Dear Father, thank you for sending
the Lord Jesus Christ into this world to save sinners. Help us
to see in this account that you've recorded by your blessed Holy
Spirit, how you do in fact save sinners helpless in their sin,
desperate in their sin, desperate for the Lord Jesus Christ. Place
on us, in our heart, this urgency that you placed on this man and
these men. and bring us to the Lord Jesus
Christ and cause us in our heart from the depths of our soul to
cry out to Him for mercy. And help us, Lord, to find that
mercy in Jesus alone. Make Him all the object of our
love and affection and the hope and desire of our heart. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen. In Matthew chapter 20 and
verse 29, I want to begin reading there. It says... And as they departed from Jericho,
a great multitude followed him. And behold, two blind men sitting
by the wayside, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out,
saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David. And the multitude
rebuked them, because they should hold their peace. But they cried
the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David. And Jesus stood still, and called
them, and said, What will you that I should do to you? They
say to Him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. So Jesus had compassion
on them, and touched their eyes, and immediately their eyes received
sight, and they followed Him. Now these two blind men crying
to Jesus for mercy, preach the gospel of God's saving grace
to those helpless to save themselves. Though helpless, they are moved
by the Spirit of God here in this text of Scripture to cry
out of their need to Christ alone for mercy. On the surface, Jesus
is the Lord to whom we must look to and go to for healing. He
is compassionate and he is able to heal our bodies by his touch.
And these two men were immediately healed by him. But the lesson
in this account is not about physical healing because the
gospel is not about physical healing. It is about the mighty
works of Jesus Christ to save our souls from sin. And that
is the message of scripture. That is the message of this text.
Matthew here tells us of two blind men. And in this we see
that salvation does not depend on the differences between men.
We might think, well this one was more noble, or that one was
more earnest, or something like that. But the Lord gives us here
two men. It depends, salvation depends on Christ alone. Our natural gifts or the lack
of natural gifts do not move God to save us. Our works and
the strength of our crying do not move God to save us. I think
that that's one of the most difficult lessons to learn. Only the mercy
of God in Christ moves God to save us. Now Mark tells of one
man And in this account, in the book of Mark, in chapter 10,
where he tells us of one man, we see our personal and our desperate,
urgent need for mercy from Jesus Christ, the Lord. If you look
there in Mark chapter 10. So, this is what we want to read
from verse 46. The same account is given there.
And I pray that in these two accounts, there's actually another
one in the book of Luke, which we won't read together today.
Let's read this here. I pray that the Lord would give
us, each one, a personal, earnest, and urgent need for mercy from
Jesus Christ. He says here, "...and they came
to Jericho. And as he went out of Jericho
with his disciples, and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging." And when
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out
and say, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged
him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more, a great
deal. Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded
him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying to him, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee." And he,
casting away his garments, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus
answered and said to him, What wilt thou that I should do to
thee? The blind man said to him, Lord,
that I might receive my sight. Jesus said to him, go thy way,
thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his
sight and followed Jesus in the way. Now, God is sovereign in salvation. That means he saves whom he will. Whoever He wants to. And He saves
as He will, in the way that He will. It pleases God in His sovereignty
to save by grace alone. That's the only reason God will
ever find to save a sinner. His grace. He doesn't look for
anything in men. He finds reason only in Himself
to save sinners, to have mercy on sinners. Yet, in God's sovereign
will, it pleases God to save sinners by convincing them in
their heart of their great need. It pleases God to save sinners
by moving them to cry to Him in their need. And the Lord hears
the cry of His own Spirit from the heart of sinners. When they
cry, He saves them. God's Spirit here, in this account,
in both these accounts, teaches us the truth beforehand. He tells us how He saves beforehand,
that we might recognize His work. If you see, if God says what
He's going to do and then He does it, then you recognize that
was God's work, don't you? The Lord Jesus Christ, I mean,
the Spirit of God here describes how Jesus saves and He describes
the results of His work in the heart of sinners so that we might
recognize that, that He drives men to Christ, whom He saves.
