Restored Hearing, My

In this part of the sermon: Pastor Martin begins by sharing his recent experience with cochlear implant surgery for severe hearing loss, which prompted him to study the human ear. He announces his intention…

Martin recounts his sudden and dramatic hearing loss in both ears over three years, leading to his recent cochlear implant surgery. This personal narrative frames the entire sermon, making the topic deeply personal and relatable.

I believe it's accurate for me to say that most of you seated here before me in this place are aware of the fact that four and a half weeks ago I lay on an operating table in one of your local hospitals and a doctor went to work on me to stick some things in my skull with the hopes that with the blessing of God it might result in some measure of restoration of the drastic hearing loss in my left ear. Many of you have lovingly and prayerfully identified with me in this experience. It was almost exactly three years ago that I experienced a sudden and dramatic loss of hearing in my left ear. Elev...

0:00 - 1:29 Read in full sermon

The point: Find sheer pleasure in contemplating God's fearful and wonderful work in making the hearing ear, not viewing it as merely a biology lecture.

The outer ear (pinna/oracle) is described as acting like a large antenna, picking up sound and helping discern its direction, countering evolutionary claims of it being vestigial.

I know, and my dear wife will testify, that as I've been reflecting and reviewing the these matters, making sure that what I was going to present to you was sound and accurate from a biological and anatomical and physiological standpoint, I've had all I could do to keep from getting up in my study and dancing with delight as I've beheld God's fearful and wonderful work in being the God who makes the hearing ear. So I want to give a simple explanation of how God has constructed the hearing ear and makes it to function. Now, it's helpful, and it accords with kosher medical usage, to think of the...

10:07 - 11:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Find sheer pleasure in contemplating God's fearful and wonderful work in making the hearing ear, not viewing it as merely a biology lecture.

Martin humorously recalls a teacher grabbing a 'rascal' by the ear, identifying the pinna as the commonly recognized 'ear' and making the anatomical term memorable.

I know, and my dear wife will testify, that as I've been reflecting and reviewing the these matters, making sure that what I was going to present to you was sound and accurate from a biological and anatomical and physiological standpoint, I've had all I could do to keep from getting up in my study and dancing with delight as I've beheld God's fearful and wonderful work in being the God who makes the hearing ear. So I want to give a simple explanation of how God has constructed the hearing ear and makes it to function. Now, it's helpful, and it accords with kosher medical usage, to think of the...

10:07 - 11:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Find sheer pleasure in contemplating God's fearful and wonderful work in making the hearing ear, not viewing it as merely a biology lecture.

The three tiny bones of the middle ear (hammer, anvil, stirrup) are highlighted as the only bones in the human body that do not grow from birth to death. This illustrates God's precise engineering to maintain the delicate mechanism of hearing.

Some insist, no, it's part of the outer ear. So we'll call it the barrier that separates the outer ear from the middle ear. We'll be a compromiser and we'll please both sets of people. Then we have the middle ear. And the key elements of the middle ear are three little bones, the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup, the malleus, the incus, and the stapes. And it's a fascinating thing. Some of us who are old folks, some of you who have reached the maturity of your years, some of you, 14, 12, 5, 6, 7, these are the only three bones in the human body that are exactly the same size when you're 30 a...

12:42 - 13:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Isn't that an amazing thing? Isn't that amazing? God put those three bones there in the middle ear.

The beautiful sound of a violinist is used to prompt reflection on the complex process by which sound travels from the instrument to the brain, filling the listener with delight.

interaction and complex interplay of air, of a thin membrane, of three bones, of physical pressure on some fluid, on some hairs that create electrical current, you and I actually hear. Think with me for a minute. Here's an accomplished violinist. He or she takes the violin, tucks it under the chin, takes the bow with the horse hairs on it and begins to run it over the violin and these most beautiful sounds come into our ears.

15:59 - 16:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Isn't that an amazing thing? Isn't that amazing? God put those three bones there in the middle ear.

A piercing baby's cry waking a mother is used to illustrate the power of sound and the ear's ability to transmit it effectively to the brain, prompting action.

