Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Matthew chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9. I'd like to read verses 27 to
31. Matthew 9, 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 saith unto
them, Believe ye that I am able to do this. 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. Let's pray together. Our Father, this evening, would you, for Christ's sake,
bless the Word to our understanding. Lord, help us to worship. Teach
us these things we ask for Christ's sake. Amen. There are times when a passage
of Scripture will so grip your heart that you just truly desire that the Lord give
you some understanding on it. And this is a scripture this
evening that's that way for me. A couple of days ago I was looking
at this passage of scripture where I started was last week,
when I was in Matthew 8, and the first four verses, the Lord
had come down from a mountain and there came a leper, worshipped
him saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And
Jesus put forth His hand, touched him, saying, I will. Be thou
clean." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And verse 4, this
is the verse that intrigued me. It's from this verse that I went
over to Matthew 9 and plan to preach tonight. And Jesus saith
unto him, See thou tell no man, but go thy way, show thyself
to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for
a testimony unto them. Now, this passage tonight in
Matthew 9, is about the Lord giving these
two blind men sight. And there was a few things that
I saw in this passage that I want us to consider for a few minutes. Here's my first point. Seek ye
the Lord while he may be found. That's a partial quote out of
Isaiah chapter 55. Let me just read that to you. Isaiah 55, 6 and 7. Seek ye the Lord while he may
be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon." Now, let me tell you what had just happened before
this event right here. The scripture says in Matthew
9, verses 18 to 26, the Lord had healed two people, one of
them of a disease and one of them from the dead. Look at this,
Matthew 9, 18. While he spake these things unto
them, behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped one of the
other cows. This was Jairus. This is concerning
Jairus' daughter. A ruler came and worshipped him,
saying, My daughter is even now dead. But come and lay thy hand
upon her, and she shall live. And Jesus arose and followed
him, and so did his disciples. And behold, a woman, which was
diseased, with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him
and touched the hem of his garment. For she said within herself,
If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. But Jesus turned
him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good
comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
And the woman was made whole from that hour. And when Jesus
came into the ruler's house and saw the minstrels and the people
making a noise, he said unto them, Give place, for the maid
is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
And when the people were put forth, he went in, took her by
the hand, and the maid arose, and the fame hereof went abroad
into all that land." Now, the Lord heals a woman with an issue
of blood. Twelve years, she'd had this
problem. And she'd been to all these doctors,
and she was none better. And she said in her heart, if
I get to Him, If I can touch the hem of his garment, I'm going
to be whole." So she got to him and touched his hem. And he knew,
one of the other counts says, he asked, who touched me? He
knew who touched him. And the disciples said, what
do you mean, who touched you? Everybody's touching you. They're
all around you. He said, no, virtue has gone
out of me. Somebody believed him. He turned
and he saw this woman. And you know what he told her.
Your faith has made you whole. He goes to Jairus' house. Before
he gets to Jairus' house, one of the other accounts says one
of the servants of Jairus comes to him and said, look, don't
bother the master anymore. She's dead. And the Lord looked
at Jairus and he said, don't be afraid. Only believe. Just believe me. And he goes
in to Jairus' house. And he tells everybody, the girl's
dead, but not to the Lord. The Lord said she was sleeping.
And he tells them, he said, she's not dead, she sleepeth. And the Scripture says, in our
passage of verse 24, they laughed him to scorn. The interpretation, they mocked
him as being ridiculous. Are you kidding me? What do you
mean she's not dead? She's dead. They laughed him
to scorn. Two verses later, this is what
the Scripture says, verse 27, and when Jesus departed thence. No record is given as to the
reason that the Lord left, except He left. People ridiculed Him and mocked
Him, wouldn't believe Him. Even after He had performed all
these miracles, He had just healed a woman of an issue of blood. He had just spoken to a young
girl that they knew. Physically, she's dead. And the
Lord spoke to her and she got up. After they had seen the miracles
that he had performed, the Scripture says, he left. We need to be very, very aware. of the glorious privilege of
right now hearing the Word of the Lord. Right now. Not refusing
the Word of the Lord. Turn back to Matthew, or turn
over to Matthew 11, just to page 2. Matthew 11, verse 20 to 24. Listen to the Lord's words concerning
the hearing of the gospel. refusing to believe it. Then
began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works
were done, because they repented not. Woe unto you, Chorazin!