He puts This promise in His word that poor, helpless sinners might
be encouraged to look to Christ and to pour out the deepest needs
of their souls to Him. Psalm chapter 50 verse 15 says
this. This is the Spirit of God who
wrote this in the scripture. And we see it actually fulfilled
here in this man, these two blind men. He says, "...call upon Me
in the day of trouble." I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify me." Isn't Jesus Christ here glorified by the healing
of this blind man? And then in Ezekiel chapter 36,
God says that in His everlasting, unalterable covenant of grace,
He says what He's going to do. And at the very end, in verse
37, after telling us it's all of grace, In that very covenant
He says this, thus saith the Lord, Ezekiel 36-37, I will yet
for this, His grace, His promised blessings in the covenant of
grace, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel
to do it for them. And so never let your wicked
heart think that because God is sovereign that He will save
you whether or not you seek Him. He will not. God is a God of
mercy in Jesus Christ, but He will be sought for that mercy
from every sinner He saves. Now, in this account, in verse
46, it says that they came to Jericho, and as He went out of
Jericho, Jesus came to Jericho on His way to the cross. Remember
verse 28 of Matthew, chapter 20. He said that the Son of Man
did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life
a ransom for many. Jericho was a cursed city. Joshua
burned the city with fire and cursed the man that would rebuild
that city in Joshua 10. You can read about that there
in your own leisure. But Jesus had just said this
about giving Himself a ransom for many. His ransom, the price
He paid, was to redeem, actually redeem God's elect from the curse
of His law. The curse of His law against
them for their sin. It says in Galatians 3.13, you
can probably quote it, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. Hence the city of Jericho,
the Cursed City. He came to the Cursed City where
the people in the city were identified by their association with the
curse. He had said, I come to give my life a ransom for many.
For what? To redeem them from the curse
of the law. The Lord Jesus would not be held
back, would not be kept back from His great purpose. And so
see that. See that here. He fulfills that
purpose. Jesus Christ, if He gave Himself
a ransom to God for our redemption, then you know this. We will surely
be set free. We will be set free from the
guilt of our sin and the curse of His law. Titus 2.14 says He
has redeemed us from all iniquity. Not only will we be set free
from the guilt and the punishment of our sin, but we will be set
free from the blindness of our unbelief. Hebrews chapter 9,
the Lord says, listen carefully, another verse you probably have
memorized, "...by his own blood," Jesus' blood, "...he entered
once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us." He already has has obtained it. He has obtained it for His
people by the ransom price of His own blood. Having obtained
it, guess what He does? He sets those free that He redeemed. He sets them free from their
unbelief. He gives them faith that they might know their Redeemer
and their redemption in Him. And so the writer to the Hebrews
continues in verse 14 of chapter 9. He says, how much more than
the animal sacrifices, shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered himself to God without spot, listen,
how much more shall he purge your conscience from dead works
to serve the living God? Think of a king who issues a
pardon to a prisoner in prison. Immediately, the prisoner is
free from all punishment, as soon as the pardon is issued.
But until the prisoner actually learns of the king's pardon,
he hasn't yet received the peace and joy of that pardon in himself. And just so, the high king of
heaven obtained our eternal redemption by his blood, and our sins are
forgiven for his namesake. But, Because we are forgiven,
God now sends His Spirit to raise our souls from death to life
and light with faith in Christ. The gospel has now become gospel
to us. That's what it means when it
says He's going to purge our conscience from dead works. Acts
chapter 5 says that the Lord Jesus Christ has been exalted
to be a prince and a savior for this purpose to give repentance
and forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness that he purchased
at the price of his blood. Look at Acts chapter 26. In Acts
chapter 26, the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven and from heaven's
throne sends the apostle Paul to the Gentiles. In verse 17
he says, I'm going to deliver thee from the people and from
the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee. And then listen carefully
in verse 18 he says, To open their eyes and turn them from
darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins, that forgiveness He already purchased,
and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith that
is in Me. Faith, saving faith, is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as a blind man cannot open
his eyes, neither can we exercise our free will or anything about
us, to make ourselves believe the gospel. We're in the dark.
The gospel is the light of God. We can't see it. It has to be
given to us. Now back in Mark chapter 10,
you see here that there was a great crowd of people who passed the
place where Bartimaeus was sitting and begging by the roadside.
He asked, When he heard them passing, what does it mean? And
the people said, Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And so Bartimaeus
immediately began to cry out. And his cry was urgent. Jesus
was passing by. You think about the urgency in
his cry. Think about who's passing by
here. Now, we don't know how much Bartimaeus
knew. Perhaps we wonder. But it's the
Lord. It's the Creator. The Creator
of all things and the upholder of all things who made the seeing
eye and the blind eye. He made men and He made the world
and He made everything in it and He controls it at the power
of His Word. And He in human flesh is passing
by. And he hears that he's passing
by. He's beside the road. He hears the crowd. Perhaps he
had already gone beyond where Bartimaeus was sitting because
he heard the crowd. And I would expect that the people
were following Jesus, not leading the direction. They knew he was
going to Jerusalem. Perhaps they were ahead of him.
