Well, it's good to be here. Thank you so much. Thank you
for the invitation to come and for your gracious hospitality
to Claudia and I. They asked Mr. Spurgeon one time,
they said, will you preach on Sunday morning to saints or sinners? And his answer was, if I preach
concerning Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, I shall kill
two birds with one stone and give both saints and sinners
a profitable theme for thought. There's but one message of the
gospel, and it has a voice to all. Saints know no sweeter music
than the name of Jesus, and sinners know no richer comfort than His
person and work. When we preach, we preach to
all. without exception, when we preach
that Christ is all. I had a lady tell me one time,
approach me after service, one Sunday morning, and she said,
Christ is not all. I said, the Scriptures say Christ
is all. How in the world we could ever
argue with that? When we preach Christ to all,
we preach Christ is all, for He is all to all. He comes as
life to the dead and life to the living. And our Lord has
changed His position, but He's the same. Yesterday, today, and
tomorrow. Forever. I only have one message. The believer doesn't want to
hear anything else. The sinner doesn't need to hear anything
else. Christ is all. And I invite you to turn with
me to Mark chapter 10. What a comfort this is. to my
heart to be able to read this passage of scripture and make
a few comments. Our Lord, in verse 1, said, He
arose from thence and came into the coast of Judea by the farther
side of Jordan, and the people resort unto Him again. And as
He was wont, as was His custom, He taught them again. Verse 46,
and they came to Jericho. And as they went out of Jericho,
we have no record that our Lord ever returned to Jericho. He was there and He passed through
Jericho. You know, we get so used to church
going on that we just think church is always going to be there just
whenever I take fancy to go. Preacher is going to be there.
Doors are going to be open. We're going to have service.
Well, there's some going to be surprised at Kitchens Creek Baptist
Church tomorrow. The doors are going to be closed.
I'm not there. Didn't have anyone to fill in
for us this time. So the doors are shut. Not the first time that I've
come out here that we've just canceled services. Three or four years ago I did
it, just canceled services. I ran into a man a few months
later and he said, I came to your church once. He said, and nobody showed up. I said, have you ever been there
before? No. I said, have you come back since? No. I said,
well, I'm glad you came that time. But you know, we get to
the point where we just think just that any time we take a
fancy, we show up. It doesn't matter that the pastor's
there week after week after service after service preparing. But just whenever we want to.
I'll never understand how believers can just sit home when God's
people are meeting. I don't think it'll happen. You know, your days are no different
than anybody else's day. Our problems are no greater than
anyone else's problems. And how I got on that, I don't
know. Oh, I remember now why. Because our Lord passed through
Jericho and He didn't go back. The Lord may be passing through
Jericho for us tonight. Don't just take it for granted
the sun is going to rise for you in the morning. I tell you, while you have an
opportunity, you listen to what the Lord God of Heaven has to
say and you respond to it. Our Lord came to Jericho and
He went out of Jericho with His disciples and a great number
of people and blind Bartimaeus, blind Bartimaeus, the son of
Timaeus, sat by the highwayside begging. A blind man. Didn't say he couldn't
see. Said he was blind. There's a
lot of people that can't see. They've lost their sight. They're
not blind. They still have their memory.
You can talk to people that have lost the sight and they remember
what colors look like. You can talk to them about red
and they understand that. You can talk to them about the
clouds and the skies, and they understand that. But you can
talk to a blind man about colors, and he has no idea what you're
talking about. You can talk to a blind man about
the clouds and the skies, the formation of the clouds, he has
no idea. You might well be speaking a
foreign language to him. That's the way we are. Oh, we
know the terms. We know colors. We can say the
words, we can talk about red, blues, greens. We can talk about
the clouds, the different formations of the clouds. But if we've never
seen them, we have no clue what they mean. Religious people talk
about divine things. They know the terms. They talk
about Jesus. They talk about God. They have
no clue what these words mean. When they say God, and we say
God, we're not saying the same thing. When we say Jesus, and
they say Jesus, sounds the same, doesn't it? But we're not talking
about the same thing. When the believer speaks of praying,
the religious person speaks of praying, sounds like we're saying
the same thing. But we're not. Totally different
meaning to it. This man was blind. They knew
the terms. Religiously, we know the terms.
