and said, “Ephphatha” — “Be opened”.

Think of the Lord of glory going through it all! Is He not interested in you? Yes, He wants you; as I said before, He wants your ears, your tongue, your mouth, and your eyes; He wants you, and He will have you, and thus He does all this.

Are you indifferent to it? Are you indifferent to the overtures of the Lord in the gospel? He is ready to serve you in His marvellous way; in this case it meant complete identification with the man. The Lord groaned. It was because of the power of Satan over the man, the effect of sin. What do these groans in Him mean? They mean the cross. He had to undergo the death of the cross. He could never have us without it. And the spitting, what do you think that signifies? It is a divine Person here on earth. He came down Himself. Gabriel to be sure came, and so did many other angels, but they could never save, but a divine Person came to that end. The spitting signifies what He is essentially. He is God here in manhood. Think of a divine Person here, come down so that my ears might be opened, and my tongue loosed, that He might have me.

Are you indifferent to that? Think of all that He underwent! He became a man, and had the fingers ^[p. 271] of a man. He actually used His fingers in this case. Of old, fingers wrote, you remember, on the wall of the palace of Belshazzar, and now He puts His fingers into this man’s ears, and looks up to heaven, a dependent Man, the Son of God here. And he groaned, and heaven heard that groan. He is working now as really as He was working with this man. If our preaching is anything, it is the preaching of Christ. I am only a mouthpiece. The Lord is doing it, as Peter says to Aeneas, “Jesus the Christ makes thee whole”. Acts 9:34 He was doing it; it was not Peter doing it, it was Jesus the Christ.

So He says, “Be opened”. That man heard in his ears. If he never heard a sound before, he heard the sound of the voice of the Son of God, for his ears were opened. Would he ever forget it? Never. The Holy Spirit mentions the word spoken; it would ever ring in that man’s ears — “Ephphatha”. The Holy Spirit gives us the exact word used, and it is in your ear today, as if it fell from the lips of Jesus, “Be opened”. It is a word of authority. It is the voice of Christ — “Be opened”. And this man’s ears were opened, and he spoke right. No one ever speaks right until his ears are opened by Christ, and you cannot speak according to God until you hear; of the Lord Himself it was said prophetically, as of a man in wonderful dependence, “He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed”. Isaiah 50:4 We must hear before we can speak, and so the man heard and then he spoke.

The next thing is speaking right. What will you speak about? You will talk about Him whose voice you have heard.

I turn now to the next chapter, which I can only touch on; the man there is blind and has to see. We have to hear, and so we can speak right, and then we have to see. You will notice that in the case of the deaf man the Lord took him aside from the multitude, for really all these matters are individual.

^[p. 272] Salvation is not in crowds. Even when three thousand were converted, Peter said, “Repent … every one of you”. Acts 2:38 The Lord took this man away from the crowd, for the crowd will never help. We are christians; how often a meeting like this is the birthplace of souls, not only the birthtime, but the birthplace. What about it now?

Now in chapter 8 the people come to the Lord about the blind man, and the Lord takes him by the hand and He leads him outside the town. In the case referred to in chapter 7 it is from a crowd that the Lord takes the deaf man, but it is from the town and the things that go on in the town that the Lord takes the blind man away. It is a city period now in the history of this world. The trend is to the city, but Satan’s power is in the cities. God sets His testimony there nevertheless, but if one is to be converted and have his eyes opened, the Lord takes him outside the town, and He lays His hands on him and his eyes are opened. It is a partial cure at the first touch, for the work of God goes on in parts; He works in parts, as with the man in John 9, of whom it is said that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

You get the work of God in parts. This blind man represents thousands of the people of God; he looked up and saw men as trees walking. That is the world; the world is moving, it is a time of movement. The people are going hither and thither all the time; there never was such a time for travel in my knowledge as the present, and men are great in their own estimation in their travel, telling each other what they have seen, and of course the more they have seen, the more important they are. Well, this man saw them like that, they were moving, they were walking, and they were great people in his eyes.

Doubtless he would like to be one of them, but that would not correspond to the young man in the white robe; he had not got that idea yet; the Lord is ^[p. 273] bent on you getting that idea, and it must be had from Himself. So the Lord lays His hands on him again, and he saw all things clearly, not only all men, but “all things”. Now he can talk intelligently and with judgment.

I have already spoken of heaven and salvation through the death of Christ, but Mark is seeking to get us all for the Lord’s use now, and of what use are we unless we see things clearly, otherwise we might be deceived. Why is it that we do not see things? If you do not see it is because of the state of your soul. He takes the man outside, and opens his eyes, and he sees all things clearly by the second touch, and He tells him to go to his house. He wants us not only with good hands and good feet, with physical power, but He wants us to have our faculties, our sight, also the ear, the tongue, the mouth; so that we are intelligent in what we are doing, like that young man in the end of the gospel, with all our faculties, our energies, our freshness, and a white robe.