Wherever he was in the crowd, he heard he was passing by. And
so he immediately begins to cry out to the Lord of Glory. Can
you imagine the urgency thinking that here God himself in the
Lord Jesus Christ passes by. He who is the fullness of the
Godhead in his body walking by this blind man. And so he cries
out with earnestness. He thought that if he did not
find mercy from Christ at this time, he may never obtain mercy.
That creates an urgency, doesn't it? When the Lord saves a sinner,
He makes his salvation the only thing in the world that matters
to him. Sin becomes a burden. David sinned
against God, and even though he had sinned, his sin wasn't
a burden until God made it a burden on his heart. David says in Psalm
32, When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring
all the day long. For day and night thy hand was
heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. His bones were dried up, everything. He had no strength. God made
David's sin the issue to him. And so David says in another
place in Psalm 116, look at Psalm 116, a beautiful chapter in scripture. I point this one out to you that
you might find comfort in it also and use these very words
as your own words when you go to God in prayer. He says in
Psalm 116 verse 1, I love the Lord, Why do you love the Lord, David?
Because he hath heard my voice and my supplications, because
he hath inclined his ear to me, therefore will I call upon him
as long as I live. And then he recounts, the sorrows
of death compassed me, and the pains of hell get hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of
the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is
the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful." Isn't
that wonderful? Let's just read on now. Here he says, the Lord preserveth
the simple I was brought low, and he helped me. Return unto
thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with
thee. Thou hast delivered my soul from
death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. What
a beautiful psalm this is. Here we have a man, Bartimaeus,
who was brought by the Spirit of God into the same condition. His soul had created in him an
earnest and urgent and sincere, desperate cry to the Lord Jesus
Christ for mercy. In Psalm 130, verse 1, the Lord
says, Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord, through
the mouth of David. Out of the depths. And Job 36
verse 13 says, Hypocrites in heart heap up wrath. They do
not cry. They cry not when He bindeth
them. Hypocrites don't cry when God
afflicts them. That's what Job says. Crying
to the Lord Jesus Christ is the work of the Spirit of God to
ransomed sinners who have been made righteous by the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in Psalm 34, verse
17, it says this. The righteous cry. They're righteous
by Christ's righteousness, but the righteous cry. And the Lord
heareth, and he delivers them out of their trouble. Psalm 34,
17. Isn't that a wonderful promise?
They cry. He hears. And He saves. So I ask myself, and I ask you,
when the light of your soul is dark, what do you do? What do you do? When you cannot
even pray, and when you do, you wonder if you even know God. Do you say, Lord, I am ignorant
and sinful in all my ways, and I don't even know if I know you? God afflicts hypocrites with
trouble, but they don't cry, but the righteous cry. Do I cry? Do you say in your conscience
and with your lips, Lord, have mercy on me? Let me see Christ
as all my salvation. The Lord says, call upon me in
the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou
shalt glorify me. The Lord Jesus Christ is glorified
when he saves desperate sinners. He hears the cry of his own spirit.
Now if Christ has ransomed your soul, you will cry out of the
depths. Look at Romans 8, verse 26. There's
only 13 chapters in the book of Romans. Romans 8, verse 26. He says, Likewise the Spirit
also helpeth our infirmities. Isn't that wonderful? He helps
our infirmities, our weaknesses. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And where is the
Spirit? He is dwelling in us. So within us the Spirit of God
is praying for us according to the will of God. And who hears?
Verse 27. And he that searcheth the hearts,
that's the Lord Jesus Christ, knoweth what is the mind of the
Spirit, Because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the
will of God. The mind of the Spirit, that's
the will of God. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit
of God, God the Father have the same will. And here in the heart
of His saints, the Spirit of God cries out according to that
will for us. And that Spirit in us crying
out to God is heard in heaven. by Christ on His throne, and
He hears us, and He makes intercession for the saints. What a wonderful
promise that is to us. He will hear His own Spirit when
He cries from the heart of a desperate sinner, and He will save. He
will point us to Himself to know that He is all of our salvation.