We grew up, probably in this congregation tonight without
exception, we grew up knowing the terms. And we had no clue
as to the meaning of these terms. This man, Bartimaeus, blind.
the son of a blind man. He sat by the highwayside begging,
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. 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. And Jesus stood
still. That's my message tonight. 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 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 and
the blind man said unto him Lord that I might 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. Our Lord's dealing with Bartimaeus
2,000 years ago is the same as he deals with every blind sinner
today. Every sinner who comes to Him
crying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Are you guilty? You can cry for
mercy. Now, if you're not guilty, you
cry for justice. You have to be guilty. And when
you're guilty, you can cry out for mercy The Lord God of Heaven. But I want us to look at this
just a moment. Think about these three words,
Jesus stood still. Can you imagine that? Our Lord
stopping on this road. It's a rare thing for Him to
be found like this, stopping, standing still. Every time you
read of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's always moving. We don't
read about His house. His house is not described, what
it looked like on the outside and what it looked like on the
inside, what His furniture is like and all this. We have no
clue. He was always doing something. He had no place to lay His head.
He continually went about doing good. He didn't wait for people
to come to Him. He goes after the lost sheep. The Scriptures say He's come
to seek and to save that which was lost. Paul said Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. But then all
of a sudden we read here in Mark chapter 10 that Jesus stood still. He's on His way to Jerusalem. His face is steadfastly set to
accomplish His great work. Look at verse 32. And they were
in the way going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus went before them. And
they were amazed. He wasn't lagging behind, having
to be dragged along the road. He was heading off to Jerusalem. And they were following Him.
They were amazed. And as they followed, they were
afraid. And he took again the twelve,
and he began to tell them what things would happen unto him. And this is what he said, Behold,
we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered
unto the chief priest, and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn
him to death. and shall deliver him to the
Gentiles. And they shall mock him, and
shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill
him. And the third day he shall rise
again." He told them about that. He was on his way to Jerusalem
to accomplish this great work. This was his mission. But something important, something
special caused him to stop on this journey. He didn't get tired,
need to sit down and rest. Burnout wasn't his problem. Fear
couldn't stop him. He knew what awaited him in Jerusalem. But it was the cry, think of
this, the cry of a poor blind beggar. Heaven itself stood still at
the cry of a beggar. Glory stood still at the cry
of an outcast, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, has stopped
the Lord of Glory. And the Lord of Glory waits in
perfect readiness to attend this one who is pleading and grant
him his desire. Cry for mercy has stopped him. Don't tell him how good you are.
He'll continue right on his way. He'll pass right on by. Cry for
mercy. Cry for mercy. He was ready,
willing, able to do for this flying man everything that this
flying man needed done for him. You know, and he stopped. He stood still. And he was at
his beck and call. What wilt thou that I should
do unto thee? Think about this. Suppose tonight
you had the ear of the Lord Jesus Christ, ask what you will, and you can have it. What would
you ask for? What would you ask for? Don't
answer me. I just want you to think about
it. What would you ask for? Every one of us have problems. We'd like to see those problems
taken care of. We've talked, we've had a lot
of different conversations, and in the course of these conversations
over the last few days, different problems have come up. We have
problems, don't we? Oh, there's something. Something
that we'd like to see resolved. Well, what if we had the ear
of the Savior tonight? We had found the magic lamp. And it rubbed and the genie popped
out. Anything you want, what would you desire? What do you
desire? Are you blind? You know, if you're not blind,
you don't need it. You don't need sight. But this man, he cried for mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Have you cried for mercy? Do
you cry for mercy? I tell you, don't ever think
you don't have anything to pray about if we do nothing but cry
for mercy. Mercy. This cry for mercy, it always
stops the Savior. He hasn't changed. If you cry
for mercy today, you command the Savior's full attention,
you command His power, and from Him flows the grace which He
is so able to bestow. That fountain filled with blood
that flows from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. You cry for mercy. What do you
pray for your children? What do you cry out to the Lord
for your children? And I know if you have children,
you have problems. They're a problem from the day
that they cry their first lie. They're a problem. They break
your heart. What do you cry for? Lord, be
merciful to them. That ought to be our desire.
It doesn't matter if they live in a poor house or that the Lord
would be merciful to them and gracious to them, that He would
reveal Christ to them. That always stops the Savior.
