It's always a blessing and an honor to be with you. Any preacher of the gospel is reluctant to ever say, the Lord has taught me this. I know this. Of course, there are truths that the Lord, by his grace, has made us confident in. We preach unwaveringly. without compromise and without doubt, but is in anything specific, it's a, there's a hesitation to say, I know this, I know this, I've learned this, I know the Lord has taught me, I know this now.

But what I can confidently say is that the more that I look into the word of God, the Lord, is gracious to enable me to study with some understanding. Over the years, the simpler the truth becomes.

Look with me at Matthew chapter nine. It is indeed the simplicity that is in Christ, the all inclusiveness. That is in the person of God's son. That we find in the scriptures that we find to be the hope of our soul.

Verse 27 and when Jesus departed, thence two blind men followed him crying. and saying, thou son of David, have mercy on us. And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus say unto them, believe ye that I am able to do this. And they said unto him, yea, Lord, Then touched he their eyes saying, according to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened and Jesus straightly charged them saying, see that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.

Now the Lord asked these two blind men a simple question. Believe ye. Believe ye, do you believe? And that's the question of all questions. It's what everything comes down to.

In John chapters 20 and 21 in this book. We're informed that there are many other things which Jesus did, which are not written in the book of God. Because if they were, even the world itself could not contain the books which should be written. But we're also told these are written for one reason. That you might believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And that believing you might have life through his name.

That's why God has a universe. That's why he has a world. That's why he has a book. Because he has a people. And this book is written. For the divine, infallible, eternal purpose of God's grace in Christ and saving his elect. And he does so by these means and only by these means. Believe ye.

You remember in John chapter nine, the man who was blind from his birth and how the religious Pharisees grilled him and questioned him and badgered him. But when the Lord made the appointment with him and met with him, he had one question for him. And you know what it is, don't you? Does thou believe on the son of God? Do you believe? on God's son, not do you believe in Jesus, not are you ready to make a decision, not have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior. Do you believe on the son of God?

And Christ himself is the object of saving faith. Notice that they followed him And their cry was, Jesus, thou son of David, to a person. They followed a person, they cried to a person, and that person answered them this way, do you believe that I? Faith is not belief in a set of doctrines. These men were blind. That's a picture of our sin because our sin has blinded us to who God is, what we are, and how sinners are saved by the blood and righteousness of Christ Jesus, God's son. We're blind. Unless a man be born from above, he cannot see. He cannot see. And the way that that blindness is cured is not by learning things. It's by having your eyes open to see a person. When the Lord rubbed that mud on that man's eyes and he opened them and he was able to see, what did he see? He saw God's son. What did the thief on the cross see? Did he have a set of, did he have John Gill's body of theology there on the cross and was able to flip through that real quick? And yeah, I think that's talking about him. No, no. No, you have one need. I have one need. And it's the person of God's son.

Now God's son is revealed in the doctrine of scripture, the teaching of scripture. You have to learn the truth of him. But people like to write things and say, there's our doctrine. God already wrote something. God already wrote something. And if this is not your doctrine, then your doctrine will wind you up in hell. It's just that simple. You don't need doctrine according to this doctrine. You need the truth of God as it is in Christ, plainly revealed and preached from the scriptures. And the object, the only object of saving faith is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We're blind. We have no way to find God. There's no way back to God. Christ is the way. We can't see him. except we'd be born again and then God gives us the ability to see and to enter into the kingdom of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That was the message to the jailer who didn't know anything. He had heard of Christ. He might have even seen him and witnessed him do miracles, but he didn't know anything. What did he need to know? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Now, how are you going to believe on him of whom you've not heard? How are you going to call on him you've not believed? How are you going to believe in him of whom you've not heard? And how are you going to hear without a preacher? And how are they going to preach except they be sent by God, not by the What do you call it? The ministerial whatever college.

Now think about this a minute. Now, no matter how accurate your doctrine, the Lord told the Pharisees, you search the scriptures for in them. You think you have life and they knew them better than you do. I guarantee you. But they are they which testify of me. No matter how if I understand all wisdom and knowledge. And don't love the Savior. I'm nothing. I've gained nothing. I know nothing. I am nothing. I have nothing.