I need to know that God accepts me, don't you? And I see the
helplessness of myself to make myself acceptable to God. I can't
bring light and life to my soul. I can't open my own eyes and
I cannot be saved unless the Lord Jesus Christ speaks salvation
to me. And so we see this blind man
in Mark chapter 10 crying out to the Lord Jesus. And now notice
what he says. He says, Jesus, Son of David. Now the people had said that
Jesus of Nazareth passed by. Bartimaeus had never seen Jesus. He was blind. He had never seen
Him perform a miracle. But he had heard about Him with
his ears. He had learned that Jesus was
more than merely Jesus of Nazareth. And so his cry revealed that. His cry revealed what he actually
believed about Jesus. And he believed him to be Jesus,
the Lord. He says, Jesus, Son of David,
have mercy on me. And Matthew says this, when the
two blind men cried, he said, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son
of David. So Bartimaeus therefore knew
that he was the Lord Jesus and son of David. Now look at Psalm
118 verse 25. See what the Lord says there
in prophecy about what would happen just in a chapter beyond
where we are in Matthew. He says in Psalm 118 verse 25,
notice the words, I beseech thee, O Lord, O Lord,
I beseech thee, send now prosperity." That means blessings, spiritual
blessings. All that God has promised to
my soul. Verse 26, Blessed be he that
cometh in the name of the Lord. Who is the one that comes in
the name of the Lord? Look at verse 22. The stone which
the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This
is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes.
The one who comes is the Lord Jesus Christ. And now look at
Matthew chapter 21, in verse 9, where he says here that the
multitudes, in Matthew 21, 9, he says the multitudes that went
before And that followed, cried saying the same words spoken
in the psalm we just read, Hosanna! Hosanna means, save now, we beseech
thee. Oh, save us! Hosanna to the Son
of David. You see what they cried? Blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. And verse 15, "...the chief priests
and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children
crying in the temple, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David!
And they were sore displeased." Why? Because Son of David is
Christ. So when this blind man cries
out, Son of David, he's saying, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the Lord, save
now we beseech thee. What was he doing? He was crying
out, believing in his heart that the one he cried to was the Lord,
the Lord from glory, the Lord of heaven, Jesus, the Christ
of God. Bartimaeus didn't call on Jesus
as an equal, did he? He didn't say, Jesus, I need
my eyes opened. Nothing like that, like we would
do to someone our equal. And he didn't even call on Jesus
as a servant would call to his master. He called to Jesus Christ
as a sinner, calls upon God in his mediator. That's the way
Bartimaeus called. He called on God in his mediator,
as a sinner calls upon God in his mediator. He knew he could
not make himself see. No man can do that. Only God
can open the eyes of the blind. And so he needed mercy. So he
called on him as Lord. He called on him as Christ. He
called on him as God's anointed to save him. He believed that
Jesus was the Lord of Glory, the Christ of God. And by the
Spirit of God, he cries with that God-given faith. Now Bartimaeus
is a name. Look at what it says here in
Mark chapter 10. He says that, verse 46, "...blind
Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus." The little word bar there means
son of Timaeus. And Timaeus is a word that means
unclean. So bar Timaeus means he was the
son of the unclean. We are all sons of the unclean,
aren't we? Because we are guilty of Adam's
sin. Romans 5.19 says, by one man's
disobedience, Adam's, many were made sinners. That's many. That
means everyone born to Adam. We all, not only are guilty,
but we have Adam's nature. David said, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Therefore this name Bartimaeus
describes all whom the Lord saves. We're the son of the unclean.
And he was blind. Scripture says in Romans chapter
3 verse 11, there is none that understandeth. There is none
that seeketh after God. That's what a blind man does.
He doesn't understand. He doesn't seek after God. We're
blind in our souls. What is spiritual blindness?
Remember what it says in 2 Corinthians 5-7? We walk by what? Faith,
and not by sight. Faith is the eyes of the soul
given to a resurrected soul. With life comes light, and with
that light comes sight, the sight of faith in our souls. But before
that light and life are given to us, we are blind. We don't
understand. We don't seek God. We are in
our unbelief. So blindness is unbelief. We
don't know God. Not by nature. We do not believe
God. In 1 Corinthians 2.14 it says,
"...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God." They're foolishness to him. He doesn't understand
them. They seem foolish to him. Have
you ever thought that? You look at something complicated.
And you go, this is dumb. Why? Because you don't understand
it. We do that, don't we? Look at a computer. It's complicated. And we say, I don't need this.
