Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn 199 in your hardback temple, 199. Christ
received the sinful men. Let's all stand together. 199. Sinners Jesus will receive. Sound this word of grace to all
who the heavenly pathway leave. All who linger, all who fall,
sing it o'er. and or again Christ receive a
sinful man. Make the message clear and plain
Christ receive a sinful man. ? Come and He will give you rest
? Trust Him for His word is plain ? He will take the sinful last
? Christ receiveth sinful men ? Sing it o'er and o'er again
? Christ receiveth sinful men Make the message clear and plain,
Christ, receive the sinful man. Now my heart condemns me not,
pure before the law I stand. He who cleansed me from all spot,
satisfied its last demand, sing it o'er. and or again. Christ receiveth sinful men. Make the message clear and plain. Christ receiveth sinful men. ? Christ receive the sinful man
? Even me with all my sin ? Purged from every spot and stain ? Heaven
with him I enter in ? Singing o'er and o'er again ? Christ
receive Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Thessalonians
5. 1 Thessalonians 5. I want to try to bring a message
tonight on divine revelation. And here the Lord tells us, beginning
in verse 4, that we have a revelation of the truth that the world does
not have. But you brethren are not in darkness
that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are the children
of light and the children of the day. We are not in the night
nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as
do others but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep,
sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in
the night. But let us, who are of the day,
be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a
helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who
died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves
together and edify one another, even as also you do. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we read these words and we're reminded that it is by your mercy
and by your grace that the light of the gospel shines in our hearts. Lord, that left to ourselves
We came into this world in darkness and we would remain in darkness
and die in darkness. Lord, how hopeful we are that
you will be pleased even this hour to shine the light of the
gospel once again in our hearts, that you would enable us to look
upon the face of our Savior that we would find our hope in him. And Lord, that our rest and comfort
and our salvation would be all of him and all in him. Lord, forgive us. Forgive us
for so much unbelief that remains in this old man. Help our unbelief. Lord, increase our faith. We
ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number two from the gospels hymns
spiral hymnal. Let's all stand together. Number
two. Lord, we come before thee now. At thy feet we humbly bow. Oh, do not our suit disdain. Shall we seek thee, Lord? Lord, on Thee our souls defend,
In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with Thy rich
grace, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed
way, Thou we seek, we hear, we stay. Lord, we know not how to
go till a blessing Thou Send a message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. will be in the Gospel of Mark,
chapter 8. Mark, chapter 8. This is the
story of the blind man. The first time the Lord touched
him, he saw men as trees walking. And then, the next time the Lord
touched him, he saw more clearly. And I've titled this message,
Progressive revelation, progressive revelation. Without the Lord's mercy and grace revealing himself,
we would have no way to know him. We come into this world
spiritually blind. Nicodemus thought that he had
some understanding. He was a student of the Bible
and had lived what he thought was a God-honoring life. And
as a result, he came to the conclusion that we know that thou art sent
of God, for no man can do the things that thou doest, save
God be with him. And the Lord cut right to the
chase when he said, Nicodemus, accept a man be born again, born
from above. You cannot see the kingdom of
God. And Nicodemus proved in his conversation
with our Lord that he had no understanding. He had no light. And that's exactly where you
and I are by nature. It's only by the new birth, only
by the Holy Spirit that we can have any light at all about who
we are about who God is and about how it is that God saves sinners
and how thankful we are for that. I'm mindful of the passage in
Matthew chapter 11 when our Lord prayed and he said, I thank thee,
O father, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent and revealed them unto babes. Lest you become as
a little child, you should not have the kingdom of heaven. You
see this, this truth of not being able to know anything or see
anything or believe anything is what it is to be a child. Lest you become as a little child,
you should not enter the kingdom of heaven. Suffer the little
children to come unto me, for such are the kingdom of heaven.