Woe unto you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which
were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you,
it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of
judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum." Listen,
Jairus was from Capernaum. And for that, it's just a chapter
or two after what he had just done. "...which are exalted unto
heaven shall be brought down to hell. If the mighty works
which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would
have remained until this day. But I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment
than for thee." I think about that scripture so many times
when I think about people that refuse to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, that will ridicule the gospel
of God's grace. Say, as they said to Stephen,
I'm not going to hear you, I'm not going to listen to you anymore.
I'm not going to listen to that mess anymore. Seek the Lord while
He may be found. The Lord departed. Many had scorned,
many had mocked Him, laughed at Him. But there were some to
whom the Lord was pleased to show mercy. There were two blind
men. back in Matthew 9.27. And when
Jesus departed, two blind men followed Him, crying and saying,
Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. Let me tell you what they
just said. You who are the Messiah. That was the name, or one of
the names, of the Messiah. Son of David. These two men.
Now they couldn't physically see. Now here's a marvelous thing
to me. These two guys were blind. They're
blind. And the Scripture says they followed
Him. Whatever they had to do. Hanging
on to somebody? I don't know. Hanging on to their coach? I
don't know. Just staying with the crowd? Listening? These two
blind men who could not see physically, obviously by the grace of God,
the eyes of their understanding had been opened to behold the
Lord by faith. For they cried to Him, Thou Son
of David. Their ears were opened spiritually,
new ears. by the grace of God to hear the
message of Christ. They heard. They couldn't see
Him physically, but they could hear. Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing by the Word of God. Does
it matter what you hear? Absolutely. Absolutely. Does the Spirit of God bless
a false gospel? When I say a false gospel, you
know exactly what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a message
Where a man stands up and tells you God's done everything he
can do, it's up to you. It's up to you. He wants to save
you if you'll let him. That's a lie. That's a lie. I could spend the rest of this
evening proving that. He doeth as he will in the army
of heaven. No man stays his hand. Where's
the Lord? Where's your God, David? Our
God's in heaven. He's done whatever he's pleased
to do. No, these men right here heard the gospel, and the Spirit
of God blessed it to their hearts, and these two men followed Him. I want you to notice their importunity. They didn't stop. You know, they could have said,
well, there ain't no way in the world we're going to be able to go.
We're blind. We'll probably stumble. You know,
we could get lost. I don't know. These two men followed
Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us. Can you imagine the difficulty? But these men needed Him. They needed Him. If I get to
Him, It was like that Syrophoenician woman that came appealing to
the Lord concerning her daughter. She's grievously vexed. Lord, have mercy. The Lord said, it's not meat,
not fat, that I should give the children's bread to dogs. Yes,
sir. You're right. You're right. And
I'll take my place right there with the dogs. But Lord, my daughter
is sick. These men are crying out there
blind, but I'm telling you, they knew. I ain't leaving. I'm going to follow Him. Seek
the Lord while He may be found. These little excuses for not
Following after Christ, I'm going to tell you something. We're
going to die. We're going to die. And we're
going to stand before God. I thought about that song we
were just singing, There is a Fountain. That's one of those verses that
says a dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. That fellow, he didn't have very
long to go. He didn't have very long. He
didn't have long because I'm going to tell you what happened. Just a few minutes, they came,
they broke his legs, and he could not hold himself up any longer,
and he died. I know he died. He died that
day. I know it. I know it. How do you know? The Lord told
him, he says, today, today, you're going to be with me in paradise. These two fellows right here,
they sought the Lord while he could be found. Here's the second
thing. Wait on the Lord as you call upon Him. Wait on the Lord.