It's stupid. I can get by without it. Maybe you can with a computer,
but you can't get by without God. But that's the way we are
by nature. We only see when God reveals
Himself to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way we
see. Not just when God opens our eyes,
but when He opens our eyes to see Himself in His Son and in
His salvation. Jesus said this, I am the way,
I am the truth, and I am the life. No man comes to the Father
but by Me. Unless we believe Christ, we
cannot know the way to God. We cannot know the truth of God.
And if we don't know the truth of God, do we have any truth?
Is there any truth that's not God's truth? There is none. The
only truth there is in all this universe is the truth as it is
in Jesus. And we cannot have life from
God. Jesus said, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. In other words, He that seeth
the Son And believeth on him has everlasting life. And he
that believeth not the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of
God abides on him. That's blindness isn't it? Not
believing on the Son. And to have life in the soul
is seeing Christ. There is no faith without life
and there is no life without faith. They're inseparable. So Christ must give us both life
and faith. Faith to see Him. And this life
and this faith are seen in the persistent and earnest and urgent
cry to Christ for His mercy in this man, Bartimaeus. Now Bartimaeus
was also a beggar. He was sitting by the wayside
begging. He had nothing to bring to God to get mercy. We and ourselves
have no spiritual value. If we had spiritual value it
would be a gift of God's grace, but we have none. We are in need
only. Everything in salvation and life
must be given freely to us by the grace of our sovereign Savior. Beggars cannot remove the guilt
of one of their sins before God. That's what a beggar is. He can't
remove the guilt of his sin. He can't change his heart. He can't remove one evil from
his own heart. He can't decide for Jesus. He
can't produce faith. David said in Psalm 51, Wash
me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Because
David knew he couldn't do it. Bartimaeus was unclean, the son
of the unclean. He needed Christ to wash him.
He was blind. He needed Christ to give him
sight to see his only salvation in Christ and Him crucified. And he was unable to give himself
this sight. And so he came to Jesus and asked
Him, give me what I can't do for myself. Now we just read
in Psalm 34, 17 that the righteous cry. The fact of the matter is,
it's so strange here, that there was a large crowd of people.
A great number. But there was only this man who
was crying. And Matthew said there was two. That's not very
many. Revelation chapter 3, 17 says,
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Now, what that means
is that Christ only deals in chastisement for His people. He creates in them this need
that they would call upon Him. Only blind men see their great
need. Isn't that ironic? Only blind
men see their great need of Christ. Jesus said, No man can come to
me, except the Father which has sent me draw him. And I will
raise him up at the last day. John 6.44 Now here it says that
when he cried out, what did the crowd do? It says, many charged
him that he should hold his peace, but he cried the more, a great
deal. The crowd tried to suppress the
unrest in this man's soul, but the Spirit of God had put it
there. Luke 18, 13, remember the publican? God have mercy
on me, the sinner. Bartimaeus could not be quieted
by the crowd until God in Christ answered him. Now, the psalmist says in Psalm 55,
look at this together with me, the crowd tried to quiet Bartimaeus. But in Psalm 55, he says this,
this is the work of God in the heart of a sinner, he says in
verse 16, The crowd not crying, the crowd
trying to suppress his cries. As for me, I will call upon God,
and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon
will I pray and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice. And verse 22, cast thy burden
upon the Lord, He shall sustain thee. He shall never suffer the
righteous to be moved. When a hypocrite is afflicted,
Scripture says, he will not cry to Christ alone for salvation. Hosea, chapter 7, verse 14 says,
they have not cried to me with their heart. Hosea 7, verse 14. A hypocrite, strangely, can tolerate
the dung of his own righteousness as a substitute for the righteousness
of Christ that is only seen by faith. Have you noticed that
about your own righteousness? That as dung, it's as filthy,
and as repugnant, and as shameful, and disgusting, and nauseating,
and it won't hold you up. You only sink in dung. A hypocrite
seeks the approval of men. That's what hypocrisy is. It's
seeking the approval of men. Remember King Saul? When he was
in trouble, when Samuel said, the kingdom is going to be taken
from you, and he couldn't worship God, then it says that he asked
Samuel, come back with me so that I can worship the Lord,
and he didn't want to lose face. in the eyes of his soldiers.