The Pharisees did not see themselves as little children. Are you saying
that we're blind? Are you saying that we can't
see? Oh, if you were blind, then you'd
be able to see, but because you say that you can see, therefore,
your sins remain. And here's where we are all the
time. Lord, I thank thee that you've
revealed these things to babes. You've hid them from the wise
and the prudent. The Lord went on to say, he said,
even so, father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. It pleased
God, Paul said. When it pleased God, the God
who separated me from my mother's womb, to reveal Christ in me. Call me by his grace. It's all
by God's mercy, it's all by God's pleasure and to that degree we
are always little children before our Heavenly Father. We're always
dependent upon Him to give us more light and to reveal Himself
to us. The Lord went on in Matthew chapter
11 to say, no man knoweth the son, but the father, neither
knoweth any man the father, but the son, and he whomsoever the
son reveals him, reveals him. You know, in thinking about the
revelation that the Lord gives to his children. I thought about
that word apocalypse and I heard it mentioned recently on television
where someone was talking about the apocalypse as if it was some
sort of end time catastrophic event where the
world's going to be destroyed. And those things are revealed
in the book of Revelation. But the word revelation in the
book of Revelation chapter one, this is the apocalypse of Jesus
Christ. The word revelation is the word
apocalypse. We've changed the meaning of
that name. We've changed it to mean something
other than what it really means. What it really means is the unveiling
or the revealing or the uncovering. And the book of Revelation is
the book of the apocalypse, not because it talks about the destruction
of the world, but because it's the unveiling of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the revealing of him, it's
the uncovering of him. And we would have no way to know
him if he did not reveal himself to us. So that's the That's the
apocalypse, that's what apocalypse means. Is the Lord going to destroy
this world by fire? Sure he is, I mean that's pretty
clear. My concern is not for how this world's gonna come to
an end. My concern is that I might know him. For this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. And the Lord went on in John
chapter 17 to say, Father, let's look at that a moment. John 17,
hold your finger there, Mark, and Mark eight, and turn with
me to John 17. We just quoted verse three. Look
down at verse eight. Our Lord is praying for us. He's praying for us. And he says,
for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and
they have received them and have known surely that I came out
from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me. I've given them your word. I've
told them exactly the words that you gave me to speak and they
believed them. They received them and they believed
them. That's the evidence that the
revelation of Jesus Christ has been made to us that we believe
what he has said. Turn with me back to our text
in Mark chapter 8. Divine revelation. How thankful
we are for it. How needful we are for it. We would have No amount of education,
no amount of intelligence, no amount of spiritual exercise
or religious exercise would be sufficient to know God. He must reveal himself. And,
you know, God has always revealed himself by his word. And so we
have the revelation, the apocalypse, the unveiling of who God is in
his word. And when the writer of Hebrews
speaks, he says, God who at sundry times and in divers manners has
spoken to the fathers by the prophets in times past. path
now in these last days spoken unto us by his son, the living
word of God. The word became flesh and the
word of God dwelt among us and we beheld Why? Because he revealed himself,
he uncovered himself. We beheld his glory as the glory
of the only begotten of the Father, the one who himself is full of
grace, full of grace and full of truth. Our salvation is all
true and it's all dependent upon his grace. Four things. I want us to see
from our text about revelation, four things. And the first one
is that revelation is particular. It is particular and it is selective. Let's read these verses together,
just a few verses in Mark chapter eight. beginning in verse 22. And he, the Lord Jesus, cometh
to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man unto him and besought
him to touch him. And he took the blind man by
the hand and led him out of town. And when he had spit in his eyes
and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he, the man, looked up and
said, I see men as trees walking. And after that, he put his hands
again upon his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored
and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house
saying, neither go into the town nor tell it to any in the town." Now, you remember when the Lord
rebuked the city of Bethsaida. Bethsaida was a fishing village
on the Sea of Galilee. If you think about the Sea of
Galilee, it's up in the northern part of the Sea of Galilee. And
Chorazin, another town, is not far from Bethsaida. And the Lord himself said, he
said, he began to upbraid the cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin. For many of his mighty works
were done there. And he said to them, if the works
that I did in Bethsaida and in Chorazin were done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. They
would have believed. And I say unto you in the day
of judgment, in the day of judgment, their punishment will be less
than yours. The Lord had revealed himself
mightily in this city of Bethsaida. Peter, Andrew, and John were
fishermen from this fishing village, Bethsaida. Here we have a blind
man who is brought by his friends to the Lord Jesus in Bethsaida. And it's like what the scripture
tells us about the brand that snaps from the fire. The Lord
is being very particular and very selective about who he's
revealing himself to because the majority of these cities
did not believe the revelation that he had made of himself.
