Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, it is with great
delight and thanksgiving that we come before your throne of
grace this morning. Father, we're so thankful that
this is the day that's been appointed that we can meet together in
public worship to have your word opened and read and taught to
us. Father, we're so thankful. And
Father, I beg of you that you'd send your spirit upon us this
morning, that we not meet in vain. Father, I pray that you'd
send your spirit upon me, that you would speak to my heart and
open my mouth. Enable me in the power of thy
spirit to in clear and simple terms proclaim Christ and him
crucified. Enable me to preach the glory
of Christ our Savior. And Father, I pray you'd send
your spirit upon your people that you give us a hearing ear
and a believing heart that we not just hear, but we believe
the things that we hear of Christ from your word this morning.
Father, we're so thankful. And what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people, Father, wherever they're meeting together
today. Of all the things this country and this world needs,
Father, we need a word from thee. In this dark, dark day, Father,
I beg of you that you'd show us your glory, the redemptive
glory of Christ our Savior. Give us a revival in the land. Father, for our good, but especially
for your glory, we pray this great blessing. Father, we're
so thankful for a place that you've given us we can meet together
and worship, a family of believers. Father, I pray you'd give us
a heart that would love one another, and care for one another. We
show our love and care one for another to serve one another
and help one another as we travel through this wilderness here
below and as we go on our way home. We thank you for the many
material, physical blessings you've given us. It's beyond
measure. Father, we're thankful and I
beg your forgiveness for how often we murmur and complain
against your good providence after all that you've seen fit
to give us. Father, forgive us. Forgive us
for Christ's sake, I pray. Father, it's in his name. For
his glory, we pray. Amen. I've titled our lesson
this morning, A Beggar Meets the Savior. And I love this story
of blind Bartimaeus. I just love it. Because it gives
hope to this poor sinner. Every time I read it, it gives
me hope. And I love to preach from this story, too, because
it gives hope to every poor sinner. Because this story shows us both
the power and the compassion of our sovereign savior. It shows
us his glory, that someone as mighty and powerful as he is
would have compassion on someone as pitiful as we are. And this
story teaches us something about what our attitude should be before
the Lord. You have the proper attitude
before the Lord, both saved and lost, is seen here in blind Bartimaeus. We should all do what he did.
If someone hearing this message is lost, and you know it, tell
you what to do, what this story tells us to do. Cry to the Lord
for mercy, and keep crying to the Lord for mercy, and no matter
what, Don't quit crying for mercy until the Lord shows mercy to
you. He said, the Lord himself said, he hears that kind of prayer.
And if you're a safe center, someone who knows and trusts
the Lord, you still need mercy and grace from the Savior, don't
you? Well, I'll tell you what to do. Do what blind Bartimaeus
did, cry to the Lord for mercy. And don't quit crying to the
Lord for mercy and grace and help until the Lord's pleased
to give it. He told us that's the way we're
to pray. Now I hope you'll pay very close
attention here to blind Bartimaeus because blind Bartimaeus is a
picture of all of us. All of us have been born spiritually
blind. So we can't see anything spiritual. Bartimaeus couldn't see anything
physical. We can't see anything spiritual.
We can't see our need of a savior. We can't see God's way of salvation. We can't see how can a sinner
be made righteous before God. We need to be given sight. So
blind Bartimaeus is gonna be a good lesson for us. So let
me show you a few things here. Number one, blind Bartimaeus
availed himself to the means of grace. Verse 46 in Mark 10
is where our lesson begins. And they come 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. Now, I have no doubt Bartimaeus
begged every day. It was the only way he had to
get anything to support himself. He begged every day. And I just
bet you he had a favorite spot for him to go begging. Higher
traffic area stands the reason you might get a few more coins,
right? But from what we read, it seems likely Bartimaeus knew
that the Lord Jesus was gonna be passing by this way on this
day. And he may never pass this way
again. Matter of fact, he did not. And Bartimaeus was not gonna
take a chance on missing the Savior. I just bet you he was
at his post early that morning, because he was determined to
meet the Savior. Now, if there's anyone here Seeking
mercy from the Lord, we would be wise to follow the example
of this poor beggar. You be sure that you're in a
place where the Lord promised that he would be. You know, the
Lord promised he'd be in the midst of his people. When they're
meeting together to worship him publicly, our Lord said, there
I will be in the midst of them. Now, by God's grace, this is
a miraculous statement. Today, the gospel of God's grace
is being preached in this place. Today, Christ is being preached
and he promised he'd be here. The Lord is passing by. The Lord
is passing by. Right now, he's passing by just
like he promised that he would, but he may never pass this way
again. I mean, earlier we were back there talking about next
Sunday. Well, I mean, the Lord willing, I know what's gonna
be going on next Sunday. We may not be here. I don't know.