And He's never too busy to hear this cry. To this day, the Lord Jesus Christ stands
still ready to hear the cry for mercy. David, in Psalm 77, he said,
I commune with mine own heart. He said, and my spirit made diligent
search. Listen to these questions that
he asked. We were talking Thursday, Brother Donnie and his message
about the questions. Listen to these questions. David
said, Will the Lord cast off forever? Will He be favorable no more? Is His mercy clean gone forever? Doth His promise fail forevermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in his anger, shut up
his tender mercies? You know how David answers that? He doesn't. Not in words. He uses a punctuation mark. Selah. Think back on this. No, God doesn't
change. Will the Lord cast off forever?
No. He said, He that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. Will He be favorable no more? He had to quit being God to quit
being favorable to us. Is His mercy cling gone forever? How can it be? How many times
did the psalmist tell us it is in Psalm 136? after every verse,
for His mercy endureth forever." Forever. Why did He open the
Red Sea? Because His mercy endureth forever. Why did He open it for Israel?
Oh, that rebellious nation. Well, it certainly wasn't because
of that nation. It was because of His mercy.
Why did that Red Sea close and drown Pharaoh and all of his
armies? Because of that same mercy, that same mercy on his
people. Israel wasn't in that wilderness
a week. And they began to complain and
murmur. They said, Lord brought us out
here just to starve us to death. They said, let's go back to Egypt.
Let's go back and eat those leeks and onions and garlic. You can just take so much of
that good stuff, can't you? I love onion, but I just want
so much of it. I like garlic, but just to a
point. Just to a point. The Lord God
of heaven fed a manna from heaven and they wanted leeks and onions. Leeks and onions. Water. That water that flowed from that
rock. and somehow or another followed them for 40 years. And they wanted to go back and
drink out of that old muddy now. Is His mercy clean gone forever? No. His mercy endureth forever. Doth His promise fail forevermore? Has one of them ever failed? You ever found one of them to
fail? Has God forgotten to be gracious
for God? I only read where He ever forgot
one thing, our sin. That's the only time. And I can't
even imagine that He could do that. But that's what the Scriptures
say. He's cast them away. Hath He
in anger shut up His tender mercies? If it were so, there wouldn't
a one of us be here tonight. We'd all be in hell. Every one
of us. Can a woman forget her suckling
child? Hard to imagine, isn't it? But
in this day and time, we find it taking place. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? You know, you
read it, I read it, and I think, how in the world Could a mother
do that? But the scriptures say, yes,
she might. But he will not forget us. He will not. What caused him to stand still? A beggar crying for mercy. Herod never stopped him. Pilate
never stopped him. Pilate said, don't you know that
I have the power to give you life or take your life? And our
Lord said, you could do nothing except it be given to you from
heaven. They couldn't stop him. They tried, didn't they? Tried
every way they could. Couldn't stop him. Or the chief
priests and scribes couldn't, could they? They tried. They
tried. Even as we read that foresight
of the cross there in verse 32, 33, 34. That never stopped him. But a blind beggar stopped him.
A blind beggar. I think one of the biggest problems
is just finding a beggar today. Everybody's rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing. And the Lord said, knowest not
that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. It's just hard to find somebody
that's got a need today. Frieden, I'll tell you, sometimes I prefer to go inside
these prisons and preach on the street. At least there I run across somebody
every once in a while that's hit rock bottom. Every once in
a while. Now, you've never seen legalism
till you get inside of a prison. They're worse than Baptists. I told one the other day, and
I probably told you this before, I said, You know, you'll put
somebody in hell for smoking a cigarette, but you don't give
it a second thought taking a shank and stabbing somebody 50 times
with it. You don't give it a thought.
But don't smoke! It's so sad. But every once in
a while, you find somebody that's hit rock bottom. And I tell you,
you talk about a joy to preach to. Our Lord said, our problem is
we're rich, we're increased with goods, and we have need of nothing. I get tired of people complaining
about gas prices. Oh, I'd like for them to be 15
cents a gallon, too. Trust me. But when Claudia and
I got married, I worked an hour to buy three gallons of gasoline.
