We're in Luke 18, and we're down
to the close of this chapter, and Jesus heals a blind man. Then we'll read from chapter
18, verse 35, down through the close of the chapter. And it
came to pass that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, A certain
blind man sat by the wayside, begging, and hearing the multitude
pass by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus
of Nazareth passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus,
thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they which went before
rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried so much
the more, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood
and commanded him to be brought unto him. And when he was come
near, he asked him, saying, What wilt thou that I should do unto
thee? And he said, Lord, that I may
receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive
thy sight, thy faith has saved thee. And immediately he received
his sight and followed him, glorifying God and all the people when they
saw it and gave praise unto God. So that's our portion of our
text that we're looking at today, and Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem,
and he's passing through Jericho, the cursed city, and here's this
blind man begging. And we have here another display
of Jesus fulfilling the Scriptures in the giving of sight to a blind
beggar. You know, we read so many miracles,
and we just go through, and it's kind of like as Norm's going
through Numbers and Zechariah and Malachi, and sometimes you
just sort of speed read these things, say, oh yeah, it's just
another miracle, and move on, you know. We can view it like that or as
just another miracle or we can as we we kind of learned in a
one of our previous lessons called launch into the deep where Jesus
told the disciples to throw their net over the side and launch
into the deep and get ready for a big haul. And we discovered
that that meant more than just throw your physical net in the
deep water. We had a great spiritual meaning
that the things of Christ are more deep, more expansive than
we can ever imagine. And that's what we find in this
text too, as we kind of delve into it and we start looking
at the meanings of some of the words that were very interesting.
and how in our modern parlance they just kind of lose some of
the meaning, they lose some of the context in what's trying
to be conveyed here from the Lord. And yet even if we had
those words defined to us, We're like that blind man. If we're
not given eyes to see, they're just words on a page. They're
nothing to us. But what we find, the more we
look for grace in Christ, the more we find. And we discover
that, like in another lesson we had, it's like the rainbow.
It's infinite in its spectrum. There's just no end to it. And
Jesus is always giving us what we didn't see or didn't expect. And we had that application in
Luke 4, 18, where the Lord was in the synagogue and He took
that scroll and opened it up and He said, The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor. Luke 4, 18. And He has sent me
to heal the brokenhearted, to preach, deliverance to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them
that are bruised." Isn't that amazing? He says he sent to preach
deliverance to declare the gospel. That's the method there. to preach deliverance to the
captives who all their lives were in bondage to sin, and to
preach recovering of sight to the blind who all their lives
were blind to spiritual things and couldn't see them, and although
those people would be the first to stand up and say, I'm not
blind. I'm not blind. And yet we find so many times
that it's just emblematic of our spiritual condition. Who
did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? And he
said, well, neither one. He was born this way so that
the power of God would be manifest in him. And it was for God's
purposes. And so we see that in the scriptures. It's interesting that if we look
closely at this scripture in our text today, the miracle involves
the new birth. The man says, he says, what would
you have me do? And he says, that I may receive
my sight. And he said, okay, thy faith has saved thee. Not,
thy faith has given you sight. Thy faith has saved you. And
we learned that faith is total reliance on Christ for salvation.
And if we substitute that definition, the Scriptures just make so much
sense. Thy total reliance on Christ for salvation has saved
you. The blind man could do nothing
to create his own sight. The blind man could do nothing
to improve his condition. He was totally reliant on Christ
to take care of that for him. And that's what's emphasized
so strongly in these Scriptures that we look at. Thy faith has
saved thee. And we'll look at a couple other.
I think there's three or four times in Luke where that same
phrase is delivered by the Lord. Another miracle of sight that
we looked at here just very recently was in John chapter 9 that we
discussed in the lesson that Christ took the abuses of us
in our place. And in particular, we looked
at how the Lord took being spitted on. You remember that lesson?
He said, the Son of Man goeth as it is written of Him, and
He'll be arrested or delivered. betrayed, mocked, spit it upon,
scourged and killed. And we looked at that and how
he turned it into such a wonderful display of grace for another
blind man by spitting in the dirt, spitting on the ground
and making that clay and anointing that man's eyes. You know, Hawker
noted in his commentary on that, that this was likened to the
new creation in Christ. And we didn't really spend much
time on that in the last lesson, but I thought we might explore
that a little bit as we look at another instance of a man
being born again. And as we look at the old that
these scriptures in John chapter 9 and compare them to the Old
Testament, things become, they become so clear. In John chapter
9 verse 1, as Jesus passed by, and isn't that what the opening
of this text says, Jesus passing through Jericho, and in John
9, as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his
birth, you know, and just represents our condition again from from
birth is spiritual blindness, and we're unable to see, know,
or understand, or believe God. And John 3 said, unless a man
be born again, can't see the kingdom of God. And it's just
so, that's just such a valid scripture. It just tells so much. And it just, it just hinges everything
on it. Unless you're born again, you
can't see anything. We're separated from God by sin. There's a great gulf between
us that exists when we're in our natural state. We're at enmity
with Him. We're dead in sins and trespasses. So, and back to John 9, verse
6, And when he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made
clay of the spittle. And he anointed the eyes of that
blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go wash in the
pool of Siloam which is by interpretation sent. And he went his way therefore
and washed and came seeing." Now, if we look back to the Old
Testament in Genesis chapter 1 verse 27, and Norm kind of
circled around this a little bit Wednesday night in his lesson. God created man in His own image,
and the image of God created Him. Male and female created
Him. He was the originator of them.