Trust in doctrine is really just another form of self-righteousness. I read an article, I believe it was by Don, just the other day saying that right doctrine won't save you any more, good doctrine won't save you any more than good works will. Christ is our salvation. If your faith is in your ability to understand true things, then your faith is in an idiot. If I'm able to intellectually grasp things that others cannot, and that's my confidence before God, then my confidence is a spider's web. Faith in your anything won't save you. Many people's faith is in their faith. Saving faith is in the person of Christ Jesus Himself. It is knowing Him, not knowing facts.

Do you believe that? Ah! Do you believe on the Son of God? Consider this passage of Scripture in Acts chapter 8. If you'd turn over there with me to Acts chapter 8. Verse 26, Acts 8, 26. And they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of Ethiopia, and eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet.

Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest thou what thou readest? I think about that question. Do you understand what you're reading? And he said, how can I accept some man should guide me? And those words, some man, those are significant. It doesn't matter who it is, just some man, whoever the Lord chooses and gives a voice and gives the truth of his gospel to and gives the ability to preach it, to witness it. Usually he picks the worst, the most unqualified. Except some man should guide me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And like a lamb done before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee of whom speaketh the prophet this of himself or of some other man. And remember the question, do you understand what you're reading? How is, is Philip, what's he going to say to cause this man to understand that passage from Isaiah? You could preach for, for a year on that passage. There's a lot in there. But how is he going to, what's he going to say to help this man, to guide this man in understanding what Isaiah was talking about?

He preached unto him, Jesus. You see what I mean by it's just simpler. It's just, there's less in the way. The older you get, the more you look into the word of God. There's just, there's less distractions by the grace of God. I've often said I wish my preaching could be as simple as this table. The person and the work of God's son. Who he is and what he did. Christ and him crucified. He began at the same scripture and it wouldn't have mattered where the man was reading, would it? and preached unto him Jesus. And I want you to see what his confession was too. And they went on their way and they came unto a certain water, verse 36. And the eunuch said, see, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest.

What is it to believe with all your heart? What does that mean? And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son. Isn't that why God wrote this book? That you might believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. You know, that's all you need to know. If you truly believe that, well, I believe in the doctrine of election, Chris. Yeah. If you believe that Christ is the son of God, you've got no choice. God doesn't say eeny, meeny, miny, moe and save whoever up and has a whim that they want to walk down an aisle. He's the eternal son of God. He knows the end from the beginning because he determines the end from the beginning. I believe that, I believe in a person. I believe that he's who he says he is.

Well, I believe in limited atonement, Chris. I do too. But really what we really believe is that Jesus Christ is the son of God. Because if he's God's son, of course, if he died to redeem somebody, he redeemed them. It's not so complicated as the thick books. It's simple. It's Christ is God's son. He's God incarnate. He's the sovereign of the universe. He's the only free will in this universe. He does as he pleases with whom he pleases, when he pleases. He said, as the father gives life to whomsoever he will, even so he's given authority to the son to quicken whomsoever he will. That's who we're talking about. That's all you need to know, that Jesus Christ is God's Son, the invincible, unfailing champion of sinners.

Do you believe with all your heart? To believe with all your heart is to believe that He is God the Son. I'd say that's enough, wouldn't you? If that's what believing with all your heart is? If that's what understanding the Scriptures means, that you believe that Jesus Christ is who He said He is? If He's the Son of God, then whatever He came to this earth to accomplish is accomplished. He's God the Son. Whatever He's doing on that cross, it's done. He said it's done, didn't He? God's Son came to accomplish the redemption of His people, and He said, I've done it. Is that enough? I've got the John Gill books if you want to read them, but look at what God said. And there's nothing wrong with studying that. I enjoy that. It's simple. It's plain. It's a person. Salvation is a person.

Do you believe on God's son? Not only is Christ the only object of saving faith, but he's the giver of faith. Faith is his gift, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. Faith is the fruit of his spirit, Galatians 5, 22. And he is, Hebrews 12, 2, the author and the finisher of our faith. That word author means that by which anything begins to be. My faith didn't originate from some spark down in my wretched black soul. There isn't any such thing. It came from God's son. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. And the gospel will not profit you unless God gives you faith in his son. Hebrews 4, 2, for unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Were some of them born with faith and some of them weren't? Did some of them work up faith and some of them didn't? No, God the Holy Spirit didn't give them faith in God's Son and so it did not profit them. If the gospel doesn't do anything for you, you're a goner. It's how God is pleased to save sinners.

So this is the question. Do you believe on the Son of God? Do you believe that I, that I am able They didn't come there to do something for him. They came there because they needed him to do something for them. Remember what the Lord said to Jairus, we call him Jairus, Mark 5, 35. While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, thy daughter is dead, why troublest thou the master any further? As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, be not afraid, only believe.

Now religion would have you think that belief, that faith is just like thinking everything's gonna work out okay. Everything had already not worked out okay for this man. His daughter was dead. What was he to believe? He was to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was gonna do what's right. Not necessarily that he was gonna raise his daughter or save his daughter, but that whatever he did would be right. That's faith. Faith is not believing in God, it's believing God. Scripture was fulfilled, James 2, 23, which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. He didn't have any righteousness of his own, but it was imputed unto him because faith unites us to God's Son, who is our faithfulness, our faith, our hope, our sinless substitute. He was called a friend of God.

These blind men cried unto the Lord. They cried unto the Lord. And that's what saving faith causes a sinner to do. You know, I know people that are as lost as they could be, best I can tell, and they're searching for something. They're searching for a new church, a church that, you know, says what they wanna hear and things like that, and sometimes they find it. Saving faith will cause you to close with the Son of God and Him alone. Once you believe God concerning your sin, Once you believe God concerning His Son, you will press through the throne to get to Him. You will cry the more a great deal like Bartimaeus. You don't have to beg. When the gospel is preached and faith is mixed with the gospel in them that hear it by God's grace and power and Holy Spirit, the Lord said that's when the heaven is taken by force. You don't have to beg people to come to Christ who see Christ, who know Christ, who hear of Christ and are given faith to believe on Christ. You're gonna say with Jacob, I can't let you go. I can't let you go until you bless me. People with God-given faith are desperate for him as the heart panteth after the water brooks. So panteth my soul after thee, O God.

Everything else is just plain church. Calling him the son of David here meant that they knew he was the Messiah. That was what they called, they followed him and they asked him for healing because of who he is.

How did they follow him? Did you ever think about that, these two blind men? They're blind as a bat, best we can tell from scripture. How did they even know? Did they just follow his voice or did someone lead them? I don't know, but I know this. There were a whole lot of people that could see that didn't follow him. No interest. No interest. It wasn't easy for these two, but it didn't stop them. And he didn't stop when they cried. And remember verse 28, he didn't stop. He went on into the house and they just kept on following. Where else are you going to go? The Lord never makes it easy to follow him, does he? It's going to rip your flesh apart. He tries the faith that he gives.

It wasn't easy for Isaiah to raise that knife over the breast of his son, his only son whom he loved, but he believed God. It wouldn't have been easy for the rich young ruler to sell all that he had and give it to the poor and come and follow Christ. But if he had, he would have never lacked anything. He would have been forever blessed.

And look what they were crying for. They didn't just say, Lord, we want to see. They said, Lord, mercy. Mercy. They knew they didn't deserve it. They didn't deserve it. We need righteousness before God. How's that going to happen? Mercy. Mercy. You're not going to earn it. We need our sin put away. That's why we cry for mercy. God be propitious to me on the mercy seat. We need peace with God, acceptance with God. Mercy, Lord. We don't deserve any such thing.