How many gallons of gasoline do you buy with what you make
an hour today? Probably about the same, isn't
it? Yeah, it was only 30 cents a
gallon. That was up from 17 before we
got married and it rose to 30 cents a gallon. People have no need. All they
think about is their pocketbook. They never think about their
soul. But every once in a while you
find somebody that's a beggar. Bartimaeus was the lowest in
society. He didn't work. I'll make him
get out and get a job." He didn't earn his bread. He begged. We'd
pass him on the street. We'd probably pass right on by.
If you're like me, I found myself many a time just crossing over
and going down the other side of the road just so I wouldn't
have to walk by beggars on the street. We'd probably pass him
by. We'd probably say, I wonder why
they let them sit out here on the street and do that. But Jesus stood still. Let me tell you something. You
can never say you're unworthy. You can never say, I just don't
believe you'd save somebody like me. Tell me your worst. Just go on and tell me. No, don't. But tell me in your heart why you think that the Lord would
never save you. And I can show you that the Lord
showed one just like you, mercy. I stand before you tonight and
I say to you, He saved the worst among us when
He saved me. Don't go back to Texas and ask
Him about me. I don't even go to that little
town where I grew up, Pearland, down in Brazoria County. You
know what? You go in there, you ask them,
you say something about me, they say, I still can't believe it.
Milton Howard, a preacher. I can't either. He ain't much
of one anyway. He saved the worst among us when
he saved me. We come just as I am. We sing
that hymn. Oh, in my hand no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Mercy doesn't look at our excellencies. It looks for a need. A need. You cry for mercy and He'll listen
to you. This man, it tells us here that
he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth He began to cry out and say,
Jesus, thou 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, saying, thou son of David, have mercy on me. 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. And he casting away his garment
rose, and came blind as a bat. He couldn't see had he come by
faith. Faith is the subject of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. He came, but he didn't
come seen. He came by faith. He's a blind
man. Came by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he didn't sing
out. He didn't pray. He just cried. You know, probably he couldn't
put two words together in a prayer. You heard people pray? I have.
I'm thinking of a man right now, I don't even know if he's still
alive. But I always felt like if there
was such a thing as the Lord giving a person a gift to pray,
that man had it. I don't. This man did. Probably couldn't have put two
words together in a prayer. I think about that Pharisee.
Pray. Now he stood and prayed thus
with himself. But that publican, off over in the dark corner of
that temple, probably behind one of the columns, he wouldn't
even show himself to the rest of the gathering. He wouldn't even lift up his
eyes to heaven. I was sitting out there by the
pool this afternoon and I was watching those birds drink. I
don't have anything to do with what I'm saying to you right
now, but I remember reading Spurgeon one time. He was talking about
grateful heart. He said, watch a bird drink. They take a drink and they turn
their eyes up to heaven. I was sitting there watching
those birds on that bird bath today, drinking that water, and
every time they got a drink, they turn their face up and thank
the Lord for that That drink of water don't have anything
to do with this. This man wouldn't even lift up
his eyes, but he smote upon his breast and he said, God, be merciful. I love the Spanish. It says,
God be my propitiation. Se propicia mi pecador. My propitiation. My go-between. Be merciful. Merciful. And they tried to get him to
quieten down. He just cried the more. I have read that, said
that wrongly every time I've said it. He cried the more a
great deal. Thou son of David, have mercy
on me. You're not going to quiet him
down. You don't have to strike while iron's hot. You don't have to push anybody
into it. I had a person spoke to me the
other day about being baptized. And I said, just let me know. I said, I'll never say a word
to you about it. You're going to come to me. He said, well, aren't you afraid
that you might discourage them? How could I discourage someone
that the Spirit of God is moving on? They'll come. They will. I've had people tell me that
and never mention it again. And I'm thinking about one instance. For seven years, they never mentioned
it. Seven years later, they mention
it again. And I tell them, I said, okay,
we'll talk about it. At that time, they wanted to
talk about it. On the other end, I had a lady
come one morning to service. She said, Brother Milton, would
you baptize me? I said, sure, and we'll talk
about it. She said, no, I mean now. Would you baptize me now?
I said, yeah, I will. She said, no, I mean right now.
I said, well, we're fixing to have service. I said, after we
get through service, you know, I mean, we didn't have a baptistry.
We had to drive down to the river. I said, after we get through
his service, I said, we'll drive down to the river and I'll baptize
you. You wait that long? I'll wait that long, she said.
