in Matthew 9 and beginning at
verse 27. This is where the Lord is confronted
with two more people who were in need of a miracle. One was
blind, and of course, anytime you see the physical blindness
that is in the world of people who
are blind, It's a good picture of our natural spiritual blindness. And the fact that the Lord has
to give us eyes to see the glory of God in the scriptures, in
Christ. And then one that says he was
dumb, but the word dumb there means also he couldn't hear.
So he's deaf and dumb. But let's begin by reading. It
says in verse 27, When Jesus departed thence, two blind men,"
I said one, but there's two blind men, followed him crying and
saying, thou son of David. Now that is really, really significant
because when the term son of David is a term that identifies
Christ, Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah. And the Messiah
in the Old Testament was identified to be both God and man in one
person, to be the savior of sinners, and all of the details that unfolded
from Genesis to Malachi, and then in the Gospels concerning
who he is and his offices, that he's the surety of the covenant
of salvation, that he's the substitute for sinners. He took our place
on the cross, having our sins imputed to him, that he's the
redeemer of his people, Paul wrote about it in Galatians chapter
four, he said, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth his
son, that's the deity of Christ, made of a woman, that's the humanity
of Christ, the sinless humanity of Christ, made under the law,
that's the gospel of salvation, conditioned on Christ, not on
us. The conditions of salvation,
the requirements, the stipulations are not on us, they're on Christ
and he fulfilled those conditions and his people received the fruits,
the results of the conditions that he fulfilled by establishing
righteousness for us. So we have that picture here.
And so these two blind men, they said, thou son of David, they're
recognizing him to be the Messiah. Now, how much did they know of
all these details? We don't know. I believe they
understood something of who Jesus Christ was and is, the Messiah. But then they said, have mercy
on us. And so they understood that salvation,
that even their physical situation, They're looking for healing.
They're looking for physical healing. They're blind, they
wanna see. They've heard of him. And they knew that if he was
willing to heal them, that he's able to heal them. And so they
say, have mercy on us, these blind men. So they knew it was
an act of mercy. They're not asking for what they
deserve. They're not asking for what they've
earned. And what a picture of salvation that is. I think about
the publican who said, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now
the word merciful there is a different Greek word than mercy here. The
word mercy here means compassion. When the publican said, have
mercy on me, that was a propitiation. He was asking for forgiveness.
salvation based upon the law of God satisfied, the debt paid
by the Lord Jesus Christ. But these blind men are asking
for compassion. And that's what we're to do.
We're to be compassionate just like Christ was, and not because
we deserve it, not because we've earned it, because we have it.
The only thing we deserve and have earned is eternal condemnation
because we're sinners. And this blindness, this physical
blindness was the result of sin. Sin is the problem. So they say,
Jesus, thou son of David. And they knew that if he was
willing to heal them, he could. And that's the way it is in salvation.
If Christ is willing to save us, he's able. Now look at verse
28. It said, and when he was come into the house, The blind
man came to him, and Jesus saith unto him." Now notice what he
says. He says, believe ye that I am able to do this? Now he didn't just say, do you
believe? Like a lot of people, you hear
some of these so-called faith healers today. They say, do you
believe? Well, believe what? Do you believe
that you have enough faith to get healed? No, that's not what
they're saying. Do you believe that I am able? There's your
key. That's the issue of saving faith.
Is Christ able to make the blind see? To make the deaf hear? To give eyes to see? Well, yes,
he's able. And he's proven that in so many
ways. Now, is he willing? Well, that's
the key too. I think it was blind Bartimaeus
who said, Lord, if thou will. And then the leper who said,
if thou will, you can make me clean. Are you will? Well, the
Bible teaches us that in salvation, in giving us spiritual eyes,
that Christ is willing and able to save any and every sinner
who comes to him for salvation And underscore this, his way. The problem with us by nature,
as we're naturally born, is we're not willing to come his way. And by nature, as we're naturally
born, we don't even know his way. We don't know the way. He has to reveal himself to us.
And if He does so in the effectual power of the Spirit, He makes
us willing to come His way. His way is the way of salvation
totally by free, sovereign grace, based totally and solely upon
the blood of Jesus Christ, His righteousness alone. But by nature, we want to do
it our way. And our way is always some way
that's going to leave us room to glory. We have to, by nature,
we just want to take some credit for ourselves. And that's why
they talk about God loving everybody, Christ dying for everybody, now
the rest is up to you. You cast the deciding vote. It's
your choice that gets you into heaven. Not God's choice. But God says it's his choice.
Somebody says, well, if that's the case, then why would I come? I may come and he won't let me. No, what did he say? I quote
this all the time. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will unknowwise
cast out. Any sinner who comes God's way, he'll receive because
he's made that sinner willing. That sinner is a product of the
grace and mercy and power of God. And he gives eyes to see. And it says, he said, verse 28,
believe ye that I am able to do this, and they said unto him,
yea, Lord. We believe you're able. You can
heal, you can give the blind sight. Well, we believe he's
able to give sinners like us forgiveness, righteousness, peace,
eternal life, eyes to see and ears to hear. Look at verse 29. Then touched he their eyes saying,
according to your faith be it unto you. Now again, and I've
emphasized this as going through Matthew and going through the
scriptures. According to your faith. What
does that mean? Is he saying, well, because you
made the right choice and you believed it sincerely enough,
then be it unto you. No. What was their faith? Their faith was in Him and His
ability and His willingness to heal them. What is my faith? What is your faith? My faith
is in Christ. Christ is able and willing to
save me from my sins. All right, then he goes to the
next one and says, and there I, verse 30, Their eyes were
opened and Jesus straightly or immediately charged them saying,
see that no man knoweth. Now often you see him say that.
What it is, there was a set time for him to go to the cross in
the fullness of the time. There was a set time for him
to come into the world. That's what that Galatians 4
passage is. In the fullness of the time,
God sent forth his son. There was a set time for everything
that he did in his earthly ministry. And there was a set time for
him to be arrested, for him to be tried, for him to be tortured,
for him to go to the cross and die and be buried and raised
again the third day. And when he makes statements
like that, he's showing that it's not his time to stir up
the unbelievers to come after him. But we see then, look, it
says in verse 31, but they, when they were departed, spread abroad
his fame in all that country. So they went ahead and they did
speak of it, but still that time didn't change because that's
appointed of God. And he didn't go to the cross
one second early or one second late. He came at the right time
in the fullness of the time. So that's what that's all about.
Their eyes were opened. Well, look at verse 32. It says,
yeah, verse 32. As they went out, behold, they
brought to him a dumb man possessed with the devil. And that word
dumb also includes that he was deaf, he couldn't hear. Couldn't
hear and could not speak. He was possessed with the devil.
Christ had already shown his power over the devils, hadn't
he? Remember that demoniac, you know, he had that legion devils,
and he cast them into the hogs, the pigs. And it says, when the
devil was cast out, the dumb spake. He heard and he spoke.
And the multitudes marveled, saying, it was never so seen
in Israel. Nothing like this ever seen in
Israel. Now, here his deafness and his
dumbness is certainly an illustration or a picture of our spiritual
deafness. We don't have ears to hear. We
don't have eyes to see spiritually. We don't have ears to hear. And
those who hear spiritually and see spiritually, they are those
who are born again by the Spirit. And I think about Stephen. You
remember when Stephen preached his message of judgment in Jerusalem? He preached a message of judgment
upon the unbelieving Jews. In Acts 7, 51, listen to what
he said here. I've got this listed in your
lesson. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. What is an uncircumcised heart?
Well, that's the old, natural, deceitful heart of unbelief. That's what, remember what Jeremiah
said in Jeremiah 7, the heart is deceitful, desperately wicked,
who can know it? unbelief, the darkness, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither
can he know them, they're spiritually discerned, and uncircumcised
ears, ears that don't hear the gospel with the ear of faith. And we'll look at that in just
a minute in Matthew 13. But that's what's happening here. And it
says here that the devil was cast out, He began to speak,
the multitudes marveled, it was never so seen in Israel, and
look at verse 34. It says, but the Pharisees said,
he casteth out devils through the prince of devils. Now what
a charge that is. In other words, they're saying,
what's happening here, and here's what I put in your lesson, in
accordance with their hatred of Jesus of Nazareth, hatred
of his doctrine, hatred of the gospel. The Pharisees accused
him of casting out devils through the prince of the devils. They
were still spiritually dead and blind and deaf under the power
of demons in their unbelief. This is the condemnation that
the light has come into the world. Men love darkness and hate the
light. Their deeds are evil. Remember Christ said in John
8, 44, you're of your father, the devil, that kind of thing.
And this caused them to deny what they saw with their own
eyes, what they heard with their own ears. And isn't that the
way with us by nature? I can remember when I first began
to hear the true gospel. I heard the words. I saw the
man preaching, but I wanted no part of it because I was spiritually
uncircumcised in heart and ears. And this is what we need to understand.
So despite what they saw, they denied it. That's the power of
darkness. That's the power of unbelief.
That's the power of self-righteousness because what were they so proud
of? What were they hanging on to? Establishing their own righteousness
before God. and they refuse rebelliously,
just like all of us by nature, to submit to the righteousness
of God in Christ. His righteousness imputed. We're
not gonna have it. Well, look at verse 36. Despite,
well, no, verse 35. And Jesus went about all the
cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom, which is the gospel of salvation by
God's grace, through the blood and righteousness of Christ,
In other words, their opposition didn't stop him. He had a mission. And this gospel was going to
be preached. And it says, and healing every
sickness, every disease among the people. Think about that.
The Lord of glory going into the synagogues, facing unbelievers,
confronting them with the truth. Repent and believe the gospel.
And it says, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved
with compassion on them. in his humanity, as we all should
be, because they fainted, they were weak, they were tired, and
they were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. What
a commentary on the world. like scattered sheep. Now he's
not saying that they're all sheep. The sheep of Christ are the elect
of God. He's not talking about that here. He's showing that people without
a good shepherd to tell them the truth, they're just like
lost sheep scattered out there, they don't know where to go.
All they had was false shepherds who would put them under the
legal bondage of the law, that's the Pharisees, trying to get
them earn their salvation by their works. And here's what
he said, look at verse 37. I'm gonna deal with this more
next week, Lord willing. But he says, then saith unto
his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors
are few. There's a harvest. And what harvest
is he talking about? He's talking about the salvation
of his people. That's a harvest. Remember Christ
said, I am the vine, you're the branches, and my father is the
husbandman. God chose the people, gave them
to Christ, sent Christ to do for us what we couldn't do for
ourselves, to establish the only righteousness whereby he could
be both a just God and a savior, and he's going to have every
one of his people brought into the kingdom. That's the harvest.
But God uses means, I shouldn't say but God uses means, I should
say and God uses means to bring them in. And what does that mean?
The laborers, preachers of the gospel, witnesses of the gospel,
going out telling people the truth. This is glorifying to
God. And it's not that God needs us
to accomplish his will. It's not like some false preachers
say, you're the only eyes God has, you're the only arms he
has, you're the only legs he has. No, no. God does not depend
on us for anything. We're totally dependent upon
God for everything. But for His glory, He sends out
His messengers and in the power of the Holy Spirit, His people
hear the gospel and the harvest has come in. So He says, pray
for laborers. Laborers, those who would be
in the service of God. Not working for their salvation,
that's not the kind of labor we're in. If you're working for
your salvation, you're not one of these laborers. You're one
of the Pharisees. Verse 38, pray ye therefore the
Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into
his harvest. Sinners who will tell people
the truth. Now turn over to Matthew chapter
13. If there's any doubt with people that in order for us to see the
truth and believe it, to hear the truth and believe it, listen
to the words of the Lord here in Matthew 13. When the disciples
asked the question, why do you speak unto them in parables? That's verse 10. The disciples
came, said unto him, why speakest thou unto them in parables? And
he answered and said unto them, because it is given unto you
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
it is not given. You have a gift. And it's a gift
of knowledge. You know, we're always confronted
ever so often with false preachers who try to promote the idea that
when you're saved and you come to trust God and trust Christ,
you do it not knowing anything. You don't have to know anything. You just trust. And that's that
blind leap of faith. The false Catholic priest Thomas
Aquinas used to talk about that, the leap of faith. Don't know
anything, you just jump off the cliff. But that's not what the
gospel's all about. He says you've been given a gift
and it's the gift of knowledge. You know something you didn't
know before. It's been revealed to you by God. God has taught
you. And he said, I speak to them
in parables. Look at verse 13 of Matthew 13. Therefore speak
I to them in parables because they seeing, see not. What did
Christ say to Nicodemus about the new birth? Unless you're
born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God, the kingdom of
heaven. Hearing, they hear not. Neither do they understand. And
in them, verse 14, is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which
saith, by hearing you shall hear and shall not understand, and
seeing you shall see and shall not perceive. Look at verse 15,
for this people's heart is waxed or grown gross, hard. They've
hardened themselves against the gospel. Remember, Pharaoh's heart
was hardened by God, judgment. And their ears are dull of hearing.
and their eyes they have closed. This is a willing opposition
to the truth. Lest at any time they should
see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand
with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them.
They don't want to be converted. When we tell sinners that all
of their efforts to save themselves, to make themselves right with
God, in essence, are evil deeds. They don't want to be converted.
They don't want to accept that. You mean to tell me that I have
to submit to the righteousness of one person? The Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes? And I have to count all my works, all my experiences,
all the things that I highly esteem? I have to count them
but dumb that I may win Him and be found in Him? Is that what
you're telling me? Well, I don't want that. Well, when God gives you eyes
to see by the power of the Spirit and the gospel and ears to hear,
then you'll want it. Then you'll have a new heart,
the heart of faith. And that's what he said in verse
16 of Matthew 13, blessed are your eyes, they see, your ears,
they hear. That's a blessing from God Almighty. Okay, may the Lord bless his
word to our hearts. Thank you.