Mercy confesses sin, doesn't it? A cry for mercy is a confession of sin. We're not worthy. for what we're asking you for. If you don't make us see, you'll be right. If you don't heal us of our soul's disease, you'll be right. If you put us in hell, you'll be right. They didn't come saying, Lord, we hear that you heal people and we've come to get some of that. They didn't come saying, Lord, we've decided to follow Jesus. They come crying for mercy. Mercy, that's what we need from God.

And look how the Lord answered them with a question. Salvation is a question of debt. It's a question of righteousness. It's a question of acceptance. It's a question of how sin is dealt with, but it's also a very simple question of ability. If somebody is saved, This morning. Who did something? Who did something? That person? Or God? We lack the ability to please God. We lack the ability to know God. Christ has got to please God for you. And we know God in him. We lack the ability to pay our sin debt. Christ has to pay it for you. And He did that on Calvary or He didn't? He did or He didn't? You want to find out whether He did or not? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You'll be saved.

These blind men were desperate and helpless, but they believed that Christ is able. Helpless is fine. as long as you know him. Helpless is just the truth, isn't it? It's just the truth. Why would I need to be able to do anything to be saved? Why would I need to be able to do anything? I'm laying in the ditch half dead and fixing to be all dead. And the Lord Jesus came and took hold of me and lifted me up. and poured in the oil of his grace and the wine of his precious blood and put me on his beast. He put me and took me to the end and paid my way and said, if he owes anything else, put it on my tab. That's salvation. To the uttermost, to the uttermost.

I love their answer to his question. Yes, Lord. Without that second word, you don't have that first word. There's no yes, unless he's the Lord. And I believe they understood that by his grace, don't you? If he's the Lord, then yes. Religion says isn't it time to try Jesus and you know my answer to that? No, it's not No, it's not and it's not ever gonna be

Can you imagine if they answered this way, you know if the Lord said, you know Do you believe I'm able to do this and they said well, you know, we've we've tried other way We've tried doctors that said they might be able to help us see and all this and you know, we just we just Nothing's worked so far. So we tried we just came to give you a shot at it Don't think that would have gotten it. That's not the answer that a sinner gives to God's son when they understand who he is Yes, Lord

Then touched he their eyes saying according to your faith be it Unto you He touched their eyes There's something really precious about that. You remember, he took the little children up in his arms and blessed them. He took that little damsel by the hand and rose her from the dead. When Simon was sinking beneath the waves, he caught him and lifted him up.

According to your faith, be it unto you. Can your faith save you? I'd be careful about saying no to that because the Lord has told people in the scriptures flat out, your faith has saved you. So I wouldn't get all theological and say, well, faith doesn't actually say. The Lord said it did. Pretty plainly.

But here's the thing, can your faith save you? It depends on where you got it from. Depends on where you got it from. If you produced it, if you worked it up, if it's the faith that wants the loaves and the fishes and the benefits of I want to go to heaven when I die, doesn't everybody?

Faith is the fruit of the Spirit. But He says your faith, of course, He gives us faith. Just like faith is the fruit of the Spirit, love is the fruit of the Spirit. And the Lord didn't ask Simon, does the Holy Spirit love me? He said, do you love me? And the only way Simon can say yes to that honestly is if the Holy Spirit indwells him and the fruit of the Spirit is born.

But by God's grace, we can say honestly with Simon, yay, Lord, you know that I love you. Because he first loved us. It's not complicated, is it? We don't have to get weird about it and say, well, faith doesn't save and directly contradict the Scripture. There's no need for that. The Lord wasn't worried that people were going to misunderstand Him. Son of God doesn't worry about that.

Does the rain make the flowers grow? That's how faith saves. The rain comes from God and it makes the flowers grow. So if you believe on the son of God this morning, praise his holy name. We're giving you faith in his son, according to faith, according to your faith.

What was their faith? It was desperate faith, wasn't it? It was undeniable faith. They were coming. He didn't stop and talk to him, but they're coming in the house. According to desperate faith, desperate for Christ, according to faith that perseveres in following him, according to faith that is authored and finished by Christ himself, according to faith whose object is Christ himself, be it so.

And my prayer this morning is be it so unto you. and me by his grace. Amen.