They rejected him. The Lord said, I tell you that
it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment. for Tyre
and Sidon than it will be for you. We see this example over and
over in scripture. God knows where his sheep are.
He knows every one of them by name. He chose them. He chose
them in Christ before time ever was. The Lord Jesus particularly
and effectually redeemed God's elect The Holy Spirit now specifically
and particularly is taking the message of the gospel and making
it effectual to the hearts of God's elect, those who have been
redeemed by the Lord Jesus. It's a very particular work that
God's doing. Peter, Andrew, John, this blind
man, otherwise, otherwise the entire city. received the judgment
of God. Woe unto you, Bethsaida. Woe unto you, Chorazin. The Lord shows us this in Lot. The destruction of Sodom could
not happen until just Lot was taken out. And the Lord was very,
very particular and effectual. Lot lingered in Sodom, but the
Lord took him by the hand and drew him out. This is a comfort. This is a comfort to God's people
that the Lord would distinguish his mercy and his grace toward
me Lord, why me? Why would you have mercy on me? But I know you have because I
believe the revelation that you have made of yourself. I believe
it. That's what he said. Lord, you've
made me to be a babe. You've made me to be dependent
upon you. You've revealed these things
to me. You've spoken your word and I've received it. I wouldn't
have received it had you not opened the eyes of my understanding,
had you not pulled me as a brand from the fire, had you not shown
your particular mercy and grace toward me. The Lord did it for Rahab, the whole
city. The whole city of Jericho was
destroyed. Rahab was saved. The Lord showed
distinguishing mercy toward one. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Oh, we're born, not of blood,
not of descent, not of the will of the flesh, not by dedication,
commitment, nor by the will of man, not by decision or free
will, but born of God. Born of God. Oh, here we have
in this story an example of the Lord showing His particular effectual
work of grace toward one of His elect, And in spite of the fact that this
man's whole city was going to be judged, the Lord took him
out. He took him out. The second thing I see about
divine revelation, in addition to the Lord as being very particular
and selective about who he reveals himself to, is that God uses
means to reveal himself. We've looked at this, I mentioned
this Sunday, how men in their pride want to believe that they
can have a personal encounter with God apart from from any
means. They don't need the preaching
of the gospel. They don't need the witness of
other believers. They don't even need the Bible. They can go into the woods and
they can have a, you know, God will meet with them and speak
to them. There's two means that I see the Lord
using here in this story. And the first is that this man
was brought to Christ by other men. Let me just say this about means. Means do not diminish the sovereignty
of God. It may seem in a logical way
of thinking that if God is sovereign If God is sovereign over all
things, then means are insignificant. Means are unnecessary. They're
unnecessary. They're irrelevant. If God is
sovereign, if God is sovereign, why pray? If God is absolutely
sovereign, what's the necessity of preaching or witnessing? If God's absolutely sovereign
and he's, I mean, I know some, I've met some people who have
taken the sovereignty of God to such a logical conclusion
that they have said that God's elect are going to end up in
heaven even if they lived and died never hearing the gospel. Even if they lived and died in
a false religion. They could live and die Muslims,
but if they're God's elect, they're gonna be, they're gonna. Well,
that may seem to be the logical conclusion of absolute sovereignty,
but it actually, that thought actually diminishes sovereignty. Because when you think about
God's ordained purpose always being accomplished even through the, how can we
even put a number on it? The innumerable, free, uncoerced actions and decisions
and words of men Billions of men, of every generation. And with all of the things that
men do freely, freely, God remains absolutely successful in accomplishing
his ordained purpose. That takes the sovereignty of
God. In my mind, it takes the sovereignty
of God to a whole different level. It takes the sovereignty of God
to where David said in Psalm 139, he said, these things are
too wonderful for me. I cannot attain them. If I think about