But I do know this, the Lord's passing by today, that we would
be wise to seek the Lord today and get ourselves where he is,
where he might be found. That's what blind Bartimaeus
did. Then number two, this is important, especially given how
proud our nature is, blind Bartimaeus was not too proud to beg for
mercy. Verse 47, and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth,
he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Now blind Bartimaeus couldn't
see, but he could hear. And somehow he'd heard about
the Lord Jesus. He'd heard about the power of
the Lord. I know this got the interest
of blind Bartimaeus. He heard that the Lord healed
blind people. He heard that the Lord healed
every disease. That when he healed everyone
who had need of healing, that had been brought to him. That
got the interest of Bartimaeus. Bartimaeus had heard about the
Lord. And because he heard, he begged. He begged for mercy. You just almost can't overstate
the importance of preaching, of hearing the gospel preached. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. If we're going to find out who
the Lord Jesus Christ is, somebody's got to tell us who he is. Somebody's
got to tell us the truth about who he is. It's not just this
little pitiful Jesus that wants to do something for you, you
know, if you let him. Somebody's got to tell us the
truth about who he is. This one who wants to do for
you, if you'll just let him, you're not going to beg him.
There's just no reason in this world that you'd beg Him. Somebody's
got to tell us who He is. And if you want God to give you
faith in Christ, if you're lost and you know it and you want
faith from Christ, I tell you what to do. You make it your
business to be where Christ is preached. You make it your business
to be there. Be sure you're where the Word
of God is being preached because that's how you hear from God.
Old Blind Bartimaeus was not too proud to beg because his
blindness had let him low. His blindness made him a helpless
beggar who was dependent on the kindness and the generosity of
other fallen men. Gulp. I mean, that's a bad place
to be, isn't it? To be dependent on the generosity
and kindness of fallen men? But God used that to make blind
Bartimaeus helpless, completely and utterly helpless. And it's
that helplessness that made him cry out and beg God for mercy. His helplessness made him not
too proud to beg. Now, if you're helpless, if you've been, oh,
I've been there. If you're trying to make yourself
believe and you can't, if you're trying to make yourself see and
you can't, tell you what to do. Stop all your trying and beg
God for mercy. Just get down in the dust and
beg God for mercy. This is a cry of begging to give
us something that we do not deserve. Now God's gotta teach us we don't
deserve anything but his wrath. He's got to make us helpless. He's got to make us see we deserve
damnation. Begging is this. Lord, I know
I don't deserve it. That's why I'm begging. Lord,
if you will, Lord, have mercy on me. Bartimaeus had a cry of
need, but you know, he also had a cry of faith. This man was
blind, but he heard something. He called on and he begged the
son of David. Now that's somebody, the son
of David is somebody specific. It's the Messiah. It's what is
the term that they use to describe the Savior, the son of David,
that God promised a son. Great, great, great, how many
have a great grandson? It's gonna come through the line of David
and he's gonna be the king of kings. He's gonna be the Savior. Blind Bartimaeus cried on the
son of David. You know what he acknowledged?
Jesus of Nazareth is king. He's king, he's Lord over all,
and he does not have to do anything for me. He's so far above me,
I'm so far beneath him, he's king, and the only thing I can
do is begging. Beg him for mercy. Now listen,
our begging does not obligate God to have mercy on us. That's
why we're begging, because we don't deserve it. And if you
cry to God out of great need and helplessness, and you know
you don't deserve it, that's the cry of faith. All right,
here's the third thing I see about old blind Bartimaeus. A
needy sinner will not quit begging God for mercy. Verse 48, and
many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried
the more a great deal, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Now, someone
might ask, well, what if the Lord doesn't answer when I call
on him? I call and I beg for mercy. What should I do then? Bartimaeus showed us, didn't
he? Keep crying. Keep begging, keep begging. That's
the parable that the Lord taught about the widow and the unjust
judge, wasn't it? The Lord taught us this is the
way you pray. You cry and you cry and you cry
and you keep crying and you don't shut up until the Lord shows
mercy. The great big $2 word for that
is importunity. Importunity. And what it means
is persistence. Persistence. It means don't shut
up. Now, someone might say, you know,
that that's rude or that's, I mean, whatever they want to say about
it, but you know what the Lord of Glory said? He hears that
kind of persistent cry. Keep begging him for mercy. You
know, all of us should be like Jacob of old. Remember when the
Lord appeared to Jacob and he wrestled with him all night long
and the sun was rising? And Lord touched the hollow of
Jacob's thigh and he was hurting so much and the Lord said, stay,
you know, you'll let me go. And Jacob said, I will not let
you go except you bless me. The Lord will hear that kind
of prayer. I'm not gonna quit up, Lord, until you bless me,
Lord. And if you don't, tell you what,
I'm gonna stay here begging at your feet till you come in your
kingdom. Because I'm not gonna quit. Now here's how I can apply that
to us today. I don't ever want anybody hears
me preach to come away with thinking this, that, oh, well, you know,
whoever be saved will be saved. Preachers say God has elect people
and only those people will be saved. Christ came to suffer
and die for the elect and only for the elect. Now that's true.
I mean, that's true. But I don't want somebody to
take that and say, well, you know, the preacher said, whoever
can be saved will be saved. Nothing I can do about it. You
know, if God elected me, I'll be saved. If he didn't, I'll
be damned and nothing I can do about it. Oh yes, there is something
you can do about it. The Lord was the only one who
could give Bartimaeus sight. He's the only one. Bartimaeus
didn't say, well, now the Lord's going to pass by here this way.
And you know, if he's going to give me sight, he'll give me
sight. No, he begged. He begged the Lord to do something
for him. I can't do anything to save myself. We can't do anything to make
ourselves saveable, but we sure can beg the Lord for mercy. Now
we can beg him for mercy. We can beg him for forgiveness.
And when my need becomes great enough, when the Lord lets me
see more and more of my sin and more and more of my helplessness,
when my need becomes great enough, I'm gonna seek Christ with all
my heart. That's the attitude of everyone
that the Lord saves. And Bartimaeus, he refused to
quit. Now you think about this situation.
Here's this beggar, he's dirty, he's unshaven, his hair, I mean,
he had to look a mess, don't you reckon? And here the Lord
is coming out of town, and boy, all these dignitaries were following
him and surrounding him, you know, and all these dignitaries
Now they heard Bartimaeus over here crying and raising such
a ruckus and they wanted Bartimaeus to be quiet. Just Bartimaeus,
shh, just quit your yelling, quit making all this fuss. You're
messing up our pretty looking religious service. You know,
there were far more important people around than old blind
Bartimaeus. And I just know they're telling
Bartimaeus, you just be still. Just be quiet. We'll give you
a few extra dollars here later on. But for right now, you be
quiet. Quit messing up this beautiful religious, beautiful looking
religious service that we have. The people. Now, most of them
would have been people from that town, I would imagine. They knew
Bartimaeus. They'd seen him begging for all
his life, pretty much, I reckon. They knew him. The people who
should have been encouraging Bartimaeus were the ones who
were discouraging him. Can you think of that? Let that
never be said about anybody from this place, that we are a discouragement
to a sinner who's come and seeking Christ. Let that never be said
of us. You know, the job of the church
is to preach Christ. is to preach Christ, to point
Christ to sinners. Let that never be said of us
that we are a discouragement to a sinner seeking Christ because
they don't look like us or sound like us or act like us or fit
into our little mold of religion. Let that never be said of us. Now that being said, if there's
anybody here who wants mercy from the Lord, let all of us
together encourage you cry out to the Lord. Beg the Lord for
mercy. This poor man cried, and the
Lord heard him. Saved him out of all his troubles.
Let me tell you, based on the word of God, based on the experience
of this needy sinner, you cry out to the Lord. You beg him
for mercy. And then you keep coming to hear
the gospel. You keep coming to hear the gospel. You think you're not hearing
anything? You think the Lord's not doing anything for you? Keep
coming. Keep coming, keep coming, because this, under the sound
of the gospel, is the only place you're gonna hear from God. It's
the only place He's gonna be pleased to have mercy on you. Do you wanna know the Lord? Would
you like to meet Him? Keep coming where He promised
to be. Be where He promised He'd be. Keep coming, keep calling
on the Lord, keep begging Him, and don't quit. because the Lord
told us he hears that kind of cry. And boy, here's something. That kind of begging made the
Lord of glory stand still. And that's the fourth thing.
Mercy beggars meet a sovereign, compassionate Savior. Verse 49,
and Jesus stood still and commanded him to be called. And they called
the blind man saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he
calleth thee. Now, I mean, this book is just
full of absolutely amazing statements. I mean, I know that. But this
is something that it amazes me every single time I read it.
The Lord Jesus, the Savior, the King of glory, the creator and
ruler of the universe, stood still, he stood still. When a poor beggar cried out
begging him for mercy. I just can't get over that. And
brethren, this is no ordinary day. The Lord Jesus is on his
way out of Jericho and he's going to Jerusalem, where very soon
he's gonna suffer and die for the sin of his people. He knows
what's going to happen when he gets there. He knows what's going
to happen. He knows the physical toll, the,
the, the beating and the torture and the, and the, the, the emotional
toll of being, being deserted by all of his disciples and all
of his friends. He knows the toll of his soul,
but he'll be made sin and he'll make his soul an offering and
his father, He will be in such straits under the judgment and
wrath of God. He won't call his father his
father. He'll say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The suffering of his soul. He
knows what's gonna happen. He's going to Jerusalem for the
hour of hours. This is the hour that he come.
How many times did he say my hour has not yet come? It's finally
come. That hour is almost here. He's
going to Jerusalem to meet it. That awful, weighty hour. There
are so many things on his mind. There's so many things on his
heart. Important things now. Things
of eternal importance. Things that our salvation hangs
upon. You'd think, this is the way
you and me think, some insignificant beggar could not take our Lord's
mind off that hour, off what he was getting ready. He'd be
so focused, he just had such tunnel vision, everything else
would be blocked out. But no, the cry of an insignificant
beggar made the Lord of Glory stop in his tracks. The Lord
stood still in compassion for that poor beggar, and he sovereignly
called that beggar to come to him. Notice what it says here? He commanded him to be called.
He didn't say, well, let Bartimaeus come if he wants to. He commanded
him to be called. Oh, this is the glorious good
news of the gospel. What they came to tell that old
blind Bartimaeus, be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. Can I tell you one more time?
Come to Christ. Come to him, believe him. Come
to him right now where you sit. You come to Christ in your heart.
Well, what is my permission to come to Christ? He commanded
it. He commands us, come to Christ. You be of good comfort. Come
to Christ. Come to Christ. Cast yourself
on him. Oh my. I know The way this story
is told, it starts out with blind Bartimaeus calling on the Lord
for mercy, doesn't it? That's the way that the story
starts out as we read it. But where did the story really
start? Who made blind Bartimaeus hear of the Lord? Who made sure
of that? The Lord did, didn't he? Who
made blind Bartimaeus so helpless he would call on the Lord? The
Lord did. Who made him call out on the
Lord? The Lord did. Blind Bartimaeus
was calling out for mercy, wasn't he? But want me to tell you when
mercy drops started falling on Bartimaeus? When the Lord stood
still and commanded him to be brought to him. And if the Lord
ever saves you and me, that will be our experience. Salvation
is of the Lord. He didn't do it because I did
anything right. No, the Lord chose me even though I was a
wretched vile sinner. The Lord redeemed me by his precious
blood. Even when I was his enemy, he
suffered and died for me. I was dead in sin. I was a natural
born rebel through and through, but the Lord called me and he
made me come to him. The cry of a needy sinner stops
the Lord of glory in his tracks. What more encouragement do you
need to cry out to the Lord for mercy? Call on him for mercy,
he'll stop in his tracks for you too. If you're begging him
for mercy, he will. This is the one who's ruling
the universe. I mean everything going on in
the universe, the finger of our God is doing it. Everything. I mean, you think, how many people,
billions of people live in this world? And if one insignificant
sinner calls out to the Lord of glory, he'll still stop in
his tracks and have mercy on you. Now here's the fifth thing. Salvation is off the Lord. Verse
50, and he, casting away his garment, rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said
unto him, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said unto
him, go thy way. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus in the
way. Now as soon as the Lord called
blind Bartimaeus, he cast aside those rags, those rags were dirty
and full of holes and just, oh, they were so disgusting. They'd
been trying to cover his dirty, naked body. And he cast that
thing aside. Before the Lord called him, that
was all he had. He was clutching it for all he's
worth. When the Lord called him, he
cast it aside and he came to the Savior. And you and I will
do the same thing if the Lord ever calls us. We're gonna hang
on to our dirty rags of righteousness, that righteousness that we've
tried to weave with our own sinful works. We're gonna hang on to
it for all that we're worth, because we think that's all we
got. But the moment the Lord of glory calls us to come to
him, we're gonna cast those rags of righteousness and come to
him. That's why I say this. My cry
is, the salvation's of the Lord. Then Lord, call me. Lord, turn
me and I shall be turned. And when Bartimaeus got to the
Lord, the Lord asked Bartimaeus, what do you want me to do unto
you? Not just what do you want me
to do for you. Bartimaeus, what do you want
me to do to you? To you. Now I need the Lord to
do something for me. I need him to pay my sin debt. I need him to redeem me from
the curse of the law. I need him to do something for
me, but I also need him to do something to me. I need him to
do something in me. I need to be made righteous. I need to be made accepted in
God's sight. I need to be made to see. I need
to be made to believe. You know, I believe God because
I don't have a choice. God gave me faith. I believe
him. He made me believe him. And that's what Blind Bartimaeus
asked for. Lord, that I may receive my sight. Not that I might see, that I
might receive it. See, that's the way a beggar
talks. That's the way a mercy beggar talks. Lord, that I might
receive mercy from you. Not that I can earn mercy from
you, that I might receive it. from the hand of the king, whatever
it is you're pleased to give me. You know, we don't come to
the Lord saying, Lord, I've done everything right. I've done everything
that I can do. I have availed myself to the
means of grace. I go hear the gospel. If I can
help it, I don't miss a service. Lord, I begged you for mercy.
I haven't quit begging for mercy. I keep begging for mercy. And
Lord, I've done everything right. I've done everything you told
me to do. Wouldn't you give me some sight? That's not begging.
That's not begging, that's bartering. That's negotiating. Bartimaeus
said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. That I might receive
a gift of your free grace. And the sovereign savior said,
I will, I will. Jesus said unto him, go thy way.
Thy faith is made thee whole. Now, you know the Lord's not
saying faith saved Bartimaeus or faith gave him sight. It's
Christ who saves. It's Christ who gives sight.
But it's faith that receives Christ. It's faith that calls
out for mercy and begs God for mercy. Now here's the power and
the compassion of our Savior. He made a man who's probably
been blind from birth to have 20-20 vision. If blind Bartimaeus
was blind from birth, as I suspect, This man had never seen a blue
sky. He'd never seen a sunset. He'd never seen a flower. He'd
never seen the smiling face of a loved one. Can you imagine
that the first thing this man saw was the face of the savior,
the face of the king who said, I will, your faith has saved
you. Faith in Christ is never in vain. Oh, the glory of God. That God
would save a sinner like me, that he redeemed me, that he
washed away my sin, that he justify a sinner like me through the
obedience and through the death of his son in human flesh. But here is how you know that
the Lord has given you sight and you don't just have some
mental agreement to a set of doctrines. When you see Christ,
you've never seen anything more glorious in all your life. And you never will. You just
never will see anything as glorious as him. And here's the other
thing that you'll do if the Lord gives you sight. You're gonna
follow Christ. Immediately, he received his
sight, and what did he do? He followed Jesus in the way.
I tell you, if the Lord has mercy on a person, That person's gonna
follow Christ. I mean, you're just not gonna
be able to run them off. He is going to follow Christ. You just,
you won't be able to keep them away from him because there's
a new master. There's a new way of life. There's
a new life, not just a new way of life. There's a new life.
There's a new love. There's a new need. There's a
new thing that comforts. There's just a whole new way
of life. All that comes from the power. and the compassion of the Savior
on a poor beggar, guilty, vile sinner, calling on God for mercy. Now if that doesn't encourage
all of us to cry out for mercy, sadly, I'm afraid that that means
we don't know we're helpless. But if the Lord ever makes us
helpless, guilty, and vile, and you find yourself on the very
brink of hell, This is gonna be such an encouragement to you,
the power and the compassion of the Savior on a needy, guilty
sinner that cries out and begs Him for mercy. I hope God will
make all of us that. All right, the Lord bless you.