What has happened to bring the sound from that instrument into our ears and brain and fill us with delight at the beauty of that music? Or you're in your bedroom as a mom and there's suddenly that piercing baby infant cry that awakes you out of your sleep and you run into your little one. What has happened that that cry coming out of the throat of that little infant is so powerful that you can hear it in your ear and up into your brain? Or maybe you're in the bleachers at a ball game in the left field bleachers and you're watching and the batter's in the batter's box and you can tell that he's...

16:40 - 18:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Isn't that an amazing thing? Isn't that amazing? God put those three bones there in the middle ear.

The sound of a baseball bat hitting a ball, with the slight delay between seeing the hit and hearing the crack, illustrates the speed of sound and the process of air molecules bumping into the ear.

What has happened to bring the sound from that instrument into our ears and brain and fill us with delight at the beauty of that music? Or you're in your bedroom as a mom and there's suddenly that piercing baby infant cry that awakes you out of your sleep and you run into your little one. What has happened that that cry coming out of the throat of that little infant is so powerful that you can hear it in your ear and up into your brain? Or maybe you're in the bleachers at a ball game in the left field bleachers and you're watching and the batter's in the batter's box and you can tell that he's...

16:40 - 18:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The answer to all of life's question is fundamentally theological.

Martin shares the story of a brother in the church, Ken Cook, whose otosclerosis (calcified middle ear bones) was corrected by surgery, replacing a tiny bone with titanium. This serves as an example of surgical restoration of hearing.

And when they calcify, the calcification keeps them from vibrating at the appropriate speed. And when that happens, then there's, there's a degree of blockage in the sound getting from those three little bones into the cochlea, into the fluid, into the hairs and up the auditory nerve into the brain. That was the problem that our brother Ken Cook had in one ear that's been corrected by surgery. It's called otosclerosis.

26:56 - 27:29 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains common causes of hearing loss, from wax accumulation and eardrum perforations to calcified bones (otosclerosis) and sensory neuro hearing loss (dead cochlear…

Martin describes his own sudden hearing loss as if someone 'took a syringe filled with concrete and squirted it into my left ear,' and later his right ear. This vivid imagery conveys the abrupt and profound nature of his condition.

Sometimes it can be autoimmune. Sometimes excessive noise over a long period of time. In my case, they don't have a clue. I can take you to the place, the day, the hour, when it was like someone took a syringe filled with concrete and squirted it into my left ear.

29:15 - 29:37 Read in full sermon

Driving home: What God has allowed men to discover, to develop, and to implement is a manifestation of God's common grace to alleviate human suffering and disease.

Martin humorously refers to himself as a 'bionic man' due to the external components of his cochlear implant, making the advanced technology more approachable.

So you want to know what's going on with me going around like a bionic man? Why have I got a button on my brain? Some say, well, I think Pastor Martin, anything would help you. Maybe that's going to help.

31:23 - 31:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the external and internal components of his cochlear implant and explains how it functions to mimic God's original design by converting sound into electrical…

He describes the internal implant unit as looking like 'two quarters back to back, and they are laminated in a sort of silicone material,' even using Scotch tape and quarters to demonstrate. This helps visualize the buried device.

Well, there's something buried in my skull, something buried in my bone, and something buried in my cochlea. I got a buried head. And what I have buried in my head, the basic unit, the implant, looks like two quarters back to back, and they are laminated in a sort of silicone material. I took Scotch tape and took two quarters to give you an idea.

33:44 - 34:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the external and internal components of his cochlear implant and explains how it functions to mimic God's original design by converting sound into electrical…

Martin recounts his first session with the audiologist after activation, where initial speech sounded 'horrible' but quickly improved. This personal anecdote illustrates the process of brain training and the initial challenges and subsequent encouragement.

I'm doing brain training. My brain must be trained to receive and to interpret those electrical signals it's receiving. And that's going to take time. And that's why a number of you asked me this morning and said, can you hear a lot better yet? No, not a lot better, but enough to be very encouraged. Let me give you an example. A good example of that, when Dorothy and I sat in the audiologist's office, and after the first speech, after they had calibrated volume and pitch, et cetera, when the audiologist began to speak, it sounded horrible. It was .