A hypocrite seeks the approval of men and of his own blind conscience. Therefore, he can find comfort
in his own works, but God will not allow his loved ones to rest
in any satisfaction for sin or find any comfort in their conscience,
but in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and his substitutionary
death. Now the faceless crowd rebuked
him. They rebuked him and told him, be quiet. They scolded. Why would this crowd tell this
man in his misery to be quiet? Why did they stop their ears
to his crying? Have you ever wondered about
that? Remember Joseph was thrown in the pit by his brothers and
he cried out. And they stopped their ears to his crying. The
reason the crowd wanted him to be quiet... is because they,
in themselves, have never known the anguish of soul that this
blind man now knew. They did not know their own uncleanness
before God. They did not know that only Christ
could wash them and make them clean. They did not know the
light of life, and they didn't miss it. The blind man's cry
represents the cry of the needy soul. A needy soul says, I don't
know if God accepts me. I don't know if He will. I don't
know how He saves. I don't know how I can be accepted
by Him. I see my foul self. I see the helplessness of myself
to bring one thing and do one thing God can accept. I'm unable
to comfort myself. I cannot make myself see. I can't
open my eyes. I can't bring light or life into
my souls. How, then, can I be saved unless
the Lord, who alone is salvation, speaks salvation to me?" That's
what was going on in this man's soul. And at this point, the
multitude ordered him to be quiet, to hold his peace. They rebuked
his outburst. It's strange that the large crowd
like this would have no one in it crying out for mercy but this
blind man. I find that strange. It's strange
that a crowd would discourage him from crying, from calling
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't there more than a blind
man in this crowd who needs a savior? Why does the Lord Jesus Christ
hear the poor when he cries? Have you wondered that? Why does
the Lord Jesus Christ hear the poor when he cries? I think I
know why. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
knows what it is to be poor in spirit. He knows what it is to
be deprived of the light of God and the sense of God's presence
in his own soul. He hears the poor when they cry
because he cried when he was made poor by the debt of the
sins of his people which were laid on him and he made his own
to remit to God to the uttermost farthing. He who is all compassion
was denied compassion Psalm 142 verse 4 says, I looked on my
right hand and beheld, and there was no man. There was no man that would know
me. Refuge failed me. No man cared for my soul. The Lord Jesus Christ felt the
loss of God's own presence in his soul. He cried in Psalm 22
verse 1, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Why art thou so far from helping
me from the words of my roaring? The light of the sun, when Jesus
hung on the cross, was withheld from the human nature of the
sun of righteousness. Salvation's light, for salvation
to shine on us, he had to bear the loss and darkness and sense
of the loss of God's presence in His own soul. O my God, I
cry to Thee in the daytime, as if God Himself had abandoned
Him in the daytime, and Thou hearest not, and in the night
season of His soul, and I am not silent. It is because as God, our Lord
Jesus is merciful, and as man, because He cried out of the suffering
of his own soul in a sense of the loss of that presence of
God in his soul. That is why he can be touched
with a feeling of our infirmities. Hebrews chapter 4 says, We have
not a high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of
our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are.
Yet without sin. When he hung on the cross. When
he felt the loss of God's presence. Like Job said in Job 13, verse
15. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust him. Or as he says in Psalm 40, verse
1. I waited patiently for the Lord. These are the words of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He trusted in the Lord. It says
in Psalm 22, verse 8. He rolled himself upon Jehovah. He waited. He patiently waited