Look at verse 28. When He was come into the house,
the blind men came to Him, and Jesus saith unto them, Believe
ye that I am able to do this. They said unto Him, Yea, Lord. Nothing, not even blindness, would deter these men from following
after the Lord. There's no indication that the
Lord said one word to them while they were traveling, not until
they got into the house. Now here's what they were doing
in verse 27. Jesus departed and two men followed Him, crying
and saying just, I mean, on and on and on. Hollering, Jesus,
Thou Son of David, I'm sorry, have mercy on us. Thou Son of
David, have mercy. Have mercy. You who are the Messiah,
have mercy. Didn't say anything to them.
But they kept following. They kept coming. Obviously,
the Lord heard. He heard them. He heard them
and wisely said nothing to them. Can you imagine? I wonder if
He hears. Surely He can hear us. Surely
He understands what we are saying. The Lord created that desire
and enhanced it and enhanced it. He heard. I know He heard because of what
He said. They had said this, have mercy
on us. And He knew what they wanted.
It doesn't say He ever looked at them. He knew who they were. These were objects of His mercy.
I can tell you that. I can prove that one too. Verse
29 says this, according to your faith. So I know they are believers. The Lord had given them faith.
I know that. Here's what he's saying. Look at verse 28. They
never said, we're blind. All they said was, thou son of
David, have mercy on us. And when he was coming to the
house, first words that he ever says to them, believe ye that
I'm able to do this. He knew they wanted sight. He had heard them. He heard them.
2 Thessalonians 3, 3-5 says, But
the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you and keep you from
evil. And we have confidence in the
Lord touching you, that you both do and will do the things which
we command you. And the Lord direct your hearts
into the love of God, into the patience, waiting for Christ. Wait on the Lord. They say, I
wonder if he's going to have mercy. He's the only one that
can. Where are you going? What are
you going to do? The Scripture reveals that they
came to Him without saying another word. The Lord asked you, do
you believe I can do this? And they said, yea, Lord, we
believe you can. Psalm 3-4, I cried unto the Lord
with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. Selah. Muse upon that. Think upon that.
When we cry unto the Lord by prayer, think on this. He's really hearing. He really
hears. He hears. Psalm 18.6, In my distress
I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God. He heard me, heard
my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even
into His ears. Isn't it an amazing thing? of
all the people in the world, all the believers that are in
the world at one time, that the Lord would hear His people. He
hears them. He hears them individually. Absolutely. You know, I sheep
hear my voice. I know them. I know them. They
follow me. And listen to the simplicity
of their answer. Believe ye that I am able to
do this, they said unto Him, Yea, Lord. Yes, sir. That's just like when
he told Jairus a while ago, I said, you know, be not afraid, only
believe. Wait. Wait on the Lord as you
call upon Him. Here's the third point. Without
faith, it is impossible to please Him. Look at verse 29. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
According to your faith, be it unto you. Trust in the Lord, Psalm 37,
3-5, and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land,
and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord,
He shall give thee the desires of thine heart, commit thy way
unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to
pass." Listen to his words to them. According to your faith. According to your faith. That's
what he told that woman with the issue of blood back there
in verse 22. Chapter 9, same chapter, 22. Jesus turned. him about, and when he saw her,
he said, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made
thee whole." You know, when they had some
friends of a man who had the palsy, they brought him up, couldn't
get to him from the outside, so they took him up on the roof.
Remember, they took part of the roof out and lowered him down.
And Mark 2, 5 says, when Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of Palsy,
Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. You know, faith given, faith
from above, the faith of God's elect is truly said to be their
faith. It's given. It's given unto them.
But also there's something that is taught here that I think is
truly, truly needful to be understood by all of us. When we see the
Lord referring to someone's faith, thy faith hath made thee whole,
He's referring to actually them believing Him. This is what I'm
saying. He was saying according to My
will, the object of your faith, according to the object of your
faith, according to your faith. When we talk about faith, faith
has an object. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is the object of a believer's faith. So when He says, according
to your faith, be it unto you, He was specifically saying, according
to My will, the object of your faith, The one you're believing,
be it unto you. I willed it. We don't make the
Lord do anything. The Lord grants faith for His
people to believe Him to be the supplier. So when He told them,
according to your faith, be it unto you. According to the object
of your faith, be it unto you. And then these last two verses.
Now these are the last two verses right here that has truly intrigued
me. And I've asked the Lord to give
me some light on this and I truly think that as much light as I've
got is what I'm going to share with you. But look at these last
two verses. 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, we're in very deep waters
right here. I'm telling you, this is a whole
lot deeper than I realize, I think any of us do. But without any
explanation why, the Lord, and I'm going to encourage you As
I do often, you get you a good concordance and look these words
up and you tell me if what I'm telling you is not so. When their
eyes were opened, they saw. They saw. They could see. You're
looking at me right now. You have physical sight. You
can see me. Their eyes were opened and Jesus
straightly charged them. I'm going to give you the dictionary
of the strong concordances, an explanation, definition of straightly. He straightly charged them. It's
not a mere suggestion. It's not a word that just says,
well, now listen now, it might be better if y'all don't... Here's
what it is. is to charge with an earnest
admonition, to sternly charge, snorted, prohibited. It's as if he was
saying, now you listen, you listen to what I'm saying. I mean this. That's what it means, straightly.
He straightly charged them saying, see that no man know it. Every commentary I could find,
every word that I could find to find, you know, comes to the
conclusion that I'm about to share with you. This is not the
first time that a command like this was ever given. Numerous times in the Scriptures,
that healed leper that I just read to you about, see thou tell
no man, go thy way, show thyself to the priests, offer the gift
that Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. Matthew 16, 20, "...then
charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that
he was Jesus Christ." Later on, they did. There was a time that
he told them, I don't want you saying anything. Now we're given some insight
into a reason for him postponing saying something, I found this
scripture, Matthew 17, 9. This is when the Lord came down
from the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John,
and he said this, Matthew 17, 9. Tell the vision to no man
until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. That's what
he's saying. Don't you say anything about this until after I've died
and I'm risen again. Here's something that I can safely
say, and I'm going to just walk as lightly as I can, because
of who said this. I mean, if it's just some man's
opinion, that's one thing. But this is the Lord that said
this. And being as the Lord said it, I'm going to just try to
handle this scripture as carefully as I possibly can. But I can
tell you this, according to Ecclesiastes 3, 7, there's a time to keep
silence and there's a time to speak. Now there was times when the
Lord did allow His miracles to be published. Whenever He healed
that demoniac, we looked at that a few weeks ago, went over to
the Gadarenes, the land of the Gadarenes, and here comes this
demoniac and had a legion, had a legion of demons. And the Lord
ordered him out. Remember that? And after he had
delivered that demon-possessed man, they came and they found
him. He was clothed. He was sitting in his right mind. They come from the city and all
their pigs are gone. They tell the Lord, we don't
want you here. He's leaving. And the delivered demoniac wants
to go with him. The Lord said, no. He said, you
go back to your house and you tell your friends what great
things the Lord did for you and has had compassion on you. So there's times that he did
allow it. But in this case right here,
he told them, he straightly charged them. I don't want to speculate. All
I'm going to tell you is that there were just a few verses
back. He came, he made a statement.
He said, the maid's not dead, they just laughed him to school
and made fun of him, ridiculed him. He gave these two men sight and
he said, don't you say anything to anybody. Don't you say anything. The Lord Jesus Christ, I can
read the Scripture, Matthew 11, 25, thanked the Father for withholding
divine light. He said, at that time, Jesus
answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, hast revealed them unto babe. People that think they're
so wise, they're so spiritual, they take these precious Scriptures
right here make fun of them, laugh at them. I can tell you
this, I can safely say that Almighty God is a God of distinguishing
grace. Moses asked Him, he said, Lord,
would You show me Your glory? And He said, I will cause all
my goodness to pass before You, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord. And he said, I'm going to have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion." Paul said under the inspiration of God's
Spirit in Romans 9, he said, so then, it's not him that willeth, it's not him that runneth, but
it's God that shows mercy. Almighty God told these two right
here, He said, I'm telling you, and you listen to what I'm saying,
don't you say anything about this. If He's pleased to hide the wonders
of redemption from the wise in their own eyes, He will. If He's pleased to call someone
out of the drags of sin and despair, He will. He will. He will do it. And I can tell
you this, if he's pleased to save one of his own, he's not
waiting on him to do anything. Here's what he's going to do.
He's going to do just like David did concerning Mephibosheth.
Is there anybody left of the house of Saul that I can show
mercy to for Jonathan's sake? Yeah, he's got a boy. He's over
in Lodibar named Mephibosheth. He said, you go get him. You
bring him to me. You go fetch him. That's the
God we serve. Someone says, well, I just don't
understand why the Lord would straightly charge them saying,
see that no man know it. Well, let me read Job 33, 13. Why dost thou strive against
him? For he giveth not account of
any of his matters. You know who we are? We're the
clay. He's the potter. Does the thing made or created
have the right to say to Him that made Him, why have You made
me thus? If the Lord charged them and
said, don't you say anything, that's just exactly what He meant. Now, the Scripture says in the
next verse, "...but they, when they were departed, spread abroad
his fame in all that country." These two formerly blind men
were believers because the Lord told them, He said, according
to your faith. And He didn't use those words
lightly. If He told them they had faith, they had faith. Because
he had given it to them. I can tell you that. I know,
I know these were two believers. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin and charge him with it. These two
men were guilty, Frank. They were guilty. I don't doubt for one second
that they were not zealous. I believe they were. I believe
they were so thankful. I believe they were thankful.
I think they were appreciative. I think they were so excited.
I can see. I can see. I can see. But let me ask you this. Hath
the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." Peter
said to a group of men, he said, we don't want to hear you saying
anymore. The Lord told Peter before the Lord left, he said,
now, now, now, you go into all the world and preach the gospel.
Now you do that. And these fellows over in Acts
5 said, we don't want to hear this anymore. Don't you preach
anymore in his name. Peter said, The other apostles,
we ought to obey God rather than men. If the Lord is pleased to withhold
the gospel for a season from a particular place, it's going
to be like Eli said in 1 Samuel 3.18, it's the Lord let him do
what seemeth him good. These two men, this is the reason I said I'm
just going to walk as lightly as I can here. These two men did just exactly what the Lord
told them not to do. I don't think they did it in
an arrogant, mean... I don't think so. I do not think
so. I think that they did it zealously. But the Lord has commanded
us to not cast our pearls before swine. If someone has made it
real plain to you, I don't want to hear what you're saying. I'm
not going to listen to that anymore. All it is is a point of contention,
argument, busting, you know. I've had people tell me that
don't ever say that to me again. And I'm going to tell you something. I don't plan to. I don't plan
to. Somebody said, well, I don't
think you ought to have that attitude. The Lord was the one
that said, you know, that's Matthew 7, 6 if you want to look it up. Don't cast your pearls before
swine, they'll just trample them. I don't know, I don't know the
mind of the Lord in all of His dealings, but I do know that
He told them, don't say anything. If He's pleased to withhold,
He'll withhold. If He's pleased to open, He'll open. One thing
I can tell you tonight in closing, I'm glad we got right now. I'm
glad that we have this opportunity right now to hear the gospel
one more time and that the Lord has been pleased to not extinguish
the candlestick here as of right now. We don't have one more service
promised. This may be the last one right
here. But if it is, I thank the Lord for this time we've had
together. I love you and I appreciate you.