39:37 - 40:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Be faithful in doing the things necessary for recovery and rehabilitation, believing God will bless those means.

Martin shares his past approach to physical therapy after surgeries, where he would aggressively work to finish in half the prescribed time. This illustrates his commitment to diligently using the means God provides for recovery, now applied to his hearing rehabilitation.

I would always tell the therapist, generally, the surgeon would make out a prescription for six weeks of therapy. I'd go to my first visit, and I'd say, ma'am or sir, I'll be done in three weeks. All I do, I said, I'll be out of here in three weeks. Mark my word.

42:31 - 42:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Respond with gratitude for God's common grace in inspiring and enabling the development of medical solutions like the cochlear implant.

Martin quotes Helen Keller: 'blindness cuts you off from the world of things. Deafness cuts you off from the world of people.' This quote powerfully conveys the isolating nature of deafness and underscores the value of the cochlear implant.

Who did not want to be locked up in the world of deafness, which cuts you off from people? As Helen Keller said, blindness cuts you off from the world of things.

46:03 - 46:15 Read in full sermon

The point: Respond with gratitude for God's common grace in inspiring and enabling the development of medical solutions like the cochlear implant.

He references Bezalel, filled with the Spirit for craftsmanship to build the tabernacle, as an example of God giving wisdom and skill. This parallels God giving wisdom to those who develop medical technology.

To be an occasion of praise and thanksgiving to God? No. That's what we mean when we speak of God's common grace. We were reminded by Pastor Chansky this morning, this man, Bezalel.

47:00 - 47:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: I don't know how any one of these in that medical community, could treat me more professionally, more kindly, more compassionately, if they were all spirit-filled Christians.

Martin highlights the dedication of his surgeon, Dr. Robert Daniels, who went through extensive medical training to become a neuro-otologist. This illustrates God's common grace in equipping individuals with specialized skills for healing.

To think and think like that. To think long and come up with the concept and then to secure the funds from people who were well healed, who had some legitimate hope perhaps of gain if something were developed that could be marketed, but who put it in their hearts to be altruistic and to risk their wealth and make the investment of tens of thousands of dollars in the research necessary. It's God who places that in the hearts of men. And who is it that puts in the heart of a man by the name of Dr. Robert Daniels of Grand Rapids to go through med school and the long days and nights of mastering a...

47:30 - 48:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Have a disposition of gratitude and thankfulness for God's common grace operative through medical professionals.

Martin describes weeping and praising God after reading his post-op report, marveling at the surgeon's intricate work inside his head. This personal experience underscores his gratitude for the skill of medical professionals.

and then when I read the post-op report, for you who've not had any surgery but may yet have some, always ask the doctor or his nurse, for a copy of the post-op report. By law, every surgeon, as soon as he's done cutting you up, sewing you up, and sending you out to the recovery room, he's got to take his dictating machine and say everything he did to you from the time they rolled you in and rolled you out. I got the post-op report. And when I read what that man did to me in two, two and a half hours, I wept and I broke out in praise to God.

48:52 - 49:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Have a disposition of gratitude and thankfulness for God's common grace operative through medical professionals.

He compares Dr. Daniels to Cyrus, whom God called 'my servant' to send the people of God back to the promised land. This analogy emphasizes that God uses even unbelievers as instruments of His common grace.

The God who puts it into the heart of Cyrus to send the people of God back to the promised land and gives them all the stuff they need to get there. Who puts that in the heart of a Cyrus? God does. And God does it in such a way that he even calls Cyrus, my servant, Cyrus.

50:53 - 51:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Let daily reminders of physical needs (like using a hearing device) be a call to remember and long for the Lord Jesus' return.

Martin shares his deep love for classical music and how his hearing loss made listening to it 'horrible,' a 'form of torture.' This personal sacrifice fuels his longing for heaven, where he expects to hear music perfectly.

And I settled when that first ear went and then the second ear went and I faced the prospect that I was being brought into the world of deafness. I love music, particularly classical music. I love my art, my arias and my symphonies. I haven't listened to one in close to three years.

52:48 - 53:11 Read in full sermon