As soon as we got through his service and church, we loaded
up and we went down to the river. And she was baptized. You're
not going to discourage someone. They tried to quieten this man
down and he just cried the more a great deal. Why? He has a need. He's in misery. He's weary of these long years
of darkness. He desires light. And now there's
some hope to get that light. And the only thing he cried for
was mercy. Mercy. And he pleaded the name
of Jesus for that mercy. It's that name that makes the
angels rejoice and causes the devils of hell to tremble. Jesus. Thou son of David. Oh, Savior,
you're a prince. The son of David, the only one
who has a right to sit on that throne. The Messiah, the sent
one of God. The Savior. If you know what
He is, what He came to do, what He's done, you know what He's
doing. You know anything about His character,
His nature, His power, His promises? This man did, and he pled that.
That was his plea. He pleaded what Christ came to
do. Came to seek and to save. He
came to save sinners. And we got one. Here's one. Came to save that which was lost
and here's one right here. You know when people say, well
I can see, He doesn't give them light. When people say they're
not lame, He doesn't cause them to walk. He makes the lame to
walk. He causes the blind to see. He heals the sick. And those
who think they'll go to heaven by their own doings, they'll
never cause the Savior to stand still. What was special about this man?
He had a need. And it was a great need. He was
poor. He was blind. No bread. No light. Is your need so great as to make
you feel that it's greater than anyone else's need? You know, people, don't tell
anybody you're hurting, because their pain's worse than yours. My pain's worse than yours. The
other day, I'm getting arthritis in my hands. And somebody, the
other day I was sitting, you know, I just rub them, it helps.
Makes me think it's helping anyway. And this person said, you know,
your hand's hurting. I said, yeah. And he said, that's
the way my neck hurts. I said, man, my hand hurts worse
than your neck. I said, I can't feel your neck,
but I know my hands are hurting. He said, don't worry about telling
everybody else your pains. They've got pains worse than
you've ever even heard of before. I tell you, but is your need
great? I wish it would be with our soul. You know, the funny thing is,
my body hurt worse than yours, but my soul better than yours.
That's the way we are. Is your need so great that you
feel you're going to be doubly punished? Do you deserve to be? You'll never cry for mercy until
you know you're without hope. He had a big need. But he had
a big desire. He didn't need any luxury. A
blind man just needs a sight. And I know I've come out here
for so long, you've heard every story I have to tell, but I'm
going to tell you this again. We're getting old enough I can't
remember I told them, and I know you can't remember I told it,
so I'm going to tell you again. I was preaching in Mexico one
time, something along this line, talking about dead men. And I said, dead man don't need
a bicycle, don't need a car, doesn't need food, doesn't need
a house. I said, what's the one thing a dead man needs? I mean,
I was waxing an elephant. That's waxing elephant, waxing
eloquent. But anyway, I said, what's the
one thing a dead man needs? Little boy sitting right down
on the floor. He said, a coffin. I could care less if I had a
coffin. I'm dead. I need life. I need life. That's my only need,
is life. You know what a sinner needs?
Saving. You know what a blind man needs?
Sight. You know what a guilty man needs?
Mercy. Pardon. And I love his prayer. What a prayer this man had. Jesus,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. And I tell you, if in
your heart there's this work of grace, nobody will ever stop
you crying or coming. Nobody will. If it hair-lips
the devil himself, he'll come. He'll come. And he had great
faith. The Lord said, Thy faith hath
made thee whole. This is the faith of a blind
man, not adulterated by the confidence that comes with sight. Faith
comes not by seeing. This man heard that it was Jesus
of Nazareth. And when he heard, he began to
cry. The faith of this religious mess
we got going on today and the thing they call faith, it's by
sight. Somebody asked me the other day,
they said, What about when you lose your faith?" I said, the
best thing could ever happen to you. But I said, the faith
that God gives us, you never lose. You never lose it. Oh, it comes by hearing. Bartimaeus
believed this report concerning the Messiah. Oh, I tell you,
listen to the report. Believe it. Thank God that you
have a place to hear it. Thank God that you have a pastor
that will preach it. If you're a hearer of the gospel,
you have everything you need. That's reading the prophet Isaiah
said, Incline ye and come unto me here and your soul shall live. Jesus, thou Son of David, have
mercy on me. And Jesus stood still. Thank
you, brother.