for the Lord to answer him. He didn't raise accusations against
his God. Thou art holy, he says in Psalm
22. Thou art holy. He waited. He knew what it was to suffer.
He knew what it was to cry. And look at Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5, he says in
verse Seven, who in the days of His
flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications with
strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him
from death, and He was heard in that He feared. The Lord Jesus
Christ is a high priest who can have compassion on the ignorant
and on them that are out of the way because he was made sin. And he hears the cry of his people
because he felt the burden of their sin as his own. This is
what it means when the Lord Jesus looked with compassion on this
sinner. Now back in Mark chapter 10. He says that he cried out, Son
of David, have mercy on me. Can't you hear the resonance
in the soul of the Lord Jesus Christ? Not only to the cry of
his own spirit from the heart of the sinner, but the agony
and anguish that the burden of his sin caused him. And that
the Lord Jesus Christ would know himself for his people. And it
says in verse 49, "...and Jesus stood still." Malachi chapter
4 says, "...the Lord Jesus is the Son of Righteousness." S-U-N. Joshua, when he was fighting,
and the day was growing long, he cried out, O Son, stand still,
and moon, And the Lord, it says in Joshua, He made the sun and
the moon to stand still in heaven. And never a day like that had
ever occurred, and never since. Except for this day, when the
Son of Righteousness hears the cry of a sinner and stands still
in mercy. He says here, And He commanded
him to be called I can think of no greater comfort than the
comfort given to this man when the Lord commanded him to be
called. Isn't this the Lord Jesus sending
the gospel to his people? Call them. And they call the
blind man. And this is the message of the
gospel. Be of good cheer. Be of good comfort. Rise. He calleth thee. What a comfort
to be called by Christ. Jesus says in Matthew chapter
11, "...coming to me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest." Is that not the call of Christ to
sinners? "...all that the Father giveth
me," He says in John 6.37, "...shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out." And remember what he says in
John chapter 10. My sheep hear my voice, and they
follow me. And I know them, and they follow
me. And I will give unto them eternal life. And that's the
call of Christ, isn't it? Our warrant for coming is His
call to sinners in the gospel. With the psalmist we say, Thou
hast given commandment to save me. Psalm 71, 4. The Lord Jesus
commanded this man to be brought. And so the Lord Jesus commands
us to come to Him. Saving faith is faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Remember what it says in Acts
26, 18? Those who are sanctified by faith that is in me." Sometimes
we wonder, do I believe in God? Do I believe in the Father? Who
do I believe in? I believe Christ. The Lord Jesus
is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. They say to Him, Rise,
He calleth Thee. When Lazarus lay in the tomb
for four days, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come
forth! And Lazarus came forth. In Ezekiel
chapter 16, God promised, He said, You shall know that I am
the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought
you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and
you shall live. And so, to every believer, scripture
says that God gives life in the accepted time. Ezekiel 16, verse
6. When I passed by thee, and I
saw thee polluted, remember? Bartimaeus, son of the unclean,
in thine own blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood,
live! And I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood, live. The New Testament says this in
the book of Ephesians. When we were dead in sins, he
quickened us together with Christ. For by grace you are saved. He
called this blind man to himself. And this man cried for mercy,
and he brought him to himself. And so we too must be called
by the Lord Jesus Christ to himself. Now, notice here also in Mark
chapter 10. When he called it says in verse
50, "...and he, casting away his garment, rose and came to
Jesus." The call of the Lord Jesus Christ is a call that produces
the effect that Christ intends. That's what the word effectual
means. It means it produces the response that God has in mind. It actually gets the job done.
So He came. He put away His garment and He
came to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in Isaiah 55 and verse 2
it says that we sinners are deceived so that we spend our money for
what isn't bread. When we're hungry. And we spend
all of our labors for everything that doesn't satisfy. Isn't that
blindness? But here, this sinner, who was
blind, who cried to Jesus and was called by Him, he cast away
his garment and he came to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything
else was completely unimportant but to have salvation and to
have Christ. Paul says in Philippians chapter
3, you might want to turn there and read that. Philippians chapter
3 verse 3, it says, we are the circumcision, that means we're
the true circumcision, not fleshly, not in our body. But we're the
true circumcision which worship God in the spirit. And we rejoice
in Christ Jesus and we have no confidence in the flesh. This
man cast away his garments. In verse 4 of Philippians 3 he
says, Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any
other man thinks that he has whereof he might trust in the
flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth day of
the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the
Hebrews. as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in
the law, blameless." He was the best of the best. If anyone had
good reason to trust in what he could do to help God or keep
himself saved, it was the Apostle Paul. But he says, "...but what
things were gain to me." In other words, those things I consider
to be a gain, he says. Those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered, for whom in order to lay hold
on him I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dung that I may win Christ, and be found in him Not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which
is through the faith of Christ." What is the faith of Christ?
The righteousness which is of God by faith. It's disgusting, isn't it? Our
garment, all that we trusted in before, becomes loathsome
to us when we see that all of our need is met in Christ. And
we wonder that we could ever have trusted it. And so we leave
all and we trust in Him. And so he says here in Mark chapter
10, that when he came, he came to Jesus and Jesus answered him.
He answered his call, his cry for mercy. And he said to him,
notice, what wilt thou that I should do to thee? What do you want
me to do for you? What do you desire I should do
for you? The Lord The Lord stood still
and called this man to bring him near. Remember what God said
to Solomon in 1 Kings 3-5? He said, Ask what I shall give
thee. Ask, what do you want? What do
you need? What do you want from me? The
Lord of Glory stands before you. The one in whose hand your breath
and life is. Who holds eternity in the balance.