He was the creator of them. And as we look at Genesis, it
kind of gives you the summary of things, and then in chapter
2 kind of gives more detail on different aspects of that creation.
In Genesis 2-7, the Lord God formed man out of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life
and man became a living soul. And we find in the new birth
that's just what happens. And this term ground is translated
from this Hebrew word afar and is dust and this dust is The
powdered or gray residue from clay or earth or mud is what
the Strong says that is. It's clay that's been dry and
hard. turned into dust. He formed man out of that dust
and breathed into him the breath of life. And so when we go back
to our text in John, here where he spat on the ground, in John
9, 6, the term ground is defined by Strong's concordance in the
Greek as chemaia. It's an adverb, and Strong says,
it's an adverb that's perhaps from the base of another Greek
word, chasma, through the idea of a fissure
in the soil. Chasm, that's where we get the
word chasm. When my brother and I used to play golf down Hood
River, we had to hit across this canyon. And we were not that
successful at it, so we used to call it the chasm of doom.
Chasm of lost golf balls. But anyway, that's where that
weird ground, he spit into that fissure, he spit into that chasm. And that's the same word that
we find, that's the same word that's translated ground here
in John 9, verse 6. It's the same word that we find
in Luke 16, verse 26, where he said, besides us, all this, between
you and us, there's a great gulf. a great chasm, fixed, so that
they which would pass from hence to you cannot, and neither can
they pass to us that would come from thence." So it's the same
kind of word, and nothing can remedy that except the new birth
in Christ. It says in 2 Corinthians 5.17,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Or creation is
actually what that word is. A new creature is defined as
an original formation. It just doesn't mean a new animal
or something like that. It means a new original formation,
the object or thing created, manufactured, formed. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And so when the Lord spits in
that chasm, that is kind of a typical picture of the results of the
fall of sin and all the calamity that that brings forth. He spits
in that, the very same thing that they used as a thing of
contempt against him. He takes that and spits in that
chasm and makes that clay, anoints that man's eyes, makes a new
creation out of him, a new formation and says, therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creation. old things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. And as a result, this blind man,
blind from birth, came away seeing. What a picture. And you just
dig into things just a little bit, you know, and below the
surface and we find that There's always something more. The Lord
delivers so much more than what we see on the surface. It's just
unfathomable. I think somebody the other day
was just saying, it's what David said in the Old Testament. He says, when I think about that
and the night watches, It's just too wonderful. I cannot comprehend
it. It's just too much for me. And
so what a picture, this great gulf spitting into the fissure,
making clay, causing a new creation. And in our text today in Luke
18.35, the Lord completes this mighty work with just a word.
And even those words are themselves revealing and very interesting.
The blind man, who in similar fashion to the publican that
we looked at earlier in chapter 18, who smote on his heart and
said, God have mercy on me, the sinner. He said, He couldn't
even raise it so much as His eyes up to heaven. He was under
that work of the Holy Spirit. And He cried out for mercy, O
Son of David, have mercy on Me, the sinner. Verse 40 tells us
that the Lord God Almighty commanded Him to be brought to Him. And we just see so many pictures
of that in the Old Testament, like David causing Mephibosheth
to be brought to him, and those images of Christ causing His
people to come to Him in Psalms. It says, Blessed is the man whom
thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee. He commanded him to
be brought unto Him. And he says in verse 41 of our
text today in Luke 18, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And you know the Holy Spirit
is at work here because the scriptures say we don't even know how to
pray as we are. We just don't. We don't even
know what to ask for. But he said, Lord, that I may
receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Receive
thy sight, thy faith has saved thee. What an interesting way
that that's worked around there, that he doesn't say, okay, you
can see now, go thy way. He says, thy faith has saved
thee. Thy total reliance on Christ has saved thee. How blessed is
it that one who's blind is commanded to approach the Savior and asking
that he might look up. And then it's commanded, up to
look, because that's what that really, that's what that word
means. When it says, receive thy sight, that's these two words
in the Greek that, the two root words of it are up to look. Up to look. And he says, may
I look up? And the Lord says, look up. Thy
total reliance on Christ has saved thee." How blessed it is
that he's commanded to do that, and then the Lord blesses him. Look up and see. You know, unless
a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. He can't
see Christ. And that publican in his former
state who couldn't so much as lift up his eyes to heaven says,
that man went away justified. That man went away able to look
up and see Christ. Thy faith, thy total reliance
on Christ has saved thee, not just enabled one to see physically,
but saved thee and caused you to see the kingdom of God. By
grace are you saved through faith, and that's not of yourself. We
always mention that verse from Ephesians 2, 8, 9. It's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Again, that
blind man could no more do anything to recover his sight or believe
or see or do anything. He was totally unable, which
is kind of the point of the of the lesson there. And, you know,
it's the same thing that he said to that woman that washed his
feet with tears in Luke chapter seven, verse 50. And again, it's kind of the same
story. They criticized her. Why are
you letting her do that? And this blind man that came
up to him said, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. They said,
get away, get away, you blind old beggar. We're trying to do
something here. And yet he was the very one that
the Lord passed that way to see. And we're going to see that again
in the next chapter, where on his going through Jericho, he
stops by to see Zacchaeus. He says, I must dwell in thy
house today. He had an appointment with him,
he had an appointment with this blind beggar, and yet those around
him were trying to say, You're not who we're here to
see. We're here to see important folks or different folks, not
you sinners, not you blind people. And then he said to this woman
in Luke 8, 48, who had the issue of blood, and she had to press
through a mighty crowd to get up to him and just touch the
hem of his garment, and he says, He felt power go to her and he
said, Thy faith has saved thee. She totally relied on Christ
to be able to take care of her issue because that's why she
pushed through such a large crowd. just to be able to touch the
hem of his garment. Because she knew, she'd been
brought to know that that was where the help was. That was
where she could go for the relief from her issue. And in the last chapter that we were
in, in Luke chapter 17, he healed these ten lepers. And they all
said, well, that was nice. Bye. And yet, one of them turned
around and gave praise to God. And to that man, he says, where
are the nine? He says, thy faith has saved
thee. Go in peace. The rest of them
had to go back to the law and take care of all the issues in
the law, but this man says, be free. Thy faith has saved thee. So we see that phrase used a
lot by the Lord, but I think it just loses a lot when we,
because faith has become in religion of nowadays has become to be
something that you develop on your own through trial and error
and experience. Well, I've had so many trials
that it's just building my faith, and I have a lot more faith now
than I used to have, and it's all based on self-performance
kind of a thing. But he says, you have little
faiths. By grace are you saved through
faith, and you don't even have that of yourselves. How much
plainer could that be? And so whatever faith we have,
as Norm brought out here lately and continually, is whatever
faith, whatever amount, whatever quantity, whatever quality of
faith we have is the faith that's been given to us. And we don't
live by that faith. We live by the faith of Christ.
We live by the faith of Him who is faithful and dependable and
able and not not based on us because we just fail continually
because our faith is malleable from day to day. But He is ever
faithful. So we see this Thy faith has
saved thee. Not just giving you sight physically,
but giving you spiritual sight whereby you can look at me truly
as you did and say, Thou son of David, have mercy on me and
expect him to have mercy. And then he says, Thy faith has
saved thee. So in our closing verse, in verse
43, it says immediately he received his sight. and followed Him, glorifying
God. From the second that happened,
he was giving God the praise. He was actually doing it before
because he called Him, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Be compassionate to me. Have
mercy on me. And he gave God the glory, not
himself, saying, If I hadn't got up early this morning and
caned my way over to the gate by Jericho and found myself a
likely spot to sit there where everybody's going to pass by,
I would never have seen him. And if I hadn't asked those guys
what was all the ruckus about, they wouldn't have told me that
Jesus of Nazareth was going by. And so I got up and I went to
him and said, bah, bah, bah. He gave glory to God. God put
me where, God put me in the way. Isn't that what he does with
us? He puts us in the way where we will intersect with the gospel
of the Lord, with the gospel of Christ. Puts us in the way
on purpose, connects us, and then he makes it effectual in
a way that we could never expect or comprehend. And so he glorified
God and all the people when they saw it, gave praise to God because
they saw a mighty work. And they said, who can do this
except God be with him? Who can do that? Has anybody
ever given sight? That's what they said to that
guy in John. Has anybody ever given sight
to one that's been blind from birth? And they said, no. But again, you have those two
factors. In John, you had the people that
said, well, we need to get rid of him before he does anything
else. And the people that said, what a miracle of grace. And it's so important for us
to realize that It's God that does all this. And Norm brought this scripture
out from Deuteronomy here a few weeks ago. And here, we've had
the opposite of this applied here in this text in Luke 18,
where the Lord gave him certain things. But in Deuteronomy, when
he's talking about those children in the wilderness, he said in
Deuteronomy 29.4, it says, Yet the Lord hath not given you a
heart to perceive, eyes to see, and ears to hear. It didn't give
you any of those things. And what was the result? They
died in unbelief in the wilderness. They died in unbelief. They could
not cure themselves. They couldn't give themselves
eyes to see the very Lord that brought them out of Egypt, the
very Lord that appeared to them by fire and by cloud and fed
them, that caused their clothes not to wear out in 40 years,
that supplied their water, their every need. They couldn't see Him. because He didn't give them a
heart to see, He didn't give them a heart to perceive, He
didn't give them an understanding, ears to hear and to this day.
So we're just going to close by saying, Lord, just have mercy
on us and give us hearts to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear
this day, which is kind of a composite prayer between Deuteronomy 29
and Luke 18. Give God the praise for when
He gives someone eyes to see and a heart to know Him. So, until next time, my friends,
be free.