how it is that there are innumerable, uncoerced, free actions and decisions
not only by men but by everything that's in this universe. And that God remains completely
in control of everything. Now that's an infinite God that
I can't even begin to The fact that God uses means
doesn't diminish his sovereignty, it is part of his sovereignty. And one of the means that we
see in this story is that of the church being the witnesses
of the Lord in this world. I will be your, you will be my
witnesses. You go to Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem,
Judea, Samaria, all those parts of the world and you're going
to take the gospel and I'm going to use the preaching of the gospel
to save them which believe. This is a means that I'm going
to use. I mean if If we were gonna take the sovereignty
of God to where some men take it, the complete absence of means,
then there's no need for the cross. God elected a people,
he purposed to save a people, he's gonna accomplish their salvation,
there's no need for that. But the Lord makes it clear,
doesn't he, that those who took the Lord Jesus and with their
wicked hands they crucified him were only fulfilling the divine
purpose of God. They did it freely. They weren't
coerced to do it. God didn't force them to do it.
They weren't robots being made to do something against their
will. They were acting out exactly what they wanted to do. And they
were being used to accomplish God's ordained purpose. And that
same principle applies to witnessing, it applies to prayer, it applies
to the means of God's word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
comes by the word of God. There's actually three or four
times where we see in the New Testament where the Lord uses
spittle as a means of healing. And best I can tell, two things
apply there. The first is that in the Old
Testament law, that spittle was considered unclean. And if you
spit on a man, he was unclean. And if a clean man touched the
spit of an unclean man, he was made unclean. And here we have
the one who's holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners and higher than the heavens, demonstrating that there's nothing
unclean about him. that his spittle actually is
being used. But there's something else here.
And that is that spittle comes from the mouth. It comes from
the mouth. And the Lord Jesus, his word
comes from his mouth. He speaks his word. And there
we have a picture of the means that God uses without the preaching
of the gospel. You know, it pleased, We're born again by the means
of God's word. He commands us to pray and he
uses the means of prayer to accomplish his purpose. And what a privilege
it is What a privilege it is to go before the Lord in prayer
and then to be able to see God's hand at work in answering that
prayer and in seeing our sovereign God use something as frail as
our prayers to accomplish His purpose. It only exalts His glory
in the hearts of His children. Look at what, turn with me to
Job chapter 33, Job 33. Elihu. You know, Job, Job had some revelation of God
clearly at the beginning. But his revelation was very limited
and he had something very necessary to learn by divine revelation. And that lesson, as it is often
the case with us, is gonna come through a great trial. So as the Lord grows us in his
grace and in the knowledge of Christ, oftentimes, it is through
difficulties, isn't it? And that's exactly what is happening
here. Look at what Elihu says in Job
33 verse one. Wherefore, Job, I pray thee,
hear my speeches and hearken to all my words. Behold, now
I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth, My words
shall be of the uprightness of my heart, and my lips shall utter
knowledge clearly. The Lord takes spit from his
mouth, and he touches the eyes of this blind man, and the man's
sight begins to come. 1 Peter 3, verse 22, speaking of
our Lord says, who did no sin, who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. Oh, when he, you and I speak,
even when I'm up here, I can't, I would love to be able to speak
infallibly, I can't, you know that. Everything you hear has
to be tried by the word of God. But when the Lord Jesus speaks,
everything that comes out of his mouth is pure, perfect, and
sinless. How do I know? How do I know
that he's revealed himself to me? Because the words that he
has spoken, I believe them. I believe, I don't try his words
like I try my own words or like I might try the words of another
man. When he speaks, faith bows and just has one response, truth,
Lord. Truth, Lord. So this spittle and these friends
are a reminder of how it is that God uses means to reveal himself. Very particular about one individual,
he uses the means to bring this man to himself. And the third
thing I see about revelation in this story is the privacy
in which the Lord reveals himself to this man. What a blessing
it is when we're able to sit at God's Word and able to come
to worship and the Lord speaks personally and privately to us. You know, I've heard, I've had
you say to me, I felt like that message was just for me. I don't
know if anybody else heard anything, but God spoke to me. And the
greatest compliment that you can give to anyone who tries
to deliver a message from God's word is God spoke to me. He spoke to me. He revealed himself
to me. It was very private. And you compare that to times
when you read something or you're hearing something, and you're
only thinking about the application of what you're hearing to someone
else. Well, I wish so-and-so could hear that. I hope so-and-so
is hearing that. I hope that'll fix their problem. See, what
a difference. What a difference when the Holy
Spirit just takes that message and applies it to you. Look what
the Lord does here. He's in a city that he's already
said, well, I'm gonna judge this city. This whole city is gonna
be destroyed. I've done many mighty works here. And it's gonna
be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than it's gonna be for
them. But here's one that I'm gonna take by the hand. And he
takes him out of the city to a private place. And he speaks
to him one-on-one. And what do we say? Oh, Lord, I need
you to speak to me. A general message that applies
to everybody really doesn't meet my need. Lord, I need you to
take me away from the crowd. I need you to speak to my heart."
And he said he would do that. Zechariah chapter 12, when the
Lord says, when the spirit of grace and supplication is poured
out upon the house of Israel and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and they will mourn after him as one mourneth after his own
son. There's the evidence of the Spirit of Grace being poured
out in my heart is that I'm seeking after Christ. I just want to
know Him. And turn to me because I can't quote
the verses I want you to look at. Zechariah chapter 12. And look at the verses I mentioned
earlier are 9, 10. Look at verse 12 in Zechariah
chapter 12. And the land shall mourn every
family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their
wives apart, and the family of the house of Nathan apart, and
their wives apart, and the family of the house of Levi apart, and
their wives apart, and the family of Shimei apart, and their wives
apart, and all the families that remain, and every family apart,
and every wife apart, singled out, individually. Here's how
I'm going to speak. We go to God's word, we come
together for worship. Let us Let us be concerned for
ourselves first. Lord, speak to me. Lord, reveal,
I need to know you. I need you to reveal yourself
to my heart. Apart from anybody else, apart
from everything else, this is how the Lord, this is how the
Lord does it. He takes him away. You know,
I can only imagine, I can only imagine what it would be like
to be blind and not be able to see anything. And I suspect that a blind person
becomes very secure in a familiar environment. They know where
everything is. They can maneuver around the
obstacles in that environment because they're familiar with
the sounds, the smells. What's the Lord doing? He's taking
this blind man away from his familiar surroundings, away from
his familiar environment. He's not only singling him out,
but he's removing him from that place of safety. And he's making
him dependent upon Christ alone. And that's how the Lord reveals
himself. He'll take us away from whatever
we want to hold on to as our safety net and bring us into
a place where we don't have anything to lean on, anything to depend
on. Lord, I'm in a strange place
now. You're gonna have to take me
by the hand. You're gonna have to guide me. all the way because
I don't know what to do here. The Lord's revelation is very
particular, very selective. He uses the means of witnessing. He uses the means of his word.
He takes us away from our familiar surroundings and reveals himself
privately to us. And fourthly, fourthly, and this
is where the title of this message comes from, Revelation is Always
Progressive. Now there are those who would
teach a progressive sanctification, believing themselves to get more
and more holy as they grow in grace and in the knowledge of
Christ, less and less sinful. Our old man is as sinful as he's
ever gonna be. and he can't be improved on.
We know that. We pray that as we grow in grace
and in the knowledge of Christ, which is progressive revelation,
that the Lord will restrain that old man more and more. But his
nature hasn't changed. But this man, when he first opened
his eyes, saw men as trees. And one of the things that's true
in progressive revelation is the revelation that we have of
ourselves. Trees are a whole lot larger
than men. And at first, We may have a pretty
exalted view of ourselves, but the more we grow in grace and
the more we grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
smaller we get in our own eyes. We saw that with what John professed. He must increase, I decrease,
I decrease. How do I know if I'm growing
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ? Because the Lord's
becoming bigger and bigger and I'm getting smaller and smaller. I see more and more of my need
for him now than I've ever seen before. I see more and more of
my old man and my sin. The light, when the light of
the revelation shines, it reveals more of the dark recesses of
our hearts that we may not have thought were there. You know,
when you first were converted, you thought, well, I'll never
sin again. You know, you just, you have this wonderful, exalted
experience and you think, you know, well, I'm done with all
that. And then, not only does sin rear
its ugly head, but you see, you see the tentacles of it in parts
of your life that you never saw before. You thought that sin
was just those Those shameful things that you did, that you
didn't want to let now, you see that, oh, it's my thoughts, it's
my attitude, it's my lack of humility, it's my pride, it's
my self-righteousness. He saw men as trees, but then
as the revelation progressed, he saw them more clearly. Turn
with me to Proverbs chapter four. Proverbs chapter four. Verse 18. But the path of the
just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto
the perfect day. The way of the wicked is darkness.
They know not what they stumble. It shineth more and more until
the light of day. When there'll be no darkness,
there'll be no shadows. The fullness of who we are and
what he is gonna be revealed in glory. Revelation, brethren, revelation
is progressive. And it's slow. It's slow. But by God's grace, it'll be
consistent. And you know, when we fall backwards,
the Lord, we belong to the Lord. He's gonna use that. He's gonna use that to reveal
more of his glory. and to make us more dependent
upon him. You remember the parable of the
talents where the man went away to another country to buy, to
conquer, a king went to conquer another country and he took his
servants and he gave to some of his servants 10 talents and
some five talents and one, one talent. And when he came back,
the one with 10 had 20 and the one with five had 10 and he commended
them and gave them more. And the one who was given one
talent, he said, I feared the king. I knew that you were an
austere man and that you made profit where you had not invested.
And I took the one talent and I hid it. And the king said, take that
from him. Take that from him and give it to the one who has
10. For he that has will receive more. And he that has not, even
what he has will be taken away from him. What is the Lord saying? Walk
in the light that you have and more light will be given. And that's the believer's life. Faith is believing what's been
revealed. And there's so much. You know,
the Lord said to the disciples, I have things to say to you,
but you can't bear them. You can't bear them. And there's
things that the Lord will reveal to each of us that we're not
ready to bear. but through our trials and through
by the means of God's word and through the means of prayer and
troubles, the Lord will reveal more and more so that the shining
light will be from light to light. Oh, we're so dull and slow of
heart to believe, are we not? And learning comes slowly. We have some teachers here and
every educator knows that the first law of learning is repetition. And And we know that from our own
experience, don't we? We have to be taught the same
thing over and over and over again. And the more times we
learn it, the more ingrained it becomes. And we learn that
through the truth that's preached and revealed in God's Word. More painfully, we learn it by
our mistakes, don't we? You know, we make the same mistakes
over and over and over again. Now here's the revelation will
be progressive, and with each time that we err, the Lord will
show us again. He'll show us again a little
bit more of His glory. and reveal more of his truth,
more of his grace, more of his love, more of his forgiveness.
Make us not wise and prudent in ourselves,
but babes. Taking us away from our secure
environment, selectively using the means and growing us. in the revelation, the apocalypse,
the unveiling of Christ. That's our life. That's what
it is to walk by faith. Tom? 236? Let's stand together, number
236. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. was grace that taught my heart
to fear, and grace thy fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils and
stares, I have already come. Tis grace hath brought me safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. And we've been there 10,000 years Bright shining as the sun We've
no less days to sing God's praise Than when we'd first begun