He stands before you. What do you want? What do you
want, dear sinner? Have you ever wondered, what
would I say to that question? What would you ask if the Lord
of Glory called you to stand before Him and said, ask what
I shall give you? What would you ask? Choose your
words carefully. Examine your need in the light
of the gospel of God's grace and consider who you are asking. He is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. Ask or think. You are coming
to a king, John Newton said, large petitions you should bring. Consider his wisdom. Consider
his power. Consider that there is nothing
too hard for the Lord. And consider that in compassion
he will do all that your needy soul requires of him and desires. There is help in no other, but
all help is found in him. Salvation is in Christ alone,
in Him alone. All salvation is in Him. He Himself
gives what He Himself accomplished. What do I want from Him? Let
that question sink down deep into our souls. And let His will
of compassion open the springs of my need and cause them to
bubble up and pour out the great need of my soul that only the
sacrifice of the Son of God could procure. Ask of Him what His
own sacrifice has purchased, our redemption. What would you
give for full cleansing and a perfect covering in which God himself
takes delight? Lord, let me see the King in
His glorious salvation of me. Let me worship Him with His people. Let me rejoice with those He
has loved from everlasting, those He has chosen, those on whom
He has shed abundant grace to overcome all their rebellion
and ignorance and failures and blindness and uncleanness and
helplessness, Lord. Let me hear this one thing in
my heart from your word. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. Psalm 35, verse 3. Lord, do as
you have said for your people. Speak the word only, give me
that faith that is more precious than gold that perishes. Lord,
that I might receive my sight. That's what the blind man said
here. Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said to him,
go thy way. Thy faith has saved thee. I'm
sorry, he says, thy faith has made thee whole. In the margin
of my Bible it says, or saved thee. I looked up the word because
I saw that in the margin. I thought, that's a glorious
word. In the scripture, in the historical account, Jesus actually
opened the eyes of a physically blind man. But in the gospel
account, he says, go thy way, thy faith has saved thee. He
believed Jesus to be the Lord and Christ. He believed only
Christ could save him. And so he cried to the Lord Jesus,
and could only be satisfied if the Lord Jesus saved him. And he received what he believed
Christ for. Jesus said, thy faith has saved
thee. And so it says in our scripture,
in the margin, the word is saved. In the historical account, we
see him healed, but the gospel is preached by the Spirit of
God from this miracle to sinners. The miracle is that all sinners
are saved in looking to Christ. Because saving faith teaches
us that He is Lord and that salvation is found in Him. Saving faith
is only satisfied to be saved by Christ alone. Saving faith
Receives salvation because saving faith is the gift that enables
me to see and hear what Christ has already done for my soul. Isn't that wonderful? What you believe, that's what
you receive. In the bottom of my heart, by
the Spirit of God, I believe that Christ is my only Savior. God receives me because He received
Him. And He receives me as He receives
His Son. And then it says here that the
blind man received his sight and he followed Jesus. Jesus
said, go your way. He only had one place to go.
Faith is not a one-time act. If you can believe Christ once
only, then you've never believed Him at all. If you once believe
Christ, you will continue to believe Him. Remember His words?
My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and they shall never
perish. Look at Colossians chapter 2. And I already quoted it from
2 Corinthians 5-7. We walk by faith, not by sight. But Colossians 2 verse 16, he
says this. Verse 6, not 16. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in Him. Just as you received Him, that's
the way you're to walk. The Colossians were confused.
Should we do this and that and the other thing? And Paul gives
them a simple instruction. As you have received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk in. How did you receive him? Did
you have any evidences? Did you have experiences? Did
you have good works to bank on? You had nothing. If the Lord
saved you, you were saved as an empty handed, unclean, blind
beggar. And you saw that in Christ God
had given everything He required from you. He had given in His
own Son and received it in full satisfaction. And then He pointed
you to Him. And you were never so happy as
to know that salvation was in Christ alone. That's the way
you walk, following Him. I wonder if Bartimaeus, in that
crowd as they were walking to Jerusalem, was one of those who
began to cry out when they reached Jerusalem, maybe even leading
the chorus, Son of David, oh, save us now. Here he is going
to the cross to accomplish the redemption he said he would accomplish.
And here he had already opened the eyes of this blind man, the
freedom of that redemption already given to him, because the redemption
was as good as paid. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for this Redeemer. We thank you for His ransom.
We thank you for His saving grace that gives us this liberty of
soul to see with our eyes, the eyes of our soul, that the Lord
Jesus Christ is everything for us. He's everything to God and
He's everything to us and help us to leave all that we formerly
trusted and find our hope in life and love in Him. And dear Lord, we pray that you
would put this in our heart, each one. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen.